Adam Faze's Gymnasium is building the new TV studio — on TikTok and Instagram instead of Netflix

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Adam phase. Uh Adam,

let's settle this. I've never asked you this cuz I was kind of always embarrassed to ask you this, but I already know where we're going.

Yeah. I just think for the audience.

Yeah. No, I think this is

it is my real last name. They did try to sue me.

No way.

The original name of gymnasium was Faze World.

Okay.

And they do own the trademark for the word Faze.

Okay. Wow.

So, we are

What is the origin of the name? Faze is such a cool last name.

Okay, so this is I've never actually really said the story before. My dad is from Iran. Um, his real last name is Amir Faze and then when he moved to America, he changed his last name to FaZe. So I was born with the last name Faze.

Okay.

But it technically my middle name is Amir. So it kind of still was Amir, but it's

Oh, interesting. There's words that Ellis Island uh [laughter] Yeah, but there's there's a there's a term for when that happens. Like I believe I was probably a Mick Kugan at some point and they took off the Mick. They just simplified it. Fascinating. Uh well, for those who don't know uh anything beyond this, uh can you introduce uh the company kind of how you how you position yourself?

100%. I mean, I run a company called Gymnasium. Um it is a short form unscripted studio that primarily lives on Tik Tok and Instagram. So, we make shows that are these organic viral shows that would have been on TV 20 years ago, but instead live on these platforms.

Neotrad media, neotraditional media.

I really got to say, I think you guys are single-handedly bringing Hollywood back. You know, this city has been tracking in the media department.

Have you ever lived in LA?

Born and raised.

Okay.

I lived in LA for 24 years. So I moved to New York 4 years ago.

You went went to high school here.

I went to Loyola High School downtown.

I went to Pol.

No way. You grew up in that? I didn't know that. I grew up. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. Uh I played uh with some Loyola guys on with on the rugby team, the Cougars. I'm sure we could play. Who you know who do you know? But I went to Most of your most of your shows are in New York.

Um almost entirely New York based actually until recently. So we just launched a new show this week called Girl Room. um where we investigated the most disgusting girls bedrooms in LA.

This is amazing.

That we could find and we ended up renovating them with

You're just exposing. You're exposing. You're

I truly I can still smell some of the bedrooms that I was in. Um but we're actually here shooting a different show this week in Boil Heights where I just came from.

Okay. So, walk me through what uh actually producing a show looks like. Do do you hold the camera? Did you Did you ever hold the camera? 100% used to almost always camera and did edit a few shows.

But now what does the team do?

Well, to kind of back up, I mean, I grew up in LA being obsessed with Hollywood. All I ever wanted to do was make movies and TV shows and spent didn't go to college. Spent about eight years working up the ladder in traditional Hollywood for like studios and production companies.

This industry is cooked

and it basically I mean during co I

all of a sudden we have a fly on the set. [laughter] Um during co I just got deeply addicted to Tik Tok like so many other people and I honestly stopped watching TV and so there was a part of me that just felt like this feels like the future at the same time of working at a studio where like spending 5 years trying to make a movie that like Brentwood would love.

Um didn't really feel that culturally relevant. So

zoom out for me a little bit and show me the difference between why you're doing lives on TikTok and not those crazy like the quibby the new era quibby like the vertical. It's vertical short form. Yes. Uh there's a couple Chinese apps. You know what I'm talking about.

Real shorts. Oh, you're talking about like the scripted short form. Like is that where your stuff goes in 5 years or are you permanently

The real goal of this was like let's just go where the people are. I was watching TikTok. I was watching reals content. And I'm like I want to make shows in the place where people actually are. And so we've only ever produced things that are unscripted. Um it really started 3 years ago now working with a guy named Kareem who hosts Subway Takes. You ever seen that show now? We did a show called Keep the Meter Running where he would like hail a taxi in New York and he would tell the driver, "Take me to your favorite place and keep the meter running while we spend the day with each other." That show I held the camera on. And so it would be me, a friend, and Kareem, and we'd actually just hail a cab in the street in New York and get in with them and spend the day with them.

Um, that show kind of changed everything for us because, you know, Kareem was someone I had my eye on him for a while of just someone who I thought was super talented and I wanted to hang out with more. Um, and I asked him if he had any ideas for a Tik Tok show, and this was like the fifth idea he pitched. And it was so obvious of like, I want to know where that taxi driver goes.

And so we spent 3 hours with this first taxi driver we ever shot with. And I can remember thinking like, how the hell are we going to put this in a two-minute video clip? We had never posted anything on TikTok ever before. We spend a week that the episode is like perfect in our eyes. We put on an account that has zero followers. And as a result, we're like, we're not going to even check the views because it's a brand new account. The next day, Kareem goes into his bodega across the street and someone taps him on the shoulder and is like, "I love your show. When's the next episode coming out?" He's like, "What do you my show?"

And he looks at his phone. It had 1.2 million views.

And I think the cooler thing was of those 1.2 million views, 99% were in New York City. So, as he starting to walk around city that day, people started tapping him on the shoulder being like, "Hey, I love your show. Hey, can I get a can I buy you a beer? Can I take a photo with you?" How are they? [snorts]

Um, that show now has like 400 million views and has, I think, about 800,000 followers across Tik Tok and Instagram, and it's grown Kareem's own career into becoming like the the mayor of New York City. Totally.

So, I think from that point on, it was just clear of like, hey, this is a place where people actually want to watch serialized content, and what are the types of stories that we want to go make?

How do you think about monetizing something like that? It feels so hard to stop and do a midroll ad. And it also feels like if you're like, "Oh, I'll just do a separate promoted post." Tik Tok's like, "We know what you're doing. That one's going to get 10 views and then when you're back to normal programming, we'll give you a 10 million views because they know what's good and what's what's

I mean, this is the problem with short form media in general." The reality is these platforms do not have an incentive to pay you. One, because they know the benefit that you get by being v viral on these platforms. Um, but also like their excuse is like, "Hey, you're scrolling eight videos for every one ad you see. How would we know how to pay that person?

It's like we you you know everything. You know the data. You're going to be fine. You figure it out.

You know, we figured this out on our show, Boy Room, which was like the early version of Girl Room, and it was, you know, really disgusting men's bedrooms.

Who has grosser bedrooms?

Um, so the difference we we really did find the difference here. Guys have disgusting bedrooms. Girls are just hoarding. They're hoarding so much [ __ ] that they refuse to get rid of. So that's the big difference between the two shows. But on that show, it was so viral so quickly. The top comment on every episode was a girl saying, "I can fix him."

Um, you can't. The second comment was always, "You should fix their rooms." And so, we started quickly getting in touch with Amazon and a bunch of other companies figuring out like how could we turn this into a renovation for them.

Sure.

Ended up making an amazing partnership with Amazon. We did an entire renovation season of the show, still on Tik Tok and Instagram. And out of that partnership birthed this brand new show, Girl Room, which is actually co-owned by Amazon.

And also Amazon in that in that world doesn't feel forced at all. It's like it's like very logical that you're making the show better. You know, we would never be able to do a renovation show without the help of Amazon. And so I think what's really cool here is like through this partnership with Amazon, I think what we've realized is like the views and attention that we get on these platforms organically is something that every Fortune 500 company desperately is trying to figure out. And so what we really started doing is having this conversation with brands is like you're a media company whether you realize it or not. And if you were to think of yourself as a TV channel, what are the types of shows that you would program on that channel? And so we're starting to work with brands on creating original shows on these platforms that kind of live in the universe of their brand.

Yeah.

Is there very little competition? Because it feels like the legacy businesses that obviously competitive. Well, no. So there's comp like the feeds are deeply competitive. I'm saying like people that are trying to do this like highly produced unscripted content that's not just an iPhone, that's not an individual creator doing like a day in the life or doing that. Like it feels like they're like it feels like they're because the traditional like unscripted TV

uh businesses, they're so in this mindset of like, okay, I like create a concept and I pitch it and maybe I make a pilot or I'm an established, you know, studio and I can just like go and get the budget just off of belief alone. they're still in this mindset of like, I need to sell this whole show to a network. And I think that could create an environment where you're kind of in this lane with a model that's very disruptive being like, I'm not going to go to the network at all. I'm just going to go straight to the feed and uh do and and be able to do turn out a super high volume of content, I'm sure, with like great margins, too. Uh and just kind of like sidestep the whole industry.

I mean, there's a few things here. One, I think what's been really cool is like New York has become like the capital of this new era of media. I think, you know, LA was the center of influencer for so long. Like never forget the Tik Tok houses in 2020. Um, I think that slowly started shifting with like the Washington Park of Tik Tok content and all of a sudden now all these short form content studios started bubbling up. You're right.

You know, I think for those of us that have been in New York for a few years, there is a bit of an industry now where we all know each other. We're all pretty close with each other. Um, what I will say though is like on the flip side, I think especially like being in LA right now, this is an industry of people that still refuse to accept that like the internet has become television. Interesting. And you have so many talented storytellers, an entire generation of storytellers who are out there trying to pitch their show to Netflix. Um, instead of realizing like, hey, how can I go make this myself? And I think the crazy thing is like we have so many examples of success now. Yeah.

And it's like imag like in what world would TVPN be this successful if you guys were on CNN?

Yeah. Or or or starting there. I mean it's weird because in Silicon Valley we like you would be so crazy if you were like I have an idea for a new technology. Let me go try and pitch it to Amazon Web Services. You'd be like no I I build the first version. I raise a little money. I build it. I build it. And then eventually they come and try and buy me. And that's like the DNA of Silicon Valley. And yet, uh, Hollywood just is still in the process of like adapting to that of just like, yeah, just go do it yourself. Like the cameras are available, you can make stuff with an eye.

And I think what's so hard is like we haven't had startup DNA in this city ever. I mean, you know, we did it in 1920.

Of course. Exactly. [laughter] And that was the original moment. But from that point on, we had a hundred year-long industry like this is how calcify calcify calcifi. And I think as a result, we built an industry around the way that things worked. And it's really hard to all of a sudden accept, hey, the rules could not be more different now and might never go back to that. They will never go back to that in the first place.

So, I think what's cool though is like

I really do believe that any talent we've ever worked with would have been a television star 20 years ago. I think any show we made and and are continuing to make would have been a TV show 20 years ago. Um, and I

How much Yeah. How much inspiration do you I I I think like when I think about TVPN, we've had maybe a hundred or so people like kind of launch like some like show that is inspired in some way by what we're doing even though what we're doing just looks like

normal television uh and it's been around for 50 years.

Uh do you look back at some of these like old unscripted shows and be like, "Okay, we want to do a dating show in that format. We want to do a home renovation show and that like we want to do a cooking like cooking. I feel like I I've I've pitched we pitched like TVPN for cooking. Somebody it wouldn't look anything like TVPN but it just be like a daily cooking show that kind of like has the aesthetics of like a legacy television show.

Uh but it's like built for the social platforms

100%. I mean I think what I try to tell everyone is like

Instagram, Tik Tok X, YouTube are television at this point. And so the entire history of television is up for grabs to recreate on these platforms. And so I think it's really interesting to think about like what are the shows that spoke to you when you were younger and figuring out like what is the newer version of making that today.

But I think the big difference is there is the format side which like boy room and girl room are formats. But I think the real opportunity that exists here is like certain star creators out there have the ability to grow multiund million dollar businesses fueled by content. And I think these are people that need programming help because they themselves are a TV channel at this point and they need operating help. And I think that really is where we're going to see things start to go and it not just be a landscape where like Mr. Beast is the only one that's figured this out.

Yeah. How how do you think about uh platform exclusivity, the aesthetics of the different platforms because uh I think from a from the outside a lot of people would assume that Instagram reels, YouTube shorts and Tik Tok are feature complete identical platforms. It's vertical video and yet content that does well on one doesn't do well on the other. But

yeah, could we see a flip where Tik Tok says, "No, we want this as an exclusive show or Instagram." Like, will that ever

are they already basically doing that in the sense that some content will do better on on one platform than another just because the audience or the algorithm or the feature set there? Um, but will it go farther to the point where you could build a whole show and it's every episode's going viral on Tik Tok and they're all flopping on Instagram for some weird unknown.

I mean, we've had that experience. Like we have certain shows that have totally flopped on Tik Tok and Instagram and are the most viral thing we've ever made on YouTube. And most often it's the other way around. But I think it goes back to like what is the reason that someone is opening that app in the first place. If I'm opening Instagram, it's to check my DMs. It's check my notifications, maybe see something from a friend, and then I'll get stuck in reels and doom scroll for 3 hours. Tik Tok, [laughter] I am going on basically to watch television. In fact, I don't want to see what my friends are posting cuz I don't think they know how to make Tik Toks. And I'm going on being like, "Hey, show me like what's the television feature?" And so, as a result, like you're willing to watch longer content. It's not about sending something to your group chat that's like a degenerate meme. Um, and I think it really is the closest thing to like short form television. YouTube Shorts, I think either you're 13 or 70. I don't really know who else uses YouTube shorts in between that. Um, but I think like, you know, this show is a really great example of that of like it does feel like this show was originally designed for X. I would imagine that it quickly becomes a YouTube show though, just as it turns into more of a television. Do you think there's uh do you think there's anything that we should extrapolate from uh the expansion of short form from it was 6 seconds on Vine and it was about 1 minute for a while now I think it's 3 minutes on most of the platforms

you can do up to 60 minutes on Tik Tok

60 minutes on Tik Tok is there are we going to see the meta of 30 minutes is the just the right amount of time because that's what that's where TV landed and that's kind of where YouTube landed right like Mr. be it used to be 8 minutes then it was 12 then it became 20 and then 20 plus ads is kind of 30 and you're in the 20 30 and then you see video essays go up to 40 and and you know

I mean I look I think the one thing you have to remember with short from content is like part of the reason for it success is that like dopamine rush that it gives you and so like you are kind of addicted to this scroll and wanting to be punched with like some new hit of energy so I think there is a limit

edit to some extent

totally but I think it's like there is a limit

this is a modern blackjack dealer And at the end of the [laughter] day, at the end of the day, I mean, anything that's a long form video, I'm watching as 2x on these platforms because like look, I might want to watch 8 minutes of a rug cleaning video on TikTok, but like going to watch it in 2x speed. Um, but I do think

you watch you watch 8 minute rug cleaning videos on Tik Tok sometimes at 4 in the morning, you get hooked.

The rug cleaning, they're already No, they're already I think on 4x.

They're on like 4x or 10x.

Get cleaner and cleaner the whole time. Do you do you think uh Hold on. We got to stay on this. Do you do you feel like you

Let's check your screen time. Let's Let's check those.

No, I look I look in general, I will say I think there are like a lot of problems with short from content to begin with. Like I don't think this is a good thing to be giving children and then expecting them to like enter the world in a normal state.

But at the same time like I would actually defend like uh like a Subway interview series as something that is a little bit more vegetables than this is my whole thing. I think knowing that these platforms are the sole source of like information entertainment for an entire generation of kids, we have a moral responsibility to flood as much good [ __ ] as possible on these apps. I think at the same time your room doesn't have to look like this. It really is.

By the way, I also think if you're you're just putting a smile on someone's face, you're making their day better, you know?

It is funny. There was a moment in time, maybe it was like 5 10 years, where people had this like righteous like uh they would make this sort of like righteous statement. I don't watch television. And then if [laughter] you actually piece together, it was like, I don't watch television, but I get entertained in these sort of like short bursts that collectively add up to four hours a day. But I would never watch television.

I don't even own a TV. [laughter]

I just pay $2,000 for a new phone every 12 months

cuz I'm hooked up.

But I do think that's the thing. It's like it is time to start sounding the alarm bells a little bit of like what goes behind the scenes on these platforms because like I don't know if this is the best thing for young people to have

from age. Yeah.

Do you think there's an opportunity to recreate some elements of Vice? Like it feels like they

they were making video content that in my view I feel like doesn't get made as much anymore.

It's by the way some of the best content still on YouTube to date. And I and I think it's interesting like the views continue to go up like year after year. Um I will say what I'm not as bullish on these days is a faceless media company. I think Vice was sort of that last try of what happens to build an actual media company on the internet.

A Shane Smith type would 100% be successful and maybe could have some people underneath them. But I think like TBPN for instance is not a faceless brand. It's not CNBC.

You guys are TBPN.

And I think like that is anything going to grow going forward.

Andrew Callahan. Like Channel 5 is Andrew Callahan, right? And uh and and if it was truly just like, oh, it's just like the Channel 5 is is a faceless aesthetic. Yes. For fun.

And I think like A24 might be the last faceless media company. Like they have created a brand of prestige. I don't know how easy that is to do going forward.

Yeah.

Where do you think live streaming goes from here?

Live's the future.

And I think you know most of the people that we're talking about in culture right now, you guys included are live streamers. Whether it's like I show speed or kaat or on a completely other end of the spectrum Nick Fuentes, there's a reason why we're talking about these people and I think it's because you're giving a daily amount of content that can be clippable and hack the algorithm of every single platform that exists. And so I think we are in this sort of postplatform state where you might have your preferred platform that you use, but it all kind of has the same content at this point. And so people are larger than any one app if you do this correctly. And I think live is like the real spot where that kind of comes to fruition.

Are you working on any live shows?

Um definitely have live shows in the works. I mean had like the huge honor of of working with Aisha Speed on his Speed Does America tour which he was live for 35 days straight.

Um he filmed himself sleeping for 34 nights in a row. Um and I didn't know I didn't know he didn't I I assumed he was going offline. No,

he did not turn off the camera for 35 days.

Isn't there a real risk of going crazy? I think it's all he knows cuz he's only 20 years old and he's been doing this for like four years which is crazy. Yeah. Someone had a great point when we were filming which was like he turned our world into the Truman Show because it's not like he's on some set like the set is the city that we live in. What's really interesting about Eyes Show Speed is I think people see the viral clips, but if you open up a stream and just click to a random moment and you actually understand how he's interacting with chat, how he's like killing time and filling dead air.

I think he talks to chat in a way that I've never seen anybody on Earth. I mean, he knows who Chat is. And when he says, "I love you, Chat." You're like, he actually loves Chat. He's talking to that young 13-year-old kid or 50-year-old guy that like for some reason is watching this episode. don't understand with the streamers how high skill ceiling talking to chat is. Lwig was talking about if he had to start over, could he be successful in the modern era as be as a streamer and his his first bullet point was I'm good at talking to chat. And so that's a skill that I could immediately cash in on. But then of course you have to figure out like how do you get your first viewer and so he does a bunch of stunts and he he ran this experiment um and somewhat successfully. But mostly I was just it was just interesting to hear someone talk about uh you know the nature of live with chat is so different than TV. Bloomberg has a chat room

but they never talk to chat on Bloomberg TV you know and I was thinking about how funny that would be cuz every all the

a lot of legacy media they turn off chat places.

Oh yeah yeah I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about right now like there are multi-billionaire hedge funds that have Bloomberg on and Bloomberg chat going on their Bloomberg terminal.

Yeah.

And yet the person whatsoever.

They don't connect. They don't connect which is so fascinating.

But like this is what I explain to everyone of like why I think live is the future. There was a moment on the speed tour where he was in Cincinnati. He's having lunch. There's like a glass door at the front or glass window at this restaurant. And of course like anywhere he goes there's a crowd of thousands of kids that are outside trying to go see this kid. Speed goes to the window at one point just to like get a better look of the crowd. And there's one kid front and center. This kid is so excited to see Speed that he bashes his head through the glass window. [laughter] Like World War Zombie [ __ ] And I think like that is the answer of like this medium is so powerful that it's somehow making this like 12-year-old kid into a zombie because of the connection that he feels with speed. That is live. That's not like uploading a Tik Tok video.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's weird. There's There's a very like Yeah. Yeah. just so many interesting uh TV.

You're behind the camera. You're creating shows and different concepts and and through that you're creating inevitably creating stars and future superstars. How do you think about like partnering with talent in the short term and the long term? uh that I feel like one of the big challenges that uh uh when you look at at creator modern creatorled media companies you have bar stool Dave Portoi he created other stars they end up going and going independent or going and doing other deals Alex Cooper then was a bar stool creator left then uh like you know created Alex Earl to some degree then Alex Earl leaves and the cycle sort of like continues use. And I think that's like probably the maybe like one of the number one challenges for gymnasium is like how do you

it's hard enough to create the star and then how do you kind of partner for the long term. I mean this is something that like honestly I evolved my own perspective on I think for a long time I tried to figure out like how could we hold on to that star and I think where I've completely changed my opinion is like the creators have the power and even if they didn't start as a creator but now they are they hold the cards and I think all you can hope to be is the best partner to them but it is for them they are the ones that are in control and so I think where we've really shifted with gymnasium is like gymnasium at this point is very much a television studio for brands to make themselves into TV networks it's like we can turn brands into creators. But I think there is another completely different angle that

theoretically you can retain the brand longer and if you're creating a diversity of creators or talent that work effectively for the brand then you're effect you're not you're not uh entirely indexed to one superstar and we even saw night media lost like Mr. Right. But think about this, like if you are Skittles and you're building the Skittles digital network of shows, and by the way, as a result of that, you've given three new kids a platform that are now going to go be famous. Their story will always start with they got famous for being on like the Skittles Network. They might be your best brand ambassador you ever have. I think that's like a blessing if someone were able to become a star for someone like that. So, I think it makes a lot more sense on the brand side of things, but I think like the real future of this industry is helping creators turn into massive, massive stars. Do you feel threatened at all by AI? I feel from my point of view and understanding your business, I think humans are going to want to watch unscripted shows from real people. I don't know if it's going to hit the same to be like watching boy room and it's like, yeah, we generated this crazy AI room. It's super dirty. [laughter] Yeah.

And here's this AI person who made the room dirty.

Yeah. Yeah.

And it's like it like there's something about it being

even if it's indistinguishable, people will will do the investigative journalism to be like, "Oh, boy room is now AI generated. We caught them." And that will destroy it'll be like cheating in chess. I I imagine.

I mean, look, I think the benefit is like we're young and run a startup and an industry that's kind of being created every single day. And so for us, I think we're always looking to see like what tool is coming out and seeing if we can use it and help us make our own [ __ ] better. Um, but I think the reality is like when anyone's ever said, "Hey, like in the future people are going to watch an entire new season of succession by generating it." It's like at the same time that you say that, the NFL's never had a bigger audience. And I think like we humans have an innate desire to watch the same thing at the same time and be part of like a cult moment.

What's interesting about that is like, yeah, NFL has bigger audience than ever, but also there's more people playing Madden and watching effectively virtual football every year as well,

but they're watching a human playing it

there. Well, well, or or Yeah, I wasn't even talking about that. I mean, they're playing it like they are generating it themselves when they're playing it. You're watching the screen while you play. Then there's also people watching it on Twitch, which I think is what you're mentioning, or watching the video game version, watching someone else play. And then there's watching real people play. And so all three markets were good to invest in, oddly. It wasn't one one defeated others. What about VR? Uh, have you Is there anything interesting in your world in VR?

I mean, look, I it's cool. I I've never seen a reason why like we're at that place in time yet where anyone's going to care to go and put these goggles on. I think like, you know, I think the new meta glasses look really cool. I'm excited to try them, but I think we're still a few years away.

I just have this I just have this thesis that if you if you went like all in on VR today and you just waited, waited, waited, you could be like the you could be the Jake Paul.

I mean, look, there's a lot of people that that have been doing that. I think these are also a lot of people that raised a [ __ ] ton of money 10 years ago and like Sundance even had a part of their festival for VR films back then like you know unfortunately I think

that is also where you risk sounding like someone who's just chasing the thing that people are talking about. It's like first you're running a VR company now you're running a crypto company then you don't want to always chase those things. I think for for me it's like just really what do I want to watch and what are the things that we can go make that are like fun to be a part of.

Awesome. Have you had a bunch of acquisition interests?

Definitely been interesting conversations. I think you know it's less about

I feel like if I'm hoping it's like an acquire thing, you know,

hey, we need a play here bad.

Mhm.

This seems like uh somebody

we're getting killed on TikTok.

I mean, by the way, I do [laughter] think I do think like that creator side of like building stars is where these studios can have a big impact because it does take millions of dollars if you want to go do this. something like, "Hey, we're going to go build this creator. It does take money in the licensing world and in the merch world and live events world that would honestly be really helpful to tap into."

Have you thought about trying to launch a new startup with a show? Are you doing that at all?

I think that's always been some of the the thought behind any new show. It's like how big could this get? What are the things that can kind of come out of this? And I think you've seen a lot of, you know, tech companies now realize the importance of media and doing it the other way around. But I think like that's the most interesting thing on earth.

Yeah. Yeah. Because you could partner with Amazon on a show or you could partner with some consumer brand that's like we'll give you 15% of our company if you can get us 200 million views and kind of take us from zero to to one.

And I think that's the really interesting side about like where Gymnasium is going is like it is more than anything a sort of you know creative consultancy for the first time. like we can really help you build your brand in terms of taking over like cultural dominance through the type of media you have.

You haven't raised money either.

We raised a very small we raised a 750k round three years ago.

Oh wow.

Um and it was with a lot of just like classic industry players like Jeremy Zimmer who was the CEO of UTA and Matthew Seagull at Attention and some really interesting people but um haven't raised a dollar yet.

Smart Smart to not like raise 75 million and then you're like oh suddenly we need 300 shows.

No. I think [laughter] it's it's like what's the point? I mean it's we're not at that time where you would even want to stake a bet in terms of raising that much money.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Well, it's very pragmatic.

Thank you so much for showing away so I can come in person.

Uh wait, we got to ring the gong for the for the

How many views How many views do you think you're going to do this year?

Um it depends if you include the speed tour. I think we're already at like two billion plus bution we're count.

Congratulations. Thank you so much. All right, good form. Thanks so much. Pleasure.

We'll talk to you in just a second. Uh before we move on, let me tell you about getbbezzle.com. Your bezel concier is available to now to source you any watch on the planet. Seriously, any watch. Um Vas on X says, "Just tried Gemini 3.0. It's over." Um very very funny post. I think even if you

We are working on getting access.

We're working on getting access. What do you think? Uh it seems that Warren Buffett also tried Gemini 3 uh Berkshire Long Google.

Long Google right now.

Yeah, they they just uh No way.

Wow.

Did they buy it? How what what kind of size?

I think 4.3 billion.

Let's go.

Come on. You can do more than that.

Toss in 100 billion.

That's fascinating. I mean it it just goes to show you that like the AI even if it's like a bubble like it is there is no systemic there is no systemic uh like uh chaos all over the place like there will be pockets of things that are overvalued pockets of things that are undervalued opportunities all over the place of the day you know you have Google trading at what 20x or something

let's pull up this video of of uh somebody breaking through the glass

yeah 28 um yeah let's watch the speed video and then let's also tell you about wander. Find your happy place. Book a wander with inspiring views, hotel grade amenities, dreamy beds, top tier cleaning. I'm in a wander.

It's a vacation home but better. Also, I didn't I didn't give everyone an update on what my eight sleep score actually was. I of course am sleeping on my eight. Uh it's I got an 85 so I'm doing pretty well. I'd like a sound effect. Do you even have access to the old sound effects? I feel like we might have over rotated towards the night vision goggles turning on and we no longer have access to the classics, the horse, the Ashton Hall sound effect. Are any of those still on the board, Jordy, or have they all been replaced with Oh, it's still there. Thank goodness. I thought we lost touch and I thought we only had night vision goggles. Um, which I do enjoy. Um, is there any other news that we need to talk talk through? Should we go through some mansion section? We missed the entire mansion section. And we had so much to talk about today.

Pull it up.

Which one do you want to do?

Where should we start

with the mansion section? Um,

Donald Trump's home. His childhood home.

This is a big deal.

He's hitting the market.

This is a big deal. There's

in Queens.

You could buy this because you love the guy. You could buy it because you hate the guy. You want to tear it down and build something else.

We got this video first. Play this video. I need to see this.

Yeah, let's play this. This is Speed on the Speed Tours America tour. Uh, what is going on here? And someone is about to jump through the glass. He's Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That is crazy. [laughter] He actually bonked his head on the glass and uh [laughter] and broke the glass. And that seems like that's like at a McDonald's or something. It's at a real restaurant that probably doesn't buy the cheapest glass. I don't know. That's pretty crazy. Um,

it's funny to use his head like he's got his hands.

He's such a great actor.

Went for the heads.

I I I wonder I wonder if he'll ever uh transition to like, you know, being in movies because all the

I'm sure he could.

It's fantastic.

Be in any number of movies at this point. Um,

anyway, eight-month renovation. Donald Trump's childhood home is hitting the market in Jamaica Estates. The house is selling for 2.3 million. Um, you know, uh, let's see what else is here. Uh, charming tutor style house in Queens, New York. He lived there in his earliest years of his life. Decades later, the latest in a string of owners is hoping the home's connection to Trump will help turn a healthy profit.

So, in 2008, it sold for 782,000. 2016, 1.3. 2017,

2.14. 2025, it somehow sold for 800,000. And now it's back up at 2 point being listed at 2.3.

What happened? Something odd. Uh, very, very bizarre. Anyway, there's another story in here. Before building their retirement home, they had to relocate 174 legless lizards. That is a [snorts] bizarre headline. Uh, a pair of retirees needed to remove protected slow worms from the property before they could break ground on their $3.2 $.2 million. So, I was hoping countryside.

This one isn't hitting the market yet, but I could see Paul PG snapping this one up. [laughter]

He's going to get in.

This house looks absolutely lovely.

You love it.

Has a little pond you can swim.

Even though you even though uh they had to relocate they had to painstake they had to spend weeks painstakingly capturing and relocating almost 200 of the creatures. Uh, slowworms, a legally protected reptile. They're not worms, they're harmless, legless lizards. What a bizarre world. But no, catching slowworms was not something we'd ever had to do before. It was actually very hard work, but strangely, I enjoyed doing it. They did it themselves. Wow.

We'll do it ourselves.

Uh, [ __ ]

Can you imagine trying to catch 170 lizards?

Oh my god, that'd be gross. I don't know. I don't like that fun for a

I don't like snakes. These sound like snakes. They don't have an image, thank goodness, of what the snakes look like, but I'm not into it at all. But I'm very happy for these folks out in the English countryside, uh, who rescued

These are snakes. These are some of these

sketchiest looking things ever. They're like massive worms.

I don't like these at all. This is a ter terrible selection. I had you I had you select the mansion section stories.

I selected it because the the home looks incredible.

Yeah, the home's nice. I'm glad that it's worm free. I would be moving to Ireland. I don't like snakes.

It's only 40 miles southwest of central London, which means that it probably takes like three, four minutes in an Aston Martin

Valkyrie. Is there any other news that we missed today? I think we have it mostly covered. I think we can um say goodbye. Have a great weekend. We will see you on Monday. And thank you for tuning in. Leave us five stars on Apple Podcast and Spotify. And uh subscribe to the TBPN Substack, tbpn.com. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have a great weekend.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Goodbye.

We love you. We'll see you Monday.