Curiosity Class

Jeff Albaum
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Education
  • Daily

I'm Jeff, and Curiosity Class is pretty much what it sounds like - me getting way too into some topic and then trying to explain it so it actually clicks. One week it's money or real estate. The next it's mindfulness, or AI, or some book I won't shut up about. Sometimes it's just me thinking out loud for 20 minutes. Other times I drag on someone who actually knows what they're talking about and have them walk me through it. Simple, not easy. New episode every Friday.

  1. 3d ago

    Why You Need More Than a Mentor w/ Kevin “KAYR” Robinson (Ep #74)

    At 13 years old, Kevin “KAYR” Robinson decided he needed a board of directors. He'd read that CEOs had people helping them make decisions. Why couldn't he? He began finding teachers, mentors, and sponsors who could help him build the skills and opportunities he needed. KAYR joins me to talk about that idea, the relationships behind his journey, and the difference between someone giving you advice and someone putting their name on the line for you. Raised in West Philadelphia, he holds a history degree from Bowdoin College and an MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. His finance career included Goldman Sachs. He's now the author of the USA TODAY bestselling memoir Can't Break Me: How I Shifted My Mindset and Overcame the Odds, written with Elijah Anderson, and co-founder of KAYJAY Consulting. At the time of our conversation, KAYR described a portfolio of more than 160 rental units. But getting to his first nine took nine years. We get into why he moved at that pace, why replacing his paycheck wasn't enough to make him quit his job, and how discipline, community, and a sense of purpose shaped his decisions. I especially appreciated how much credit he gives the people who helped him along the way. KAYR is generous with both his story and the practical details. What you'll take away: How a personal board of directors can help you work on specific skills and decisions.The difference between mentorship and sponsorship, and how follow-through helps build trust.Why KAYR wanted a larger financial cushion before leaving his job, even after replacing his income.How he thinks about using success to help family, community, and the next generation. 🔗 Links mentioned: ⁠KAYR’s Official WebsiteCan’t Break Me - Official Book pageKayJay Consulting Follow KAYR on: LinkedInInstagramYouTubeTikTok 📬 Follow Curiosity Class: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Have a guest suggestion or want to say 👋? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@curiosityclass.co⁠⁠

  2. Oct 30

    Buying Newsletters Instead of Starting From Zero w/ Pranam Lipinski (Ep #73)

    A newsletter with 500 readers could be interesting to an advertiser - if they're the right 500 readers. That was one of several moments in this conversation that made me stop and ask more questions. Pranam Lipinski, co-founder of Email Outreach Company, joined me to explain how newsletters become businesses you can buy, grow, and sell. We talk about finding sponsors, increasing revenue from an existing audience, and why buying a newsletter about something you know nothing about might be a problem. Naturally, my example involved fish tanks. We also get into the work behind cold email, a practical starting point for a first business, and Pranam's nightly habit of checking whether he actually lived his values that day. What you'll take away: How a small, focused newsletter can be relevant to sponsors - and why subscriber count tells only part of the story.Two ways to grow newsletter revenue: reach more readers or improve what you offer the readers already there.Why booking a sales call and closing a customer are separate jobs, and what that means when you hire help with outreach.How to start with something one person will pay for, plus a simple question for reflecting on your day. 🔗 Links mentioned: Pranam’s personal websiteEmail Outreach CompanyLetterTrader.comAcquire.comBizBuySell.com 📬 Follow Curiosity Class: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠ Have a guest suggestion or want to say 👋? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@curiosityclass.co⁠

  3. Oct 23

    I Read $100M Leads by Alex Hormozi (Here's What Actually Works) (Ep #72)

    Three hundred flyers. Zero calls. Easy to conclude that flyers don't work. Then you learn that someone else's starting test is 5,000. That story from Alex Hormozi's $100M Leads stuck with me because I recognize the expectation behind it. I start a project with a number in my head: I'll do this many repetitions, and then something should happen. But where did that number come from? This week, I'm going solo for a short book report. I don't have a marketing background, and I appreciated how Alex made the ideas approachable. I'm sharing the four ways he breaks down getting leads, the lesson that challenged my expectations, and a reading tip that helped me read more consistently. My favorite takeaway? Giving yourself enough attempts to learn can take some of the pressure off getting everything right the first time. What you'll take away: The “core four”: warm outreach, cold outreach, posting free content, and running paid ads.Why the gap between 300 flyers and a 5,000-flyer test changed how I think about effort and expectations.My takeaway from the rule of 100: allow more repetitions before deciding what you've learned.How listening to the audiobook while reading helped me stick with a chapter a day. 🔗 Links mentioned: $100M Offers$100M Leads$100M Money Models 📬 Follow Curiosity Class: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠ Have a guest suggestion? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@curiosityclass.co⁠

  4. Oct 16

    130 Rentals Later, He’d Do It Differently w/ Joe Meares (Ep #71)

    Joe Meares has 130 rental units. If he were starting over, he’d slow down. That got my attention. Joe is a New York City real estate investor and former Wall Street analyst who bought his first rental in Indiana for $50,000 in 2018. We get into that first deal, the team that made long-distance investing possible, and how buying more properties can turn into a whole new job. I also asked him about the part that tends to get skipped: what his finances actually looked like when he left banking. We talk about savings, uneven rental income, and why a growing portfolio doesn’t automatically mean you’re ready to replace a paycheck. Joe was generous with the numbers, the lessons, and what he’d change. If you’re curious about real estate, this is a useful look at the work behind the property count. What you’ll take away: Why Joe would prioritize cash flow per rental over the number of units he owns.The four local team members (aka "Core Four") he relies on to invest from another state.Why he separates long-term property wealth from the income needed to cover life today.Where he tells beginners to start: their own finances, upcoming expenses, and goals. 🔗 Links mentioned: Joe’s LinkedIn 📬 Follow Curiosity Class: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ Have a guest suggestion? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@curiosityclass.co

  5. Oct 9

    How Grief Became a 600-Store Cookie Empire w/ Brittney Cook (Ep #70)

    She got a grocery retailer to say yes before she had retail packaging ready. Then she and her family figured it out. Brittney Cook is the co-founder and CEO of Something Sweet, a frozen cookie dough company that had grown to more than 600 stores when we recorded this conversation. It started with her mom’s brown butter chocolate chip recipe, hand-scooped dough, and deliveries out of coolers in their cars. But the reason they started is what stayed with me. Brittney, her mom, and her sisters launched Something Sweet on the first anniversary of her dad’s passing, using his favorite cookie to honor him and build something together. What you’ll take away: How persistent outreach landed their first meeting with Nugget Markets, and why hundreds of in-store demos mattered after the yesHow a food product actually gets onto grocery shelves, including the different jobs of buyers and distributorsWhy Brittney saw an opportunity in the frozen dessert aisle when I saw a crowded cookie marketWhat building a company with your family looks like when protecting the relationship matters as much as growing the business 🔗 Links mentioned: Brittney’s LinkedIn⁠Something Sweet Website⁠⁠Something Sweet Instagram⁠⁠Something Sweet TikTok⁠ 📬 Follow Curiosity Class: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ Interested in sponsoring? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@curiosityclass.co

  6. Oct 2

    He Gets Paid to Go to Games: Inside Sports Social Media w/ Mason Platt (Ep #69)

    Here's the part that messes with me: one touchdown video, with a sponsor's logo sitting quietly in the corner of the frame, got turned into a sixty five thousand dollar line item. For one post. Mason Platt has run social media for the San Antonio Spurs, New York Mets, Oakland A's, and Dallas Cowboys (twenty million followers across their platforms), and now leads it for Cal's athletics department.  What you'll take away:  The actual math a sports team uses to tell a sponsor like Pepsi a single touchdown post is worth sixty five thousand dollars, and why the logo in the corner matters more than the play itself Why the exact same clip has to get rebuilt five different ways for X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn, down to the order you post it in The Best Buy parking lot moment that made a broke college kid buy a camera he couldn't afford, and how it accidentally built his entire career  🔗 Links mentioned: Mason’s LinkedIn 📬 Follow Curiosity Class: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website Interested in sponsoring? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@curiosityclass.co

  7. Sep 25

    Why Chasing Money Made Her Worse At It w/ Gabi Rosen (Ep #68)

    She was closing $25 million deals at Spotify by her mid-twenties. And she'll tell you she was at her worst every time she focused on the money. Gabi Rosen went from the youngest client partner at Spotify to building her own thing, then closed 34 clients in 18 months and joined the founders of the company she now helps run. What you'll take away: The 5 questions she asked friends to test a business idea before building anything (including the one that reveals if they'll actually pay)The anchor move that made a $200-a-month price feel like a giftWhy she thinks about a story about a rock and a locked door every single day 🔗 Links mentioned: Website: heyeocworks.comGabi's email: gabi@eocworks.com 📬 Follow Curiosity Class: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Interested in sponsoring? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠curiosityclasspod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠

  8. Sep 18

    Why More Views Isn't the Win w/ Josh Stabinsky (Ep #67)

    Every time someone presses play, they hand you an hour of their life they can never get back. Josh Stabinsky thinks about that math for a living, and it changed how he builds. Josh Stabinsky is a data scientist at Spotify who works on podcast and creator growth, and the host of the Unit Economics podcast, which he has grown to 60 episodes in a year without missing a single week. What you'll take away: Why asking someone to press play is a bigger favor than it soundsThe two-episodes-a-week experiment that burned him out, and what he does nowWhy an introvert who felt sick posting on LinkedIn does it anywayThe one question he asks every guest that keeps his lineup full 🔗 Links mentioned: Website: uepod.comInstagram: ue.podLinkedIn: Josh StabinskySubstack: uepod.substack.com 📬 Follow Curiosity Class: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Interested in sponsoring? ⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@curiosityclass.co

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

I'm Jeff, and Curiosity Class is pretty much what it sounds like - me getting way too into some topic and then trying to explain it so it actually clicks. One week it's money or real estate. The next it's mindfulness, or AI, or some book I won't shut up about. Sometimes it's just me thinking out loud for 20 minutes. Other times I drag on someone who actually knows what they're talking about and have them walk me through it. Simple, not easy. New episode every Friday.

Information

  • Creator
    Jeff Albaum
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    74
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jeff Albaum
  • Show Website
    Curiosity Class