go red the countertops of all the liquor stores and then go to Nabisco or one of the big boys and be like hey guess what I want 10 000 countertops you want to put your widget there you want to put your [ __ ] widget there keep the money yeah keep the money foreign [Music] okay everyone what's going on this is Sam we have Jesse itzler on the Pod today very fascinating guy started a bunch of different companies um the biggest one being Marquee Jets which we got into some of the economics of that business and then he's done a bunch of other things you see him on social media he's done a lot of stuff but like his life advice was actually really amazing um we went deep into some of the numbers behind some of his businesses we um learned about his early career and there's like a a ton of takeaways the Pod was only supposed to be 60 Minutes long but Sean and I were like so into it that we went over I think we went like 90 minutes something like that because his story is super fascinating if you like the Rob Dyrdek episode which a lot of people did it's I think our most listened to episode of all time I think you're really gonna like this one um it was pretty spectacular I left feeling good uh about it and if you're watching this on YouTube do me a favor hit that subscribe button and make a comment because we've had a ton of people comment on our videos lately and a ton of people subscribe we see the data behind it so it's awesome that you guys are doing this and it means a ton of us we actually text each other all the time when someone makes a funny comment so let us know and if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify hit that download or the Subscribe button whatever it is on those platforms because we get notifications about those too and it's awesome we're killing it we're growing a ton and we appreciate the army of people who are supporting us all right enjoy the episode let us know in the YouTube comments what you think um all right well welcome we got Jessie itzler here um also known as I think you might be the richest Runner white rapper in the country so congratulations my friend we we are excited to have you here I love that if you keep adding categories I could be the richest in the world if you start adding like you know then have four kids that eat plant-based etc etc so right on so you know I'm excited to talk to you because you've done a bunch of amazing things we've talked about you on the Pod and we sort of spoke it into existence I think we talked about it somebody might have sent you a clip I'm not sure but you uh you reached out and said hey I'd love to come on you have I'm just going to read a couple of these things so I'm gonna flatter you real quick just so that the audience uh understands kind of just your background so like we said started out uh trying to make it as a rapper and ended up creating a a Jingles company so you were making Jingles for for sports teams ended up selling that and created uh Marquee Jets a fractional jet owning company sold that to Berkshire Hathaway which Warren Buffett obviously runs and owns uh you're married to Sarah Blakely founder of Spanx you are an epic sort of Fitness athlete yourself so uh prolific Runner I read your book uh the day I got really into you was when I read living with a seal which is the story of you living with uh David Goggins for 30 days um I can't even really listen like David Goggins for 30 minutes on a podcast uh so living with it for 30 days respect and um yeah you've created a bunch of companies outside that partner with zico coconut water and doing a bunch of prolific things so you have a a very prolific career but the start was uh like anybody it was humble humble beginnings so talk about the early days when you were you were trying to do the let's start with the jingle company you um you told me you were you were sleeping on couches at the time trying to make it and uh describe kind of what was going on at that time in your life what was the plan and what were you going through how did you come out of that well I grew up in New York in the 80s when rap and hip-hop was starting to emerge in a bigger way and that it that was the intersection of of that happening and me going to college so I was really into music early on and while all my friends and college were writing resumes and going on job interviews I was like I'm making a rap record like I'm why would I waste my time making a resume I want to make an album so it was like kind of that's the direction I wanted to go in uh right away I ended up signing with the record company called delicious vinyl everybody passed on me and this one little record company gave me a shot and I didn't have met like I wasn't super connected I didn't have like a lawyer I know I just did it all I shopped it myself but I ended up getting dropped from the label shortly after and I got into writing um Jingles or uh for companies and theme songs for sports teams and that was kind of my first entree into you know I pivoted it didn't work out for me in the music business but I still loved music so I stayed in there and I started doing jingles and um yeah that's how I kind of started out early on you told me you were sleeping on couches um trying to make it and somebody offered you a tempting deal they said yeah I'll give you ten thousand dollars if I can get ten percent of everything you'll ever make how did that happen and what was your answer right so I was I was writing theme songs for sports teams I was 22 23 years old and my business model was to write a song on spec and then cold call a professional sports team try to get a meeting with them try to like you know get in there and then if I was able to get that meeting convince them that they needed a theme song and that was my business model and at the time I was I was I was bouncing around from couch to couch I wasn't homeless but my friends were I just moved to New York from Los Angeles and my friends were putting me up as I tried to figure out how to do it I had no money to go in the studio to write any more songs on spec so I needed money to fund that production so a music manager said you know I I believe in you I'll give you 10 grand for 10 but I want to own you for the rest of your life basically 10 of anything you make and I was like I'll take it because I needed the money to go with this dude I thought it was a deal in the set tree you're gonna give me 10 grand and all I'm going to do is pay you if I make it like that sounded amazing to me at the time I was living on my friend Melissa Katz uh couch I met her actually at a bar and she had given me her number on a napkin and said if you're in an emergency she asked me where I lived and I said as of Monday I had nowhere to live I was getting kicked out of my friend's house on Monday she said it's an emergency you can come live with my roommate and I Monday my friend kicked me out because his parents were coming for a week and I'm like this is an emergency so I'll just leave to get Melissa's house and I told her about this opportunity and she said well why don't you go talk to my father before you give away 10 of your future earnings and as it turned out her father was a very successful entrepreneur he owned the company called Kenny Park any parking garages in New York and was uh I think the second largest shareholder of the New York Yankees you're like Melissa your apartment is really nice [Laughter] what was amazing about that was it really wasn't and that's why I really was taken aback by I knew her dad was an entrepreneur I didn't know the extent and um should you know she said Me On by the way his name is Lou Katz he passed away a couple of years ago he was an incredibly influential guy in my life and this was my first encounter with them so I went to not the believer this but I went to see him and it's really relevant for anyone listening what he said to me as a 22 year old he I told him my dilemma I'm going to take 10 grand for 10 of my life and he said to me is exactly what he said to me he said Jesse you know will you make this business work without the 10 grand I said Lou I'm on to something I know I can make it work there's a I know I can and he he took his notebook and he literally threw it on the ground and he said I didn't ask you that I didn't ask you can you I said will you there's a big difference between Cad and will I know you can start a podcast I know you can be a millionaire I know you can run a marathon I I said will you son and I said yeah well Lou I will he said well tell him to take the ten thousand dollars and shove it up his ass don't make it work and I did you know like it was a really powerful lesson and like you know what I signed up for this journey as an entrepreneur let me go figure it out let me go that's what I want to do let me go figure this out and he keep breathe he blew that flame into me at an early age and um it's really been a theme throughout my life in all the buckets of my life the whole will verse can notion you know and why why is that so powerful the will verse can well because it's it really puts the pressure you know Billie Jean King in a book pressure's a privilege and it is like entrepreneur we play for pressure showing like as entrepreneurs that's what we want man and um you know I recently did a race called Ultraman it's a 6.2 mile Open Water Swim a 265 mile bike and a 52.4 mile run and I thought to myself before the race that exact thing like I think I can do it but I'm never gonna know unless I sign up for the race put myself in a position where something incredible can happen or not but I got to put myself in that situation and now it's up to me like will I get it done you know will what am I willing to do am I willing to suffer for that one day for to have the next three decades have that in my memory bank and have it on my resume and and I will and I am willing to do that and and I did so you know what's really funny uh after you told me that so I did a call with you the other day to prep for the for the Pod say Hey you know we're going to talk about I'm thinking about talking about this this and this you have any good stories and you told me this this will verse can thing and uh the next day my wife was literally like she's like hey can you take out the trash and I was like no no baby what's that about Canada I will take out the trash and she has no idea what I'm doing and I've been doing it all weekend I've been because it's once you see it it's actually everywhere uh Ben texted Ben who's listening on this thing right now he texted me this morning he's like um he's like hey how'd you eat this weekend we're both like on a fitness kick he's like can you stay locked in from now till Thanksgiving and I just I was like oh Ben you asking if we can we don't ask canned questions anymore as of meeting Jesse yitzler I no longer ask can I it's will I or won't I that's it well think about how many times in your life someone said you you say something that you've done like you know I did you know rim to rim I'll take physical activities or I climb Kilimanjaro and you explain to someone like oh I can do that and I like my in the back of your head you're like yeah you probably can but you know will you do it you know there's just like it's a huge difference between like oh just checking the Box because you said to yourself I can versus actually going through and doing it by the way Jesse I have one other story that you you don't know about uh so you used to go to something at least you went once called coach K's Fantasy Camp is that correct I've been there for uh 18 straight years okay okay perfect that's hilarious so you went to this thing except for those who don't know Coach K he was the the greatest college basketball coach at Duke I went to Duke and um my roommate Trevor used to volunteer at Coach case fantasy camp and volunteer was literally volunteering I was like so what do you you're staying over from brick because it's like during some break and he's like yeah I'm not going home I'm gonna work this thing I'm like cool how much you can pay because he's like I don't think we really get paid but uh you know whatever like you just had put himself in a position for something good to happen and so he and what I did what he didn't know and what I didn't know was the only people who go to this camp that cost like 10 grand to go to are basically like business Ballers trying to like live out their dream of like oh as if I was an athlete and he's he so he all he was doing was driving the shuttle back and forth between where y'all were staying and the thing and he's like dude it's amazing he's like just hearing these conversations what they're talking about in this like nine minute shuttle ride he's like every night he would debrief with me ideas that he heard he's like oh this guy said that he does this this thing over here this guy said he does this and he told me he goes I met this guy super charismatic like this guy he loved this guy's energy he goes and he tipped me 100 bucks for this like 10 minute shuttle ride and late I told him he I told her I was mentioning to him that you're coming on the potty he goes that was the guy who tipped me so I don't know if you remember this or not but we took that tip and uh we had a business idea at the time and we needed to convince this uh famous chef in LA to come fly out and partner with us we had no money and so you you plus a little like side job that I had became the money we paid for for the ticket to fly that guy out which definitely changed the trajectory of our life so little did you know I I love that and um yeah I've been going there for since I'm 35 it's for guys 35 and older and it's not to chase some some crazy Dream It's a combination of you know um meeting amazing people and also kind of like there's not a lot of times I'm 55 so I'm older than you guys and um I can't stop that clock you know at times undefeated it's always ticking it's it's the six days a year or the five days I go there that I get to feel like an eight-year-old again and it's really one of the few times in my life that I get that chance and I love it I don't know man I follow you on Instagram it seems like you live like an eight-year-old a lot of times I'm pretty sure say that I'm pretty I'm pretty sure I just saw you like in an RV with like eight friends just like running around like you yeah it seems like you got the eight-year-old life kind of nailed down I like to give myself that excuse Sam I guess you but you're right it's more than once more than five days a year yeah I I think I think you've done that all right you uh and then it was your first um kind of major business Marquee jet so you went from did you go from Jingles to Jets yeah so interestingly I had so the jingle thing turned into a real business I found that opportunity I started out doing Jingles just for anyone that would pay me anything to do anything so um I was doing Jingles for like I I honestly like turbo bubblegum this like Bubble book gum company that no one ever heard of like just anything that our podcast intro needs a little sprucing up if you wanna if you wanna dust it off yeah I I got you guys and um and then I start and then one of those Jingles gave me an opportunity to write a theme song for the New York Knicks I done a commercial a radio ad for a company called in the in the paint clothing it was owned by um Nancy grunfeld Ernie grunfeld the GM of the Knicks wife and she really liked what we had what I had done and she said um yeah if you have any other ideas you know let me know I said well I love to do something for the next you know like write a theme song and we could shoot a video they can sing it in the arena so I approached the Knicks to do this song called donirco and um the Knicks paid me four thousand dollars to buy the song outright I'll never forget it like um Ashley borrowed money to go in the studio to do this to do the song I didn't have enough money to go in the studio record it because they were paying me 30 or 60 days later and by the time I paid the studio the engineer the lawyer that I had the singer the producer it cost me forty eight hundred dollars to actually deliver the song that they were paying me four thousand dollars for and when I look back on it you know for most people they'd be like that's a terrible business model it was the best business model in the world for me because when you start out you know people buy into stories momentum and people very often more than the products like I was the business plan and I would have paid the next 10 grand to say they were my customer because once I had the Knicks those phone calls to get unto the other sports teams became very easy and that became my calling card so I built a business around that Sean that actually I I ended up doing theme songs for almost every professional sports team and turned it into a business where we were selling CDs like this thought I would think the songs they play in the arena add my original song with great moments in the team history and sell them at retail I sold that company to a public company called sfx and that was my first I was 27 we sold it for four million bucks and then we had there was an earn out for another 12 or 16 or something which we earned out and that was my first kind of like get off the couch moment I was no longer on Melissa's couch and I moved into my own space what was your take home after that I had a partner and at the end of the day I think on the first four million I made like a million and a half but by the way a million and a half dollars to me all the money I was Elon Musk before musk was born I was walking around like I was musk like a million and a half dollars I would owe to the wake up at the eight and go to the ATM I would get my print out of my balance swear to God then I would wake up the next morning and be like are you [ __ ] kidding me I have 300 more dollars than I had yesterday and I was sleeping my partner convinced me to take all 1.3 million dollars that we both cleared after taxes or whatever it was and reinvested to to get like exclusive deals in all this like we made the business being reinvested in the business and actually made the business a lot bigger and we got our earn out and then then everything changed a little bit for me but you know I had no idea how to manage money my parents never talked about money my dad owned the plumbing supply house my mom raised four kids the the thing I had no relationship with money that might sound weird but like people talk about relationships with in terms of their relationship with their kids or their significant other but not in terms of their relationship with time which is very important and your relationship with money which is equally as important I had no relationship with money so when I got money I didn't know how to save it how to spend it how to use it how to act around it I was very immature around new money and you know what happened to me then I lost it because I didn't know anything about it and fortunately I was able to bounce back through having other successful businesses and failures but no one ever told me about it how did you lose it just overspending or what'd you do overspending thinking like oh that was pretty easy man I could just I could do that again you know um what did you buy it wasn't like so much what I bought it was just you know helping my parents spreading it out I wasn't abusive with it like but just I didn't know how to really handle that that's pretty common right like you know Sean and I have a bunch of friends that you know we're both about 34 35 and we have a bunch of friends and ourselves as well who had exits at a young age and the thing about selling a company it's different than there's usually two types of people I've noticed is people who have cash flow businesses or they're like a lawyer or something like that or their own Law Firm something where your like income is going up a nice amount every year and you get used to having that cash flow and then the other group of people are typically young folks who sell their company and typically those people are like me where I paid myself twenty thousand dollars to year one twenty thousand dollars a year two year three was fifty thousand dollars year four I sell it and make a lot of money and you're like this is just overwhelming I don't know what to do with this and that's like a pretty that's like a pretty common thing is I I don't think I don't know if most people blow it but I think it takes about two or three years to accumulate uh and kind of get used to and learn what to do but there's no one to teach you the problem is I I'd always been taught oh if you're a like a millionaire well that ain't [ __ ] was this no but I've been no I've been taught the opposite like if I saw a millionaire that was like the Pinnacle like he's a millionaire man so I always thought like oh I have a million dollars that's all I need to have for the rest of my life I'm a millionaire at 27. and that's that was the relationship that was wrong right yeah you could spend that you could spend that easy yeah you go and you have a four thousand dollar dinner when you were eating when I was basically eating a 99 bagel for 17 years you know things change quick you um I'm a big believer that most of Life most of your life kind of is a result of this the conversation you have with yourself and your head do you remember after you kind of had that first hit and you see the money and you still have you're only 27 you still got all your life ahead of you do you at all remember like the conversation you had with yourself like all right Jesse so like now X and whether X was a good good a good conversation with yourself or misleading one do you remember what what the conversation you had with yourself at that point in time was you know it was interesting because Sean I was living in New York and most of my friends were working on Wall Street they were working at hedge funds they were making they were making a lot of money around there was a lot of money around me and you know it's very easy to get caught up in what's he making versus what am I making and it's very easy to like you start having those conversations with you yourself you can go down and spiral downward very quickly and you know what I was making what it took me years to make and build and sell and my journey to get to that point was crazy I was selling Karen's celery sticks door-to-door that didn't work I had a t-shirt company that didn't work I got dropped from a record label that didn't work I cleaned meat drops that didn't work I sold Chicken shrimp and meat door-to-door that didn't work I mean jingle company I it went on and on so you know I had really worked so hard and and at the same time like I invested so much not for the money but just like I just wanted to get a record deal man I didn't care about the money I just want everyone said you can't do it everybody and it was it was such a driver if I remember I listened to a podcast where one of you guys with Laird Hamilton and you were saying how that he was saying how that you know one of you guys are saying you need that anger to inspire you like some kind of fuel you know so um I had that I still have that don't get me wrong I still have that and I never want to lose that Underdog mentality I never want to be like I'm at the top of the mountain I'm not I consider myself back of the pack everything back of the pack sales back of the pack entrepreneur there's so many better entrepreneurs than me um so many better salesmen than me but I I but I love that feeling of I gotta prove myself so when the money happened it was just like oh Steve Stark is making so much more than me we're in the same basketball run like I got a cash starter you know the um the Marquee jet thing that's interesting though because that's like totally out of left field so and that seems like a a way bigger win than the jingle business same partner right same co-founder yeah same pointer um it was a much bigger win and what like most things in my life um most of the businesses that have that I've been involved with weren't plant you know and most of my successes in life haven't been in my business plan they've been opportunities that presented themselves you know my whole life I've been taught when opportunity knocks you know and I'm not I don't want to sit around waiting for opportunity to knock I like to create my own my own opportunity and I was a guest on a private jet with my partner and I was like you people fly like what is this what is this that I'm on and we alleged to some research like there's only really two or three ways to fly privately back in the 90s when we started Marquee jet you can buy your own airplane if you had 50 million dollars you know or something like that well that's out of the question you could get a fractional being a fractional program like netjets but even that is a really big commitment both in capital and time it's a five-year commitment a lot of money up front that wasn't I mean that wasn't an option for us or you could Charter and there were a lot of questions around well who owns the plane who are the pilots you know do I feel comfortable on that what if the plane doesn't show up so we found the little white space there said you know we only want to fly like 25 hours a year I bet there's a lot of people like us that don't want to own an airplane don't want the responsibility but they just want to be able to have the um have a plane available on short notice and that was the idea around selling a 25 hour check card that will work like a debit card so if if you and if you and Sam Sean flew two hours you'd have 23 hours left and then we partnered with netjet Again part of being an entrepreneur is figuring out how to get from A to B the fastest and for us for me in my life many times it's been through partnership we've partnered with netjets they ended up buying us to use their airplanes partnered with Coca-Cola it's ego at zico Coconut order they ended up buying us um so but anyway that was that's what happened we were guest on the plane and you know walking around eyes wide open looking for opportunities and said wow this could be really interesting and uh and then started the Journey of figuring out how we could pull this off because we had no Aviation experience very little money and you know I was younger than you guys I was 28 29 years old and um figuring out like man we need a lot of airplanes where do we go for airplanes and uh and then started that journey of of building this company so you walk in you walk into netjets and you're like hey uh I'm Jesse former rapper jingle entrepreneur and I would like for you to give me your most valuable assets your planes for this new membership program how did you convince them to do that well at first we didn't they kicked us out of the office in the first meeting after about 12 minutes and um backing that up the bigger question is how we even get in the room forget like what happened at the meeting how in the world did a multi-billion dollar company let two kids that didn't break a thousand on their SATs into a room to pitch them the idea a year before that I was a yes guy my whole life I I was I I've kind of and I still try to pride myself when people ask me for things to deliver if I can but never asked for anything in return you know like I'm not like oh Stan I'll do this for you Sean but like can you do this from like I don't know that's not the mo I got a call a year before that from someone that said that their daughter this is a true story and it's the craziest story ever this guy was having a his daughter was having a sweet 16. and Chris um a famous singer was performing in his hometown his daughter wanted to bring his sweet 16 to the event the guy says I know you know the manager can you help help this guy get some tickets and do anything special turns out I get the guy's daughter as a backup singer for one song with the mic off everyone at school the next day is she's like the hero of this like what happened oh my God they're freaking out the guy calls me up he goes I don't know who you are I don't know what you have what you do but you lit my daughter up and if you ever need anything let me know like turns out he I can't make this up he's the president of that Jets a year later I need 650 airplanes at almost my gym you're never going to believe this the guy you've got your daughter on I have an idea for a thing he gets to me the meeting we get thrown out of the meeting 12 minutes in because they're like we're not giving two kids access to our 650 airplanes and this guy Jim Jacobs comes up to me after the meeting goes you know what that was amazing I said we got thrown out in 12 minutes what do you mean he goes Rich santuli my party he doesn't give anyone 12 minutes because this thought that he'd come back next week and bring this thing to life re-pitch it I need more information so we came back the next week and we realized we could never sell them in a PowerPoint which is like what everyone guy sees 100 power points every year we brought in our own focus group we had eight people in the lobby and they walked in one by one and they stood up and said that they would never buy a fraction of an airplane what netjets was selling but they would buy a 25 hour jet cart and at the end of the meeting they literally said if you guys raise money or put up your own money if you can figure it out we'll give you a shot in a a couple years later we had more customers than that yet that's crazy you showed him the market you were like I could either put up a chart or a pie chart right here or I could literally walk the market into the room and have them say I need this product and it turns out that eight people saying I need this product to your face makes a bigger impact than a pie chart that says 11 of the market needs this when I think back on this moment at 28 years old and we had like Carl Banks from the New York Giants I think Run from Run DMC was there it was right behind me on the wall um you know when he's got that meeting yeah we brought him in we brought him in and when we said when when we they got up one by one and explained why this card would work and you know I think what they realized was they had been pitching to a much older corporate client and that they what they realized I think in the meeting was here are these two 27 year old kids and by the way remember I said people buy into people's stories and momentum this had nothing to do with our product the decision maker looked Us in the eye and said I see enthusiasm I see someone that's no matter what even they even though they have no Aviation experience is going to make this work and I'm willing to bet on these two guys it wasn't there was no PowerPoint it was us like you're the business plan you are the business plan so at the end of the meeting he literally said to us after we got the deal and you know like year one we did I think we did like close to 200 million in sales Year One and I remember going into his office and asking I said Rich santulli who is like he knighted me man he knighted me I said rich how do we how do we end up here man and he looked me dead in the eye and he goes you guys remind me of me when I was 27. and bringing in this Focus Group yes they came in and they explained why they would buy a card and yes they saw a much younger demo that someone could be a lifetime customer now at 25 versus a lifetime customer 50. so they saw the lifetime value of what we were bringing in this younger generation of athlete Entertainer you know young Mogul Etc that they wanted that because that's incredibly valuable to get that person on their plane at a young age but at the end of the day they he saw something in my penny and I my partner and I that he wanted a bet on and you know I just want to say this for anyone listening here because I know this is primarily a business podcast by the way it took me 37 minutes to warm up but now I'm fully here he's here I'm saying but I got it now um you know like I said that was never in our business plan oh we're gonna bring in our own focus group to start a company that does 5 billion in sales it's like it's the things that live off the business plan that make the biggest difference and when you have a chance you know you don't get a lot of big meetings like that and I remember at 27 walking in there and saying to my partner like this is as big as a guess because you know what there is no one else that is 650 airplanes this is it and um you have to bring that meeting to life you have to stand out you have to you know not in a gimmicky way but you have to make that memorable man and and fortunately we were able to do that and it worked and then we had an amazing amazingly fruitful relationship and partnership with netjets until we exited our software is the worst have you heard of HubSpot see most crms are a cobble together mess but HubSpot is easy to adopt and actually looks gorgeous I think I love our new CRM our software is the best HubSpot grow better all right everyone a quick break you're listening to this episode you've maybe listen to a bunch of MFM episodes we get a lot of interesting insights and the reason we get insights is I have a lot of peers and friends who are CEOs of companies and I'm able to ask them all types of different questions and it all started because I used to run this event called hustlecon and I would like convince these speakers of big startups you know you've probably heard of most of these companies the founder of grammarly we work Away Travel Casper all these cool companies and I would sit in a green room with them and I would hear all these amazing stories but I would also be able to learn like how to fire someone effectively how to how to handle things when the business isn't going well how to handle things when it's going great like all these stuff that happens behind closed doors and it changed my life and so I started this company it's called Hampton joinhampton.com is the URL where we make it really easy to have a peer group and have a network of other entrepreneurs that are like you similar Industries similar size companies and so if you do run a company check it out the average company is doing about 25 million in Revenue some companies go all the way up to two three four hundred million in revenue and they're publicly traded others are a little bit smaller and the one two three four range but my partner and I Joe we review every single interview and we hand carry and hand select all these interesting people so it's been a really wonderful community so if you want to be a little less lonely if you want to find information and insights that you can't Google check it out it's Hampton that's the name of the company and joinhampton.com is the URL so you should check it out I review all the interviews so uh enjoy the rest of the episode are you um so like I I I think that all three of us might be a a bit similar in in business relationships where we're like we bring the passion and some of the creativity and the zero to one stuff were you good at running that company or were you or did you have a good partner who is running it and you were great at kind of bringing some of the deals to fruition I can only run marathons I can't run any business I'm not good at running anything no I'm a terrible operator I'm a terrible manager but I'm really good at knowing that I'm terrible at that and being okay with it so you know we were able to hire a CEO right away um and then which allowed me to focus on sales which I was which I was better at Buzz which I was really good before the ins before Instagram I'm not so good at the up now with Instagram but back when there was no Instagram I was good at creating priable opportunities and and talk worthy events and um for my hero that was really important so no um I have never I've never been the CEO of a business I've never ran or operated business but I've been a Founder I think five times and how'd that model work is it like a Costco model where you were breaking even on the 200 million in sales but you made money off the uh a membership no so we the original deal with netjets was we were leasing time on their planes but I wouldn't have to we wouldn't have to enter into a long-term lease until we sold it so we had no rest they were carrying all the paper so if I bought if you and if Sam Sean you guys bought 100 hours we go by 100 hours and it was marked up so we were just a marketing organization they owned and operated the planes and we were releasing it as we got big all of a sudden you know we have four thousand members were doing a billion dollars a year then the model changed and we had to start buying our airplanes but by that time we had you know significant cash and we were able to do that so it started off with literally it was an incredible deal for us and for that um it was a true um no lose for both parties and those headline numbers are really big how big was that exit I mean that's a that's a pretty big thing how big is netjets I don't even know uh I don't even remember what netjet sold to Berkshire for I'm sure it's public this was before Berkshire owned it is that right that just sold at the Berkshire prior to us and then and then we went to now we're part of that part of Nashville which is your Berkshire stock because that would have been a good stock to just get in the deal I know right no we didn't netjets sold for 7.25 725 million and 98. and half of it was paid in stock so that was um if if that was a good deal for netjets depending on if I don't know what the revenue was but that's a lot of money you um you snapped your fingers and you were like uh we did first year we did whatever I forgot what you said 200 million or something 200. I don't know what that means what is 200 million there that's not that can't be membership dudes that's that would be insane no it did yeah no because there are our average our average customer spent close I think it was 250 or 235 000 a year gotcha okay but and it's more like uh gmv so because you have to so your take is some spread between that and then whatever okay gotcha so yeah I guess like on on that model what's the income on 200 let's just say 100 million what what can your profit be on that well this is 30 years ago so how about I don't remember exactly what it was but it was enough that I was now off the couch and living a very good life and uh and by the way the best Roi in that deal is I met my wife there she was a customer of ours and that's how I met my wife um you you said you told me something which was about getting the first customers so before your wife was even a customer uh you know you're like I'm on this plane I'm like holy [ __ ] this is an amazing way to fly I'd love to do this I'm sure other people would love to do this you come up with the idea cool now how do you go get those first people to give you two hundred thousand dollars to be a part of this right that's like a huge like where did you go find those customers and and tell the story of kind of how you got it off the ground well we were start we started out you know I think the first thing that any entreprene most entrepreneurs is at least in our position and more keychain is we had to establish credibility because if I was going to sell you time on a plane and you said who flies with who flies with you guys that would be my first question or one of them and I said well my dad and my next door neighbor you probably would leave but if I was like you know Oprah Bill Clinton you'd be like wow they must have vetted this you know so we started out looking for athletes entertainers and and high profile people um which was not easy for me um but I had to go where wealthy people congregated and I heard about this you know they could afford time on the jet I heard about a conference in Monterey California that was just getting some traction called tent so I flew out to Monterey and um you know I told the guys like hey I'm gonna go get my first sale I'm going to the thing called a TED Talk they were like what it's in Monterey California you gotta like you can't even get there you have to like as connected through Chicago into whatever rented a car five hours of Monterey I get to the 10. it's like Fort Knox man everybody has a credential like this like huge and I'm like you need a credential to get in here there's no credentials to be found so I'm thinking like how am I gonna sneak in buy someone's pass like go into the room where all the qualified leads are I'm in this coffee shop plotting like you know my my entrance or how I'm gonna do it and every two hours the wave of people come in and they're buying they have these credentials I'm like oh this is where they come on their break and they're all buying lattes and muffins and these lattes and muffins and whatever lattes and muffins so the next morning I got up at five and I bought all the muffins from this I controlled all the muffin inventory in Monterey California and I literally just waited in this is a True Story by the way and it's it's been verified you can walk so two hours later this guy uh the first wave of people on the break walk in and the guy orders a latte and a muffin I stop them uh they tell them that they could give them a latte but they're all out of muffins It's like [ __ ] nine in the morning it's like you're out of muffins the guy starts walking I stop I'm like sorry I overheard you I actually have an extra muffin if you want a muffin and uh he's like you got an extra muffin I'm thinking like I got every single [ __ ] Muppet under the table man what do you need and um I started talking to him he's like you know what are you I'm here for the conference I'm like me too what do you do I tell them what I do he said you gotta be kidding me I'm in the market for a private jet cart and his name is Josh koppelman he owned a company called half.com famous VC right now he is I bumped into him like three years ago at uh at a retreat and and we were we were talking about this and anyway he was my first sale he was my first Dale and and that is not a story of me being a good sales rep because like I said I am truly back of the pack but it is an example of me putting myself in a situation will verse can of putting myself in a situation where I could attract that kind of luck you know and and um he was my first sale though she wanted to answer your question and and you know what happened after that I'm gonna tell you what happened after that I service the hell out of them I did what everybody listening would do but I did 30 more so when he went to Mexico he expected me to return his call and the every em DM and all that of course I did what everyone here would do but he went to Mexico he didn't expect a list of Pediatricians that I've added in case his kids got sick he didn't expect me to make reservations every Wednesday at every night at eight o'clock during spring break in Mexico in case he and his wife wanted to go to dinner and and and after a couple of months of doing that what he didn't expect me to do he gave me the magic word he gave me a referral and that was rinse and repeat for for five years until we grew this so no I was never the CEO I was never the the operator I was never the CEO I was I wasn't even I don't even think I was on the org chart so I'm I'm looking at your check this out well you're on the website I'm looking at I use web archive I'm looking at the uh the 2005 version of marqueejet.com and I'm looking at your about page and what's interesting it looks like your senior executive team was not only awesome it was like amazing because Ken Austin I see was your executive VP is that the same Ken Austin that went and started is it Avion the tequila company and most recently started proper 12 with Conor McGregor is is that the same Ken Austin and the tequila company with the rock yes you've done a good job of hiring no we were the Boston Celtics man we were the Boston Celtics we from like the old we the Talent at this company was exceptional Ken Austin is an exceptionally I don't it could be them is such a talented Guy and um I learned so much from Ken and you know we had great sales reps and we attracted really good talent because we built a really good culture well it's also a sick product I mean you said you met your wife there it's like that's like the greatest line ever like oh dude you're here at this jet company so I know like you're of someone I know you're someone interesting definitely just so it happens I I work here or I own the company I mean it's like a that's that's a it's a pretty uh wonderful experience I imagine to work at a private jet company it was it really was and you nailed it but the only thing I would say to that is I think there were like 65 private jet companies that put a flag in the ground from when we started to when we sold and I think we were the only one that made money I might be wrong about that but if something some including uh Garrett Camp the guy from Uber he created he tried to do an Uber for jets uh that didn't work out right it's it's very very difficult and if we didn't have netjets as a partner I you know it wouldn't I'm sure it wouldn't have worked as well so a lot a lot things lined up they're the business you did a partnership on was zico coconut water and yeah I think this is interesting because now we're seeing a pattern the first is you're picking businesses in like categories that they're not in the NBA curriculum nobody's thinking about oh sports teams need slogans and CDs that will increase their fandom nobody even realizes that that's a niche that you can go into or to do you know this membership model for private jets nobody's even looking in that area at the time right there's a very few people are even thinking about that Niche it's not common then you go coconut water so now your consumer package Goods in a beverage category that's non-existent really at the time um and I think zico was pretty small when you found it it's not like it had like you know tons of momentum um so talk about two things number one finding these niches like what what is it that you what is your operating philosophy that leads that seems to consistently lead you to these that's the first question and the second is the key partnership that got it off the ground I heard an amazing Matt Damon story I want to hear the full version of it yeah yeah I spent a year trying to figure out how to have my own coconut water company I went to Brazil I went to Jamaica what trying to figure out this is there were no there was no coconut water in the stores that this is I'm gonna so let me back it up even further I was running 100 mile race and I did a lot of trick when I was doing my training I did a lot of research around hydration and nutrition if I'm going to run for arguably 24 hours how many calories do I need to eat drink an hour um how many calories do I need to take in an hour how much fluid ounces do I need to drink an hour how much salt do I need an hour and my research led me to coconut water so I ran this race powered by coconut water and I finished it in 22 hours and 30 minutes when I was done I'm like this is going to be this is the new Gatorade no one knows about this I'm the human guinea pig I'm bringing this to Market you know it's a better option it's all natural one ingredient you know it rains God sends it up a tree we crack it open and we drink it like this is I mean are you kidding me so I spent a year trying to figure it out how to import it and I realized like I did get a 980 on my SAT because I couldn't figure it out but I knew I could market and sell it I knew I could so again same model same formula I took it the idea to Coca-Cola the president of Coke's emerging Brands division um was friends with one of my customers at Marquis Jack he got me a meeting I pitched the meaning uh in the meeting I pitched this idea of coconut water he takes the liking to me but he says we don't buy PowerPoints or Coca-Cola we buy Brands he goes but if you partner with another company or something you know maybe we can then out that's out there that has proved that they can make the product ship the product get it in stores or whatever we'll come in we'll partner with you so I went to zico and that's how we formed the partnership during the meeting the um about a week before I was at um Matt Damon's house and Matt was also a customer of a marquee Jet and I did the things that I did for Josh koppelman with Matt and we became friends and I said to Matt you know he'd asked me if I wanted to spend the night they were going out and I said I'm going to Brazil in a day or two I can't see because what are you doing in Brazil I said I'm starting a coconut water business he's like you got to be kidding he's like I love coconut I have a coconut tree in my backyard he's like I drink he goes if anything happens what you know with this company let me know I may want to get involved a month later in the meeting at Coke like the meeting is going so bad I'm showing this PowerPoint you know like and out of nowhere like I know I had achieved the whole energy I just turned to the president the guy at cooking I'm like you know my partner Matt Damon and I and the guy that team is your partner I said I didn't mention that what are you talking about we go all the way to the one yard line I leave and I call man I'm like man I need a favor he's like I'm like can I come over with the cat can we climb up your tree get a coconut chop it open you know go in the kitchen put a straw in it you know um turn to the camera and say muttar mutar Kent the CEO of coke there's got to be a better way than this he's like all right and I filmed this he filmed this award-winning friggin 35 second short film of him getting a coconut chopping it open and saying there's got to be a better way and and we got the deal and the creek you know what's interesting about that is obviously Who's Gonna Get You know a mega star to come that's not the point it's it goes back to what I said um will you make it work putting yourself in a situation where you can get lucky here's the other pattern Sean you're talking about patterns and making me making yourself stand out and be memorable in a meeting now I stretched it a little with this one but but um but it ended up it ended up working out that's an amazing story that's amazing that's a good one I love that story I love that story you that's wild I like Coke bought it two years later 100 did you uh when you bought did you buy into zico at the time like did you uh was that like yeah and have you made bets that you felt like Financial bets that were risky like you know Elon does this thing where he sort of rolls all the proceeds into the next business and sort of re goes all in each time which is you know probably not advisable to most but like what's your strategy been now that you have some chips to play with do you do you make big Financial bets are you saying no no I'm going to add value strategically do you start things from scratch what do you what do you like to do with the chips that as you accumulate them how do you how have you used that to to your advantage well I realized that I've got as I've gotten older that more isn't better better is better and I really don't make a lot of bets I have four kids um what I'm most proud of Sean in my journey at 55 is that I've been I've I've exited five businesses but I've been able to keep build a family keep my health you know be a really good son to my parents um I have great friends so I really aren't I'm not uh and I'm not using Eli as an example you brought him up not me but I'm not trying to roll everything in or um I'm really proud of what I've been able to do and I'm really proud of the life that I built so I really don't I really say no to Mo I have this thing at this point in my life if it's high aggravation for high reward I'm not doing it if it's and that goes for anything money friends I don't want High aggravating friends I'm on friend reduction right now come on friend reduction Man follow a low aggravation you're doing layoffs you do Zoom calls so people let them know hey I'm sorry we had to make a reduction in in France yeah excuse me Mr David can you stop on my office there's a severance package three more times that's it we need to have a discussion that's correct that's so fun but I'm not trying to you know push you really it's like it's based on in food my enthusiasm for something um how's it going to impact my life meaning like day to day um I walked away from several ideas that I think could be really good because you're like just because you have a good idea it doesn't mean you should do it and I've um Sarah said that to me I had an idea now I see people doing it now about eight years ago I said Sarah I have an idea that's bigger than Marquee jet like Marquis jet was the biggest thing I've done you know and um I walked you through it and she goes that's an incredible idea don't do it what was it I wanted to take commercial this is going back eight years ago so now it might sound like oh well people are doing it now I actually pitched this to a major airline now um it's doing it but I wanted to make commercial travel feel like private travel for people I felt like there was a bit and there still is an opportunity for people that would pay up to fly commercial but they want an experience that's more private so for example if I'm flying from New York to California and I'm by myself and I'm on a global or a Gulf Stream and I'm going round trip that's an expensive flight man that is an expensive flight um where I could just buy a first class ticket for maybe 1500 bucks so instead of let's say that that flight cost me if you chartered it maybe it's gonna cost you let's just say fifty thousand dollars it might be more it might be I have no I don't even know today what it is but I could spend fifty thousand dollars on a private flight which is amazing or I could buy a first class ticket for 1500 bucks I as a fifteen hundred dollar ticket holder would gladly give you another fifteen hundred dollars United American Delta Frontier whoever if you could walk me through a back door and make me feel like Mick Jagger and escort me onto the airplane it through the bath door and um no one was doing it no one was doing it and now they are doing stuff like that and that's smart it's like you like unbundled the private experience it's like okay there's the jet part of it but then there's the walk-on to the plane walk off the plane okay because when once you get on an airplane do you really care yeah it doesn't matter I'm in 1A no one's bothering me in 1A and in some regard the commercial jet is safer you have more amenities so yeah like but I've been on a I flew first class uh from New York to LA one time for like some meeting I would I had never flown first class but I did it because I had was overnight and I had to be ready for a meeting and I get on I was 1A and one B are sitting right next to me with Stephen A Smith and I was like how the [ __ ] do you go to the plane before me and I like looked it up and apparently there is like a private door I guess if you're famous uh what what is that well I think now several Airlines have it and there's services that do it outside of the airlines as independent services but my point is so I had the idea but I also felt like I had the buy side that I could deliver to the airline because you know I'm involved with them with some NBA players and um I'm part owner of the Atlanta Hawks and I so I have I have and my friends are all doing really well that are they're all doing really well I thought we'd want to have this service so I had the idea and a significant part of the buy side to package together to an airline to bring private fires onto their Mothership which is the domestic part of their travel but um but anyway to answer your question so things like that good ideas lucrative but does but for me at that point in my life to put I'd be on I don't know if I have the energy to do it's going to take away from Tuesday's flag football game I'm not doing it and I don't know if I had that if I still have I don't I don't still have that well you you but you can't turn that switch off right because I saw you on Instagram like you know I don't know a year ago or six months ago or something like that and you were like pickles it's yeah you're like uh guys pickles and you know it seemed like you know the guy who was saying coconut water when nobody was talking about coconut water he's talking about pickles so me and me and Ben started paying attention we're like hey what's Jesse it's done with Pickles well okay he's kind of right yeah no Brandon pickle and so describe this pickles opportunity that you see now currently this is present day now right we're done with the past now we're talking present and future um what do you see in the pickle market well like 245 million Americans eat pickles every year it's like 75 of our population eat pickles and again it goes back to the to our running conversation I'm starting to see at races pickles at the con at the at the aid stations they never existed 10 years ago pickle juice never existed 10 years ago at at the aid stations of marathons and your local files yeah so that made my intention was that it has a lot of salt in it when I grew up all my black friends would say that they would drink pickle juice in order to avoid a hangover oh yeah in Russia it's a it's a you know it's a big remedy for hangovers but my point is like it put my antennas up but what is this you know just like when I saw the first thing of coconut water on the Shelf of like what the hell is this I just ran 100 I'm gonna so so I started doing so I started thinking about it and I'm like you know what I can't even name three pickle companies and I I love pickles I don't even know by the way this is the part where he's gonna bring in a focus group of 10 people and he's gonna say okay they have a pickle company and nobody could do it and he's gonna be like that's the business plan well listen so I I researched like the seven best tasting pickles and of the seven best tasting pickles I think it was like uh The Today Show did something you know it's like it's like someone incredible did it um I only knew one cup one of the companies so I'm like if I only known one of this top seven best tasting pickles there's a problem in the marketing of pickles it's a marketing problem and I'm a good marketer so in it that's where it started and I'm like this is a category with no innovation no fun you know 75 percent of Americans eat pickles the average American eats like 10 pounds a year that's more than cereal and I'm like I like it here I like this space I'm a pickle guy too Jesse saying is it Clawson like the big brand is that right I like Clawson I like Mount Olive is it called a valsik or Vlasic I like that company but I think Mount olives is the biggest ones I always get the little ones that look like a witch's toe are you wearing a metal out of the pickle shirt I'm convinced in fact we're texting Mr Beast right now we're we're gonna come into this Market too you you just made a mistake my friend you're we're bringing our our influencers into this Market I I believe you on this opportunity why do that let's just let's get the beast on the phone let's party with the beast beast pickles that's right that's right who thinks about David yeah where's David I need it go get Ben Affleck he seems like a good pickle guy I need to talk about Feast is low aggravation though I only want a low aggravation yeah well I don't know about that one Mount Olive does uh 220 million in Revenue a year privately owned that sounds it sounds doable man sounds like our money right guys yeah yeah I want to thank them very much for holding it for us yeah shoot a text over the CEO of all of them to keep that money warm for us all right we'll be there soon what other ideas you got because I I told you I was saying you know uh you'll get this because you know you're uh you know you're a rap guy when you go on certain shows like The Breakfast Club or sway in the morning there's like an expectation like okay if you come out here you gotta freestyle and we're trying to do that of the business realm where it's like you come out here you got to bring fresh ideas you can't just only talk about your history and you go you tell me you go I got 50 ideas in my top drawer that's all right say no more but you hinted at me by the way uh the the pickle names sound like a rap name sweet gherkin bread and butter kosher dill like this these are all rap names man yeah yeah we're about to have this pickles um all right tell me tell me about this idea you gave me three words I don't know what the idea is but you said ready-made eight ounce drinks what you got in mind yeah so I mean I I've been accumulating ideas in my in my top drawer for 35 years um I love starting thems Sean you know but um yeah that I mean I don't I don't mind by the way if you guys want to rub anyone wants to run with this you can I'll take a one penny royalty I'll give it to charity um you know I think like I go back to Five Hour Energy the brilliest of Five Hour Energy is they took a you know 12 ounce uh energy drink they Shrugged it down to two and a half ounces right that's what five RNG was and why did it work they they only I believe I believe they only are predominantly sold stores that would put it on the countertop when they started out so like it wasn't buried at GNC on the bottom shelf and it was like on the countertop at checkout impulse Buy they were selling 10 million two and a half bottle ounce bottles every week 10 million when I look at when you look around retail at the counter at checkout of retail the countertop is incredibly crowded and if you go to Whole Foods there's gum there's mints there's this there's that there's chocolates Everywhere You Go gas stations there's lottery tickets and then that the only place that I found like where there's open area or liquor stores if you go into a liquor store you don't see the the the the the the self stink you know the stands and the crowded space and all the tchotchkes and stuff that you see at gas stations and at grocery and and other retailers and um I think there's a tremendous opportunity I was gonna call them quickies um to have like ready-made shots same thing as as five like of you lemon drop whatever your favorite Kamikaze ready-made drinks are right at the countertop that are already made fresh ingredients you know where people could just come and grab and go and have a ready-made cocktail that they can bring to tailgates parties Etc I'm not saying it's gonna it's gonna be a great Goose vodka but I see an opportunity and if not that someone should go make a deal and and in a very fragmented okay now you got me thinking Sean now I'm like this wasn't even on my radar here we go it's like the freestyling stuff you were talking about I was playing with that um really even a better idea would be to go liquor stores are that is the most fragmented Market out there they're all Mom and Pops there's no like chain of liquor I mean like you know you go to your local liquor stores like the guy my neighbor owns a liquor store I go there and I get the wine and this and that do a roll up go pay someone for go rent the countertops of all the liquor stores and then go to Nabisco or one of the big boys and be like hey guess what I want ten thousand countertops you want to put your widget there you want to put your [ __ ] widget there keep the money yeah keep the money [Laughter] I love it yeah probably we could probably talk for 15 minutes about the opportunity and come up with 10 ideas around that you know that's where it starts it starts with just like bad idea or better idea the idea exactly exactly uh you're kind of like I think the background of rap I'm not I'm not joking about this I think the the way the brain can sort of like not censor itself and wait till it has a fully formed perfect idea but actually just start to go and then know that oh I'm gonna hop from this to this to this or this and there yeah that'll be the line and that's all I need to do is get to that one that one line I'm gonna show you this too this is this is something I'm selling now this is I don't know are we on are we still on YouTube no or video video This Is by 2024 all planned out this is next year fully almost fully baked what my year looks like my race is what's orange there's a lot of orange on that what does orange stand for orange orange are so when Sarah sold spanked she wanted to do a lot of traveling so this year we committed as a family to go on the road so all the orange as crazy as this looks is all travel wow we're going to Africa we're going to New Zealand but it's all mapped out yellow what's it what's yellow and what's what's green or blue whatever that is yellow on my races and events green is my speaking uh Green is oh birthday is this stuff this thing's dope not blue I wanted to ask you about this because you are super legit as far as like what you've actually been able to accomplish your level of success and you do stuff like this you have like the big ass calendar club or whatever it's like that thing is called big-ass camera that's a product you make it's like a course you have and um I've always surprised that you're doing those things and you know what what's your thought process on like or the running club or the running club like how do you pick projects yeah I mean I think this goes back to the earlier question you asked me about reinvesting in other businesses and stuff like that um how old are you guys how old are you Stan 34. I'm 35. so I got I got two decades on you guys um and but I got I got the most experiential decades I believe on you guys if the 40s and 50s 30s 40s 50s um you know for me there's I'm in a coaching space you know um um I speak a lot I have coaching programs the calendar but even the events that I do the running races and this kind of stuff it all has an element of getting people to do more than they thought to inspire people to do more than they thought they could but but to answer your question and the reason why I just said that is um the gal works with us in our family office was looking at all the businesses and um and asking me like I don't have a sales rep on my payroll I don't I'm not going crazy on the marketing and this and that and it's really word of mouth and she looked at the numbers and she's like you know do you want to scale this and what are you doing why don't you just go do the liquor idea or the airplane idea or this idea or that idea or any of the ideas in your draw and I pulled out my phone and I said Kendall all these are from today all of these messages are for today pick one read it I said I can't and it was like you changed my life or this has really inspired me or you you know I did this or I saw my parents I haven't seen my parents in a long time and you know I talk about the importance of that very often you know about not losing sight of what you already have while you're chasing your entrepreneurial dream your health your family your friends there's no business in the world that would give me the return on investment that I'm getting right now there's nothing I could do what build another Marquee jet work 20 hour days I mean like that's not going to give me that sense of impact Legacy for my kids um and just the feeling quite honestly that I have I mean like it's Indescribable a wire is a wire you get the wire and it's like the same feeling you get when when you sell a business is the same feeling you get when you finish the marathon you walk an old lady across the street or you do anything that makes you feel good about yourself I swear to God and I have the right to say that because I sold five of them I have the right to say that it's the same feeling and for the for for very very for a lot of people chasing that waiting 20 years to sell a business or something to have that feeling when I feel like I get that every single day and that's a really powerful place to be in your life at 55. and and that's the reason man and and so you're right I have these businesses and you know there's no real plan around them people like what you would I don't I don't know I'm just enjoying how it's making me feel right now and what's wrong with that I got a scale just to scale because everyone told me I had to scale I don't want to do that man right I did that so a question that we like to ask people is it's a really simple question but we we learn a lot which is like what do you do with your money so like you have a really interesting lifestyle I agree with you I'm not I don't like the Elon Musk path of uh all these sacrifices and uh um doing things for the sake of humanity I'm like I'd rather have a fun life and you have a really sick life I mean I I I'm I'm a former College athlete Runner so I I like watching what you're doing um and I like to work out and do these podcasts and have a lot more fun than just work what do you do with your money um and um when you're financing it this are you just are you using your speaking fees to finance it and then you have your Marquee jet money in just one big account in the in the markets how's your portfolio set up and what are you doing with your money we'll just you know it's um I don't know man like we we never really think about it that much I know it's I don't want to belittle it or sound in any way a noxious in fact I'm incredibly grateful but like it goes back to the relationship with money from the beginning of the conversation um we're not trying to triple it or quadruple our money like we don't really think about it it's like it's spread out strategically and we live our life what's your monthly burn I mean what what does one need to spend uh per month to do that I like to ride my bike I like to run I like to swim I like to speak in public I like to be around my family and friends what whatever that cost me Sam is what I'm gonna spend on it how's that for an answer yes ma'am uh I want to ask you about something that you have talked about that I really liked which is uh around your life philosophy so you have a few of these that have made an impact on me you um I don't know where I saw some Tick Tock clip or something you were talking about like this three minute daily thing you go three minutes and I forgot exactly how you phrase it but it was like you go I I can Network in three minutes right I I can I can invest in my friends my my network in in just three minutes a day and I'm always interested in anything that's like you know six minute abs I I I tend to be interested in the like you know shorter time frame type things and you go compliments what was the other ones you go compliments um complimenting congratulating explain that that philosophy because I've been doing that now where I I basically go through my text list and I'm like who's somebody I could compliment boom send it out and they love it because they're like uh you know I'm thinking of them we haven't talked in a little while it's really simple for me to do this is like kind of like a actually like a very effective little tip I want you to share with here well in my 20s I didn't have a way to to I had no I was really on it super tight budget I was writing 10 handwritten letters I went a year not every single day but pretty much writing about 10 handwritten letters a day and that was my entire marketing strategy and I realized that you know it's a great way to get through the Clutter of email DMS so you know all this stuff because a lot of people don't check their emails or their assistant does or whatever but everyone reads a handwritten letter so I the three minutes a day is you know I had sent the text you mentioned the K Academy Coach K I sent a uh fluent to Carolina um not too long ago and I said coach a text thanking him for having the event and I said you don't need to respond I just want to let you know like it makes me feel like an eight-year-old for five days a year I want to thank you for for doing this I know you'd have to do it and it took and like I realized like he might share that with his team like we're having an impact like look at look at this note or tell his wife he might do nothing but now if I see Coach K I have permission to go over them and say coach I send you a text like I don't know if you got it but like I have that permission to do it I'm not coming out of left field like oh hey coach you know like well you just so that took me 45 seconds to hit send write it and it's then so I was like okay if I did three of those a day and just took three minutes and just started hitting friends suppliers manufacturers inflict whatever over the course of a year often that thousand I will plant a thousand permission slips all over the country and world three minutes a day so in carpool line when I take my kids to school or pick them up I just fire off a couple of emails or call them or whatever so that was that theory the compliment congratulated consoling is really just kind of three things that I I like to to remind myself to do to maintain and build authentic relationships authentic relationships not relationships authentic relationships so for example if you have somebody in your life that's grieving and you'd all reach out to them and you guys are young but you'll see in the next 10 years friends will start to get diagnosed with stuff parents grandparents are going to pass away like your life's Gonna Change man if you have someone that's grieving and you don't reach out to them they will never forget it build a nip oh you can't human nature you can't even help but take inventory who reached out and who did you're just aware I just lost my father I know everybody that called me I know everybody that didn't call me and the people that didn't call me don't get a pass they don't get a pass so you always want to consult the people that you know something happens to a friend in your life that's great you want to congratulate them you know and then you want to compliment you know Sean man Sam listen you guys have an amazing podcast you did it yourself you know you guys decided to like sold some businesses and here you are you know bringing on aspiring people to inspire entrepreneurs all over the world and um I just want to congratulate you on your success man I'm not you know I you just call someone out of nowhere your default to calls or texts either way I just think I personally like handwritten letters here's one um because I feel like the intent it takes a little longer but to actually get a stamp lick it go to the mailbox put it in the mailbox it's received completely different than just sent but you know so by like in the pecking order but you don't have the ability to do that it takes too long but at the end of the year I do like to write 25 to 50 handwritten thank you letters every year I have a whole closeout the year process that I kind of teach people but like and that's one of them you know but you compliment you graduating console and you do that to people and like if I say I'm if I hit you up God forbid you had something bad and and I don't even know I just met you for the first time other than the question about how my birth rate I love you so if I if I were to follow you up after one meeting and say stand man I heard about XYZ man I'm so sorry that happened to you and then four months later I'll call you up and say sam and you guys just hit 5 million downloads a day congratulations man and then I call you up against the end of the year I said Sam I just want to let you know man that question you asked me about about my burn rate you know I would rethought it and I want to compliment you because you ask the tough questions and you know what that's the seat that you're in and I give you credit for asking questions like that to people on the other end and I really admire you for that I do those three things in that year you're going to think differently about oh you'll be his hero you'll be all of our heroes to be honest with you that'd be incredible all right well Dad Sean you laugh about that when we're laughing about it but let me ask you a question who doesn't want to be a hero you're right who doesn't want to be here we like if you tell me I don't have to run into a building and save save someone I can just do that and I could be a quote unquote hero like you know what I built my career doing that well so this is about relationships you also have others about skill Building Life Experiences explain some of your other kind of Life rules because I think these are really worth sharing you know people I think will be entertained and inspired by the business stories but my hope is that that actually was just buying the right to drop a little wisdom on them at the end here because this is the stuff I've liked the most from you from your story um so so tell talk about you know the sort of musogi or the the Kevin's rule like these are pretty foundational yeah well that goes into kind of the planning that I showed you on the calendar and um I really do do two or three things every year um at the beginning of the year this is actually perfect timing I don't know when this is going to air but like November December when you look into 2024 or the next year I try to have one big year defining thing on my calendar every year last year was my bike ride across America 2015 it was living with the seal the book I wrote 2017 I lived on a monastery 2016 or something I started 29 or 29 this company with my partner so there's an old Japanese ritual called them a sogi and we took the liberty to kind of create our own version of what that means but basically it means that every year you do one or the way I've interpreted it is you do one big year defining thing and you had you should have something to show for it every year by the way if you're 35 years old I don't I don't just rounding up here um and you live to be 85 so you have that would be 50 year defining things between now and the end of year and the end of your run that you have on your life resume that's pretty damn incredible the second thing I do is something I call Kevin's rule named after my friend Kevin um which is every other weekend I do something I normally wouldn't have done it's like instead of watching like a George the Georgia football game I might take my kids fishing I might go to a conference I might you know um watch spend a couple hours learning something I didn't know um I coined at Kevin's rule because Kevin and I were camping in Mount Washington with our kids and it was like I go cab there's eight it's like the winter it's snowing we're sleeping outside in a minus sporty sleeping bag minus 20 sleeping bag I'm like cat there's eight billion people in the world man it's only us on this mountain you know it how often do you do this because he invited me he's like oh every other week he's a police officer I do so every other month I do something I normally went to done I'm like what do you mean he's like so at the end of the year I got six mini Adventures if you're 35 and you live to be 55 and you have six mini Adventures that's 300 mini adventures and 30 50 I'm sorry 50-year defining things you're musogi and 300 mini Adventures Sean I don't care how much money you have or how little money you have at the end of your run if I go to you and you're 85 years old on your deathbed and you're like Jesse man thank you I took your advice listening to my podcast and I now have 50 unbelievable Adventures I've done the Grand Canyon I've taken my family and I have 300 Many Adventures that I've done and by the way it only took six days of the 365 days of the year seven days of the 365 days of the year it's a two percent is that two percent six percent what is that you have a rule here we don't do public math so don't worry you're off the hook okay there we go [Laughter] that's a great rut that's a great run have you ever hung out with Rob Dyrdek you guys are really similar we had him on um and I I think I've said publicly he's one of my favorite people uh and you have the similar quality where you just have a framework and you know what you like and you stick to it and you're really intentional and I appreciate it on your terms which is what I think the highest calling thing we respect on the Pod is somebody who defines their own terms and then lives on them even if you don't even if somebody doesn't even successful people don't do that like even people who are wealthy they're like I [ __ ] hate my life because I'm tied to this job that I actually don't like doing and you're a great example you're you're you're your definition tends to be exciting and awesome because you're doing all these Adventures but it doesn't matter what your your definition of of like your framework is you've done a cool job of defining it and sticking with it and I appreciate that well one cool thing that's different is Rob's is all about maximizing he's like efficiency how much how do I use my time how do I allocate it and how do I get the most done in that time whereas I feel like just sees almost like it's a different relationship with time it's like how do I have the maximum number of of incredible experiences um and amazing relationships and moments whether that moment took five seconds or you know five days or five weeks it doesn't really matter it's like maximizing kind of like squeezing the juice out of out of the fruit you know versus versus uh you know trying to optimize every moment in in a generation of hustle and grind which is so obvious no [ __ ] you gotta work hard that message gets lost and you don't want to give up your 20s and your 30s and your 40s and certainly not your 50s if you can avoid it just grinding and chasing something that you can get the same feeling doing something else well we feel lucky for having having you on uh very early on on the podcast Sam introduced me to a guy Mike Brown and he said one line on the Pod that changed my life he goes uh he goes yeah my theory of life is find the people that you love and then do life with them and I just thought oh if there's a North star for me like that's the new North Star you know maybe something maybe something more wise will come take its place but that's it and uh that's the pie [Music]