Jesse is there is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met hands down. I got to spend some time with him in Poland when I went on that whim Hof experience and really there was the Wim Hof experience and then there was the sitting on the couch with Jesse itzler experience, which was just as phenomenal in many ways. He has so many stories from his wild successes as an entrepreneur. He's a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks. He's written a few best-selling books and he just has a ton of wisdom to share so I know you guys are really going to
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Mr. Marcus
Jesse great to see you man. Great to see you too, brother. Have you
been I'm doing good. I miss I miss your leadership your cold your guidance,
you know, all of that. I dropped into some breath work today. Have you been keeping up with it?
Inconsistently? Yes. Yeah, you know, it's it's on my list of things that I definitely want to do every day, but actually doing them every day is challenging.
Mmm.
Yeah, it's interesting. It's there's so many options for people like us like we have so many things we could do and then trying to figure out what the priority is for that day. Exactly really just like listening but it seems like every time I choose breathwork. It's the right
choice. I feel great afterwards and it's you know, it's not a it's not a big time commitment for me. It's you know, when you're holding your breath for 8 minutes like you it's a whole different you got to carve out more time, but for me, it's not a huge time commitment 15 minutes to go through my routine.
So I there's no excuse to it. Yeah.
So for those of you listening Jesse and I were part of a crew then went to go see with off and Poland if you haven't followed my social media heard me talk about it before which is just a phenomenal experience and a bunch of amazing humans and I think really the beauty of it Beyond just the breathing which is incredible and Beyond the cold was going through a transformative practice with people that came in as friends and left is like true Brothers, you know.
And that's that's something as fucking special.
We and what's bad what's even more incredible is we didn't even really come in as as friends. We were social media acquaintances, but we had never met or spoke in person and of the 10 guys on the trip 9 or 10 guys really only knew three or four in person. So it's challenging when you go and you're with a group of people you never it's intimidating, you know people you never met and you have to spend a week together in a foreign country in stressful, you know, potentially
Stressful situation, but if you make it you come out so body. So I'm so psyched to see you man. I'm glad you're doing great and thanks for having
me likewise man. I've been really we had just the best chats. I mean you think about the peak experiences, but some of the just the regular experience is just sitting on the couch just bullshit and into drinking tea and hanging out after after a day of breathing and freezing and that was that was some of the highlights. I've been looking forward to doing this ever since then.
Yeah. They were like 10,000
T-shirts that could have been born from that trip there were so many one-liners, you know, like you have that I'm not impressed line all these different sides became that could live on a t-shirt that stick with you.
Yeah, we're gonna head Nick we got had nicknames on our t-shirts here. It could have been
jerseys.
Yeah. Well man, I want to get into some of your story a little bit because it's like really incredible everything and the wide gamut of things that you've accomplished but
You know, really probably the first thing that people are tracking is you were you're a musician you are a rapper. Yes. That's that's kind of where it started right was far as like, but where would you wear would you mark the start of we're kind of you know, you started to forge your path and and who you are now.
Well, that was definitely a big part turning point in my life. I grew up in New York in Long Island in the 80s, right when hip-hop started to emerge. I was you know, I lived in a community where
Is fortunate enough to be surrounded by all different walks of life and I got it, you know into that early on but I would say even before that. You know, I watched my dad go to work six days a week, you know the plumbing supply house in Mineola Long Island, and you know all I had to guess if Audrey of having my parents together my entire childhood and my adult life they've been married for 65 plus years and you know, so I was in a very warm and
couraging environment my parents always praised effort more than results. So I was like, yeah, I was constantly encouraged to try different things and not be scared of the outcome. As long as I gave it my all so my journey started early on with those gifts for my parents, but really my first entree into the real world and rejection and disappointment and success and trial and error and all that was in the music business, you know, which I got
Right after college,
it was funny. I was listening to some you put some flows out, you know, just some spoken word a drop some bars. You put it out in social media and I was like damn he's really fucking good at that like really good at that. I was just that I was just in the office with Ryan who works on my podcast and he starts playing me shake it like a white girl. Who's like, this is Jesse and I was like,
oh shit, that's Jesse
unreal, you know, so I didn't I didn't even know that you had you know, that kind of musical background.
Until I kind of looked into it and it's pretty you know that you did. Well, I mean you crack crack the top, you know, the Billboard top 100. You want to fucking you want a fucking Emmy.
I did I want to sport a Sandy, you know my only goal when I started out was to get a record deal. That's all that I was. Like. I just I never had a resume on my roommates in college. We're making resumes and sending them out. I'm like, I don't need to rest but I need a resume to get a record deal for so that was my only goal. And then when I
Get my record deal and I got rejected from probably 15 labels. And before I actually got signed to a company called delicious vinyl. I made a classic error and I didn't reset my goal. So that that was it like once I didn't set a stepping on the gas and taking advantage of the opportunity. I celebrated it, you know, and I was like man, that's my only goal and I took my foot off the gas pedal and after a year, I ended up getting dropped from the label and having to go back to like, whoa my
God I don't have a resume. The only thing I've ever done in my life has been a kiddie pool attendant and now a rapper like how is that going to get me a job? So I made a classic mistake of you know, not resetting my goal and there was a big lesson in that early on and that lesson was like if I get a win a sale any kind of momentum, I'm going to accelerate and step on the gas pedal. So, you know, what was the big failure for me and an embarrassment? I got thrown off the light.
Dropped from the label ended up being a really great gift in my 20s 30s and 40s.
When can do you have another example of you know, you talked about as Ryan not Ryan holiday. Robert Greene would say a transgression of the law. Like one of the laws is you accomplish your goal. You don't take your foot off the gas if that's in Jesse it lose law its there's laws of business and life. That was a transgression. That was where you learned the law. Where was a where wasn't it adherence to the law. Where did you do it, right?
Where did you accomplish a big goal and then just keep going and how is that different?
Well, first of all, I made a promise to myself to not negotiate my goals. So I never you know, getting a record deal was a huge huge goal that I could easily have been like. Oh my God, this is like, how could I I can't handle any more rejection, but I really try not to negotiate my goals years later. I wrote a book called living with the seal and I went to 11 Publishers and they all rejected it and
A small publisher called Center Street picked it up literally the 12th and last stop. I don't even know what a self-published it otherwise and it became end up becoming a best-seller. So that's an example of again sticking to like or I like to go to the end of the movie in my head. You know, like if I'm running a marathon I envisioned myself going through the finish line and then I just reverse engineer it, you know, I fill it. I fill it I fill in the blanks until I get to the end of the movie and sometimes that Platt changes in
The script changes but I really try to keep the end of the movie in this case. It was a book deal. And then once that happened I was like, okay now I gotta write a best-seller because you know, you know this and I don't want to sound come off the wrong way at all but as you get a little bit older and I'm turning I'm going to be 52, it's real. It's I think it's really important to have super high standards. I don't want to write a book. I want to write a best-seller. I don't want to give a speech man. I want to be the highest rated speaker at the series.
I don't want to be a dad. I want to be the best dad, you know, so once I got that an example was once I got the book deal. I must have ripped up the lift up the manuscript 80 times before I hand it in because I wanted it to be like a going back to my parents lesson. I wanted to be graded on my effort and I didn't want to shortchange myself in an opportunity that I probably would never get again. So that's an example of taking all the tools and wrapping them into a final.
A product that I was proud of that I was proud of my effort. I didn't cut Corners. I didn't go she ate my goals and now I put it out now that starts the next Journey which is now I got to step on the gas on the marketing side. Right and but that's at least the chapter of of getting the deal putting the content out is done
and then you ended up writing another book which is another way that you're stepping on the gas. I mean if your goal was to write a best-selling book you did it and then it's like, okay, there's another
On you know,
yeah, I forgot how much energy it takes to write a book. It was exhausting especially the second one that's challenges.
Yeah, I can think I had a in the breath work today. I had a vision of myself, you know when the book comes out and I'm on the book tour and everything and I remember with own the day my first book that I was able to look at it and know that there was not a single moment where I cut any Corners where I could have done more and I didn't you know, every I bled.
Ed every bit of blood that I could every bit of sweat that I could to make that and there was a satisfaction in that was far more important than whether I was a best-seller whether the book did well I knew that I absolutely tried my hardest and did my best and I was looking at that and there's been a lot of amazing things happening for me so far in quarantine in the last five months where I should have been slaving over the book but have been kind of casually working on. I mean not casually I've been working on it but not at the level of fervor and level.
Intensity that I think I'm really drawn to and I can see myself holding the book and the only thing that mattered was if I could hold that book and know that I gave it fucking everything and if I couldn't do that, it would be hell and if I could do that, I would be good
and it challenges you because when you think you're done you'll like em, I done could I make this better and and and that's the difference between, you know, an amazing result or sometimes just a good result. But you know you touched on something that I think is really important.
I'm a Serial entrepreneur. I've had multiple businesses in multiple different Industries and the main ingredient or one of the main ingredients that I think is underrated and it doesn't just apply to business. I think it applies to being a friend being a parent being a son or a daughter that that that people don't talk about and you just mentioned it about your book is soul and business great businesses great relationships are built on soul.
What we had in Poland. Yes, it was an amazing journey, but the relationships were built on the soul that we put into that week and you know, I put my soul into that book and I think that the consumers and customers the general public were smart. You know, they I just don't think you can have longevity around creativity and building something without putting your soul into it. And I think there's an energy and
are attached to that that you can't fake and I think people can actually feel it in a product. I believe that and you know, I got a 980 on my SAT man. I built my company's on Soul not nothing. We know more behind it. But as a main ingredient, I always LED with soul. Yeah, that's that's a
really good point and it's it's almost it's almost gets metaphysical but it's not because there's subtle little ways that we can pick up on these cues.
But maybe it maybe it just is a little bit. Maybe there is an energetic exchange when you pour something into a company a brand of product, you know a relationship anything. It's a makes more sense for the relationship. But even a tangible object like there's a little signatures. Maybe it's a design detail that you caught at the last minute that would have flag someone who's paying attentions, I or a word that was out of place or something like it, but if you really put it in there people can tell man
even for the recipient think of this if I wrote you an email as the hey
Hope everything is cool man. Thinking about you. Love your brother. And I hit send that's amazing. If I write a handwritten letter with the exact same thing. Hey off thinking about you. You know now think about this. I have to get a stamp piece of paper write the write the letter fold it lick the envelope put a stamp on it take it to the mailbox mail it to you. Like there's an energy behind that. I'm not saying scalable or efficient, but the recipient think of how you feel when you get a handwritten letter versus an email.
The same exact words, but the energy is different. Yeah. Yeah,
and especially if it's someone you know, I think it's it's almost like a gift of your service to do it beyond the words, you know, it's like I matter enough that they are going to inconvenience themselves to do this and it you know, if that's a relationship you care about it's it's beautiful, you know, I mean, I always in my relationships and I'm just in a beautiful
What I'm just recently engaged and you know, I love after she falls asleep. You didn't know that you didn't hear the word. Oh man. Lots of things have happened my
brother. Tell me congratulations man.
Thank you. Thank you. It's a it's a total fairytale. I mean, it's it's unbelievable. I've known her for four years. We find, you know, we were finally in a place for both of us or transitioning out of our relationships and we were free to explore what was between us and as soon as we did it just clicked in a way that I've never been.
More sure about anything in my whole life like never been more sure, you know,
so I makes me unbelievably happy man.
Congratulations, but thank you brother. Thank you. It's a beautiful thing. I we haven't announced it to everybody. Yeah, but I can't help but talk about it because I just talk about what's present for me in my life. But that's going to come out soon. We'll probably do a podcast and you know the world to get to meet her. She's just such an amazing woman good for you. Thank you, man. Thank you. Yeah, what I was going to say is, you know.
Audrey I'm 11 years in so if you have any
tips, I'm sure man. I'm sure I'm
sure and I wasn't this great before
marriage. Well, I'm like I'm like seven weeks in so I'm I'm still I'm still it's pretty easy so far, you know, it's all it's all just magical, you know, every every bit of the way but you know, one of the things I love doing is when she falls asleep early all writer a little note or a little poem and I'll leave it out by the bedside.
And just so that she can wake up and even she wakes up a little earlier than me. She'll see it see this note and you know finding little ways to do those gestures just makes a fucking big difference like the whole day like we've had I did that last night in our whole day. So far has been amazing because it just puts you in this framework of I'm happy that I gave it to her and I'm excited for her to read it. She's happy to receive it. And then you just Foster. It's like starting the turbine of the lawnmower of love and excitement the right way first.
First it's like writing and then you're gone off and you're fucking going for the day.
I love that but first of all, you're making us all look bad. I got to make sure that my wife's at mascara this podcast. We're going to skip this one, but that's great. It is true man. It sets it sets a tone and marriage is you know, it's they always say it's the most important decision, you know, one of the most important decisions you'll ever make but it should be the easiest.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean in this case it certainly
Has been like I said, like it's a knowing that it's dhensby on choosing. I've tried with my mind to make things work and tried to place that bet and I've given Rings before never gotten married. Do you
know how long your fiance can hold her breath for under water? Submersion a nice I
Seco. I gotta be better than hurt some things. Yeah. I got I gotta hold this down. I've
got a qualification, you know you put test
When I first date was Sarah my wife I took her to a illegally hot Russian sauna in New York City and they Jack they reject the saunas. It's like 205 degrees state law is 185 and you go in there and they actually give you a paper bathing suit and women come in they cover their top but their hands and after you can't take it anymore you tap out they whisk you out and then they put you under a hose and they pulled up the lever and glacier.
Water comes on your hand was on that was our first date. It's led to marriage so I can only imagine what's going on in that house.
Yeah, no doubt. I mean as while we were friends even I mean we've done Ayahuasca together what you been together all the plants and we've Kobe cold plunge together and we breathe together and we've done all of those experiences. So like a lot of the a lot of the work to kind of get to know somebody was done as friends and then we I was curious about it and I think she was too weird.
Curious about what it would be like if we kind of took the gloves off and were able to like be intimate and as soon as that happened like oh shit, like this is everything we could ever hope to more so it's just cool out happened. Thank you man. I appreciate that. So I'm going to talk about one other aspect. I read a post that you made about taking a pretty aggressive bet on buying some Yankees seats when you're a young like this was still you're still in the music business at this point.
It and and like you talked about the ROI on that bet. So if you could tell the listeners a bit about that story, I think it was one of the favorite things I've read in a long time.
Well, I was at the time I was I got dropped from my record label, but I started writing theme songs for professional sports teams. Jingles basically has a jingle writer and that led to be making CDs team compilation CDs. So for example for the New York Yankees, I would write a song for them and then we would
License songs that they play in the arena and take Great Moments the team history and we would sell them that was my business and I went to actually pitch the New York Yankees on an idea for a CD, you know if they wanted to be part of this this is what I was selling and when I was leaving the meeting to see him over said and I must have been like I don't know 25 or 26 years old at the time. He said hey, we got a if you're interested we have for front-row tickets.
That just opened up are called Legend seats. They were built out for the World Series a year ago. There's only 30 of them. They're actually built on the field. They were built for the commissioner and the lead sponsors for the World Series and someone just backed out right next to a deed as which is the title sponsor of the whole venue and he says they're going to go quick but if you want them you'll have them and you can have them for life. And you know, like I said, there's only 30 of them. So I said well how much are they so the tickets were roughly at?
$1,000 of four seats were 4,000 a game times 80. What is it? 81 home games. So 862 $320,000. I had maybe less than $10,000, you know to my name definitely less than 10,000 hours made our entire company have like maybe thirty thousand dollars in our account and these tickets were 300,000 and my partner was like no way and I said to the guy when I was leaving I said, you know Derek limb.
Give me an hour to think about this and then I called them back and I took the tickets. I left the invoice on my partner's desk and I said we're proud owners of front row seats at Yankee Stadium and here's why.
I knew first of all, I believe that we would anyone could go to a restaurant or entertain people at a show but there was only 30 of these and you can never get these tickets to I said well have them for Life. I'll be able to build memories with my family and my kids one day down the road and three, I believe that it would pay itself back tenfold through customers clients using it at to prospect Etc. So we bought the tickets. I ended up borrowing the money from a friend.
The mind and then a year later the plan came to be and I took Jay Z to a game with his partner o G1 and we ended up splitting the seats with Jay for several years and a year after that. I close. I sold my business in those seats to company called sfx and one of the reasons why they put the company they wanted to seats. Yeah and their Network. So it was a combination of
I always say you put yourself in a position where you can attract luck, you know, you have to create your own luck and we got a little bit lucky and I would not recommend anyone go into debt, you know, but I had a calculated plan to monetize these seats through entertainment through customer relations Etc. And I always knew I could offload them. You know, once I had them I could I could offload some of the seats or split them up. So as a young kid, and I had those tickets for 10 years and it's been a great.
By the way, I did the same thing with the Knicks a couple of years later and I still have those tickets. So, you know for me it was it was a big part of a big part of my journey again 980 on the SAT was I was always the business plan people were betting on me. They were betting on my partner. They weren't betting on my widget or my product. They were betting that we would deliver whatever it was. We were selling at this time. It was music that it was private jets then it was coconut water and you know, it's gone and on and on.
And I needed that kind of ammo, you know because I'm best in that in that environment. So that's what happened.
Whether it's lifestyle or environmental causes. It is really difficult for a man to maintain optimal levels of testosterone in this estrogen eyes world and there's been a lot of correlations two different types of plastics different type of things that are in our food supply our water supply environmental causes. I
And then perhaps even lifestyle causes. So there's a lot of things that you can do naturally but there's also a lot of things that you can do with the help of bioidentical hormone replacement. But the starting point is just to check out your testosterone, you know, figure out if you're having issues psychologically or physically in any aspect whether it might be because your testosterone is super low and the best way to do that especially now in the quarantine era is just go to let's get checked. They're going to send you the test and you're going to be able to take the test.
Test without losing all of that blood and then ship it back and you're going to get a full readout that you can bring to any hormone replacement doctor or just have for your own information. Like damn is my testosterone law and that's a question that you would be able to answer. Like I know somebody who was absolutely resistant to any gains from working out like no matter what they did in the on it Jim. I was like, wow you were you were the only human being immuned on it workouts. And then of course they got their hormones checked in the testosterone was just absolutely
The floor and this was a hard-working guy who is out in his bar that he was running all the time not sleeping in his testosterone was just so low that he wasn't actually getting any of the benefits from the hard training that he was doing he got checked. He got on hormone replacement his whole life and especially his Fitness life has changed forever. So there can be a lot of value to this definitely check it out. So the company is called let's get checked, but go to try LG c.com Aubrey. That's T Ry L GC.
si.com / Aubrey or use the code word Aubry at cheka
It's so cool to just in such a Wise lesson to take a bet on yourself. You know, like you knew what your strength was and this is take like you said this is giving you a more this was making the biggest bet you could possibly make on yourself and I think it's rare that you regret that like, I mean I've bet on other companies before like, oh that's a cool idea and I've usually lost my ass if I'm not if I don't really know the people and I'm not involved. It's just betting on something randomly.
Owing some money in there, but I don't think I've ever regretted betting on myself really,
you know, I've always been a get get your foot in the door guy and figure the rest out later. I started a private jet company with no money and no airplanes and no Aviation background and we grew it to 5 billion dollars in sales, but the concept was the same, you know, if I can get this deal if we can make this happen. I was a kiddie pool attended four years before that. I went from kiddie pools to selling private jets.
And the fear of not knowing anything about the aviation industry not knowing and a lot of network of incredibly wealthy people to buy the airplanes and looking at the challenge ahead. If they would have said to me. Well, you need F dot Department of Transportation approval to start this company FAA approval. You're gonna have to raise money build the teen got to say I'll be like I was a kiddie pool attendant like what are you talking about? But when you when you take these things
You say you know it we'll wait a second somebody out here. My specialize in FAA approvals. Oh, there's a lawyer. Let me get that lawyer. Oh, that's done. Let me get the Department of Transportation guy that now and you just start to chop away and you kind of take these big tasks and break them down into small. What's the most important thing? I have to do first, you know, my wife always says make a product and sell it. It's that simple, you know, just make more of its Elmore of it. I've always tried and if I had the confidence that I could
Liver, and if I don't if my spider senses, that's one thing you have amazing spider senses. If your spider senses tell you does it feel right or usually you can trust your gut and the only way to be in tune with your gut is to spend time alone. And you're very in tune with your gut because you did you invest in that before there was marketing there was common sense, you know urine in your an intuitive guy. Your common sense is intact you spend time alone.
Loan you breathe you travel, you know you experiment so, you know, you probably I would I don't know this but I would bet that a lot of the moves you've made are calculated but also at the end of the day, you trust your instincts a hundred percent trust that you can navigate our time going to go whole I saw you do it. I saw you say, I'm gonna go hold my breath. I couldn't even last a minute. I wasn't even fully submerged you go all the way to the bottom of this ice and everything like it. I used tank.
Hole in the coldest water I've ever been in and hold your breath for three or four minutes, but you went into and you're like I'm going to do the very relaxed calm and you knew you could do something amazing that day for anyone that's listening in Poland. We went to this freezing cold when I say freezing cold. They took a bat and they crack the ice and took chunks of ice out and we sat in the water, but it will all be decided. He was going to go underwater holds his breath in this thing that
It'd make your head feel like you had a 11 711s Slurpees and had brain freeze and he stayed on the bottom and had a tea party with
himself before I think it was only two and a half but it was still it was still pretty fucking epic.
I've never seen anything like it man. I've never seen anything like it but there was a calmness to it and a confidence to it and that was no different than you know, so you apply these two different things and some of them are business some of our personal summer relationships, but you know,
We are both spent invest a lot in building up our gut instinct.
Yeah, I can I can say that pretty much every great success. I've had comes from one of those moments comes from one of those moments where I see it. I feel it. You know, I just feel that something is possible and and then I just back it because I believe that it still goes through the faculties of our perception the faculties of our mind all of these things are still in play. It's not like a direct Channel where you get some information still using the human being
but it's a part of our it's a part of our mind you think of like Savant syndrome which is classically shown in Rain Man right where he's the brain is calculating things that in a normal, you know, prefrontal cortex rational expression. You wouldn't be able to track things in exactly the way that you could if you tap into some other aspect of the mind and I think that's really what's happening. Like there's some part of us that's making a ton of micro calculations that if you tried to watch each one it would be too intricate to detail.
Just like what we were talking about. Like when you hand a product that you put your soul into there's little micro things. You wouldn't notice with the I way that the words are the way that the design is way that everything is but when it's there it's there and we just feel it and we feel that thing and I think that's what's going on.
The other thing I loved about that moment is, you know, I'm a big believer that if you have an opportunity to create a memory you take it because our window on this Earth is so short
You know the average American only lives be 78 80 years old. That means if I'm average only have 30 years left 30 Summers 27 Summers, you know, and as you get older, it's so hard to create newness in your life. We get built into our daily routines and then that makes life go really fast. So everyone like it's going so fast. I can't believe I'm 50. I'm 60. I'm 70. So you have to work hard on creating newness. Now, I can say that. I'm a little bit older and what I loved about that moment was you saw an opportunity?
The create a memory not just for you, but for everybody there and you didn't you didn't negotiate you didn't talk yourself out of it. You just said I'm going to go do this guy's and we all followed you out. You know, it's like it but it was like one of those moments man like, you know is great. But and then everybody did it, you know, like you set the tone and that's what I love most about it was like
There was no what could go wrong. It was just like you saw an opportunity to create this life memory and boom you did it a week later. He went to the blackout. Boom. You did it again. And I love that about you. You know, I love I love I'm drawn to people that live when I was growing up or be. This is interesting when I was young I slept on all these different couches 18 different friends put me up couch to couch the couch when I was trying to make it in the music business, you know bouncing around and I used to go
I finally got in the room with the big boys. I would sit there and I was like man this guy these guys are a hundred Millionaires and up, you know, it's sold their company to this company that I ultimately sold my company to I was in these meetings and I used to sit around and be like wow.
These guys are like Heroes to me. They're so wealthy and successful then in my 40s and 50s, you know, similar profiles appeared in my life. And I was like, whoa, this guy's just Rich, you know, he's just sitting behind a scream and if you letting stocks or whatever nothing wrong with that, but that was you know, 19 hours in front of a computer screen wasn't the kind of life. I wanted to live and you know, you start to have different definitions of success.
And my definition of success or one of them is being good in multiple buckets. You have a successful business, you know, I love you so much Miss. I got it. I got it beat you up a little but you're not now you're engaged you have a successful business. You have good friendships. You have a podcast to help people you care about like all the success is being good at a lot of different things not just having a lot of money or you know, and you mentioned Roi earlier on your return on investment in the tickets.
That I bought they come in a lot of different ways and the biggest return on investment with those tickets wasn't okay. Yeah, great. I built this amazing relationship with Jay at the time, you know, we ended up doing his concert tour on our private jets the tickets again the magic of the tickets, but the biggest auro auro I was the experiences that I had there with my friends and now my kids at these games and also Roi comes up in many different ways and you have to take the
The chance and say I'm going to try this I'm going to experience this. I'm going to get out of my day-to-day routine and that's what I loved about you jumping into the water the most
thanks, man. Yeah, I feel that because there's so many things that drift off into the background of Our Lives, you know, just kind of Fade Away into this kind of gray fog of things that we've done but there's certain things that are bright spots little neon lights that will always be able to remember and it wasn't just me.
Me under the water, which I'll remember but it was you guys cheered me on and you are the loudest voice amongst of you're going nuts out there. And that was that was at some point. I even smiled in a few bubbles like a little fish kind of came up because I was so happy that just to have all you guys there and I popped out and it was all hugs and cheers and smiles and you know was one of the happiest experiences that I can recall in the past in the past few years. It's just that bright neon spot and and putting yourself in positions to have those have those really fucking
Twisting things
doesn't have to sit on the couch man. You got to take the risk. You got you got to take you know, and can't overthink it. So it was great.
Is that a is that one of the motivations behind you doing the ultra marathons and the calendar club and all of these different extreme physical challenges that you've had is to create memories or to test some aspect of
yourself.
Both I think you know I do a lot of endurance races not not a ton of them, but I try to do at least one or two a year what I love about a hundred mile runs or challenges. I've done some long paddle board races is its I never try to win. I just try it's a test of Will and I feel like that translates into all the buckets of my life. It makes me a better dad a husband son friend employee.
Partner whatever because I feel like if I can go out there and push myself and for 20-something Plus hours, you know running on a dirt road. You can add negotiate me. You can have more endurance of negotiating table. Are you going to know at least it gives me the confidence that like man. I'll sit here and argue this point four seven and a half weeks, you know, like like a cricket match. Yeah, I don't care if you wanted to see you want to see you. So I love that element of it. I love the training and but most they asked.
Richard Branson, what was the biggest thing he would he would attribute to his success and I believe you said going to the gym, but I don't think he meant doing curls and getting muscles. I think he meant prioritizing himself that discipline the consistency and that's what I love about this those races prioritize your mind your training that you know, it's easy to lose track of that the average American gains two and a half pounds from 35 to 70 something like that. You know, they all of a sudden you wake up you're
Pounds overweight you're 70 and you can't do shit you wanted to do when you were younger. And now you're done you don't get another chance. It's over you get 10 years of life, man. And you blew it looking at your computer screen eating, you know, eating sushi, and now all of a sudden so I don't want that man. I like these challenges because I like I just like it's the way I'm wired. I like being outdoors. I like pushing myself. I like new adventures. I like learning. I like sharing those experiences and I
I also find that it makes me way more disciplined in all the areas of my life. Now. I don't even like the word discipline because discipline sounds like a to me. It kind of takes in a weird way deprivation people think like if you're going through a time where you have to be disciplined you're depriving yourself of something else. Like if I said to you and that never deprivation never works. That's why diets don't work. Yeah, like you're taking it away, but lifestyle works. So those things
To me they are part of my they're now part of my lifestyle and without that I feel and I feel like I'm empty if my wife took that away from me. I would resent her, you know, I need that as part of my lifestyle. So that's why I do it.
Gut health is absolutely one of the most important things that you can focus on and I should know because I've had the most consistent issues with my gut out of any other aspect of my physical wellness. So one of the reasons that I actually created many of the on it products was to solve that problem and that's a multi-faceted problem. First of all, there's the digestive enzymes and these help you break down food and break them down into smaller digestible particles so that you can utilize the nutrients properly. So we created a combination of
Enzymes called digest Tech and that was the first product and that was great digestive enzymes are phenomenal and then we added those in a collection of different other products in our total gut health and total gut health includes betaine HCL which also further breaks down any of the food particles and helps you digest food so that super full feeling that you would get after a meal. Well that's going to help with that. Then we have prebiotics which support the gut microbiome the natural gut Flora by giving them the food that they need.
Then the probiotics which help repopulate the gut which any of us have done any antibiotics or actually consumed any antimicrobial soap that's been on our hand or on our dishes. Like we're always doing damage to our natural microbiome. So repopulating that with the right type of probiotic is really important and then there's What's called the microbiome which is the fungal biome with in the gut and we included saccharomyces boulardii, which is a really important strain of fungal microbiome, which is great for
Any kind of Travelers got or correcting any situation where you have some bacteria in your gut that you probably don't want in there. And then lastly of course, there's the glutamine which is great for exercise, but it's also great for helping support the body in creating that type of gut lining that is not going to be as permeable and not going to lead to as much inflammation. So if you experience a lot of inflammation from your diet, of course, look at what foods you're eating but also a regular regimen of glutamine is really going to help support your
gut health as well. So that is the gut health sweet from on it. And if any of this sounds interesting like it absolutely is for me. I'm taking these products every single day go to on it.com Aubrey and you'll get 10%
off all of it.
I think we have ran a place where things can get really fucking comfortable like really comfortable way too comfortable, which is great because then it gives us the opportunity to choose our own struggle like to choose our own Challenge and I think a lot of times people can talk about how comfortable things can be as if it's a problem. It's the best thing ever because then it allows us to choose with our own free will exactly how we want to struggle but we better make some choice, you know, whether it's physically mentally emotionally.
Lee spiritually like we have to put ourselves in a situation where we're going to have to rise. Like that's the point of a struggle is to provide the pressure that causes you to rise up which builds that fortitude and strength and the courage in the trust in yourself, but we have to choose it one way or another and whether it's the ice or whether it's a long Hundred Mile Stretch of pavement or whatever you want to do at some point. You got to choose it. I totally agree with you
and we all choose it in different ways.
end
you know, I think it's really important. Like I said, I have to work hard for newness married for kids under 10 taking care of my parents or older bit multiple businesses. There's a lot going on. So I actually schedule that. I don't want to say discomfort because I think getting comfortable being uncomfortable as a little bit. I don't you know, there's a lot more to it than just those words. So I actually I like to plan that I like to say every year I make sure I do.
Thing that's that really defines the year, you know, I think a lot of us go through our lives our lives and if I were to say to a listener here what you do in 2014, what was something big that happened in 2011 2015 what you do eight days ago eight days ago most people could struggle to to answer that because like we're on cruise control, you know, and then all of a sudden boom, it's like it's all over.
Over Emma like we were and then we regret that we went through life like being the 80% version of ourselves. So I think it's really important to actually say that's why we said we're going to take a trip again in January. It's important to put a flag in the ground and this has nothing to do with economic status like or anything. You can always find time you could jump into a cold ocean, you know, you can go to an event but putting stuff that's new and exciting it.
The creativity going it takes your grip Baseline and it raises it, you know the bar whatever bar your operating it. If you do challenging stuff you can actually raise your Baseline. So I invest a lot in experiences and and that those races are part of that portfolio.
I I would say over index in experiential stuff and that's where I spend my money, you know, I don't have any art.
That's what I like to spend my money on and that's what I like to do
doesn't seem like a much better place that we can spend our money on than that. I mean just the benefit just goes way farther across cuts through every aspect of who we are and the experiences we have from our community to our relationships to our self to every aspect. So I think that's a good lesson for everybody to take.
I just bought an RV. I mean, I'm so lucky to be able to do this. So I understand.
Believe me how grateful I am to be able to say that I bought an RV but I am, you know been driving around the country with my family for the last three weeks in an RV and stopping and jumping in lakes and rivers and oceans and sleep in an RV parks and it's amazing man and someone I had a financial planner that came to my house. I've had like 50 Aubrey they all have the same picture but different logo, but the same exact pitch and finally
But he came in and he said if you could live your leave your kids a boatload of money or a boatload of Life Experiences. What would you choose and I was like, well, obviously life experiences and when he said that I was like I'm getting an RV man and I did the next day. I bought it online never saw it, you know, and we were off for days later. We ran out of here.
I can remember taking RV trips with my parents and how much I
Just enjoy them whether we were just going some place to look for arrowheads and New Mexico and pottery or cruising around. I think one of the things that's so special about it when you're a kid is I think kids crave the proximity in this kind of family tribal living with their with their parents, you know, because all too often parents. Well your parents want to have sex they want to kind of keep their space to put the kids to bed. They go away but in a small RV or in a small house, I lived on a ranch house with my parents and my three sisters in this tiny little too.
Bedroom, you know ranch house for a year and it was some of the best memories of our life just because everybody's together. So there's nothing to do but just dance or sing or hang out or laugh or you know, the family's all together at plus adding the RV the ability to go on an actual Adventure in a lake or a stream or a place. You know, I just for parents listening. I really recommend it even if you just ran an RV and just cruise around like your kids are going to fucking love
it. We did we started
and out ranting we rented last summer and then I totally agree. It's a it's an end and also, you know, it's again it becomes one of these things that is super memorable because it's so different and outside of your regular routine. So we've been joined. I'm at if anybody sees an RV switched serving swerving side to side going about 40 miles an hour. I'm a New Yorker at heart. I'm not a great driver. A lot of people have been giving me the finger and like
No, you're not. We'd love it, but I don't care man. I'm staying I'm staying in my lane.
And just foam that's awesome. Well, your you have such a great business mind and these are really interesting times. So I was wondering if you could give you know, any of your thoughts that you've had. I mean, there's more people have lost their jobs in this situation than probably any time in our lifetime history, you know, we'd have to go back a long ways. I don't even think in you know 12 years.
Years ago when we had our crisis that it was anything close to this as far as unemployment. So what do you what do you see as far as you know, and I know one great thing to just add in that the Chinese have their symbol for crisis is also the symbol for opportunity. So those two things are the same and so what do you see as far as you know, the opportunity that this situation is now kind of presenting everything's been on pause a lot of the different ways that we look at are
Why Matt and Safety and Security all of that is kind of shifted. So if you're you know a young hungry enterprising individual right now, you know, what do you see in is an opportunity? Well,
let me first say that, you know, I've struggled to it's hard to celebrate a lot of life's victories right now when you know, so many people are out of work and and so many people have been sick and affected by what's going on. So, you know, I'm not insensitive that at all and it's
It's just a tough time and I would be lying to say that like yes, there's definitely a lot of there is opportunity, but it's super challenging right now. So I don't want to sound like I'm not aware of that or in a bubble because I am super aware of it. I think for many people. Hmm. I think the first thing is
This is a great time to be remembered and I posted this on social as a great human and I personally had taking inventory on the companies and individuals that have reached out to me to see if I'm okay. I've called all my partner and I have called all 1,000 customers we have in this event race that we have to personally let them know that we're thinking about them. Make sure that you know that they're on our mind, so it's a great time.
Time to be to reach out to people check on friends and family and at the end of this crisis pandemic you want to be known as someone like, oh, yeah, man Aubrey, you know, we had our group call right away. We had a zoom call. We organized it. Everybody got on. I want to be remembered as somebody that people like, oh, yeah, this guy that stepped up during this time. So for starters outside of business, we have a responsibility to check in on our friends families and loved ones.
It's a great time to plant seeds to DM reach out to people write handwritten letters, you know during this time if you're consistent and you were to send 10 DM's texts or emails a day over the next 30 days. You'll send 30 potential employers maybe customers may be employees may be resumes at 300 just by sending by being consistent and spending 10 or 15 minutes a day. So it's important.
Isn't to not lose track of the of the power of cumulative time and to be disciplined. I think it's really important to the time block during this time. So you don't waste days where if you carve out two or three hours to send resumes or do interviews or whatever your research or whatever that the days because there's a lot of distractions at home. You know, I remember this RB when I started out in business. I was on couch 18 of the last
Ouch, I had to I had to be off my friend's couch and I went to a bachelor party instead of looking for a new apartment. I had to be out by Monday. It was a Friday and I got at the bar a girl came over to me and asked me where I lived. I said well as of Monday I have nowhere to live and she started laughter. She goes. Well if it's an emergency, you can always stay at my house getting half kidding around and wrote on her dress on a napkin Monday my friends like you got to get out of here man. My parents are coming in an hour. I'm like, this is an emergency.
See, so I packed everything up that I owned. I put it in my little blue duffle bag. I took out that envelope of napkin with the name on it. I went to Melissa cats is house. I knocked on the door. I live with her for six months. How is it how is it a situation where I had no my $118 and I was writing Jingles songs for teens and I was selling them on spec. So if they if I would write a song for the Yankees, but they didn't buy it. I was out the money for the studio that they bought it. I hope hopefully make thousand bucks.
There's something selling them this silly jingle. So I had no money to write these songs on stet. So Melissa as it turns out or father who I had no idea was an amazingly accomplished entrepreneur like uber wealthy and someone had offered me $10,000 for to write these songs for 10% of all of my future earnings and I'm like, I'll take it. So I was going to sell 10% of my life 22 years old for 10 grand she goes
Before you do that go talk to my father. So I go and I talk to her father and her father says to me he would he says to me I would trade everything in the world that I have for the one thing that you have and I'm like me I've $118. What are you talking about? And he said youth youth the process the good and the bad figuring it out navigating what we're going through right now is part of the process. I've been through it. You've been through it, you know not to this extreme, but we go through these Peaks and valleys.
He said to me will you make this work without the 10 grand? I said Lou I know I can make it work. He said that's not what I asked you. I just say can you he said will you I said I will he said then go forget the $10,000 go make it work. And as I was walking out he said to me but can I ask you a crazy question? Are you working out of my daughter's apartment? And I said yeah, he said well, if you was really happened he said if you want to do that, he said you got to do these four things because it's easy to get distracted at home.
To spiral and it's hard to get out of a spiral. He said the first thing you have to do is you have to get up and get dressed like you're going to work because you can't like be in your pajamas. That's not like your work. You got to get into a work at he said the second thing is you have to carve out a place where you want to work. So, you know, you want to come down to a dedicated area where you are it forces you to be present. You are where your feet are if you're working. You're working not Netflix not on social media. You got to be super disciplined.
My advice to everybody this type during this time. Yes, it's you can watch your documentaries. But if you want to get a job or figure something out or write a book or be creative or start a blog or right a TED talk or whatever you want to do. You got to be where your feet are and you have to do number three, which is blackout time want to get dressed go to a dedicated spot block out your time. And then the last thing is you have to have a plan. So people talk about the morning routines that's important, but I'm a much bigger believer in the nighttime routine because my day
starts the night before when I map out exactly what I'm going to do the next day and then I just follow the script so I'm super efficient. I don't dilly-dally so I've been doing those things since I had that meeting with Lou and this is no better time than to implement them than right now to time block to have a plan on how you want to spend your day right to be present be where your feet are and focus on what it is so you don't do it. And then the last thing I would say for those that are out there small wins.
Every day I simplified this quarantine Aubrey. I came into it really freaked out like I'm going to get so much done because I'm home. I want to write a book week one because I'm home. I've time week 2 on the right. I'm going to do a whole documentary. I wanted to serial killers. I've been doing all week to three. I'm going to do another book because I have so much fucking time man. I'm home. And I didn't do anything because I'm homeschooling my kids and and I realized I put so much pressure on myself.
How to accomplish all this stuff when I have enough pressure from the quarantine I got to worry about my parents and my kids and this and that and my advice to your question is a long-winded answer to the question, but I think it's important is is during this time.
I think you know the number one thing people want to feel is accomplished.
They want to feel accomplished. So I simplify the quarantine into three buckets family business Wellness every day. I try to do one thing in each of those buckets nice and that's it. So I took the pressure off like I'm not going to teach my kids man during this month. Let me start by like saying, okay. I'm just going to like, you know what I have little goals and I'm going to spend some time with my kids today. I'm going to do this or that and that's how I've been approaching it and I think it's the same advice.
For everybody small wins get get momentum every day time block make a plan, you know and chip away. Yeah,
that's a that's a beautiful concept and I really loved it. I'm at the point right now where I'm going to have to make one of those moves that we have to make periodically where we start folding all of our other priorities for the one priority that matters the most I got about a three-month Runway before I have to turn in my manuscript on my book and this is now that time I mean, I've had this very
Retail romance. I've had a lot of other things. I've been working on the book but doing different different stuff. I was able to detox off my sleep meds a lot of positive things have happened. But now I'm feeling great. Everything is really solid and it's I'm looking at all these things like posting on Instagram stuff related to the podcast my weekly newsletters, you know, the things that I'm still involved with with on it and I'm looking at a mall and it's like, okay. This is fold every card to the ace time and I think that's another thing that will
Go like when we know we have something that's going to be of Maximum Impact like The Leverage on that thing is worth it. There comes a point where you have to really fold to the ace and be willing to give up everything.
A hundred percent and I've been on both sides of that equation where I've given it up, you know, and I found our be I don't know if you know now that you have a more deeper relationship a bigger commitment. I've always found that when I do that when I go out of balance like that, like if I'm going to write a book and I have a deadline you're going to be out of balance you're going to give up some of the stuff that you were doing to write your book. So other stuff has to go down right, but I let my those closest to me know. Yeah, so I see
My wife sit there as the look I got a race coming up this month. You're not going to see me a lot. I'll make it up next month, but I don't want her. I don't want her to
be angry at me and I don't want any resentment or guilt. I don't like guilt. Yeah, you know that I'm not with my wife because I have to write a book or train. So I let everyone closest to me and I'll take the guilt off the table and then I start to go and then I say to myself, you know, look I'm going a mile deep on this book for the next 90 days, but and that's my lifestyle not deprivation is not disciplined. That's my lifestyle for the next 90 days. But when that's over I'm going to go back.
To what was my normal life is so I put you know, I know it's not forever and that really helps me because without that if there's no end point it's almost impossible to sustain it, you know, but if you have a definitive deadline, you know, like that's why people lose weight for a wedding because they know exactly the date it's like boom boom, but you like I'm just gonna I'm gonna lose 15 pounds good
luck.
But if I lose 15 pounds for this wedding or I'm gonna run this marathon on this date versus one day. I'm going to run a marathon.
Jean with the definitiveness of it
Really helps you towards a
goal. That's a great Point. That's a great point. I mean, that's the beautiful beautiful part about selling a book and getting an advance just because you have a manuscript deadline. I mean you never do it. It's so brutal. Yeah so fucking brutal, but then if you have that deadline, then you're like, all right. Well, I have no fucking choice. Now
you notice a man. They say pressures pressures of privilege. You got to put a little pressure on your shoulders to get it done.
Yeah, and if it isn't like you said if it isn't something that's coming from a contractor a deal.
That you've made or something external just make that for yourself and just start to trust yourself, you know and say like look this is inflexible. I'm going to do this and and then it becomes that hard that hard border that gives you that Finish Line gives you that ribbon that you can that you know that you can smash through. However exhausted you are. I mean, I'm sure for you even on Mile 99.75 when you see that last quarter mile and there's that that finish line, I mean, however jelly your legs are
There's this buoyancy of just knowing like fucking Finish Line. I see it, you know?
Yeah when I when I ran my first Hundred Mile Drive only run 200 mile races, but I ran the first one in 2006 and when I got two mile 99 I The Last Mile took me 48 minutes and that my four-year-old daughter could crawl crawl or walk it in 20 minutes, but I had this big
feeling of The Last Mile that I was going to have 50 friends that a common that we had tents and they were saying they were cheering me on that. They were all going to run it with me like a rocky moment. You know, we're all going to run the last mile. It's going to be this great Victorious thing. I was doing it for charity and it's gonna be this magical moment. Well, the my calculation was off. So when I got to my lady three, I thought I was at Mile 84. So when I got to my all 99, I thought I was done. My brain was programmed for a hundred miles.
It shut down. So now it took me 48 minutes and I'm holding on to my brother and I'm holding on to my friend and I'm in terrible shape and I have a half mile to go and this guy runs by me and he stops and he says hey.
finish Like A Champion
and I was like finished Like A Champion and go fuck yourself, you know up and out of you for 24 hours on the 19th finished Like A Champion fuck out of here man. Now I crawl in but he was right. I the one regret I've had I live with this regret the 30 I carried around for 13 years man. I carried around with me was how I finished that race, but my brother and my friend and not in disappointing everybody like this, you know.
And 13 years later. I got to avenge that and run another hundred Miler and My slogan was finished Like A Champion, you know, and I would say the same thing for writing a book you're going to have a get to a point. It could be writing a book. It could be a product that you're developing right now. I have a new thing. I'm launching called the big-ass calendar Club where you know, I could easily be like, it's good enough or I could say finished.
Like A Champion and how do I make it better? And I think a critical component of this journey that we're on you as an author me and multiple projects anybody listening and whatever your project is or special thing is when you get to a point where you hit when you want to hand it in if you ask yourself, could I make this how can I make this 10 or 20 percent better?
If I started right now, how can I make this 20% better? That's how you get an amazing product because most people like it's good enough. I'm tired. I can't do this anymore. They hand it in but I've always found that when you go that extra, you know, you play a ten-inning games that have a nine inning game when everybody else would go nine innings. Do you have that extra 10 inning in you is the packaging good, you know, and I've cheated projects products before it doesn't work.
Doesn't work. So that's what you know that I envy I have a lot of respect for what you're about to go through because the process but I will say this or Brie and I'm saying this as a friend I would say this if you were if I was coaching somebody it's what you signed up for.
It's what you signed up for you don't want to do it don't write a book, you know, and I know your standards aren't here your standards are high so I know what you're about to go through and I also know the reward it feels like when it's on the charts,
no doubt man. No doubt and it's not only what I signed up for with this specific project. I signed up to test myself the moment. I signed up to be a human moment. I decided to be me right as like I'm gonna fucking go for it. Like I'm gonna go for it.
Why what else what else are we here to do? It's not a it's not a fun game to play it safe in you know, I mean, you got to you got to go for
it. Listen, man. You've done it better than anybody you write your own hole II don't think anybody has a rule book like
you. Yeah. It's very small. It's a very small rule book. It's a Post-It note. It says don't hurt anybody on purpose and that's that's my rule book. It's one sentence
Ivy you it's unbelievable, man.
I'm so I mean, it's just it to create that kind of life. And I think we all have the ability to do that. Maybe not on the level that you're doing it, you know, you do it on a real high level but to say you know, what are our rules and how do we want to Define our short little 70 80 year-old 80-year run if we're lucky 90 if we're lucky, you know, we there's no guarantee and you've been able to you know to create this really unique life and Rule set of rules. It's kind of
Little
watch. Thank you brother. Well man, this is beautiful. I'm so happy we got to do this and drop it in and share some share some conversations with people. Where would you like to point people to man? I mean, obviously we mentioned some of the books living with a see living with the monks you got all kinds of stuff. But where would you like to point people to
well, let me end with this Aubrey, you know. My number one rule is an entrepreneur in my life has been to provide value, you know, like your book. It's like if you provide value good things are going to happen.
Happen my agenda here was just to provide value. So I appreciate you thinking of me and the opportunity if people do want to learn more about any of the stuff I got going on. It's really just Instagram at Jesse itzler, or you know, Jesse, it's for.com, but I appreciate you if you lasted this whole podcast. Thanks for listening and Audrey meant that thanks for thinking of me, man. And there's a lot of people you can interview. So I appreciate you taking the time course chat it up with me brother.
That's so much love my brother. Thank you.
Thanks for tuning in everybody. Now at the time that I'm recording this outro. I just got off a call with some former fit for service Fellowship members and they'd started a new clothing business together. And so I just wanted to offer the anybody that's inspired to take their entrepreneurial Journey. Please check out the fit for service Mastermind that we offer and that's Aubrey markets.com fit for service. There's like 40 percent of the members from 2019 started a new business together and many of these businesses are thriving.
Being and of course, there's the education. There's the access to the coaches and access to individuals Like Jesse as though that we're bringing together for our public gathering so you can apply any time we're offering admissions sometimes in midterm and definitely at the end of each term. So check it out. I'll be markets.com fit for service. I love you guys, and I'll see you next week.
