Travis Makes Money

Why physical products and offline experiences are making a comeback

The resurgence of bookstores and what the latest reading trends actually show

How journaling can help you remember your life and recognize recurring patterns

The benefits of using libraries, physical books, and audiobooks

Why spending more time creating than consuming can lead to a better life

Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Journaling doesn't need to be organized, aesthetically pleasing, or perfectly consistent to be useful. The value comes from capturing your thoughts and experiences so you can learn from them later.

Pay attention to recurring patterns. Looking back through old journals can reveal problems, questions, and areas of your life that you've remained stuck in for years. Those patterns can point you toward what you need to address or learn more about.

Create more than you consume. Constant scrolling can leave you consuming huge amounts of content without remembering much of it. Intentionally putting your phone away and prioritizing writing, reading, and real-world experiences can help you become more present and productive.

"The only thing that's consistent is on the top I put pages read."

"It's been helpful for me to look through."

"If I spend more time creating than consuming, my life will probably look a little bit better."

Instagram: @travischappell 

Other: travischappell.com

How Abhijit learned to make money as a teenager through radio, writing, and competitions

Why having a personal "board of directors" can be more valuable than relying on a single mentor

How to attract great mentors by doing your research and coming prepared with specific questions

Abhijit's experience leading learning and development at Microsoft during the rise of AI

Why your career needs more than money, including meaning, belonging, mastery, predictability, and status

Build a board of mentors. Instead of relying on one person for every type of advice, develop relationships with several people who bring different expertise and perspectives to your career.

Make mentorship valuable for both sides. The best mentees do their research, arrive prepared, and have a specific question or problem they want help solving. A mentor can then help reframe the problem rather than simply telling you what decision to make.

Don't treat work like a vending machine. Money matters, but a fulfilling career also provides meaning, belonging, mastery, predictability, and status. Without those elements, financial success alone can still lead to burnout.
Notable Quotes

"I like to describe it like a board of directors."

"Most of the times I look for people who come prepared for it because they get more out of it."

"Work is about how you make money. Yes, that's a very important part of it, and nobody's gonna work for free. However, there are five other factors that we think about."
Connect with Abhijit Bhaduri:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhijitbhaduri/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abhijitbhaduri/

Other: AIdentity — Abhijit's latest book

New York's lawsuit against Polymarket and the ongoing battle over whether prediction markets constitute gambling

Why prediction markets may be more susceptible to manipulation than traditional sports betting

The challenges of enforcing age restrictions and preventing banned users from accessing gambling platforms

Whether prediction markets are introducing gambling to younger people and new demographics

The ethical challenges of building and marketing businesses around potentially addictive vices

Labels don't necessarily change the underlying behavior. Whether a platform calls itself a prediction market or something else, putting money on a yes-or-no outcome can function very similarly to gambling.

Regulation needs to account for how people actually behave. Simply banning a platform or raising the minimum age may push users toward unregulated alternatives rather than eliminating the behavior entirely.

Entrepreneurs have to consider the ethics of what they sell. Travis discusses the tension between building a profitable business around something people enjoy and questioning whether promoting that product encourages an unhealthy behavior.

“They are technically buying futures, but it is gambling.”

“There has to be some sort of like at least coming to terms with the idea that it's like, ‘Okay, well, either you can do it at eighteen or you can't do it at eighteen.’”

“How do you ethically market a vice?”

Instagram: @travischappell 

Other: travischappell.com

Why taking a 100% commission sales job at 22 taught Rajeev self-discipline, sales, and the importance of betting on yourself

How Rajeev went from working in sales at Gateway to becoming one of Michael Dell's early executive assistants and eventually leading major international businesses

Why being aggressive and memorable can help you create opportunities that wouldn't otherwise exist, including the unconventional strategy that landed Rajeev an interview at Dell

The leadership lessons Rajeev learned from Michael Dell, including hiring great people, delegating effectively, and getting out of their way

Why companies need to establish a strong data foundation and get their people involved before investing heavily in AI agents and automation

Bet on yourself when you're already at “no.” Rajeev's decision to FedEx his resume directly to Michael Dell came from a simple realization: he had nothing to lose. His advice is to be aggressive when pursuing an opportunity because rejection doesn't make your situation worse if you're already being overlooked.

Focus on activity before obsessing over results. Rajeev learned early in sales that revenue is a lag measure while calls, proposals, and other activities are lead measures. Focusing on the actions you can control creates more opportunities for the desired result to follow.

Don't automate a broken foundation. Rajeev argues that businesses need strong, secure, properly captured, and accessible data before building sophisticated AI agents. Just as importantly, employees need to understand how AI will help them rather than believing it's simply coming for their jobs.

"You've got to go to the job."

"What do you got to lose? You got nothing to lose. What are they gonna say? No. Well you're already at no."

"Most companies fail not because they do the wrong thing. They fail because they did the right thing for too long."

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevkapur1/

Website: Rajeev.ai

Books: Visit Rajeev's website for information about his upcoming books- Intelligence as a Commodity; Liberated by Limits; Your New Health OS

Whether AI is actually responsible for rising unemployment and underemployment among recent college graduates

Why companies are in a “low-hire, low-fire” environment and what that means for first-time job seekers

How AI, remote work, outsourcing, and broader economic conditions are changing the entry-level job market

Why networking and weak ties can be more effective than submitting hundreds of online applications

The role of nepotism, family influence, and exposure to business in creating opportunities

Stop relying solely on job applications. Travis argues that relationships and referrals have always been one of the most effective ways to find opportunities, especially through secondary connections and “weak ties.”

Build a wider network, not just a stronger inner circle. Spending time with friends of friends can expose you to people, industries, and opportunities you would never encounter within your existing circle.

Recognize the advantages your environment gives you. Growing up around entrepreneurship or investing can make certain opportunities feel more natural and less intimidating, even when you don't realize you're benefiting from that exposure.

“Best approach for getting any job ever has always been people.”

“If you're not going out and getting around friends who bring friends who bring friends, then you're not expanding the circle of opportunity that's coming your way.”

“What's not a good strategy is going to Indeed and just like throwing out an application to 700 different places and hoping for a hit.”

Instagram: @travischappell 

Other: travischappell.com

How Hari built Logically Answered from zero to more than 920,000 YouTube subscribers through years of consistent content creation

Why the first 10,000 subscribers were the hardest to reach and why consistency matters more than a single viral moment

How Hari turned his YouTube experience and audience-building skills into Silo Markets, a fintech platform that rewards customers with points for holding stocks and ETFs

Hari's extreme approach to saving and reinvesting, including saving more than 99% of his income and putting hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money into Silo

How Hari built a network of founders and investors through YouTube that eventually helped him meet hundreds of venture capitalists and raise $7.2 million across three rounds

Consistency compounds. Hari's YouTube growth wasn't driven by one viral video or lucky break. His first 1,000 subscribers took nine months, his first 10,000 took nearly three years, and the growth accelerated after he built a strong foundation.

Build distribution before you need it. By creating relationships with founders through his YouTube channel, Hari developed a network that eventually connected him with 300 VCs, leading to 150 first meetings, dozens of second and third meetings, and six offers.

Choose business partners with complementary skills. Hari intentionally partnered with someone whose strengths in finance, compliance, and legal work balanced his own focus on marketing, fundraising, go-to-market, and engineering.

"There was never a viral moment. It was always just, you know, step by step getting subscriber by subscriber."

"I was saving ninety-nine percent plus of my income."

"The number one thing is building your network."

LinkedIn: Hariharan Jayakumar on LinkedIn

Silo Markets: silomarkets.com  **special sign up bonus: silomarkets.com/ben

Logically Answered: Logically Answered

Disney appointing former Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand as its first Chief Technology Officer

How Disney plans to use AI, technology, data, and infrastructure across the company

The tension between AI-driven efficiency and human creativity in entertainment

Whether companies are using “AI” as a marketing label to appear innovative

The potential benefits and drawbacks of using AI to lower production costs and create more entertainment

Technology should serve creativity, not replace it. AI can be useful for research, medicine, efficiency, and other applications, but there is a meaningful distinction between using technology as a tool and using it to replace human creative work.

“AI” can become a marketing buzzword. The conversation highlights how companies may add AI branding to existing technologies or processes because they don't want to appear behind the curve, potentially creating the perception of innovation without a major underlying change.

Lower costs could create new opportunities—but also disrupt creative careers. AI could potentially make it cheaper and faster to produce high-quality entertainment, but that efficiency may come at the expense of jobs for talented creative professionals.

"I love looking at something going like, How did a human make this?"

"I don't hate all things AI. I hate all the ways AI is getting utilized."

"The only like positive for me is like if it can decrease the cost to produce awesome shit, like and you can produce a higher volume of really good stuff."

Instagram: @travischappell 

Other: travischappell.com

Growing up working in his family's businesses and learning the value of hard work

How Clayton helped transform a small truck-bedliner business into a diversified manufacturing company

Finding passion and purpose within traditional or "unsexy" businesses

Using marketing, free channels, and outside experts to grow a business without becoming dependent on them

How window tinting can be a low-cost side hustle with the potential to become a full-time business

Build a bridge between what you're good at and what you're passionate about. You don't necessarily need to turn your favorite hobby into a career. Finding something you enjoy within a business—like solving problems, creating products, or innovating—can make traditional businesses much more fulfilling.

Don't outsource your learning. Clayton recommends using experts to help get a new initiative off the ground, but then taking what you learn and bringing that knowledge back into the business. Think of outsourcing as education rather than permanent dependency.

Start small and prove the concept before taking on major risk. Whether it's window tinting or another service business, entrepreneurs can test an idea from a garage or as a side hustle before committing to an expensive location, equipment, or full-time business.

"If I could show them anything, it would be kind of how to do that in their own lives."

"The product isn't gonna promote itself."

"A dream is not going to come to you by wishing it's going to happen. The dream is that you're putting it in your head and you're taking the steps to get there."

Website: Scorpion Protective Coatings

LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claytontomasino/

How much responsibility celebrities and influencers have when endorsing businesses and products

Whether public figures can reasonably claim they didn't know how a company operated behind the scenes

The potential dangers of combining religious authority with high-pressure business sales

Why testimonials and success stories can make questionable business opportunities appear more credible

The ethical line between making money from an endorsement and promoting something that could genuinely harm people

Your reputation is part of what you're selling. When public figures lend their name and credibility to a company, the audience may trust the offer partly because of who is promoting it. That makes understanding what you're endorsing increasingly important as your influence grows.

Keep religious authority and financial persuasion separate. Travis argues that using faith as leverage in a sales environment can create a particularly powerful form of pressure, especially when people are encouraged to make major financial decisions based on promises connected to their beliefs.

Decide what you're willing to promote before the paycheck arrives. The conversation highlights the importance of knowing your own ethical boundaries—because once the money is on the table, it can become much harder to determine whether an opportunity is worth taking.

“I just don't like the weaponization of any religious institution and then mixing that into a business context.”

“If you have a certain level of fame and influence, I don't think you can 100% just go, ‘I didn't know.’”

“I'd rather just not have as much money and be able to go, ‘I don't wanna do the things that person's doing.’”

Instagram: @travischappell 

Other: travischappell.com

How selling Pokémon stickers in first grade sparked Ben's entrepreneurial streak

Why Ben's first business failed and how systems thinking helped him transform his life

The difference between motivation and systems—and why motivation isn't reliable enough to build your life around

How to create a weekly planning system that prioritizes high-leverage work and income-producing activities

Why systems should create more freedom, connection, and joy rather than turning your life into an optimization project

Don't rely on motivation when you can build a system. Motivation fades, but a well-designed system can turn good intentions into consistent action.

Protect your highest-leverage time. Use a weekly planning session to identify the activities that actually move your income, career, and life forward, then schedule and protect time for them.

Build systems for the life you actually want. Systems aren't the goal—they're the infrastructure. Whether it's saving money, getting healthier, doing focused work, or spending quality time with someone you love, the right system should make the desired behavior easier and more consistent.

"You don't need more inspiration. You really need better life infrastructure."

"When the game is rigged, you don't want to be relying on willpower or motivation. You need better design."

"It's not really about the system, it's about the life on the other side of it."

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/benmeer/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benmeer/

Book: How to Be Good at Life

Other: BenMeer.com/SystemSunday — Ben's System Sunday newsletter