0:01

Welcome back to another episode

0:04

of Big Money Energy, where

0:06

we talked to super successful and self

0:08

made people to find out exactly how

0:10

they did it, how they went from nothing to

0:12

something. I'm Ryan, sirhand, and today

0:15

I'm joined by the one and

0:17

only Fat Jewish

0:20

also known as Josh. True story, I

0:22

haven't been able to read his name off

0:25

a piece of paper without laughing.

0:27

This guy. We talked about what it

0:29

was like to be the world's first influencer

0:32

crowdsourcing his baby's name,

0:34

how he manages to have a private life

0:36

despite being a walking media brand,

0:39

and how he went from posting memes

0:41

on Instagram to revolutionizing

0:44

the liquor industry and changing

0:46

it forever. Let's get into this.

0:48

You're gonna like it. Welcome to another episode.

0:54

Today is super special

0:56

because I'm sitting down with one of my most favorite,

1:00

favorite favorite people. He is an absolute

1:02

legend and is an amazing entrepreneur

1:04

as well, And I know he probably doesn't want

1:06

to talk about it that way, but but I definitely want

1:08

to get into the details of how good of a

1:10

business person he is and how he's not just a guy

1:13

who's a social media personality who's built

1:15

an entire kind of empire based

1:17

on humor and making people laugh. I

1:19

don't really know how to describe him, so I'm

1:21

just gonna say, welcome, Joseph Strowski

1:23

a k a. The Fat Jewish. Just close

1:26

your eyes and like what comes to your mind? Your

1:29

body? Yeah, thank you most

1:31

of the time. And then Amelia is like,

1:33

why are you making that face? I'm like, I don't know if kick gets guy

1:36

all the time. Appreciate that a few details

1:38

because they're important for for this business podcast.

1:41

Uh. If you don't know, Josh is in every

1:43

sense of the word, a master entrepreneur.

1:46

He's a social media mogul, actor, influencer,

1:48

investor, plus size model. Are

1:51

you are you about to have a baby? Yeah? Is

1:53

that real? That's okay, we'll get to that. Uh.

1:56

If you know him from his Instagram account, The Fat Jewish

2:00

before, like everyone had an Instagram account, right,

2:02

it was like boom, like you I think you invented

2:04

it? Do you invent Instagram? I think I was the first influencer.

2:07

Yeah, I think so, which like sorry, but also not

2:09

not sorry, Like what have I done? Yeah?

2:11

Like this thing has gotten really out of control. Yeah, you're

2:14

such a dick. Yeah, he's also the co founder

2:16

of Swiss beverages that

2:18

you'll know from Babe and White Girl Rose, which

2:20

was then acquired by Anheuser Busch

2:23

in BEV in two thousand nineteen, which

2:25

I definitely want to talk about. You're super funny,

2:27

You're super influential everyone.

2:30

I feel like people have now at this point. Is it weird

2:32

to know that people have grown up with you? Yeah?

2:34

Oh definitely. You know, do people come up to you and they're like, oh,

2:36

dude, I was following you when I was seven. Yeah, and

2:39

like a lot of them have like children now, and they're

2:41

like, can you hold this baby? Let's take a photo with you

2:43

know, it's not just like the girls

2:45

and the dudes in college anymore. They

2:47

have jobs. No, It's like a couple in Brooklyn

2:49

will be like, we take a you know, we please take a photo

2:51

of my son at Kiss and my other son adicis

2:54

Yeah, and they both the children have beards

2:56

somehow. Yeah, they're likely to

2:58

super expensive. They look they all of like they're all of Mumford's

3:01

sons. Yeah, and they're just like they can take a picture,

3:03

and I'm like, wow, this is these people are really growing

3:05

up. This is this is scary. Yeah, you're

3:08

You're not fat anymore. I'm still big.

3:10

I'm still big. I'm still like like bone

3:12

because that's your like just your body type.

3:14

Yeah, that's true. I'm like a thick Rushian.

3:17

But when we first met, there was more of you. I

3:19

was like, oh, yeah, it was the less Now I'm like

3:21

clinically obese. I think at the time I met you, I

3:23

was I was actually obese. Yeah,

3:25

so I was a lot more Shrek then. Yeah, it was

3:27

more Shrek, which was kind of working for me. But

3:29

then I would like, you know, get winded getting out

3:32

of a car, and you know, I was just like, is this too

3:34

much? Has like cancel culture come after

3:36

you at all? I mean because you a lot

3:38

of your following is you know, part of like the

3:40

meme culture, but like you personally,

3:42

have you gotten any pushback because things have been

3:45

so real and so serious, Like why would

3:47

you be funny at a time like this? Right? I

3:49

actually was worried about that people are gonna

3:51

be like, how could you be such a big fucking stupid,

3:53

funny idiot while there's real like use your platform,

3:56

But like my thing is like if

3:58

you want real ship from like you people

4:00

and like heart, Like there's so many outlets for that. I'm gonna

4:02

give you some dumb ship to like take you out of it

4:04

for a second and like make you forget about it. So I

4:06

think mostly like I tried to do as much as I

4:08

could, Like when the fucking when it first hit,

4:11

we gave like I gave away like a million dollars

4:13

worth of babe worth of wine to like fucking

4:16

I was giving out who because like everybody deserved

4:18

to get fucked up, you know what I mean. Your nail

4:20

salon truck was the greatest thing socially,

4:22

distance manicure truck, glory holes for your

4:24

hands, if you will, totally you can get a social and it was all

4:26

free. We sent that thing like around the fucking

4:28

country. You know, the meme of like the large naked

4:31

black dude with his dick hanging. I did a deep

4:33

dive on him, and actually I ended up getting in touch

4:35

with his brother, and now I've been speaking to like his whole

4:37

family and we're trying to figure out like how to kind of

4:39

like monetize like all this success with him.

4:41

So these are the ways in which I get, you

4:44

know what I mean, which is like dig really deep on Wordy's

4:46

You Bear the Third which is that guy's name. But no, like

4:48

no cancel culture within that. I mean I got I

4:50

had canceled ship before, which

4:52

was like you know about like memes and stealing

4:54

memes and all the ship. But like interesting enough when

4:56

like cancel culture actually came up about

4:59

like sexually harassing people. Like the

5:01

one thing is like I'm an India on the internet, but I'm like,

5:03

I'm like a nice Jewish guy, so like I haven't nothing

5:06

like that has happened to me. So yeah, I got

5:08

canceled. I was getting canceled before, people like it

5:10

was hot to get canceled. Are you married now or are you

5:12

with somebody? Yeah? I have a I gotta

5:14

I have like a woman, like someone. I asked me if

5:16

someone's cap if anyone's capable of loving me? You did get

5:18

married to a woman and you get divorced like the next day, and I remember

5:20

that. Yeah, she was like a corn fed midwesterner,

5:23

Yeah, with like real big shoulders. Yeah that was like

5:25

for the look. Um No, but now I have a real

5:27

relationship with a human. Um, and I am actually

5:29

having a kid. And obviously I've been like trying

5:31

to turn the whole thing into performance art. And she's like, please

5:33

don't do this, but I am taking baby

5:36

name suggestions. I'm saying I'm down, Like my kid

5:38

doesn't have to be named like Blender, Like it doesn't have to be

5:40

nuts, like the kids name could be Bruce. I'm just looking

5:42

for some fire. Met this

5:44

woman. I met her on the internet. What do you mean, how do people

5:46

have sex with each other? Are you ready to be a dad? Yeah?

5:49

Like whatever, right, it's good, right,

5:51

good for content? I mean, did you not have

5:53

a kid for content? Yeah? I mean like it was it

5:55

went through my mind. I No, I definitely did not

5:58

have a kid for content? But did A kids show is

6:00

up? And you're like, you're gonna

6:02

help totally. I mean, I'm already working on, you know, getting

6:04

a big piece of bread. Put the kid on with lettuce

6:06

to me to over pretend it's like in a fucking sandwich, Like

6:08

I already got all kinds of ship. And she's not

6:10

really complaining because like she knows what she signed

6:13

up for. She's with me

6:15

willingly, so she knew obviously that we're going

6:17

to turn this into something completely dumb.

6:19

But I think I'm ready because I'm like kind of old.

6:21

I'm thirty eight, so I'm like done a long time since you got

6:24

expelled from all those schools. Yeah, and I'm dusty

6:26

as hell, like I'm an excellennial for sure. Like

6:28

I'm like, I'm for sure an excellennial. So I

6:30

think I'm like pretty much ready because also,

6:33

like what else is there to do? You know, let's have let's

6:35

have a kid talk to me about why did you get expelled

6:37

from college? Sawesome ship classics?

6:39

You know, like Van Wilder, you know the movie you've seen

6:41

that. Yeah, I kicked at high school. I kicked that in of college, just

6:44

you know, having a good time. I'm just a good I'm just a fun

6:46

guy. I'm just a good guy. And uh,

6:48

I like having a good time. And it's really

6:50

easy to get thrown out of a liberal art school. I got thrown a skin

6:52

more but skin Moore is not fun. They

6:54

don't do six shift over there. So you were doing

6:56

six ship and they were like, you can't do that here anymore, and

6:58

so you yeah. And then I went to Sunni

7:01

Albany and like with a bunch of like Stan Island guys,

7:03

and that's when things got fall like a bunch of guys who were

7:05

like going to be firefighters with like Foreskin Yeah,

7:07

great, good times. It was just like skin

7:09

Moore was just more like Upper West Side, like

7:12

Priva Sla. It was more of those it was who had been hanging

7:14

out with. You know, we're like shooting the

7:16

baked potatoes out of a tennis ball machine and

7:18

like, you know, talking to you is

7:21

such a workout, um, because I'm

7:23

trying to listen and like trying to understand

7:25

like what's real, what's not real, what's

7:27

happening? But I guess it's just all part

7:30

of part of who you are. How do you how

7:32

do you separate though? And maybe you don't

7:35

kind of Josh from the fat

7:37

Jewish or is there no separation because I know you came

7:39

up with that name initially when you were part of a rap

7:41

trio. Yeah we've ever seen our stuff?

7:43

Yeah yeah, you showed me. Actually no,

7:46

I mean you know it's again. I think that like the Kid is

7:48

a perfect example, which is just drawing lines of just

7:50

like you know, not everything can

7:52

be like totally ridiculous and performative, you know

7:54

what I mean, Like the Kid's gonna be

7:56

real. Yeah, right, Like I'm I'm I'm

7:58

gonna fund the kid up for sure, and like land the kid in

8:00

like six therapy for sure.

8:02

But like it's just not everything can be

8:04

for the internet, right, you can't do it all for

8:07

the Graham. Like some people just get like too open.

8:09

You gotta keep some ship off the Internet because

8:11

for you, is it going to be personal family stuff? Yeah,

8:13

I mean, I mean, look, I wouldn't have a kid if I couldn't get

8:15

content out of it, because that would be ridiculous. But

8:18

you know, you gotta like draw the line, and like, you know, I

8:20

want to fund the kid up, but not too bad, you know,

8:22

so like I try to keep my partner like super

8:24

private. Um, some people are just like it's so

8:26

open, you know what I mean. Like some was like influencers

8:29

who are just like they're just like I

8:31

just hey you guys, Like I just need to talk

8:33

to you, like I just like I have ibs,

8:36

and like things just get too intimate and real,

8:38

and like you gotta keep some ship like in the some

8:40

ship's gotta be like kept in the dark, Like

8:43

we don't all need to know everything. I don't consider myself

8:45

an influence at this point. Also, I'm like getting too old for

8:47

this ship. In the words of Danny Glover ten

8:49

years ago, I was, you know, on a slipping slide covered

8:52

in Marinara, but like that's just not a good look for

8:54

like a thirty eight year old. Like I'm friends with some like

8:56

older guys who are still just like they need constant

8:58

content, like constant YouTube ship. It's just gets

9:00

crazy. So I've really transitioned

9:02

into like kind of mentoring the next generation

9:05

of complete and utter morons and not doing

9:07

it myself because eventually you're just like the old dude of the party

9:09

and it's pretty witch. I

9:18

want to make sure that we get to it. I'm interested

9:20

also in the business side of what you

9:22

do. Can you can you walk me through that both,

9:25

like the Fat Jewish as a business,

9:27

what that looks like, how many people work for

9:29

you? Like how do you make money? And

9:31

then when Swish came about and

9:34

that process. Yeah, I mean I was basically the first

9:36

influencer, so brands were coming to me and being like, can we

9:38

pay you? They didn't fucking know anything. I would just

9:40

like make up acronyms. I'd be like, I can get you

9:42

guys four hundred million kpm

9:45

bcs and they were like hell yeah,

9:48

pay them, let's go to lunch. Because like guys didn't know

9:50

what was going on. But you know, as the influencer

9:52

bubble grew and like it, I just basically

9:54

was like I don't want to do this. This is weird. I'm not an

9:56

influencer. Like I didn't want to be part of that. I think

9:59

that's how I get label old, but that's not it's not who

10:01

I am, and I think I pretty

10:03

quickly was like you know what, like if I'm

10:05

like the thing that's different differenally me and like other

10:07

people like that, like being like accounts like mine

10:10

is that I don't like you go up and like I'm not gonna

10:12

name any names, but some of these big accounts, they're like in like

10:14

so like sun Splash, Soho Lofts and it's

10:16

just like people like looking for content on computers.

10:19

It's like the sounds of keys clicking and they're like

10:21

it's like funded by vcs and like it's

10:23

all fucking it's very like corporate and

10:25

they're like, let's find a video. Like you

10:28

know, it turned out like the Kwan was like some like Middle

10:30

Eastern dude who was like working in a content

10:32

farm but I was never like that, Like I was just posting

10:34

photos like while drunk and like in

10:37

a bed. Like it was never like that.

10:39

So I was like, I was just like I don't want to do this. But the one and

10:41

the other thing is different is is that like those types of accounts,

10:44

they don't talk to the people like I talk to

10:46

everyone who dms me. I answer every d

10:48

M, you know, not if they're like if it's like some weird

10:51

spam, but anyone who comes into me. I'm

10:53

constantly like talking, which is funny for people because

10:55

people will get like really drunk and talk ship to

10:57

me, you know, and they're they're like, fact

11:00

you act and then I'm like, oh hey, then

11:02

I'll be like, what's up, man, didn't think i'd see this, huh.

11:04

And then they're like, oh my god, I

11:07

love you. We should hang out. I'm coming to New York, and

11:09

I'm like, it's kind of a weird way to start it, Like you

11:11

just really told me you fucking hate me. I mean now I

11:13

don't really have the time as much, but people invited me places

11:16

like I've officiated like Levin weddings, going

11:18

to like Kinsinera's like if you invited me to some

11:20

ship, like some some like finance bros

11:22

invited me to like fly on a private jet while they like did

11:24

coke and just hang out with them. And I was like, I would

11:26

never be trapped in this like sky prison with a bunch

11:29

of like coked up finance bros. I turned

11:31

that down, But in general, it wasn't about the money.

11:33

Nobody paid me. It's just like if you invited me, I was

11:35

down to chill because like I'm a real fucking person and I'm

11:37

trying to make real memories and I definitely put myself

11:39

in like dangerous situations where like murder was highly

11:41

possible, Like just like when I went to

11:43

the South of France and like hung out with some weird Saudi

11:45

guys like on a boat, like just they just paid

11:48

for a plane take and I was like fuck it, let's go. And so I'm

11:50

all up in the d m s. And I just like

11:52

when you create an audience, like when you create

11:55

like a group of people, that's like kind of like you're

11:57

a real person, it's tight like that. I was like, I

11:59

feel like I should do something better than just like

12:01

taking a check and being like you guys, I love

12:03

this thing, and so we basically just like

12:06

I talked to my audience and just like fucking

12:08

we just like we're just friends. Like it's

12:10

like one giant sleepover, you know, it's

12:12

like a big sleepover and we're all on molly um

12:14

and some of them hate me, but like they're

12:16

there anyway. And then just kind of like through

12:18

that, I was just like, what the fun do you guys want? What should

12:20

we do? Like I want to make a thing. I want to make something

12:22

like I'm not trying to just like you know, do these weird branded

12:25

things. And so everyone was sucking

12:27

drinking rose right, Rose is sucking slutty.

12:29

We always call it like the slutty cousin of wine. You drink

12:32

it cold, you just like it doesn't matter. And

12:35

at that time, like it was weird. Like once I started

12:37

like looking into it, I was just like, you know what, everyone's

12:39

drinking rose? Right? No one's like

12:41

smelling it and being like, oh the nutty

12:44

notes of like just

12:46

drink it, like you just make it cold, drink it and then

12:48

like text your X three times and I

12:51

was just like, why don't we No one knows the name

12:53

of a brand of rosett that's what really got

12:55

me, Like you're just like walking to a store and

12:57

you were just like, give me some fucking rosette, you

12:59

know, make it, make it cute. I don't give a ship Like I'm

13:01

going to a pool party and I'm gonna make terrible decisions

13:04

with my body and my you know, and my self

13:06

respect. So I was like, wait a minute, Like why

13:08

can't we like make wine like more fucking popping,

13:11

because like wine is sick, right, It's like the oldest

13:13

fucking drink, Like people are getting sucked up on it for a

13:15

hundred thousands of years, but it's got this like

13:17

dusty you know, it's all dusty. It's like guys

13:19

in little glasses being like like my

13:21

turtleneck, you know which. By the way, I'm down.

13:24

I love charcouterie. I love I'm down with wine.

13:26

Ship. But like there's a low brow wine

13:28

scene. There's a real Housewives fucking ice

13:30

in your shardon a, you know, fucking

13:33

pouring rose and your eyeball scene that no one was

13:35

really capitalizing on. So I was like, why don't we do

13:37

it. Let's put it in a fucking can, make

13:39

it fucking slutty, and we'll just do it. Because like why

13:41

couldn't we I was a huge fan of and we ended

13:44

up doing a deal with with annezer Bush. But I

13:46

was a huge fan of like Bud White, Like I'm a fucking

13:48

shitty beer guy. I love like a foamy, garbage

13:50

bump piss domestic, And I was like, why don't

13:53

we bring wine to that level? You

13:55

know what I mean? Because people are doing it, but there's no brand for it.

13:57

Obviously it was boxed wine and like slap the bag and

14:00

that was White Girl Rose. Yeah,

14:02

we put in a bottle. We didn't know how to do a can. No one

14:04

had put sparkling wine in a can. So we were

14:06

just like, let's put in a bottle. We'll get a pop and see if

14:08

people want this. And it's just with your internal

14:10

team that was helping you just kind of run your

14:13

We like call the guy that like someone knew

14:15

that had some wine. It was so I

14:17

was at that time I was writing TV shows and

14:19

they would like go to a pilot and then or not and then

14:21

like I'd sell it and then we move on to the next one because none

14:23

of them were that good. Um, but it was fun. You could

14:26

keep getting checks off that and I was like getting paid by

14:28

Craftsman Tools to like sit in a giant

14:30

you know. Craftsman Tools was like, we want you to do a Super

14:33

Bowl commercials, just like in early fifteen, and

14:35

I was like, I want you to because at that time, I was just like funking.

14:37

I don't care if I get the brand deals or not, so I'll just troll

14:39

them and see how much they'll let me get away with. And I was like,

14:41

build me like a huge bowl and fill

14:43

it with chili, and I'm gonna sit in it. You can google

14:45

it, it's like. And I was just like if they they're gonna say

14:47

no, and I'll be like fuck it. But they were like great sounds

14:50

like sounds disruptive and experiential

14:52

and like hyperlocal sticky, you know, like a million

14:54

of guys where it's like nobody so

14:56

super out that time. They were like this is a hyper multi

14:59

vertical like cloud iterated, end to end, disrupted,

15:01

experiential, like multi screen vertical.

15:04

Whatever these people say. And so I'm in a giant

15:06

thing at chili. So I was getting checks from that, and

15:08

I was trying to get I was trying to wean off of that teat

15:11

I was with the guys that I was writing TV shows with

15:13

and the guys I was doing stuff like that with, and my partners with

15:15

the guys who wrote um they wrote a book called White

15:17

Girl Problems, which is like about like a fictional socialite,

15:19

but it's just like two good looking, fuckable Jewish

15:22

brothers who write that. And so we

15:24

were like, let's put it in. Let's you know, let's we just like found

15:26

a guy that had wine. We put in a bottle, and we just like

15:28

bought some of our own money, just put our own fucking

15:30

money up, bought enough, and then just like

15:32

everything went crazy. Fresh Direct called

15:35

and bought it all like in a day, and then we like we didn't

15:37

know any of the rules. Like I tried to sell it out

15:39

of the trunk of my mom's car with ice in the trunk,

15:41

and then they like tried to suspend it. Like we almost got our license

15:43

taken away like in the first week, because like you can't do that

15:45

much chill ship with booze. All the ship that I was doing

15:47

that was completely out of bounds and ridiculous and like

15:50

borderline somewhat palatably offensive

15:52

liquor. People are like like the nerves

15:55

you know they're not they're not down. So then

15:57

we from there, we put it in a can and it just kind of

15:59

went and that was Babe. That's babe. What

16:01

was the time difference between White Girl Rose

16:03

and Babe one year? What really did you find

16:06

somebody like another distributor who could actually

16:08

create the same kind of partect

16:10

wine and put it into it? Well, that's the nice thing about

16:13

Rose, right, is like no one gives a ship, like

16:15

you know what I'm saying, Like no one knows. So

16:17

like I think we just we found like a different wine

16:20

because like no one really knows. And for us, like

16:22

the thing our Rose is it needs to be good. It doesn't

16:24

need to be that good. Ours is about fucking

16:26

brand and it's about having fun. It's about you know, it's

16:28

about making bad decisions. It's about being part of

16:30

it. So I think we switched batches. As long

16:32

as it's close enough, it's close enough and the wine was

16:34

good. We wanted to make sure the wine was good because I

16:37

think the bar was really low. Right, people were like

16:39

fat Jewish put out a wine right, like it's

16:41

gonna be cool. I'll buy it one time. Seems

16:43

interesting, but like it's direct to consumer, so people are

16:45

just doing no no. This was like in Storres, this

16:48

was Instorece. There was cutting all those deals where

16:50

the stores just coming to you. Stories were coming us

16:52

Fresh Direct call me the first day and was like, we'll

16:54

buy it all. The first day we sold white Girl

16:56

Rose on the internet. There was no White gro Rose didn't even

16:58

exist. We photoshopped the label, put it on

17:00

and they already bought it and we were like, oh fuck, we

17:03

should probably get some wine. Because

17:05

our whole thing was like if we put this up and we do this a lot,

17:07

like I do this a lot, Like I'll put up something that's photoshopped

17:10

and be like, do you guys like this? And if everyone's like this is

17:12

dogshit, I'm like, I'm kidding. I would never

17:14

do this. But then if they're like we love it, I'm

17:16

like, good thing because it's coming out in two weeks. Like totally

17:19

just like focus group ship and like I just

17:21

feel like the people who follow me think,

17:23

like feel like I'm not just like shilling

17:25

to them constantly because I'm not. Like Instagram

17:27

has become there's just a lot of shill that was not my angle,

17:30

Like I'm a complete chip bag but not like

17:32

that. I just didn't want you to feel like this was a platform.

17:34

I was just trying to make something, you know. I was like, do

17:36

you guys think this is cool? Do you want this whatever? I'm

17:38

gonna make it cheap. Um, I'm

17:40

gonna make it cheap and it's gonna get you absolutely

17:43

torched. How many people

17:45

work for you at that time, there were like four of

17:47

us. So my office space situations, I always

17:49

take offices that are like I always wanted to be like

17:52

as like conversation where as possible. So before

17:54

the Wine my office was in a nail salon and

17:56

Queen's so I was like in the bed, like I rented out

17:58

like a waxing room, which was sick and

18:01

then which I love those ladies, like shout

18:03

out to the hole, to the whole squad. And then

18:05

after that, our first wine office was we took

18:08

the office directly upstairs from one Oak, the nightclub

18:10

on seventeen. I remember that, and so like the sound

18:12

check would like shake the floor and like bottle girls would

18:14

be like smoking Newport lights and like it was awesome,

18:17

like because we were right our offices right across

18:19

from there, like changing room like green, like lounge.

18:21

It was really really sick, like there were fist fights

18:24

between like bottle girls. Like I absolutely

18:26

loved it because I want to, you know, let's make it fun. I'm not

18:28

gonna like take some office and be like this is our office.

18:30

We're not doing that. So we did that. There

18:32

were like four of us now, so then there are

18:34

four of you managing your business

18:37

on social all the brand deals,

18:40

you where your calendar, where we're going,

18:43

and also building out a liquor business.

18:45

Yes, and I think that like to be like serious

18:47

for a second, like that that I think is one

18:49

of the main things I'm kind of transitioning into is that like

18:53

like people on the internet now, like people have amazing

18:55

ideas, right, but no one actually knows how to execute.

18:57

And I think people look at me a little bit inspirationally

18:59

there, just like this this moron did it. I could

19:02

do it, and I want to inspire them like that, but no one actually

19:04

knows how to build things. Because what happens

19:06

is is what the internet, you end up seeing it distilled down

19:08

into like the final image. So like what you're gonna see

19:10

is you would end up seeing me like pouring rosette myself

19:12

in a Kiddi pool or whatever completely dumb, disposable

19:14

content we were doing, but like it was horrible.

19:16

The Internet is an amazing amplification tool.

19:19

It's amazing for fucking you know, for getting

19:21

the word out there, for like getting customer awareness, but like you

19:23

still got to do all the horrible ship. And I think we

19:26

kept it purposely so that people were like, is he is

19:28

he like a brand ambassador? But like we

19:30

did all the ship. Like I was at a fucking

19:32

meeting with like distributors and like Phoenix

19:35

with like some guys and like short ties being like

19:37

you could the Internet with wine, and I'm

19:39

like, oh my god, you

19:42

know, look, we wanted to get into wine also

19:44

because the bar was very low. There were

19:46

no cool brands, there was no cool ship, and like everything

19:48

in my life, I've always tried to set the bar low and step right

19:50

over it. So now we're like the bad Boys of wine.

19:53

But that required us to do a ton of legwork

19:55

to like get the industry to understand what it was

19:57

we were doing, because nobody had done it like that, and

20:00

also no one had really sort of no

20:02

one had really sort of reverse engineered the proposition,

20:04

which was like create the create

20:07

like the audience first, then put out

20:09

the products. I think the way that people normally great, the

20:11

way people normally do it is is like you know, they

20:13

create a product and people come yeah, they're

20:16

like, hey, guys, you love this. But I was just like, what's

20:18

up, you fucking maniacs? Like what do you guys want? They were

20:20

all like, Rose, we have a drinking problem. Here

20:23

eight million people at that time. We're like, we all have a drinking problem.

20:25

And I was like, well, I'm gonna give you. Like, we also wanted to like reinvent

20:27

wine events, so we like, you know, we have crazy We had

20:30

crazy wine parties, you know, like all kinds of

20:32

ridiculous because wine parties now are you know, traditionally

20:34

are charcuterie, which again I love, but

20:37

like not that lead. We had to learn how to do absolutely

20:40

fucking everything and do you get down and

20:42

there do you do the work to all of it? That's what I'm

20:44

saying. That's kind of what I'm getting at, which is that like I think a lot

20:46

of the like I think people don't know that, and a lot of kids

20:48

come to me and are like some of them have really really great

20:50

ideas. I mean, some of them are horrible, but like, also follow

20:52

your stupid dreams always. But like people people

20:54

DM me and are like, what are your Like, here's an idea

20:57

that I have, and I'm just like, all right, well how are you?

20:59

And again I'm responding to the d M, so I'm just like, you

21:01

know how, I'm like, how are you gonna? No one actually

21:03

knows how to do anything right, because I think

21:06

at this point, like you know, the the older

21:08

generations like had no good ideas.

21:10

I mean, I guess except for like you know, Steve

21:13

Jobs, but whatever. Boomers are man stupid kids

21:15

have unfucking believable idea But building things

21:17

is really hard. You can't just slap it on the internet

21:19

and just be like boom, I've got a CBD sock

21:22

company, Like let the fucking millions roll.

21:25

You gotta do so much fucking horrible ship.

21:27

So we built it brick by brick, like

21:30

I was the stuff that I've had. The stuff

21:32

I had to do to get that wine off the ground was truly

21:35

truly horrible. Like I didn't like blow

21:37

anybody, but like I honestly I might

21:40

as well have. I would have rather actually not

21:42

thinking back on the things I had to do, like

21:45

going to a meeting with like some grocery store

21:47

and like Ohio and just like dancing for

21:49

them and just being like and then being like it's

21:51

a guy with a head dildo with a wine, Like, what do we

21:53

know about this? We're fucking you know. I

21:55

don't want to name. I could probably get in so much trouble. I have

21:57

like eight because now we're owned by Anaezer Bush, so

22:00

they have a media team that listens to everything

22:02

I do. They're like, I take a ship and they're like, what's

22:04

up with that? Tuck? Like a lawyer is calling me,

22:06

being like, what's up with Like to be clear

22:08

that so, I mean, so it happens when you sell

22:10

out. But we built it brick by fucking brick. We

22:13

did all the work ourselves. It's there were no like adults

22:15

in the room. It wasn't like, oh, we like handed

22:18

it off to the grown ups and then we made whacky internet

22:20

content. We did the whole fucking Thingers, did

22:29

you did you build it to sell it? No? I

22:31

don't think so. And in fact, we had gotten other offers

22:34

from like kind of like wine companies, and they were going to know

22:36

what to do with the reason we went with Annheuser Bush and either

22:38

Bush approach us in ten So we had been

22:40

doing Babe for like two years and then as Bush

22:42

like they do cool shit, you know, Um,

22:45

they fucking you know, they have fucking you know Natty

22:47

and like all these you know they have Bush, they do cool stuff.

22:49

So we were like, we want to be the beer of wine. We

22:52

really do, like we want that kind of vibe.

22:54

Um, we want like I want some guy in

22:57

fucking rural Virginia, like some

22:59

fucking toothless party animal drinking

23:02

fucking pino grig show. That's never happened

23:04

before. So why don't we do that? Why don't we bring

23:06

wine to everybody? We really have been able to do that

23:08

where the official one of the NFL now, which is like what an

23:10

Anheuzer Bushes did that. Um, that's

23:13

like been the power of like them being I mean you know them

23:15

being in the room and like the people

23:17

now that are drinking this ship is unbelievable.

23:20

It's like it's I mean, we always had like older

23:22

we always had like like we always had

23:24

like a wide range of democrat They were always older white women

23:26

like drinking our ship being I gotta live your amis

23:30

you know, like don't know what a meme is called. But

23:32

um, now it's just like middle aged men

23:35

named like Rick who were like fuck yeah,

23:37

like this fucking yeah man, what is it? Yeah,

23:40

we didn't build it to sell it. But when ab

23:42

came along, we were like this is fucking perfect because

23:45

the wine companies weren't gonna able to get us into the NFL.

23:47

And like we just became the official sponsor of like Monster

23:49

Truck Rally. So like it's just like you

23:52

know, for me, you're still involved. I'm still involved.

23:54

That was the deal. The deal. Yes, they kept me on and

23:57

I've been it's been like a year and a half now, and like now

23:59

they let me do like my thing, like I now

24:01

I don't have to go to the meetings, like they don't. They

24:03

desperitely do not want me go in the meetings anymore. And like Phoenix

24:06

with like distributors, they have like tons of like really smart

24:08

people who do ship like that that like aren't me

24:10

we got it done. Um, but now

24:13

they let me build like you know, Glory Hollmanicure

24:15

Trucks and like sponsor fucking you

24:17

know Monster truck Rally. We have a babe

24:19

monster truck with a woman like she's in a

24:21

full baby uniform and she just like straight crush.

24:23

It's amazing. It's so fucking sick

24:25

and like you know, guys in all real tree or like

24:27

crushing rose and it's really it's

24:30

very funny. Um, And I get I get something out of

24:32

that. But you know, the point is, like I think a

24:34

lot of people probably think that I was just

24:36

there to like kind of just be like in the banana suit, just

24:38

being like drinking ah while like someone builds

24:40

it, but we really built it. And now I'm trying to

24:42

pass that on because I just like

24:44

the kids. Really, I get bombarded with d ms

24:46

of just such good ideas. I put it out there a lot. I'll be like, who's

24:49

got an idea? Like Shark tank night, you

24:51

know, like I'm I want to I'm either gonna help you or

24:53

give you money, tell me your idea. But

24:55

what's become very clear is that like no one actually

24:57

they're just like here's my fucking idea, And I'm like that's fire.

25:00

But then what what next? Like how

25:02

do you actually get started? Like what do

25:04

you do? You know? Um? And I think I guess

25:07

now I'm sort of the adult in the room and that's

25:09

really fucking scary, and you're about to have a

25:11

baby. Yeah, so now it's like,

25:13

you know, I don't have an official next thing that I'm

25:15

doing, but I'm like, really, I've really started moving

25:17

to the space of like helping the kid, even like the influencers,

25:20

like no one knows how to do deals, no one knows how to do anything,

25:22

like we're old enough. But like, well, if you thought about

25:24

starting an agency, you know, like

25:27

I think at one point I thought about starting like a VC.

25:29

But at the moment, my kind of obsession is

25:31

just like giving tools to like entrepreneurs and

25:33

ship honestly like dead ass, which I know sounds

25:35

like super but like the people who do

25:37

that stuff, and again I don't want to name I've gotten it's

25:40

just so much hot water for just constantly calling people

25:42

out and I don't want to call people out, like I don't want to name

25:44

names, but like Gary V, I'm

25:46

just saying people who do this entrepreneurial kind

25:48

of ship like they're just like none of it's done right.

25:51

They're just like get out there and like find a baseball

25:53

card in the gutter and sell it, like get

25:56

off your ass, and like it's also weird

25:58

and like none of it really reson it's and

26:00

like so and I just think everyone fucking wants

26:02

to do killer Ship and like nobody wants to work at a normal

26:04

job anymore. And I think that that's fine if

26:07

in fact you're actually gonna be down to do the hard work.

26:09

So I'm kind of like sort of right now just like

26:11

kind of like working in that space and like trying to help in anyoney,

26:13

can these kids don't pay me? I'm just like, fuck it, I've

26:15

given I've already given away a bunch of money to kids

26:17

who just had fire ideas. I was like just keeping in the loop.

26:20

I'll v see it. I'm not even taking a cut. I

26:22

don't care. I just got lost in your teeth for a second.

26:25

Great Jesus, how much

26:27

funny did you spend uh setting

26:29

up the wine business? Do you remember

26:32

you're spending all did you say you're spending all your own money? Like?

26:34

What was your initial investment? We bought seven

26:36

so we bought literally like we bought seventy five thousand

26:38

dollars worth of rose from like some guy that's

26:40

some other guy knew in like Central

26:42

California, like in like Meth Country, which I guess

26:45

also has vineyards, And we bought seventy

26:47

five thousand dollars worth of rose and then we flipped

26:49

it for a hundred and fifty and then we like we created

26:51

a hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of more rose and just

26:53

kept on flipping. That was it. It was.

26:55

It was seventy five thousand dollars like five dollars

26:58

of the actual alcohol. What about what about

27:00

the bottling and all that? Where that that

27:02

was a total cost. That was a total cost to like buy

27:04

the juice, put it in the bottle and just be like who

27:06

wants it? And get a separate company that would bottle

27:09

it and spots it. Yeah, we had we found

27:11

like some little Italian man and like um again

27:13

in like Meth Country, you know, somewhere really cute just outside

27:15

Fresno. You know, it's beautiful up there. It's

27:18

really beautiful. It was funny when we went to our winery

27:20

the first time, like I'm used to like a Hampton's winery, you know,

27:22

where you're like you're a like Channing daughters, and people

27:24

are like riding tandem bicycles and like eating

27:26

like you know, people eating avocado toast. But we went

27:28

it looked like a you know Ukrainian factory

27:31

where people work until they die. Yeah, it was horrible.

27:33

That's where our wine game from. So

27:36

we just like found a guy. We just made it work because

27:38

like no one has the answers, That's what I'm saying. Like

27:41

we could have just like turned the keys over to some like you

27:43

know, wine guys, but like they don't know what

27:45

the funk they're doing. Nobody knows what they're

27:47

doing. That's what I've learned. Seriously, there are no fucking

27:50

rules, and like I know that's easier said than done. And

27:52

I'm like not telling you to quit your job, and I'm not telling

27:54

you to like don't start

27:56

your like CBD Monaco company tomorrow

27:58

because that maybe a really bad deal. I don't even know what Cebe

28:01

Monocle is, but like you gotta

28:03

like think this through. But like really, no

28:05

one has all the answers. You can bait, Like if I can start a

28:07

fucking wine company, like you can do whatever, right,

28:10

sure, I mean think about that, I started

28:12

a wine company company, Like anyone

28:15

can do anything. At this point? Is the deal about

28:17

public? Like how much you guys sold for That's

28:20

the one thing that had to be quiet. Yeah,

28:22

they've let me do a lot, a brush lets me do a lot. But

28:24

you bought a cool place in Miami. Yeah, so there's

28:27

that about a sexy about a sexy

28:29

place in Miami. Yeah. Or I can need fucking you

28:31

know Philadelphia Roles sexy sushi. Yeah.

28:34

But yeah, No, it was good. It was good, and I think for us it

28:36

was also more about creative control because I didn't want to like

28:38

just sell it off, and like I wasn't trying to like just break

28:40

out and just be like alright, guys, like here

28:42

you go. I'm still like super involved. I mean the company

28:44

has like a hundred employees. That's

28:47

wild. That's wild. And I have to like

28:49

speak at things like I speak at the Anti Oh

28:52

yeah yeah, not really

28:54

like I come in and I'm just like yeah,

28:57

like they don't like actually listen to me, but they just

28:59

like it's a good time. I planned like the Christmas

29:01

party, you know, like I do certain things that

29:03

keep it you know, um. But I speak

29:05

at like the Anheuser Bush National Conventions, so

29:07

like, you know, I try to keep it fun. You know, I'm coming out

29:09

and sucking asseless pink chaps and you

29:12

know, like here's the guy we gave all this money to totally.

29:15

And then I speak to like, you know, four thousand

29:17

like distributors from like North Carolina

29:19

who are just like fuck yeah fat you Like

29:21

they're just like, oh ship, they probably hate Jewish people,

29:24

but they love me um. And so

29:26

you know, they sort of they trapped me out

29:28

as needed, but it's been like really good. They let me do

29:30

wild Ship, They're letting me do you know, They're

29:32

let me do manicure trucks and whatever I want. Um,

29:35

So that's fucking cool. But yeah, like we

29:37

really I think we purposely kept it under

29:39

wraps that I was like very much involved with like the brick

29:41

brick and like the real like brick on brick

29:44

like that. That's not a saying, um of

29:46

like building it brick by brick,

29:48

but um, because I didn't

29:51

want it to. I wasn't gonna be on Instagram being like yo

29:53

like rise and grind baby, like another day

29:55

on the grind, like we're at the office. I

29:57

was just like, I want to be fun. But then now that we've

29:59

like sort of like I've kind of gotten some distance from

30:01

it. I've I've been sort of kind of talking about

30:04

how I actually did the work and I'm

30:06

not as stupid as you thought.

30:09

Um uh. The last thing before

30:11

you go, uh, when when I asked

30:13

you to do this podcast, You're like, oh, that's

30:15

that realistic guy, right, And I said it was. It was

30:17

called Big Money Energy. What did you think? Did

30:20

you think about the title at all? Or you just show up and go

30:22

where your counter it tells you to get No,

30:25

I thought it was sick. I think you do awesome

30:27

ship. I do. I think almost everyone does

30:30

terrible ship, but you do really really

30:32

good stuff. Um, which is why? And

30:34

you know we again, we can don't have to say that no, I

30:36

would open the show. We should actually go look

30:38

for a place. Can you get me on the show? Yeah?

30:40

Of course that's the only I know. That's the only way you'd

30:43

ever actually buy something if there's content attached to

30:45

it. Yes, yeah, yeah, they're a good price in

30:47

the market is totally terrible. It has to be

30:49

right. Yeah, it's a pandemic because

30:51

people were like we're going to m against it and

30:53

like we're gonna pod with into Miami

30:55

with you. Yes, but like then people like, don't

30:57

want to be because again, like we were talking about before

31:00

read or maybe we were filming the city is I

31:02

love this. I think this is really good for New

31:04

York. I think it's a cultural reset. Don't

31:07

agree with me, you know what it is? No, I tell everybody

31:09

like, this is the worst thing ever. I'm like, the board has

31:11

just been wiped clean totally. It was

31:14

going to be slow and painful for

31:16

the next five years or boom,

31:19

because I'm telling you, man, like I grew up here, and like, you

31:21

just don't see the stuff you like when I you

31:23

just didn't. You don't see the stuff that I saw growing up anymore.

31:25

And some of that stuff is really enriching, you know.

31:27

You don't see If I saw a homeless man on

31:30

Prince and Bowery, he shipped

31:32

into a suitcase and then he zipped it up and he just matter

31:34

of factly rolled it away, and I was like. And it

31:36

was two o'clock in the afternoon on a Thursday, and I was

31:38

like, and it was in front of like some like you

31:41

know, over priced like brunch spot that has now

31:43

closed, and it's like covered in graffiti. And I was like, this

31:45

is good. This is what we need. This is

31:47

what New York needs because the thing was just getting

31:49

weird. There you go. It's a great way that we

31:51

should end this. Thank you so much for coming

31:53

on, man, you were the best. And then and also like,

31:55

I'm gonna should I read this book? I haven't read a book in

31:57

like eleven years? Should I? Should this be the first book?

31:59

I mean like eleven years. Yeah, I'll send it to you. Yeah,

32:02

listen, if anyone who's listening watching has

32:04

a really really terrible, crappy, shitty idea,

32:07

the fat you has just made a lot of money by selling

32:09

beer wine, and so he'll give you his

32:12

money. I'm an idea, santom. Thank you so

32:14

much for coming, Thank you for having me. If

32:17

you're ready to take action today based

32:20

on the Fat Jewish is entire blueprint

32:22

for how he got to where he is. Go

32:24

to Big Money Energy dot com slash

32:27

podcast to download an action

32:30

plan and I put together for you as well

32:32

as the show notes. That's Big Money

32:34

Energy dot com slash

32:37

podcast. Find more podcasts

32:40

like Big Money Energy on the I Heart Radio

32:42

app or wherever you get your

32:44

podcasts. Big Money Energy

32:46

is hosted by me Ryan Sirhant.

32:49

It's produced by Mike Coscarelli and Joe

32:51

Loresca and executive produced by

32:53

Lindsay Hoffman.