Private Equity FunCast · 2026-07-29 · 1h 18m
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
31 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Johnny's PE Guy character represents a deeper social observation about performative wealth and status-seeking behavior rather than a simple mockery of rich people or private equity itself. Having grown up in Winnetka and worked as a lifeguard at country clubs like Exmoor, Johnny developed a keen eye for the performative aspects of affluent culture - the name-dropping of places like Rosewood resorts, Indian Hill Country Club, and Nantucket, the calculated displays of vacation destinations and elite affiliations. The character uses a distorted Snapchat filter that tracks his facial expressions, allowing him to maintain creative distance while exploring themes of belonging, insecurity, and self-awareness deficit in wealthy enclaves. Johnny's background as a middle child, class clown swimmer at New Trier, and eventual University of Denver attendee gave him an outsider's perspective on these environments. The satire works because PE has become emblematic of a particular flavor of ambition and status anxiety that permeates not just finance but acquired industries across America - from dental practices to HVAC companies. His Fox News appearance revealed the gap between what people expect from the character versus the creator, and highlights how digital personas operate in mainstream media. The conversation explores why this character resonates: it's not about wealth itself but about the behavior of trying too hard to belong or signaling superiority, a dynamic that transcends income levels and geography.
PE Guy is a satirical finance character created in March 2023 using a distorted Snapchat filter. Johnny posted his first video with 5,000 followers and it performed well; subsequent videos also gained traction, eventually snowballing to 370,000+ followers growing by roughly 1,000 followers per day for six months.
Johnny picked private equity because it was everywhere in the news and he kept meeting PE professionals at weddings. He wanted a character with a successful-sounding job, and PE's outsized media attention combined with its expanding reach into acquired industries (dental, HVAC, etc.) made it culturally resonant.
Johnny grew up in Winnetka, attended New Trier public high school, and was a swimmer and water polo captain. He worked as a lifeguard for eight summers at Exmoor Country Club starting in high school, where he observed and cataloged the behaviors, outfits, cars, and interactions of affluent families, inspiring his later social commentary.
In September 2023, Johnny went on Fox News live for a segment and was asked to do the character on air without prior warning. He attempted the distorted face but felt it didn't land as expected; the hosts seemed disappointed and discussed it afterward, an experience Johnny found simultaneously humbling and hilarious.
No - Johnny emphasizes the character satirizes performative behavior and lack of self-awareness rather than wealth or PE itself. The same character could be an heir to Walmart or anyone in debt acting without self-awareness; it's about the behavior of trying too hard to belong or signal superiority, not income level.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The vast majority of the 78 minutes is banter, biographical anecdotes, and character lore about PE Guy's fictional family. The handful of substantive nuggets - influencer brand deal economics, Cameo mechanics, and a cursory PE-industry-structure observation - are buried under heavy filler. A smart B2B operator would spend most of this episode waiting.
Cameo is probably 10 of the business... 80% of it is, uh, like, paid partnerships right now
There's 2500 public companies... there's 40,000 private equity owned companies. 40,000?
The host's convergence thesis - that private equity will eventually look like Fidelity or Vanguard to the public - is mildly interesting but underdeveloped. The framing of PE Guy as a 'belonging anxiety' archetype rather than a simple rich-guy roast shows some observational depth, but no genuinely contrarian or first-principles B2B thinking emerges.
I think 20 years from now, 10 years from now, when you say you work at Blackstone, it's going to be like, you work at Fidelity
it's not the rich guy. It's not the person who owns the plane or whatever or the yacht. It's the behavior
Johnny is a charming Instagram comedian with no meaningful B2B domain expertise - he openly admits he knows nothing about private equity, private credit, or even the SOC 2 compliance of his own sponsor. His accidental influencer business is interesting but he learned his own rates from ChatGPT and used it to review his first brand contract.
I now understand what a Sock 2 compliance is. I still. I actually don't really know
took the contract that they sent me, I plugged that into ChatGPT. I said, are there any red flags?
Despite being an entertainment episode, it delivers a surprisingly specific breakdown of micro-influencer unit economics: Cameo rack rate, Cameo's revenue cut, rush-order premium, per-integration brand deal range, approximate revenue mix by channel, and follower growth velocity. Named brands and industry statistics add further texture.
a single one is, like, between 20 and 30K
it's like, went from 5,000 followers to 370 something now
The host demonstrates genuine knowledge of influencer economics and PE, and manages to extract a real revenue breakdown and pricing structure that Johnny had never publicly disclosed. However, there is zero pushback on any claim, the host frequently answers his own questions before the guest can respond, and large stretches are spent on dentist anecdotes and fictional character lore with no follow-up pressure.
And what are the costs? Like, you. Do you have a social media team? Do you have production team? Like, do you edit all the videos you make?
Are you getting paid to wear that hat right now?
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
PE GUY turned a Snapchat filter into millions of views and a seven-figure business. Host Devin Mathews (a real PE guy) conducts due diligence on Johnny Hilbrant Partridge's background, business model, and the wealthy towns he's taking on next. We sat down with Johnny in PE GUY's natural habitat - a Winnetka, IL pool house to figure out how a goofy internet character became an oddly accurate and honest mirror of the private equity industry. Johnny grew up in Winnetka and now lives in Wellesley (two classic PE Guy towns). He went to New Trier (the affluent North Shore high school that inspired "Breakfast Club"), played water polo at the University of Denver, worked for the Ellen Degeneres Show, and the PE-backed Barry's, and Soul Cycle before creating the viral character. What started out as an Instagram reel to make his friends laugh is now generating millions of views from more than 500,000 followers. We go deep into the PE GUY universe. Catchphrases like "decent," "substantial," "due to my role," plus his three kids named Tarantino, Montauk, and EBITDA. Not to mention Wifey and Nanny's #1, #2, and #3.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Hey, Johnny. Welcome to West Winnetka.
Speaker B: I can show you the ropes because I'm from here. Beautiful home here. It's a little bigger, obviously, but we're over on Sheridan Road. Different funds, different, you know, Mega Cab. So what is your firm?
Speaker A: We're called Parker Gales.
Speaker B: I've never heard of that in my life. Where is your office?
Speaker A: We're in the west loop.
Speaker B: Oh. It's up and coming, but it's not my favorite. I've gotten pizza over there once. I got food poisoning. My offices are Wolf Point, top floor, panoramic views on both sides of the river. I don't drive myself, obviously. I have a Maybach and a driver who takes me. There's a curtain in the back so the sun doesn't get in my eyes. It's not venture capital. It's private equity Equity. It's the private equity fun cast. Pour yourself a drink and have a seat.
Speaker A: Two private equity guys from Winnetta walk, uh, into a pool house. Uh, the next 60 minutes may be the most fun we've had on the fun cast. Uh, may also be the most real, honest conversation we have with somebody who, uh, is inside the brain of the private equity industry and has gotten a lot of attention for it. So we're going to jump right in with Johnny the PE guy.
Speaker B: Whoa. Intro. Yeah.
Speaker A: So you grew up here?
Speaker B: I did.
Speaker A: So people who have watched the show on YouTube, which I think more people listen to it, but if you're watching it, like, and subscribe, uh, were in my pool house in Winnetka, which is a town, I think. Was. Was it the first town you roasted?
Speaker B: In a way I had. I didn't post a reel about Winneka, but I. It was the first town that I started talking about, like, in my stories and stuff. But, um, it's one of my highest performing videos, I will say. Oh, funny story. I'm actually from here. Yeah, I went to New Trier, which people don't expect. Someone of my caliber, they expect to have gone to private school. But New Triers are as good as private when it comes to public schools. But, yeah, I was a swimmer. Yeah. 20900 butterfly or so. Yeah, I focus more so on my academics, so I was AP level classes as a sophomore. Yeah. Oh, you're in Glencoe. Okay. Bummer. Yeah, so we. We would never have bought in Glencoe. No offense. Yeah, because, I mean, I'm from Winneko, so. Um, Glencoe's, it's different. It's a decent town, but it's very Different.
Speaker A: So when I found out you grew up here and I live here, we reached out, like, next time you're home, we gotta pull this off.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: You smartly said, let's not do it downtown, let's do it in Winnetka. Uh, I think because you're lazy and you didn't want to.
Speaker B: No, that's exactly right. Yeah.
Speaker A: Or your mom was like, no, I want as much time with my son as I possibly could. Yeah.
Speaker B: But I would also look for an opportunity to, like, m. You know, get away from the family. Love the family. But a lot of time at home, you know, you want to get. But I think it was more maybe like the traffic. Everyone always complains. I was like, let's just do it. Yeah. And once I found out he had a pool house, I was like, this is great. I'd love to see the house, the pool. Beautiful.
Speaker A: Well, let's do this. For the people who don't know who you are, who is Johnny and what is PE Guy?
Speaker B: I am from Winnetka. I've been in Boston for 10 years. Um, PE guy is a comedic Instagram. I have to. I have to fine tune this. Someday I'll get this, like, a solid sentence out for this.
Speaker A: We'll work on your pitch after this.
Speaker B: Yeah, there's got to be a better pitch. He's a satirical finance Instagram character, um, that I created last year in March, and I posted the first video, like, as a. Just a whatever, with like 5,000 followers on Instagram. And it just. That first video did really well. And I was like, that's kind of a fluke. And then the next one, two days later, also did really well. And then it was, like, from that day on, it was like a thousand new followers a day for six months and feeding the algorithm. And since then, it's, like, went from 5,000 followers to 370 something now. And it's blossomed into this universe basically from just a very dumb Instagram video. Now, you know, I'm all over the place. Yeah.
Speaker A: I want to set the. I want to set the tone a little bit. So you grew up in a town, you've roasted and are like the other towns you've roasted with PE Guy as kind of the. The vehicle to do that. We're nine iron away from Indian Hill Country Club, who you've name checked in your videos. Yes. Uh, you grew up as a member of this country club. I think you're headed there for lunch right after this.
Speaker B: I'm hoping to go for a nice salad after, actually. Not a salad. That's a tough time for a salad right now, given the news. Um, I'm going to go for something like some tacos at the pool with the family.
Speaker A: There's probably a mahjong game is going to break out somewhere, certainly at Indian Hill, right by the pool. And that is the country club that famously, the Murray brothers caddied at as kids, because Wilmette is just on the other side of Winnetka, and so they would caddy at this place. So the inspiration for Caddyshack, maybe the original roaster of Winnetka, uh, in disguise. Yeah. You've carried on the tradition, I think.
Speaker B: And, uh, I think the Haver Camps actually were members. And I just remember being younger. My dad was like, obviously a big Caddyshack guy, and someone was like, oh, the Haver Camps are actually members here. And I just started clocking things like that right away. Caddyshack is probably, like, a big inspiration for me. Like the scene, the pool scene with the caddies in the pool and the woman, like, coming in and, like, yelling at everybody.
Speaker A: Golden. No.
Speaker B: I also worked at Exmoor Country Club. I was a lifeguard for, like, eight summers. So, like, high school through college.
Speaker A: So you've observed this?
Speaker B: I watched it. Yeah. So I. And I remember being, like, 17 and being like, there should be a Caddyshack. There should be like a lifeguard version of Caddyshack, like, or just another, like, country club parody thing. But you could never remake that, especially now. Um, but I just started clocking it from, like, a very young age. Like, just the. Yeah, the outfits, the cars, the. The interactions, you know, the gifted children, which I was not. So I also clocked that very quickly. I was like, how come he's going to, like, a math tutor in the middle of summer, you know?
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B: I'm just eating Snickers bars at the pool shack.
Speaker A: It's no big deal. So can I ask you about growing up, Johnny? Are you the. Were you the class clown? Were you the cut up?
Speaker B: Were.
Speaker A: And where are you in birth order? Because that actually matters a lot.
Speaker B: I am middle.
Speaker A: Yep, there you go.
Speaker B: Middle. My brother and then my twin sister and I and my little sister. So I. I think that, like, if I was the first, I wouldn't be. The personality would be. You know, my brother had to do everything wrong first and then less eyes on me. You know, he kind of taught me, like, this is what you. Don't go to college and don't do this. And don't, you know, you're So I had his footsteps to follow in. Um, he was way more serious, and I was just the joker in the household.
Speaker A: And you're a Crow island kid.
Speaker B: Crow Island. Skokie, Washburn, Nutrier. That Pipeline.
Speaker A: Just like, uh, fallout. Some of the Fallout Boy kids.
Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Ye.
Speaker A: The.
Speaker B: Yeah. Pete Wentz.
Speaker A: Pete Wentz. The Pete Wentz sightings. And, uh, Liz. Fair sightings.
Speaker B: The most random, random list of people.
Speaker A: Amazing.
Speaker B: Um, I was definitely the class clown. Not a good student.
Speaker A: And on the swim team and the water polo team, you were the ones, uh. Uh, you were cracking people up. You were the jokester.
Speaker B: Yes. But also taking myself seriously in a way. Like, I was the captain of the swim team. So, like, I had a serious role my senior year.
Speaker A: But, like, take your job seriously, but not yourself.
Speaker B: Exactly.
Speaker A: All right.
Speaker B: Yeah. So I was very. I was very, um, like, dedicated to things that I was good at. So swimming I was dedicated to, but, uh, academics, like, really just not a great student. But I loved to make. My goal was always to make my teacher laugh.
Speaker A: So you're only, like, three levels all through nature, not four levels.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Never four levels. But all my friends were four levels, and they were getting, like, Ivy Leagues. And I was like. I got in off the waitlist to Denver, which was like, okay. Like, very last minute, like in May.
Speaker A: I mean, the hardships you've gone through growing up in Winnetka and having to get into University of Denver off the ground, Very difficult.
Speaker B: Very difficult.
Speaker A: I do have one question about water polo. Is, uh, how do the horses breathe underwater?
Speaker B: The horses.
Speaker A: Good. That was the perfect reaction. So, uh, here's what I want to get this right out front. Like, your, uh, character is actually a pretty smart observer. You're a smart observer of, uh, humans and the human condition. Yeah. Uh, so, like, this is not a knock on private equity.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: Well, I don't think it is. I don't think it's a knock on these wealthy towns because you live in Wellesley and you grew up in Winnetka, so.
Speaker B: Huh.
Speaker A: And I don't think it's. You're trying to make the easy hit. I think you're actually going a little bit deeper than that. So let's cover that, and then we'll kind of pull back and go deeper into the bit.
Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's not a knock. I think it's like. It's not a knock. Someone actually just messaged me because I was in Nantucket, like, two days ago, and someone was like, seems like, um, that's another crazy Beautiful place to roast. But it's not like the place or the thing or like the fact that you're on a private plane or that you have nine bedrooms in your house. It's not like those things. It's just the way that it's presented, which is why this could be anybody. This could be an heir to Walmart or what. This could be any. This character is just like the self that lacks the self awareness. I just happen to give him the private equity and shot because I was like, all right, he's got to have a, like, a really successful sounding job. Um, so that's where the PE aspect came into it. It wasn't, like, originally to, like, roast pe, but then I learned that PE has its own lingo and that there are some problem areas in pe and, like, those are all kind of coming to light now. So the timing of it, like, worked really well. So I always, like, rebut when someone's like, yeah, you know, you're just making fun of rich people. I'm like, there are plenty of rich people who are super cool, and then there's plenty of people who are not rich and in tons of debt who are terrible and act like this guy. And I mean, it's all different kinds of people. So it's not the rich guy. It's not the person who owns the plane or whatever or the yacht. It's the behavior.
Speaker A: It's the tryhard, the striver, the climber, the person who's actually pretty sad behind all this.
Speaker B: That's how it gets so deep, because you can go from, like, just the surface level down to like, this person is just trying to belong. And he thinks that. He's like, all right, if I walk into this room and I'm like, I went to San Tropez yesterday. Like, everyone's going to be like, oh, wow. Like, okay. Or you go to. You stay at Rosewood resorts only. Like, wow, okay. Like, uh, you're in. It's like a belonging thing. So it is. It is. Can be deeply sad, too. Oh, the weather was awful. Yeah. We're usually in Europe for the 4th, but we had to stick around this year because Tarantino's enrolled in STEM camp at Northwestern. Um, but the Village canceled pretty much everything except the fireworks we did at home. VR headset fireworks. With the kiddos, though? Yeah, they actually prefer them and are environmental. Tox and consultant advises that we avoid exposing the kiddos to unnecessary particulate matter until their executive function is fully developed.
Speaker A: And because, like, you can, uh, you can find out where Those places are that you need to name drop to belong. Right. So you grow up in Winnetka, uh, you only stay in Rosewoods, you only eat at Michelin star restaurants. Like, you can find all this stuff and add it to your conversation as a way of one. Like, I want to belong, so I'm going to say this stuff and try and belong to this community. Or I'm going say this stuff to keep you away because I'm, you know, moving.
Speaker B: I'm better than you. Yeah, I'm up here, you're down here. This summer, we simplified things a little bit. Yeah. One of our nannies takes them straight to Indian Hill. As soon as the pool opens, they're the first ones there. Yeah. And then they splash around a little bit. Quick protein, forward lunch, and then it's off to golf and then tennis and then home for Mandarin and glass blowing. So rinse and repeat. But the other thing is, there's so many people. Like, how many people belong to. I mentioned Indian Hill in my. In my video. And then I was like, my parents are going to kill me. Um, but how many people belong in there who are awesome people? Like, and they're sharing it, being like, hey, this is kind of like. Like Gary, who we played golf with yesterday. Like, and it might be kind of like Gary, who they play golf with, but, like, Gary's still a good guy, you know, like, it's. That's comedy. Like, it's just the extreme example. So, like, no one is exactly like him. Some people are. I've heard some people are worse than him.
Speaker A: Um, oh, 100%. So you can attest that, well, in every career, in every town, there's somebody worse than PE Guy.
Speaker B: Totally.
Speaker A: And I think the reason it clicked is, uh, pe ate the world in the last 30 years from when you grew up here and where my wife grew up here, people didn't really know what people's parents did. This is a town of the big Midwest. Corporate CEOs and business leaders kind of built and lived in this town, but you didn't have any sense of who had way more than anybody else. That's changed over the last, whatever, couple generations. And then this pecking order of careers and PE Guy clicked, I think, because there are plenty of PE Guys walking around every town, um, and talking about using this language and then also thinking they're the top of the food chain, uh, which everybody, I think certainly Midwestern sensibilities are kind of like, hey, like, take it down a notch, buddy.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: So there's always somebody in Every. In every situation where you're like, that's the. You got to take it down a notch.
Speaker B: Big law. Like, when I was trying to figure out what it was gonna. I was like, he'd be a lawyer. He could be CFO guy. Like, he. But I just. I guess I hit it on the head.
Speaker A: Yeah. Cause everybody's. Everybody's dentist, uh, landscaper, vet, et cetera, et cetera, physical therapist, dermatologist, has been bought by private equity. Or, you know, that's the joke that, you know, some kid's gonna graduate from business school and go start a search fund and go buy an H VAC business, and that's how he's gonn millions, or he's going to get in private equity to buy H Vac businesses. Um, but everybody. It's. It hit because it's true enough, and everybody latched onto it, and it's a relatively small industry compared to other industries, but it's got outsized. Outsized attention because it's on the front page all the time for good reasons and horrible reasons.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: Uh, so everybody is. It's an. I say it's an easy target, but you've got some depth to it. Is that fair, or am I reading way too much into.
Speaker B: No, that's really good. I like that. Uh, easy target, but there's depth to Depth to it. So it's. Yeah, it's like the surface, or you can go deeper.
Speaker A: How many people go deeper?
Speaker B: I mean, it depends. I mean, it's just. Everybody's different. Everyone has, like, a different capacity for that kind of. It's like an emotional intelligence thing kind of. People want to be like, oh, this is. I see how this is bigger than just funny silly face guy. Um, and then there are people who are like, you're just making fun of rich people. So. But I would say it's like 90% of people are like, I get that you're doing more than just that.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: And hilarious. Love it. Even people are like, I don't follow you. Like, love it. Keep doing what you're doing. Totally respect it. Yeah.
Speaker A: When somebody sends it to me in my. In my feed, I'm gonna.
Speaker B: You know, I'll watch it.
Speaker A: I'm gonna like it, and I'm gonna probably send along to people.
Speaker B: Exactly.
Speaker A: So let's do this. So you. It's a TikTok filter.
Speaker B: Like, let's get into the Snapchat filter.
Speaker A: It's a Snapchat filter. All right. So use a Snapchat filter to disguise your face. We'll get out of the different. And, uh, you have a very nice face.
Speaker B: Thank you.
Speaker A: So, uh, I appreciate it. But you've made it look somehow like, oh, I could see a guy in PE With a. With a horrifying face like that.
Speaker B: It's. It's almost comic. It's almost, like, cartoonish.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Yeah. So that's why I feel, like, okay about it, because I'm like, no one looks like that. You know, he's like, it's so absurd. But the filter is very good at tracking on your face.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: So if I'm moving, it stays with my face. So that's why people are like, is that his face?
Speaker A: 100%.
Speaker B: I have so many messages every day that are like, I'm debating this with my friends. Is that your face? Like, no, thank God. Um, so it's the filter, like, just adds, like, a. I don't know, something to it that I can't really even put my finger on. Like, it's not me. I could scrunch my face up and try to be, like, pompous in a video, but, like, it also removes me a little bit from it. Where I talk about him in the third character. Sometimes I'm like. I'm like, I'll be talking with a brand. I'll be like, well, so he could act like he's at a spa talking about your software company or whatever. And, like, it confuses people. Sometimes people on the call are like, you're him, right? And I'm like, yeah, but, like, you know, so I get to, like, kind of remove myself a little bit.
Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we could get really deep and talk about, like, Hieronymous Bosch's grotesques from his early trips and things.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Like the Garden of Earthly Delights, but, like, skip that for maybe the gradual level or.
Speaker B: Yes, part two. Digging part two. And I come back to this.
Speaker A: Uh, what is the most surreal moment you've had as P.E. guy?
Speaker B: Um, I think it was September of last year. So, like, five months into this whole thing, I got asked to go on Fox News as a guest, and I was like. I asked, like, a couple of agents who are, like, kind of friends, helped guide me through this whole thing. One at CAA and one at uta. And I was like, what do I do? This is, like, a opportunity, but, like, I don't want to be associated with anything. I don't want to go anywhere because I just don't want to. I don't want to alienate anybody, and I don't want anybody to be mad at me. And he was like, you go, it's not political. Like, they do a funny thing. Just go. So I go to a remote studio in Boston in Newton, and I'm sitting there, like, waiting to go on live Fox News. Like at the end of a long day of talking about whatever the hell they're talking about for 55 and a half minutes, they're going to do a, uh. We like to end Friday with a funny, uh. Of the day or whatever. Which I was like, okay. So I'm sitting there waiting and I come on the screen and it's live tv. And they are like, all right, Johnny's with us now. And we're all kind of shocked because you don't look like the person we know that has gone viral on social media. Welcome to you, Johnny. Thank you. Thank you for having me. You know, and then we talk about it. They show. It's a five minute thing. They show videos. They're being complimentary. So funny. How do you do it? Can you do a little bit of it for us now? No one told me that M. In a pre interview or anything. The pre interview producer called me, was like, hey, ah, yeah, go to the studio at whatever time. So I'm, I'm like, yeah, like trying to like, scrunch my face up and be like, PE Guy. And. And she's like, you know, kind of like chuckling. And I'm like, then I can see myself in a monitor. And I'm like, oh, my God. Like, this is hell. This is hell. Like, this is. I'm like, but it's sink or swim. What am I gonna do? And I can't do it. It's live tv. They've allowed this amount of time for me to do it, so I'm just doing it. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I heard that you guys, both of you drive Rivian, which is. That's a decent car. It's a decent car. But I'm not sure if you're familiar, but Lamborghini actually has an electric car. So we have multiple Lamborghini electrics. So, yeah, Rivian's kind of a starter car for us. Yeah. And of course that resonates because. And I appreciate the joke, we don't actually have the Rivians, but, um, there are Rivians everywhere in these fancy towns filled with PE Guys. And I'm like, oh, like, really tough crowd. I'm like, okay, okay, I figured, like, that's a joke. Um, and then it goes to thanks for having. Thanks for being here. It goes to commercial, and she goes her male co host goes, well, I'm so shocked to see his face like that. I don't understand. And she's like, yeah, I don't get it. And they're talking about it and he's like, I think. I think it takes him a, uh, second to get his face there. To get it there. And they're both like, interesting. And then it cuts in there, like, thanks so much. And the producer says, thanks so much and have a great day. And they thought that if they asked me to do it, I could make Jim Carrey mask, like, in there on live tv. And then when I didn't do it, they were, like, disappointed and talking about it. And I was like, that was the most shocking. I was just like. And I had to laugh about it. I went in the bathroom and, um, this is a dingy, remote studio. And I was like, this is the ups and the downs. And I saw this in la, the lights on at the Ellen show and everyone screaming and then the lights off and someone's sweeping up. Like, those moments are the funniest to me. Like, I'm in the bathroom wiping makeup off my face, television makeup off my face, and I'm, like, laughing in the mirror. And I. But also, like, the scene in the Substance where she's, like, ripping all of Oliver. Like, it was kind of like that. I was like, you're like, you're good for nothing. Go home. Like, look at you. Like, saying yes to everything, you idiot.
Speaker A: Um, so what? You don't know anything about private equity? We're going to get into that in the next segment. But, um, what did you know? Enough to get it. Like, what clicked it? Was it really just like, here's this guy you love to hate in this town. You love to hate.
Speaker B: Well, I just. I think I picked private equity because it was everywhere in the news. And, like, I felt like I kept meeting people specifically at weddings who were like. I'd be like, what is. What do you do? Or what? Private equity. And then people would be like, oh, he's in private equity. Like, it was this big. Like, okay. Like, he's driving that car because he's in private equity. Like, he does really well. He's in private equity.
Speaker A: It's a shortcut. Uh, again, I am the PE Guy and I.
Speaker B: Or you're not. But no, let's.
Speaker A: Come on. Yeah.
Speaker B: I would not be in a pool. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker A: So, yeah, I'm P.E. guy.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: But, uh, didn't grow up like P.E. guy.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: Uh, so. And I've got three brothers and a bunch of friends who keep me honest. But, yeah, private equity is shorthand for I'm doing okay. Yeah, I'm doing better than you.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: Now, it may not be, especially me
Speaker B: in those scenarios where I'm like, I'm a spin instructor. And they're like, I'm in pe. I'm like, okay, well, like, we'll just like pack up and I'll go home.
Speaker A: Exactly. It's like, oh, yeah, we're buying up spin, uh, spin classes. What are the unit? Economics.
Speaker B: My favorite conversation was somebody being like, I was at a wedding and someone was like, SoulCycle. And he was like, I'm trying to think. Like, are they PE back? I was like, I have no idea. Like, I have zero clue if they're PE back.
Speaker A: The check hits the account every two weeks. Don't care.
Speaker B: They have enough money to pay me my. For my classes. And that's. I don't know where it's coming from,
Speaker A: but yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think a while there was a good run we had there where like, hey, I work in private equity. I run a private equity firm. This or that. Um, that was like, oh, look at this, uh, look at this. Go getter.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Uh, there's a little bit of that. I think it's turned into for better or for worse. Right. I mean, I think there's a lot of the population that would say private equity entered my life somehow by buying something I. A service provider I frequented. And it's gotten worse. And certainly the headlines of Toys R Us got nuked. This company got nuked by debt, and private equity don't help. But I think it's more like the little day to day stuff.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: And we, uh, share the same dentist. Shout out. Mike Duda.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: Yeah, he's putting in a permanent crown next Friday.
Speaker B: Oh, wow.
Speaker A: Uh, so I've got a temporary in right now.
Speaker B: Really nice guy. But I have had. He's put. If anyone ever is going to put a needle in the roof of your mouth, tell them that you're just going to deal with the cavity. Like, just leave it. Just leave it. He's done that to me. But, like, I think probably the last time I saw him before I moved away and it was. He was not my dentist was. He put a needle in the roof of my mouth and just for fun or. No, like, for numbing.
Speaker A: Oh, okay.
Speaker B: And because, you know, if they do novocaine, like in your gum, it's fine. But the roof of your mouth, you will feel in your eyeballs and in your Toes.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: And I was just like. Like, it was the. I have a. I'm probably kind of a baby, but it was a horrible amount of pain. And I was like, I never want to come back here again.
Speaker A: This is not a good advertisement for the best dentist in the North Shore.
Speaker B: She's a wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker A: But my biggest thing is don't sell the private equity because I'm switch dentists.
Speaker B: I know.
Speaker A: He's like, never, never, never. Yeah, until they hit the number.
Speaker B: Yeah, I know. Well, that's what happens.
Speaker A: Then I ask him, what does he use for, like, his. You know, his dental practice management system. And he built his own. I'm like, I couldn't make a private equity joke there. Anyway, we're getting off topic.
Speaker B: Sorry. That's the truth of it all.
Speaker A: Yeah. So, uh. Uh. But everybody's had this experience with private equity. Not all positive. So the fact you say private equity guy was like, oh, I know what that means now. It's shorthand for, I'm not sure I like this guy if he's gonna act like this.
Speaker B: Right?
Speaker A: So I tell people I'm m in tech software because we invest in software companies. So my shorthand. When I'm at Nico's wedding in a few weeks and somebody says, hey, what do you do? I'm gonna say, I'm in software. Or I say, it's really boring. What do you do? It's like, I work at a bank. I'm a teller at a bank. Which is also, like, you can't do because then they find out you worked in private equity. Like this guy trying to pretend he's a man of the people.
Speaker B: You could, like, start a, you know, boutique downtown Winneca, and say that you're a boutique owner or something like that, you know, and then that's your. That's the first thing you know.
Speaker A: It's 100. A private equity guy thing to do. The wife who wants to.
Speaker B: I just have so much.
Speaker A: Wifey wants a boutique.
Speaker B: Yeah. Ah, Just as a great law school floral puppy. Puffy sleeve dresses and. And wicker baskets.
Speaker A: Well, when. Eka, you want to open a real estate agent or like a bank or a wealth management firm or a. Ah. In a dry cleaner.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: We haven't done a restaurant. We haven't done great with the restaurant, uh, bar scene like Wilmette and other coffee shops. Um, so let's get into your catchphrases. So you're known for, like, you've invented these catchphrases that, in my world aren't very private Equity, but seem to work for the character. Right. So, like, what are PE Guy's catchphrases?
Speaker B: PE Guy, I think, in the very first one was decent, because he would be talking to you and say. You'd say what you do for work, and he'd be like, oh, that's a decent. That's a decent, um, surgeon.
Speaker A: I'm a heart surgeon.
Speaker B: There's decent upside there, but, like, you're capped at a certain, you know, like, so decent was number one, and then it was substantial, because then he would be talking about himself, and he would be like, well, you know, like, my compensation is.
Speaker A: It's a substantial sum, and I don't
Speaker B: want to tell you the number, but it's substantial. And, like, he, like, you know, kind of closes his eyes when he says it, and it's gonna. It's a lot of money. It's substantial. And then due to my role is something that I actually have heard people say. But not due to my role, but, like, you know, because of my job,
Speaker A: obviously, I have to travel.
Speaker B: So. Wait, so weird. Like, you're spending all of your. All of August in Europe? Like, so how. Well, it's because of my job, and we're able to, you know, like, that. Like, so the. Due to my role was just kind of like the next level. So that's. That's become the name of my, um.
Speaker A: You have a podcast called Due to My Role.
Speaker B: My podcast. Yes.
Speaker A: Yeah. And that's the name of your llc Due to my role. Llc?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: I got to have an llc.
Speaker B: I have an llc. Yeah.
Speaker A: That's very smart.
Speaker B: I don't know. To protect me from being sued by. I don't know who. Um, yeah, but, yeah, due to my roles, it's now it's everywhere. And then there's, um, PE Private equity. So when he says I'm in the character. When he says, when I'm, like, talking to someone at a wedding or whatever, um, well, I'm in PE and then, like, a little pause. Private equity. Just to, like, make sure, just to drill it in there, that it's of course not physical education. Like, not a PE Teacher.
Speaker A: Yeah. Because I always, like, why does he say PE Private equity. And I think now that I'm getting. It's like, oh, no, I'm in P.E. oh, let me explain to you, poor hearts.
Speaker B: Private equity.
Speaker A: This is private equity.
Speaker B: Yeah. Just so you know, like, that's how. Yeah.
Speaker A: All right. Uh, and so, like, who are the characters in the reoccurring characters in P.E. guy's life. Oh, wow.
Speaker B: So it started with one of the kiddos. The kiddos is a buzzword, too. Um, Tarantino's the first child. Tarantino is 4, Montauk is the daughter, second daughter, 2, and then Ibada is 9 months. And it's like Family Guy. They're stuck.
Speaker A: They're stuck at those ages. They're stuck at those ages.
Speaker B: Everyone's like, when's Tarantino's birthday? And I'm like, yo. You'll know, because Tarantino's birthday is going to be a blowout when I have to, like, rent, uh, out Madison Square Garden and we have to sell tickets
Speaker A: for his fifth birthday.
Speaker B: For his fifth birthday, of course.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: There's nothing like Lake Como on Father's Day Morning. If you know, you know. Right? Have you, have you ever been to Como? Oh, uh. It's so sick. Yeah. Well, due to my role, we're able to vacation here consistently.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: You know, the pups are playing in the water, and Tarantino and Montauk are at fencing lessons.
Speaker A: And Tarantino travels with you a lot based on your social media feed. I've seen Tarantino. He's the heir to Lake Como, I believe I've seen him, uh, at Wimbledon, acting up in inappropriate places with, uh, a device in his hand. Clearly you haven't gotten the memo that in Winneko we don't give kids devices.
Speaker B: Right. But he's.
Speaker A: They're in eighth grade.
Speaker B: He's very different. So he. He can.
Speaker A: He just, like, just slamming Kumon worksheets on that.
Speaker B: Those are. He's above those. He's got, like. He has a violin that he brings with him that the staff brings around with him. He has a harp that he brings with him on vacation. He likes to practice. Oh, and. And wifey. Wifey, wifey. And she's very, very dedicated to tennis. So she does 2A days with tennis pro.
Speaker A: But not paddle. She's playing tennis, not paddle.
Speaker B: She, like, dabbles a little bit in paddle. Like I've said that. But pickle. But she really is, like, Pickle's more
Speaker A: of a public school sport, I think. You're not.
Speaker B: Yeah. Pickles at club. Pickle's too attainable for. For the public now. She plays, like, on clay courts at the club with the tennis pro 2A days. And they're very close to tennis pro and wifey, and he is very supportive of her tennis journey. So he just doesn't think twice when she says that she's going back to the tennis hut to hang out with Federico.
Speaker A: Are there any new Characters that are gonna come into his life.
Speaker B: Wifey has a swing coach that when the tennis pro and her are on the fritz, there's a swing coach for golf that she uses.
Speaker A: And is this in the simulator at home above the garage?
Speaker B: There's a private simulator in the basement. And then there's, um. And then he comes with them to St. Barts. That's a new. That's a new thing. I'm just trying to, like, diversify the, you know, the potential revenue streams for myself. Maybe, maybe, you know, a golf company wants to sponsor the swing coach. I don't know.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's it for the. I mean, there's staff, but they're not named. It's just Nanny one, two, three.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: Um, there's, like, depending on the video, there's of course, like an equestrian team at the house for the horses that are in the stable.
Speaker A: I mean, this, this is why, like, the people who are like, oh, he hates money. He hates private equity is like, no, this is just absurd. No, we're having fun and we're making it more absurd. And we're all here.
Speaker B: You can go here for the ride. You can go anywhere with those things. Like, that's the thing.
Speaker A: So I'm going to give you. We'll give you some tips. We've written about this on our. On our blog and on, uh, our sub stack. And we've also done, uh, an episode about PE Lingo.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: We can download a PE Lingo bingo card and you can play bingo at your next meeting if you want. So I'll give you like three. Like three key ones would be. First is the unlock. So I think if we want to unlock value or unlock, you know, your riches, there needs to be something to unlock.
Speaker B: So what's an example of an unlock?
Speaker A: So, uh, like, uh, expanding into Europe? Hey, we bought this dermatology practice.
Speaker B: We bought Sweetgreen, and we're.
Speaker A: Yeah. The unlock is expansion.
Speaker B: Okay. The unlock is replacing everybody with a robot.
Speaker A: The unlock is robot, uh, salad. Yeah, Salad makers. Yeah.
Speaker B: Yeah. Okay.
Speaker A: Right. The unlock could be levering, uh, the heck out of the business. Sure. And draining its cash flows to pay down debt. That could be the unlock.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: The unlock is just something that, like, if we just. When we do this, oftentimes before you buy the company, you have to have like, well, what's the unlock?
Speaker B: Right. How are you going to take it to the.
Speaker A: How do you take it to the next level? You got to unlock.
Speaker B: Okay, so I'm already, I'm already Thinking things. So like, if I were to buy up a dentist thing, the unlock would be he's. The three dentists at the practice are going to work Saturdays and Sundays.
Speaker A: That would be an unlock. Unlock would be teeth whitening. Unlock would be we charge you twice as much when we shoot Novocaine into the roof of your mouth versus the gum.
Speaker B: Perfect.
Speaker A: The unlock could also be we're gonna get rid of the homegrown dental practice management system and we're gonna bring in another P.E. backed software, uh, business.
Speaker B: Right. Get rid of the old lady at
Speaker A: the place so we can accelerate, uh, order to cash. Right. That's a big unlock too. You wanna do that?
Speaker B: Okay. All right. Locked and loaded up here.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Ah. And I'll just listen to this if I forget.
Speaker A: Yep. And then, uh, there's industrial logic. Yeah. Industrial logic is. Well, it just makes sense. You could say, this makes sense, we should do it. Or you could. Or you could just say industrial logic of PE guy and the fun cast coming together. This is just obvious. Industrial logic makes sense.
Speaker B: Okay. Industrial logic.
Speaker A: Often when two things are coming together,
Speaker B: like two companies like pet grooming and a veterinary service or something. Horse ophthalmology and equestrian grooming.
Speaker A: While you, uh, get your crown. Get a crown in. Yeah, that's. Those are synergies too. I mean, there's a lot of synergies.
Speaker B: Pedicure at the dentist.
Speaker A: But the way you unlock something is often you pull a lever.
Speaker B: Mhm.
Speaker A: And you drive synergies. So there's a lot of lever pulling. There's synergies.
Speaker B: That's crazy.
Speaker A: There's unlocks. But it's all in the service of only one thing. Value creation.
Speaker B: Of course.
Speaker A: Got to create value.
Speaker B: Of course.
Speaker A: So where is P.E. guy creating value for his, uh, LPs? That's what I want to know. We'll get to that later.
Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's a.
Speaker A: You should be thinking, where do they start? Yeah. What is this, uh, you know, tennis match. What's this trip to Martha's, uh, Vineyard. How is that creating value for your shareholders and your, uh, and your investors? That's. That's very important.
Speaker B: It's a good question.
Speaker A: So you're on cameo. People pay you money to either roast a friend of theirs, a family member, or roast themselves.
Speaker B: Um, yeah, I would say like every once in a while it's. Which is kind of makes me sad when someone's like this because it says from and to. It's like from Bill to Bill, like from me to. And I'm like, you've got yourself a birthday cameo. But I think he's going to share it with his friends, I hope.
Speaker A: Um, I had Michael rapoport roast my M15 year old on cameo for her 15th birthday. And yeah, you cannot share it. It is brilliant. One of the most brilliant two minutes of comedy, but it's unshareable because it would make him look even worse than he looks because he really committed to the bit and it was amazing.
Speaker B: That's the thing. Some of the roasts. So I roast. Most of them are roast like. Or it's like, uh, it's like a birthday for a wife. Like, hey, for my husband, roast him. He's in whatever. He belongs to the club.
Speaker A: Private Equity. Pe.
Speaker B: Private Equity.
Speaker A: And he belongs to Sentinel.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And he's. Right now he's in Ibiza. Um, and the kids are at home with a nanny or whatever. But. So I roast people mostly. They're mostly roast or birthday things. Her father's Day's a big, um, a big one. But they. In the very beginning, I wasn't on Cameo. And so the first. With the first month of doing this, someone was like, hey, I will Venmo you just like, it's my husband's 50th birthday, please. Like, I need this video in the next two days. Like, here are all the things. And then I was like, oh, if this is how, uh, Cameo works, I can. So now I am on Cameo, but in the beginning, I would just say to people, they're like, what. What do you charge? And I was just like, I don't charge because this is. You're the first person asked me to do this.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I was like, whatever you think is fair. Which was a great. It was a great way to test the, you know, whatever.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: People started sending me, like, anywhere between 200 and $700 for a 45 second, uh, to 92nd.
Speaker A: We'll hold that. We're going to get into the revenue streams and the opportunity to unlock some synergies by pulling levers.
Speaker B: But I was like, we're going to
Speaker A: give you some advice in the next.
Speaker B: For that. I need to nail that sentence.
Speaker A: Right. So you've got. You got that. You've got this filter that allows you to let it rip. I mean, if it was Johnny's face versus PE Guy's face, could you pull this off the way you wanted to?
Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know. I think, I think again because it lets me separate from the character that I almost am. Like, I can be like, I'm having the worst day. And then I go up to my third floor of my house where my studio is, and I'm like, the filter comes on my face. And I'm like, all right. Like, I'm separate, totally separated. And then afterwards I'm like, uh, you know, I'm back in me. But like, I can kind of like. So if it was just me, I think it'd be hard to, uh. And then it's my face out there.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: And then people are like, you're not funny. But I'm like, if you don't think he's funny, like, all right, he's annoying. Yes. He's.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and was this, like, did you have multiple characters leading this? And this one clicked and everybody asked like, oh, he's a comedian and he did this. And I'm like, no, no, no, he's just a regular guy.
Speaker B: He's just a guy who likes to make people laugh. So. And. But I was making my friends laugh and I. I've the Snapchat filters. There's. There's like thousands. So I would like, land on a Snapchat filter and be like, okay, this is old lady in the Midwest. I'm gonna do and send those to
Speaker A: my friends because you've posted ones of like a. A woman of a certain age, like, stressed out. Mama pounding. Uh, Duncan.
Speaker B: Hey, mamas. Who else high five. Put a finger down if you've been. Put hands up if you've been up since 5am because the kiddos. Yeah, yeah. Well, there's that. And then, I mean, there's like, there. So I. My. That's how my brain works. It doesn't work very well in a lot of ways, but this way it does. So I, I've always done that. And I just send them to friends. Someone was like, you gotta like, put that on Instagram. It's really funny. And I was like, I don't know. And that's how PE Guy kind of happened because he was.
Speaker A: That the filter gave you the idea and then PE Guy popped.
Speaker B: Exactly. But there. So there are other.
Speaker A: But you weren't doing like stand up and open mic nights doing these things.
Speaker B: Although I have done a stand up class. It's just terrifying. So I was like, I'm not doing that again.
Speaker A: Yeah, but like, you coming out of college, you worked for the Ellen show. Yeah. You've worked in, you know, fitness and other things.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Um, but this was just like a thing to make your friends laugh.
Speaker B: Yeah, just to as many people as I could.
Speaker A: And where are you getting your bits? Like, I met you. Like, this stuff is so specific when. That is easy. Because he grew up here and was like, okay, that was target practice. Super easy. But you're, like, going into some deep areas that you need to know the lingo because that's why people are sharing it. Right. Like, you've had millions of views.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: And so many share because. Yeah. So people will message me and say, these are often places I've never been. So someone talking about you.
Speaker A: Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Like, he hasn't done it yet. So somebody.
Speaker B: I gotta do that if anyone wants to send me, you know, information. So ideally, I do have a PE
Speaker A: guy from there who I can perfect. I'll send it to and have it.
Speaker B: And then it'll be. It'll be the perfect script because he know, you know, the assumption is these people messaging me all know. But I do cross reference. So if I search my DMs right now and I say Charlotte, North Carolina, like, it will drop down. They'll be endless. And then I'll just click into and I'll screenshot some and then, like, copy it and put it all into a document and find where there's, like, similarities. So then I notice, like, a trend like, oh, they all belong to Charlotte Country Club, whatever. Like that. And then, like, there's a mention of the same coffee shop all the time.
Speaker A: So then that's how I school, not this school. So then you've got the competition between, oh, we would never send our kids to this school. They go to that school. The way you could do that in Winnetka, around you saying, I went to New Trier. You would be surprised because I'm so, you know, such a amazing guy that I would have gone to Loyola or
Speaker B: North Shore country, but I went to public.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So.
Speaker B: But I. And then if I.
Speaker A: You need to get that level of specificity for each town.
Speaker B: Yes. Which I don't have the context in any other town except this one. Like, I would. I would. I know that here it's not as common to go to a private school because you have nutria. And it does have that kind of. And so if you go to college, people know what nutria is like.
Speaker A: Well, you went to the University of Denver.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: How many people from your class were University of Denver?
Speaker B: Like 25.
Speaker A: 25 people from your graduating high school class were at University of Denver.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Which are, uh. There's 4,000 places in America you could go to college and 25 go to Wisconsin. There's 100 kids there. You go to Boulder. There's probably 50 kids there.
Speaker B: Totally.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: They're all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that. Yeah.
Speaker A: And the other kids you hung out with were from Edina, Minnesota. Uh, Eden Prairie. Like, let's go through the list. Uh, so.
Speaker B: All right.
Speaker A: I want to, uh. So people slide into your DMs.
Speaker B: Yep.
Speaker A: Or email you at whatever PE guy at Gmail is that. We are Peguy.
Speaker B: No, I upgraded to johnny@do to my role.com exist. Jo J O, H, N, N Y.
Speaker A: Uh, due to my Role dot com.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: That's way worse than you guy. Gmail dot com.
Speaker B: It takes way more like, you don't look legit because. Because you have a Gmail account. They're like, make this look just like. I don't know.
Speaker A: I just have an account with one of the largest, most substantial companies.
Speaker B: If you had. If you had an account, if you were doing, like, business with somebody and you were like, it's at Gmail, they'd be like, kind of a Flex. Real.
Speaker A: I think Hotmail is kind of a flex if you're really successful, you know, or something. It's like, this guy cares so little.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Yeah. That he still has a high.
Speaker B: Doesn't need to do this. Yeah.
Speaker A: He has an Excite account. That guy is a baller. I think it's kind of the opposite.
Speaker B: That's a good point. All right, well, I have both.
Speaker A: All right, let's also cover this before we move on to. We're going to get into the economics of this business. You've graciously said you'd share. Um, like, a very Midwest thing to do. Talk about money. We're going to try. We're going to try. It'll be very uncomfortable, us trying to.
Speaker B: That's okay. I can.
Speaker A: Money from each other a little bit. Uh, but you worked at Barry's. Yeah, Barry's was owned by Private equity.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: You blow up, and I don't think they, like, they nuked you off the.
Speaker B: No. Like, yeah, no. Like, I was a bad employee, first of all. So I do have to say that, like, I was just always, like, I have to go to, like, New York City to do something for pei. So I was just subbing out of classes a lot, but there was no real conversation. Like, put me on a performance review or something to make it fun for me to get fired. But instead, I just found out I was taking off the schedule. I was like, okay.
Speaker A: All right, so the conspiracy theory about Barry's here. Do we think this was private? Equity related. There was. I think there's an executive session somewhere at the private. We need to get rid of this guy.
Speaker B: I like to think they were sitting around a room and there were like 12 people at a board. Like, and they were all. And I like to imagine all their phones, the volume going on, and they all share a video and it's all playing me. And they're all just kind of like. Like just like really disappointed.
Speaker A: Just.
Speaker B: They're like, more like, we got to take him off the. Yeah. Because he's not adding. Because I wasn't really leaning in. I think.
Speaker A: You're not adding value. I was adding value.
Speaker B: They wanted me. Some of the. Like, the regional people.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Who. It's not. It's not those people. It's the. The regional people. Like, why don't we lean into this? Like, you post a. A thing, take your first class on berries. Like, have this be like a top of funnel thing, you know, like, and. And see who you bring in and see if you can create value here.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: And I was like, I'm not gonna do that. So, um. So I don't think they like that very much. And then the people at the top were probably like, he's virtually useless. Which I. I essentially was. Because I was never unreliable. I was unreliable.
Speaker A: You also have like the 5am class.
Speaker B: I did have a 610 and a 720 on Monday morning, which were highly coveted classes. So the other instructors were like, what is. Why does he have those? He's never here. Like, he's. He. I was. I played bangers in class. Great class. Some comedic, you know, relief during your sprints up a hill or whatever. But as far as my knowledge of the general, like, body and the moving of it, I would just be like. People be like, my back hurts from. And I'd just be like, shoot. Like I.
Speaker A: Did you ever work at the Soul Cycle in Beacon Hill?
Speaker B: Yes, that's where I. That was my home studio.
Speaker A: Okay. So I'm.
Speaker B: Now it's a sweet cream.
Speaker A: I'm in Boston visiting my brother.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Who went to Harvard, by the way.
Speaker B: Did you go to HBS as well?
Speaker A: No, his. He's has a PhD. Uh, but. And his wife went to Harvard. Uh, she's an architect. So I'm visiting them and they, uh. Uh, his wife is super into Soul Cycle. She's amazing. Um, so we go. She's like, hey, let's take a Soul Cycle class.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: This is way off topic, but that's okay.
Speaker B: I probably know.
Speaker A: We'll talk about her name later. There's a payoff here. Yeah. So at one point, the sole instrument, I'm in the back row because I'm like, hey, I'm not a spin person. Yeah. And my sister in law is in like amazing spin shape.
Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
Speaker A: So she would say that's a different shape than other shapes. So if you do spin and then you lift weights or go for hike like you. You're not in any other kind of shape than spin shape.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Yeah. So this instructor, probably you, gets off the bike, shoot what's. Walks back to the back row, looks me in the eye and says, are you okay? So, uh, even in my, in my moment of need, it's probably like 10 years ago, years ago.
Speaker B: It's only a male instructor 100%.
Speaker A: It was you.
Speaker B: It was probably me.
Speaker A: It was totally you.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Yeah. Because you care.
Speaker B: Well, you. But you probably also. Did you look like you were dying.
Speaker A: I don't know.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: I can't see myself while I'm studying.
Speaker B: Yeah. I might have been concerned. It's very dark back there, you know, you. It was crazy.
Speaker A: You 100% came and checked on me.
Speaker B: That is fun. I mean. Yeah, you would have known. Yeah. That was definitely the biggest.
Speaker A: You're a really instructor there, Johnny. This is the thing you, like, in my moment of need, uh, you check my pulse.
Speaker B: Yeah. I just was like, I'm not, I'm not. Because I did have to drag people out. That was always very disorienting for people. And people would faint all the time. And dragging somebody out of there is the soul cycle's whole thing is like, don't stop. Don't disrupt the class, you know, which is ultimately like, we don't want to refund anybody. So, like, don't turn the lights on. Like, drag their carcass out into the hallway and they'll. They'll administer CPR more.
Speaker A: Born this Way is just blasting quietly.
Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. The instructor's screaming and doing backflips. Yeah.
Speaker A: All right, let's talk about the business. So you took a Snapchat filter and
Speaker B: shout out to Snapchat, don't get rid of the filter.
Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, that's, uh, he's. Evan's in a tough spot, you know, hard to get that. My dear friend, that market cap up and releasing those big chunky glasses, I don't think is going to help.
Speaker B: I need a pair of those, by the way.
Speaker A: We'll get into that in a second. But, um. And I think you just don't feel cringy like, you don't have that, uh, I'm embarrassed for myself gene, which, uh. So you took those. Those two things, like cringe. I tell people everything good is on the other side of cringe.
Speaker B: Totally.
Speaker A: Clearly. I'm doing a private equity podcast that
Speaker B: most people at least buttoned up and adult. Yeah.
Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you. Huge compliment coming for you.
Speaker B: For real.
Speaker A: You're so mature. Uh, so, uh, uh, that I think you just took those two things and kind of like, I don't give an F. And, uh, let's just put some stuff out there. So I want to know about, like, how does the business work? This is a private equity podcast, so. Sure. What are the revenue streams, the different ways you get paid?
Speaker B: So they are Cameo.
Speaker A: So Cameo, a Chicago company, which, you know.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Uh, B list celebrities. And private equity guys can be. I know you're climbing at 250 bucks, I think is your rack rate. Yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: You could get a New Jersey housewife for, like, 78 bucks.
Speaker B: Yeah, well, they're struggling.
Speaker A: Um, New Jersey, unfortunately, the franchise is struggling, but they. Atlanta's coming back. That's the thing. I mean, you know, it's making a big. And Rhode island, there's so many of them. Isn't it embarrassing that Rhode island housewives could charge more for the cameo?
Speaker B: Well, they're more, like, relevant right now, I feel like. But the cameo thing was someone reached out a cameo, and they're like, we're going to put you on the platform. You should start at 15 to $20. And I was like, 15, 20, respectfully, absolutely.
Speaker A: You can get Beetlejuice from the Howard stern show for 15.
Speaker B: Yeah, like, you could. You could get a dead person for $15 on cameo.
Speaker A: So I was like, we're not talking about Mitch McConnell. We're not getting political.
Speaker B: Yeah, we don't want to get political.
Speaker A: But, um, Cameo.
Speaker B: So I did.
Speaker A: But you were doing these like, you, uh, were just doing a video, sending it and getting Vemo'd.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: Which you didn't pay anything. You didn't give up any of. Any of the juice for that. Johnny, how much. How much are you giving up to Cameo for these? How much?
Speaker B: I think it's 25.
Speaker A: So they get 25 of the 250. And people could pay you more because they tip on cameo.
Speaker B: Yeah, they tip. And then they also, if you do 24 hours, it's like, if you charge, they upcharge. So I get like 300 if it's a 24 hour thing.
Speaker A: Sweet. All right, so you got cameo. 250 to 300. Give up 25. Yeah. Margin.
Speaker B: But cameo is probably 10 of the business.
Speaker A: There's zero prediction. There's zero production cost to a cameo. You're just recording it.
Speaker B: Just my, like, soul and, yeah, like, you know, dignity. But, you know, that's, uh, it.
Speaker A: That's a zero cost.
Speaker B: That's gone.
Speaker A: Zero cost.
Speaker B: We're done with that anyways. So that 10 cameo, um, like, 80% of it is, uh, like, paid partnerships right now. Now it's more like 70.
Speaker A: Is that is because you have 375,000 followers Instagram?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: How many on.
Speaker B: A hundred thousand on TikTok.
Speaker A: So are you monetized on Instagram? Like, do you get cpm? So, like, are you getting paid? Like, you get a million views, you get you that. You get some juice because they're inserting.
Speaker B: All right, so tick tock. I'm monetized on. So that's maybe 5% of the business. So if videos perform better, you get paid for each video, then Instagram, the brand partnerships are the biggest things.
Speaker A: All right, so how does that even start? You're putting goofy videos out on Instagram that pop.
Speaker B: And then two months into the PE guy, the first brand, Black Tux, reached out, said, we want to do a brand deal with you. Like, do you have a manager? And I was like, yeah, I do. Uh, hello? Yeah, yeah, like, let me get, like, love, Anna. Uh, yeah, like, I like partnerships at, uh, new to my role. Yeah, um, and I was just like. It was like, what can I. What. What's your rate? Yeah, so I just asked ChatGPT, and then I spit that number out.
Speaker A: Johnny, you're the best. You can charge whatever you want.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we love you. Um, Spit it out. Then they were like, great, let's do it. And then I had no idea what. So then I took the contract that they sent me, I plugged that into ChatGPT. I said, are there any red flags?
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: No. Bingo. Good to go. Sign it.
Speaker A: Amazing.
Speaker B: Then they were like, our friends at
Speaker A: Kirkland and Ellis are having an absolute heart attack.
Speaker B: Yeah. Whoops.
Speaker A: Yeah, Johnny, we could get you way better legal advice.
Speaker B: I know, but they take so long and they have to use their eyes.
Speaker A: It will probably be 90% of your budget, your expense budget. But, uh, we could get you protected here.
Speaker B: So that. It started in May, the first one. And then someone, another company saw, oh, he's doing brand deals. Like, we gotta. So then it just kind of like from there turned into like a. Now it's like between Four and eight paid partnerships a month probably. And they're with like, Boland Branch, Ramp Vanta. Ah. Some software companies. Some like, you know, Roan is a. As a.
Speaker A: So what is Vanta? Vanta just wants to get in front of private equity people because they sponsor a lot of private equity podcasts except this one. Hello, Vanta.
Speaker B: Yeah, hi, Vanta. Um, they. I now understand what a Sock 2 compliance is. I still. I actually don't really know.
Speaker A: You absolutely don't.
Speaker B: You could, but I. Weave it into the script.
Speaker A: Weave it into it. So you're, uh. So. Yeah. So our audience isn't hardcore influencer economy people. Right. They're not like, listening, taking the Colin and Samir how to be an Influencer course. Like, uh, some of us at Parker Gill shockingly did. Uh, so. So you mention them in a PE
Speaker B: Guy video or you do videos about them, basically. And then I collaborate with the company. So it's like, you know, paid partnership. Johnny and Bowen Branch, for example. Like, so then the whole video is about like me refreshing the whole Aspen house with Bowen Branch sheets. So it's a natural, like, ad where, like, it. So if you're, if you're watching, you're like, oh, I know this is an ad. But like, hopefully you're like, I think that that PE Guy is still so funny in the ads that I'm going to watch the whole ad. And that's the value prop that I like.
Speaker A: I'm not like, your completion rates are high.
Speaker B: Look at my. Yeah, whatever that means. Look at my new, like, waffle blanket. I love it so much. Like, how many of those are you going to see? You're so. I think people in the beginning were like, you're not going to be able to monetize this because no brand is going to want to use that dumb face to promote their product. And now I'm like, well, they are, because it's different than everybody else.
Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, because again, it's, uh, they're looking to have authentic organic integrations.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: Right. These are the things I hear a lot about. You hear a lot about integrations. They want it organic. Meaning we're not going to just sit here and say, hey, XYZ sponsor is my go to, you know, uh, pillowcase. It's like, I'm m going to make a goofy video and I'm going to bring it up.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And then. And it also usually starts with like, someone like, I'm the CMO messaging me. I'm the CMO at whatever company. I love your Stuff. I'm m connecting you with our social team. Social team work with Johnny.
Speaker A: Yeah. And what people don't know is Micro Influencer. And this was big at con, like the, uh, Lion Awards and, you know, advertising awards, is that the micro influencer world is starting to compete with, like, the macro influencer world. Right. You obviously have the huge celebrities that you want to be associated with, but if you add up all the dollars of these. The PE Guys everywhere, right? And everybody has some goofy. There's a guy here in Chicago who does. What up, gang? Do you know what up gang guy? Uh, Johnny Stoppa. He owns, like, a Greek restaurant.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: And he just started doing these videos on his phone where he'd be. His. He and his wife would be in Target and they'd be in line, and he would hold his phone up and say, what up, gang? Me and Tina are hanging out in Target today. Smash the, like button. You got to follow this.
Speaker B: Not an ad.
Speaker A: No, no. He's just goofing around, and it, like, took off because you're like.
Speaker B: It's like.
Speaker A: Because it's just goofy that, uh, you'd be in Target with your wife, and you'd be like, what up, gang? We're at Target today doing a little Sunday shopping, like, and subscribe. And her reaction is a whole part of it, right at the very beginning was extremely genuine and fun.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: Um, but again, so, like, some people see that, and now he's like, hey, these are the. I use these pans when I cook, or I use. I drink this. You're doing stuff for drinks. So what do you get paid for? Ah. What's an integration look like?
Speaker B: A full integrated, like, real. Like a single one is, like, between 20 and 30K.
Speaker A: Yeah. Amazing.
Speaker B: Which is bananas.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: And every time I tell that to a company and I can always see on their faces, I'm like, on a call, I'm like, yeah. But I'm like, go, uh, take my analytics. Take them. I will give them to you. Plug them into ChatGPT. Plug them into my chat. Okay. And. And then. And then let's look at what she says. Okay. And that, uh, she. I don't. Sometimes. It depends. Yeah, it depends on what we're talking about. Yeah, It's. It's shocking, but I. But then I talk to other people who are like, oh, like, you can. I know people are getting more than that. Like, so. But. And I. I always want to keep it, like, real. Like, whenever it happens, I'm like. And I get, like, a deposit into my bank account. I'm like, that is like bananas. But I never, I don't want to get too out over my skis and get some, like, weird ego because I'm like, I still am aware of what we're doing here.
Speaker A: Yeah. But I think the fact that you could say the number means it's too low. You have to pick a number that you actually like, can.
Speaker B: Well, for anybody listening to this, that was that numbers are now expired.
Speaker A: Yeah. But again, like, uh, it's not, it's not an insubstantial sum, but it's also people are getting paid a lot more. And my, uh, guess is your, your average videos that are, you know, integrations and partnerships don't perform as well as just a straight up video. So. Yeah. But a meaning, like, you're getting to an audience they want. Here's the thing about our pod is that we have, um, close to 40,000 listeners. Uh, not everybody listens to every episode.
Speaker B: How could you? That's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker A: But, uh, it's been going for 12 years almost. And you don't accidentally listen to the Private Equity fun cast.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: So there was a reason for the name, which was. It was self selecting. Uh, and it's a hard audience to get to that doesn't get advertised.
Speaker B: Super niche. And you've like tap. So they're more valuable eyeballs than if you were just. You had 40,000, whatever. And you were just talking about like pop culture. Like you're. That's the point.
Speaker A: That's a CPM game. Like, hey, we're general purpose content. Anybody could listen to and enjoy it.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: If you're Amy Poehler, like, how do you have the number one podcast in America? Well, you're, you're Amy Poehler. That's how you work for everybody.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: You're Amy Poehler.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Like, you don't just become that right out of nowhere.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Um, that's where things are headed. But then these little very nichy things like riches and niches and your niche you're making fun of, you're having fun with a wealthy neighborhood. So it goes viral in those neighborhoods. Those people have intent and capacity to spend. And then you're talking to a private equity audience, which is hard to get to. Um, isn't on these social media, uh, apps in a big way, but you have found them because they get sent to each other and it's become a little viral there. So it's a really high value audience. So. So you're, uh, not charging enough. We could work on that.
Speaker B: Well, that's Good. I'm taking that with me.
Speaker A: Uh, and then what are the costs? Like, you. Do you have a social media team? Do you have production team? Like, do you edit all the videos you make?
Speaker B: I edit all the videos.
Speaker A: Is it fun or. Because you're like, you know, I think
Speaker B: it's a control thing.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker B: I think I'm just kind of a control freak.
Speaker A: You want to dig a little deeper into that?
Speaker B: Yeah, probably. I should probably. How much time do you have, though? Um, it's definitely a control thing. I just am like, I don't want to give somebody. I also could watching somebody to do edit one of my cameos, for instance. I have to edit the background out and put it. You know, watching someone do that would probably be infuriating for me because it takes me like 90 seconds. But someone would be like, so I will eventually have to like, give up. Like, I'll be like, here's the marketing video for bowl and branch. Like, can you doctor it up and put the subtitles on and all that? Because that just is time that I could have back doing something else.
Speaker A: And do you keep editorial control everything? Like, listen, I own the output. Or you're like, will you hand over the character to somebody and just read the script?
Speaker B: Uh, I pr. I mean, I feel like I've gotten pretty lucky. Where most people are like, we don't want this to feel like just an ad read. So like, so typically we always work together. And that's usually the expectation I set is that it will like, still work for people who have nothing to. Who will have nothing to do with this product that I'm marketing or whatever. Like, they'll still be relevant for somebody. So typically it's. It like weaves together still.
Speaker A: Yeah. So somebody you haven't worked with that you, uh. Is there a category that you haven't worked with yet that you think would be. Would perform really well? Because you've done golf stuff, you've done private wares, private planes. You did a real estate one where like, I thought that was brilliant. Where the real estate agent was like, hey, here's a really fancy, expensive house. Let's have PE Guy come and like, yeah, be a jerk and walk through the house.
Speaker B: Those are fun, the experiences, I think. So I've done cars. I don't even know if I'm missing anything in the luxury world. No.
Speaker A: What about, uh, experiential, like really high end travel? Can't they send you, like, the rosewood and like, you could be P.E. that would be my rosewood, my code.
Speaker B: That would Actually, be nice to have, like, a travel company reach out. I would be.
Speaker A: Take the kids. I mean, Tarantino would love it. Some expect that kind of stuff. Diving or something.
Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Capri. All right.
Speaker A: What do you want to ask me about private equity? And if, uh, the answer is nothing, that's totally fine.
Speaker B: I do. I think, um, that will, like, what's going to stop things from, from. What's gonna stop everything from being bought up by private equity?
Speaker A: Nothing.
Speaker B: I've heard that before.
Speaker A: Yeah. So that's one.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Uh, uh, you know, shark has to swim. Uh, stay alive. But. But one, the incentives are there. So think about this. There's 2500 public companies, you know, the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000. So maybe there's, you know, two and a half to 3000 public companies you could go buy the stock of.
Speaker B: Yeah, right.
Speaker A: Anybody could go buy the stock. And they're 401k. You buy a share of SpaceX.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: Buy a share of, you know, um, bank of Montreal or something. Uh, but there's 40,000 private equity owned companies. 40,000?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: There's a CNBC, a Wall Street Journal, a Fox Business News, a CNN business. Just for the 2,500.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Just think of, like, there's an entire industry, media, everything built around 2500 companies. Uh, you know very little about the 40,000.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: Like, private and private equity is for a reason.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: And that's going to break down over the next five, 10, 20 years. The first step is, oh, private equity can go in your 401k. So your retirement account can be in private equity. Just like you could buy a mutual fund or a stock. Now you can have exposure to private equity in your 401. That's going to happen. And when stuff like that happens, it just means, okay, now we need to be, like, way more transparent now. You need to, like, share everything. It can't be private anymore. It has to be public. So what'll happen is there'll be this convergence between public and private equity. And just like, um, you know, 20, 30 years ago, you, like, worked for Fidelity or something. And like, who's Fidelity or Vanguard now? Everybody knows who Fidelity and Vanguard.
Speaker B: Right, right.
Speaker A: And you didn't know what those. What they did or what they owned. And then this company called Morningstar came out and was like a Chicago company and said, no, no, we're going to tell you everything that's in all these mutual funds. Uh, and that was an evolution of, like, transparency and exposure and all that stuff. And the Same thing is going to happen, and it was already happening in private equity. So I think 20 years from now, 10 years from now, when you say you work at Blackstone, it's going to be like, you work at Fidelity. Interesting, because it's just like, kind of they do everything and just like, there's like, small, little wealth managers and money managers, like your dad's friend who he plays golf with, owns a little business. There'll be, like, little, tiny private equity firms that do this boutique Nichy stuff. But, uh, most of it will feel like, oh, I work for Wellington Fidelity, uh, you know, Charles Schwab, like these just big supermarkets. And then it won't be some big differentiation of like, oh, I work in public equity or private equity. Nobody says, I work in public equity.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Ah, they say, like, oh, I'm like a money manager.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: So I think that's where private equity goes.
Speaker B: Interesting.
Speaker A: And I think there are a lot of badly run public companies. A lot of badly run private companies.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: But there aren't. There isn't PE Guy for the public equity side. There's hedge fund guy.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: He's Bill Ackman. He makes a fool of himself on Twitter all the time. And there are people like him that do that. Uh, and, uh, yeah, I think that kind of, like, eventually becomes less of, like a. Oh, I'm in this thing. And I do think what you hit on is the, oh, I'm in. Private equity became a flex.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: And now it's. It's less of a flex because it's a little bit like, is that a great thing, guys? Because, like, the reputation isn't great.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: And then we can argue about, is it okay, Is it real or not? And what's. What's real about it, But.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: I do think, um, it all just kind of converges into one thing. That won't be a big distinction.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: You got time.
Speaker B: You can be PD guy for the next year.
Speaker A: You got another five more years.
Speaker B: He's not going away.
Speaker A: Yeah, you're not going away, but there'll be some other guy.
Speaker B: Okay. Yeah.
Speaker A: All right. Anything else, like, confuses you about it or, like, people send you and you're like, how do I work this into a bit? Because I don't even know.
Speaker B: I don't think words are. I don't think so right now. But now that you've offered that, you're going to hear from me.
Speaker A: No, I will.
Speaker B: 100%.
Speaker A: We will be your translator.
Speaker B: How do I put this in here?
Speaker A: Oh, no. Our whole team would Love to be.
Speaker B: You can help me punch up the scripts. As they say. It's like writing room effectively.
Speaker A: Yeah, we'll punch it up.
Speaker B: Perfect.
Speaker A: Big time.
Speaker B: Perfect.
Speaker A: Do that. All right, so I want to talk about, uh, before we get into, like, the beyond.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Where does private equity guy work? Is he like the head guy? Is he mid tier? Because I have my opinions. Yeah. Uh, so where do you. In your mind, where does this guy work?
Speaker B: I think he's like a m. Uh, one of many fish in a pond. He might be like, not a big. Not the biggest fish, but he's like, up there. But there still is something to strive for. So I don't know where that puts him. He's definitely insecure about his standing at the private equity company that he's at. He's trying to, like, weasel in, but he wants you, who doesn't know anything about private equity, to think that he's
Speaker A: the head guy, but inside his own firm, maybe not so much.
Speaker B: Yeah, they're like, they're like, here's your, like, interior office.
Speaker A: You know, I think he works for a very big mega firm. Uh, and I think he's not. I think he's, uh, maybe like a junior partner on the path.
Speaker B: Yeah. So same kind of 100%.
Speaker A: I think he grew up with a little bit of money. Enough, but not enough. You know what I mean? He married a lot.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Wifey is loot. Absolutely.
Speaker B: But he's not allowed to touch any, like.
Speaker A: And prenup is very substantial.
Speaker B: And wifey's. Wifey's dad looks down on him a little bit.
Speaker A: And wifey's dad, like, at least he works in private equity. But he's a try hard and it's.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: And if. And it's painful to talk to him at the family gatherings because he's just trying to just absolutely flex.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: On a dad, that's perfect. Yeah. That's kind of my view. I like that, uh, he does have access to all these amazing things, uh, uh, because of, I think, his wife's family's wealth.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: And his position at a very large, uh, private equity superstore.
Speaker B: He's the last pick to get tickets to the World cup because everyone else is in Europe and. Or somewhere else and.
Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. Or he's at the Rider cup, but it's at the practice round.
Speaker B: Yeah. He's, ah, not telling you, but he tells everyone. He went and I met the rider.
Speaker A: You know, here I am with the rider. We took the G6.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A: It's like, no, your Father in law was headed there and you, uh.
Speaker B: And he was like, all right, fine. Because his wife begged her dad to let the husband go on the plane.
Speaker A: But I think wife really is really rooting for him. Yeah, She's. She sees something.
Speaker B: Ah.
Speaker A: In him. She's really rooting for him.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: But she's got a.
Speaker B: Same way he's got a tennis game to continue to improve.
Speaker A: 100%. 100% agree. All right, now let's talk about where we go from here. What's PE Guy's journey? Where's his arc? Where do we take this?
Speaker B: I think he's still, like, at the very beginning of the arc. You know, I think we're still, like. I'm reminded of that by, like, other creators and, like, agents in the Hollywood world. Like, they're like, you're just. At the beginning, like, just keep. The advice I get from people is just like, just keep doing what's working. And they're like, they're like, don't try to, like, overcomplicate something that's working right now. Especially on the Internet. Like, people kill for these eyeballs on, like, I could post most anything, like, a video for 30 seconds of PE guy talking about anything, and it would do well. And, like, that's a huge gift. So people are like, do not screw this up. Like, don't be like, now I'm Venture Cap guy. Like, you know, with a different face. Because then the audience is. You lose it.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: So we keep going.
Speaker A: So there's no vet VC Guy. Unfortunately, there's not. There's other opinions about that.
Speaker B: There's. Well, yeah, and I hear that all the time. There's no lawyer guy or like, ah, private, uh, credit guy. Like, you know, like, there's different.
Speaker A: You're slicing the baloney pretty thin.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. No, but people are like, you got to do private credit. And I'm like, that's a whole. I don't know anything about that.
Speaker A: So you don't know anything about private equity? Why would that exact.
Speaker B: Well, exactly. Yeah. So I don't think. I think that it's. You're just going to see more of PE Guy. He's going to continue doing different things, different experiences. Like, um, I just have to, like, maybe some business things, like, you know, book kind of things or TV development things. That would be the goal I think
Speaker A: we should do is you should do a lingo, like, all the catchphrases of private equity. As PE Guy. We've talked about doing it, but who's going to Buy the Parker Gale Guide to Dumb Stuff.
Speaker B: That's a good. That's a good point.
Speaker A: So can we collab on this?
Speaker B: Yeah, of course. That'd be great. Why we need. I would need. Yeah, perfect. No problem. 5%, 3% of the. Our fee. Yeah.
Speaker A: Yeah. But you get 100 of that 5%.
Speaker B: Yeah. That's a great way to look at it. Now I know why you're good at your job.
Speaker A: Uh, all right, so, uh, no, uh, no spin offs. No, uh, not in the character development. Not stressed out. Wifey hasn't. Hasn't clicked. Like, uh, like PE Guy.
Speaker B: I'm not putting. I'm not putting too much energy into those other things right now.
Speaker A: I don't think you put a ton of energy into, like, worrying about what's next.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: The little we've gotten to know each other, I think you're one of the most present in the moment. Like, let's just have fun while we're having fun.
Speaker B: I'm totally trying to be that. Yeah. Because it's every day a new thing, a new opportunity comes up. Like, really? In my inbox, there's always like. Like, I'm like, oh, like ESPN after the US Open, you want to be. And I'm like, well, I can't do it because I'm. I have to be filtered. And they're like, we have an editor. We'll edit you in, and it'll look like you're zooming into the show. So I'm there. I am on ESPN talking about golf, which is another thing I don't know anything about. So I had to ask the guys, the anchors, like, what. What should I say? So we built the script, I filmed it, and then I'm on espn. I never would have thought a month ago you're going to go on ESPN to talk about golf. Like, why would they ask me?
Speaker A: Because you've got all the gear.
Speaker B: Well, that. Yes.
Speaker A: Right. So people send you stuff.
Speaker B: I get sent stuff all the time.
Speaker A: So people send you stuff for what reason? One, because they love you and they want you to have stuff.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Two, they want you to wear it in your videos. So, like, like, how do you choose what to put on? Are you getting paid to wear a Peter Millar shirt or, like, some private equity firm? I mean, yeah, you could go and see all the, the vests you wear with the private equity logos on there. Is that stuff?
Speaker B: Sometimes it's a part of the deal with a company that's like. Like, you're gonna make a video, uh, for us. Uh, like, A marketing thing. And then, like, in one video next month, please wear our. Our hat. Not part of the paid agreement, but just kind of like a goodwill thing. Um, so that's how I get some of them. And then other people are like, hey, do not tell anybody I'm sending this to you. It's a JP Morgan private wealth vest. Like, Burberry vest. I happen to have a box of them in my attic. You know, hopefully you're in XL and it works. So, like, I just. I will give anybody, pretty much anybody, my PO Box information and have them send me whatever. So I get hats, vests, polo shirts, Peter Millar zips with that are branded with logos that I don't know. And months go by, and I'm like, what is that? Who sent that to me?
Speaker A: Yeah, because I've seen a video of you, like, where you just literally have this rack of stuff that people have sent and hats galore.
Speaker B: It's, uh, fun.
Speaker A: What branded stuff don't you have that you would love for somebody to send you? Like, what I imagine your thread count expectations are?
Speaker B: Of course. It has to be. It has to be one Egyptian copy. Can't be. Yeah, it's got to be. Peter. Peter Millar is the, you know, cream of the crop.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Um, the branded stuff, I have a lot of vests. I just don't think I have as many vests as I should. So that's a good, you know, But I think that when you're the only
Speaker A: guy in the planet who doesn't have enough vests.
Speaker B: Right, right, right, right. Yeah. But I think it's hard to get if you work at Goldman Sachs. Like, I think it's. I think it's difficult to get a new vest from the vest lady on, you know, in the office manager. I think they. They, like, have a. A tight grip on those things, so they don't want a bunch of idiots like me walking around in a Goldman Sachs, I don't know, vest.
Speaker A: Well, in this economy, I mean, everything's tight, so I think you need to get, like, some Arterics. We need to move up.
Speaker B: Oh, yes.
Speaker A: That would be more credit going. So. Anybody. Helly Hansen? Arteryx.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Steel.
Speaker B: Oh, I've seen steel. Yeah.
Speaker A: Yeah, you want to get the steel gear. That's, uh, very legit.
Speaker B: The stuff that actually, like, is like, I will actually put on to walk my dogs on, like, a, uh, fall day. That's. That's great. Like. Cause I'm like, oh, this is actually like a good. Like a steel would be.
Speaker A: Yeah, this is what drives me nuts. Private equity people have more money than they know what to do with these funds. Buy all this stuff. I don't need another fleece vest. I don't need another, you know, uh, uh, uh, you know, metal growler or whatever.
Speaker B: I get a lot of those, too.
Speaker A: Yeah, Just family, like, you know, take it up a notch. You can get. Put your logo on pretty much anything. Anything these days. So, like, buy some really good stuff and then put your logo on it afterwards.
Speaker B: Well, maybe I should just do that, and then I'll just cut out the companies and I'll get the kind. The brand that I want to work with, and I'll put PE Guy on it.
Speaker A: Let's do it.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Come on.
Speaker B: PE Guy vest. I think people would buy that, especially if it was like, an arc'. Teryx. Like, they know the brand.
Speaker A: Good stuff and classy, like, tone on tone. I mean, like, nothing too flashy.
Speaker B: You can have fleece. To your point about fleece, the only JP Morgan vest I had until recently was a fleece, like a Columbia fleece. And I, like. I wore it in a couple videos, and people were like, columbia. Like, I would never. Colombia. Yeah.
Speaker A: No, but this is like, you would never wear that. That's so brilliant about your audiences. They're like. They're dunking on Columbia.
Speaker B: Yeah. Like, anything I do that's, like, wrong, because it's like, they're like, he would never do that. Or I fly pri. Uh, I fly commercially. Every time I post that I'm flying commercially, I get a dm. That's like, every other DM is like, I thought you fly privately, like Joe, but, like, jokingly, but not.
Speaker A: I'm like, expensive is to fly private with gas prices where they are. Even PE Guy has his limits, I would imagine.
Speaker B: Yeah. He sometimes has to take American Airlines.
Speaker A: All right, uh, so let's talk about the swag, because you've got great swag.
Speaker B: Thank you.
Speaker A: Uh, so people can buy your stuff@dudemyrole.com duderol.com, so what are you selling? Like, let's get the pitch in here. What do you have that people?
Speaker B: Right now? I've got a sweatshirt, a hoodie that says substantial on it, and then four different hats. And I think that's like it for the things that are currently available. So there's the. Due to my role, decent, substantial, and PE backed, which just from that conversation where someone asked if SoulCycle is PE backed.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Um, so those are the. But they're well made. People like the stuff.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: It's a company that's local to Boston and they handle all the logistics. And every once in a while they send me a Zelle, you know, rev share.
Speaker A: Amazing. Um, and are you getting paid to wear that hat right now?
Speaker B: No, I just like the Rhone founders. Okay. Yeah. And that's a good example of, like, if people are normal and cool to me and, like, send me something there. Everyone's like, wow, Rome must just be paying you every day. I'm like, no, they make stuff that I like and I wear, like, and 167 RAW in Charleston and Nantucket. Yeah, they're just really nice and complimentary and they're like, we love your stuff and come get free oysters from us next time you're on Nantucket. And here's some free stuff.
Speaker A: All right, so you're nice to me. Johnnyudamyroll. Uh, dot com is how you find your PO Box. So people can send you stuff. Yes, that if they're, like, super cool about it. It in a video.
Speaker B: If you're. Yeah. If you're just a genuine, nice person and you have good stuff, comfortable, you know, I'll wear it.
Speaker A: We did ask one of our sponsors if they wanted to sponsor this video.
Speaker B: They said, absolutely not.
Speaker A: That's exactly what. That's actually exactly what they said. Interesting. All right, what's your oddest request or categories of requests?
Speaker B: Uh, well, I always thought the in person stuff was weird because, like, I got invited to go to. I don't think they're directly private equity conferences, but they're conferences that bring together investment bankers and. And PE people.
Speaker A: Sure.
Speaker B: Um, so the conferences and stuff, bringing. Bringing me out to waste management to that whole thing.
Speaker A: The golf.
Speaker B: The golf.
Speaker A: Golf tournament. To, like, entertain, to be there.
Speaker B: To like. I accepted like an award, like up and comer in the industry. That was. That was always. I was shocked that I was asked to do that. So that was the first thing I did.
Speaker A: Uh, people would, you know, be shocked to know that you don't walk around with a filter on your face. Exactly, exactly.
Speaker B: So we show, usually at these in person things, show a video of me. I come out, we do like a Q and A or something like that. So I have to watch the room full of finance people who usually. These conferences, no offense to any of them that I've been to, they're a little dense. That's right, A little. Yeah. How are we doing, everybody? Not. Not me, like the mc. How are we doing? Like, I'm like, whoa, this is like,
Speaker A: we've got a really Good thing coming up here, somebody you've never heard of.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A: That I think you have.
Speaker B: And you absolutely, absolutely hated. Yeah, like so. And he's here in person for a 45 minute Q& A. Like so I have to watch everyone's faces while they show the video. And I'm like, all right, this is gonna. This is deeply.
Speaker A: We were promised Bill Belichick.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. What happened? You had Nikki Glaser last year. Budget cuts.
Speaker A: Like, hey, I get to know this economy. Yeah. In this economy, we got a guy with a Snapchat filter.
Speaker B: To me, I'm like, this is great. So the in person stuff is shocking. A couple of, uh, like, birthday appearances, uh, recently have been a shocking request to me, which I. I'm like, why do you want me? I had to reiterate. I don't show up as him. I show up as me. I'm very boring. I don't drink. I'm not gonna go out with the fellas after the waste management and go to a bar. I'm going to bed at 8:00pm um, in the hotel, which is usually nice. They put me up in somewhere nice.
Speaker A: It's amazing.
Speaker B: Um, so the expectations are here. And I. I show up and I'm like, like, oh, we're gonna have so much fun. Like, play golf. I'm like, well, well, you. You would have fun with PE Guy. You. I'm not exactly that.
Speaker A: I don't think PE Guy is as good. I think he cheats at golf, and I don't think he's as good as.
Speaker B: He's a sandbagger. That's what I. I heard.
Speaker A: He's a sandbagger.
Speaker B: Sandbagger means. You know what that means, my brother in law?
Speaker A: Sandbagger is. You say you're worse, but you're quite good.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: I think he's the opposite. I think he says he's good and he's not that good.
Speaker B: No, you. Oh, yeah. Sand. Yeah, he's a. However it is. He says he's really. Yeah, you're right. He says he's really good. He says he's a scratch golfer.
Speaker A: Yeah. And then he shoots a 92 and he's like, oh, uh, the cat caddy was giving me horrible advice. I hurt my back at Pilates last week.
Speaker B: Caddy. That Scottish accent. I couldn't. It was like.
Speaker A: I, uh, was really distracting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B: He was drunk. I smelled whiskey on his breath.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker B: I got, uh, a contact high. Yeah. All right.
Speaker A: We talked about how people get in touch with you. We Talked about where you're headed from here.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: I think this is a really rich vine vein to mine. Yeah. And you've got a lot of other towns. Where haven't you hit the people who want you to abuse them?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Where do they. What are the towns you haven't gotten to yet, we talked about?
Speaker B: Yep. I need something like a. Ah, Cleveland. I need a San Diego.
Speaker A: Yep.
Speaker B: I need to really hone in on the San Francis. Uh, a San Francisco specific area, like you said. Atherton.
Speaker A: Atherton is like, uh, that's like. That's Weneca times ten for Silicon Valley.
Speaker B: That's what I've heard.
Speaker A: So Atherton. Atherton something.
Speaker B: Well, I have to say it right, because I get roasted.
Speaker A: What do I know? I get roasted. But that's a, like, VC tech, bro.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Yeah. Oasis is where, like, Marc Andreessen lives and is saying, hey, it's time to build. This is this whole thing, hey, we got to build. But not in my backyard, of course. He's, like, fighting all the development in Aetherton. It's that kind of thing.
Speaker B: So that. Those are. And then if you people said Metro West Boston, like Wellesley, but save it, because I'm too. I'm afraid to roast. I'm new to the town. We just bought a house in July last year. And I'm like, I don't want to upset anybody.
Speaker A: I understood.
Speaker B: You know, I'd like to get into the country club. So.
Speaker A: Yeah. What about, like, Cherry Creek in Denver? We've done that. We've done that.
Speaker B: Because I went to du, so I just did that.
Speaker A: Hinsdale. Which was, uh, triggering for one of our employees.
Speaker B: Hinsdale. Yep. I kept getting begged to do Hinsdale, and I was like, you know, I really. I really know. It's a similar vibe of Winnaka. Like, you can't do that and screw it up. So I was like, asking people who. Like my friends who grew up there, and they had different intel than the people who live there now, so that took me forever. But Hinsdale, there's definitely some other Chicago Ish areas.
Speaker A: Um, have you done Lake Forest?
Speaker B: No, that's. Yes, that's exactly right. I need to do Lake Forest. Every time I talk about Wineka, I get, where's Lake Forest?
Speaker A: They say where the. Where the lawns are wide and the mines are narrow. Lake Forest, Illinois.
Speaker B: Perfect. I like that. What a catchphrase. Yeah. Uh, yeah.
Speaker A: So this is a guy from Winneka saying this. So this is. Everybody knows. They're like a hierarchy of, like, I would never live there, of course. But you live here. Yeah, we don't. Not, Not Kenilworth anywhere, but.
Speaker B: Yeah. Right. Well, someone actually told me last night to do Kenilworth. And then he was like. He said he. He said he's from there. And he's like, actually, there's nothing to talk about there because there's just like, like, like 120 houses or something.
Speaker A: There's plenty to talk about.
Speaker B: And the dentist isn't officially.
Speaker A: Well, he's on the west side of Green Bay, so I'm not sure they count that as kind of technically, we're
Speaker B: here just to plug, uh, Dave and Mike Duda's dental practice.
Speaker A: Exactly. I want to see him next Friday.
Speaker B: Matt Illinois.
Speaker A: He's going to love this. All right, so let's wrap this up. Any closing words, closing thoughts, Any, uh, words of wisdom for the Private Equity Fun Cast audience?
Speaker B: Definitely no words of wisdom that are relevant to people listening to this. But I, I would just say thank you for having me. Thank you to the people who are listening to this who made it this far, because that means that they're taking this thing more seriously than I would have expected anybody in this industry to take it. And thank you to you for inviting me here to do this in your beautiful home. Um, because it just legitimizes what I'm doing a little bit more. And every time I do something like this with a substantial person who's in the industry like yourself, it makes me feel a little more like, you know, accepted in a room full of people who I feel like, like some could, like, take, you know, it could, like, be a little jab in the side. So.
Speaker A: Yeah. In our employee handbook and kind of everything we try and do and talk about internally, though, we don't say this a lot. Externally, we're dealing with retirees money and foundations and endowments money and, you know, all this stuff. So take that very seriously. If you want to be as serious as a heart attack because we're investing other people's money. But don't take yourself very seriously.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Because that doesn't make m. Taking yourself seriously doesn't make the. Taking the money seriously.
Speaker B: Uh, you don't need better.
Speaker A: You don't need it. Yeah. And you can relate to people a lot better if you can laugh at yourself.
Speaker B: Totally.
Speaker A: So I think you've given people an amazing opportunity to laugh at themselves.
Speaker B: Well, thank you.
Speaker A: The fact that some people are taking it too seriously, uh, says everything you need to know about those people that they can't laugh at themselves. Uh, and you've struck a chord. So, uh, we're here for all of it. And whatever you need now and in the future, we want to be a part of it.
Speaker B: I love that. But my. My ghostwriters. Yeah.
Speaker A: All right. Bye for now.
Speaker B: Well, thank you.
Speaker A: Absolutely.
Speaker B: And where are your kiddos at school?
Speaker A: Started at Crow Island.
Speaker B: Public.
Speaker A: Yeah, public.
Speaker B: I assumed. And you're not from here, right? You don't give legacy.
Speaker A: No, I grew up in upstate New York.
Speaker B: My wife's actually. She was recently on the COVID of Sheridan Road. We did a whole spread in her closet, which is massive, as you can imagine. Right now she's at tennis. She's at her second lesson of the day. Does your wife play tennis or.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, my wife plays A.C. nielsen.
Speaker B: Oh, that's like a public situation, right? Does she play mahjong?
Speaker A: Yes, yes, she loves to play mahjong. And she meets her friends every week at Michigan Shores.
Speaker B: I think I went to, like, an insurance conference there once in the ballroom. It was very different. Where do you summer?
Speaker A: We like Winnetka in the summer because it's nice and quiet. So we stay here.
Speaker B: Oh, my God. Bummer. You stay put. I mean, it's quiet because everybody's somewhere else. So we own on Nantucket, obviously. And then we spend all of August in Europe. Technology issues.
Speaker A: Middle market.
Speaker B: PE backed companies, they bicker with each other and they don't take themselves too seriously. It's not venture capital. It's private equity. It's the private equity fund Cast. Pour yourself a drinking palace.
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