What happens when the narrative is dead, and the press isn’t? In this episode of Due To My Role, Johnny Hilbrant (PE Guy) sits down with Anna Delvey for a conversation most interviews refuse to have—not about the past everyone already litigated, but about control, silence, and why refusing to perform remorse can actually be leverage. Anna breaks down what it’s like to exist as a public figure, people think they understand, while deliberately giving them nothing. Unpacking reputation versus reality, why most “journalism” is humiliation disguised as accountability, how editing power shapes narratives, and why flying under the radar is often the most strategic move in a click-driven economy.

There’s PE Guy energy throughout—satirical, dismissive, and intentional—before Johnny takes over for a real conversation about identity, leverage, and what it actually means to outlive your scandal in this substantial interview with the one and only, Anna Delvey.

This isn’t a redemption arc. It’s a case study in not needing one. Subscribe for substantial founders, comedians, and interesting people on the internet with decent stories and substantial exits.

Johnny Hilbrant (aka PE Guy) sits down with Heather McMahan for a conversation that starts funny, gets real fast, and ends somewhere most business or comedy interviews never go.

What begins as a conversation about comedy quickly becomes a look at how Heather actually runs her career — treating stand-up, touring, podcasting, and specials as a real operating system, not just creative output. She talks candidly about building multiple income streams in an oversaturated creator economy, why she chooses to self-produce her specials before selling them to platforms like Netflix and Hulu, and how owning your audience gives you leverage that no algorithm ever will.

But the heart of the episode is the part you can’t plan for. Heather opens up about losing her father and how sharing grief publicly — before it was “content” — reshaped both her life and her relationship with fans. Johnny shares his own experience losing his sister, and the two unpack how loss rewires ambition, sharpens empathy, and changes what success actually means when you’ve been through something that big.

Along the way, PE Guy still shows up — real estate plays, spending many coins at the Masters merch tent, red carpet moments with E!, and the tension between money, ego, and freedom when creative work starts to scale.

This episode is for anyone building something unconventional — creators, founders, operators — who want the truth about turning personality into product, pain into perspective, and momentum into something that actually lasts.

Subscribe for substantial founders, comedians, and interesting people on the internet with real stories, real leverage, and real exits.

In Episode 005 of Due To My Role, Johnny Hilbrant (aka PE Guy) sits down with Joe Fenti — Boston comedian and former consulting / M&A guy — to talk about the reality of leaving a “serious” corporate career to build a comedy business from scratch.

Joe breaks down what it actually looks like to go full-time comedy: writing every day, turning jokes into sketches, touring the country (35 cities), and self-funding a 60-minute stand-up special with real production (multiple cameras, audio, lighting) — then deciding whether to sell it to a platform or bet on YouTube to build long-term leverage.

They get into the operator side of being a comedian today — how Joe turns internet noise into real demand, protects his material while still feeding the content machine, and runs the entire business behind the scenes (booking, contracts, invoicing, brand) while keeping the creative output consistent.

If you’re into creator economy, stand-up comedy, or the operator side of building an audience-led business, this episode is the truth behind it.

Subscribe for substantial founders, comedians, and the most interesting people on the internet with real stories and substantial exits.