Asking Millionaire Mansion Owners How They Got RICH

What this episode is about

The content explores how individuals who own luxurious mansions in Beverly Hills achieved their wealth, revealing a variety of backgrounds and unexpected paths to financial success, from plumbing and air conditioning businesses to tech startups during the dot-com boom. Common themes include overcoming adversity, taking risks, and the importance of perseverance in the face of skepticism.

Key takeaways

• In Beverly Hills, even millionaires practice the 'not now' mantra—wealth doesn't come with a free chat invite.
• A plumber turned billionaire? Proof that unconventional paths often lead to outrageous success.
• Being labeled 'crazy' by onlookers can be a vital sign—ambitious dreams often confuse the conventional.
• $400 million in a year from plumbing? The riches in low-profile trades can outshine tech giants.
• Fleeing from hardship is a strong motivator; ambition can thrive far away from comfort zones.

Who speaks in this episode?

• James Dumlan (Host) · 15 min speaking
• Ishmael Valdez (Guest) · 8 min speaking
• Randall Kaplan (Guest) · 8 min speaking
• Unnamed Massage Gun Inventor (Guest) · 3 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Beverly Hills, Ishmael Valdez, TheraGun, dot-com boom
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Ishmael Valdez, Beverly Hills, Artificial Intelligence, NextG Air Conditioning and Plumbing
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Beverly Hills, James Dumlan, Randall Kaplan, Artificial Intelligence
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Randall Kaplan
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Beverly Hills, Randall Kaplan, TheraGun, Super Bowl
6. 25:00 – 25:49: Beverly Hills

Notable quotes from "Asking Millionaire Mansion Owners How They Got RICH"

• That are about to make money. Why are about to make money? Look, right now I'm standing in Beverly Hills, one of the richest zip codes on the planet. And today I am doing…

  about Beverly Hills · at 1:15

• And I went ahead and I got a little bit over 290 billboards all at once. Just put my brand NextG air conditioning and plumbing on it. And from putting up almost 300 billboards…

  about NextG Air Conditioning and Plumbing · at 6:39

• People. They bought all the air conditioning people. They're about to buy all the electricians. AI cannot exist without electricians. They're about to go into a mass hiring…

  about Artificial Intelligence · at 8:25

• Is because they don't set themselves up for success from the beginning. I used to I used a company called Busy to start my business for my LLC and I turned it into a…

  about Busy · at 9:57

• Hi sir, question for you. My name is James Dumlan and I started a social media channel at the University of Texas that I grew to 17 million followers. I go all over the world interviewing.

  about James Dumlan · at 12:15

• It's all AI, period. End of story.

  about Randall Kaplan · at 14:53

• I got my dad like a Thera gun for Christmas one year.

  about TheraGun · at 21:13

• Early days. There's an opportunity that comes, you need to jump on we had an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl or X Games or whatever. We threw the money together and we got…

  about Super Bowl · at 23:58

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• James Dumlan — Person · Host / interviewer · 1 mention · first at 12:18
  He narrates the episode and conducts the Beverly Hills interviews, stating he built a 17M-follower channel and aims to help the younger generation with entrepreneurial advice.
• Randall Kaplan — Person · Interviewee (featured tech founder) · 4 mentions · first at 14:53
  He describes founding a web-traffic technology company, emphasizes tenacity and extreme preparation, and frames AI as the near-term future of tech.
• Ishmael Valdez — Person · Interviewee (featured entrepreneur) · 3 mentions · first at 0:39
  He is interviewed as a trades entrepreneur who scaled a plumbing/AC/electrical business to nine-figure earnings and promotes electricians as a major upcoming opportunity tied to AI infrastructure.
  2022. I made a little bit over 100 million.

Companies & orgs

• NextG Air Conditioning and Plumbing — Company · Referenced company (interviewee business) · 1 mention · first at 6:43
  Ishmael Valdez cites NextG as the brand he scaled using heavy billboard marketing, illustrating growth tactics in the trades.

Products & tech

• TheraGun — Product · Referenced product (success case) · 2 mentions · first at 0:11
  The product anchors the interview with the massage-gun inventor, illustrating invention-from-necessity, IP protection, and scaling via PR and events.

Concepts & topics

• Artificial Intelligence — Concept · Core topic (technology trend) · 2 mentions · first at 8:27
  AI is presented as the dominant near-term tech trend and as a driver of demand for electricians and business efficiency via tools like ChatGPT.

Places & events

• Beverly Hills — Place · Primary setting · 13 mentions · first at 0:16
  The host conducts street/doorstep interviews in Beverly Hills to learn how wealthy residents built their fortunes.
• dot-com boom — Event · Referenced historical business period · 2 mentions · first at 0:33
  Randall Kaplan references the dot-com boom to contextualize his company's peak valuation and the era's tech-market dynamics.
  Our company during the docom boom was worth $35 billion.
• Super Bowl — Event · Referenced marketing/event channel · 1 mention · first at 24:00
  Mentioned as a high-visibility event where the massage-gun company could invest quickly to gain exposure.
• X Games — Event · Referenced marketing/event channel · 1 mention · first at 24:00
  The massage-gun founder cites X Games as an example of fast-moving event opportunities used to accelerate awareness and growth.
  Early days. There's an opportunity that comes, you need to jump on we had an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl or X Games or whatever. We threw the money together and we got…

Sponsors

• Busy — Company · Sponsor / recommended service · 1 mention · first at 10:00
  The host recommends Busy as a tool to form an LLC/S-corp quickly and cheaply, framing entity structure as foundational for scalable businesses.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Excuse me, sir. Sir, I got a question for you. How did you get rich? Exactly. How did you get rich?

0:05 I don't think you believe me. What did you do? What do you mean? I invented the

0:08 Are you serious? Yeah. I got my dad like a for Christmas one year. Yeah, that's my company.

0:12 Sir, question real quick. Wait, is is this your Rolls-Royce? What are you doing?

0:16 I'm going all over Beverly Hills the richest people. Is this your Rolls-Royce? Do you want to get ran over here?

0:21 Is this your Rolls? Is this your Rolls-Royce? Yeah, this is one of them. How did you get a Rolls-Royce?

0:24 A plumber, baby. You're not a plumber. Hell yeah. You think a plumber got you a Rolls-Royce?

0:28 Plumbing and air conditioning. So, what was the most amount of money you made in a single year?

0:31 Well, 4 billion are the revenues today. Our company during the docom boom was worth $35 billion.

0:36 Our company did 400 million one year. $400 billion. Million. 2022. I made a little bit over 100 million.

0:41 $100 million as a plumbing air conditioning and uh electric. Did you come from a rich family? Did you come from a lot of money?

0:46 No. No. We actually me and my brother got smuggled into the United States when we were 5 years old. I was five. He was He was turning 7 years old. We were smuggled through um San Diego.

0:54 Did you have people that thought that you were crazy when you came? Oh, yes, I did. Yeah. I also think that's one of the ingredients that's kind of means you're on the right track.

1:01 People said I was absolutely nuts. Why would I leave this amazing job making lots of money, $3 million of stock option on the table to go start an unfunded, unproven company with unproven technology 3,000 mi away? People said I was absolutely nuts.

1:13 What would you get into if you were starting over in today's world? That are about to make money. Why are about to make money? Look,

1:21 right now I'm standing in Beverly Hills, one of the richest zip codes on the planet. And today I am doing something insane. I'm going to be going door todo in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the world to ask millionaire and billionaire homeowners how they got rich. This city is home to more billionaires than almost anywhere else on earth. I mean, look at the bushes at these houses, you guys. You do not see this anywhere else. We're going to be walking up to $10 million homes, $100 million homes to figure out how the richest people in Beverly Hills made their money. So, this video is about to be insane from start to finish, you guys. So, stay tuned until the end. With that being said, let's get this video on the way.

2:08 All right, gates open. How you doing, sir? Hi. Got a question for you. Why are you filming?

2:14 So, I grew channel to 17 million followers. I go all over the world interviewing the most successful people to help the younger generation.

2:19 I think I know who you are. Yeah. Yeah. But you can't door knock in Beverly Hills. We're in inspections right now.

2:25 You're in inspections? Yeah. And you can't door knock in Beverly Hills. I go all over.

2:29 There's no solicitation in Beverly Hills. It's not soliciting, man. It's It's just to help the younger generation.

2:33 I hear you. Be careful. They call the cops in the flats. Okay, I got you, brother. Thank you. All right. Our next house, you guys. Come on.

2:43 Hi, ma'am. Quick question for you. I grew a channel to uh 17 million followers. I've interviewed 30 billionaires in the last four years. I'm going all over Beverly Hills asking successful homeowners how they made it for the younger generation. I wanted to know if I could interview you for 1 minute for the younger gen. No worries. Have a nice day.

3:00 Hello. Hi, sir. Quick question for you. I grew a social media channel to 17 million followers. I go all over asking people for advice for the younger generation. I've interviewed 30 billionaires in the last four years. I'm going door to door asking beautiful homeowners how they built their wealth and became successful. Could I interview you for one minute?

3:16 No, not right now. Sorry. I just don't have the time. I'm not dressed. I'm not nothing. I'm on multiple phone calls, but I watch you all the time. I love what you do. Keep on pushing, brother.

3:26 Is it possible from the front door that I could just ask you one question? It would mean the world to me. I've

3:31 honestly I can't. I'm sorry. All right, my man. Have a good one. Good luck. All right, you guys. Look, as you can see, man, this video was like impossible to make. I've been out here since like early this morning going door to door, door to door, and I can't get anybody to stop and talk to us, man, let alone do the interview. But I didn't come out here for no reason. You guys, look, I flew all the way out here to come find and interview the richest people to get their advice for you guys. So, you better stay tuned because I'm telling you, I'm not going to stop until I interview some of the craziest and richest people out here in Beverly Hills for you all. So, let's go see who we can find. All right, you guys. Look, I'm in Beverly Hills right now, right? But look, here's the thing I want you to understand. So, it's tough to get volume out here. But, we were just talking, my videographer and I, that when you stop

4:04 at these lights, there's like Cullinins, the Rolls-Royces, the Lamborghinis. They're out. And just in the distance, there's several Rolls-Royces right here. So, we're going to wait for them to come by and try and stop them and get an interview for you guys. So, let's see who we can find out here. You guys, come on. Hey, you guys can see right out in the distance out there. Look, I I'm I'm going to go up to this guy. I really don't care. So, we're going to try and get this guy up here in the ghost. In the ghost right here, though.

4:26 Yeah, right here. Hey, sir. Sir, how did you get rich? How did you get rich? Ah, my man. Hey, he's lost, man. He's lost. He doesn't know the size of the channel, so we can't blame him. But look, they got the Rolls-Royce right up there next right there. So, we're going to try and stop this guy somehow, you guys. Come on. Yo, sir, question real quick. Is is is this your Rolls-Royce?

4:44 What are you doing? I'm going all over Beverly Hills interviewing the richest people. Is this your Rolls-Royce?

4:47 Do you want to get ran over here, bro? Is this your Rolls? Is this your Rolls-Royce?

4:51 Yeah, this is one of them. How did you get a Rolls-Royce? A plumber, baby. You're not a plumber.

4:54 Hell yeah. You're a good plumber. Got you a Rolls-Royce. Plumbing and air conditioning.

4:57 How long have you been a business owner? The last company I flipped. I was owner for about 7 years.

5:01 So, what was the most amount of money you made in a single year? 2022. I made a little bit over 100 million.

5:06 As a plumber? Plumbing, air conditioning, and uh electrical. Hey, can we pull off to the side for one minute? I'm going

5:10 No. Hey, you need to get for one minute. Just off the sign to help the younger generation out. I'm interviewing the richest people in Beverly Hills. Can we get one?

5:15 You want to get a ticket? I'm paying for this ticket. Can we get off the sign? I'm telling you right now, you're paying for this ticket.

5:20 Hey. Hey, bro. Hey. He's pulled up, man. He's pulled up, man. Come on. Hey, only at the school of Hardox, bro. You get people to stop in the Rolls-Royce, man. Come on. A lot of people think they got to go invent a new tech company. You became a 9 figureure entrepreneur. Plumbing, fixing toilets, man. Talk to me about that,

5:34 man. It's probably one of the dopest journey, man. You know what the dopest thing is? That not a lot of people know about this, man. And I think it's like our duty as as entrepreneurs, you know, to talk to these generation about what's possible in air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical.

5:46 Why do you like that industry as opposed to say tech or real estate? Why do you like the trades?

5:49 Dude, we've been through uh recessions. We've been through the pandemic. You know, in the pandemic, I went from $30 million in revenue to over $und00 million in just a 2-year span.

5:57 What did you do to scale? How'd you grow 3x that quickly? Bro, we hired honestly the last company that I exited. We had the best of the best plumbers in California. We had the best of the best people in that industry. It took me about 2 to 3 years to learn that once you learn how to pay people and treat them properly, you could build any business. I don't care if it's a plumbing, air conditioning, a tech company, or whatever it is, as long as you're taking care of your people, that's where the biggest opportunities are.

6:19 So, people's everything in business. All day, baby. All day. I would have only been able to fix two to three toilets a day. I had a little bit over 200 plumbers working for me when we were at our peak. So,

6:28 how did that marketing spread? What did you do to like grow the Was it word of mouth? Was ads?

6:32 I think I took one of the biggest risk in 2022. 2021, we were already doing a little bit over $60 million in revenue. And I went ahead and I got a little bit over 290 billboards all at once. Just put my my brand NextG air conditioning and plumbing on it. And uh from putting up almost 300 billboards to, you know, doing having the right marketing mix is what got us to keep those uh phones uh ringing all here.

6:53 Were those billboards expensive? Yeah, they were. They were. But what was more expensive is not making the money.

6:58 Scare money don't make money. Scare money don't make money, man. Did you come from a rich family? Did you come from a lot of money?

7:02 No. No. No. Actually, me and my brother got smuggled into the United States when we were 5 years old. I was five. He was He was turning 7 years old. We were smuggled through um San Diego.

7:09 But you didn't let that define you. Hell no. Why not? What do you mean? Hell no.

7:13 What was your turning point, man? What did you see that made you want to go out there and build an absolute empire, $100 million company?

7:18 I saw other people doing it and I'm like, they're not they're not smarter than me. They don't work harder than me. They don't have nothing special. We're all human and if I could do it, you know, 5 years old, I didn't even know how to speak speak English. So, if I could do it, the opportunities are endless man.

7:30 All right. So, did you have people that doubted you in business? All day, man. all day. Some of those people were family members. Some of those people were close cousins and friends that I had for years and they doubted me. But guess what? We just did what we had to do.

7:40 At any point in time, did you almost go broke? Did you almost fail? Hell yeah. We were in debt $8.2 million in 2020 right before COVID hit. We were in the the the company was in debt $8.2 million, but I knew that we were growing at such a high high pace that the company was always going to be worth more than the debt.

7:55 So, you weren't afraid to go take on debt. You took on debt. Hell no. Hell no. There's only two ways to make to grow a business, and that's capital or debt. You choose which one you want to do. Some people if you have a million dollars, of course it's going to be easy to grow any type of business or you could get grab a million dollars in debt and it's the same thing.

8:09 What part of trades right now would you get into if you were starting over in today's world?

8:12 The biggest opportunity right now is the electricians. They're about to make bang. They're about to make the most money. The next hund00 million company is coming in the next year in the electrical business. I promise you. Look, private equity already came into our business. They bought all the solar people. They bought all the air conditioning people. They're about to buy all the electricians. AI cannot exist without electricians. They're about to go into a mass hiring spree of electricians. If you have a pulse and you have a brain, you could make two, three, four $100,000 your first year of being an employee.

8:39 That's game right there. Yes. Hell yeah. Imagine being 19 years old and somebody telling you, "Hey, I don't know what to do with my life. Hey, go join the electricians or go into trade school. Your first year, you're going to make 100, 200, 300,000." Imagine if they would have told us that 20 years ago or 15 years ago or 10 years ago. They keep wanting to put us in college and put us in debt. They

8:57 They don't teach us in school. They don't teach us. What's your name? My name's Ishmael Valdez.

9:01 Wait, why don't they teach us this at school? No, they don't want to teach us in school, man, because they're they're programming a bunch of employees, man. You got to you got to get out there.

9:08 I'm going to challenge you right now. Take me back to the most life-changing conversation that you ever had. What is the greatest piece of advice you ever received throughout your career? Give me the best advice you ever got from a mentor.

9:17 In order for everybody to eat, somebody's got to sell. Listen to what I said. In order for everybody to eat, somebody's got to sell. Sales is the most pivotal part of the business. You got to learn and master sales. Once you learn and master sales, everything else could be taught and learned. But if you can't learn step number one in the process is sell, sell, sell. If you can't learn that, don't wor don't worry about step number two or step number three.

9:36 And did you use an LLC when you started your business? Hell yeah, we went No, we we used the corporation right when we started our first business.

9:42 How important was it? The entity structure building, man. If you don't know how to structure the company properly, how do you expect to scale it?

9:47 So, the foundation has to be there. The foundation has to be there in the business in order for it to scale. The scale will never happen in the business if the foundation's never there.

9:54 Let me tell you this right now. I talk to a lot of billionaires and they always say that the reason why companies fail is because they don't set themselves up for success from the beginning. I used to I used a company called Busy to start my business for my LLC and I turned it into a multi-million dollar business and it protects you

10:05 making sure that you're shielded properly as a person, right? You want to protect yourself as you keep growing your wealth. That's one of the most pivotal parts.

10:11 Also, with any destruction, you save so much money as well. Amen. How old are you now?

10:14 I'm 38. If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be?

10:19 Look, the best thing that you could do is when you're betting, bet it all in. You never want to be in the middle. I'm going to write a book later on when I retire, maybe in a couple years from now. It's going to be called Never in the Middle because you never want to play the middle. Either you're 100% in or 100% out. If you're not 100% into whatever you're going to do, guess what? You're going to fail no matter what. Because there was a million times that I wanted to quit and say, "Hey, you know what? This is too many employees. We had thousands of employees already." You know what I'm saying? And and and and there's days that you want to give up.

10:42 And if you're not 100 million% committed to the goal or you don't have the vision or you don't see it, you're going to fail.

10:48 You got amazing advice, sir. Thank you so much for your time. I got to ask you.

10:51 You guys are killing it. Hey, I I got I got to ask you. I connect with all the millionaires and billions I interview. Can I get your contact?

10:56 Of course. Yeah. Hell yeah, guys. We finally got one. A plumber that sold his company for $100 million. I mean, that's insane. But did you hear what he said? He said, "The scale will never happen in the business if the foundation is never there." And he's right. Look, most people will try to grow their business without ever setting it up correctly in the first place. But understand this, your foundation isn't your logo. It isn't your website. It's your entity structure, your LLC, your escort, your legal protection. And that's what separates a hustle from a real business that's able to sell for $100 million. And the crazy thing, you don't need a lawyer like everybody thinks. And you don't need to spend thousands. That's exactly why I tell all entrepreneurs to use Bizzy. Bizzy is the simplest and most affordable but effective way to form your LLC or escort in under 10 minutes. Look guy, the

11:41 plumber that I just interviewed, he had a foundation. Every billionaire that I've interviewed, they had a foundation. So, if you're trying to build something big, you got to start the same way. So, to get started and start your business using Busy Today, all you have to do is go down, click the link in the description of this video. With that being said, let's get back to the video. Right behind me right here is the most expensive house that's been listed in Beverly Hills in Bair, California. This thing was listed for $178 million, you guys. So, it's worth a shot, man. We at least got to try it out here, you guys.

12:10 Come on. It looks like a a damn jungle, man. It looks like a jungle we're walking up on. Hi sir, question for you. My name is James Dumlan and I started a social media channel at the University of Texas that I grew to 17 million followers. I go all over the world interviewing successful entrepreneurs and people to give their advice to the younger generation. Would love to ask you a question or two. Is that possible? Sir,

12:35 he's coming down. Hello. How you doing, man? Question for you. Was that you I was talking?

12:40 I know who you are. You do? I've seen you on YouTube. Yeah. How you doing, man? So, I got bad news. The owner doesn't live here.

12:45 He doesn't? Yeah. The house is on the market. So, it's on the It's like the most expensive house in LA, right?

12:50 Well, one of them. Yeah. Okay. Nice, man. Is there a lot of money out here? Yeah, there is.

12:53 There is. Who lives here? I can't say it. You can't say it. It's cool. Was it like a famous person or

12:57 uh just a billionaire? Billionaire. Yeah. Architect. Yeah. All right, you guys. So, at least we can get the security to talk to you, man. Like I said, guys, that's the most expensive house that is out here in Beverly Hills. 178 million. And like you said, man, there's so much money out there. Look, a billionaire lived there. So, we know that we're in the right place. We just got to keep moving to go find this next pocket out here to go find where the billionaires are at. You guys, come on. March you guys. So, as you can see, look, we're up in the hidden hills right now. And these are two gated houses. We saw movement up at the top of the driveway from a car that was headed down. I think it was like a Tesla or something like that. But anyways, it's like a 200t driveway.

13:28 They've got like 50ft bushes out front. So, we're going to wait, see if we can get the car as it's coming out and go see if we can talk to this mogul out here in Beverly Hills. You guys, come on. Awesome, man.

13:39 Question for you, sir. Do you live here? I do. And how did you get rich? First of all, how did you find my house?

13:44 I'm going all over Beverly Hills asking beautiful homeowners how they got rich for the younger generation. I wanted to know what you did to be able to afford this place.

13:49 I started a technology company 25 years ago and we invented a new way to serve web traffic. And today the company serves around 30% of the web traffic, has $4 billion in annual revenue and has 10,000 employees around the world.

13:59 And I go all over the world interviewing billionaires and the most successful people to help the younger generation. Can I get a minute with you for the channel real quick?

14:05 Sure. At your business, what was the most amount of money that you made in a single year? Well, four billion are the revenues today. Our company during the docom boom was worth $ 35 billion.

14:14 What was your turning point getting into the tech industry? I'd always wanted to be a founder of a company. I looked at the tech industry in 1996. I saw all these people start tech companies on the cover of Business Week and I thought, you know what, I want to do that instead of going back to business. I said, I'm just going to start a company. I left an amazing job working for 4400 guy. Left $3 million of stock options on the table to take a risk, bet on myself. Start a company in Boston. No funding, no CEO, and commuting 3,000 mi to work every Do you think everybody's built for entrepreneurship?

14:39 I do not. I think that it really takes a lot and people think it's very, very sexy, but it really takes long hours, 100 hours a week if you're going to do it right. And a lot of people just don't want to make the sacrifice. You can learn to be an entrepreneur, but not everyone has what it takes.

14:51 What does the future of tech look like over the next 1 to two years? It's all AI, period. End of story.

14:55 Why? It helps make our life more efficient, easier. I stopped going to Google now. I use chat GBT all day long. Probably do a 100 searches. It's increased my efficiency probably three or four hours a day. Do you think if business owners aren't leveraging AI, they're going to get left behind?

15:07 I do. The key to AI is knowing how to use it. You can go all day long. You can do simple searches, but you really have to educate yourself on the searches, what you're looking for, and just keep drilling down for what you're looking for. It's an amazing tool, but people should educate themselves, even take classes today on how to most effectively use it to improve their businesses.

15:23 Now, talk to me about going from being an employee at a Fortune 500 company to building that business. What was that first kind of actionable step that you took to kind of, you know, put that business together?

15:31 At the end of the day, some people have golden handcuffs. They have an amazing job and there's no better person in the world to bet on than you.

15:37 Did you have people that doubted you? Yeah, people said I was absolutely nuts. Why would I leave this amazing job making lots of money, $3 million of stock option on the table to go start an unfunded, unproven company with unproven technology 3,000 mi away? People said I was absolutely nuts.

15:50 When did you start your first business? In college, I sold t-shirts door to door at University of Michigan. I went to every single room. Got kicked out of every single dorm, every single hall. Cold calling is one of the best skills, most useful skills anyone can ever have.

16:02 How do you know? I'm 57. But you learned how to sell when you were in college. I did learn how to sell when I was in college. There's nothing better at the end of the day than getting rejected to your face over and over and over again cuz the first 100 tries you get a no. On the hundreds yes, you say, "Okay, I forgot about first 99 no."

16:16 In the tech industry, it's competitive. Like, have you ever had a big competition?

16:19 Sure. When you start a company, you look around and say, "Okay, are these companies going to copy you and they have all the resources in the world?" I mean, Microsoft was a $50 billion company at the time, and we had just raised $12 million right out the gate. You know, you look at the odds and say, "Okay, well, screw the odds. We're going to go get it.

16:32 Can you tell me a crazy business story? I came out to LA at $3,000 in the bank, lost my job after 5 and a half weeks here and just said, "Gosh, this is terrible." So, I wrote letters to a whole bunch of people. I researched the top CEOs in Los Angeles. I wrote 300 letters. Each one took 5 hours to write. And everyone said, "These people are never going to meet with you. Your idea is stupid. Total waste of time." And you know what? You got to trust your gut. At the end of the day, these letters made a huge difference. I got 80 meetings out of 300. And one of them landed my dream job, working for one of the most successful business people on the planet. I want to recall though one of those conversations that you had from taking a lot of those super successful people out to lunch having those meetings. Was there a nugget or a wisdom a piece of business advice that you received that kind of always stuck with

17:09 you to this day? A million%. I'd gone through I had written all these letters. I got all these meetings CEO of Disney VCOM CEOs of public companies. Then I go to Detroit and I meet this guy and he said to me, "What's happening in these meetings?" And he said, "Well, what do you mean?" He said, "Do you ask for a job?" And I said, "No." And he he asked me why not. I said, "I don't know. They're they're meeting me and I feel bad they're taking their time." And he said, "Randy, let me tell you something. I sold life insurance for a living."

17:31 People don't wake up and say, "I need life insurance today." Said, "You got to ask for the order and it just went. The bell went off in my head and I asked for the order and I got a few orders. I took the best job."

17:39 Closed mouth does not get fed. Closed mouth does not get fed. You got to go get it.

17:42 How important have relationships been to you throughout your career? Relationships are critical. You have to build relationships long term. You got to start very young and you got to stay in contact with people every 6 months or so. Send them a letter. Send them a note. Hey, how are you? Just thinking about you. And some of the most successful businessmen I know, they'll take an hour a week and do nothing but just pick up the phone, send notes, and say, "Hey, how you doing? Just want to see what's going on." One of the other critical things that I think a lot of people miss, they're on these phone calls, emails, and something that nobody does at the end of it, even if you want something from them, you should always end a meeting saying, "What are you doing that I can help you with?" Nearly nobody does that. And when I ask that question, everyone says, "Gosh, you know, no one's ever asked that before."

18:15 So, in other words, you got to look to add value to them. You always should look to add value to somebody. If you want to build a relationship, it's not a one-way street. So even if you're asking somebody for something, you should ask them how you can help them in return. That's how a lot of relationships are built. It's been critical of my career.

18:27 That's game right there. It's game changing. Who's the richest person you've ever met?

18:31 Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs. What did Steve Jobs teach you? Nothing. Apple was one of our first customers and was our biggest customer and he was at a table at a hotel that I was staying at far away with his family. And my wife said, "Steve Jobs over there. You going to go talk to him?" I said, "No, why not? He's with his family." And she said, "The old Randy would have." So I was up out of my chair. I walked over there. The family sitting there. No one looked up at me and I said, "Excuse me, Mr. Job." They looked up like this and I introduced myself and I told them the company that I founded. They were our biggest customer. And he looked at me and he said, "You must have made a lot of money." It was one of the most awkward things in the world. And I said, "Yes, I did." Okay. Then I said, "I loved your graduation speech at Stamford." Very motivating. He nodded. Thank you. He looked away and I was done. I turned

19:11 around and walked back to my table. What was your superpower in business? My superpower in business is tenacity.

19:17 They don't teach that though. They don't teach that in school. No. So you were born with that though?

19:20 I was born with I stuttered. I was bullied as a kid and I had to learn a new way to speak and every day practice my speech for 2 hours a night and at the end of the day I saw the results.

19:29 And so you had people that doubted you because of that because of your speaking ability.

19:32 Oh, they doubted me. They made fun of me. They called me. At the end of the day, I said, "All right, well, I'm none of those things, but one day we'll see."

19:38 At the end of the day, you co-founded a billion dollar company. $12 billion company.

19:42 Wow. How old are you now? 57. What's your name? Randall Kaplan. Randall, if me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to leave with the younger generation, what would that be?

19:50 Never give up. Bet on yourself. Persistence rules a day. Prepare more than anybody else. I call it extreme preparation. You spend 25,000 hours from kindergarten through college. And yet, most people spend only 15 to 30 minutes preparing for a job interview that will largely determine how they live.

20:04 You got amazing advice, sir. Appreciate you. Thank you so much for your time. And I really appreciate that.

20:07 All right, you guys. So, we got him. We get him to stop and get out of the car right outside of his compound. And this man built a company that is now valued at $12 billion. I think he said his name was like Randall Kaplan or something like that. And he just gave us a beautiful interview. Man, my biggest takeaway though is he brings up the tenacity you have to have. Or how about the advice that he received from that billionaire. He said he never doubted it for a second. Look, you cannot doubt yourself. You have to have more belief than anybody else because the man who believes he can is right and the man who believes he can't is right. That's everything. Great interview out here, man. But we got to go find our next homeowner to go figure out how they got rich. Come on. All right, you guys. So, what I'm learning about filming this video is it's way easier to get these people leaving their houses in the car,

20:44 going to and from places, getting them on the go. Cuz at home, man, they don't want to talk and maybe they're not even there. So, we got to go to those places where there's high concentrations, people going to and from out here in Beverly Hills, you guys. Come on. Excuse me, sir. Sir, I got a question for you. How did you get rich? What's that?

20:58 How did you get rich? What's this for? I'm going all over Beverly Hills interviewing the richest people to help the younger generation. I want to know, how did you become wealthy?

21:04 I don't think you believe me. What did you do? What do you mean? I invented the massage gun. Like,

21:08 the massage gun? Yeah. Are you serious? Yeah. In what year? 2008. 2008. Yeah. I got my dad like a Thera gun for Christmas one year.

21:15 Yeah. That's my company. That's your company? The gun. It's the body now. But yeah, that's my company. I'm the founder.

21:20 How much money did you make selling massage guns? Uh, our company did 400 million one year.

21:24 $400 million. $400 million. Could I interview you for one minute real quick? I grew channel to 17 million followers interviewing the biggest business owners in the world.

21:29 Sure. How the hell did you even invent a massage gun, man? Like like this is such a niche business idea that you came up with. How did you invent this thing?

21:36 I was in a motorcycle accident. I'm a chiropractor and I was in a motorcycle accident in 2007 and I just was trying to find something to help myself. A lot of people don't know this, but it was made from fixing pain. Necessity is the mother of invention. I needed something and I made something and I never thought in a million years that it would do what it's doing. But helping people was the key thing. Anyone that has a the gun, anyone will come up to me and be like, "Oh my god, thank you so much." Because what it does is how it makes them feel and they want to share it with people.

22:00 Like you got something for your dad. Like I love that. It's a great story. So you turned your pain into a multiund million dollar business.

22:05 Yes. Did you have people that thought that you were crazy when you came over? Yes, I did. Yeah. I also think that's one of the ingredients. If you're doing something, if people watching this are doing something and you have your friends and family challenging you like, "What are you doing?" That's kind of means you're on the right track.

22:19 Now, you invented the massage gun, but I'm sure you've probably had a lot of people try and copy you.

22:23 A ton. A ton. Yes. And how do you deal with the world? How do you deal with that, man? Cuz I hate copycats more than anything else. How do you feel about that?

22:30 You know, honestly, I've I've taken the stance. I've had to be noble. You have to be noble. If you take it personal and you get upset, I mean, you look up piece like, you know, I could name a bunch of different people that have had this happen to them. You have to take it knowably. People will say it's a compliment. It's really not, but it kind of is. I just got back from Europe and I see it all over the world. It's crazy.

22:46 Now, do you own the patent on the massage gun? Yes, you do. Yes. So, there's some money to be made there as well.

22:50 Oh, yeah. How does that work? So, so, so this is a secret right here cuz nobody talks about this, but owning the patent, you can make a lot of money off of it, right?

22:56 You have to own the IP. Your intellectual property is so important. And this is in any business.

23:00 This is in any business. You have to protect that property, but you also have to understand it's an investment to protect that property. We have in-house attorneys that take care of that stuff and they're managing that all day long. I mean, we have hundreds of copycats on different online sources and things. So, literally the triangle that we have of our the gun is what's patented. So, anyone that has a triangle, we can shut them down. As you were, you know, kind of building this company, who was the most important person that you hired?

23:23 My wife. Your wife. Yeah. So, she works with you in the company. She did. Yeah. It takes three things. It's kind of this pillar of things. We had to have influencers or athletes. This was kind of the ingredient that I had. Then we had to have a a professional like a massage therapist, a physical therapist, an athletic trainer, someone like that. And then the third thing which is most important is if you don't have this, you won't grow press PR. You need people talking about it. You need magazines, articles, Instagram, whatever you can get talking about it.

23:47 Otherwise, people don't know about it. And that's the piece she filled in. Bill Gates said that if he was down to his last dollar, he'd spend it on PR.

23:53 Amen. And how important was it to learn how to pivot quick? Oh, it's key. It's key. You've got to be able to move fast, especially in the early days. There's an opportunity that comes, you need to jump on I mean, we had an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl or X Games or whatever. We threw the money together and we got there as quick as we could because we knew that that was one of our pillars of of our growth.

24:08 Product is everything. Product's the endgame in business. If you don't have a great product, people aren't going to invest in it. People aren't going to buy from you. What's the secret to finding a winning product to generate hundreds of millions of dollars?

24:16 Have you ever heard of eeky guy? It's a Japanese term that talks about how you find what's right for you. Anyone's listening, look it up, eeky guy. And it takes what makes money, what you're good at, what helps the world. And there's another one I don't remember off the top of my head right now, but when you put those things together, that ultimately is success. If you're trying to create a product, and there's a lot of people that have done this, just to make money, you're just going to move on to the next thing. I think what's different about what we were doing is I'm truly committed to this. I'm trying to change people's lives.

24:41 Do you believe in God? Yeah. Has faith helped you out? 100%. And I've seen it. I'll tell you this, we could talk for half an hour. I've seen in my life where clearly the things that happened to me were out of my control. They were in God's hands. There were things we called them the angels in the early days. And if we had these people that showed up at the right time and they did the right thing and they provided the right service, all of a sudden it grew. So yeah, there's 100% there's a higher power. You got amazing advice, my friend.

25:03 Thank you. Thank you so much for meeting, man. Guys, Beverly Hills was absolutely insane. This every single interview that was in this thing just went crazy. I need you guys to stop right now and do three things. First, like and subscribe for amazing content every week cuz nobody's creating content like this, guys. and going to the richest cities in the world to find the craziest business owners to give you the best advice possible and stop what you're doing right now. Go down to the link in the description of this video to join the number one most powerful community for entrepreneurs in the entire world.

25:29 Inside of this community, once you join, you get direct access to my network. Every week inside, I host live calls with the 8 figure, 9 figure, and billionaire entrepreneurs I interview. You ask your questions directly to them live on calls and they give you the blueprint on how to build million and billion dollar businesses. So, I can't wait to see you on the inside. That being said, I'll see you in the next

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Asking Millionaire Mansion Owners How They Got RICH"?

James Dumlan (Host), Ishmael Valdez (Guest), Randall Kaplan (Guest), Unnamed Massage Gun Inventor (Guest).

What is "Asking Millionaire Mansion Owners How They Got RICH" about?

The content explores how individuals who own luxurious mansions in Beverly Hills achieved their wealth, revealing a variety of backgrounds and unexpected paths to financial success, from plumbing and air conditioning businesses to tech startups during the dot-com boom. Common themes include overcoming adversity, taking risks, and the importance of perseverance in the face of skepticism.

What is mentioned in this School of Hard Knocks episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Beverly Hills, James Dumlan, Randall Kaplan, Ishmael Valdez, Artificial Intelligence, TheraGun. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Asking Millionaire Mansion Owners How They Got RICH"?

The episode runs 26 min; the transcript is about 7,362 words in 144 timestamped sections.

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