Curiosity Class

At 13 years old, Kevin “KAYR” Robinson decided he needed a board of directors. He'd read that CEOs had people helping them make decisions. Why couldn't he? He began finding teachers, mentors, and sponsors who could help him build the skills and opportunities he needed. KAYR joins me to talk about that idea, the relationships behind his journey, and the difference between someone giving you...

A newsletter with 500 readers could be interesting to an advertiser - if they're the right 500 readers. That was one of several moments in this conversation that made me stop and ask more questions. Pranam Lipinski, co-founder of Email Outreach Company, joined me to explain how newsletters become businesses you can buy, grow, and sell. We talk about finding sponsors, increasing revenue from an...

Three hundred flyers. Zero calls. Easy to conclude that flyers don't work. Then you learn that someone else's starting test is 5,000. That story from Alex Hormozi's $100M Leads stuck with me because I recognize the expectation behind it. I start a project with a number in my head: I'll do this many repetitions, and then something should happen. But where did that number come from?...

Joe Meares has 130 rental units. If he were starting over, he’d slow down. That got my attention. Joe is a New York City real estate investor and former Wall Street analyst who bought his first rental in Indiana for $50,000 in 2018. We get into that first deal, the team that made long-distance investing possible, and how buying more properties can turn into a whole new job. I also asked him about...

She got a grocery retailer to say yes before she had retail packaging ready. Then she and her family figured it out. Brittney Cook is the co-founder and CEO of Something Sweet, a frozen cookie dough company that had grown to more than 600 stores when we recorded this conversation. It started with her mom’s brown butter chocolate chip recipe, hand-scooped dough, and deliveries out of coolers in the...

Here's the part that messes with me: one touchdown video, with a sponsor's logo sitting quietly in the corner of the frame, got turned into a sixty five thousand dollar line item. For one post. Mason Platt has run social media for the San Antonio Spurs, New York Mets, Oakland A's, and Dallas Cowboys (twenty million followers across their platforms), and now leads it for Cal's athle...

She was closing $25 million deals at Spotify by her mid-twenties. And she'll tell you she was at her worst every time she focused on the money. Gabi Rosen went from the youngest client partner at Spotify to building her own thing, then closed 34 clients in 18 months and joined the founders of the company she now helps run. What you'll take away: The 5 questions she asked friends to test a...

Every time someone presses play, they hand you an hour of their life they can never get back. Josh Stabinsky thinks about that math for a living, and it changed how he builds. Josh Stabinsky is a data scientist at Spotify who works on podcast and creator growth, and the host of the Unit Economics podcast, which he has grown to 60 episodes in a year without missing a single week. What you'll ta...

Chris Roberts spent 30 years writing software. He says the class that actually trained him for it was not computer science. It was 10th grade geometry, and he did not figure out why until decades later. Chris holds degrees in both math and music education, taught math from the classroom to the college level, spent three decades in software development, and wrote "Math Education in the Age of...

David thinks that within ten years there will be billion-dollar companies run by one or two people. Not a team of 500. Two. David Currant has founded four companies, been through Y Combinator (same batch as DoorDash), sold two, buried one, and is now building MX Pilot, an AI "marketing brain" for small businesses.  What you'll take away:  Why David tells his own kids to skip the norm...

I give myself an unlimited budget for books. I also track basically every dollar my wife and I spend. Those two things sound like a contradiction, but they're actually the whole point. This is how we decide what to spend on without an ounce of guilt, and what to cut without feeling deprived. Turns out "budgeting" done right feels less like punishment and more like permission. I'm...

I learned cursive in third grade and used it exactly once - to sign my name. So what's the cursive of the AI age? Which skills should you actually keep learning when the machine can do so much? No guest this week - just me thinking out loud. I'm not a futurist or an AI expert; I'm a curious guy who reads a lot, builds things, and likes chewing on which skills are actually worth your ti...

I was eating 2,800 calories a day and getting 30 grams of protein. I had no idea until I started weighing my food - and I'm someone who cares about fitness more than almost anything. No doctor, no nutritionist here. Just a guy who's trained since he was 14, got a body scan that surprised him, and finally started paying attention to what he actually eats. What you'll take away: Why a $6...

Gilad Bogner doesn't believe you are born talented. He thinks you are conditioned for it - and that the same thing that made him a musician could've made him a mathematician. Gilad ("Bogee") Bogner is an Austin based singer-songwriter releasing a two-part album this year and opening for UK artist MT Jones this fall - a guy who walked 20 minutes to school with an amp just to play through recess. Wh...

Adrian Gutierrez built AI that completes real estate investors' books 100% automatically - and his pilot users hated it. Nobody trusted a single number until a real CPA put a stamp on the output. That lesson, plus a year of doing every customer's books by hand before automating anything, is why 39% of his free users became paying customers. Adrian is the co-founder and CEO of Ledgre, an AI...

Starting out, Gabe couldn't close a deal. Every veteran told him the same thing: you're too young, you don't know what you're doing, I've been working longer than you've been alive. So he stopped trying to be the expert - and started being the beginner out loud. That's when everything changed. Gabe Einhorn is a New York City founder who turned 62 straight weeks of posti...

My 13-month-old decides what time my day starts. I've found a way to make sure he doesn't decide how it goes. No expert here - just me walking through the morning routine my wife and I actually run right now, and asking you for yours. What you'll take away: Why the 30-40 minutes before anyone needs you can flip a whole day from reactive to proactive How my wife and I share quiet mornin...

You don't want to be so open-minded that your brain falls out. That's an old line I've heard somewhere along the way, and it kept ringing in my head while I read a book this week - because it gave me language for something I've never known how to say: you can be unapologetic and full of doubt at the same time. No guest this week - just me, doing another book report on As a Jew by S...

A real estate agent gets paid when you buy a deal - not when you buy a GOOD deal. Once you see that one incentive, the whole order you're supposed to hire your team in flips. No guest today - just me walking through a single deal (123 Main Street) end to end. I've bought enough property to know which steps trip people up, and this is the breakdown I give friends who are about to do their f...

I used to think meditation was woo-woo. Then I spent seven days in total silence - no phone, no reading, no talking - and came back with a definition of mindfulness so simple it almost feels like cheating. No expert here. Just me, a former mindfulness skeptic, sharing the honest version of what actually stuck - and what didn't. What you'll take away: Why the goal of mindfulness isn't t...

Martin Munzer's mom was 86, falling constantly, and her doctors said to let her go. Eight weeks after he changed one thing about what she ate, she was getting out of a chair on her own - and running to answer the doorbell. Martin is a Master's-trained engineer, a former CEO in the early consumer-genetics world, and the founder of LeapXX - he's spent decades out on the fringe of nutriti...

A 26-year-old cold DM'd Reddit saying "I'll shoot over the video when it's done" - before he'd made it. He closed a Fortune 500 client with a video that didn't exist yet. Jordan Winston is the founder of Not Your Dad's Media, a street interview ad agency that's landed brands like Reddit, sports betting platforms, and CPG companies - all built from scratch in s...

Ross Guttler was 21 years old, sitting in an investment banking interview, when he asked himself: "What do I even want this money for?" He pulled out of every interview and moved to Aspen to wait tables. A decade later, making great money in Phoenix real estate, he did it again - walked away right before the big checks would have come. Then he did it a third time. Ross is the founder of...

A NYT bestselling author, top podcaster, and touring musician walks into a room and tells you your passion should never pay your bills. Then he explains why that's the best advice you'll hear all year. Abel James hosts a podcast with 100+ million downloads that's hit #1 in Health in 8 countries, wrote a NYT bestselling book, starred as a coach on ABC Television, angel invested in brand...

A deficiency report told Rich Fettke he "lacks what it takes to succeed." An oncologist told him he had about six months to live. Both were wrong - and the second one accidentally launched an 88,000-member real estate investing company. Rich Fettke is the co-founder of Real Wealth, bestselling author of The Wise Investor , master certified coach, and a guy who went from special education...