How to naturally monetize what you love

**Shaan Puri** (0:00)
It's a great example of you don't want to be the best, you want to be the only. That mentality is how you become the best. Whittle away the generic parts of what you do, and you will be the best one because nobody else is the same as you, and you're sort of in a market of one.

**Sam Parr** (0:24)
All right, Shaan, I have something interesting to show you, and this is going to be a little bit of an advice line, but not for me, but for the person I'm talking about. So the other day, as you know, my new thing in my household is I try to go on dates once a week, every Thursday. You know, I'm trying to become less roommates, more of a married couple. And so this lady reached out to me because she listens to the pod, and I had coincidentally also seen her Instagram, and she did something really cool that I wanted to tell you about. So go to sentsocialclub.com.
So her name's Asia Graham. She started this business. She was like a consultant, but she was obsessed with perfume. And she created this idea that I think is actually really cool, that I call a perfume tour, I guess. But basically, there's this part of New York, this street of perfume stores. Basically, she sends out a type form in advance to everyone on the tour, and you tell her about your personality and things that you're into. You show up at a perfume store. She gives you a sheet where we list out three stores and three perfumes or clones to view per store. She took us on a tour where we went to three different stores or whatever, and she showed us all the stuff. She's like, here's why I think you would like this thing. She pointed it out, and you can or cannot buy it. You don't have to. But look at her Instagram, because this lady was amazing. But the reason I'm bringing this up is because I think that enthusiasm can be a moat in a business. So our friend Nick Gray, both you and I, one of our favorite people on Earth, he has this story where he started this business called Museum Hack which grew to $3 million in revenue over the course of like three or four years. Basically, what he did was at the Met, at a bunch of other museums in New York City, the museums are free and oftentimes you can get a free tour. But he was like, these tours are kind of lame. I'm going to give more exciting tours, and instead of free, I'm going to charge $200.
He would give this tour where his whole shtick was like, I forget all of the things, but one of his main thing was like, I'm going to show you five pieces of art that I would love to steal today.
That small twist makes a world of difference. I don't care about perfumes at all, but I went on this ladies tour, Asia Grant's.

**Shaan Puri** (2:42)
It's contagious though, right?

**Sam Parr** (2:44)
But it's contagious. I'm so into it. She showed me one perfume or whatever, I was like, that's dope, I'll take it. She's like, that's $1,200. I'm like, where's the cheaper one? I'll take it back to the shelf and I'll put it back.
I think I'll love the scent more of the cheaper ones. Where's the Abercrombie?
But anyway, I wanted to show you this because A, I think enthusiasm is a moat, and B, for people who have a passion, it doesn't matter how quirky it is, this woman turned this thing into a full-time job. She makes a lot of money, I think, doing it because she does it for companies and shit.

**Shaan Puri** (3:18)
Well, first, congratulations on the date night. That's actually pretty big in our culture.
I appreciate what you've done there. And very creative date night.

**Sam Parr** (3:26)
Yeah, gotta mix it up.

**Shaan Puri** (3:28)
This is good. So she's just doing this on the side for people? Is that what she's doing?

**Sam Parr** (3:31)
No, it's a full-time job. And I think that there's three types of customers. The first type is like a private tour, which we did, which I think it's like $500. The second thing is like she does group tours.

**Shaan Puri** (3:43)
Her bio is, Asia Grant, I have a perfume for you. The best New York City perfume tour. It's a great example of you don't want to be the best, you want to be the only, which is always a hard thing, right? Because somebody's always doing something. But that mentality is how you become the best because you continue to refine and refine and refine, whittle away the generic parts of what you do until it's really the thing that you do well. And you do, and really whether you're the only one, you will be the best one because nobody else is the same as you. And you're sort of in a market of one. And she's a great example of this. And to be able to do this full time in New York City, that's no joke.