On June 20th, 2024, Ömer Sastim better known as Master Oogway, tried to log into his YouTube account and couldn't. Five years of building a total of 27 million subscriber channels, gone overnight.

He built one of the biggest channels in his category by voicing the Kung Fu Panda character and turning small moments of wisdom into viral shorts. Then he released a song that crossed a line he now openly regrets, and YouTube pulled everything. In this episode we sit with the honest reckoning of what that day actually felt like, what he'd do differently, and how he's rebuilding two years on.

We also talk about the rage baiting economy that's currently reshaping social media, where he thinks it all leads, why he genuinely believes people take the internet too seriously. Plus how he actually copes with hate, what it takes to be a real creator today, and the next chapter he's quietly building around POV content and brand partnerships.

Chapters:

00:00 Doom's day

00:52 27 million subscribers gone overnight

04:53 Why YouTube goes after big creators

11:51 The rage baiting content industry and where it leads

18:32 Have you forgiven yourself for the video that got you banned

24:57 The shift toward more positive content

34:53 The economics of controversial content

40:15 What it actually takes to be a content creator today

42:38 The financial pressure and the next move

45:56 How Master Oogway was born

49:47 Chasing morality versus chasing views

54:40 How he copes with negativity

58:46 Being himself now, not hiding behind the character

61:21 What's next, POV content and brand partnerships

68:12 A new leaf

68:37 A laugh a day will push the hardships away

Follow me: https://www.instagram.com/themarcusengel/

Subscribe to the 301 Podcast for new episodes every two weeks.

Leyla Afshonkar built one of the biggest viral moments in Instagram history, a video with Neymar that reached hundreds of millions of views. She could have kept riding that wave forever. Instead she quietly walked away from it and switched, completely, to music.

Leyla is now building an artist career from scratch. She released her album Juicy earlier this year and is treating everything before this as a previous chapter. In this episode we get into what happened, why she made the switch, and what the last two years of internal work looked like as she stopped chasing views and started chasing a childhood dream she'd been ignoring since she was a kid.

We also talk about what actually makes something go viral, why she thinks the hook is everything, how a spiritual awakening two years ago rewired the way she creates, and the boring reality of being a beginner in the music industry after being one of the most watched people on the internet. Plus her honest take on comfort zones, discipline, ADHD, and the songwriting process that only happens when she's half asleep in the middle of the night.

In this episode:

- Why she completely walked away from the viral content that made her famous

- The full switch from entertainer to artist and why she made it

- What actually makes something go viral and why the hook is everything

- The spiritual awakening two years ago that changed how she creates

- Her album Juicy and the sushi meal that inspired it

- Why she thinks ADHD is a superpower, not a curse

- What discipline actually looks like when you're rebuilding from zero

- Why the music industry has been much harder than she expected

- Why comfort zones are dangerous even when they're successful

- Her advice for anyone who wants to reinvent themselves and doesn't know how

Chapters:

(00:00) What actually makes something go viral

(01:42) Why she's not afraid to show her real self on camera

(03:01) Can confidence actually be trained

(04:04) Growing up struggling with beauty standards

(05:50) COVID, Arabic comedy, and going viral for the first time

(06:56) The complete shift, why she walked away from what was working

(08:01) Joe Dispenza, meditation, and the spiritual awakening

(09:22) Why ADHD is a superpower

(10:18) Why chasing views stopped being fulfilling

(11:31) Wanting to be an artist, not an entertainer

(13:34) The album Juicy and the music dream she carries

(15:48) How to actually shift your personality

(17:38) Discipline, atomic habits, and the boring reality

(19:40) The unseen work behind a single song release

(21:39) Why criticism of her music hits harder

(25:00) The version of Leyla in the studio when the camera is off

(26:50) The New Year's sushi meal that became a song

(28:17) Why her best songs come in the middle of the night

(31:05) How she actually rests in Amsterdam

(32:05) The music industry has been harder than she expected

(33:22) Why she refuses to commit to a single genre

(37:26) Why comfort zones are dangerous even when they're successful

(43:54) Don't forget to breathe

Subscribe to the 301 Podcast for new episodes every two weeks.

Olivier Momma didn't pay Messi's €1.5 million endorsement fee. He found the back door. In this conversation we get into how he actually landed one of the most unreachable people on earth, then went on to land Steven Bartlett and Diary of a CEO for the 1% TravelPack. Both without the standard playbook.

Olivier is the founder of Ekster, the Amsterdam brand that started as a Kickstarter smart wallet in 2016 and now heads past $50 million a year across wallets, travel gear, and accessories. In this episode he breaks down the exact story of how Ekster landed Messi (through a broken merch website), how the Bartlett deal came together (starting with a single high risk podcast sponsorship), and the 1% mindset that's been baked into every Ekster product for a decade.

We also get into why life is still chaos after ten years, what he'd tell any founder starting today, why he still hasn't felt the "I made it" moment, what home actually means to someone who moved every three years, and the SMS he'd send to every phone in the world.

In this episode:

• The full Messi story, including the broken web store back door
• How the Steven Bartlett and Diary of a CEO collaboration actually happened
• Designing the 1% TravelPack with the DOAC team
• Why the modular wallet decision was the marginal gain that changed everything
• The Hong Kong 2016 QR code moment that started Ekster
• His sister's €500 Kickstarter video that raised $350,000
• The failed first venture (Delhi Scouts) nobody hears about
• The secret sauce for building a brand in 2026
• Why he's still not settled, and what home actually means to him

Chapters:

00:00 The Messi backdoor (cold open) 00:30 How the Steven Bartlett collaboration actually happened 06:00 Designing the 1% TravelPack together 10:00 The 1% mindset has always been Ekster 13:00 The modular wallet decision that changed everything 15:00 Hong Kong 2016: the QR code moment 17:00 Kickstarter, his sister's video, and the first $350K 21:00 What he misses about the early days 24:00 The secret sauce for starting a brand today 30:00 The storytelling framework every brand should steal 35:00 Why life is still chaos after ten years 39:00 Behind the scenes versus the Instagram life 50:00 The full Messi story: how the deal actually closed 57:00 The World Cup viral moment 1:00:00 What home means when you've moved every three years 1:02:00 The price of the entrepreneur life 1:03:15 How he finally learned to switch off in Cape Town 1:05:47 Rapid fire: Own the Unknown

James Galligan is 22 years old. In 18 months he built A Players Club from zero to more than 160 members. His best month was €185,000 in cash. He could have scaled it to €700K a month if he wanted to. He chose not to.

James is an Irish entrepreneur, one of Iman Gadzhi's early sales stars (setter, then top closer, then team lead), and now the founder of A Players Club, Europe's most exclusive private founder network. In this conversation we get into why he thinks reputation matters more than revenue, what he actually had to unlearn from Iman, why he stopped posting Instagram Reels on purpose, and the "gap" he believes every entrepreneur eventually has to sprint through.

We talk about the philosophy his mentors gave him (exit in ten years, not scale next month), the day he decided anyone can be a millionaire but only true entrepreneurs get to €10 million, why he defends Iman against the "scam" allegations, and the vision he has for the next five years that includes physical locations for entrepreneurs around the world.

Chapters:

00:00 Anyone can be a millionaire, but €10M is the real test

00:33 The last 18 months of A Players Club

03:00 What "the gap" actually is

06:00 Turning down €700K a month

08:00 Setting the record straight on Iman Gadzhi

12:00 Founders Podcast as a team culture hack

15:00 What he had to unlearn from Iman

19:00 Culture over speed in hiring

21:00 Not 10,000 millionaires. A thousand people worth $10M plus

23:00 Where the drive actually comes from

25:00 Wealth in relationships, not material things

34:00 Business as art

40:00 Hiring for access, not just skills

44:00 The 1:30am text and what it actually means

46:00 Steve Jobs versus quality of life

48:00 Trust from a distance

51:00 Why he stopped posting Instagram Reels

55:00 Path of Discovery: the German boat story

59:00 Building software for in-person events

1:03:00 What most people get wrong about community

1:08:00 The vision for the next five years

1:11:00 Rapid fire and "The Gap"

Follow James:

https://www.instagram.com/jamesgalligann/

https://www.theaplayersclub.com/

https://www.instagram.com/aplayersclub/

Follow Me:

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

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Dar Stormson has built and sold three companies. He also thinks 9 out of 10 businesses fail. And that the ones that don't fail often end up somewhere worse: the lukewarm zone where they don't quite fail and don't quite succeed and just slowly eat away at the owner until they burn out or give up.

Dar is the founder of Størmson Consulting and Stormson Capital. He started his first company at 14, got kicked out of school for 52% absence, then ended up teaching his own class. Since then he's built, scaled and sold multiple companies including Kaplock, the encrypted coat-lock startup that scaled from an attic in Breda to millions in funding.

In this conversation we get into the actual playbook that the top 10% follow, which almost nobody else knows. We talk about why you should stay in bed instead of writing code, the "four gear wheels" that turn a startup into a self-running organization, how it actually feels to exit a company for millions, the day he chose to reinvest every single euro to save his team, and why he thinks the biggest tragedy in business is entrepreneurs who don't know when to quit.

In this episode:

- Why 9 out of 10 businesses fail (and the sadder fate of the ones that survive)

- The counterintuitive way to find a million dollar idea without writing a single line of code

- The story of getting kicked out of school at 14 and building his first company

- The 4 gear wheels of a scalable organization: goals, processes, teams, dashboards

- What "collective intelligence" is and why Silicon Valley uses it

- How it actually feels to exit a company (and why the first one didn't feel real)

- The negotiation tactics every founder should know before signing anything

- Stormson Capital: his new fund and community for entrepreneurs

- What 15 years of entrepreneurship has actually cost him

- What he'd tell 16 year old Dar if he walked in the room today

Chapters:

00:00 Why 9 out of 10 businesses fail

04:00 Inner Academy: getting kicked out of school at 14

14:00 The counterintuitive way to find a million dollar idea

19:00 Kaplock: from stolen jackets to a scaled business

28:00 The 4 gear wheels of a scalable organization

36:00 The Silicon Valley method: collective intelligence

51:00 How exiting a company actually feels

54:00 The day he chose team over cash

1:00:00 Negotiation tactics every founder should know

1:06:00 Stormson Capital: his new fund and community

1:12:00 What entrepreneurship really costs you

1:19:00 How to deal with failure and stress

1:24:00 What he'd tell 16 year old Dar

1:27:50 The final SMS: "Give it a try"

Follow Dar:

https://www.instagram.com/darstormson/

Follow Me:

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

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more inspiring stories!

We're losing the art of conversation. That's at least what Hannah Rinne thinks and she says the reason isn't social media exactly. It's that we've become too entertained by ourselves to need anyone else.

Hannah is the founder of the Conversation Club, a movement in Amsterdam that pulls strangers together in person to talk about the things social media won't let us slow down for. Is having a boyfriend embarrassing? Is social media ruining our lives? Is love harder to find today? She's also a co-founder of Social Capital, a radio host on the Conversation Club show, a Rocycle instructor with 1,500 classes under her belt, and a self-described "cultural curator."

In this episode we get into why she thinks our phones are quietly draining the substance out of our lives, and what she's actually doing in Amsterdam to bring it back.

We talk about the moment on a beach in Australia where she sketched out the Conversation Club while getting her nails done. The first event at the Hoxton, where she capped it at 15 people and ended up staying until 10pm. Why "friction maxxing" might be the most important wellness trend of the next five years.

In this episode:

- Why the real problem isn't social media, it's that we're too entertained by ourselves

- How the Conversation Club went from a beach idea to a sold-out movement in Amsterdam

- Why our IQ dropped for the first time last year, and what that signals about the next decade

- The sauna conversation Hannah will never forget with two strangers

- Why she chose to be a "cultural curator" instead of picking one lane

- The lost art of observation, boredom, and waiting in line without your phone

- "Friction maxxing": why deliberate discomfort might save us

What she'd send to every phone on earth if she could send one SMS

Chapters:

00:00 The attention crisis: why nobody talks anymore

01:00 Hannah's portfolio life: cellist, gymnast, entrepreneur

03:00 The family that wasn't supposed to produce a founder

05:00 Why fewer women say yes to podcasts

09:00 How the Conversation Club was born on a beach in Australia

13:00 Are we losing critical thinking? IQ went down for the first time

18:30 The first event: 15 strangers, four hours of conversation

22:00 The best conversations Hannah has ever had

26:30 "We're too entertained by ourselves"

36:00 From corporate burnout to "cultural curator"

44:00 Sauna culture, friction maxxing, and the lost art of being bored

53:00 The nostalgia for a pre-phone world

1:00:00 Get off your phone: Hannah's message to the world

Follow Hannah Rinne:

https://www.instagram.com/hannahrinn/

https://www.instagram.com/conversationclubb/

https://www.instagram.com/socialcapital.studio/

Follow Me:

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

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more inspiring stories!

Ron Simpson doesn't pitch. He didn't pitch BYD, the first client at his new agency WinWin. He didn't pitch Bacardi or The Good Roll either. They came to him because the network already knew what he was building.

In this conversation, Ron walks us through how he built a micro marketing agency on a "triangle system" where the brand, the creator, and the agency all win in the same deal. He breaks down why he turned down the AI influencer trend everyone else is chasing, what he actually hates about AI in marketing, and his creative process where he hunts problems instead of dreaming up solutions.

We also go places Ron usually doesn't go in interviews. The restaurant concept he had to say goodbye to two days before this recording. What fifteen years of entrepreneurship has actually cost him and the one thing he wishes he had started earlier.

In this episode:

- Why "Ron Simpson only has something to prove to himself" is still true in 2026

- How Win Win works, and why it could have been called Win Win Win

- The BYD launch story: 150 micro influencers, no pitch deck, one phone call

- Why Ron bet on real humans when the rest of the market bet on AI influencers

- What he hates about AI in marketing (and what he actually loves about it)

- His creative process, his night owl hours, and why he chases problems not solutions

- The restaurant concept he lost two days before this recording

- What fifteen years of entrepreneurship has actually cost him

- His advice to 22 year olds who DM him about building a brand

- The name Ron gives this chapter of his life

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open

00:45 Is "Ron only has to prove something to himself" still true in 2026?

04:00 Pick a fight to win: the Win Win philosophy and the triangle system

10:30 The BYD launch: 150 micro influencers, no pitch deck

17:00 Real UGC, brand freedom, and why authenticity wins

22:30 Why Ron bet on real humans, not AI influencers

25:30 What Ron loves and hates about AI in marketing

33:00 The Terminator vision creative process: hunting problems, not solutions

41:00 Losing: the restaurant concept he closed two days before this recording

44:00 Burnout and being "too close to the glass"

49:00 The real price of fifteen years of entrepreneurship

52:30 Advice to 22 year olds building a brand

56:30 The Moment: three quick fire questions to close

Follow Ron Simpson:

https://www.instagram.com/ronsimpson/

https://ronsimpson.com/

Follow Me:

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

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more inspiring stories!