Transcript

PARLER IS BACK: GAME CHANGING APPROACH TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION || JON WILLIS || EPISODE 065

From Code To Winning · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 49 min · 9,133 words · 100 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "PARLER IS BACK: GAME CHANGING APPROACH TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION || JON WILLIS || EPISODE 065", an episode of Code To Winning published October 22, 2025 (49 min, about 9,133 words). It mentions 180 people, works and ideas, including Parlor, John Willis, Opio, Blockchain, PlayTV.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the relaunch of the social media platform Parler and its founding principles as a response to perceived censorship on mainstream platforms like Twitter. Guest John Willis, a co-founder of Parler, shares insights about its development, relationships with political figures, and the implications of its approach to user information protection amidst growing concerns over social media censorship.

Key takeaways

  • Big Tech can build you up or unceremoniously pull the plug; Parlor's billion-dollar downfall is proof.
  • Parlor, which peaked as a free speech sanctuary, was swiftly unplugged by Apple's digital eraser.
  • When mega-platforms play chess with your data, remember: digital empires can crumble in a click.
  • Public narrative often finds its villain; post-January 6th, Parlor wore the blame badge.
  • Post-resurrection, Parlor's back—emphasizing resilience but underscoring tech dependency risks.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Parlor, Twitter, Facebook, Hunter Biden
  2. – 10:00: Parlor, Facebook, George Farmer, Google LLC
  3. – 15:00: Parlor, Google LLC, Tik Tok, App Store
  4. – 20:00: Parlor, West Africa, Blockchain, Opio
  5. – 25:00: YouTube, Parlor, Tik Tok, PlayTV
  6. – 30:00: Parlor, Blockchain, Facebook, Utility Token
  7. – 35:00: Blockchain, Cartix, Parlor, Opio
  8. – 40:00: Cash App, Kyo Wallet, Capitalism, Mexico
  9. – 45:00: Leap of faith, Parlor, Declaration of Independence, Communism
  10. – 49:16: Parlor, John Willis, PlayTV, PlayTV

Notable quotes from "PARLER IS BACK: GAME CHANGING APPROACH TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION || JON WILLIS || EPISODE 065"

  • The co-founders in the studio today. So, we're going to talk a bit about like the journey founding it, the relationships with the current 45th and 47th president of the United…
    about Donald Trump · at
  • Through the journey of Parlor like how that began and everything else regarding that too? Yeah. So, Parlor was originally founded by John Mates and Rebecca Mercer in 2018. And…
    about Parlor · at
  • Need they found their villain and through a coordinated effort between Apple, Google, and AWS, Parlor was shut down January 9th, I think, is when that happened of 2021. And so…
    about AWS · at
  • Social, what is now Truth Social. And so for about a period of 6 months, we helped with the architecture of the UI, the UX as well as the cloud infrastructure. But also during…
    about Truth Social · at
  • Then since then, we have grown our network, our ecosystem to include fintech, fintech and blockchain. And then we also have e-commerce with our marketplace. And then we also…
    about Blockchain · at
  • You're in the app store. You when you're in Apple and Google, you still have to play by their rules. And their rules have lightened up quite a bit with several lawsuits that have happened against them over the last 5 years or so.
    about Apple Inc. · at
  • Our the crypto project that we launched was called Opio, which is Latin for choice. Because in order to help people be free, the first thing that they have to have is the freedom of.
    about Opio · at
  • Good money, but I would be demonetized every other month, and they would never tell me why. And so, with Play TV, we're not doing any of that. Now, do we have moderation? Of…
    about PlayTV · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • John Willis — Person · Main guest · 2 mentions · first at
    Interview subject describing Parlor’s history, shutdown, relaunch, and related tech/business strategy (cloud, video, blockchain rewards). Also discusses interactions with Trump’s team around early Truth Social planning.
    Interview, different perspective. This is the episode for you as well. So without further ado, our amazing guest right here in Arizona. We're going to welcome John Willis. How you doing, brother?
  • Donald Trump — Person · Referenced political figure; key narrative anchor · 2 mentions · first at
    Central to the episode’s timeline: Trump’s deplatforming and Jan 6 aftermath are described as catalysts for Parlor’s growth and subsequent shutdown; Willis also recounts meeting Trump’s team at Mar-a-Lago to discuss early Truth Social work.
  • John Mates — Person · Referenced founder/executive · 2 mentions · first at
    Identified as an original Parlor founder and later removed as CEO after the 2021 shutdown events.
    Through the journey of Parlor like how that began and everything else regarding that too? Yeah. So, Parlor was originally founded by John Mates and Rebecca Mercer in 2018. And…
  • George Farmer — Person · Referenced acquirer/operator · 2 mentions · first at
    Identified as a later buyer/operator of Parlor after the shutdown; portrayed as attempting a revival but lacking tech depth, then selling later.
    The investors were scrambling trying to figure out how they could save their investment. The platform was then sold to George Farmer, who is Candace Owen's husband, and he…
  • Hunter Biden — Person · Referenced news subject · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of the 2020 'Hunter Biden story' suppression narrative, used to explain Parlor’s growth and the 'Twitter files' framing.
    Momentum hit in 2020 during the election when banning was happening left and right. And in October of 2020 is when the Hunter Biden story was being heavily suppressed by…
  • Rebecca Mercer — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Through the journey of Parlor like how that began and everything else regarding that too? Yeah. So, Parlor was originally founded by John Mates and Rebecca Mercer in 2018. And…
  • Elon Musk — Person · Referenced industry figure (competitive landscape) · 1 mention · first at
    Used as a comparison point for X/Twitter’s shift toward being perceived as a freer-speech platform, affecting Parler’s positioning.
    Want. And so we decided, hey, Parlor's cool and all, but it's in a crowded field because you have X now, which is now kind of taken the flag of being the conservative free speech app under Elon.
  • Eric Finnman — Person · Affiliate · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a senior adviser to Parlor, known for being a Bitcoin millionaire.
    Right now in Newsmax. from like a talking head, subject matter expert standpoint, one of our one of our senior adviserss is Eric Finnman, who is the youngest Bitcoin…
  • Laura Loomer — Person · Referenced example of deplatforming; later returning user · 1 mention · first at
    Used as an example of early Twitter bans and later as a personality returning to Parlor after relaunch.
    Posting on X or on Twitter at the time, you were either shadowbanned or completely deplatformed. some of the original ones that were kicked out of Twitter were like the Laura Loomers, the Milo Yiannopoulos, those types. because they were.
  • Kevin Sorbo — Person · Referenced celebrity user · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as an example of a celebrity who is (re)joining Parlor as the platform rebuilds its public-facing roster.
    And then, we even have like celebrities like Kevin Sorbo and, they're just starting to come back on cuz we haven't really done a hardcore push yet for marketing.
  • Kevin Harrington — Person · Referenced business partner · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a partner tied to the marketplace initiative (Cartix) and described as an original Shark Tank shark, lending credibility to the commerce expansion.
    The other thing is we launched a marketplace called Cartix. C A R T I Cartix. we partnered with Kevin Harrington, who's one of the original sharks from Shark Tank. And on there…
  • Candace Owens — Person · Referenced media personality (relationship anchor to Farmer) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned to identify George Farmer as her husband, providing context for Parlor’s ownership transition and political-media associations.
    The investors were scrambling trying to figure out how they could save their investment. The platform was then sold to George Farmer, who is Candace Owen's husband, and he…
  • Megan Kelly — Person · Referenced platform personality (Parlor account restoration) · 1 mention · first at
    Listed among high-profile accounts on Parlor, supporting the guest’s claim of platform revival and influencer adoption.
    So, but we've we've been able to bring back personalities like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe, Newsmax, Real America's Voice, you.
  • Tucker Carlson — Person · Referenced platform personality (Parlor account restoration) · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as a notable figure whose presence on Parlor is used as evidence of regained traction and restored accounts.
    So, but we've we've been able to bring back personalities like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe,.
  • Sean Hannity — Person · Referenced returning personality (platform content) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as another major conservative media figure present on Parler, supporting the platform’s positioning and adoption claims.
    So, but we've we've been able to bring back personalities like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe,.
  • Alex Jones — Person · Referenced 'fringe' returning personality (platform content) · 1 mention · first at
    Named as an example of a controversial figure on Parler, illustrating the platform’s free-expression stance (within stated limits like no illegal content/pornography).
    To bring back personalities like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe, Newsmax, Real…
  • James O'Keeffe — Person · Referenced platform personality (activist media example) · 1 mention · first at
    Named among notable accounts on Parlor, supporting the claim that prominent right-leaning/activist figures are present.
    Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe, Newsmax, Real America's Voice, we have quite a few Laura Loomers back on there. we've got quite a few that are on there. Okay.
  • Big George — Person · 3 mentions · first at
    To figure out how they could save their investment. The platform was then sold to George Farmer, who is Candace Owen's husband, and he tried to bring it back, but they just…
  • Eric Finman — Person · 2 mentions
  • John Matze — Person · 2 mentions
  • Milo Yiannopoulos — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Of the original ones that were kicked out of Twitter were like the Laura Loomers, the Milo Yiannopoulos, those types. because they were considered fringe or, extreme bar and all those guys.
  • James O'Keefe — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe, Newsmax, Real America's Voice, we have quite a few Laura Loomers back on there. we've got quite a few that are on there. Okay.
  • Gary Vee — Person · 1 mention · first at
    With each other. And but yeah, I mean an entrepreneur I mean you can go to all the seminars and listen to all the Gary Vee talks and Tony Robbins and all that but at the end of…
  • MrBeast — Person · 1 mention
  • Rush Limbaugh — Person · 1 mention
  • Yoda — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

  • The Last Jedi — Book · 1 mention · first at
    Faith, the trust, this sounds stupid, but in the Last Jedi movie, which is the least popular of all the Star Wars movies, Yoda says to Luke, Failure is the greatest teacher, and if you haven't failed, you're not an entrepreneur.
  • Star Wars — Book · 1 mention · first at
    This sounds stupid, but in the Last Jedi movie, which is the least popular of all the Star Wars movies, Yoda says to Luke, Failure is the greatest teacher, and if you haven't failed, you're not an entrepreneur.

Companies & orgs

  • Parlor — Company · Business focus · 33 mentions · first at
    Primary subject of discussion, detailing its founding, challenges, and relaunch strategy.
  • AWS — Company · Case study · 26 mentions
    Critical in the narrative of Parlor's shutdown and the importance of cloud independence.
  • PlayTV — Company · Secondary owned · 4 mentions · first at
    A video content platform launched by Parlor's parent company to compete with YouTube and TikTok.
    Trend is going towards video content, the instant dopamine hits with the reals. And so we decided to launch because we had our own cloud, we launched PlayTV, which is our Tik Tok YouTube competitor.
  • Truth Social — Company · Case study · 3 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a competitor and in relation to the guest's involvement in its early development.
  • Pulse — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Time, one of my partners and I who's actually the CEO of Parlor now, or Pulse, which is our parent company. we were looking at the whole ECOS or not the ecosystem, but the…
  • X Corporation — Company · Social media platform · 1 mention
    Mentioned as former Twitter platform
    Twitter. which was, starting to ban conservatives left and right because if you didn't fit a certain narrative on what you were posting on X or on Twitter at the time, you were either shadowbanned or completely deplatformed. some.
  • Apple Inc. — Company · Competitor · 22 mentions
    Part of the coalition that shut down Parlor, discussed in the context of censorship.
  • Facebook — Company · Competitor · 10 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a platform with censorship issues and as a competitor in social media.
    We decided to go ahead and partner with them, partner with that company, the manufacturer and all of our data centers are now using the same servers that Facebook uses and…
  • YouTube — Company · Competitor · 6 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a competitor to PlayTV and in the context of content moderation.
    The reals. And so we decided to launch because we had our own cloud, we launched PlayTV, which is our Tik Tok YouTube competitor.
  • Tik Tok — Company · 6 mentions · first at
    The reals. And so we decided to launch because we had our own cloud, we launched PlayTV, which is our Tik Tok YouTube competitor.
  • Google LLC — Company · Competitor · 5 mentions · first at
    Part of the coalition that shut down Parlor, discussed in the context of censorship.
    To Stanford University to do a study on Parlor in 2020 to basically monitor and spy on Parlor users. and they used that information to give to Apple and Google as the…
  • Twitter — Company · 4 mentions · first at
    Playing field of what was really going on. And you look at Twitter, even though it wasn't owned by Elon yet, Twitter was still reliant on third party cloud. Same thing with in…
  • Stanford University — Company · Historical context · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of a study used to justify Parlor's shutdown.
    To Stanford University to do a study on Parlor in 2020 to basically monitor and spy on Parlor users. and they used that information to give to Apple and Google as the…
  • Triton Data Centers — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as part of the infrastructure to ensure platform independence.
    We decided to go ahead and partner with them, partner with that company, the manufacturer and all of our data centers are now using the same servers that Facebook uses and…
  • TikTok — Company · Competitor · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a competitor to PlayTV and in the context of content moderation.
    That's not what we do. Tik Tok still does it. And I know Tik Tok has a new buyer lined up right now. We've actually spoken to them. We know who they are.
  • Newsmax — Company · Affiliate · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a media outlet that has returned to Parlor.
    To bring back personalities like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe, Newsmax, Real…
  • Fox News — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    And so that was on Fox New or Fox Business last week or the week before. And yeah, awesome. No, I'm glad I'm I'm I'm excited to that you actually touched on.
  • Edgecast — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Edgecast is mentioned as a content delivery network acquired by Pulse.
    Edgecast which was originally developed by Yahoo in 2006. They sold it to Verizon for 300 million. Verizon created a partnership with Limelight and they ended up creating a new…
  • Meta — Company · 1 mention · first at
    We knew that the one of the biggest pieces that was missing in social media was blockchain technology. Now Facebook or Meta tried launching a token few years ago that bombed…
  • Instagram — Company · Competitor · 3 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a competitor in social media.
    It wasn't owned by Elon yet, Twitter was still reliant on third party cloud. Same thing with in Instagram and Facebook had their own, YouTube had their own, but all these other…
  • Real America's Voice — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as one of the media personalities returning to Parlor.
    To bring back personalities like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe, Newsmax, Real…
  • Universal Studios — Company · 1 mention · first at
    It's basically the whole adage of enduring to the end. I look at it this way. If you ever go to Universal Studios in Hollywood, they have those escalators that go up the side…
  • Gab — Company · Referenced company · 5 mentions
    Mentioned as a platform reliant on third-party cloud services.
    You have True Social, you have Threads, you have Blue Sky, and you still have Gab and Getter, but they're, not even worth mentioning because they're so low on the totem pole. And so we're okay, that's great, but where's the trend? the.
  • Doge — Company · Historical context · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in the context of discovering payments to Stanford University for a study on Parlor.
    Government. And it wasn't until later, in fact, February of this year where we found out that Doge discovered a study between or a payment was made to Stanford University to do…
  • New York Post — Company · Historical context · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of being shut down by Twitter for posting the Hunter Biden story.
    To shut down certain influencers that were posting the Hunter Biden story, including the New York Post. They even shut down the New York Post account for a short time because…
  • Blue Sky — Company · Competitor · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a competitor in the social media space.
    Super energy efficient. But what's amazing about that is we control our cloud. So we cannot be shut down when it comes to our database or our cloud because of the redundancies…
  • Threads — Company · Competitor · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a competitor in the social media space.
    Super energy efficient. But what's amazing about that is we control our cloud. So we cannot be shut down when it comes to our database or our cloud because of the redundancies…
  • Verizon — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of Edgecast's history and acquisition.
    Largest content delivery networks called Edgecast which was originally developed by Yahoo in 2006. They sold it to Verizon for 300 million. Verizon created a partnership with…
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) — Company · 10 mentions
  • Opio — Company · 10 mentions
  • App Store — Company · 6 mentions · first at
    Counterbalance in a sense and it shot up to be the number one social media platform in the app store literally right before the election and then when Trump lost it continued to skyrocket and then in January 6th happened.
  • Cartix (Cardics) — Company · 6 mentions
  • Pulse — Company · 6 mentions
  • Kyvo (Kao/Ky Vo) — Company · 3 mentions
  • Venmo — Company · 3 mentions
  • Yahoo — Company · 3 mentions
  • Getter — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    Had their own, YouTube had their own, but all these other platforms that were popping up like Getter like CloudHub and Gab, they all had reliance on third party big tech…
  • Kyo Wallet — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    Commenting, posting, whatever it is, what if she woke up the next morning and in her wallet, we call it our Kyo wallet, which is our DeFi crypto wallet, she wakes up and there's rewards in there for what she did the night before.
  • Cash App — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    Do peer-to-peer transactions. you know just like you can with Venmo, PayPal, Cash App. and then also as you use that wallet, and the Kyo debit card that we're going to be…
  • CloudHub — Company · 1 mention · first at
    But all these other platforms that were popping up like Getter like CloudHub and Gab, they all had reliance on third party big tech clouds. And so we looked at Parlor saying…

Products & tech

  • Opio — Product · 1 mention · first at
  • PlayTV — Product · Business focus · 4 mentions · first at
    Introduced as a new venture by the guest's company, competing with YouTube and TikTok.
  • PlayTV — Product · 3 mentions · first at
    The instant dopamine hits with the reals. And so we decided to launch because we had our own cloud, we launched PlayTV, which is our Tik Tok YouTube competitor.
  • Opio — Product · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at
    Highlighted as a blockchain project integrated into Parlor for user rewards.
    Our the crypto project that we launched was called Opio, which is Latin for choice. Because in order to help people be free, the first thing that they have to have is the freedom of.
  • Kyo Wallet — Product · Business focus · 4 mentions · first at
    Introduced as part of the ecosystem for earning and using cryptocurrency rewards.
    Commenting, posting, whatever it is, what if she woke up the next morning and in her wallet, we call it our Kyo wallet, which is our DeFi crypto wallet, she wakes up and there's rewards in there for what she did the night before.
  • Cartix — Product · 2 mentions · first at
    The other thing is we launched a marketplace called Cartix. C A R T I Cartix. we partnered with Kevin Harrington, who's one of the original sharks from Shark Tank. And on there we.
  • Cartix — Product · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Introduced as a marketplace for merchants to sell products using fiat and cryptocurrency.
    Cartix. we partnered with Kevin Harrington, who's one of the original sharks from Shark Tank. And on there we're currently onboarding over a 100,000 merchants that have Shopify…
  • Kyo — Product · Secondary owned · 8 mentions
    DeFi wallet developed by Parlor for cryptocurrency transactions and rewards.
    Yes. Don't ask me what it stands for because I don't know. I didn't come up with the name. but Kao is a DeFi wallet and within the next few weeks it will be a full Venmo…
  • Truth Social — Product · Business focus · 4 mentions · first at
    Truth Social is mentioned as a social media platform that the guest helped with initial wireframing.
    Was shut down, we had our app in the app store. Literally a month. And then 3 weeks after that, we get a call from Trump's team to come down to Mara Lago and to meet with him…
  • Starlink — Product · 1 mention · first at
    But we, through Eric were able to send, they had Starlink connections and then they were able to use Parlor to communicate. And so we actually have pictures of Iranian rebels holding up a piece of paper that says.
  • Kao — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Rather than like the whole process that So one of the other apps that we have in the app store is called Kao. Ky Vo.
  • Doge — Product · Incidental · 4 mentions
    Mentioned in passing as a cryptocurrency project.
    Government. And it wasn't until later, in fact, February of this year where we found out that Doge discovered a study between or a payment was made to Stanford University to do…
  • Kyo debit card — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Know just like you can with Venmo, PayPal, Cash App. and then also as you use that wallet, and the Kyo debit card that we're going to be releasing here shortly, guess what? You…
  • Foam insulation — Product · 1 mention · first at
    A candy business of all things. But it wasn't until he discovered foam insulation and started a foam insulation company here in the Phoenix area, becoming one of the top foam…
  • Parlor app — Product · 1 mention · first at
    We're going to add at the bottom there the Parlor app, every other app and pulse and all that kind of stuff as well in the description section. If you could let our viewers know where they could get a hold of any of the other.

Concepts & topics

  • Blockchain — Concept · 7 mentions · first at
  • Cryptocurrency — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Our the crypto project that we launched was called Opio, which is Latin for choice. Because in order to help people be free, the first thing that they have to have is the freedom of.
  • Utility Token — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
    Rugpool 100%. So, but with utility tokens, there hasn't really been besides Bitcoin a really strong utility token introduced that can be integrated into multifacets of everyday life. And because we have a very wide ecosystem,.
  • DeFi — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Commenting, posting, whatever it is, what if she woke up the next morning and in her wallet, we call it our Kyo wallet, which is our DeFi crypto wallet, she wakes up and there's rewards in there for what she did the night before.
  • Open Compute Project — Concept · Technical context · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of the hardware used by Triton Data Centers.
    What you need. And so we worked out a deal with the manufacturer that manufactures Facebook's servers. And we became a hyperscaler for what we call the open compute project. So…
  • Meme Token — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Coins. anything an altcoin is anything that's not Bitcoin. you have assetbacked tokens. And then you have meme tokens like the Trump or Melania token, the fartcoin, Pepecoin, all these. Yeah. Do the Dogecoin or Sheba Enu.
  • Capitalism — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Lives but also like getting the rewards and benefits of reaching a certain level of income and that's why even the richest man in the world is from my country because he took…
  • Declaration of Independence — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    To an ideology that is meant to suppress your natural instinct to be free. And so when our founding fathers when they, battled duked it out, with the Continental Congress coming up with the Declaration of Independence, they took the risk.
  • Communism — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Doesn't know how to work for its food. And that's and in reality, that is the problem with communism, with socialism, democratic socialism, whatever you want to take it. It's all legalized slavery is what I call it.
  • Democratic Socialism — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Food. And that's and in reality, that is the problem with communism, with socialism, democratic socialism, whatever you want to take it. It's all legalized slavery is what I call it.
  • Socialism — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Food. And that's and in reality, that is the problem with communism, with socialism, democratic socialism, whatever you want to take it. It's all legalized slavery is what I call it.
  • Continental Congress — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    To an ideology that is meant to suppress your natural instinct to be free. And so when our founding fathers when they, battled duked it out, with the Continental Congress coming up with the Declaration of Independence, they took the risk.
  • King George — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Independence, they took the risk of death by treason to say, We demand to be free. We don't need you, King George. We don't need your outrageous taxes of 3%. I'd give anything…
  • Doge — Concept · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Doge is mentioned as having discovered a study on Parlor users conducted by Stanford University.
    Collusion between big tech and the government. And it wasn't until later, in fact, February of this year where we found out that Doge discovered a study between or a payment…
  • OpenMP Compute — Concept · Technical context · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of the hardware used by Triton Data Centers.
    Manufactures Facebook's servers. And we became a hyperscaler for what we call the open compute project. So if you go to openmp compute.org, or which was created by Google and Meta as a way to create hardware that is very energy efficient.
  • UI/UX — Concept · 5 mentions
  • Leap of faith — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    Had failures, they those are those who are willing to take a risk and to take a leap of faith to do something crazy.
  • Cloud infrastructure — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
    And so for about a period of 6 months, we helped with the architecture of the UI, the UX as well as the cloud infrastructure. But also during this time, one of my partners and…
  • Ethereum — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
    If you know anything about blockchain, you have stable coins like USDT. You have altcoins which are like Ethereum and Salana, that are strong coins. anything an altcoin is…
  • Asset-backed tokens — Concept · 2 mentions
  • Doomscrolling — Concept · 2 mentions
  • Shadowbanning — Concept · 2 mentions
  • Attorney General of the United States — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    We're going to talk a bit about like the journey founding it, the relationships with the current 45th and 47th president of the United States. It's going to be a very fun…
  • The Twitter Files — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    The Hunter Biden story was being heavily suppressed by Twitter u and by Facebook. And we learned later with the Twitter files that it was because of government collusion where…
  • Government collusion — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Facebook. And we learned later with the Twitter files that it was because of government collusion where government insiders were telling Twitter to shut down certain…
  • Hyperscaler — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Deal with the manufacturer that manufactures Facebook's servers. And we became a hyperscaler for what we call the open compute project. So if you go to openmp compute.org, or…
  • Fintech — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Then since then, we have grown our network, our ecosystem to include fintech, fintech and blockchain. And then we also have e-commerce with our marketplace. And then we also…
  • Blockchain rewards — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Rewards by doing so. And so we are the first social media platform that has fully integrated blockchain rewards into our platform. Wow. So anybody in the 176 countries that Parlor is currently in can earn daily cryptocurrency rewards.
  • Cryptocurrency — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Our platform. Wow. So anybody in the 176 countries that Parlor is currently in can earn daily cryptocurrency rewards.
  • Freedom of expression — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Is with this new buyer, are they going to continue the suppression of free speech and freedom of expression like they already do right now under bite dance? And so with Play…
  • Wireframing — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Was we helped them with the initial wireframing of the app, and the way it works when you do app design is each little window, each little button, there's there's logic that has to go to it. And so we.
  • Altcoins — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    If you know anything about blockchain, you have stable coins like USDT. You have altcoins which are like Ethereum and Salana, that are strong coins. anything an altcoin is…
  • Melania token — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Anything that's not Bitcoin. you have assetbacked tokens. And then you have meme tokens like the Trump or Melania token, the fartcoin, Pepecoin, all these. Yeah. Do the Dogecoin or Sheba Enu.
  • Meme tokens — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Anything that's not Bitcoin. you have assetbacked tokens. And then you have meme tokens like the Trump or Melania token, the fartcoin, Pepecoin, all these. Yeah. Do the Dogecoin or Sheba Enu.
  • Fartcoin — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Assetbacked tokens. And then you have meme tokens like the Trump or Melania token, the fartcoin, Pepecoin, all these. Yeah. Do the Dogecoin or Sheba Enu.
  • Pepecoin — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Assetbacked tokens. And then you have meme tokens like the Trump or Melania token, the fartcoin, Pepecoin, all these. Yeah. Do the Dogecoin or Sheba Enu.
  • Dogecoin — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Meme tokens like the Trump or Melania token, the fartcoin, Pepecoin, all these. Yeah. Do the Dogecoin or Sheba Enu.
  • Layer 1 blockchain — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Into multifacets of everyday life. And because we have a very wide ecosystem, we decided to build a layer 1 blockchain, Opio, with the intent that it can be plugged in to multiple different type of platforms, including like an X or a True.
  • Opio Accepted Here — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Sure that utility was used in the real world. So, we launched a program called Opio Accepted here, which is similar to what American Express and Discover Card did when they…
  • Capitalist mindset — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Like just that opportunity. I'm like the like it's it's that capitalist mindset which I've appreciated most and I feel like sometimes people that are born yet sometimes don't really appreciate the essence of just that.

Places & events

  • January 6th — Event · Historical context · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a pivotal event leading to Parlor's shutdown.
    Happened and the media needed a scapegoat and so they decided to say that Parlor was the main culprit behi behind President Trump on planning and coordinating the January 6th attack on the capital.
  • Hunter Biden story — Event · 2 mentions · first at
    Momentum hit in 2020 during the election when banning was happening left and right. And in October of 2020 is when the Hunter Biden story was being heavily suppressed by…
  • West Africa — Place · 2 mentions · first at
    Ability to make money. And it's funny as you look at some of these third world countries. you've lived in West Africa before and there's parts of South Africa where you're from that are very third world and yet a lot of people have.
  • Philippines — Place · Referenced location · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a growing market for Parlor.
    I think it's pretty close between either Saudi Arabia or Brazil. we're starting to pick up quite a bit in the Philippines right now, believe it or not. Yeah.
  • Mara Lago — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the location where the guest met with Trump's team to discuss Truth Social.
    Was shut down, we had our app in the app store. Literally a month. And then 3 weeks after that, we get a call from Trump's team to come down to Mara Lago and to meet with him…
  • Iran — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Mean we just did a thing that went viral last week where they were act the Iranian rebels that were rebelling against the Iranian regime were actually using Parlor to communicate back and forth because the Iranian regime couldn't shut down.
  • Arizona — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as the location where the interview is taking place.
    He didn't know what it was. He said, Hey, maybe we should do that in Arizona because it's so hot here. And he started that business and it's still alive to this day. My cousins…
  • New York, New York — Place · 2 mentions · first at
    Anymore. We demand to be free. And now you see a complete wing of the United States, namely in New York, that is saying, We demand to be slaves. We want the government to take…
  • South Africa — Place · Referenced location · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of discussing third-world access to smartphones.
    You look at some of these third world countries. you've lived in West Africa before and there's parts of South Africa where you're from that are very third world and yet a lot of people have smartphones. As impoverished as they.
  • Ghana — Place · Target audience · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as an example of a market where Parlor's rewards could have significant impact.
    Or if she could go and help pay her rent, you know. Also, let's let's look at West Africa. You mentioned Ghana before the interview. The average individual in Ghana makes $300 a month.
  • Pakistan — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Getting a little overwhelmed. I've been outsourcing some in the Philippines and then like I have another one I recently hired like in Pakistan as well but the one in Pakistan…
  • Mexico — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Transfer system. So, when you're wiring, doing a peer-to-peer transaction, let's say you're going from USD to pesos in Mexico or something, it'll do the exchange calculation…
  • Phoenix — Place · 1 mention · first at
    A candy business of all things. But it wasn't until he discovered foam insulation and started a foam insulation company here in the Phoenix area, becoming one of the top foam…
  • California — Place · 1 mention · first at
    I can't remember if it was in California or whatever. He saw it being installed.
  • Hollywood — Place · 1 mention · first at
    It's basically the whole adage of enduring to the end. I look at it this way. If you ever go to Universal Studios in Hollywood, they have those escalators that go up the side…
  • Universal Studios — Place · 1 mention · first at
    It's basically the whole adage of enduring to the end. I look at it this way. If you ever go to Universal Studios in Hollywood, they have those escalators that go up the side…
  • Brazil — Place · Target audience · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as one of the countries with a significant user base for Parlor.
    I think it's pretty close between either Saudi Arabia or Brazil. we're starting to pick up quite a bit in the Philippines right now, believe it or not. Yeah.
  • Saudi Arabia — Place · Target audience · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as one of the countries with a significant user base for Parlor.
    I think it's pretty close between either Saudi Arabia or Brazil. we're starting to pick up quite a bit in the Philippines right now, believe it or not. Yeah.
  • COVID-19 pandemic — Event · Historical context · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing, likely in the context of the timing of Parlor's growth.
  • AWS re:Invent — Event · Referenced expert · 1 mention
    Mentioned in passing, no significant relevance to the main discussion.
    We don't have a single piece of anything in our tech stack that's big tax. It's all ours.
  • Pakistan — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Outsourcing some in the Philippines and then like I have another one I recently hired like in Pakistan as well but the one in Pakistan does a PayPal the other one does like I…
  • U.S. Capitol — Place · 1 mention
  • Utah — Place · 1 mention

Media & podcasts

  • Shark Tank — Media · 1 mention · first at
    The other thing is we launched a marketplace called Cartix. C A R T I Cartix. we partnered with Kevin Harrington, who's one of the original sharks from Shark Tank. And on there…
  • Star Wars — Media · 1 mention · first at
    Journey that it takes, the stress, the faith, the trust, this sounds stupid, but in the Last Jedi movie, which is the least popular of all the Star Wars movies, Yoda says to Luke, Failure is the greatest teacher, and if you haven't.

Full transcript with timestamps

the code to winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Today we have a very special guest. Um if you are curious and learning a bit more about social media platform about branding about understanding movements of algorithms and all that we have the CSO chief strategy officer and also co-founder of pulse in the studio today. if you are well familiar with um Parlor and a social media app as well, one of the co-founders in the studio today. So, we're going to talk a bit about like the journey founding it, the relationships with the current 45th and 47th president of the United States. It's going to be a very very fun, enlightening, exciting interview, different perspective. This is the episode for you as well. So without further ado, our amazing guest right here in Arizona. We're going to welcome John Willis. How you doing, brother?

Good. Thanks for having me. Exciting to be here. Awesome. Thank you very much for your time. And I want to kind of just dive into it real quickly. Um Parlor. I remember hearing about Parlor 2020 um after

uh the president was kind of like removed out of uh X or Twitter at that time as well. Can you just walk us through the journey of of Parlor like how that began and and everything else regarding that too? Yeah. So, Parlor was originally founded by John Mates and Rebecca Mercer in 2018. And it was really started as kind of like a counteract or a counterbalance to to Twitter. Um, which was, you know, starting to ban conservatives left and right because if you didn't fit a certain narrative on what you were posting on X or on Twitter at the time, uh, you were either shadowbanned or completely deplatformed. You know, some of the original ones that were kicked out of Twitter were like the Laura Loomers, the Milo Yiannopoulos, those types. Um, you know, because they were considered fringe or, you know, extreme bar and all those guys.

Yeah. Well, I don't know if Rush got completely banned. He probably got shadowbanned a few times, but but really Laura and Milo were the first two ones. And so as Parlor started to grow, it they they really started to see their momentum hit in 2020 during the election when uh banning was happening left and right. And in October of 2020 is when the Hunter Biden story uh was being heavily suppressed by Twitter u and by Facebook. And we learned later with the Twitter files that it was because of government collusion where government insiders were telling uh Twitter uh to to shut down certain influencers that were uh posting the Hunter Biden story, including the New York Post. They even shut down the New York Post account for a short time because they didn't want the Hunter Biden story to get out. So um so Parlor became that that counterbalance in a sense and it it shot up to be the number one social media

platform in the app store literally right right before the election and then when Trump lost it continued to skyrocket and then in uh January 6th happened

and the media needed a scapegoat and so they decided to say that Parlor was the main culprit behi behind President President Trump on planning and coordinating the January 6th attack on the capital

and um there was no truth to it. I mean Parlor didn't have the the DM type of capabilities or any of the things that you need to coordinate and in reality if there was any coordination going on. It was done on Facebook, you know, that actually had messenger and all that stuff. Um, but be that as it may, they need they found their their villain and through a coordinated effort between Apple, Google, and AWS, Parlor was shut down uh January 9th, I think, is when that happened of 2021. And so, and then Trump was shut down pretty much the same day or the day after. And so, you had 20 million Americans and even, you know, some foreign, you know, foreign people that were on the platform completely silenced. And AWS even took it a step further where they deleted the database.

So it wasn't just something where it was just a slap on the hand. They couldn't bring it back and restore all the old posts or anything like that because AWS just push the delete button. And and that was a real problem. And so you had Parlor that had a billion dollar valuation at the time, a billion dollar valuation went to zero immediately. they and and and it was all because of collusion between big tech and the government. And it wasn't until later, in fact, February of this year where we found out that Doge uh discovered a study between uh or a payment was made to Stanford University to do a study on Parlor in 2020 to basically monitor and spy on Parlor users. and they used that information to give to Apple and Google as the justification to shut down Parlor. And it was all government funded. They paid about $750,000 to the uh Stanford University in order to do that. So Parlor was shut down. Uh

John Mates was removed as CEO. The uh the um investors were scrambling trying to figure out how they could save their investment. The platform was then sold to George Farmer, who is Candace Owen's uh husband, and he tried to bring it back, but they just they weren't a tech company. Parlor never was a true tech company. They had a front end uh that they designed with, you know, pretty decent, you know, I'd say subpar user interface and user experience. And but they were still relying on AWS. And so they came back for a short period of time, but they, you know, the damage was done and they just could not survive.

And so they shut it down. George then sold the platform to a marketing agency who wanted the database email list. And we had the opportunity, my partner and I had the opportunity to pick that up um December of 23. We bought Parlor um and the brand, the IP and the database. And we relaunched it back into the app store uh spring of 2024. And so it's been it's been back for over a year now.

And uh we're we're growing. People are excited that it's back. We have, you know, we put a completely new interface in place. And when I talk about Parlor's journey, there was actually another journey that was happening parallel at that time. So you had Parlor's journey and then you had the journey with my partners and I

because at that time we had another company where we were building white label social media platforms for affinity groups, churches, you name it. And we witnessed firsthand what was happening there. And we made a a very strong and bold decision. Hey, let's Parlor's down. Let's launch let's launch an al alternative immediately because we had the capability to launch a social media platform like that. And so we did. And within 3 weeks of us launching, now mind you, this was a month after Parlor was shut down, we had our app in the app store. Literally a month. And then 3 weeks after that, we get a call from Trump's team to come down to Mara Lago and to meet with him to start discussing the initial steps of building truth social, what is now Truth Social. And um and so for about a period of 6 months, we helped with the the architecture of the UI, the UX as well as the cloud infrastructure. But also during this

time, one of my partners and I uh who's actually the CEO of Parlor now, um or Pulse, which is our parent company. Um we we were looking at the whole uh ECOS or not the ecosystem, but the whole playing field of what was really going on. And you look at Twitter, even though it wasn't owned by Elon yet, Twitter was still reliant on third party cloud. Same thing with um in Instagram and Facebook had their own, YouTube had their own, but all these other platforms that were popping up like Getter um like uh CloudHub and Gab, they all had reliance on third party big tech clouds. And so we looked at Parlor saying, okay, well, one of the main weaknesses that Parlor had is that it was so reliant on AWS.

And so we're like, okay, well, in order to prevent that from happening, you have to control your ecosystem. Exactly.

So you have to have your own cloud. So we made some acquisitions and some smart moves and we we created our own cloud. It's called Triton data centers. So we and when you when you talk about cloud, most people equate cloud with a data center and that's not it. A cloud is the software and the hardware. That's really what you need. And so we worked out a deal um with the manufacturer that manufactures Facebook's servers. And we became a hyperscaler for what we call the open compute project. So if you go to openmp compute.org, or which was created by Google and Meta um as a way to create hardware that is very energy efficient.

We um we decided to go ahead and partner with them, you know, partner with that uh company, the manufacturer and all of our data centers are now using the same servers that Facebook uses and they're super energy uh efficient. But what's amazing about that is we control our cloud. So we cannot be shut down when it comes to our our database or our cloud because of the redundancies that we have in place in the 24 data centers in eight countries around the world that we have.

And so that was a very important thing that we had to build. But then we looked at this and said okay well wait a minute we have the cloud and basically when you have the cloud it's like a foundation of a building. When you have your own cloud you can pretty much do whatever you want. And so we decided, hey,

Parlor's cool and all, but it's in a crowded field because you have X now, which is now kind of taken the the flag of being the conservative free speech app under Elon.

You have True Social, you have Threads, you have Blue Sky, um, and you still have Gab and Getter, but they're, you know, not even worth mentioning because they're so low on the totem pole. And so we're like, okay, that's great, but where's the trend? the trend is going towards video content, you know, the instant dopamine hits with the reals. And so we decided to launch because we had our own cloud, we launched PlayTV, which is our um Tik Tok YouTube competitor.

And um yeah, and so we that's what kind of led us to to where we are now. And then since then, we have grown our network, our ecosystem to include fintech, uh fintech and blockchain. And then we also have e-commerce with our marketplace. And then we also made a very strategic acquisition earlier this year and we bought one of the world's largest content delivery networks called Edgecast which was originally developed by Yahoo in 2006. They sold it to Verizon for 300 million. Verizon created a partnership with Limelight and they ended up creating a new company called Edio which ended up filing for bankruptcy and we bought the assets out of bankruptcy and relaunched it on our cloud. So it puts us in a very strong position because when you really look at what we've built in the last 5 years, we've built a true replacement to big tech.

We don't have a single piece of of anything in our tech stack that's big tax. It's all ours.

My question though is that even though you do have your cloud, where does it come in regarding like using the app store or even um Apple and Android? They've got like their Play Store and App Store as well. You say you can't get shut, but can you get removed from the app store?

Sure. Okay. Yeah. And so like the problem with with the original Parlor is that their website was shut down. Okay. And their website was on AWS. Now it was so was their apps, but the the main, you know, supposed to be autonomous is your website cuz the rules are completely different for websites than they are if you're in the app store. You when you're in Apple and Google, you still have to play by their rules. And their rules have lightened up quite a bit with several lawsuits that have happened against them over the last 5 years or so.

But I mean, their rules are not that crazy. It's like don't post pornography, you know, on your sites, you know, don't have anything illegal. I mean, it's just basic like no duh type of rules. Um, so we still have to adhere to that, but we also have everything that's on the web, too. So, we have our apps and then we have web. And so if if we were ever shut down on Apple and Google, which I highly doubt we would be now, um we still have the web as the backup. And if and if you brought up the the web browser on your phone, it looks exactly like the app. So makes perfect sense. And then um obviously we know uh before the takeover of of Elon in the Xplatform, it was at the time a lot of conservatives were getting removed. They were getting silenced. they were um violating the rules at that time of what X did before you took over like X as well which I feel was a major shift from what I've seen cuz I think at that time parlor was

and it's probably still like a household name but it was mainly for conservatives like majority conservatives felt like they could go there and express their opinion get their voices heard as well

and then my question is like what's the new strategy moving forward considering there's competitors like X and Truth social because whenever the president does does something I don't even look at his exome I just type in atreal Donald truth social just see what the latest thing is you know regarding that what's the strategy moving forward for parlor

sure so you're 100% right uh Parlor is known as a conservative app it's got a 40% name recognition according to Pew Research Center and it's all about conservatives and the issue with that originally was that Parlor only focused on conservatives We are doing a little bit different approach where we don't care who you vote for. We don't care who you pray to. We don't care what color skin you have. You know where where you come from. Parlor is for everybody. And let me ask you this. You mentioned X. You me mentioned True Social. Let's even throw Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok in there. As a user, how much do you earn from those platforms by using those platforms? Not as a content creator, but as a user, the answer is zero.

Zero. But how much do they make off of your data? Billions. When you click I accept when you join their platforms, you're accepting the fact that they're going to take all your metadata. They're going to mine it. They're going to listen to your conversations, which they do, um, you know, for advertising purposes. They're going to track you, and they're going to see who you associate with. Like right now, if you have a Facebook account, I have a Facebook account, the producer has a Facebook account, Meta knows that we're all in the same room. And so when we start seeing friend suggestions, it's going to be based off of your database, my database, her database.

Crazy. And that's how that's how they work. Whereas with Parlor, we don't want you to be the product because with big tech platforms, you're their product because they are selling you to the highest bidder. We are flipping the model saying keep your data. We're not going to spy on you. We don't give a a dang about your your data, your metadata. We want you to be able to express yourself freely without, you know, within reason. No pornography. We we have a zero tolerance on pornography. Um but we want you to share your opinions, share your beliefs, and you're going to earn rewards by doing so. And so we are the first social media platform that has fully integrated blockchain rewards into our platform. Wow. So anybody in the 176 countries that Parlor is currently in can earn daily cryptocurrency rewards.

Our the the the crypto project that we launched was called Opio, which is Latin for choice. Because in order to help people be free, the first thing that they have to have is the freedom of choice. And reality, most people don't have freedom because they're broke. They have no or or impoverished. They have no ability to make money. And it's funny as you look at some of these third world countries. I mean, you've lived in West Africa before and there's parts of South Africa where you're from that are very third world

and yet a lot of people have smartphones. As as impoverished as they are, they still have a smartphone or they have access to the internet and as they go on to Parlor or play TV, they can earn these rewards in a daily basis. So, think about it this way. a single mom. She has two jobs to take to take care of her two kids. And the stress that she has every single day is so heavy. It's unbelievably heavy. But every single night, what is she do doing as she lays into bed? She lays in bed and she starts scrolling on her phone through social media. We call it doom scrolling, right? Well, as she's doom scrolling, just watching content, interacting liking sharing commenting, posting, whatever it is, what if she woke up the next morning and in her wallet, we call it our Kyo wallet, which is our DeFi uh crypto wallet,

she wakes up and there's rewards in there for what she did the night before. And what if we are able to get the value of those rewards to a point where those rewards that she earned the night before can go buy groceries for her.

Interesting. Or if she could go and and help pay her rent, you know. Also, let's let's look at West Africa. You mentioned Ghana before the interview. The average individual in Ghana makes $300 a month. Okay. It's actually a stat that I know. And they $300 a month. What if they made that in a week? What if they made that in three days? What is that going to do to not only that individual but that to that community, to that economy, to that country?

And so what we are trying to do is make the users of something they already do every single day the beneficiaries, not the product.

Interesting. And so when you ask what Parlor's plan is, we are planning on trying to make the world a better place by giving people choice. And the way to do that is to take what they're already doing, behaviors that they already do, and to monetize their behavior for the user, not for us. We will make money no matter what because we have an ad platform, all this stuff. We we have plenty of verticals to to make revenue, but none of them involve the data of that user.

And then but what are the stuff that people are going to be doing? Cuz you say they're going to be gaining rewards. Are there any specific things or multiple stuff people can do to try and gain those rewards?

Sure. Yeah. Interact, engage. So, if you follow you follow your best friend from high school, you're liking their post, you're commenting, making jokes, you're posting, posting videos, posting thoughts, posting articles, um you know, you're joining groups, just using the platform and we have point values attached to every single action within the the the platform. And then at the end of the day,

you're distributed points. And those points then can either be redeemed in our marketplace, which I'll talk about here in a second, or you can take it to an open exchange and convert them into crypto and take it to cash.

And you guys have had a lot of big names end up like using Parlor over time. I think there was a time even the first lady

end up having an account as well. What did they end up like losing um that account when everything was shut down and what's okay? So, so we were able to restore all the accounts. So, if Melania ever wanted to to come back, her account is still there. Her following is still there. The original content is gone because AWS wiped it out.

Okay. So, but you know, we've we've been able to bring back personalities like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Sean Hannity. Um, we have like even more of the fringe like Alex Jones, we have James O'Keeffe, um, Newsmax, Real America's Voice, you know, we have quite a few Laura Loomers back on there. I mean, we've got quite a few that are that are on there. Okay. Um, and then, you know, we even have like celebrities like Kevin Sorbo and, you know, they're just starting to come back on cuz we haven't really done a hardcore um, push yet for uh, marketing cuz we've been building this, we've been building everything in stealth mode for the last 18 months. Um, but now we've, you know, we've got a lot of things cooking where, you know, Parlor's going to be a household name again here very shortly.

I love that so much. And I know you and I spoke yesterday. We were talking about like Play TV. Mhm.

Um, and I know you kind of briefly touched on that. What is Play TV going to do differently to what we currently have right now with YouTube? Apart from the fact that it'll become a bit more independent because of Pulse and like what you guys would know having your own cloud, what is it going to do differently for people to try and like go there and actually get the proper and full benefits and um, enjoyment from it?

Well, just like with Parlor, you earn rewards for using Play TV. But as a content creator, you have a channel on there. How often have you been flagged?

Oh, I I've been right now about three times for my one of my FBI episodes because of the song I end up using over there, copyright, but and then one other guy that um scaled his business in terms of like e-commerce. They're flagged like they're giving misleading information. I'm like no, he gave his thing. So like I've been flagged about three times the like last three weeks or so. So

yeah. And most of the time it doesn't make any sense, you know, because they they change the rules. It's like the the moving the goalposts, you know, when it comes to turn or the um the community guidelines that you see on YouTube, on Tik Tok. I mean, I I've been flagged. I mean, I I used to be an influencer on Facebook back in the day, making really good money, but I would be demonetized every other month, and they would never tell me why. And so, with Play TV, we're not doing any of that. Now, do we have moderation? Of course. You know, we want to make sure there's nothing illegal being posted. Same thing with the copyright issues. You know, that's a that's a real issue. But, um, you know, we don't want any pornography or trafficking type stuff. We don't want any of that stuff on there. We have a zero tolerance for that.

But we've learned over the last 10 years or so the amount of voices that were censored just because of ideologies, you know, ideological differences.

That's not what we do. Tik Tok still does it. And I know Tik Tok has a new buyer lined up right now. We've actually spoken to them. We know who they are.

Do you want to share that? I cannot. I'm curious. Can Can I give your name? Can you tell me yes or no?

Go ahead. Mr. Beast. No. Um but the uh the amount that they're paying is crazy stupid. Yeah. Crazy crazy stupid. But I mean it there's value there. But the problem is is with this new buyer, are they going to continue the suppression suppression of free speech and freedom of expression like they already do right now under bite dance? And so with Play TV, we wanted to give a virtually identical experience that you have on YouTube with long form videos as well as short form reels, we call them bursts to the users, but then monetize the users by allowing them to be rewarded. And then content creators, the you know how we monetize content creators with um a mixture of of fiat or cash and crypto makes it a lot more appealing for them to move their audience over. So or at least you know not they don't need we don't expect them to move their audience over but at least start a channel there and and have it be

another avenue of monetization outside of just YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram and such.

Okay. I'm glad you guys are taking the role. understanding right right now people's um attention span really lies on like video and graphics and stuff like that even though an attention span is known to be like 8 seconds I I've had to like had like my media guy tell me hey let's shorten up the reel let's do all these kind of stuff because when people are scrolling they're trying to get as much satisfaction from like um the content they're getting but also attention span is so little

3 seconds you you got them for 3 seconds if you have a hook on your caption that gets them to stop or you have a a hook line that the first thing you say is like, "Hey, are you interested in a side hustle? Watch this." That's a hook that will get someone to stop for more than 3 seconds before they scroll to the next one. So, it's really that 2 to 3 second window that you have to capture someone's attention. It's one of the reasons why we launched burst because we know people have the attention span of nats. So, no, I love that so much. I want to kind of go back again into the truth social, the creation of it. So, you're invited in Mara, right?

Mhm. And I know there's only so much you can end up like revealing as well and I don't want to respect that, but what role did you play in the creation of Truth Social? So, all we did originally was we we helped them with the initial um wireframing of the app, you know, and the way it works when when you do app design is each little window, each little button, you know, there's there's logic that has to go to it. And so we helped with the initial user interface and user experience wireframing of truth and then we helped them with the cloud infrastructure even though they they ended up not using the cloud infrastructure. They're on AWS right now.

Okay. Um you know but isn't that a conflict of interest or you hadn't acquired um Parlor at that time?

We we didn't have Parlor yet. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. No, that's that's fascinating. Um

yeah, this was in 2021. We acquired Parlor in at the end of 23. Okay. All right. Um, and I do like the fact that you guys end up like saying the new focus of what's going to be happening and currently right now are you in how many countries are you guys? Are you

176? Okay. And obviously the US being the most. What's the second most like higher user base?

Uh, I think it's pretty close between either Saudi Arabia or Brazil. Um, we're starting to pick up quite a bit in the Philippines right now, believe it or not. Yeah.

And then you guys haven't done any marketing or anything obviously, right? Cuz just a little. Yeah, we have uh we've we've I mean we're on Fox quite a bit right now in Newsmax. Um from like a talking head, subject matter expert standpoint, uh one of our uh one of our senior adviserss is Eric Finnman, who is the youngest Bitcoin millionaire. He became a Bitcoin millionaire at the age of 12. He's in his 20s now. But um I mean we just did a a thing that went viral uh last week where they were act the the Iranian rebels that were uh rebelling against the Iranian regime were actually using Parlor to communicate back and forth uh because the Iranian regime couldn't shut down our platform.

And so that was really the first test is they you know uh AWS or uh Facebook, WhatsApp, they all shut down in Iran. But we, you know, through Eric were able to send, you know, they had Starlink connections and then they were able to use Parlor to communicate. And so we actually have pictures of Iranian rebels holding up a piece of paper that says Parlor is giving us a free free speech here in Iran or something like that.

Wow. And so that was on Fox New or Fox Business uh last week or the week before. And yeah,

awesome. No, I'm glad I'm I'm I'm excited to that you actually touched on that as well. And I also think the incorporation of like crypto, I think you guys are just catching ahead of like what the trends are right now, what people are and also with your experience on blockchain, you know, considering that you have um that experience too. Um where do you see par in the next 5 years?

So, well, let's talk about the blockchain and that that leads right into your question. So last year we knew that the one of the biggest pieces that was missing in social media was blockchain technology. Now Facebook or Meta tried launching a a token few years ago that bombed miserably mainly because their token was really to benefit Meta. It wasn't really to benefit the users and it was just basic like a meme tok to token. It had no real utility or value to it. Mhm.

So we launched Opio under the opaces of having it be a true utility token. And if you know anything about blockchain, you have stable coins like USDT. You have altcoins which are like Ethereum and Salana, you know, that are strong coins. You know, anything an altcoin is anything that's not Bitcoin. Um you have assetbacked tokens. And then you have meme tokens like the Trump or Melania token, the fartcoin, Pepecoin, you know, all these. Yeah. Do the Dogecoin or uh Sheba Enu.

There's no real tangible value to the meme tokens because there's nothing backing them. I I call them firework tokens where they they look pretty, they shoot up really high in value, they explode, and then they disappear, then they're done, right?

Rugpool. Rugpool 100%. So, but with utility tokens, there hasn't really been besides Bitcoin a really strong utility token introduced that can be um integrated into multifacets of everyday life. And because we have a very wide ecosystem, we decided to build a layer 1 blockchain, you know, um, uh, Opio, um, with the intent that it can be plugged in to multiple different type of platforms, including like an X or a True Social or whatever, not just be specific to the Pulse products. Um and so what we did with this is we um we built it in a way as a layer one. You can launch meme co to tokens on opio. You can launch uh asset back tokens which we've already done one already um or any other token and you can really start to to make that layer 1 a really good foundational blockchain for a bunch of different projects. But for us we wanted to make sure that that utility was used in the real world. So, we launched a program

called Opio Accepted here, which is similar to what uh American Express and Discover Card did when they first launched where they would go out and build relationships with different retailers and say, "Hey, you know, we want you to accept our credit card." Um, you know, if people will come in and they're going to buy your products, but they're going to be using a Discover card or an MX card.

Same thing goes with Opio. We're working deals with retailers all around the country, starting in the US, where they can accept Opio as a form of payment. Um, and so we have some pretty big deals that we're going to be announcing here very shortly. Very big deals. Um, where that real world utility will be used in grocery stores, department stores that you use every single day.

Interesting. The other thing is is we launched a marketplace called Cartix. C A R T I Cartix. Uh, we partnered with Kevin Harrington, who's one of the original sharks from Shark Tank. And on there we we're currently onboarding over a 100,000 merchants that have Shopify stores, Woo Commerce stores, Wix stores in we have 250 different type of online e-commerce stores that can be tied into Cardics and they can sell their products similar to what you would see on a Tik Tok shop or Amazon or Etsy or Pinterest. um all in one location, but the difference is you can take payments in fiat and opio. So, it's a mixture of the two. So, let's say that you wanted to say, "Okay, yeah, this t-shirt cost 20 bucks, $18 in fiat, $2 in Opio." Now, how does that benefit the vendor? Well, that $2 in Opio could be worth $4 soon, you know, cuz it's on an exchange. So, it has an an a a value that can, you know, usually go up or down, but over

time it's it's going up as we add more utility to it. It's not just a one for $1 anymore. It could be a one for $5 or one for $10 depending on the growth the long-term growth of that token. And so, vendors are really excited about that because typically they offer discounts anyways in order to move product. Well, if we are helping them with advertising through our platforms, they're more entitled or more uh in tune to to list with us or to put their products on Cardics. We help them market on Parlor and PlayTV, our email list and so forth.

Um, and then they take a portion of that in Optio. That creates utility. So, a user earns Opio on Parlor. They go to Cardics and they see a t-shirt that they want or a a candle or a hunting gear, whatever it is, and they pay the fiat amount for it and then they throw Opio from their Kyo wallet into it as well and that increases the utility. The more utility you have with that token, the historically the higher the value.

Wow. So that's crazy. I was just thinking about it the other time uh just obviously with the transformation of of how we we end up like using um money to buy certain stuff. It went from like actual cash to getting a swiping. Now I just use my phone, Apple Pay with everything as well. Do you have any plans to try and um like collaborate with other international like um bigger money transfer systems like a Western Union stuff like the reason I'm asking that for myself with the the content I'm releasing every day cuz we have a project we have project 100k subs right because we're releasing every single day in July and so forth as well. So I my editors in the US are getting a little overwhelmed. I've been outsourcing some in the Philippines and then like I have another one I recently hired like in Pakistan as well but the one in Pakistan does a PayPal the other one does like I can't remember what it

was it was like something with a W I don't even know what it is but my point is is that your plan moving forward to try and make it accessible when people can just send transfers easily.

Correct. Rather than like the whole process that So one of the other apps that we have in the app store is called Kao. Ky Vo.

Yes. Don't ask me what it stands for because I don't know. Uh I didn't come up with the name. Um but uh Kao is a is a DeFi wallet and within the next few weeks it will be a full Venmo competitor with fiat. And so we Kaibbo is basically becoming a bank and so we'll we'll have all the banking features where you can do peer-to-peer transactions. Um you know just like you can with Venmo, PayPal, Cash App. Um, and then also as you use that wallet, um, and the Kyo debit card that we're going to be releasing here shortly, guess what? You earn rewards. Quick question though, I got to intervene. Will it be an international thing? Cuz my hardest thing ever if people can like get a thing where you can do an I know it's harder with like the like the the Swift and the rates like a rant or or like the Looney in Canada, whatever it may be.

Like if it could be like a straight Venmo from like here to South Africa, it's such a like takes such a stress away. You know what I'm saying?

We we got you really. That is interesting. That's always been my dream. I do so much of transactions everywhere, but it's like like Venmo is so accessible, Cash App and all this stuff. It's easy to do like stuff here, but my dream is to do a Venmo internationally. Like I just want to do something so quick.

We got it. Interesting. Yep. I had to just interview. Sorry. You can you can you can continue there.

Just wanted to make your day. No, that's that's good. And how will exchange rates affect that though?

Oh, I I mean, typically what you would do with with any type of currency exchange, you know, depending on what it is. But yeah, I mean, it's all it's all automatically built into the the transfer system. So, when you're wiring, you know, doing a peer-to-peer transaction, let's say you're going from USD to pesos in Mexico or something, it'll do the exchange calculation and all that. and and and also on the the crypto side, we're currently building a DEX right now which will have a swap in it. And so the same thing goes if I want to take Optio and swap it to, you know, BTC or Ethereum or XRP, it'll make the automatic adjustments on on the um currency difference or the exchange difference.

Wow. Wow. And now I know we don't have much time, but I have to kind of go into this entrepreneurial field that you're currently in. I think one of the the best things about um being here is the fact that like the US is the capital of capitalism. Like there's an opportunity for um like just not only like improving lives but also like getting the rewards and benefits of reaching a certain level of income and that's why even the richest man in the world is from my country because he took on the opportunity to be able to come here and and exercise that. My my question with that is what has been probably the most rewarding thing personally for you as an entrepreneur?

Well, being an entrepreneur is one of the hardest things you could do. um the journey that it takes, the stress, the faith, um the trust, um you know, this sounds stupid, but in uh the Last Jedi movie, which is the least popular of all the Star Wars movies, Yoda says to Luke, "Failure is the greatest teacher, and if you haven't failed, you're not an entrepreneur." Mhm.

And the journey that we've been talking about for the last several minutes, all sounds great, but for all the great stuff, there's been a ton of not so great stuff. Not a lot of betrayals, snakes, you know, pe just evil people that we've come in contact with and that where we've been able to overcome that. So, in order to be an entrepreneur, you have to be able, and this is something I'm still learning to this day, to truly discern good from bad. And that comes not only in in opportunities, but also with people, and to learn how to be a politician in a sense, to be in that gray area. Now, my personality, I'm very black and white. You know, it's like I'm a justice type of guy, so something goes wrong, I I demand justice. And I've learned that that doesn't necessarily work in business. Um because it it actually burns more bridges than anything. But I'm not saying that you have to to be gray in order to to be a

snake or anything. It's not that's not what I'm saying is you have to learn how to kind of go with the, you know, es and flows of business. And being an entrepreneur, you have to be able to take risk. And I can tell by meeting somebody whether they have the ability to take a risk or not. And and the same thing goes with like investors. Like if I'm going to raise, you know, do a capital raise or something, I know who I'm going to talk to and who I'm not going to talk to. And if I have someone that's working a 9-to-five job that is so focused on their 401k and their IRA, I know that they are completely adverse to risk. Why? Because they like the security of their job and they like the security of their retirement plan and they don't want to muddy those waters at all. Whereas someone that has started their own business or has had successes or who has had failures, they those are those who are willing to take a risk and to take a

leap of faith to do something crazy. I've done a lot of crazy things in my professional career of 26 years, 27 years. And some of them have been incredible. Some of them have been absolute horrifying nightmares. But would I change it all to go for a 9 to-ive job? Absolutely not. I'd go crazy because my brain is always looking at how do I make things better? How do I scale it? How can I take this problem and solve it? And how do I take everyone that I know with me for the ride so they can benefit with it, too. And I think that's what's really interesting with what we have with Parlor is all my partners, a lot of them have been with me and my other partner uh through this 5-year journey where we have dealt with a lot of these snakes together and we are family. In fact, our text thread is called the family. So like when I get a text from it says, "Oh, I got a text from the family." So, it's our group

thread because everyone in there I consider my brother or sister. And um and you only get to that level in business when you've gone through hell with each other. And um but yeah, I mean an entrepreneur I mean you can go to all the seminars and listen to all the Gary Vee talks and Tony Robbins and all that but at the end of the day if you don't have the drive to take take a take a leap of faith and be willing to deal with the consequences of that leap you can't be an entrepreneur.

That's powerful. Yeah. And I think it it it there's also moments where it's lonely. There's moments that are just dark. There are moments that like you say you experience I haven't been in the snake park where I have experienced that but like I've done I've done almost all the states doing so many different interviews and like sometimes I ask myself like what am I doing this for then I just realize oh my god it's always been my dream to connect with the most high-profile people that I can be able to get content out there that I can reach many people's lives and to see this like the progress happening on a day-to-day basis is an exciting thing Like I feel like it can be done here in the US. You know, there's something that's very unique. And when I first came in 2017, my old mission companion, we lived in Utah and I just came to visit for a month. I called my dad and my state president at the time. I'm

like, I'm going to transfer you. I need to come to school here. Cuz I've never seen people 21 years old going for like 4 months, doing sales, coming back, and then like investing in a home, you know? Like just that opportunity. I'm like the like it's it's that capitalist mindset which I've appreciated most and I feel like sometimes people that are born yet sometimes don't really appreciate the essence of just that

that privilege that you might have you know so and and that's 100% accurate. I mean we're spoiled here um especi you know the entitlement mentality that people have nowadays where they just automatically expect things to be handed to them for free. I mean, you have people coming to this country now having that expectation. You come to the United States and you're going to get everything for free. That doesn't work anymore because number one, we can't afford it as a country. And you as a person can't afford it either because if you have everything handed to you on a silver platter, you're good for nothing because you don't know how to work. It's like the old adage of

when you when you put a lion in the zoo, all of its natural instincts to survive disappear. So if that lion were ever released into the wild, it'd be killed because it doesn't know how to hunt. It doesn't know how to to work for its food. And that's and in reality, that is the problem with communism, with socialism, democratic socialism, whatever you want to take it. It's all legalized uh slavery is what I call it. Because you become not only a slave to the government, but you become enslaved to an ideology that is meant to suppress your natural instinct to be free. And so when our founding fathers when they, you know, battled duked it out, you know, with the Continental Congress coming up with the the Declaration of Independence, they took the the the risk of death by treason to say, "We demand to be free. We don't need you, King George. We don't need your outrageous taxes of 3%." I'd give anything to pay

3% tax. Um, but we don't need that anymore. We demand to be free. And now you see a complete wing of the United States, namely in New York, that is saying, "We demand to be slaves. We want the government to take care of us." And if you've learned anything about the government, they don't know how to do anything efficiently.

Uh, they know how to spend. That's about it. But you know, so for from my standpoint, when you look at as being an entrepreneur, taking a leap of faith, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and number one, you have to trust that person that you see. That's the first step. If you trust the person that you see in the mirror every single day, that means someone else is going to trust that person as well. And if you can grow that circle of trust where you can grow a business out of that trust with integrity and honesty and doing everything that you should be doing the right way, you're going to find success.

It may not be with that particular venture, but if you keep trying and trying and trying, I I look at my grandpa, for instance, who passed away a few years ago. He didn't become successful until his 50s. He was always an entrepreneur and he's one of the, you know, one of the wealthiest guys I knew, but he didn't make it until his 50s, you know, and I mean, he had a candy, he had a candy business of all things. But it wasn't until he he discovered foam insulation and started a foam insulation company here in in the Phoenix area, becoming one of the top foam uh insulation contractors here in the state. And it was all because he saw it.

I can't remember if it was in California or whatever. He saw it being installed. He didn't know what it was. He said, "Hey, maybe we should do that in Arizona because it's so hot here." And he started that business and it it's still alive to this day. My cousins run it now. But it was an opportunity that he saw and a risk that he was willing to take after years of failures, years of being screwed over by partners. He took that risk and it paid off. Powerful. No, I love that so much. Uh John, thank you so much for coming in the studio. I always ask this question to guests just towards the end cuz it's the code to winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. In your personal definition, the last and final question, what does it mean to be winning?

When you can be proud of yourself. When you can look in the mirror and know that your kids are taken care of, your wife is taken care of, and that you know that at the end of the day, you still trust that person that you see, that's winning.

It's powerful. Um, and even if you feel like quitting and you still wake up the next day and you're out there fighting again, that's winning. And winning is always ongoing. There's never a definitive win when it comes to entrepreneur comes to life. It's basically the whole adage of enduring to the end. You know, I I look at it this way. If you ever go to Universal Studios in Hollywood, they have those escalators that go up the side of a mountain. When I was a little kid, my brother and I would race running up the down escalator, you know, so every, you know, the escalator didn't have any people on it. We would try to run up it. You get tired cuz it's going up side of a mountain. So, if you stop, what happens? That down escalator takes you all the way back to where you started. And I think throughout life, we're constantly climbing in a down escalator. And then though our legs may be burning, we may be out of breath, our

lung, you know, we're just we feel like we're going to have a heart attack because the climb is so hard. If we stop our climb, we'll end up right where we started. We have to continue to be climbing. And for me, every step that we take that's upwards in a world that's constantly trying to bring us down is winning. powerful. Thank you so much. Um, we're going to add at the bottom there the Parlor app, every other app and pulse and all that kind of stuff as well in the description section. If you could let our viewers know where they could get a hold of of any of the other projects you guys are working for, your companies and so forth as well, please.

Yeah, just go to bypulse.com bybulse pse.com. You can also check out Parlor at parlor.com, PlayTV at playtv.par.com and everything else. But on bipulse.com you'll see a links to all of our site. Make sure you follow us on our socials um at getp parlorapp on x as well as opio opiochain on x. So

the code to winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. John Willis, great honor, sir. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "PARLER IS BACK: GAME CHANGING APPROACH TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION || JON WILLIS || EPISODE 065"?

John Willis (Guest), Unknown Host (Code To Winning) (Host).

What is "PARLER IS BACK: GAME CHANGING APPROACH TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION || JON WILLIS || EPISODE 065" about?

The discussion centers on the relaunch of the social media platform Parler and its founding principles as a response to perceived censorship on mainstream platforms like Twitter. Guest John Willis, a co-founder of Parler, shares insights about its development, relationships with political figures, and the implications of its approach to user information protection amidst growing concerns over…

What is mentioned in this Code To Winning episode?

180 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Parlor, John Willis, Opio, Blockchain, PlayTV, PlayTV. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "PARLER IS BACK: GAME CHANGING APPROACH TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION || JON WILLIS || EPISODE 065"?

The episode runs 49 min; the transcript is about 9,133 words in 100 timestamped sections.

More from Code To Winning

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 23, 2026.