The Entrepreneur’s Playbook: From Living Room Startups to Billion-Dollar Brands 🏢 EP139

What this episode is about

The main topic discusses the journey of serial entrepreneur Cameron Forny, who transitioned from a living room startup to successfully building multi-million and billion-dollar brands. Key points include insights on money-making strategies, investment approaches, and the importance of brand building, as well as Forny's motivations behind his latest venture.

Key takeaways

• Cameron Forny sold Select to Curaleaf for $980M; that's more equity than a Monopoly board!
• Adaphoria set to quench thirst and anxiety; cheers to a beverage revolution, minus the hangover!
• Gen Z trades tequila shots for hemp seltzers; a $30B shift signaling sugar's not-so-sweet end.
• Alcohol faces the Gen Z axe; younger generations sip serenity over spirits, redefining the nightlife.
• 20% of college kids on antidepressants; Adaphoria aims for smiles sans pharmaceuticals—no prescription needed.

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Select, Sugar Brain, time to adapt, Time to Adapt
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Birdman, Budweiser, Jake Alop, Marley Naturals
3. 20:00 – 30:00: time to adapt, Time to Adapt, Goldflower, Marley Naturals
4. 30:00 – 40:00: University of Oregon, 40 Under 40 advisory, Adaptoria, Cameron Forny
5. 40:00 – 50:00: Lamborghini, Peter Kell, Rice Lake, Sunlight
6. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Tarzan, Allison Becker, Operation Black Site

Notable quotes from "The Entrepreneur’s Playbook: From Living Room Startups to Billion-Dollar Brands 🏢 EP139"

• Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a very special edition of the Money Mondays podcast where we cover three core topics. How to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity.

  about Money Mondays · at 0:00

• Forny. my last company that I built, I'm a serial entrepreneur. My last company was Select Oil, Select Cannabis. that was also Cure Partners. I sold that to Cur Leaf. So if you know those vaporizers with a little S circle on it, that was.

  about Select · at 1:19

• And so is I think a lot of people's parents these days, your parents as well. Sugar brain is killing us. And, thank God we have RFK in office now, right? He's given new…

  about Sugar Brain · at 2:26

• Investing life is over I got to make a beverage it's going to work and we did a partnership with the University of Oregon 10,000 surveys and studies what is depressing people…

  about University of Oregon · at 4:40

• Went to University of Oregon helping kids that have dealt through their hardships, which we call it your time to adapt moment. What was your time to adapt moment where you had…

  about time to adapt · at 5:35

• Doubled down on cannabis. I've done brands for like Jay-Z, Post Malone, Birdman, Jim Belalushi, Rohan Marley, Marley Naturals, we do Ricky Williams. I've done a lot of these…

  about Rohan Marley · at 17:32

• Gets very lonely. So, you got to have a good routine of, getting sunlight, working out, talking to people, when COVID people lost, I sold my company in February 2020. wow.

  about Sunlight · at 29:53

• But, so the real Tarzan obviously, is getting he did 2.2 billion views last month alone on social. He lives there.

  about Tarzan · at 58:01

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Jim Belushi — Person · 4 mentions
• Cameron Forny — Person · 2 mentions · first at 1:09
  Be very, very beneficial if you share this podcast with them because of what happens today from Cameron Forny. So without further ado, Cameron, give him the quick two-minute bio so we get straight to the money.
• Rohan Marley — Person · 2 mentions · first at 17:35
• Tarzan — Person · 2 mentions · first at 58:02
• Jimmy (Sunlight) — Person · 2 mentions
• Phil Hellmuth — Person · 2 mentions
• Rich Paula — Person · 1 mention · first at 11:21
  I was also honored to partner with people Rich Paula who's a good friend of ours who's incredible master network. Jake Alop and so many others that were great, Sam Nap.
• Jake Alop — Person · 1 mention · first at 11:24
  People Rich Paula who's a good friend of ours who's incredible master network. Jake Alop and so many others that were great, Sam Nap.
• Sam Nap — Person · 1 mention · first at 11:27
  A good friend of ours who's incredible master network. Jake Alop and so many others that were great, Sam Nap.
• Birdman — Person · 1 mention · first at 17:35
  Doubled down on cannabis. I've done brands for like Jay-Z, Post Malone, Birdman, Jim Belalushi, Rohan Marley, Marley Naturals, we do Ricky Williams. I've done a lot of these…
• Dana Silva — Person · 1 mention · first at 37:04
  Work is 45 minutes. This episode will be between 32 and 38 minutes for your listening pleasure. So, Dana Silva, if you can give us a quick two-minute bio, we get straight to the money.
• Peter Kell — Person · 1 mention · first at 42:25
  So there was I think Peter Kell did this.
• Tanner J. Fox — Person · 1 mention · first at 46:22
  Correlate it to. So then, the following year, with, Tanner J. Fox, all that stuff. I got rid of the i8, bought a Lambo cash, two weeks later, bought a G Wagon Cache. and I was just again, this is the whole like money just kept.
• Allison Becker — Person · 1 mention · first at 55:13
  You're doing. But at the end of the day, it's I rather focus on a skill with a skill set and Becker thinks the same way cuz I've talked to Becker about this as well is that all…
• Apolo Ohno — Person · 1 mention
• Jason (Jay Vlad) — Person · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

• Time to Adapt — Company · 7 mentions · first at 5:40
  Went to University of Oregon helping kids that have dealt through their hardships, which we call it your time to adapt moment. What was your time to adapt moment where you had…
• Select — Company · 4 mentions · first at 1:23
• University of Oregon — Company · 4 mentions · first at 4:44
• Curaleaf — Company · 3 mentions
• Money Mondays — Company · 2 mentions · first at 0:07
• Select Oil — Company · 2 mentions · first at 1:23
  Forny. my last company that I built, I'm a serial entrepreneur. My last company was Select Oil, Select Cannabis. that was also Cure Partners. I sold that to Cur Leaf. So if you know those vaporizers with a little S circle on it, that was.
• Marley Naturals — Company · 2 mentions · first at 17:39
  Done brands for like Jay-Z, Post Malone, Birdman, Jim Belalushi, Rohan Marley, Marley Naturals, we do Ricky Williams. I've done a lot of these celebrities brands and we kind of got bombarded by a lot of that and wanted to look at it and.
• Sunlight — Company · 2 mentions · first at 29:57
• Cure Partners — Company · 1 mention · first at 1:25
  Built, I'm a serial entrepreneur. My last company was Select Oil, Select Cannabis. that was also Cure Partners. I sold that to Cur Leaf. So if you know those vaporizers with a…
• Select Cannabis — Company · 1 mention · first at 1:25
  Built, I'm a serial entrepreneur. My last company was Select Oil, Select Cannabis. that was also Cure Partners. I sold that to Cur Leaf. So if you know those vaporizers with a…
• Tidewater — Company · 1 mention · first at 8:43
  We're going after, but also where we offer a unique product experience. We've won best THC drink of 2025 by Tidewater.
• Goldflower — Company · 1 mention · first at 21:05
  That's what I love. Ricky Williams the same way. We have Ricky Williams here at Goldflower in Florida. And Ricky Williams draws an enormous crowd.
• Maison Mua — Company · 1 mention · first at 31:08
  Here in Bickl in Miami and you can sit with other entrepreneurs. We do an entrepreneur meet up at Maison Mua once a month and we sit and we talk and we have speakers come in.…
• Adaptoria — Company · 1 mention · first at 33:47
  Time to adapt.com. time toadapt or adaptoria.com.
• Rolling Stone Culture Council — Company · 1 mention · first at 34:43
  Under 40 advisory there and I think it's very unique and we'll be doing some stuff with the Rolling Stone Culture Council on this as well. So, that's so cool.
• Victory Poker — Company · 1 mention · first at 38:43
  Which is cost per acquisition. And so, they were sending traffic to poker stars and Full Tilt and me, my victory poker site. And we're paying them $200 or $300 a player before…
• Anheuser-Busch — Company · 1 mention
• Full Tilt Poker — Company · 1 mention
• MOVA — Company · 1 mention
• PokerStars — Company · 1 mention
• Wild — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

• BMW i8 — Product · 3 mentions
• Budweiser — Product · 2 mentions · first at 6:14
  What's called ride alongs where I would literally get in the semi-truck with the drivers on a Budweiser truck.
• Mercedes-Benz G-Class — Product · 2 mentions
• Adaphoria — Product · 1 mention · first at 3:08
  Absolutely. So the functional space and by the way this brand is called adaphoria for all you watching at home.
• Unwind — Product · 1 mention · first at 3:15
  Adaptooria helping you adapt to a new euphoric state. We have two for two functions. We have unwind and we have energize. And these are two different functions that you just need at night.
• Energize — Product · 1 mention · first at 3:17
  Euphoric state. We have two for two functions. We have unwind and we have energize. And these are two different functions that you just need at night.
• Lollipop — Product · 1 mention · first at 7:05
  Know, I'm just so inspired by running out of options to drink. Lollipop and Poppy I love, right?
• Who's Your Daddy? — Product · 1 mention · first at 12:27
  So, my energy drink, it was called Who's Your Daddy? I had that slogan back in the days. And on year two, we're just crushing it. We're in all these distributors. We got a bunch more.
• time toadapt.com — Product · 1 mention · first at 22:00
  Different little nuances that you have to be ready to adapt. And that's why we own time toadapt.com, right? When things get hard, when life throws you a curveball, how you…
• Lamborghini — Product · 1 mention · first at 48:54
  Feeling that Dan just described. you're not going to care about the Lamborghini and the G Wagon and this car, that car. At some point, it fades away. Sometimes within weeks.…
• Llama — Product · 1 mention
• Rockstar Energy — Product · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

• VSSL (Visual Sales Letter) — Concept · 12 mentions
• time to adapt — Concept · 7 mentions · first at 5:40
• Sugar Brain — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 2:30
• CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) — Concept · 2 mentions
• monk fruit — Concept · 1 mention · first at 2:40
  To make something that me and my mom could get along with. three grams of sugar, sugars from agave, monk fruit anti-depressant anti-anxiety beverage. that's a functional high…
• dextrose — Concept · 1 mention · first at 3:59
  Dextrose, sucralose, high fructose, corn syrup, zygum. There's a million different trade names for sugar. And I think we've all just had enough. And I think Gen Z is really kind of.
• high fructose corn syrup — Concept · 1 mention · first at 3:59
  Dextrose, sucralose, high fructose, corn syrup, zygum. There's a million different trade names for sugar. And I think we've all just had enough. And I think Gen Z is really kind of.
• sucralose — Concept · 1 mention · first at 3:59
  Dextrose, sucralose, high fructose, corn syrup, zygum. There's a million different trade names for sugar. And I think we've all just had enough. And I think Gen Z is really kind of.
• Enviran — Concept · 1 mention · first at 5:12
  We used all ancient Chinese herbs. We're the first Enviran certified beverage on the market, meaning we're OCAL certified organic all the way through to the top.
• sativa — Concept · 1 mention · first at 25:14
  Cannabis. And I know there's a lot of people that, oh, I want to taste the indica, the sativa, the hybrid. That's not the mass market. The mass market is how do we create…
• 40 Under 40 advisory — Concept · 1 mention · first at 34:38
  So, this is a very unique trial with the University of Oregon Ducks who, is my alma moater. I'm on the 40 under 40 advisory there and I think it's very unique and we'll be…
• Operation Black Site — Concept · 1 mention · first at 58:18
  Like a checklist of things to build on a ranch to be able to host masterminds and events and my operation black site, the military training stuff and I wanted some animals and…
• agave — Concept · 1 mention
• Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 — Concept · 1 mention
• Dopamine treadmill — Concept · 1 mention
• hybrid (cannabis) — Concept · 1 mention
• NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) — Concept · 1 mention
• OCAL — Concept · 1 mention
• rhodiola — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

• Rice Lake — Place · 1 mention · first at 47:14
  Stick around like oh I have nothing anymore. So, I just put my dogs in a car, went to Canada, went to Rice Lake or Lake Rice, whatever, whatever it's called. And I just kind of like faded away.
• Temecula, California — Place · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

0:05 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a very special edition of the Money Mondays podcast where we cover three core topics. How to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. Our guest today I've known for many, many, many, many years. He's built a Zillion dollar company. He's now building his next zillion dollar company. So, we're going to have fun diving into all things about money and investing, but also about building the brand and why going into his next venture, why did he choose this category and why he's going to scale it to such a big big big business. Now, as you guys know, as we're covering those three core topics, this podcast will be under 40 minutes because the average commute to work is 45 minutes. The average workout is 45 minutes. This episode will be between 32 and 38 minutes for your listening pleasure. I like to tell you that because we have a 92% listenrough

0:50 rate. That means that people actually listen to the whole podcast. Unlike a lot of podcasts where people just kind of rant and rave for a long time. We keep this very streamlined, very focused. And also this podcast is not just about you. It could be for people from your past, present, and future. There might be people that are going to be very, very beneficial if you share this podcast with them because of what happens today from Cameron Forny. So without further ado, Cameron, give him the quick two-minute bio so we get straight to the money.

1:15 All right. Thank you, Dan, for having me. Appreciate it. U my name is Cameron Forny. Um my uh last company that I built, I'm a serial entrepreneur. My last company was Select um Select Oil, Select Cannabis. Um that was also Cure Partners. I sold that to Cur Leaf. So if you know those vaporizers with a little S circle on it, uh that was uh that was kind of my my creation and built that up. Uh did uh started my living room 80 98,000 my first two months, 900,000 next year, 9 million next year, 40 million, 117 million exit for 980 million US, 1.27 27 billion Canadian to Curleaf, which is a publicly traded cannabis company. Still largest cannabis company in the world. Um they do about 1.3 billion a year. I stayed on as the president of selected cure leaf. Um did that as long as possible and then um you know waved uh you know a non-compete to uh get back into the space and uh really uh really you know batten down the

2:04 hatches on what I wanted to do next. So I spent about five years uh you know investing in companies. I made 27 different investments and realized I really love building brands and I really love operating. So, um, I've been, uh, at this for about two and a half years now. Um, I've spent about $2 million just in formulation and taste and function. Um, I started this because my mom was basically, uh, um, you know, going through dementia and Alzheimer's and so is I think a lot of people's parents these days, your parents as well. Sugar brain is killing us. And, you know, thank God we have RFK in office now, right? He's given new motivation, inspiration to life. But Sugar Brain is killing us. So, I wanted to make something that me and my mom could get along with. you know, three grams of sugar, sugars from agave, monk fruit anti-depressant anti-anxiety beverage. Um, that's a functional high functioning hemp celzer. So, I know you

2:48 asked what I do, but this is what I do now. So, I just want to kind of bring it all together.

2:52 So, we have these products on the table for people that are watching on YouTube and other platforms visually. They can actually see that right now on this table there's four packs of different drinks. There, different flavors. Talk us through why did you dive into this category?

3:05 Absolutely. So the functional space and by the way this brand is called adaphoria for all you watching at home. Adaptooria helping you adapt to a new euphoric state. We have two for two functions. We have unwind and we have energize. And these are two different functions that you just need at night. One time you get home from a from a tough day at work, crack it. You need to unwind, right? Um you uh you want to go back out and be socializing. We've actually trademarked the modern socializer. We trademarked hangout without the hangover. So, you're if you're a modern socializer and you're not drinking anymore, which as you know, uh the alcohol category is um just getting decimated right now. If you look at Gen Z is drinking onetenth of the amount of alcohol that any other generation has drank in history. Uh that's a that's a big swing. It's a $30 billion swing in that category. Um and you're seeing even a larger swing than

3:51 that. Look at Annheiser Bush. Look what's happening in that industry. You're seeing that people are tired of sugar. They're tired of sugar brain and they're tired of being tricked and lied to. and they were lied to with it. Dextrose, sucralose, high fructose, corn syrup, zygum. There's a million different trade names for sugar. And I think we've all just had enough. And I think Gen Z is really really kind of bringing it home there that they say, "I don't want to be hung over. I don't want to be dehydrated. I want to be happy."

4:14 And you know what touched me a lot was you look at my uh I've got a three kids now. I've got a daughter that's five. And I was looking around the table going by college 20% of all college students are going to be on anti-depressants. Wow. Like like why? Like college was the most happy exciting time of my life. like like why is the world so bad now that you have to be on anti-depressants at this age and then you're actually reducing your dopamine receptors so you're never actually going to be as happy as you were prior to these anti-depressants so I said all right stop it our retired life is over investing life is over I got to make a beverage it's going to work and we did a partnership with the University of Oregon 10,000 surveys and studies what is depressing people what is going on in the world and anx depression was number one anxiety was number two it's causing trillions of dollars of damage in our

4:54 economy right now um we're seeing suicide rates at all time high divorce rates at all-time high um and addiction and and rates at all time high. So we said, how do we do something about this? In a low calorie, 15 calories, three grams of sugar. We have ashwagandha, lowers your cortisol levels. We have rodeiola anti-anxiety anti-depression. We used all ancient Chinese herbs. We're the first Enviran certified beverage on the market, meaning we're OCAL certified organic all the way through to the top. Can't say organic because it's still hemp, but we are uh Envirroan clean. So I said, "All right, how do we do this?

5:24 How do we impact our community? You've been such a a motivation, inspiration for our community and giving back. So we give 2% of our revenue back to you. mental health and wellness, dealing with addiction, and encouraging inspiring entrepreneurship. So, our first check went to University of Oregon uh helping kids that have uh dealt through uh their hardships, which we call it your time to adapt moment. What was your time to adapt moment where you had a hardship and you had to overcome it? So, we're helping people uh adapt uh to the new world. So, yeah, it's a lot.

5:51 So, back in my days, I had an energy drink uh 43 distributors, 55,000 retail stores. I took it public in 2005, so exactly 20 years ago. And over those course of those four years, I don't remember anything but selling drinks. Nothing. I don't remember a date. I don't remember a birthday. Nothing. I drove around to every distributor. I did what's called ride alongs where I would literally get in the semi-truck with the drivers on a Budweiser truck.

6:16 How do you do it? And I would go store to store and I'd pitch them. While they're putting Budweiser in the cooler, I'm pitching them buy my energy drink.

6:23 You were up against thousands of brands. How do you stand out in the beverage category?

6:28 Great question. I mean, I shipping liquid is quite a challenge. So, yeah, it's heavy and, you know, luckily I've um, you know, capital is obviously very important, right? Um, we have incredible investors. I've capitalized a lot of this myself. Um, but you're right, you have to go out door to door, store to store and select. I went to,700 doors, but the difference is I was bringing a box, you know, one foot by one foot and that was $20,000. Now I'm shipping, you know, four pallets that it's $20,000. There's a big difference, right? Um so that that is quite difficult. But um you know, I I I'm just so inspired by running out of options to drink. You know, Lollipop and Poppy I love, right?

7:07 Those came out of nowhere. I became instant fans. And then I'm like, you know, I I still I'm I'm a cannabis person. I love flour. And you know, I've got three kids now. I can't smoke in the house. I can't smoke, you know, anywhere around them. And I want to be social. So, how do we do that? And how do we have fun, you know, uh um you know, at home with the kids, with the family, with your parents at at Thanksgiving? So, really what we're doing is we're kind of creating these moments and these moments of family, these moments of togetherness, and that's really where we're marketing. So, we're doing everything from affiliate marketing where you can come in. My my goal is to make a thousand millionaires in this company. I made several millionaires in the last, but I want to make a thousand millionaires. And the only way to do that is to teach people how to make money as you do in this podcast and

7:48 encourage and inspire entrepreneurs. So we do, you know, a referral program um which not only gives um a discount on shipping, but it also gives 15% uh referral uh uh income to someone. So let's say you just got laid off. Oh man, time to adapt, right? Let's not let's not stress. Let's not go hit the bottle. Let's let's adapt. Let's come up with a clear uh image of what we want to do and where we want to go in the future. So we teach people how to become an influencer, right? how to how to uh influence and talk to your your peer groups about it and how to say, "Hey, you know, I had a great experience on this product. All of our beverages are 5 milligrams. I want everyone to have a great experience their first time, no matter what. I never want someone to be cross-faded or too high or too stoned or my goal is great experience, customer experience every single time. And if you can do that, you can win customers." So

8:33 where I say I set myself apart in the other beverages, not only the target of the high functional Celzer market that we're going after, but also where we offer a unique product experience. We've won best THC drink of 2025 by Tidewater. Go ask Chat GBT. Go ask Llama uh about Adaptooria, it'll tell you it's the best THC drink out there. And that's because we're targeting this by anxiety, depression, give back, uh and just how to make people happy. And I think that's really where we find our unique area. And our method is uh the monster method which is uh liquid to lips. Let people try it and then they buy it. So we are uh sampling uh we've got some big announcements with one of the largest alcohol retailers in Florida coming.

9:12 We've got one of the biggest announcements with uh um uh uh uh I probably could announce it Door Dash uh that's going to be very very large and very broad. Um and then we have uh some other uh unique uh uh opportunities with some big uh boxers coming up that we're uh we're looking forward to. So, we're looking at uh specific ways to um you know get to the customer. Uh we really love direct to consumer. Uh but we also are ready to distribute um you know when that time comes. So if you know if you just go straight to the shelf, you got to this has got to talk off the shelf.

9:41 It's got to literally stand off the shelf and buy it. And it's such a mouthful talking about all the, you know, um, neutrautical uh, grade uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, ancient Chinese herbs in here and, uh, you know, all the functions that I really need to talk to people to to sell the beverage. So, I think that DTC is your best option for that.

10:00 Very cool. Yeah. So with with your previous brand, you were also up against thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of brands that all a lot of them came and went,

10:10 but you built one of the only ones to actually go exit and have this huge impact and still out there obviously big in the market. Talk us through that experience like going out there and fighting the good fight also at the same time dealing with legislation, dealing with rules, what you're not allowed to spend money on marketing. you can't pay for commercials or meta like

10:30 how did you scale that brand to be that big? I mean it was uh it was a lot of work. Um you know one quality product and consistency always wins and compliance wins. So what we've done with this product for instance is we've ensured that when all the cards fall this still remains under the USDA Farm Bill 2018 act saying it's only five 10 milligrams maximum per 12 ounce can to be 03%.3% by dry weight and no one else is doing that. Everyone's doing 50 milligrams 100 milligrams right they're doing that with edibles too. So our job has always been compliance. We were I was on regulatory advisory commission setting pesticide regulations and standards. So, Select set a standard that set itself apart from everyone else. That's the same thing we're doing here. The second was the right people. You have to have the right people involved in your business.

11:15 I was lucky enough to partner with one of the greatest entrepreneurs in Oregon. Um, I was also honored to partner with people like, you know, Rich Paula who's a good friend of ours who's incredible master network. Um, Jake Alop and so many others um that were great, Sam Nap. And, you know, these guys helped us expand this brand so rapidly. And now what we're seeing is um, you know, uh, you also need to be capitalized, right? And we have some incredible investors behind us. We just did a very very small friends and family round. Um so we've taken in just over three million um 3.5 million. Um and we are uh looking at now that we've generated about uh just under half a million dollars in revenue in just under four months that now we'd be looking at a u you know roughly 10x round uh in Q1. So you know I think that you know being capitalized is absolutely critical to to your success and to uh uh

12:03 stay alive. So, um, you know, I think, um, as long as you're maintaining the, uh, you know, appropriate products, quality standards, you're showing sales growth, you know, you're not being greedy and you're, uh, you're growing in a a company that investors are, uh, happy to be a part of, uh, you're going to be successful.

12:18 So, as a business starts to make more and more revenue, especially in beverages, that means you actually need way more capital.

12:24 Yep. I'm gonna give you guys a quick story. So, my energy drink, it was called Who's Your Daddy? I had that slogan back in back in the days. And uh on year two, we're just crushing it. We're in all these distributors. We got a bunch more Budweiser distributors to help us. And we get the finally the phone call that we wanted was was Costco. And the way we got into Costco was I would send four packs of drinks to the security guards and the secretaries. Never to the buyers, never to the executives, never to the staff. Security guards and secretaries. Why? Because everyone interacts and sees them. You walk in, you walk out. What do you say bye to security guards or sec secretaries?

13:05 And so we finally got the phone call and the guy was like, I know what you did.

13:09 He he knew I was I was sending them over and over and over. But they liked it. It was cranberry pineapple and it was green tea and we had the zero sugar, zero calories, and zero carbs.

13:20 So 41 stores was $2.4 million for an opening order. First we did one store, obviously there's three. You got test make sure you sell through.

13:31 Yeah. But then the first actual order $2.4 million. Okay. Sounds cool. Let me give you guys an example. Let's say that they order on January 1st. Okay. Let's say you get a phone call from Costco. It's January 1st. I want $2.4 million.

13:44 You're giving me PTSD right now, but keep going. To to make 2.4 million, you got to put up around a million dollars to manufacture. Let's call it anywhere from 30 to 50% is your cost to manufacture it. Then factory in shipping, etc. So, let's say you need a million dollars for that 2.4. That's January 1st. They want you to ship it usually 60 to 90 days later. So, let's call it March 1st, April 1st. They then pay you net 30 or net 60 after delivery. So, now you're at May 1st or June 1st to get paid. But wait, what if your drink's really good?

14:16 Time to adapt, right? What if your drink tastes like Adapt? What if your drink's really good and you sell through? That's what happened for us. They reordered 5.5 million.

14:27 Oh no. I didn't get paid for the first one. They're like, "Woo!" But no. And so I had to scramble, call everyone, figure out 5.5 million order. I needed almost $2.5 million to make it and ship it plus merchandising fees, marketing fees, displays. They wanted like different displays outside the stores. Pop, which is point of purchase, display, like all these things. So let's call it two and a half million. I didn't get paid on the first one yet. So I scrambled around to get the 2.5 million. Got it. Hold on. And then they're like, "Okay, we're ready for all-star buy."

14:58 Oh, no. I mean, yay. I mean, no. This is what makes a CFO cringe, by the way. And we and we couldn't do it.

15:05 Mhm. We literally they were too big that we had to turn down all store buy. And for them, they're like, "Okay, well, we're going to call Red Bull Monster Rockstar just like normal." And that's what they'll do.

15:15 And so, why is that important to you? You either have to be capitalized in advance. You have to do what's called factoring. factoring where you'll pay sometimes 2% per month.

15:26 And a factor is someone will say, "I'll buy your P paper. I'll buy your order, your invoice from Costco." So, let's say the order was 5.5 million. They'll pay you 5.1 million, for example, on the 5.5. So, you're taking a haircut. You're losing out on money, but you're getting the money up front

15:41 or they're they're staggering the payments to penny, but then they're taking the risk that Costco's going to pay. Well, Costco's what's called a paper.

15:48 Yeah. Right. They know they're going to pay. It's Costco, so they know they're going to pay.

15:52 Problem is, you're at 10 to 12% interest already. Yes. By the time they pay, 5 months at 2% is 10%. Uh-oh. That can get very expensive when your margins are only 20 to 40% depending on your shipping, etc. So, I want you guys to think about this. When you're making a brand, a product, or service, think about the capital you need when things go well. People always talk about things when they're screwing up or sucking. What happens when things go right? As you scale, things can break. So, you got to have capital for that. All right, let's talk about the investing side. You had this exit and you mentioned 27 different investments. You get bombarded by offers, real estate, stock market, cash flowing businesses. Your friends opening a restaurant, a nightclub, a membership club, a golf course, your friends doing a high-rise, a building, there's Bitcoin, there's Ethereum, there's there's so many things you could

16:39 be investing into. How do you decide with all those different variables what to put your money into?

16:44 I mean, it it it's it was quite difficult, especially as a as a cannabis entrepreneur. I wasn't allowed in UBS yet. Um I wasn't allowed a a financial adviser. So that left me as my own financial adviser um for quite some time there. And we know we I created $2.2 billion in value from my living room and um you know uh made hundreds of millions of dollars, lost hundreds of millions of dollars as well. So you know it's part about being an entrepreneur. You you have to learn the playbook and learn how that works. Um but um you know it's okay. So I mean

17:16 when you get bombarded by deals, how do you pick what you'd like to invest into?

17:19 It's got to be something you're passionate about and it's got to be something that that that you are driven by or that you have done enough research in that market that you know that there's going to be an overall sector growth in. Um, and I I really, you know, doubled down on cannabis. You know, I've done brands for like Jay-Z, Post Malone, Birdman, um, Jim Belalushi, Rohan Marley, Marley Naturals, uh, we do Ricky Williams. You know, I've done a lot of these celebrities brands and we kind of got bombarded by a lot of that and and you know, wanted to look at it and celebrity brands aren't a bad thing.

17:49 It's just, you know, in cannabis, you can't really market and advertise. So, to have that megaphone, it was a good thing. So, I did several investments in those spaces. Um, and then I did uh several investos in crypto. I think, you know, as you know, crypto is going to be something that's going to be around for a while and I've been very successful in that. Um, but it was difficult. It was just I had to do some things that I was very interested in and honestly, you should invest in something you're knowledgeable in. So I invested in several things I was not knowledgeable in and those have turned out to be complete horror stores. So I think knowledge, passion and uh analytics.

18:20 Why do you think it's important for people to invest into themselves to either oh yeah

18:24 study, read, go to courses, hire mentors, coaches like why do you think people should invest into their minds and their bodies?

18:30 That's number one. You got to invest in yourself. Um and that's how you invest in wealth. Um if if you're not investing in yourself weekly, you know, like you have eight hours, right, for work, you have eight hours for sleep, you have eight hours to do something. And uh you know, again, hopefully it's not doom scrolling, you know, I've heard people say this, but I'm watching my kids do that as well. So you have to really make time. I'm taking, you know, work leadership uh executive leadership courses right now during my free time.

18:52 And as an entrepreneur startup where I'm focused on not only looking at my investments, but I'm also focused on uh uh operationally running this as CEO and founder and going store to store. Still there's you you almost think that there's no time in a day and it's not possible. It's not possible for new opportunities, but there is and it's really about time allocation. Learn where your time goes. Investing in yourself is investing in wealth and uh put yourself first. You got to put yourself first in your education first and everything else will come. So sacrifice, do the time and uh it all pays off.

19:20 Yeah. So as people are growing their businesses, they're going to get pitched a lot of different things. This is going to be sometimes a awkward or hard question for people. How do you say no to deals?

19:34 I mean it depends. Are you a investment fund? Are you a family office? You know, because it could go with your thesis.

19:41 It's just a person. Just a person. How do you say no? Um, you know, it's it's not the right right time. It's not the right sector for me. It's not the right business for me. You know,

19:49 I think that's that's probably your best way to say no. But saying no is quite important. Um it it really has to be something that you've done the research on and you've done your diligence on and you know the investor class has to be you know uh significant. Uh and um you have to know leverage and understand where your point of leverage is. Understand if you can add value and create uh a creative value to this business or if you're just going to be a blank check or you know you know dumb money

20:13 dumb money. Yeah. So I never want to be dumb money. I always want to be you know value ad and a creative value. So I always try to loop in some sort of advisory role as well and help guide and steer the company. So yeah. So, you mentioned some really big names with the Jay-Z's and Post Malones. Talk about investing into talent like why have a face, a celebrity like a Ricky Williams, like why invest into talent rather than just scale a generic brand?

20:35 So, you know, J, you know, Jay-Z is a big name, right? And I've lost $9 million with Jay-Z. Uh, but um, you know, Jim Belalushi is a is a much much smaller name than Jay-Z. And Jim Belalushi got the number one cannabis product in the state of Oregon.

20:48 Come on, Jim Belalushi. Yeah. You know why? Cuz he cares. He cares about people. He hustles. He goes to the stores. He plays his harmonica. Takes pictures with every butt tender. When he leaves, people are so electric with his brand and what he's done that that they want more. And and that's what I love. Ricky Williams the same way. We have Ricky Williams here at Goldflower um in Florida. And you know, Ricky Williams draws an enormous crowd. Rohan Marley draws an enormous crowd, right? And we can't advertise in Florida. So there's no way to advertise or even talk about it. So, I can just tell you that the partners of that brand of uh Goldflower of one of our companies are are these two celebrities and they can put it out on their Instagram, but they can't market it. So, it's it's very unique and state by state is different.

21:28 There's different rules and regulations. You have a different set of rules in every single state. And the hemp beverage is one of the first that it's it's a little bit more even playing field, but there's still subtleties. Like Oregon, you can only you can have a 5 milligram can, but it's got to be two servings of 2.5 milligrams each. Guess what? I've made one run of 5 milligram, one serving. So now I can't, you know, actively, you know, go after that market without stickering every can. You know, Georgia needed a special sticker on the back. It's only Georgia related, right?

21:55 So, you know, there's all these different little nuances that you have to be ready to adapt. And that's why we own time toadapt.com, right? When things get hard, when life throws you a curveball, uh how how you change and how you um accept that change is going to be how what's going to make you succeed or fail in life. So, we say time to adapt. And that actually brings me to my point of we we want your biggest time to adapt moment where I'm actually doing a a $10,000 uh giveaway to whoever has the best time to adapt moment. And what that means is um just lost my job. Oh, time to adapt. Right? Instead of hitting the bottle, I I I told took a different option. Or uh oh, I just lost my girlfriend to Only Fans. Time to adapt.

22:33 Mine was um you know my car uh my my wife was driving a car and it had a suicide door on it and she's taking the kids to school and she drove out with the door open and just chicken winged it instead of getting mad or upset. Yeah, it's a nice very nice car and instead of getting mad or upset um you know I just said made it into a time to adapt moment which I'll be posting later this week announcing the competition and you know it was funny and we made a good play out of it. So, I'm going to do a $10,000 um uh giveaway uh to whoever gets the most likes, most shares by April 14th um of uh 2026. So, we're going to launch that campaign. I think that could be something cool for for people to just remember when when times are hard and something goes down, just remember your time to adapt moment. When life throws you a curveball, how are you going to overcome it? Time to adapt. So, so a lot of products can get onto a shelf and

23:19 they might sell once, but they don't get reordered because of taste or quality or something about them. Why is it important to invest into quality? Like you mentioned, spending almost $2 million on the quality of the product.

23:31 Taste is everything. Um, at the end of the day, like you know, there's a massive shift going on in our community with health and wellness and we're we're all seeing that, right? And we've had, if you look at Coke, Coke's got like 39 g of sugar, right? In 12 ounces, right, in 150 calories, we're 15 calories, right? And three grams of sugar. And it's all like neutrutical grade, you know, ingredients. And for um and you know what I'm basically seeing out there is if you can overcome the taste of cannabis, you're going to win because everyone out in this market is making a weed soda pop. I call it a weed soda.

24:08 you're you're taking soda water, you're adding simple syrup or they're taking soda, they're adding a juice concentrate, and then there there are no other functions, you know, and we're, you know, uh uh not only rapid onset, which I think one of the biggest things that we've really achieved, and you know, coming from my background is select oil. I owned 30% of the global oil supply at one point. We we did oil for every major brand. I gave Wild their first oil, right? I gave Marley Naturals their first oil in Oregon. So, I've been, you know, in the oil market for so long that I've learned nano um nano emulsions, micro emulsions, and different onset times. And what we've created here is a fiveinut onset, which is so unique because I've always said a cannabis beverage will never work until I can cheer someone drinking a beer and then we can drink it and we can both feel the effects together. So, we can

24:55 feel the effects together, but typically you get a bitterness that runs down the middle of your tongue and that lingers in the back of your throat. And that's just something that this that if you want to be a mass market brand, you can't taste the cannabis, right? And um that's why we were one of the first companies to put distillate edibles and that started making our edibles go off the shelf because it didn't taste like cannabis. And I know there's a lot of people that, oh, I want to taste the indica, the sativa, the hybrid. That's not the mass market. The mass market is how do we create something socially acceptable? How do we create something that that my mom can drink that's a 65-year-old Southern Baptist who believes that it was the devil's lettuce and now she's going, "Oh my gosh, I like this. This makes me feel good. it's better than a, you know, vodka or something. And how do we make something

25:32 that, you know, uh, uh, uh, every generation basically thinks tastes good? And that's really what we've done here is we've absolutely nailed the taste. I'd love to get your reaction on it, too. Love for you to try one.

25:41 Of course. So, on the charity side, why do you think it's important for a household, for you as the father to have some type of charity involvement for those kids to see whether not about the money part, but actually be a part of something? Why do you think it's important for kids to see charity? it's critical to building their character and who they are as a person. Um, you know, you're been so inspiring with that is, you know, we we give back, you know, to motivate and encourage and inspire because so many people now are at their all-time lows and, um, just like what you do with the world's largest toy drive, right? You bring so many smiles to people's faces. Um, you're the real Santa Claus. You're like, they don't, you know, Santa Claus isn't real, but you are the real Santa Claus. The amount of joy that you bring through How many toys you guys do?

26:22 Oh my god. Hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands of toys during Christmas. Like there's so many kids out there and you know the numbers of that aren't getting those toys that aren't feeling gratified during these times. And you know that's what it's about is making people happy leaving the world a better place than where than where we came. And you know I think that's what's so unique with RFK. You know is you know he says that you judge a civilization based on how they treat their their uh the weakest among the population. And that's really what we're doing is we're helping anxiety. We're helping mental health. Um you know this is great for war veterans and people with PTSD. And you know that's why we gave the 2% give back component so my kids can be there with me as we're giving a check you know to encourage inspire entrepreneurship and help drive through addiction and mental health. So I've been through

27:04 mental health challenges myself. Um so um you know sold the company and thought I was on top of the world and you know had unlimited money and you know it's never been more lonely in my life than than being at the very top. you know, lost friends, lost lost resource, lot lost a lot of things. And um to help kind of heal from that by also helping others um is is is tremendous for for me, for my family, and uh I think for the entire entrepreneurial community. So I'd like to see more of that and like people to follow your lead, Dan.

27:32 So, someone out there listening, you know, there's been this kind of weird feeling about billionaires and people being wealthy this last few years in particular in the media. And it it's frustrating because the amount of people that Amazon employs. So, when people look at Jeff Bezos, like, oh, I can't believe has a $400 million yacht. That's nothing

27:52 financially for Jeff Bezos. But then they look at him and they think, "Oh, well, he's too wealthy, too rich." Well, he employs millions of people. That's almost a form of charity to me. When you're employing people and you're giving them 60 grand a year, 80 grand a year, 200 grand a year, etc., times that by millions, he's literally changing the entire global economy from the inside out.

28:12 And so I I say that because there's this weird connotation that some that billionaire is a bad word. So you had this exit for nearly a billion dollars, 1.27 Canadian billion, and you said you got lonely or quiet or some of your friends went away. What do you think that is when someone hears that that's like, "Well, I make 60 grand a year. Screw that. I I want that problem." Talk about the reality of like what happens in life.

28:37 Look, it's it's it's lonely at the top. Um the loneliest job in the world is the CEO position as as you know, right? You're uh you're everyone's best friend though when they get the paycheck. You're everyone's enemy when times are tough and there's budget cuts and crisis.

28:49 Um and then the only person you can really have a conversation with or depend on is, you know, yourself a lot of times or your wife. Uh um and and that can make it very difficult.

28:56 You only want to tell her. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes you don't want to tell her because you don't want to stress her out because she's raising the three kids.

29:01 So, so you're right. You know, um I use Michael Phelps as a perfect example of this. The most awarded Olympian in history right?

29:09 Dealt with massive mental health crisis, used cannabis, used cannabis products instead of uh alcohol and lucky got arrested in in trouble with alcohol and Philip stayed home, ate his 7,000 calories and then pumped out American Olympic gold medal championships. He's an inspiration to me. Apollo Ono is an inspiration, a good friend, and I'm trying to get him on board with this.

29:28 And you know, it's it's once you get to that top, it it's it's amazing. You're celebrated. Your pictures on all these magazines, and now you're the person paying for every single bill. You're the person that's always being mooched on. You're the person that's um uh uh always the enemy if something goes wrong in the company. Um and then if you're a really good company, you're under lawsuits. You're going to get sued. Sure. And it's just for people that want quick handouts and easy money. And um you know, it's just it just gets very difficult. It gets very lonely. So, you got to have a good routine of, you know, getting sunlight, working out, uh, uh, talking to people, you know, when COVID people lost, I mean, I sold my company in February 2020. Like,

30:05 wow. Yeah. So, imagine like now I'm locked up with all this money. It's like, what do we do? You know, um, I got into poker, which is a really bad idea. Don't get into poker after you saw your company, Phil Helmouth, you all right. Um, so, um, you know, and

30:19 he join he joined the advisor board of one of my companies. Oh, did he? He was great at per. He put me in the Dragon poker game and I lost a lot of money very rapidly. It was like it was interesting people. Draymond Green, all these guys. I'm just getting smoked. Um but you know, I I think that people lost their um their community. They lost their safety net. They lost their their their community their community when CO took place because everyone was locked down. People still haven't really rebuilt that. You know, that the socializing and the marketing and the networking has gone down a lot.

30:45 I mean, you're a master. It's different for you. you're still probably pumping the same numbers as you were, but there's a lot of people that fell out of those relationships and got lonely and depressed. And you know why we say this for the modern socializers cuz we want to create happy hours that are non-alcoholic happy hours. So modern socializer hours where people are coming, they're ordering adaptor at their favorite restaurant or MOVA right here in uh Bickl in Miami and you can sit with other entrepreneurs. We do an entrepreneur meet up at Maison Mua once a month and we sit and we talk and we have speakers come in. We have pro athletes come in and and we just find a new way to socialize um you know with a with a with a different product than just alcohol. But you can drink alcohol too. Nothing against it. Love alcohol.

31:22 Love my champagne. Love my tequila. But uh I just find myself drinking this at the end of the night. Um two of these two two unwinds at the end of the night. Make me sleep like a baby. I I I sleep better than I've ever slept. And then an Energizer two before I go out is is lovely. So I I try to try to have my balance. If I do a couple tequilas and it's like Dan, it's 12:00. What are you doing? Do you want to go out? Um, so I've got to like learn how to how to balance myself

31:46 for sure. All right. So, there's only one question I ask at the end of every episode, and I've never gotten the same answer in over 200 episodes. You've already sold one company for a billion dollars. You're going to sell this one for $2 billion, for example. And you're probably going to do more companies because you got the itch, right? You love the game. So, billions and billions of dollars of revenue generated and exits, etc. At the end of the day, when you pass away, what percentage of your net worth do you leave to those three kids?

32:15 It's a great question, but one thing that you should uh be clear on as an entrepreneur like you were saying to raise money. I only ended up with 8% of my company when I sold it, right? You know, and then less than that after taxes. So, it sounds like you sold it for all this money and then you own stock and the company and the stock does does well or does not well when you leave. You know, there's a lot of variance, but you know, for your kids, that is like the most critical thing is how are you leading that next generation? how's that next generation going to bring up? And you know, I've already planned all this out luckily.

32:42 Um, and it's, you know, their college is funded. They're, um, you know, they're never going to have to worry about a home. They're never going to have to worry about college. Never going to worry about healthcare. Those are already done and set forever. Um, now it's it's, you know, uh, again, they're uh um, I I drive my kids to be entrepreneurial. So, my daughter has to work to make money to buy an iPhone or app on her tablet or she has to um donate some toys and then other toys that she just got bored with quick she has to sell and then buy a new toy and capitalize. I love it. So, so we do do our donation but we also are teaching and instilling commerce into our kids.

33:13 So, um I've set um a fund together where they can invest money into businesses that they believe in and then they can live off the income of those companies, but they do not get a check. They can get a check um for their uh home uh to get that, but then they owe the trust money. So, they have to work. Yeah, they have to work.

33:29 Told you guys we weren't going to get the same answer. This is great. They have to be entrepreneurial. They have to work and uh they uh nothing is given. They have to earn it. But I think healthcare is given and I think uh education should be given. So, those two I'm on. Yeah.

33:40 All right. So, where can people find you on social media? Where can they find the brands, the products? Tell us everything.

33:44 Time to adapt.com. time toadapt or adaptoria.com. Um, and I would go even uh, you were so nice. Um, if you do time toadaptmunddays, um, we pay for your shipping. So, um, we just wanted to do that for Dan and uh, take care of it. So, timetoadapt.com/moneymunddays, uh, we'll pay for your shipping. Um, and, uh, you can find me at Cameron Forny_. And, um, you know, uh, you'll see some stuff from like the University of Oregon. We're the first beverage on the history of the planet, hemp beverage on a university campus. And I was with the University of Oregon last weekend.

34:18 So, we were in the dean's invitational suite on college campus. The dean said he'd rather have kids drinking college students drinking our beverage than he would uh alcohol. And as you know, you can't sell, you know, I don't sell this to under 21. Can't sell alcohol to under 21. But alcohol is just, you know, run a buck kind of on college campuses for sure.

34:35 So, this is a very unique trial with the University of Oregon Ducks who, you know, is my alma moater. I'm on the 40 under 40 advisory there and um I think it's very unique and we'll be doing some stuff with the Rolling Stone Culture Council on this as well. So,

34:46 that's so cool. timetoadapt.com/moneymunddays and moneymunddays and moneymundday well both and cameronfory.com.

34:54 All right guys, as I mentioned these podcasts are not just for you. It's for people from your past, present and future. Your friends might bring up they want to be in the beverage space and you forward this podcast with Cameron. They might bring up, oh, I want to do something in the cannabis space. You could forward this podcast with Cameron. There's people that are going to be around you. It could be at dinner, a lunch, playing basketball or pickle ball and things like this come up. You share podcasts like this with them and the butterfly effect can literally change their life. They might hear things because we got pretty granular here from factoring and financing and marketing and the shelf space and dealing with celebrities. Like these things could literally help save them a lot of money or make them a lot of money. So keep these podcasts in mind. Visit us next Monday at the moneymunddays.com and

35:35 we'll see you guys very soon. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Money Mondays podcast where we cover three core topics. How to make money, how to invest money, how to give some of the way to charity. Here's what's really important. When you're listening to podcasts like this, it's not always just about you. It could be for people from your past, present, or future. You might be able to forward an episode like this to someone that likes this topic or likes this person that's on that episode. So, keep that in mind as you're listening because not every time you're going to be caring about real estate or stock market or e-commerce or Facebook ads. Maybe it's not applying to you, but it could be to someone from your past, present, or future. The whole point of this podcast is we grew up thinking that it's rude to talk about money. I think that's ridiculous. We got to be able to talk about taxes and salary and should I

36:22 rent, should I buy, should I lease, what happens if my friend borrowed $400, how do I get it back? Like, these are things that happen in your real life. We just don't talk about it because we think about it being rude. It it is not rude to be able to cover your mom's medical benefits. It is not rude to be able to buy toys for your kids. It's not rude to be able to cover your travel and things that go on in your daily life because it's part of your daily life. So, make sure to understand this with your friends, family, and followers. We have to be able to talk about money. That's part of why this podcast has stayed in the top 50 in the world is because of you liking, commenting, subscribing, and sharing, and talking with your friends about money. So, without further ado, as you guys know, these podcasts are under 40 minutes because the average workout is 45 minutes. The average commute to

37:00 work is 45 minutes. This episode will be between 32 and 38 minutes for your listening pleasure. So, Dana Silva, if you can give us a quick two-minute bio, we get straight to the money.

37:09 Perfect. Okay, so um my name is Dana Silva. I dropped out of high school, but that's kind of cliche to say these days, I guess. Um I started online when I was 15. Like literally, I was learning at 15, 19, made my first million. Um and since then just kind of like rode the wave. If I started off buying traffic as an affiliate, um, and then I went into the ecom space, I kind of had that leg up cuz I already knew like how to buy traffic. So, you know, drop shipping was this new thing. So, I kind of just went into drop shipping, was the first one on YouTube to talk about it. Had like major success in both realms doing and teachings. And then from there, just kind of everything just kind of grew from there. Yeah.

37:51 What's the main thing you're working on now? Um so I started my own uh fin pub so financial publishing company few years ago four or five years ago. Um it it was a ride. I'm winding it down now more so because of compliance more than anything. It is just a headache for that industry. So my main thing is winding that down and just heading back into affiliate like hardcore. Just focusing all my attention on affiliate launching and publishing but not necessarily in in finance anymore. So, fun fact, back in the days, I had an online poker site. And I'd go to the gaming convention. There'd be thousands and thousands and thousands of people there that own poker sites. And the richest people in the room were the affiliates.

38:35 Yeah. Because they were sending all the traffic to these poker sites, but they're getting like $200 CPA, $300 CPA, which is cost per acquisition. And so, they were sending traffic to poker stars and Full Tilt and me, my victory poker site. And we're paying them $200 or $300 a player before we ever got $1. And so it was fun to see at these events where you'd see the 21-year-old, the 28-year-old zillionaires because they were sending traffic to these gambling sites. So there's certain affiliates, I mean even even now um you know you get percentage of losses and all that like you know those under the table type of deals where I know some guys over over in Asia.

39:11 Oh like on sports betting sites just in in general like those online casinos where they not only get a CPA um they get a percentage of first uh depot and then they also get a percentage of losses in perpetuity and they're just they're raking in cash like crazy. So,

39:27 so you've got a zillion offers that you could go through, right? You could pick from anything you want from financial markets, stock trading, teaching people how to sell custom sneakers. You can teach people about anything. And so, you could showcase for your traffic any of these topics. Section 8, there's just so many. There's infinite options. How the heck do you decide what you pick from? Is it just the financial part of it? Is there a marketing part of it? Is something that is exciting for you? Or is it just a part of the game?

39:54 Uh, quite frankly, that's a that's a good question. Um it's a lot of so it it's a very small community of people that are super affiliates if you will. Um and it everybody talks there so

40:07 you know exactly what is working at that time. So it's essentially just kind of like hey I heard X Y and Z is doing X Y and Z. And then I'll go to said person and they'll be like yeah yeah 100%. Um, and like you know, one of my good friends, Carter, um, he's a huge affiliate, huge affiliate, and I ask him all the time like on things that that are working. He's like, "Yeah, this was working. We were doing like $400,000 a day for x amount of weeks." And then I'm like, "Okay." He's like, "Yeah, but we kind of like, you know, uh, we moved on because of, you know, uh, processing issues, whatever it is." I'm like, "Okay, so like what's hot right now?" Exactly. And then he's like, "Oh, well, we're on to this." I'm like, "Oh, well, I don't want to do this." So then I have to start shopping around cuz there's some things that I don't want to touch. um and other thing because it's not in my circle of

40:49 competence but um you know I typically will go ahead and always focus on vanity driven or aside from vanity health. So, and again, health, you got to kind of figure out your line of ethics and morals.

41:03 Certain type of weight loss versus Exactly. So, it and more than anything, it's the affiliate's job is to get somebody to the to the page, the VSSL, to the to the order order form, whatever it is.

41:13 Um, but if it doesn't convert, you know, it's move on to the next offer. What is a VSSL?

41:20 Uh, visual sales letter. So, it's just a, you know, 45 60 minute plus video selling. Um, it's an emotional story

41:30 that really pulls strings that sells a supplement at the very end that's supposed to do X, Y, and Z. Um, based on, you know, whatever that story is. But, um, yeah, they they sell very, very well. Very, very well.

41:43 So, people will watch 45 to 60 minutes. Oh, yeah. They'll sit there for a really long time. It's funny because it was really really really good at a certain point, probably like 2019, 20 uh 2020. Um, even up till now as well, you can get away with it. You could run just the VSSL alone on YouTube, like run it as a YouTube ad and then when they click, they go to the order form. So, it's not even like they have to go to another page and then go to the order form because if you think about it, people on YouTube are already accustomed to watching long form videos. So, you just put like a 45minute video. They don't know how long it is because it's an ad, right? So, um,

42:18 so there's no timer. No, no, because of how long it is. So, uh, they'll sit there and they'll watch it and then they'll click and from there you can do the same thing with Facebook. So there was I think I think Peter Kell did this.

42:28 Um actually I know Peter Kell did this. He he ran VSSLs on uh on Facebook so successfully and um by the time like I heard about it I never even thought to do that. I was like it makes so much sense.

42:40 Um you know everyone was doing it at that point it still works but um it's really about finding that that VSSL are like the thing right now like everybody's hyperfocusing on that. So

42:51 all right so let's talk about the make money side. Okay. You can make your own products.

42:57 You could be an affiliate. You could try to work for another company. You could consult. You could take equity. How do you decide on a personal level? Like you've got all the options because you've got so much experience and you're one of the best in the game. Like how do you decide what you actually spend your time on?

43:09 Um I'm going to be totally honest with you. I am extremely lazy and I think it's because of um just I'm complacent. So I know if I want something how much it is and I'll work that. Exactly. So that's a gift and a curse if you will. Um because it doesn't push me further than what I want.

43:33 So once and that's why like things now like I sold like all my cars and all that like cuz I stopped caring necessarily. The only thing I really like is watches. That's my thing. Um, but the make money aspect to answer your question is uh I I really don't know how to how to define that. Um, answer ask me one more time so I can process it. Like

43:59 so when you have all these options where you could be a consultant, you could be an affiliate, you could create your own product or brand or service, like how do you decide what you spend your time on? what what I know will pay me the most for the energy in. So energy in and the output that I get.

44:19 So I already know what I'm really good at and that's that's mainly more than anything copy. Um funnels is relatively easy and whatnot. It's essentially getting somebody to read something and get them to take an action that they didn't otherwise think they wanted to do or you want them to do. So, um, and whatever that is, there's two realms that I play in. It's more so than anything, bisop. So, you know, MMO, like make money online and, um, in the health space. So, those are like the two that I absolutely know the pain points like right away. I can just spin something up.

44:53 And that's what I'll that's what I'll lean towards. But consulting, I don't I don't do it. I don't like it's just I don't think that um I know my time is worth you know a lot but I just don't want to give up my time. I'd rather be playing video games or doing something else like just enjoying life. So

45:11 did that come from complacency from money? Yeah. I think yeah it it came from it came from the fact that um I had nothing really growing up. Um, and then 18 to 19, literally it was from nothing to

45:29 really Exactly. So, my my first car was an i8 that I bought in cash. The insurance was $3,500 a month. Okay. Okay. Right. We We laugh at it now.

45:38 Wow. But but at 19, I just turned 19. I thought $3,500 a month for insurance was

45:46 normal. Normal. Like, okay. And everyone's like, "What?" And I thought a six-month insurance, you know, um, whatever it is, like premium.

45:55 Exactly. Um, because they wanted it all up front. Yeah. 21,000. Yeah. And, and I'm like, okay,

46:01 sure. So, I just spent like 140,000 for an i8 that came from Idaho. Exactly the specs that I wanted.

46:07 And then I dropped, you know, 20 something,000 on insurance only for 6 months. And everyone was like, what? But what what do I know? Cuz that was my first car.

46:16 Like, I didn't have anything to correlate it to. So then, you know, the following year, uh, with, you know, Tanner J. Fox, all that stuff. Um, I got rid of the i8, bought a Lambo cash, two weeks later, bought a G Wagon Cache. Um, and I was just like, again, this is the whole like money just kept coming,

46:36 right? Uh, and so it came to a point where the money didn't stop. It's it's I think I actually No, I know that 19-year-old me versus almost 30 in a few months me. I realized that I was just everybody's piggy bank that was they could just shake at any given time. And um that was like it was like one of the hardest pills to swallow. And so I got rid of everything. Like I left New York like all that. I just told people I'm broke

47:09 just cuz I wanted to I want to see who'd stick around like oh I have nothing anymore. So, I just put my dogs in a car, went to Canada, went to Rice Lake or Lake Rice, whatever, whatever it's called. And I just kind of like

47:19 faded away. Exactly. Just I needed peace. I needed to get away. Um, and funny enough, nobody ever like nobody nobody was there. And that's when I was like, interesting. And so um and so just over that time I kind of just like realigned and I stopped caring about the money which then also cuz I said the drive was always money.

47:44 Sure. And you know I'd had talks with like Jimmy um you know from Sunlight and whatnot. And I'm like Jimmy like I want to build something. He's like I want to build something. He's like you don't need to know right now what you want to build. Like it'll come to you eventually. Yeah. No.

47:58 And um I guess he's that's what I've been kind of like waiting for, I guess. But

48:04 yeah, it's just I realized everybody works so hard for money, but at the end of the day, it's like

48:11 to buy stuff that they don't actually care about. Not only that, but to impress people that don't

48:15 care about them. Exactly. They're just there for the good time. And you can't blame those people either.

48:20 So like everybody inherently is for themselves, if you will. So that's just human nature. So I can't blame, you know, my friends then. Um, so I just look at it as I learned. I was going to do it regardless. So at that time, it is what it is. So you guys have heard me say this before. It's okay to have that materialistic goal of getting that one watch, getting that one car, getting that one thing. But when you buy your second and third watch and your second and third car, you're going to have that feeling that Dan just described. Like, you're not going to care about the Lamborghini and the G Wagon and this car, that car. At some point, it fades away. Sometimes within weeks. And some friends of ours go buy 5, 10, 20, 30 cars looking for that that that feeling.

49:06 And then it starts to go within days because they've already had 10, 15, 20 different cars. And so I'm not saying to not have a goal because by the way the goal can be really really useful for you to have that driving force like Dan described in his own life. But at some point it will literally feel meaningless. You it'll just be another car in the garage collecting dust. It'll just be another watch sitting in the in the drawer that you don't wire cuz you wear your main watch every single day. The other seven watches just kind of sit there. At some point you start to realize like the things that you're buying don't have any actual meaning and they don't give you what you want, which is happiness.

49:40 you think you want it. Like, well, as soon as I get to a million dollars, I'm going to be happy. When you get to a million, you're like, wait, it's just Wednesday. As soon as I get to 2.5 million, it's the Dota treadmill.

49:50 Yep. And the goal line keeps moving. And the goal line keeps moving. And the thing that you're chasing is never actually there. It's an enigma. It's not real. And so, I say this because I want you to have that goal of the thing that you want that you're aspirational for. Whether it's taking that big travel trip, maybe it's buying that fancy watch, but I pinky swear that that second, third, and fourth thing will not will not even one iota matter to you a few weeks later.

50:18 All right. So, you're making money, you're buying the cars, you're having fun, you take this time, you go disappear for a little bit, then you come back to one of the most coolest cities on the planet, which is Miami.

50:28 Yeah. Why do you reemerge? Um well I went to I was moving around for a bit like went to Tampa back home just to see parents um Toronto and then and then back to Miami. Um why choose Miami? Here's the thing. I don't party anymore. Like I don't I don't like to go out on club. I'll go get dinners. Like that's it. Um

50:53 why Miami? I can't answer that. I don't know. Um, to be honest, I came here with a uh with an intention to network and then I realized the people that I wanted to network with weren't the people that I wanted to be around.

51:05 Um, and now now I'm here. So, um, I guess that that really answers the to be to be totally honest. I was supposed to go this upcoming year supposed to uh head head to Nashville, but um yeah, plans plans change. I Yeah, plans plans change a little bit.

51:26 So, as you're making money, people start to bombard you with investments. Hey, bro, invest into my restaurant or my nightclub or my clothing line or my new thing, my new hat company, blah blah blah blah blah. How do you decide once you start making that type of cash what you might throw in 25K, 50K, 100K or whatever amount into as an investment?

51:43 Um, I look at the person more than anything. Uh, the person and then the idea cuz everybody has ideas, right? It's the person behind the idea if that can execute to the finish line. So again, there's no necessarily unique idea, but there are extremely unique people. Mhm.

52:05 That's where I will decide whether or not I put my energy, time, resources, and capital behind you. So, that's that's the end all be all. It's who are you? And like I want to know

52:14 not necessarily what you have accomplished cuz maybe this is your first time trying to build something or you know, whatever it is,

52:21 but who are you as a person? And if you have done something in the past, what have you done? Um, and I'm not talking like college or anything. I'm talking way more beyond like, hey, I built this. I just couldn't get it off the ground. And that's that's fine because people that are builders aren't necessarily marketers. So,

52:38 so someone out there is listening and they're like, "Man, I want to sell a course or I want to sell something like a VSSL. Like, how do how do I do that?" Where can people research to try to figure out how to actually do this stuff?

52:50 That's such a good question. Um, I wouldn't I would honestly I wouldn't even know how to how to answer that because it is it is a very particular skill set. It's writing copy for a video that you have to either, you know, hire an actor for or now we can use AI to do it.

53:07 Um, but the skill set is copywriting. So, VSSL broken down is just long form. It's just a long form uh piece of paper or a document that uh sells something, whatever it is. Um, and if somebody really wants to go ahead and learn how to do it, you just simply flat out have to find VSSLs out there and they're everywhere. Like if you go on CNN, you click on these ads and then there's like a video of some doctor talking for like for like an eternity, you could download that video, have it transcribed, read it, and see exactly what what's happening there. See the see what they're doing, the pain points, the the NLP, the language. So that's the differentiating factor between somebody successful selling something as an affiliate and not is if you know how to sell it, right? So cuz we all have the same ability to look at the same product and sell the same way. But the difference between me and you is that I

54:03 might know how to find an angle from the current from the current page, from the current video,

54:08 and how to just kind of take that out and sell that part. while everyone else is just selling what's in the video. I sell something that he says in the video and I just harp on that point and make it a bigger deal so people watch. So,

54:20 so what about investing into themselves? Why do you think people should invest into their minds, their personal brand, into their world?

54:26 You the cliche answer is cuz like you're going to there's no other better investment. It's cliche to say there's no other better investment than you, no higher ROI, but it's true. So, and I think like if you what I figured out a long time ago is by accident, I think um I don't like networking. I'm not really like a big networker.

54:45 Um people have have and do come to me because of my skill set. So, I see kids all the time, people all the time going to networking events. like networking does not equate to necessarily in in the long term. Sure, it can equate to, you know, a lot of money if you start networking a lot and know what you're doing. But at the end of the day, it's I rather focus on a skill with a skill set and and Becker thinks the same way cuz um I've talked to Becker about this as well is that all I ever did was focus on my skill set which was copy etc. Right? And where that copy was deployed could have been e-commerce uh you know drop shipping or a VSSL um an affiliate promo whatever it is right but I just focused on that that is my skill the you know the funnels the the launches and deploying copy into that that's um something that people have come to and still come to me for um on hey what do you think about this and

55:48 that just like I'll go to somebody like Jason like Jay Vlad right about webinar stuff of course

55:52 um so it's the same thing he's he's the best at what he does. People have to go to him. So, it's not like he's out there at, you know, events and whatnot say, "Hey, I know how to do webinars, right?"

56:04 Like, well, we we know we know you know how to do webinars. So, um I kind of adopted that uh philosophy really. So,

56:13 is there a goal like if you got to a certain number, you're like, you know what, I'm done. I'm going to retire. I'm going to give up the e-commerce and I'm going to give up being an affiliate. Like if someone has said, hey, you know what? Here's $80 million. That's it. You can't work anymore ever again.

56:28 No. No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That's That sounds There's no purpose. What's I want I need to do something. I need to be stimulated like all right. Maybe like is there a cap on this? Like some number.

56:43 So I mean have it'd have to be a wild number like something if I'd say it you'd be like okay be realistic. But like I just the constant stimulation of needing to figure out new things and needing to build and wanting to build and that's like that's the the game.

56:58 Yeah, that's the thrill. So there's really no number. From on a personal perspective, is there anything that you like in the charity space? Philanthropy?

57:06 Yeah. Um I'm looking to build an animal sanctuary. Yeah. Yeah. So it's actually a reason that I came here. So but I've said this already for like two years to my parents and whatnot. Um it was either here or in Nashville and I was um well Nashville area somewhere in Tennessee, right? Because land is fairly affordable. Yeah. You know, so um and then I have to work with compliance like regulatory. But

57:30 um yeah, an animal sanctuary is is my thing. I I love animals. So So I built an animal sanctuary 37 months ago.

57:38 Did you really? Yeah, that's where I came that's where I came from this morning.

57:41 So I just flew from So we have 206 animals in Tmacula, California. It's 26 acres.

57:46 Oh, that's So, your ranch is actually like a sanctuary. I never knew that. I thought you just loved animals, I guess. A personal sanctuary then. So,

57:55 yeah, we're not open to the public. You can't There's no website. You can't buy tickets. Um, obviously our friends, everyone can go and feed the animals. But,

58:02 so the real Tarzan obviously, you know, is getting he did 2.2 billion views last month alone on social. He lives there. He lives at the ranch.

58:10 Oh, really? Yeah. That's how it evolved. At first, I was buying it because I wanted to I had like a checklist of things to build on a ranch to be able to host masterminds and events and my operation black site, the military training stuff and I wanted some animals and then I was going to do one with Tarzan here in in Miami and then co happened, the shutdown happened and so like we scrapped the idea for a while cuz we're like well I don't know if we can have tourism at, you know, at the ranch at the animal sanctuary and then like a year later I found this ranch in California. I'm like, "Wow."

58:43 And so when I messaged him, I had the keys. I waited till it was for sure that I had it and I was like, "Hey, you're moving to California."

58:51 That's awesome. We're going to set up all these animals here. And then it just kind of evolved because he started getting everything from 16 foot snakes. So we rescued these two bulls from the FBI. The FBI was going to kill these two bulls.

59:02 Um we rescued 900 lb pigs. We rescued horses. Rescue so many things. And um you know it's a it's expensive obviously to take care of 26 animals. It's 140,000 a month to from staff and food and things to keep them alive and happy. But it's my favorite thing to do. It's my favorite thing to talk about. I could talk about it for ages and like the difference of like when you're interacting with the animals versus humans.

59:32 We can we can we can get into this. We'll get we'll get real emotional real quick. Uh but um I I agree. It's just it's it's unconditional love. Like Yeah. So now I'm talking like dogs and whatnot, but even big cats.

59:44 Like you know what I found fascinating? I saw I got really ingrained um and infatuated with this story of a golden retriever mother raising five or four or five uh tiger cubs and then they became full-grown tigers. And you know the the golden retriever that mother was still a mother to them like they could they could maul her but they respected her like a like and I was just like that's still it it's just so amazing like and there's one thing that I can't stand is like no animal should be put down because of some some other human's

1:00:23 mistakes or faults decisions. Yes. So exactly it's just not fair. And then it like to me it's just like it's so unfair. I I just don't it doesn't sit right with me. So that's that's been the end goal of it all. So

1:00:38 So there's one question I ask on every single episode and I've never gotten the same answer ever before. Before I ask it, I'm going to ask you, do you have children or do you ever want to have children?

1:00:48 I do want children. So the one question I ask on every episode is Dan, over the course of time, you're going to build up tens of millions, hundreds of millions, god willing, billions of dollars in your career from the brands, products, services that you create, but unfortunately at some point you do pass away. What percentage of that net worth do you leave to your children?

1:01:16 Great question. I've heard 0% 100% everything in between. It would have to be vested. If not, then it would be donated. But I wouldn't leave all 100%. Probably 80% be donated to philanthropy, 20% would be left, but that 20% would have to be vested based on what they achieve and how many, you know, children, right? So,

1:01:44 so giving them milestones of things to do throughout the course of their life marriage at least five years

1:01:53 to have at probably like 60% of whatever is allocated to be unlocked if you will

1:02:01 at least bare minimum um bonuses for children. No, no, I would. Cuz again, not everybody's blessed to be able to. So,

1:02:15 um imagine like just having an infertile wife and then like your money's locked. That'd be terrible. Um uh definitely something to do with uh marriage, building building a family, building something sustainable.

1:02:30 Care if they go to college? Um no, I don't. I want them to do something though. And when I say do something, I mean follow what they want to do, but not it has to be progressive in the world, if that makes sense. Like it has to help in some way.

1:02:47 Like I don't want you to be I don't know if it's bad to say, but like kind of like a hippie, if you will, just like free roaming around doing like Colombia. Like

1:02:56 like I need you to be proactive and be a part of something or start building something and and whatnot. But um yeah, it's such a good qu. I don't I I would say

1:03:08 you broke it down. That was good. A lot of people can't even say with clarity like the 8020 concept you just mentioned or having parameters. Some people say very detailed of like the concept of what they want but they can't say numbers or they say the number but they don't know why. Like it's it's been very interesting. I've asked the same question 200 times literally 200 times. And I I'm always fascinated because it it some little pieces of it evolve how I think about it, right? How I want to do it, how I want to structure over the course of time. And so I I'm always fascinated to hear because no one's going to have the same answer. Yeah. And no one ever just says like, "Yeah, 100%." Or, "Yeah, 0%." There's a reason behind it because it's such a big decision,

1:03:44 right? Because part of our legacy is part of our, you know, when we have children. And the other reasoning is like some people think it spoils the child. Some people think it's, you know, changes their it it steals from them like their skills and their their grit and things that come with it. And most people that I know and most people I interviewed didn't come for money. It's very rare. You know,

1:04:06 I just think about it like the the tension it could create. Like if I have four kids and again if we go with the vesting idea, what if one of them can't find love or just doesn't isn't you know has a hard time like then it creates animosity for the others. So it's a really hard decision to

1:04:26 stress. Exactly. So because not everyone's created the same and you shouldn't have to punish somebody because of something that they, you know, they lack. So it's a hard it's a hard question.

1:04:35 Are there any products, brands, services that you have going on? Um, not to the public. I don't really sell anything to the the public. Just exist.

1:04:43 Just exist. Okay. Uh, where can people find you on social? What are the things? Anything?

1:04:49 Uh, Dilva on Instagram. Um, and some random YouTube channel I'll create again. So not my old one, just a new one. I'll be I'll be around. You guys will see me.

1:05:00 All right, guys. I appreciate you listening here. Again, it's really important when you like, comment, subscribe. It obviously helps us share this message. Keeping us in the top 50 in the world is because of you guys. When you hear certain things and some of the things that the messages that pop up, just keep in mind, share it with your friend, talk to them about it. They might be wanting to get it and become an affiliate and you could send them this video and all of a sudden you might change the course of their life. They might go from making four grand a month at their job to four grand a day because you sent them something learning from him about being an affiliate. So when you hear things from these episodes, just keep it in mind that by sharing and communicating and talking about money and talking about business, talking about salaries, talking about being an affiliate or talking about building a

1:05:39 course or creative program, etc. having those discussions with your friends could literally change the course of their life by having open discussions. I appreciate you guys. We'll see you next Monday here at the moneymunddays.com.

Questions about this episode

What is "The Entrepreneur’s Playbook: From Living Room Startups to Billion-Dollar Brands 🏢 EP139" about?

The main topic discusses the journey of serial entrepreneur Cameron Forny, who transitioned from a living room startup to successfully building multi-million and billion-dollar brands. Key points include insights on money-making strategies, investment approaches, and the importance of brand building, as well as Forny's motivations behind his latest venture.

What is mentioned in this The Money Mondays Podcast episode?

70 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including VSSL (Visual Sales Letter), time to adapt, Time to Adapt, Select, University of Oregon, Jim Belushi. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Entrepreneur’s Playbook: From Living Room Startups to Billion-Dollar Brands 🏢 EP139"?

The episode runs 1 h 6 min; the transcript is about 14,227 words in 195 timestamped sections.

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