From House Flips to a 7-Figure Agency: The Power of Action and Asymmetrical Bets w/ Bill Hynes (Part 3) - Ep. 44

SPEAKER_00 0:10

I I think those type of sports though it's like eh but like a baseball team, a football team, a basketball team, like yeah, it's like, hey, okay, like, hey, my job is the point guard. I'm gonna throw the assist to the person that's you know on the fast break or whatever, baseball, like you said, you know, let me like I'm the catcher. I'm not necessarily trying to, you know, do too much. I'm I'm you know, there's uh I'm the the pitcher, or hey, uh I'm great at bunting, I'm gonna get the guy over to second, or I'm gonna get the guy over to third, and the next guy's you know, instead of trying to hit a home run, just hit a hit a sacrifice fly. So things like that. But I think the key in business though, or in life is to realize like, you know, who you work for. Okay. So the misconception that a lot of business owners have, and sometimes I look at it, it's like, how the hell do they have a business or whatever? It's like, because again, there's like I said, there's some people that just wake up in the morning that say, Hey, how do I be an absolute asshole? The I think people need to realize when I say who they work for, it's like I work for my employees, they don't work for me. So let's not get that wrong. Like, so that's that's when so like I'm serving them, okay. Uh and yes, and they're and think about what they do is and they work and they bust their ass, and that allows the company to make money, okay. So um, when you have a good team in place, like you, you, you know, it's up to you as a CEO to make sure they have their benefits, to make sure every you know, on payday that their pay is there. Um, and you know, starting out and early on and in startups, you know, that could be a struggle sometimes. And and sometimes you, you know, it's like you you lose sleep over it. But the worst thing a CEO could do, or you know, even I take it too, like the worst thing you could do as a husband is to, if you have even financial problems, be is to put that on your children. You know, you could tell your spouse, but like your kids, like my mom never let us really know how poor we were. Okay, never let us know how poor we were. You know, even like me starting out my businesses and having kids, you know, and it never got to my kids, like where it's like, hey, I got a job, but you know what? I started flipping these houses. I was working at Coca-Cola, and you know, hey, I took a risk, and you know, I bought, I took all our money in our savings and bought this next house. And I didn't know where our mortgage payment or our electric payment was gonna come from the next month. Like I was like, well, gotta scrounge up all the money for closing for this house. And it's like, and then my wife at the time was like, What the fuck did you do? You drained our bank account. I was like, you gotta trust me on this. She's like, ah, Jesus Christ. So she gave me shit, but at the end of the day, she's like, Well, it's fucking done, it's done. Let's fucking make the best of it. You know, it's like, so she gave me a little shit, but it was like, fuck, you know, and I and the other thing is I didn't ask. It was one of them, like, I'll fucking ask for permission after I do it, but I know this is the right idea. And think about it, if I didn't do that first property, if like I didn't like take massive immediate action, I went, wham, take that action, pull the trigger. It wasn't like some crazy idea. Like, this was thought out and planned, like saying, wait for it to come to me. I looked at other properties and I'm like, this is the right one. I'm buying it at the right price, which is key. I have a good budget. I know what areas I'm gonna attack, what areas I'm gonna fix, and I know like, hey, if I could do this, I have a buyer lined up, I'm gonna make $80,000 pretty quickly on this one. And then from that, we're not struggling anymore. We're not, I'm not living paycheck to paycheck working at Coca-Cola. And, you know, I'm gonna still work at Coca-Cola though, because the benefits were good. But I'm gonna start doing these flips, and if I can make 50 to 80 grand per flip, pretty soon, then I'm gonna use that as a vehicle to get me into the commercial game. And then the 50 to 80 grand per property now starting to be seven figures or high six figures. So there was a plan and it was strategic. So it was like, hey, you just have to get there. You know, you just don't think like, oh, I'm gonna go buy a five million dollar property or ten million dollar property. It's like what you got fifteen hundred bucks in your checking account. Don't be delusional, you know? Like it's a dream, you know. So you can there's like get rich quick schemes, and there's you can get rich fast, you know, like real estate, you can get rich pretty fast. It's it's but it's not get rich quick. So there's a difference, you know. Yeah. So anyway. As you notice, I I I take you on a journey.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

I it's yeah, no, this is I'm I'm loving this, and it because I I feel like uh it's uh giving me a good uh insight into the way you think and and also just filling in, you know, I feel like your journey is has so many layers that it's yeah impossible just to go. It's like this is not a linear journey, so this conversation cannot be linear.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Well, there I was just gonna say that. That's fucking crazy you said that. So there are linear thinkers and they think like this, they straight lines like okay, to do this, to do this, to do this. And again, when I say things are intuitive to me, I'm a I'm a circular thinker, okay? And I can take something in anything, whether I'm thinking about racing or or business or personal life, I'm kind of looking at it as in a holistic approach, and I'm and my mind works so quick, it goes through a million different scenarios, like very quickly. And I'm like, okay, well, what if this, what if this, what if this, what if this? And um some people don't have that, and that's okay, but it's also realizing like who you are and what skills you have, and use those skills. Like, and now if you're a step-by-step process person and you know that, well, don't go to step five before you're done with step two. It's never gonna work for you. And then when those people try to push and go, all right, I'm just gonna force my way to step 10, they get hurt very badly. It it hurts them like monetarily, you know, physically, it you know, when I say physically, it's like the pain that you feel, it's like it you winded up internalizing it in in a very physical way.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

So no, 100%. And so in this circular journey, where does how did uh how did think loud come about?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

So I had three business partners, and um we we were thinking of names of a company, and you know, somebody was like, you know, we we gotta come up with a name and company, and and somebody's like, oh yeah, you know, let's try to think outside the box. And we happened to be in a recording studio, and one guy said, think spot, and because the name we we called the recording studio, well, they called the recording studio at that time spot, and it was they were like, Is it the spot? And they're like, No, it's not so definitive, it's spot, right? And um, so it was kind of funny, and I just was like, think loud, like what's like they're playing, the band's going, and and they were like, Oh, that's great. So that's kind of how we came up with the name, Think Loud. Um, but it's funny, people like to rewrite history, and one or the other guy's like, Oh, I came up with that name. It's like, no, you didn't, you didn't, you know, you were busy fucking playing your instrument, so but you know, um I no longer have those business partners. Um, again, there's a whole drama behind that, but again, it that's another lesson. Watch who you make your business partners, you know, like I was being nice, I was, as your wife would call it, a pushover. I created a company, I had an idea, I had the concept, I thought it through and through. I literally, and this was back in like 2009 that I had the idea of this company, and we didn't launch it until 2012. And I had the whole concept, and I kind of saw like AI coming and how data centers needed and the need of fiber optics, and and nobody could see that vision. Like, but I I like and I didn't tell everyone the whole picture because I was like, you know what? If you tell them like the whole thing, they're gonna think you're crazy. So it's also like, hey, if you have this idea, like temper it, okay, because people think you're crazy. And so, like, only give people what they need to know. And you know, uh, so the first thing I did was I went to three of my friends, like, hey, I'm just I want to start this company, and this was my idea. It's like, we'll just do it equally. You get 25%, you get 25%, you get 25%, and I get 25%. So like the first thing I did was give away 75% of the company that I fucking put in my mind. Nobody deserves that. If anything, I said, Do you want to do it? How much money are you gonna bring in? And I'll give you five, 10%. That's it. But no voting. It's my idea, it's my vision, and your vote on it will just fuck it up, you know, and so things like that. And then, you know, so it it's it that's a long story short. So that's uh I know it goes all over the place again, but um, yeah, you uh every everything you do, be intentional about it and really, really think it through. Like who to date, okay? Like you pick the wrong partner, you're fucked. They won't support you, uh, they won't love you when you need to be loved, they won't give you shit. Like, you know, like I'm sure you can appreciate when your life was like your wife was like, about time. And I'm for sure she did it in like a cheeky way, you know. Yeah, she's and also saying, hey, it's okay to do that once in a while, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah, no, uh I mean I already knew this, but then it's become even more evident uh since starting my company and uh over these last few years that um my choice in a spouse has is the single greatest decision I will ever make. Uh and on top of that, it is the single best financial decision I'll ever make too. Because and not because she's she's cheap because she's not, and I don't want her to be, I want her to you know to do whatever she wants. But because of having someone from the very beginning who like she is the reason I I I went through with it. Like I would have never started this and been, you know having the six hundred dollars I had left in my savings account and cashing out my you know, at least seventeen thousand dollars in my 401k in the cash is at my s you know, six months you know, six month ramen noodle uh diet safety net. Um and I would have never done that if she didn't and I could just feel it and when when I brought this up to her. Um she's fully had my back and and I and she's the been the one that's believed in me on those days that on days where I d you know I didn't maybe believe in myself. Um and she does it in a way that is super super good for me. Where she doesn't she's she's not the all you know, like uh come like comforting in that kind of way. She's yeah she helps me get out of the funks by you know being a little cheeky or uh telling me, you know, telling me how it is, but also by listening. Uh and like just yeah, it's uh but because so what to your point what you're saying is 100% uh the truth is who you pick is your partner in life, your wife, your husband, is gonna be the single best decision that you can ever make for your life and your business and your happiness. Uh there's nothing that will ever come close.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

But that's who's raising your children too, you know, who's helping you go through life, you know. Um that's you know, that's that.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

So for Think Loud, what has that evolved into? Uh especially, you know, you uh when you're talking about how you saw the vision of the future and uh the emergence of AI uh early, and then like tell me walk me through what Think Loud does now.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, so well Think Loud, we're one of the largest and fastest growing TikTok agencies, um, and we're a certified TikTok partner. So we are in um uh five regions worldwide. Obviously, USA and Canada is one region, Australia, New Zealand's another one, the North Africa and Middle East is another one, the UK and uh uh uh Northern Ireland, uh the excuse me, the UK and the Republic of Ireland is another region, and then Latin America. So we're in over 78 countries, and we represent talent that are streaming on the TikTok platform. In addition to that, we have a TikTok shop agency where we represent creators who are also selling on TikTok shop. So on the one side is the live side where the entertainers, so the singers, the songwriters, the people just go live, they do what's called battling and they make money, and we're their agency, no different than what a William Morris or a paradigm is in the music side. Um, so we're repping them directly for TikTok, not for other platforms. Hold that thought. We will be getting into other platforms as well. Then on the shop side, they run it a totally separate shop division. So where it's like, so let's just say you have a product like this or whatever. We got I got products all over here. People send me products, right? Like, you know, a new water bottle, whatever. Um, we represent the creators who are doing affiliate outreach, and we negotiate commissions for those creators, and obviously we take a cut of that commission with the brands. And then from that, we also represent brands who want to uh come on to TikTok and uh say, hey, we don't know anything about TikTok, we're on Amazon, we're on, you know, wherever, we're on other platforms, or we have our Shopify store, we're on Meta or Facebook, you know, and and uh can you rep us through TikTok? And we'll negotiate with TikTok for their rates, we'll build out their TikTok shop store, and then we'll manage their whole process for them. If they want to go live, we we find them a live host, we build them out a set in our studio here, and we take them live and we sell for them, and so we get a monthly fee plus a percentage of their, it's called GMV, um their gross merchandise value, so whatever we sell. So that's what our that's what Think Loud Studios has become. Um, in addition, so on the live side, as the creators are making money on TikTok, then we make you know a portion of that that TikTok gives us for managing them. Um, we open up the studio for the singer and the songwriters to come in and record. We have an artist right here now recording today. Uh he's been here for a couple days. Like in our building, it's a 53,000 square foot building, and we have uh 12 bedrooms, like hotel-style rooms. We have a sauna, a steam room, a gym, a cold plunge room, a massage room, uh, a full bar. So like they have all the amenities uh of a basically a crater ecosystem. So when we made the facility back in, well, I purchased the building in 2011, and then in 2013 it was fully done, and and well, over the years we we got it fully done. Uh it was a recording studio, but then the first couple floors were just offices for businesses, for our business, our fiber company, our data company, our real estate development company. And then um it just became, you know, and then through the lawsuits and the different things, and you know, and once I kind of came out through all that smoke and fire, so to speak, you know, everyone was like, what does it want to become? Um anyway, um the the um when I was at a race in Long Beach in April of 2025, and a creator on TikTok's like, hey, they're interested in like having you go after your race because their tick tick tock headquarters was like right there. So it was like, okay. Um they went there and um I went there and I made a comment, like just a cheeky comment about they had like a recording board, uh a board. I was oh that's nice. I said I have the bigger duality SSL one. And he goes, what that you know how much that is? I said, yeah. He goes, and he goes, where would you have that? I said, oh, I I own ThinkLoud Studios in York, Pennsylvania. And it's a well-known studio, it's been on the cover of Mix Magazine and everything. And we were relaunching it at that point just to do like to do what it did, like record bands, you know. And then he goes, What? You work at ThinkLoud Studios? Like, no, I'm the owner. And then he goes, Oh. So then he introduced me to like one of the top guys at TikTok who was in charge of business development. I showed him our website, what we have. He's like, Well, why aren't you an agency? I was like, Well, what's that? And literally, this literally half-hour tour turned into a nine-hour meeting. So when the opportunity presented itself, I was like, like, tell me what's going on here. So he he we went to lunch and then he took me to another agency where they do live streaming. So we went to Santa Monica, saw basically, and I'm looking around and I start taking photos. But it's not photos that like normal people would take, like, oh, this is cool. I'm taking photos of the trussing, of the cameras, of the lighting, of the booths, how the booths are constructed. I go behind a booth to see how they were. So, like the whole set, how they're doing it. And I was like, well, this is a 12,000 square foot space that they're renting. They're probably paying 50,000 a month rent because they're in Santa Monica. I was like, I own a 53,000 square foot building. I could do this and better. I know I could build a better mousetrap, so to speak. And I was like, I'm in. And then we went to dinner after that, and I was like, sign me up. And then two days later, I put all the paperwork in and we were approved, and then we just started expanding. So um, we have over a thousand creators worldwide right now. And um we make a decent seven figures, um, and uh it's just gonna continue to grow and grow and grow in this social creator economy. So uh sometimes you're in the right place at the right time and you step in shit, and you know, but you also have to put in the work too. And we have a lot of great employees. So we have um on on the live TikTok side, we have over 25 people that work for us. On uh uh on the shop side, we have about 15 people. So like and I'd say, and then we also have I restarted up a fiber optic and data center company, and we got five people on that one. So, like just like within the last you know, figure 18 months, I created over 50 jobs. Wow, and you know, I like to say, you know, um, you know, I always say there's a quote by Lone Bull, okay, and it's like, you know, I may be kicked out of this village, you know, but I will come into a new one and I will do what I set out to do, and that was feed my people. So right now I'm feeding my people.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

That's amazing. Um and yeah, right place, right time, but as that's just the the opportunity is just a small part of it. Uh it acting on it and following through and doing the hard part of making it happen is the is the step I think a lot of people are not willing to see through and where you see that opportunity and you take it and you take it and you move on it fast and you go you go ahead and uh w with full conviction on these things and you make this stuff happen uh and you build you build it um which is that's something that everyone uh every entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur who is needs that push to actually just go out and do it uh there's nothing nothing will beat actually taking action on something you can analyze the shit out of anything it's it's not gonna bring you closer to making it reality um well I end every conversation with uh a question the same question for each guest so what is your uh what is your one trade secret uh to business or life that uh you know a lot of people may not be aware of or have heard of or um that is really your your number one important secret to to living a fulfilling life or growing a successful business um w what is your one thing do what others won't so you can live like others can't I like that one no I love that that's uh I mean you you you have like there's so much competition in this world set yourself apart from everyone like you know I and I always tell people you think like seriously you think you're working hard you're not I know for a fact you have two three four five percent more in you each day that you can do that your employees can do that my employees can do everyone has more and then when you're given more you still have more so just continue to do what others won't because there's so many lazy motherfuckers in this world and even like kids today even like even the oh it's too late you're 50 years old you're 60 year old fuck no with like take your vitamins there's all these health stuff going on now like you can live to 100 you know if you're 50 you're not it's not too old to get started in something you know and use the tools to which you're given like use AI embrace it don't be like oh data centers ai blah blah blah blah blah use it to enhance your life you know and but but do what others won't and I promise you you will live like others can man that's uh Bill that's uh that's gonna be one of my favorites definitely um but no this has been great I've I've really enjoyed getting to know you your uh your journey is uh a really unique one uh super inspiring one um one that I'm I'm gonna remember uh a lot of the stories that you've you've told uh forever um just whether it's the Kinsey family or the first Italian guy uh um yeah you have a yeah incredibly inspiring and interesting story and uh what you're building is uh and the way you're building it uh is a model that a lot of people uh can learn a lot of things from so um thank you Bill no problem thank you so much for having me and look forward to uh listening to it when it comes out