Sam & Shaan’s hard-won CEO lessons in one guide: https://clickhubspot.com/eokb

Episode 829: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) sits down with Tom Freston to talk about the insane story of starting MTV and shaping America in the 80s and 90s. 

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Show Notes: 

(0:00) Intro

(4:04) Millionaire by 26, broke by 33

(8:49) The first days of MTV (no frontal nudity)

(14:14) Music Videos

(19:03) How to spot culture-changing talent

(27:12) Making your employees party together

(31:56) Nickelodeon, SpongeBob, and Building Legacy IP

(35:21) Programming for a Specific Audience

(37:33) The Facebook Acquisition That Almost Happened

(41:25) Founders Who Refuse to Sell

(43:29) Rupert Murdoch vs. Sumner Redstone

(45:23) MySpace, Big Bets, and Getting Fired

(47:55) Inside the writers room

(51:33) Oprah Calling 

(54:00) The End of Monoculture and the Creator Economy

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Links:

Unplugged – https://a.co/d/0ef6YVu2 

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Check Out Sam’s Stuff:

• Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it…apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm

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Check Out Shaan’s Stuff:

• Shaan’s weekly email – https://www.shaanpuri.com 

• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.

• Mercury – Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!

Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC

• I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we’re giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out:

beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge

My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /