7 People Making $5M-$10M From Weird Hobbies

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**Sam Parr** (0:42)
I'm not saying like I'm above this.

**Billy Parks** (0:44)
No one's above this. This is cool. These guys just sold $7 million in multi tools in like a week.

**Sam Parr** (1:00)
So in order for a creator business to work, the creator needs to be loved. What makes a creator lovable? Like what attributes do they have where you see it and you're like, that person has it and people will buy because of them.

**Billy Parks** (1:14)
Finding creators that have like real love from their communities is the whole thing, right? Because those are the most durable audiences that will kind of go, it makes them not cancelable, people feel like they are their buddies, their friends. So I think like what makes them loved is you feel like you're watching a version of yourself doing it. You know, if you're a woodworker and you watch Jonathan Katz-Moses, you're like, oh, this guy's just like me and he's teaching me, I'm learning, and it's like a buddy who's walking me into my favorite hobby, my favorite niche.

**Sam Parr** (1:51)
So they have to be relatable.

**Billy Parks** (1:53)
I think so. Relatable is a good way to put it. I think, you know, often feels like your big sister or your big brother too, where you're like, okay, they're teaching me, you know, like you like motorcycles, right? Like they're a pain in the ass to like maintain, to deal with, to find the right routes, to find the right routes on-road, to find the right routes off-road. But I got three or four guys that I can call and say, hey, I'm going to Pacific Northwest. Where do I go? What do I need to pack? Like, what am I missing? Like walk me through that trip you took. And they give me the tools that I need to kind of get where I want to go. And I feel like those creators are the most interesting that can build durable businesses.

**Sam Parr** (2:28)
And now you're a partner at Slow, is that right?

**Billy Parks** (2:31)
Yeah, I'm a venture partner at Slow. I've been here for about a year. And before that, I was at the Churnin Group.

**Sam Parr** (2:35)
Man, Churnin, I've hung out with those guys a bit. They...

**Billy Parks** (2:39)
Yes, I saw your podcast with Kevin, which was great.

**Sam Parr** (2:42)
Yeah, we've had Kevin on. I'm friends with Doug DeMoro.

**Billy Parks** (2:46)
Doug, I found that. I found that.

**Sam Parr** (2:48)
That was you?

**Billy Parks** (2:48)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

**Sam Parr** (2:50)
Your guys' insight back in like 14, 15 and 16, which it seems so obvious now, it was like, we're going to take creators and we're going to make them into billion dollar companies. And like, obviously, we know Mr. Beast does that now. But what a lot of people don't realize is that Chernan was early on this for one. And number two, they've had so many successes that are niche communities. So for example, there's the, what's the meat guy?

**Billy Parks** (3:15)
Meat eater. That's Steve Varnella.

**Sam Parr** (3:17)
Yeah, meat eater. And then there was like probably eight or nine or 10 more. We had Kevin on from Epic Gardening. And so like you've built these like really big businesses. And that's what we're going to talk about today, particularly the creator middle class, because there's like, there's like these, the Mr. Beasts of the world, but there's so many people out there that are making 10, 20, $50 million a year. And they have like 800 or 400,000 followers in a very niche community, like meat smoking or something like that.

**Billy Parks** (3:48)
Right.

**Sam Parr** (3:49)
One of my favorite creators is Doug DeMorrow. Doug DeMorrow does these car reviews. He turned it into Cars and Bids, which I have no idea how big they are, but I think it's quite a large business.

**Billy Parks** (3:58)
I'll tell you, since Doug started, he sold about $450 million worth of vehicles, and then he takes a take rate off that.