James Dumoulin built one of the biggest interview brands on the internet by walking up to strangers and asking how much money they make.
He co-founded School of Hard Knocks in 2021 with his brother Jack and friend Joshua Smith. The early channel gave business advice and stalled around 25,000 followers. So James flipped the format. He started cold-approaching millionaires and billionaires on the street, pointed the camera at them, and let them talk. His 2022 Mark Cuban interview changed everything.
Today School of Hard Knocks reaches more than 17 million followers and over 4 billion views across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. The clips run under five minutes. The business behind them runs on four engines: ad revenue, brand partnerships, high-ticket consulting, and School of Mentors, a paid community of nearly 6,000 entrepreneurs. In August 2025, James reported his biggest month yet, with 700,000 dollars in revenue and 400,000 in profit. At 23, he became a millionaire and put his first major check into a 200-unit apartment complex in Texas.
In this conversation, we cover the pivot, the real hit rate on cold approaches, the money behind the views, and what hundreds of interviews with the wealthy taught him about building wealth of his own.
Follow James and School of Hard Knocks: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschoolofhardknocks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realjamesdumoulin/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theschoolofhardknocks
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
Bryan Elliott. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Bryan Elliott och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
