April 19, 2021 • 33 mins
You may not know the name Josh Ostrovsky, but you're probably familiar with his controversial online persona, The Fat Jewish. Josh joins Ryan to discuss how he maintains a private life despite being a walking media brand, how he's managed to survive cancel culture and how he went from being the world's first influencer to revolutionizing the wine industry.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to another episode of Big Money Energy, where
we talked to super successful and self made people to
find out exactly how they did it, how they went
from nothing to something. I'm Ryan, sirhand, and today I'm
joined by the one and only Fat Jewish also known
as Josh. True story, I haven't been able to read
(00:24):
his name off a piece of paper without laughing. This guy.
We talked about what it was like to be the
world's first influencer crowdsourcing his baby's name, how he manages
to have a private life despite being a walking media brand,
and how he went from posting memes on Instagram to
revolutionizing the liquor industry and changing it forever. Let's get
(00:48):
into this. You're gonna like it. Welcome to another episode.
Today is super special because I'm sitting down with one
of my most favorite, favorite favorite people. He is an
absolute legend and is an amazing entrepreneur as well, And
I know he probably doesn't want to talk about it
that way, but but I definitely want to get into
(01:09):
the details of how good of a business person he
is and how he's not just a guy who's a
social media personality who's built an entire kind of empire
based on humor and making people laugh. I don't really
know how to describe him, so I'm just gonna say, welcome,
Joseph Strowski a k a. The Fat Jewish. Just close
your eyes and like what comes to your mind? Your body? Yeah,
(01:29):
thank you most of the time. And then Amelia is like,
why are you making that face? I'm like, I don't
know if kick gets guy all the time. Appreciate that
a few details because they're important for for this business podcast. Uh.
If you don't know, Josh is in every sense of
the word, a master entrepreneur. He's a social media mogul, actor, influencer, investor,
plus size model. Are you are you about to have
(01:52):
a baby? Yeah? Is that real? That's okay, we'll get
to that. Uh. If you know him from his Instagram account,
The Fat Jewish before, like everyone had an Instagram account, right,
it was like boom, like you I think you invented it?
Do you invent Instagram? I think I was the first influencer. Yeah,
I think so, which like sorry, but also not not sorry,
Like what have I done? Yeah? Like this thing has
(02:12):
gotten really out of control. Yeah, you're such a dick. Yeah,
he's also the co founder of Swiss beverages that you'll
know from Babe and White Girl Rose, which was then
acquired by Anheuser Busch in BEV in two thousand nineteen,
which I definitely want to talk about. You're super funny,
You're super influential everyone. I feel like people have now
at this point. Is it weird to know that people
(02:33):
have grown up with you? Yeah? Oh definitely. You know,
do people come up to you and they're like, oh, dude,
I was following you when I was seven. Yeah, and
like a lot of them have like children now, and
they're like, can you hold this baby? Let's take a
photo with you know, it's not just like the girls
and the dudes in college anymore. They have jobs. No,
It's like a couple in Brooklyn will be like, we
take a you know, we please take a photo of
my son at Kiss and my other son adicis Yeah,
(02:54):
and they both the children have beards somehow. Yeah, they're
likely to super expensive. They look they all of like
they're all of Mumford's sons. Yeah, and they're just like
they can take a picture, and I'm like, wow, this
is these people are really growing up. This is this
is scary. Yeah, you're You're not fat anymore. I'm still big.
I'm still big. I'm still like like bone because that's
your like just your body type. Yeah, that's true. I'm
(03:16):
like a thick Rushian. But when we first met, there
was more of you. I was like, oh, yeah, it
was the less Now I'm like clinically obese. I think
at the time I met you, I was I was
actually obese. Yeah, so I was a lot more Shrek then. Yeah,
it was more Shrek, which was kind of working for me.
But then I would like, you know, get winded getting
out of a car, and you know, I was just like,
is this too much? Has like cancel culture come after
(03:36):
you at all? I mean because you a lot of
your following is you know, part of like the meme culture,
but like you personally, have you gotten any pushback because
things have been so real and so serious, Like why
would you be funny at a time like this? Right?
I actually was worried about that people are gonna be like,
how could you be such a big fucking stupid, funny
idiot while there's real like use your platform, But like
(03:56):
my thing is like if you want real ship from
like you people and like heart, Like there's so many
outlets for that. I'm gonna give you some dumb ship
to like take you out of it for a second
and like make you forget about it. So I think
mostly like I tried to do as much as I could,
Like when the fucking when it first hit, we gave
like I gave away like a million dollars worth of
babe worth of wine to like fucking I was giving
(04:16):
out who because like everybody deserved to get fucked up,
you know what I mean. Your nail salon truck was
the greatest thing socially, distance manicure truck, glory holes for
your hands, if you will, totally you can get a
social and it was all free. We sent that thing
like around the fucking country. You know, the meme of
like the large naked black dude with his dick hanging.
I did a deep dive on him, and actually I
ended up getting in touch with his brother, and now
I've been speaking to like his whole family and we're
(04:38):
trying to figure out like how to kind of like
monetize like all this success with him. So these are
the ways in which I get, you know what I mean,
which is like dig really deep on Wordy's You Bear
the Third which is that guy's name. But no, like
no cancel culture within that. I mean I got I
had canceled ship before, which was like you know about
like memes and stealing memes and all the ship. But
like interesting enough when like cancel culture actually came up
(04:59):
about like sexually harassing people. Like the one thing is
like I'm an India on the internet, but I'm like,
I'm like a nice Jewish guy, so like I haven't
nothing like that has happened to me. So yeah, I
got canceled. I was getting canceled before, people like it
was hot to get canceled. Are you married now or
are you with somebody? Yeah? I have a I gotta
I have like a woman, like someone. I asked me
if someone's cap if anyone's capable of loving me? You
did get married to a woman and you get divorced
(05:19):
like the next day, and I remember that. Yeah, she
was like a corn fed midwesterner, Yeah, with like real
big shoulders. Yeah that was like for the look. Um No,
but now I have a real relationship with a human. Um,
and I am actually having a kid. And obviously I've
been like trying to turn the whole thing into performance art.
And she's like, please don't do this, but I am
taking baby name suggestions. I'm saying I'm down, Like my
kid doesn't have to be named like Blender, Like it
doesn't have to be nuts, like the kids name could
(05:41):
be Bruce. I'm just looking for some fire. Met this woman.
I met her on the internet. What do you mean,
how do people have sex with each other? Are you
ready to be a dad? Yeah? Like whatever, right, it's good, right,
good for content? I mean, did you not have a
kid for content? Yeah? I mean like it was it
went through my mind. I No, I definitely did not
have a kid for content? But did A kids show
is up? And you're like, you're gonna help totally. I mean,
(06:02):
I'm already working on, you know, getting a big piece
of bread. Put the kid on with lettuce to me
to over pretend it's like in a fucking sandwich, Like
I already got all kinds of ship. And she's not
really complaining because like she knows what she signed up for.
She's with me willingly, so she knew obviously that we're
going to turn this into something completely dumb. But I
think I'm ready because I'm like kind of old. I'm
thirty eight, so I'm like done a long time since
(06:23):
you got expelled from all those schools. Yeah, and I'm
dusty as hell, like I'm an excellennial for sure. Like
I'm like, I'm for sure an excellennial. So I think
I'm like pretty much ready because also, like what else
is there to do? You know, let's have let's have
a kid talk to me about why did you get
expelled from college? Sawesome ship classics? You know, like Van Wilder,
you know the movie you've seen that. Yeah, I kicked
at high school. I kicked that in of college, just
(06:44):
you know, having a good time. I'm just a good
I'm just a fun guy. I'm just a good guy.
And uh, I like having a good time. And it's
really easy to get thrown out of a liberal art school.
I got thrown a skin more but skin Moore is
not fun. They don't do six shift over there. So
you were doing six ship and they were like, you
can't do that here anymore, and so you yeah. And
then I went to Sunni Albany and like with a
bunch of like Stan Island guys, and that's when things
(07:04):
got fall like a bunch of guys who were like
going to be firefighters with like Foreskin Yeah, great, good times.
It was just like skin Moore was just more like
Upper West Side, like Priva Sla. It was more of
those it was who had been hanging out with. You know,
we're like shooting the baked potatoes out of a tennis
ball machine and like, you know, talking to you is
such a workout, um, because I'm trying to listen and
(07:24):
like trying to understand like what's real, what's not real,
what's happening? But I guess it's just all part of
part of who you are. How do you how do
you separate though? And maybe you don't kind of Josh
from the fat Jewish or is there no separation because
I know you came up with that name initially when
you were part of a rap trio. Yeah we've ever
seen our stuff? Yeah yeah, you showed me. Actually no,
(07:46):
I mean you know it's again. I think that like
the Kid is a perfect example, which is just drawing
lines of just like you know, not everything can be
like totally ridiculous and performative, you know what I mean,
Like the Kid's gonna be real. Yeah, right, Like I'm
I'm I'm gonna fund the kid up for sure, and
like land the kid in like six therapy for sure.
But like it's just not everything can be for the internet, right,
you can't do it all for the Graham. Like some
(08:07):
people just get like too open. You gotta keep some
ship off the Internet because for you, is it going
to be personal family stuff? Yeah, I mean, I mean, look,
I wouldn't have a kid if I couldn't get content
out of it, because that would be ridiculous. But you know,
you gotta like draw the line, and like, you know,
I want to fund the kid up, but not too bad,
you know, so like I try to keep my partner
like super private. Um, some people are just like it's
so open, you know what I mean. Like some was
(08:28):
like influencers who are just like they're just like I
just hey you guys, Like I just need to talk
to you, like I just like I have ibs, and
like things just get too intimate and real, and like
you gotta keep some ship like in the some ship's
gotta be like kept in the dark, Like we don't
all need to know everything. I don't consider myself an
influence at this point. Also, I'm like getting too old
for this ship. In the words of Danny Glover ten
(08:49):
years ago, I was, you know, on a slipping slide
covered in Marinara, but like that's just not a good
look for like a thirty eight year old. Like I'm
friends with some like older guys who are still just
like they need constant content, like constant YouTube ship. It's
just gets crazy. So I've really transitioned into like kind
of mentoring the next generation of complete and utter morons
and not doing it myself because eventually you're just like
the old dude of the party and it's pretty witch.
(09:18):
I want to make sure that we get to it.
I'm interested also in the business side of what you do.
Can you can you walk me through that both, like
the Fat Jewish as a business, what that looks like,
how many people work for you? Like how do you
make money? And then when Swish came about and that process. Yeah,
I mean I was basically the first influencer, so brands
were coming to me and being like, can we pay you?
(09:38):
They didn't fucking know anything. I would just like make
up acronyms. I'd be like, I can get you guys
four hundred million kpm bcs and they were like hell yeah,
pay them, let's go to lunch. Because like guys didn't
know what was going on. But you know, as the
influencer bubble grew and like it, I just basically was
like I don't want to do this. This is weird.
I'm not an influencer. Like I didn't want to be
part of that. I think that's how I get label old,
(10:00):
but that's not it's not who I am, and I
think I pretty quickly was like you know what, like
if I'm like the thing that's different differenally me and
like other people like that, like being like accounts like
mine is that I don't like you go up and
like I'm not gonna name any names, but some of
these big accounts, they're like in like so like sun Splash,
Soho Lofts and it's just like people like looking for
content on computers. It's like the sounds of keys clicking
(10:20):
and they're like it's like funded by vcs and like
it's all fucking it's very like corporate and they're like,
let's find a video. Like you know, it turned out
like the Kwan was like some like Middle Eastern dude
who was like working in a content farm but I
was never like that, Like I was just posting photos
like while drunk and like in a bed. Like it
was never like that. So I was like, I was
just like I don't want to do this. But the
(10:40):
one and the other thing is different is is that
like those types of accounts, they don't talk to the
people like I talk to everyone who dms me. I
answer every d M, you know, not if they're like
if it's like some weird spam, but anyone who comes
into me. I'm constantly like talking, which is funny for
people because people will get like really drunk and talk
ship to me, you know, and they're they're like, fact
you act and then I'm like, oh hey, then I'll
(11:02):
be like, what's up, man, didn't think i'd see this, huh.
And then they're like, oh my god, I love you.
We should hang out. I'm coming to New York, and
I'm like, it's kind of a weird way to start it,
Like you just really told me you fucking hate me.
I mean now I don't really have the time as much,
but people invited me places like I've officiated like Levin weddings,
going to like Kinsinera's like if you invited me to
some ship, like some some like finance bros invited me
(11:23):
to like fly on a private jet while they like
did coke and just hang out with them. And I
was like, I would never be trapped in this like
sky prison with a bunch of like coked up finance bros.
I turned that down, But in general, it wasn't about
the money. Nobody paid me. It's just like if you
invited me, I was down to chill because like I'm
a real fucking person and I'm trying to make real
memories and I definitely put myself in like dangerous situations
where like murder was highly possible, Like just like when
(11:43):
I went to the South of France and like hung
out with some weird Saudi guys like on a boat,
like just they just paid for a plane take and
I was like fuck it, let's go. And so I'm
all up in the d m s. And I just
like when you create an audience, like when you create
like a group of people, that's like kind of like
you're a real person, it's tight like that. I was like,
I feel like I should do something better than just
like taking a check and being like you guys, I
(12:03):
love this thing, and so we basically just like I
talked to my audience and just like fucking we just
like we're just friends. Like it's like one giant sleepover,
you know, it's like a big sleepover and we're all
on molly um and some of them hate me, but
like they're there anyway. And then just kind of like
through that, I was just like, what the fun do
you guys want? What should we do? Like I want
to make a thing. I want to make something like
I'm not trying to just like you know, do these
(12:24):
weird branded things. And so everyone was sucking drinking rose right,
Rose is sucking slutty. We always call it like the
slutty cousin of wine. You drink it cold, you just
like it doesn't matter. And at that time, like it
was weird. Like once I started like looking into it,
I was just like, you know what, everyone's drinking rose? Right?
No one's like smelling it and being like, oh the
nutty notes of like just drink it, like you just
(12:47):
make it cold, drink it and then like text your
X three times and I was just like, why don't
we No one knows the name of a brand of
rosett that's what really got me, Like you're just like
walking to a store and you were just like, give
me some fucking rosette, you know, make it, make it cute.
I don't give a ship Like I'm going to a
pool party and I'm gonna make terrible decisions with my
body and my you know, and my self respect. So
I was like, wait a minute, Like why can't we
(13:09):
like make wine like more fucking popping, because like wine
is sick, right, It's like the oldest fucking drink, Like
people are getting sucked up on it for a hundred
thousands of years, but it's got this like dusty you know,
it's all dusty. It's like guys in little glasses being
like like my turtleneck, you know which. By the way,
I'm down. I love charcouterie. I love I'm down with wine. Ship.
But like there's a low brow wine scene. There's a
real Housewives fucking ice in your shardon a, you know,
(13:32):
fucking pouring rose and your eyeball scene that no one
was really capitalizing on. So I was like, why don't
we do it. Let's put it in a fucking can,
make it fucking slutty, and we'll just do it. Because
like why couldn't we I was a huge fan of
and we ended up doing a deal with with annezer Bush.
But I was a huge fan of like Bud White,
Like I'm a fucking shitty beer guy. I love like
a foamy, garbage bump piss domestic, And I was like,
(13:52):
why don't we bring wine to that level? You know
what I mean? Because people are doing it, but there's
no brand for it. Obviously it was boxed wine and
like slap the bag and that was White Girl Rose. Yeah,
we put in a bottle. We didn't know how to
do a can. No one had put sparkling wine in
a can. So we were just like, let's put in
a bottle. We'll get a pop and see if people
want this. And it's just with your internal team that
was helping you just kind of run your We like
(14:13):
call the guy that like someone knew that had some wine.
It was so I was at that time I was
writing TV shows and they would like go to a
pilot and then or not and then like I'd sell
it and then we move on to the next one
because none of them were that good. Um, but it
was fun. You could keep getting checks off that and
I was like getting paid by Craftsman Tools to like
sit in a giant you know. Craftsman Tools was like,
we want you to do a Super Bowl commercials, just
(14:33):
like in early fifteen, and I was like, I want
you to because at that time, I was just like funking.
I don't care if I get the brand deals or not,
so I'll just troll them and see how much they'll
let me get away with. And I was like, build
me like a huge bowl and fill it with chili,
and I'm gonna sit in it. You can google it,
it's like. And I was just like if they they're
gonna say no, and I'll be like fuck it. But
they were like great sounds like sounds disruptive and experiential
and like hyperlocal sticky, you know, like a million of
(14:54):
guys where it's like nobody so super out that time.
They were like this is a hyper multi vertical like
cloud iterated, end to end, disrupted, experiential, like multi screen vertical.
Whatever these people say. And so I'm in a giant
thing at chili. So I was getting checks from that,
and I was trying to get I was trying to
wean off of that teat I was with the guys
that I was writing TV shows with and the guys
I was doing stuff like that with, and my partners
(15:15):
with the guys who wrote um they wrote a book
called White Girl Problems, which is like about like a
fictional socialite, but it's just like two good looking, fuckable
Jewish brothers who write that. And so we were like,
let's put it in. Let's you know, let's we just
like found a guy that had wine. We put in
a bottle, and we just like bought some of our
own money, just put our own fucking money up, bought enough,
and then just like everything went crazy. Fresh Direct called
and bought it all like in a day, and then
(15:36):
we like we didn't know any of the rules. Like
I tried to sell it out of the trunk of
my mom's car with ice in the trunk, and then
they like tried to suspend it. Like we almost got
our license taken away like in the first week, because
like you can't do that much chill ship with booze.
All the ship that I was doing that was completely
out of bounds and ridiculous and like borderline somewhat palatably
offensive liquor. People are like like the nerves you know
they're not they're not down. So then we from there,
(15:57):
we put it in a can and it just kind
of went and that was Babe. That's babe. What was
the time difference between White Girl Rose and Babe one year?
What really did you find somebody like another distributor who
could actually create the same kind of partect wine and
put it into it? Well, that's the nice thing about Rose, right,
is like no one gives a ship, like you know
what I'm saying, Like no one knows. So like I
(16:18):
think we just we found like a different wine because
like no one really knows. And for us, like the
thing our Rose is it needs to be good. It
doesn't need to be that good. Ours is about fucking
brand and it's about having fun. It's about you know,
it's about making bad decisions. It's about being part of it.
So I think we switched batches. As long as it's
close enough, it's close enough and the wine was good.
We wanted to make sure the wine was good because
I think the bar was really low. Right, people were
(16:39):
like fat Jewish put out a wine right, like it's
gonna be cool. I'll buy it one time. Seems interesting,
but like it's direct to consumer, so people are just
doing no no. This was like in Storres, this was Instorece.
There was cutting all those deals where the stores just
coming to you. Stories were coming us Fresh Direct call
me the first day and was like, we'll buy it all.
The first day we sold white Girl Rose on the internet.
There was no White gro Rose didn't even exist. We
(16:59):
photoshopped the label, put it on and they already bought
it and we were like, oh fuck, we should probably
get some wine. Because our whole thing was like if
we put this up and we do this a lot,
like I do this a lot, Like I'll put up
something that's photoshopped and be like, do you guys like this?
And if everyone's like this is dogshit, I'm like, I'm kidding.
I would never do this. But then if they're like
we love it, I'm like, good thing because it's coming
out in two weeks. Like totally just like focus group
(17:20):
ship and like I just feel like the people who
follow me think, like feel like I'm not just like
shilling to them constantly because I'm not. Like Instagram has
become there's just a lot of shill that was not
my angle, Like I'm a complete chip bag but not
like that. I just didn't want you to feel like
this was a platform. I was just trying to make something,
you know. I was like, do you guys think this
is cool? Do you want this whatever? I'm gonna make
it cheap. Um, I'm gonna make it cheap and it's
(17:41):
gonna get you absolutely torched. How many people work for
you at that time, there were like four of us.
So my office space situations, I always take offices that
are like I always wanted to be like as like
conversation where as possible. So before the Wine my office
was in a nail salon and Queen's so I was
like in the bed, like I rented out like a
waxing room, which was sick and then which I love
(18:02):
those ladies, like shout out to the hole, to the
whole squad. And then after that, our first wine office
was we took the office directly upstairs from one Oak,
the nightclub on seventeen. I remember that, and so like
the sound check would like shake the floor and like
bottle girls would be like smoking Newport lights and like
it was awesome, like because we were right our offices
right across from there, like changing room like green, like lounge.
It was really really sick, like there were fist fights
(18:24):
between like bottle girls. Like I absolutely loved it because
I want to, you know, let's make it fun. I'm
not gonna like take some office and be like this
is our office. We're not doing that. So we did that.
There were like four of us now, so then there
are four of you managing your business on social all
the brand deals, you where your calendar, where we're going,
and also building out a liquor business. Yes, and I
(18:45):
think that like to be like serious for a second,
like that that I think is one of the main
things I'm kind of transitioning into is that like like
people on the internet now, like people have amazing ideas, right,
but no one actually knows how to execute. And I
think people look at me a little bit inspirationally there,
just like this this moron did it. I could do it,
and I want to inspire them like that, but no
one actually knows how to build things. Because what happens
(19:06):
is is what the internet, you end up seeing it
distilled down into like the final image. So like what
you're gonna see is you would end up seeing me
like pouring rosette myself in a Kiddi pool or whatever
completely dumb, disposable content we were doing, but like it
was horrible. The Internet is an amazing amplification tool. It's
amazing for fucking you know, for getting the word out there,
for like getting customer awareness, but like you still got
to do all the horrible ship. And I think we
kept it purposely so that people were like, is he
(19:28):
is he like a brand ambassador? But like we did
all the ship. Like I was at a fucking meeting
with like distributors and like Phoenix with like some guys
and like short ties being like you could the Internet
with wine, and I'm like, oh my god, you know, look,
we wanted to get into wine also because the bar
was very low. There were no cool brands, there was
no cool ship, and like everything in my life, I've
(19:49):
always tried to set the bar low and step right
over it. So now we're like the bad Boys of wine.
But that required us to do a ton of legwork
to like get the industry to understand what it was
we were doing, because nobody had done it like that,
and also no one had really sort of no one
had really sort of reverse engineered the proposition, which was
like create the create like the audience first, then put
out the products. I think the way that people normally great,
(20:11):
the way people normally do it is is like you know,
they create a product and people come yeah, they're like, hey, guys,
you love this. But I was just like, what's up,
you fucking maniacs? Like what do you guys want? They
were all like, Rose, we have a drinking problem. Here
eight million people at that time. We're like, we all
have a drinking problem. And I was like, well, I'm
gonna give you. Like, we also wanted to like reinvent
wine events, so we like, you know, we have crazy
We had crazy wine parties, you know, like all kinds
(20:32):
of ridiculous because wine parties now are you know, traditionally
are charcuterie, which again I love, but like not that lead.
We had to learn how to do absolutely fucking everything
and do you get down and there do you do
the work to all of it? That's what I'm saying.
That's kind of what I'm getting at, which is that
like I think a lot of the like I think
people don't know that, and a lot of kids come
to me and are like some of them have really
really great ideas. I mean, some of them are horrible,
but like, also follow your stupid dreams always. But like
(20:54):
people people DM me and are like, what are your Like,
here's an idea that I have, and I'm just like,
all right, well how are you? And again I'm responding
to the d M, so I'm just like, you know how,
I'm like, how are you gonna? No one actually knows
how to do anything right, because I think at this point,
like you know, the the older generations like had no
good ideas. I mean, I guess except for like you know,
Steve Jobs, but whatever. Boomers are man stupid kids have
(21:15):
unfucking believable idea But building things is really hard. You
can't just slap it on the internet and just be
like boom, I've got a CBD sock company, Like let
the fucking millions roll. You gotta do so much fucking
horrible ship. So we built it brick by brick, like
I was the stuff that I've had. The stuff I
had to do to get that wine off the ground
was truly truly horrible. Like I didn't like blow anybody,
(21:38):
but like I honestly I might as well have. I
would have rather actually not thinking back on the things
I had to do, like going to a meeting with
like some grocery store and like Ohio and just like
dancing for them and just being like and then being
like it's a guy with a head dildo with a wine, Like,
what do we know about this? We're fucking you know.
I don't want to name. I could probably get in
so much trouble. I have like eight because now we're
(21:58):
owned by Anaezer Bush, so they have a media team
that listens to everything I do. They're like, I take
a ship and they're like, what's up with that? Tuck?
Like a lawyer is calling me, being like, what's up
with Like to be clear that so, I mean, so
it happens when you sell out. But we built it
brick by fucking brick. We did all the work ourselves.
It's there were no like adults in the room. It
wasn't like, oh, we like handed it off to the
grown ups and then we made whacky internet content. We
(22:20):
did the whole fucking Thingers, did you did you build
it to sell it? No? I don't think so. And
in fact, we had gotten other offers from like kind
of like wine companies, and they were going to know
what to do with the reason we went with Annheuser
Bush and either Bush approach us in ten So we
had been doing Babe for like two years and then
(22:42):
as Bush like they do cool shit, you know, Um,
they fucking you know, they have fucking you know Natty
and like all these you know they have Bush, they
do cool stuff. So we were like, we want to
be the beer of wine. We really do, like we
want that kind of vibe. Um, we want like I
want some guy in fucking rural Virginia, like some fucking
toothless party animal drinking fucking pino grig show. That's never
(23:04):
happened before. So why don't we do that? Why don't
we bring wine to everybody? We really have been able
to do that where the official one of the NFL now,
which is like what an Anheuzer Bushes did that. Um,
that's like been the power of like them being I
mean you know them being in the room and like
the people now that are drinking this ship is unbelievable.
It's like it's I mean, we always had like older
we always had like like we always had like a
(23:24):
wide range of democrat They were always older white women
like drinking our ship being I gotta live your amis
you know, like don't know what a meme is called.
But um, now it's just like middle aged men named
like Rick who were like fuck yeah, like this fucking
yeah man, what is it? Yeah, we didn't build it
to sell it. But when ab came along, we were
like this is fucking perfect because the wine companies weren't
(23:45):
gonna able to get us into the NFL. And like
we just became the official sponsor of like Monster Truck Rally.
So like it's just like you know, for me, you're
still involved. I'm still involved. That was the deal. The deal. Yes,
they kept me on and I've been it's been like
a year and a half now, and like now they
let me do like my thing, like I now I
don't have to go to the meetings, like they don't.
They desperitely do not want me go in the meetings anymore.
And like Phoenix with like distributors, they have like tons
(24:07):
of like really smart people who do ship like that
that like aren't me we got it done. Um, but
now they let me build like you know, Glory Hollmanicure
Trucks and like sponsor fucking you know Monster truck Rally.
We have a babe monster truck with a woman like
she's in a full baby uniform and she just like
straight crush. It's amazing. It's so fucking sick and like
you know, guys in all real tree or like crushing
(24:28):
rose and it's really it's very funny. Um, And I
get I get something out of that. But you know,
the point is, like I think a lot of people
probably think that I was just there to like kind
of just be like in the banana suit, just being
like drinking ah while like someone builds it, but we
really built it. And now I'm trying to pass that
on because I just like the kids. Really, I get
bombarded with d ms of just such good ideas. I
put it out there a lot. I'll be like, who's
(24:49):
got an idea? Like Shark tank night, you know, like
I'm I want to I'm either gonna help you or
give you money, tell me your idea. But what's become
very clear is that like no one actually they're just
like here's my fucking idea, And I'm like that's fire.
But then what what next? Like how do you actually
get started? Like what do you do? You know? Um?
And I think I guess now I'm sort of the
adult in the room and that's really fucking scary, and
(25:10):
you're about to have a baby. Yeah, so now it's like,
you know, I don't have an official next thing that
I'm doing, but I'm like, really, I've really started moving
to the space of like helping the kid, even like
the influencers, like no one knows how to do deals,
no one knows how to do anything, like we're old enough.
But like, well, if you thought about starting an agency,
you know, like I think at one point I thought
about starting like a VC. But at the moment, my
kind of obsession is just like giving tools to like
(25:33):
entrepreneurs and ship honestly like dead ass, which I know
sounds like super but like the people who do that stuff,
and again I don't want to name I've gotten it's
just so much hot water for just constantly calling people
out and I don't want to call people out, like
I don't want to name names, but like Gary V,
I'm just saying people who do this entrepreneurial kind of
ship like they're just like none of it's done right.
They're just like get out there and like find a
(25:53):
baseball card in the gutter and sell it, like get
off your ass, and like it's also weird and like
none of it really reson it's and like so and
I just think everyone fucking wants to do killer Ship
and like nobody wants to work at a normal job anymore.
And I think that that's fine if in fact you're
actually gonna be down to do the hard work. So
I'm kind of like sort of right now just like
kind of like working in that space and like trying
to help in anyoney, can these kids don't pay me?
(26:14):
I'm just like, fuck it, I've given I've already given
away a bunch of money to kids who just had
fire ideas. I was like just keeping in the loop.
I'll v see it. I'm not even taking a cut.
I don't care. I just got lost in your teeth
for a second. Great Jesus, how much funny did you
spend uh setting up the wine business? Do you remember
you're spending all did you say you're spending all your
own money? Like? What was your initial investment? We bought
(26:35):
seven so we bought literally like we bought seventy five
thousand dollars worth of rose from like some guy that's
some other guy knew in like Central California, like in
like Meth Country, which I guess also has vineyards, And
we bought seventy five thousand dollars worth of rose and
then we flipped it for a hundred and fifty and
then we like we created a hundred and fifty thousand
dollars worth of more rose and just kept on flipping.
That was it. It was. It was seventy five thousand
(26:56):
dollars like five dollars of the actual alcohol. What about
what about the bottling and all that? Where that that
was a total cost. That was a total cost to
like buy the juice, put it in the bottle and
just be like who wants it? And get a separate
company that would bottle it and spots it. Yeah, we
had we found like some little Italian man and like
um again in like Meth Country, you know, somewhere really
cute just outside Fresno. You know, it's beautiful up there.
(27:18):
It's really beautiful. It was funny when we went to
our winery the first time, like I'm used to like
a Hampton's winery, you know, where you're like you're a
like Channing daughters, and people are like riding tandem bicycles
and like eating like you know, people eating avocado toast.
But we went it looked like a you know Ukrainian
factory where people work until they die. Yeah, it was horrible.
That's where our wine game from. So we just like
found a guy. We just made it work because like
(27:39):
no one has the answers, That's what I'm saying. Like
we could have just like turned the keys over to
some like you know, wine guys, but like they don't
know what the funk they're doing. Nobody knows what they're doing.
That's what I've learned. Seriously, there are no fucking rules,
and like I know that's easier said than done. And
I'm like not telling you to quit your job, and
I'm not telling you to like don't start your like
CBD Monaco company tomorrow because that maybe a really bad deal.
(28:00):
I don't even know what Cebe Monocle is, but like
you gotta like think this through. But like really, no
one has all the answers. You can bait, Like if
I can start a fucking wine company, like you can
do whatever, right, sure, I mean think about that, I
started a wine company company, Like anyone can do anything.
At this point? Is the deal about public? Like how
much you guys sold for That's the one thing that
(28:21):
had to be quiet. Yeah, they've let me do a lot,
a brush lets me do a lot. But you bought
a cool place in Miami. Yeah, so there's that about
a sexy about a sexy place in Miami. Yeah. Or
I can need fucking you know Philadelphia Roles sexy sushi. Yeah.
But yeah, No, it was good. It was good, and
I think for us it was also more about creative
control because I didn't want to like just sell it off,
and like I wasn't trying to like just break out
and just be like alright, guys, like here you go.
(28:43):
I'm still like super involved. I mean the company has
like a hundred employees. That's wild. That's wild. And I
have to like speak at things like I speak at
the Anti Oh yeah yeah, not really like I come
in and I'm just like yeah, like they don't like
actually listen to me, but they just like it's a
good time. I planned like the Christmas party, you know,
like I do certain things that keep it you know, um.
(29:05):
But I speak at like the Anheuser Bush National Conventions,
so like, you know, I try to keep it fun.
You know, I'm coming out and sucking asseless pink chaps
and you know, like here's the guy we gave all
this money to totally. And then I speak to like,
you know, four thousand like distributors from like North Carolina
who are just like fuck yeah fat you Like they're
just like, oh ship, they probably hate Jewish people, but
they love me um. And so you know, they sort
(29:27):
of they trapped me out as needed, but it's been
like really good. They let me do wild Ship, They're
letting me do you know, They're let me do manicure
trucks and whatever I want. Um, So that's fucking cool.
But yeah, like we really I think we purposely kept
it under wraps that I was like very much involved
with like the brick brick and like the real like
brick on brick like that. That's not a saying, um
of like building it brick by brick, but um, because
(29:50):
I didn't want it to. I wasn't gonna be on
Instagram being like yo like rise and grind baby, like
another day on the grind, like we're at the office.
I was just like, I want to be fun. But
then now that we've like sort of like I've kind
of gotten some distance from it. I've I've been sort
of kind of talking about how I actually did the
work and I'm not as stupid as you thought. Um uh.
The last thing before you go, uh, when when I
(30:13):
asked you to do this podcast, You're like, oh, that's
that realistic guy, right, And I said it was. It
was called Big Money Energy. What did you think? Did
you think about the title at all? Or you just
show up and go where your counter it tells you
to get No, I thought it was sick. I think
you do awesome ship. I do. I think almost everyone
does terrible ship, but you do really really good stuff. Um,
which is why? And you know we again, we can
(30:35):
don't have to say that no, I would open the show.
We should actually go look for a place. Can you
get me on the show? Yeah? Of course that's the
only I know. That's the only way you'd ever actually
buy something if there's content attached to it. Yes, yeah, yeah,
they're a good price in the market is totally terrible.
It has to be right. Yeah, it's a pandemic because
people were like we're going to m against it and
like we're gonna pod with into Miami with you. Yes,
(30:56):
but like then people like, don't want to be because again,
like we were talking about before read or maybe we
were filming the city is I love this. I think
this is really good for New York. I think it's
a cultural reset. Don't agree with me, you know what
it is? No, I tell everybody like, this is the
worst thing ever. I'm like, the board has just been
wiped clean totally. It was going to be slow and
painful for the next five years or boom, because I'm
(31:19):
telling you, man, like I grew up here, and like,
you just don't see the stuff you like when I
you just didn't. You don't see the stuff that I
saw growing up anymore. And some of that stuff is
really enriching, you know. You don't see If I saw
a homeless man on Prince and Bowery, he shipped into
a suitcase and then he zipped it up and he
just matter of factly rolled it away, and I was like.
And it was two o'clock in the afternoon on a Thursday,
and I was like, and it was in front of
(31:39):
like some like you know, over priced like brunch spot
that has now closed, and it's like covered in graffiti.
And I was like, this is good. This is what
we need. This is what New York needs because the
thing was just getting weird. There you go. It's a
great way that we should end this. Thank you so
much for coming on, man, you were the best. And
then and also like, I'm gonna should I read this book?
I haven't read a book in like eleven years? Should I?
Should this be the first book? I mean like eleven years. Yeah,
(32:01):
I'll send it to you. Yeah, listen, if anyone who's
listening watching has a really really terrible, crappy, shitty idea,
the fat you has just made a lot of money
by selling beer wine, and so he'll give you his money.
I'm an idea, santom. Thank you so much for coming,
Thank you for having me. If you're ready to take
action today based on the Fat Jewish is entire blueprint
(32:22):
for how he got to where he is. Go to
Big Money Energy dot com slash podcast to download an
action plan and I put together for you as well
as the show notes. That's Big Money Energy dot com
slash podcast. Find more podcasts like Big Money Energy on
the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
(32:45):
Big Money Energy is hosted by me Ryan Sirhant. It's
produced by Mike Coscarelli and Joe Loresca and executive produced
by Lindsay Hoffman.
Welcome back to another episode of Big Money Energy, where
we talked to super successful and self made people to
find out exactly how they did it, how they went
from nothing to something. I'm Ryan, sirhand, and today I'm
joined by the one and only Fat Jewish also known
as Josh. True story, I haven't been able to read
(00:24):
his name off a piece of paper without laughing. This guy.
We talked about what it was like to be the
world's first influencer crowdsourcing his baby's name, how he manages
to have a private life despite being a walking media brand,
and how he went from posting memes on Instagram to
revolutionizing the liquor industry and changing it forever. Let's get
(00:48):
into this. You're gonna like it. Welcome to another episode.
Today is super special because I'm sitting down with one
of my most favorite, favorite favorite people. He is an
absolute legend and is an amazing entrepreneur as well, And
I know he probably doesn't want to talk about it
that way, but but I definitely want to get into
(01:09):
the details of how good of a business person he
is and how he's not just a guy who's a
social media personality who's built an entire kind of empire
based on humor and making people laugh. I don't really
know how to describe him, so I'm just gonna say, welcome,
Joseph Strowski a k a. The Fat Jewish. Just close
your eyes and like what comes to your mind? Your body? Yeah,
(01:29):
thank you most of the time. And then Amelia is like,
why are you making that face? I'm like, I don't
know if kick gets guy all the time. Appreciate that
a few details because they're important for for this business podcast. Uh.
If you don't know, Josh is in every sense of
the word, a master entrepreneur. He's a social media mogul, actor, influencer, investor,
plus size model. Are you are you about to have
(01:52):
a baby? Yeah? Is that real? That's okay, we'll get
to that. Uh. If you know him from his Instagram account,
The Fat Jewish before, like everyone had an Instagram account, right,
it was like boom, like you I think you invented it?
Do you invent Instagram? I think I was the first influencer. Yeah,
I think so, which like sorry, but also not not sorry,
Like what have I done? Yeah? Like this thing has
(02:12):
gotten really out of control. Yeah, you're such a dick. Yeah,
he's also the co founder of Swiss beverages that you'll
know from Babe and White Girl Rose, which was then
acquired by Anheuser Busch in BEV in two thousand nineteen,
which I definitely want to talk about. You're super funny,
You're super influential everyone. I feel like people have now
at this point. Is it weird to know that people
(02:33):
have grown up with you? Yeah? Oh definitely. You know,
do people come up to you and they're like, oh, dude,
I was following you when I was seven. Yeah, and
like a lot of them have like children now, and
they're like, can you hold this baby? Let's take a
photo with you know, it's not just like the girls
and the dudes in college anymore. They have jobs. No,
It's like a couple in Brooklyn will be like, we
take a you know, we please take a photo of
my son at Kiss and my other son adicis Yeah,
(02:54):
and they both the children have beards somehow. Yeah, they're
likely to super expensive. They look they all of like
they're all of Mumford's sons. Yeah, and they're just like
they can take a picture, and I'm like, wow, this
is these people are really growing up. This is this
is scary. Yeah, you're You're not fat anymore. I'm still big.
I'm still big. I'm still like like bone because that's
your like just your body type. Yeah, that's true. I'm
(03:16):
like a thick Rushian. But when we first met, there
was more of you. I was like, oh, yeah, it
was the less Now I'm like clinically obese. I think
at the time I met you, I was I was
actually obese. Yeah, so I was a lot more Shrek then. Yeah,
it was more Shrek, which was kind of working for me.
But then I would like, you know, get winded getting
out of a car, and you know, I was just like,
is this too much? Has like cancel culture come after
(03:36):
you at all? I mean because you a lot of
your following is you know, part of like the meme culture,
but like you personally, have you gotten any pushback because
things have been so real and so serious, Like why
would you be funny at a time like this? Right?
I actually was worried about that people are gonna be like,
how could you be such a big fucking stupid, funny
idiot while there's real like use your platform, But like
(03:56):
my thing is like if you want real ship from
like you people and like heart, Like there's so many
outlets for that. I'm gonna give you some dumb ship
to like take you out of it for a second
and like make you forget about it. So I think
mostly like I tried to do as much as I could,
Like when the fucking when it first hit, we gave
like I gave away like a million dollars worth of
babe worth of wine to like fucking I was giving
(04:16):
out who because like everybody deserved to get fucked up,
you know what I mean. Your nail salon truck was
the greatest thing socially, distance manicure truck, glory holes for
your hands, if you will, totally you can get a
social and it was all free. We sent that thing
like around the fucking country. You know, the meme of
like the large naked black dude with his dick hanging.
I did a deep dive on him, and actually I
ended up getting in touch with his brother, and now
I've been speaking to like his whole family and we're
(04:38):
trying to figure out like how to kind of like
monetize like all this success with him. So these are
the ways in which I get, you know what I mean,
which is like dig really deep on Wordy's You Bear
the Third which is that guy's name. But no, like
no cancel culture within that. I mean I got I
had canceled ship before, which was like you know about
like memes and stealing memes and all the ship. But
like interesting enough when like cancel culture actually came up
(04:59):
about like sexually harassing people. Like the one thing is
like I'm an India on the internet, but I'm like,
I'm like a nice Jewish guy, so like I haven't
nothing like that has happened to me. So yeah, I
got canceled. I was getting canceled before, people like it
was hot to get canceled. Are you married now or
are you with somebody? Yeah? I have a I gotta
I have like a woman, like someone. I asked me
if someone's cap if anyone's capable of loving me? You
did get married to a woman and you get divorced
(05:19):
like the next day, and I remember that. Yeah, she
was like a corn fed midwesterner, Yeah, with like real
big shoulders. Yeah that was like for the look. Um No,
but now I have a real relationship with a human. Um,
and I am actually having a kid. And obviously I've
been like trying to turn the whole thing into performance art.
And she's like, please don't do this, but I am
taking baby name suggestions. I'm saying I'm down, Like my
kid doesn't have to be named like Blender, Like it
doesn't have to be nuts, like the kids name could
(05:41):
be Bruce. I'm just looking for some fire. Met this woman.
I met her on the internet. What do you mean,
how do people have sex with each other? Are you
ready to be a dad? Yeah? Like whatever, right, it's good, right,
good for content? I mean, did you not have a
kid for content? Yeah? I mean like it was it
went through my mind. I No, I definitely did not
have a kid for content? But did A kids show
is up? And you're like, you're gonna help totally. I mean,
(06:02):
I'm already working on, you know, getting a big piece
of bread. Put the kid on with lettuce to me
to over pretend it's like in a fucking sandwich, Like
I already got all kinds of ship. And she's not
really complaining because like she knows what she signed up for.
She's with me willingly, so she knew obviously that we're
going to turn this into something completely dumb. But I
think I'm ready because I'm like kind of old. I'm
thirty eight, so I'm like done a long time since
(06:23):
you got expelled from all those schools. Yeah, and I'm
dusty as hell, like I'm an excellennial for sure. Like
I'm like, I'm for sure an excellennial. So I think
I'm like pretty much ready because also, like what else
is there to do? You know, let's have let's have
a kid talk to me about why did you get
expelled from college? Sawesome ship classics? You know, like Van Wilder,
you know the movie you've seen that. Yeah, I kicked
at high school. I kicked that in of college, just
(06:44):
you know, having a good time. I'm just a good
I'm just a fun guy. I'm just a good guy.
And uh, I like having a good time. And it's
really easy to get thrown out of a liberal art school.
I got thrown a skin more but skin Moore is
not fun. They don't do six shift over there. So
you were doing six ship and they were like, you
can't do that here anymore, and so you yeah. And
then I went to Sunni Albany and like with a
bunch of like Stan Island guys, and that's when things
(07:04):
got fall like a bunch of guys who were like
going to be firefighters with like Foreskin Yeah, great, good times.
It was just like skin Moore was just more like
Upper West Side, like Priva Sla. It was more of
those it was who had been hanging out with. You know,
we're like shooting the baked potatoes out of a tennis
ball machine and like, you know, talking to you is
such a workout, um, because I'm trying to listen and
(07:24):
like trying to understand like what's real, what's not real,
what's happening? But I guess it's just all part of
part of who you are. How do you how do
you separate though? And maybe you don't kind of Josh
from the fat Jewish or is there no separation because
I know you came up with that name initially when
you were part of a rap trio. Yeah we've ever
seen our stuff? Yeah yeah, you showed me. Actually no,
(07:46):
I mean you know it's again. I think that like
the Kid is a perfect example, which is just drawing
lines of just like you know, not everything can be
like totally ridiculous and performative, you know what I mean,
Like the Kid's gonna be real. Yeah, right, Like I'm
I'm I'm gonna fund the kid up for sure, and
like land the kid in like six therapy for sure.
But like it's just not everything can be for the internet, right,
you can't do it all for the Graham. Like some
(08:07):
people just get like too open. You gotta keep some
ship off the Internet because for you, is it going
to be personal family stuff? Yeah, I mean, I mean, look,
I wouldn't have a kid if I couldn't get content
out of it, because that would be ridiculous. But you know,
you gotta like draw the line, and like, you know,
I want to fund the kid up, but not too bad,
you know, so like I try to keep my partner
like super private. Um, some people are just like it's
so open, you know what I mean. Like some was
(08:28):
like influencers who are just like they're just like I
just hey you guys, Like I just need to talk
to you, like I just like I have ibs, and
like things just get too intimate and real, and like
you gotta keep some ship like in the some ship's
gotta be like kept in the dark, Like we don't
all need to know everything. I don't consider myself an
influence at this point. Also, I'm like getting too old
for this ship. In the words of Danny Glover ten
(08:49):
years ago, I was, you know, on a slipping slide
covered in Marinara, but like that's just not a good
look for like a thirty eight year old. Like I'm
friends with some like older guys who are still just
like they need constant content, like constant YouTube ship. It's
just gets crazy. So I've really transitioned into like kind
of mentoring the next generation of complete and utter morons
and not doing it myself because eventually you're just like
the old dude of the party and it's pretty witch.
(09:18):
I want to make sure that we get to it.
I'm interested also in the business side of what you do.
Can you can you walk me through that both, like
the Fat Jewish as a business, what that looks like,
how many people work for you? Like how do you
make money? And then when Swish came about and that process. Yeah,
I mean I was basically the first influencer, so brands
were coming to me and being like, can we pay you?
(09:38):
They didn't fucking know anything. I would just like make
up acronyms. I'd be like, I can get you guys
four hundred million kpm bcs and they were like hell yeah,
pay them, let's go to lunch. Because like guys didn't
know what was going on. But you know, as the
influencer bubble grew and like it, I just basically was
like I don't want to do this. This is weird.
I'm not an influencer. Like I didn't want to be
part of that. I think that's how I get label old,
(10:00):
but that's not it's not who I am, and I
think I pretty quickly was like you know what, like
if I'm like the thing that's different differenally me and
like other people like that, like being like accounts like
mine is that I don't like you go up and
like I'm not gonna name any names, but some of
these big accounts, they're like in like so like sun Splash,
Soho Lofts and it's just like people like looking for
content on computers. It's like the sounds of keys clicking
(10:20):
and they're like it's like funded by vcs and like
it's all fucking it's very like corporate and they're like,
let's find a video. Like you know, it turned out
like the Kwan was like some like Middle Eastern dude
who was like working in a content farm but I
was never like that, Like I was just posting photos
like while drunk and like in a bed. Like it
was never like that. So I was like, I was
just like I don't want to do this. But the
(10:40):
one and the other thing is different is is that
like those types of accounts, they don't talk to the
people like I talk to everyone who dms me. I
answer every d M, you know, not if they're like
if it's like some weird spam, but anyone who comes
into me. I'm constantly like talking, which is funny for
people because people will get like really drunk and talk
ship to me, you know, and they're they're like, fact
you act and then I'm like, oh hey, then I'll
(11:02):
be like, what's up, man, didn't think i'd see this, huh.
And then they're like, oh my god, I love you.
We should hang out. I'm coming to New York, and
I'm like, it's kind of a weird way to start it,
Like you just really told me you fucking hate me.
I mean now I don't really have the time as much,
but people invited me places like I've officiated like Levin weddings,
going to like Kinsinera's like if you invited me to
some ship, like some some like finance bros invited me
(11:23):
to like fly on a private jet while they like
did coke and just hang out with them. And I
was like, I would never be trapped in this like
sky prison with a bunch of like coked up finance bros.
I turned that down, But in general, it wasn't about
the money. Nobody paid me. It's just like if you
invited me, I was down to chill because like I'm
a real fucking person and I'm trying to make real
memories and I definitely put myself in like dangerous situations
where like murder was highly possible, Like just like when
(11:43):
I went to the South of France and like hung
out with some weird Saudi guys like on a boat,
like just they just paid for a plane take and
I was like fuck it, let's go. And so I'm
all up in the d m s. And I just
like when you create an audience, like when you create
like a group of people, that's like kind of like
you're a real person, it's tight like that. I was like,
I feel like I should do something better than just
like taking a check and being like you guys, I
(12:03):
love this thing, and so we basically just like I
talked to my audience and just like fucking we just
like we're just friends. Like it's like one giant sleepover,
you know, it's like a big sleepover and we're all
on molly um and some of them hate me, but
like they're there anyway. And then just kind of like
through that, I was just like, what the fun do
you guys want? What should we do? Like I want
to make a thing. I want to make something like
I'm not trying to just like you know, do these
(12:24):
weird branded things. And so everyone was sucking drinking rose right,
Rose is sucking slutty. We always call it like the
slutty cousin of wine. You drink it cold, you just
like it doesn't matter. And at that time, like it
was weird. Like once I started like looking into it,
I was just like, you know what, everyone's drinking rose? Right?
No one's like smelling it and being like, oh the
nutty notes of like just drink it, like you just
(12:47):
make it cold, drink it and then like text your
X three times and I was just like, why don't
we No one knows the name of a brand of
rosett that's what really got me, Like you're just like
walking to a store and you were just like, give
me some fucking rosette, you know, make it, make it cute.
I don't give a ship Like I'm going to a
pool party and I'm gonna make terrible decisions with my
body and my you know, and my self respect. So
I was like, wait a minute, Like why can't we
(13:09):
like make wine like more fucking popping, because like wine
is sick, right, It's like the oldest fucking drink, Like
people are getting sucked up on it for a hundred
thousands of years, but it's got this like dusty you know,
it's all dusty. It's like guys in little glasses being
like like my turtleneck, you know which. By the way,
I'm down. I love charcouterie. I love I'm down with wine. Ship.
But like there's a low brow wine scene. There's a
real Housewives fucking ice in your shardon a, you know,
(13:32):
fucking pouring rose and your eyeball scene that no one
was really capitalizing on. So I was like, why don't
we do it. Let's put it in a fucking can,
make it fucking slutty, and we'll just do it. Because
like why couldn't we I was a huge fan of
and we ended up doing a deal with with annezer Bush.
But I was a huge fan of like Bud White,
Like I'm a fucking shitty beer guy. I love like
a foamy, garbage bump piss domestic, And I was like,
(13:52):
why don't we bring wine to that level? You know
what I mean? Because people are doing it, but there's
no brand for it. Obviously it was boxed wine and
like slap the bag and that was White Girl Rose. Yeah,
we put in a bottle. We didn't know how to
do a can. No one had put sparkling wine in
a can. So we were just like, let's put in
a bottle. We'll get a pop and see if people
want this. And it's just with your internal team that
was helping you just kind of run your We like
(14:13):
call the guy that like someone knew that had some wine.
It was so I was at that time I was
writing TV shows and they would like go to a
pilot and then or not and then like I'd sell
it and then we move on to the next one
because none of them were that good. Um, but it
was fun. You could keep getting checks off that and
I was like getting paid by Craftsman Tools to like
sit in a giant you know. Craftsman Tools was like,
we want you to do a Super Bowl commercials, just
(14:33):
like in early fifteen, and I was like, I want
you to because at that time, I was just like funking.
I don't care if I get the brand deals or not,
so I'll just troll them and see how much they'll
let me get away with. And I was like, build
me like a huge bowl and fill it with chili,
and I'm gonna sit in it. You can google it,
it's like. And I was just like if they they're
gonna say no, and I'll be like fuck it. But
they were like great sounds like sounds disruptive and experiential
and like hyperlocal sticky, you know, like a million of
(14:54):
guys where it's like nobody so super out that time.
They were like this is a hyper multi vertical like
cloud iterated, end to end, disrupted, experiential, like multi screen vertical.
Whatever these people say. And so I'm in a giant
thing at chili. So I was getting checks from that,
and I was trying to get I was trying to
wean off of that teat I was with the guys
that I was writing TV shows with and the guys
I was doing stuff like that with, and my partners
(15:15):
with the guys who wrote um they wrote a book
called White Girl Problems, which is like about like a
fictional socialite, but it's just like two good looking, fuckable
Jewish brothers who write that. And so we were like,
let's put it in. Let's you know, let's we just
like found a guy that had wine. We put in
a bottle, and we just like bought some of our
own money, just put our own fucking money up, bought enough,
and then just like everything went crazy. Fresh Direct called
and bought it all like in a day, and then
(15:36):
we like we didn't know any of the rules. Like
I tried to sell it out of the trunk of
my mom's car with ice in the trunk, and then
they like tried to suspend it. Like we almost got
our license taken away like in the first week, because
like you can't do that much chill ship with booze.
All the ship that I was doing that was completely
out of bounds and ridiculous and like borderline somewhat palatably
offensive liquor. People are like like the nerves you know
they're not they're not down. So then we from there,
(15:57):
we put it in a can and it just kind
of went and that was Babe. That's babe. What was
the time difference between White Girl Rose and Babe one year?
What really did you find somebody like another distributor who
could actually create the same kind of partect wine and
put it into it? Well, that's the nice thing about Rose, right,
is like no one gives a ship, like you know
what I'm saying, Like no one knows. So like I
(16:18):
think we just we found like a different wine because
like no one really knows. And for us, like the
thing our Rose is it needs to be good. It
doesn't need to be that good. Ours is about fucking
brand and it's about having fun. It's about you know,
it's about making bad decisions. It's about being part of it.
So I think we switched batches. As long as it's
close enough, it's close enough and the wine was good.
We wanted to make sure the wine was good because
I think the bar was really low. Right, people were
(16:39):
like fat Jewish put out a wine right, like it's
gonna be cool. I'll buy it one time. Seems interesting,
but like it's direct to consumer, so people are just
doing no no. This was like in Storres, this was Instorece.
There was cutting all those deals where the stores just
coming to you. Stories were coming us Fresh Direct call
me the first day and was like, we'll buy it all.
The first day we sold white Girl Rose on the internet.
There was no White gro Rose didn't even exist. We
(16:59):
photoshopped the label, put it on and they already bought
it and we were like, oh fuck, we should probably
get some wine. Because our whole thing was like if
we put this up and we do this a lot,
like I do this a lot, Like I'll put up
something that's photoshopped and be like, do you guys like this?
And if everyone's like this is dogshit, I'm like, I'm kidding.
I would never do this. But then if they're like
we love it, I'm like, good thing because it's coming
out in two weeks. Like totally just like focus group
(17:20):
ship and like I just feel like the people who
follow me think, like feel like I'm not just like
shilling to them constantly because I'm not. Like Instagram has
become there's just a lot of shill that was not
my angle, Like I'm a complete chip bag but not
like that. I just didn't want you to feel like
this was a platform. I was just trying to make something,
you know. I was like, do you guys think this
is cool? Do you want this whatever? I'm gonna make
it cheap. Um, I'm gonna make it cheap and it's
(17:41):
gonna get you absolutely torched. How many people work for
you at that time, there were like four of us.
So my office space situations, I always take offices that
are like I always wanted to be like as like
conversation where as possible. So before the Wine my office
was in a nail salon and Queen's so I was
like in the bed, like I rented out like a
waxing room, which was sick and then which I love
(18:02):
those ladies, like shout out to the hole, to the
whole squad. And then after that, our first wine office
was we took the office directly upstairs from one Oak,
the nightclub on seventeen. I remember that, and so like
the sound check would like shake the floor and like
bottle girls would be like smoking Newport lights and like
it was awesome, like because we were right our offices
right across from there, like changing room like green, like lounge.
It was really really sick, like there were fist fights
(18:24):
between like bottle girls. Like I absolutely loved it because
I want to, you know, let's make it fun. I'm
not gonna like take some office and be like this
is our office. We're not doing that. So we did that.
There were like four of us now, so then there
are four of you managing your business on social all
the brand deals, you where your calendar, where we're going,
and also building out a liquor business. Yes, and I
(18:45):
think that like to be like serious for a second,
like that that I think is one of the main
things I'm kind of transitioning into is that like like
people on the internet now, like people have amazing ideas, right,
but no one actually knows how to execute. And I
think people look at me a little bit inspirationally there,
just like this this moron did it. I could do it,
and I want to inspire them like that, but no
one actually knows how to build things. Because what happens
(19:06):
is is what the internet, you end up seeing it
distilled down into like the final image. So like what
you're gonna see is you would end up seeing me
like pouring rosette myself in a Kiddi pool or whatever
completely dumb, disposable content we were doing, but like it
was horrible. The Internet is an amazing amplification tool. It's
amazing for fucking you know, for getting the word out there,
for like getting customer awareness, but like you still got
to do all the horrible ship. And I think we
kept it purposely so that people were like, is he
(19:28):
is he like a brand ambassador? But like we did
all the ship. Like I was at a fucking meeting
with like distributors and like Phoenix with like some guys
and like short ties being like you could the Internet
with wine, and I'm like, oh my god, you know, look,
we wanted to get into wine also because the bar
was very low. There were no cool brands, there was
no cool ship, and like everything in my life, I've
(19:49):
always tried to set the bar low and step right
over it. So now we're like the bad Boys of wine.
But that required us to do a ton of legwork
to like get the industry to understand what it was
we were doing, because nobody had done it like that,
and also no one had really sort of no one
had really sort of reverse engineered the proposition, which was
like create the create like the audience first, then put
out the products. I think the way that people normally great,
(20:11):
the way people normally do it is is like you know,
they create a product and people come yeah, they're like, hey, guys,
you love this. But I was just like, what's up,
you fucking maniacs? Like what do you guys want? They
were all like, Rose, we have a drinking problem. Here
eight million people at that time. We're like, we all
have a drinking problem. And I was like, well, I'm
gonna give you. Like, we also wanted to like reinvent
wine events, so we like, you know, we have crazy
We had crazy wine parties, you know, like all kinds
(20:32):
of ridiculous because wine parties now are you know, traditionally
are charcuterie, which again I love, but like not that lead.
We had to learn how to do absolutely fucking everything
and do you get down and there do you do
the work to all of it? That's what I'm saying.
That's kind of what I'm getting at, which is that
like I think a lot of the like I think
people don't know that, and a lot of kids come
to me and are like some of them have really
really great ideas. I mean, some of them are horrible,
but like, also follow your stupid dreams always. But like
(20:54):
people people DM me and are like, what are your Like,
here's an idea that I have, and I'm just like,
all right, well how are you? And again I'm responding
to the d M, so I'm just like, you know how,
I'm like, how are you gonna? No one actually knows
how to do anything right, because I think at this point,
like you know, the the older generations like had no
good ideas. I mean, I guess except for like you know,
Steve Jobs, but whatever. Boomers are man stupid kids have
(21:15):
unfucking believable idea But building things is really hard. You
can't just slap it on the internet and just be
like boom, I've got a CBD sock company, Like let
the fucking millions roll. You gotta do so much fucking
horrible ship. So we built it brick by brick, like
I was the stuff that I've had. The stuff I
had to do to get that wine off the ground
was truly truly horrible. Like I didn't like blow anybody,
(21:38):
but like I honestly I might as well have. I
would have rather actually not thinking back on the things
I had to do, like going to a meeting with
like some grocery store and like Ohio and just like
dancing for them and just being like and then being
like it's a guy with a head dildo with a wine, Like,
what do we know about this? We're fucking you know.
I don't want to name. I could probably get in
so much trouble. I have like eight because now we're
(21:58):
owned by Anaezer Bush, so they have a media team
that listens to everything I do. They're like, I take
a ship and they're like, what's up with that? Tuck?
Like a lawyer is calling me, being like, what's up
with Like to be clear that so, I mean, so
it happens when you sell out. But we built it
brick by fucking brick. We did all the work ourselves.
It's there were no like adults in the room. It
wasn't like, oh, we like handed it off to the
grown ups and then we made whacky internet content. We
(22:20):
did the whole fucking Thingers, did you did you build
it to sell it? No? I don't think so. And
in fact, we had gotten other offers from like kind
of like wine companies, and they were going to know
what to do with the reason we went with Annheuser
Bush and either Bush approach us in ten So we
had been doing Babe for like two years and then
(22:42):
as Bush like they do cool shit, you know, Um,
they fucking you know, they have fucking you know Natty
and like all these you know they have Bush, they
do cool stuff. So we were like, we want to
be the beer of wine. We really do, like we
want that kind of vibe. Um, we want like I
want some guy in fucking rural Virginia, like some fucking
toothless party animal drinking fucking pino grig show. That's never
(23:04):
happened before. So why don't we do that? Why don't
we bring wine to everybody? We really have been able
to do that where the official one of the NFL now,
which is like what an Anheuzer Bushes did that. Um,
that's like been the power of like them being I
mean you know them being in the room and like
the people now that are drinking this ship is unbelievable.
It's like it's I mean, we always had like older
we always had like like we always had like a
(23:24):
wide range of democrat They were always older white women
like drinking our ship being I gotta live your amis
you know, like don't know what a meme is called.
But um, now it's just like middle aged men named
like Rick who were like fuck yeah, like this fucking
yeah man, what is it? Yeah, we didn't build it
to sell it. But when ab came along, we were
like this is fucking perfect because the wine companies weren't
(23:45):
gonna able to get us into the NFL. And like
we just became the official sponsor of like Monster Truck Rally.
So like it's just like you know, for me, you're
still involved. I'm still involved. That was the deal. The deal. Yes,
they kept me on and I've been it's been like
a year and a half now, and like now they
let me do like my thing, like I now I
don't have to go to the meetings, like they don't.
They desperitely do not want me go in the meetings anymore.
And like Phoenix with like distributors, they have like tons
(24:07):
of like really smart people who do ship like that
that like aren't me we got it done. Um, but
now they let me build like you know, Glory Hollmanicure
Trucks and like sponsor fucking you know Monster truck Rally.
We have a babe monster truck with a woman like
she's in a full baby uniform and she just like
straight crush. It's amazing. It's so fucking sick and like
you know, guys in all real tree or like crushing
(24:28):
rose and it's really it's very funny. Um, And I
get I get something out of that. But you know,
the point is, like I think a lot of people
probably think that I was just there to like kind
of just be like in the banana suit, just being
like drinking ah while like someone builds it, but we
really built it. And now I'm trying to pass that
on because I just like the kids. Really, I get
bombarded with d ms of just such good ideas. I
put it out there a lot. I'll be like, who's
(24:49):
got an idea? Like Shark tank night, you know, like
I'm I want to I'm either gonna help you or
give you money, tell me your idea. But what's become
very clear is that like no one actually they're just
like here's my fucking idea, And I'm like that's fire.
But then what what next? Like how do you actually
get started? Like what do you do? You know? Um?
And I think I guess now I'm sort of the
adult in the room and that's really fucking scary, and
(25:10):
you're about to have a baby. Yeah, so now it's like,
you know, I don't have an official next thing that
I'm doing, but I'm like, really, I've really started moving
to the space of like helping the kid, even like
the influencers, like no one knows how to do deals,
no one knows how to do anything, like we're old enough.
But like, well, if you thought about starting an agency,
you know, like I think at one point I thought
about starting like a VC. But at the moment, my
kind of obsession is just like giving tools to like
(25:33):
entrepreneurs and ship honestly like dead ass, which I know
sounds like super but like the people who do that stuff,
and again I don't want to name I've gotten it's
just so much hot water for just constantly calling people
out and I don't want to call people out, like
I don't want to name names, but like Gary V,
I'm just saying people who do this entrepreneurial kind of
ship like they're just like none of it's done right.
They're just like get out there and like find a
(25:53):
baseball card in the gutter and sell it, like get
off your ass, and like it's also weird and like
none of it really reson it's and like so and
I just think everyone fucking wants to do killer Ship
and like nobody wants to work at a normal job anymore.
And I think that that's fine if in fact you're
actually gonna be down to do the hard work. So
I'm kind of like sort of right now just like
kind of like working in that space and like trying
to help in anyoney, can these kids don't pay me?
(26:14):
I'm just like, fuck it, I've given I've already given
away a bunch of money to kids who just had
fire ideas. I was like just keeping in the loop.
I'll v see it. I'm not even taking a cut.
I don't care. I just got lost in your teeth
for a second. Great Jesus, how much funny did you
spend uh setting up the wine business? Do you remember
you're spending all did you say you're spending all your
own money? Like? What was your initial investment? We bought
(26:35):
seven so we bought literally like we bought seventy five
thousand dollars worth of rose from like some guy that's
some other guy knew in like Central California, like in
like Meth Country, which I guess also has vineyards, And
we bought seventy five thousand dollars worth of rose and
then we flipped it for a hundred and fifty and
then we like we created a hundred and fifty thousand
dollars worth of more rose and just kept on flipping.
That was it. It was. It was seventy five thousand
(26:56):
dollars like five dollars of the actual alcohol. What about
what about the bottling and all that? Where that that
was a total cost. That was a total cost to
like buy the juice, put it in the bottle and
just be like who wants it? And get a separate
company that would bottle it and spots it. Yeah, we
had we found like some little Italian man and like
um again in like Meth Country, you know, somewhere really
cute just outside Fresno. You know, it's beautiful up there.
(27:18):
It's really beautiful. It was funny when we went to
our winery the first time, like I'm used to like
a Hampton's winery, you know, where you're like you're a
like Channing daughters, and people are like riding tandem bicycles
and like eating like you know, people eating avocado toast.
But we went it looked like a you know Ukrainian
factory where people work until they die. Yeah, it was horrible.
That's where our wine game from. So we just like
found a guy. We just made it work because like
(27:39):
no one has the answers, That's what I'm saying. Like
we could have just like turned the keys over to
some like you know, wine guys, but like they don't
know what the funk they're doing. Nobody knows what they're doing.
That's what I've learned. Seriously, there are no fucking rules,
and like I know that's easier said than done. And
I'm like not telling you to quit your job, and
I'm not telling you to like don't start your like
CBD Monaco company tomorrow because that maybe a really bad deal.
(28:00):
I don't even know what Cebe Monocle is, but like
you gotta like think this through. But like really, no
one has all the answers. You can bait, Like if
I can start a fucking wine company, like you can
do whatever, right, sure, I mean think about that, I
started a wine company company, Like anyone can do anything.
At this point? Is the deal about public? Like how
much you guys sold for That's the one thing that
(28:21):
had to be quiet. Yeah, they've let me do a lot,
a brush lets me do a lot. But you bought
a cool place in Miami. Yeah, so there's that about
a sexy about a sexy place in Miami. Yeah. Or
I can need fucking you know Philadelphia Roles sexy sushi. Yeah.
But yeah, No, it was good. It was good, and
I think for us it was also more about creative
control because I didn't want to like just sell it off,
and like I wasn't trying to like just break out
and just be like alright, guys, like here you go.
(28:43):
I'm still like super involved. I mean the company has
like a hundred employees. That's wild. That's wild. And I
have to like speak at things like I speak at
the Anti Oh yeah yeah, not really like I come
in and I'm just like yeah, like they don't like
actually listen to me, but they just like it's a
good time. I planned like the Christmas party, you know,
like I do certain things that keep it you know, um.
(29:05):
But I speak at like the Anheuser Bush National Conventions,
so like, you know, I try to keep it fun.
You know, I'm coming out and sucking asseless pink chaps
and you know, like here's the guy we gave all
this money to totally. And then I speak to like,
you know, four thousand like distributors from like North Carolina
who are just like fuck yeah fat you Like they're
just like, oh ship, they probably hate Jewish people, but
they love me um. And so you know, they sort
(29:27):
of they trapped me out as needed, but it's been
like really good. They let me do wild Ship, They're
letting me do you know, They're let me do manicure
trucks and whatever I want. Um, So that's fucking cool.
But yeah, like we really I think we purposely kept
it under wraps that I was like very much involved
with like the brick brick and like the real like
brick on brick like that. That's not a saying, um
of like building it brick by brick, but um, because
(29:50):
I didn't want it to. I wasn't gonna be on
Instagram being like yo like rise and grind baby, like
another day on the grind, like we're at the office.
I was just like, I want to be fun. But
then now that we've like sort of like I've kind
of gotten some distance from it. I've I've been sort
of kind of talking about how I actually did the
work and I'm not as stupid as you thought. Um uh.
The last thing before you go, uh, when when I
(30:13):
asked you to do this podcast, You're like, oh, that's
that realistic guy, right, And I said it was. It
was called Big Money Energy. What did you think? Did
you think about the title at all? Or you just
show up and go where your counter it tells you
to get No, I thought it was sick. I think
you do awesome ship. I do. I think almost everyone
does terrible ship, but you do really really good stuff. Um,
which is why? And you know we again, we can
(30:35):
don't have to say that no, I would open the show.
We should actually go look for a place. Can you
get me on the show? Yeah? Of course that's the
only I know. That's the only way you'd ever actually
buy something if there's content attached to it. Yes, yeah, yeah,
they're a good price in the market is totally terrible.
It has to be right. Yeah, it's a pandemic because
people were like we're going to m against it and
like we're gonna pod with into Miami with you. Yes,
(30:56):
but like then people like, don't want to be because again,
like we were talking about before read or maybe we
were filming the city is I love this. I think
this is really good for New York. I think it's
a cultural reset. Don't agree with me, you know what
it is? No, I tell everybody like, this is the
worst thing ever. I'm like, the board has just been
wiped clean totally. It was going to be slow and
painful for the next five years or boom, because I'm
(31:19):
telling you, man, like I grew up here, and like,
you just don't see the stuff you like when I
you just didn't. You don't see the stuff that I
saw growing up anymore. And some of that stuff is
really enriching, you know. You don't see If I saw
a homeless man on Prince and Bowery, he shipped into
a suitcase and then he zipped it up and he
just matter of factly rolled it away, and I was like.
And it was two o'clock in the afternoon on a Thursday,
and I was like, and it was in front of
(31:39):
like some like you know, over priced like brunch spot
that has now closed, and it's like covered in graffiti.
And I was like, this is good. This is what
we need. This is what New York needs because the
thing was just getting weird. There you go. It's a
great way that we should end this. Thank you so
much for coming on, man, you were the best. And
then and also like, I'm gonna should I read this book?
I haven't read a book in like eleven years? Should I?
Should this be the first book? I mean like eleven years. Yeah,
(32:01):
I'll send it to you. Yeah, listen, if anyone who's
listening watching has a really really terrible, crappy, shitty idea,
the fat you has just made a lot of money
by selling beer wine, and so he'll give you his money.
I'm an idea, santom. Thank you so much for coming,
Thank you for having me. If you're ready to take
action today based on the Fat Jewish is entire blueprint
(32:22):
for how he got to where he is. Go to
Big Money Energy dot com slash podcast to download an
action plan and I put together for you as well
as the show notes. That's Big Money Energy dot com
slash podcast. Find more podcasts like Big Money Energy on
the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
(32:45):
Big Money Energy is hosted by me Ryan Sirhant. It's
produced by Mike Coscarelli and Joe Loresca and executive produced
by Lindsay Hoffman.
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