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What's up, everybody? Welcome to The Boardroom podcast Network. This is out of office. And this is our six podcast with my main man. Gianni is always Gianni. How are you today, sir?
Rich, I can't complain back in the east coast was in the West Coast for the
summer. I think we're getting the hang of this podcast thing. We are we got a long way to go, but I'm excited with the guess. We've had I'm excited with the conversations. We've had not
Did Summer's over not going to lie, but this conversation we're having today. I think this is this is a good distraction and somebody that I find incredibly inspiring incredibly motivating and you know, I think I think you will really enjoy some of these stories and you know, I know if I was able to listen to people like him when I was your age shit would have made me want to like jump through the walls, you know what I mean? Run through brick walls exact. Yeah. He's that kind of guy. So without further Ado, let me introduce.
Introduce to you guys the co-founder of Marquis Jets best-selling author part owner of the Atlanta Hawks motivational speaker so much more father husband friend of mine. And I think two-time champion of my guts fantasy football league Jesse its Allure. What's up, my man? Welcome to the
podcast. It's great to be here man. Thanks for having
me man. It's a pleasure to have you on so we're John.
So you understand me and me and Jesse been friends for 20 years now and as I've gotten older I started realizing 20 years doesn't even take you into your childhood, which is scary right? You can tell someone you've known them for 20 years, but they didn't know you was a kid, right? It's crazy. Yeah, but we met through fantasy football and Jesse, I'll tell you part of like the excitement around your life and the many things that you did for quote unquote a living really I always
Tate it towards it. It's part of what I believe makes up our business being able to have our hands in so many different things and be inspired to do so many different things but still to put your all into it and manage it seems like that's kind of been the overarching theme to your professional life in general. Did you have an interest as a kid and just being successful or was there a passion you wanted to chase?
I just love newness man. I was addicted to newness and Adventure. I love challenges and I didn't.
Miss anything. I still don't want to miss anything. I say yes to everything rich. I mean, I don't want it. I feel like I'm I'm 52. I'm on Earth for I don't know hopefully 30 40 more years and I just want to get everything out of it. So I had that passion as a kid man. I just loved you know, if every kid was outside I wanted to be outside. I wanted to be doing what everybody was doing. And I also got bored easily. So I bounced around a lot from idea to idea which again re-emerged in my adult life when
And I bounced around from business to
business but bouncing around from idea to idea as a kid sounds like most kids right but you obviously continued with that mentality as you started to get like into school and out of college. What did you notice about yourself when you were in college that you obviously took a different path right than most entrepreneurs. I'm sure at some point in your life. You probably had to explain to your parents. That's what you were.
Made sense right even though they thought you were crazy. What was it that was different when you got out of college in the climate at that time trying to do so many different things and be an entrepreneur from now where it's most kids you meet.
Well when I went to college my mom gave me some amazing advice. She said, you know, you don't know what you want to do yet you're going to college you had this amazing opportunity and she told me to do everything. She said like if there was a speaker at the college go listen to the speaker sign up for every
Intramural sport go to every event every happening and you know, your 20s are really a great time to explore what it is you love what well, there's four different things to figure out what it is you love to do your 30s is to figure out what that thing is and get really good at almost perfect it and your 40s and 50s are for cashing in and I use my 20s to really as an exploratory time. You know, how is a kiddie pool attendant I was signed to a record label.
Sold celery and carrot sticks door-to-door at a t-shirt company. I clean trucks. I had a private jet company. I wrote Jingles I did. I mean I did so many different things and what I discovered was I like starting stuff and I like working for myself. I like being able to do things on my own terms. I my own timeline and you know if I want something the ball to be read and everybody wants the ball to be blue. I liked having the power of
saying it's going to be red. So those are things that I learned sometimes the hard way and sometimes through trial and error and Discovery and had a lot of egg on my face during my 20s and my 30s and 40s to but you know in today's world everybody thinks that instant everything instant likes more followers more this everything just like it just happens and it does for some people they get lucky and they have, you know, hockey stick trajectory.
I too like rapid growth but for 99.9% of us we go through this trial and error period and and that was no different from for me. And here's one thing I would say Rich before it just before I give it back to you. You know anybody that goes through a period where they have a big goal. They go through everybody including UK D your whole team everybody in the everybody Gianni to you have a big goal. It's the same process like you had this idea you get really excited.
It and you think of it and then you know, you get excited around this idea. Maybe you do a little research and then you commit to it. Okay. I'm going to start I'm just going to take a marathon for example, take it out of business for one second. I'm gonna run a marathon and you have this big goal and then you know, you plan you commit to it and then you start to execute your plan you go through what I call the grind or there's a lot of self-doubt. I'm not good enough. I don't have what it takes. Maybe I'm not a great podcaster. Maybe I'm not a great agent. You know you go through
Is doubt and everybody goes through it on their way to a goal and during that grind during that, you know a lot it weeds people out it weeds people out. But if you keep going at some point you get a small win, maybe you sign an agent. Maybe you get a bigger guess if you're a podcast or maybe you get your first sale and then you start to believe and it gives you momentum and you keep going until you see the light at the end of the tunnel and you hit your goal and in my 20s.
What I learned by trying all these different things is there were times where the self-doubt beat me up and I convinced myself. I wasn't good enough and I quit and then there were times where I go. You know what? Let me just keep going One Day More. Let me just keep going forward and then luck found me or a small win happen or I got that sale or someone took that meeting or whatever. It was that gave me. Hope if you have Pope you have everything and that's what my twenties were for.
So I got I got two things to say to that.
The first thing is you wanted to be a rapper in the 80s. So weeding out the non entrepreneurs in the ones that couldn't cut it that happened. Even before you got there, you know, like back then if you were going to take the leap and graduate American University and come from Roslyn Long Island. If you weren't gonna go I would assume in Define answer to be a doctor or to be in Corporate America. You already were like one in the entire neighborhood.
But that had the courage to do that right now you'd be hard pressed to find someone in that same neighborhood that probably wants to be a doctor or a lawyer or in Corporate America. They want to do a Jesse it's slurs does but as somebody that has been through this journey right part of that self-doubt and the egg on your face to me. That's the process. That's what I actually have loved as much as anything, but I do know that young people.
At least when I speak to them and I'm not at the level of success that you are when you when you start looking at the whole path in front of you when I talk to some people when I'm younger, I think to myself am I doing them the Injustice by encouraging them when maybe they're not wired to be an entrepreneur like you or to have egg on their face. How do you manage that? You speak to so many young people I
assume. Yeah. Well the first thing I tell people in their 20s as not to lose their 20s, you know like it.
You still at 20 years old be a 20 year old even a 21 and 22 not everybody can be Mark. You better jump right to Richard Branson. Like you have to go through that process at least most of us do so. I always encourage people don't give up your 20s. Nothing is worth giving up your 12 Rich when you take everything you had right now other it give everything back except for maybe your kids with definitely your kids to go back to like be 20. I mean,
yeah, yeah in that in but you know what only in that
That I regret that I didn't take advantage of certain opportunities, right and I love being in my 20s.
Listen when I was coming up. I was writing songs theme songs for professional sports teams. I was trying to I was 22 years old. This is right after I wrote the song for the Knicks and the only way that by the way, I lost $800 on that trade because the Knicks paid me $4,000, but it cost me forty eight hundred dollars to write the song. So I lost eight hundred
dollars. It doesn't matter. That's all what I would have paid him five grand. I would have paid.
You five grand a rapper right now.
I would say the next five grand to let me do the song so I actually won but but I was in this business where I would write songs on spec and I would go and I would you know, write a theme song for you know, the Chicago Bulls and then I would try to get to their somehow get into their office to play it for them and either they would buy it or I'd be out the money that it cost me to produce it in the studio. I had no money. I'd hundred eighteen dollars so I couldn't write anymore songs. So someone offered me.
$10,000 for 10% of all of my future earnings. I was 22 years old and I'm like, I'll take it 10,000. I needed the money to go in the studio. But before I did it did that a friend of mine this girl Melissa cats. Ask said, you know what go see my dad and talk to my dad. He's a big, you know entrepreneur and he'll give you some advice. So I go see this guy named Louis Katz. He won't Kenny parking in New York, and he was a part-owner in the Yankees and the New Jersey Nets.
At the time and I saw Louis, I'm 22 years old and I walked in the door and he said to me Jesse, I would trade every single thing that I have in this life except for my kids for the one thing you have and I'm like me of $118 little like, what are you talking about man? And I go what's that and he goes youth the process. He said the passion and you know and at 21, I was like, what is this guy talking about? He's got a gazillion.
Dollars, he's an indoor swimming pool. He wants what I have. I'm sleeping. I thought I was sleeping on his daughters couch at the time sitting on her couch. And but now I understand that and being an entrepreneur is people confuse passion. They think like, oh you have to have passion for the widget that you're selling and you do but the real passion has to be for the process and that's the grime that I'm talking about like not everything. That's what you signed up for as an entrepreneur. Not every day is a great day.
No, you celebrate the wins. But great entrepreneurs great Business Leaders deal with the lows really. Well, you know to be an entrepreneur they don't teach this in school. You have to think like an entrepreneur. How does an entrepreneur think we'll great entrepreneurs handle the lows really well because they have such a passion their passion to get to that end goal is so much bigger than the obstacles. The obstacles are almost obsolete. So the
SS is so important. So I totally understand what you're saying and I'll say this man at 52 years old. I still have crazy. I still have an underdog mentality because I grew up as an underdog and you know, once you get rid of that chip, once that goes it's the beginning of the downfall. So I still you know really obsess on the on the process and I don't love down ticks. I don't love rejection. None of us do but I'm not scared of it.
Every successful entrepreneur has to have that Underdog Spirit regardless of their upbringing because you almost have to compete these. I mean create these like inner battles, right? Because when the process gets to that point where you win right you sell Marquis jet. Did you not start your next business the next day if not the day before the sale went
through. Yeah, I'd already started it before we
sold it exactly because it felt
Probably like you got to keep going. You can't stop money will go opportunity will go. There's too many things out there. You still felt that mentality. It feels like it has to be part of the DNA
that yes, and then also, you know the window that we have to be relevant and to make chess moves it shrinks fast, man. So your 20s, you know, you're figuring it all out. You're making you're making connections you're building your network you're doing your, you know, you're learning all that stuff then.
Sudden, you're 35 40 that window like, you know, it goes fast and I got to be careful how I say this but you know, I think of myself that 52 right now and like I'm thinking like man how many seven year olds. Do I want to hang out with how many seven-year-olds am I going skiing with or you know, I just got invited to a trip to go to Wim Hof's and Poland with 10 guys and I was the oldest guy and I'm like how long am I going to get this invitation how much longer like that window shrinks so fast?
Or in the sweet spot right now Rich, you know you got amazing players and you're in a great situation and you have a family, you know, but you said we've known each other for 20 years. Well, it went like this now project out 20 years. Now, you're 70. Are you going to have the energy to do what you're doing now? Are you going to have are you going to age out of the cool Factor, you know, so I've always been really sensitive and aware of my relationship with time and people think of relationships in terms of money in terms of I'm sorry Pete.
Like how's your relationship with your wife or your husband or your kids or but they don't think of their relationship with two things money. What is your relationship with money? And what is your relationship with time? And I'm Mega aware of this and I've said this before you might have even heard me say this but my mom my mom is my mom and dad or 90. Okay, if my parents live another five years. Okay, let's say the live to be 95 out there with tell us anything with 10 years my they look to a hundred they live in Florida.
AA I live in Atlanta. I only see him a couple times, you know, if they see him twice a year. I don't have ten years with them. I have you know, 10 to 20 visits with them. So when you start to think of time like that, you know, like in fact I'm going to see my parents because of that tomorrow, it creates insane urgency. So as an entrepreneur the the number one thing that you can have other than urgency is figuring it is speed. How do you get from A to B the fastest so I've always operated in under like I want to do.
Now and figure it out as I go. I want to get my foot in the door and figure it out as I go, you know and I want to figure out how to get to a to be the fastest. Like, how do I accelerate this? How do I speed it up? So when I finished Mark no Marquis jet. It was like I don't have a year man to go sit on a beach and celebrate now. I like to celebrate but the reality is nobody cares who won the NBA Championship five years ago. It's about this year. Nobody cares about Marquis jet anymore. I don't care anymore.
Don't have a marquis jet hat or is Eco hat. I'm thinking about what's ahead of me? How do I maximize from 52 until 80 until this whole damn thing is over and that's my mindset every day.
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I want to kind of get an
understanding of how your mind works from where you go from
like Inception to execution, right? So, you know, you're a kid you're into music or graduating school. So you're like, you know what I can write Jingles. So you're producing you're in the studio, you're writing Jingles you're hustling you're trying to sell them and then you get some success in that and then I mean, I don't know the steps in this but then at one point you're on Jets, right? So you're on Jets and you're like, I'm on Jets all the time. Where does that?
Thought come in where like I can do this. I can start my own company. So it's a really good question. A lot of times I go to the end of the movie first, you know, it's always like I believe in myself. I have this idea. It's unwavering conviction to get to that goal. And then nothing is going to stop me. It doesn't always work, but that's always the same process throughout the entire Journey always and then as soon as I can hire
Afford to hire people, you know, they can help me with this cause I do if I can hire my weaknesses I do and as soon as I can get to a position where I can scale it fast, so I start really small. I have a big idea. Obviously, I start really small like in my dorm room, you know, basically but as soon as I have some momentum I try to scale it as fast as I can and that's always been the process but allow me to say one thing if they would have said to me Jionni when I started Marquis jet
My partner you're going to need FAA approval Department of Transportation approval. You're going to have to build the Salesforce get customers build an infrastructure to take all of these reservations. I would've been like Johnny. I was a kiddie pool attendant two years ago. What are you talking about? Man? You tell me I got to get what is D OT stand for anyway, because that's what happened. But then I said, okay. Well, we just say the first thing I needed was Department of Transportation approval. There's got to be a lawyer that does that right? Let me get that lawyer. Okay.
Now I got the lawyer we got that was the second thing. We need FAA FAA or let me get a lawyer that does that now we got that approval. We'd start chopping down the cherry tree. So that's how it works and most people look at it like oh shit, man. A private jet company. I have the I don't know. What are you talking about? You know, but instead we're like no no. No we go to the end of the movie and then watch the what's the one task at a time. You got to break the big thing. It's too overwhelming unless you take it one step at a time.
Another example and then I'll shut up when I started running I could run my goal was to run two miles. That was my goal. If I could run 2 miles without stopping from couch to 2 miles. I was a runner fast forward three years later for a couple of years later. I ran a hundred miles. So nothing in my body changed. Same legs guy gave me same lungs. God gave me the only thing that changed was how I approached it and what I thought I could do so I actually 50x.
To my original goal 50x. So imagine if you could 50x everything in your life by, you know, smashing your perceived limitations because the limitations we put on ourselves or self-imposed.
You know, it's funny you say that I'm I love that you referenced running right after you reference your success as an entrepreneur because I actually always saw you in two different ways, you know, like
Hearing you talk about the entrepreneur and you it was so nice to hear you. Say what you just said. I have been living that way for the last five years, which have been my most productive five years and I have been explaining that same process to people after me now, which is visualize the end for sure because it's like when you're a kid, you know, I needed during football season to choose a player every year that I wanted to be like I have to wear this jersey Craig James one year Kenny easily one year LT.
One year and I would switch Sports because without the thing the endgame like what did I have to talk to other people about right? Then the little winds along the way that's the process and you gotta love that with your Fitness and your working out. There's really no end game right you wanted to run two miles. Then you got to a marathon which for most people is endgame. Then you ran a hundred miles like why? Well, what what part of you is that what itches that scratching because that
That seems different than an entrepreneur that feels like as an outsider that maybe you're having an odd relationship with time.
It's the same muscle that you exercise and on trip being an entrepreneur and doing Ultra endurance running or anything else. It's like, you know when you get done running a hundred mile run with the what was the first thing I said to my business partner because he ran it with me the last hundred mile or we did it in October. We got to the Finish Line. I look them in the face. I said Mark double.
the business plan
Double the business plan man, because when you realize that you have so much more all of us in our reserve tank. We just don't want to tap into it because it's uncomfortable. But once you go beyond what you think you can do it's addicting and you realize well if Iran if I 50x to my running goal if I'm under indexing by 50x, what are the areas of my life and my under indexing in so like, you know if my say
Al's court at Marquis jet was like 20 Jack cards a month guys put me up on the board for 20 Jack cards this month. Is that because with a little bit of effort I could probably get that or should I do like my put me down for 40. Let me see what I'm made of let me let me figure this out. Let me reset my limits and what I love about and I ultra running or anything like that is you realize you have so much more in your reserve tank. There's an old Japanese ritual called the Muscogee and the notion around him is so GE is I
I'm Kyle Korver, you do something one time so hard once a year that the benefit last the entire other 364 days. We're all wired for Comfort man. We live in routine get up workout. Go to work spend a little time with your family and repeat and routines are great. But routines can also be a rut. You can't get better doing the same thing every single day. Now look I thought I was operating at a high level. I sold a couple of companies went to zico zico to Coco.
Cola airplanes Warren Buffett, it's amazing and my life was great but a couple years ago. I'm like, I'm on cruise control man, and I don't have time to be on cruise control, you know, and so I really try to put things on my calendar that forced me to dig into my reserve tank. And now we all have this extra gear. I'm not here to preach about, you know, but the way that you tap into it the surprisingly it's the small things that you do every day.
Now there's a famous quote that I love how you do anything is how you do everything how you do anything is how you do everything. So the first thing that I do is I try to be Mega present. I try to be where my feet are if I'm at soccer practice with my kids. I'm at soccer practice with my kids. I'm not looking at the stock market or think happenings in China or the NBA games. I'm with my kids and if I'm at the Opera, which I hate with my wife because she wants to be there I am.
I'm at the Opera. So I try to be super present. The other thing that I try to do is I try to spend time every day doing things that I want to do. So, I don't resent my wife are my boss or anyone else for taking away the things that I love to do. So I try to spend, you know, at least an hour a day doing the things that I love to do and what that does is it gets you in tune with your gut. So that's what I do man, and that helps me in a weird way access this
Extra gear, you know, I don't feel rushed. I don't feel you know, I try to be present and and I don't negotiate my goals.
That's I mean listen, I got it when I watch you on Instagram now just because that's our world. But when I watch you live, I feel that like, I know that's how you live, you know, and I I've read I read one of your two books and I've watched the challenges you take on and I truly live vicariously through it. I wonder
Though it how much it truly can relate to how you lived as a businessman because when you were making go, New York, oh, New York. Yo, right my favorite song ever. Then you get into Marquis Jets then coconut water. Then I'm sure a handful of other businesses and you found monetary success true monetary success. Did you think at that point this mindset kicked in or did you have that mindset then?
Because I think that sometimes when you've won a few of those races and you've accomplished a few of your goals, then you kind of get this weird Eerie feeling of like God did that mean anything like all that and this is how I feel and then you start really thinking about time a bit. I know after Kevin won the first championship. He had a very mixed emotion, you know part of him wanted to win the second one. So desperately more than enjoying the first one like the same night then all of a sudden you've had a
A few successes in business and then like Corona happens, you know and then the world shuts down and at least from my perspective. I really had to like double down on what I felt like was important and I love work. So I really wanted to put an emphasis on work and I put a lot into it but I started now paying attention to some of these things that you are speaking about paying attention to my kids when they're talking to me putting my phone down being present during any activity with them being present when I'm watching a movie.
And I found myself on my phone during a movie all the things that I enjoyed being taken over by me being on my phone, right? How much does having money?
Allow you to do that because I would find it hard without money when you're coming up and you're trying to pay the bills and get success like you can't focus on all those things. How do you tell young entrepreneurs that see you saying live for the moment seize every moment and you're running a hundred mile marathons, but that's not how you were when you were in your 20s,
right? Well, actually, I mean, I've always taken time for myself. So even when I was 21,
Is between the ages of 21 to 23 or 19 to 23. I slept on 18 different couches, you know bouncing around friend to friend that put me up as I was trying to make it in the music business and start my own businesses or whatever. So and I didn't have a lot of money, you know, it was just it was an interesting time for me and but I always took time for myself. I always invested in myself and been on myself. So if there was a speaker, I would try to go see it if there was an event I would figure out a way to
Go I really invested in my own personal development. If you're 21 years old. Okay. And so the day you graduate college. Let's say you're 21 till the day you retire seventy one fifty years. Let's just say you took three hours a day for yourself. Now a lot of people say, oh, well, you must have nannies and this and I don't fucking know I've been doing it since I'm 21 years old. So I take and it's cumulative. I might take an hour in the morning to you know to run or
Read or go and so on or do nothing, but over the course of a day. I find a couple hours. If you do it from 21 to the time you're 50, you will save fifty six thousand hours if you factor in like sleep and everything that's like 10 years of time alone. So when people like oh you've done so much like how did you do it? Like I'm not Superman. I'm just really good with my time, you know in in this 24 hours. So I've been taking a certain amount of time every day for myself and I
I'm telling you rich it's super important and it has nothing to do with money. Is it easier now? Of course, of course because I don't have the pressure of worrying about paying my rent or getting more brown rice on my plate. Of course, it's easier but it's not that's not an excuse to not invest in yourself. Take time. This is the thing man. I have so many friends that went from 20 to 40 overnight.
They went from 20 to 40. I look at it. I'm like man what happened? What happened? We used to play basketball. Like now they can't you that it can move and they gave it all up and all I'm saying is it's not worth it. It's not worth it in my opinion a why can't you have it all why can't you have balance? Why can't I don't even like the word balance, but why can't you have time for yourself time for your family and time for work, you know, I work 21 hours when we started Marquis jet.
But I still had time in the course of a day on the weekends at night carved out for me and it's really important don't give up your 20s man. And you know, you can thank me later. You can thank me later. They interviewed. They I just read an interview of a study where they interviewed. I don't know how many but it was a big sample pool of people within liquid net worth of over 20 million dollars, okay.
Liquid, so these are highly successful very very incredibly wealthy people and they ask them. What was their number one regret?
In accumulating all this wealth and seventy percent of them said the time that I lost with the people that I love the most so I'm like wait is that good you sacrificed all of this.
To get this and now you regret that so I just think it's possible and I'm not here to preach like about how to live your life. But I just think it's possible to have to have it both. I don't like the messages of work work work work work work work work work work of everybody knows that. You got to work hard. No shit. Like it's not going to happen without hard work but it's a you know, there has to be some kind of balance and you know, I'm married I have four kids. I have multiple businesses. I'm training.
For a race called Ultraman right now I train three hours a day. I work really hard. I'm with my with my my wife all the time going to see my parents. I take trips with my friends and the only reason why I'm bringing this up is because as you evolve and Rich I'm saying this specifically to you as a friend. Okay? I'm not even talking to all the listeners.
As you evolve your life system has to evolve. So when I'm 21 when I'm when I'm Gianni's age. I'm eating dinner at 11 o'clock in New York City because and then I'm going out because that was my life. But now that I have four kids I'm eating dinner at 5:30. My life has to change it has to evolve. I can't live the life that I lived when I was 30 anymore. So as you evolve you have to evolve so, you know someone in their 20s and 30s, they might have a completely different different lifestyle, but
Changes based on your work based on your kids based on what you like to do based on your interests, you know it you have to take a little bit of personal inventory and I think it's really important. I think people neglect that man. They neglected to get caught up and then they have regrets so Jesse, I'm hearing some dope and a lot of common themes and what you're saying too
from what has led you to achieve such amazing success. So
first and foremost, it's definitely believe in yourself and so in
The
20s you also said work on your connectivity work on your, you know audience work on who
you're making relationships with and I believe that
you know that connect connection people you already had is what allowed you to
get Marquis Jets to be one of the Premier jets in one year because your client roster was probably insane. Okay second you love everything new since you were a little kid and coconut water and like 2006 was probably the newest dopest thing ever. So you are just
The so it's just like themes throughout your life that have just what I'm hearing is cause success I would just add like in your 20s, you know, when I say connectivity you never know if people that are in your 20s that you become friendly with and you're connected to in their 30s and 40s become people that are in positions of power. So when I wrote the Nick song going to your go Adam Silver just started working at NBA entertainment. He's now the commissioner of the NBA.
Ba as we all know we were friendly and look, you know, I had to put my application in to become a minority owner and the Atlanta Hawks and who has to approve it Adam Silver now I could have been a jerk to Adam Silver we could have you know, you just never know 50 Cent was my intern before he was 50 Cent.
You know and 10 years later. He became 50 and and funny story. I he was on one of our airplanes. I wrote him a note I said 50, this is Jesse itzler. You're a guest on this my airplane. I own this company and the next day he wrote into his contract. He would only fly on Marquis jet you never know in your 20s. The people that you come across that will be in positions of power. The people that were hanging out were Rich, you know back then back then look at rich now, you know, it's this
every so you just don't know that's what's really important about when I say connectivity. It's casting a really wide web in your early years and staying connected into your 30s and 40s. So as you know, you're not calling someone Adam Silver Rich climbing out of left field you're connected to them as they rise up the ladder on their journey to and that's that's been a really part of accelerating my personal business Journey because I can get people on the phone.
Because we stay
connected.
Where did 50 Cent intern for you?
Add a company called Alphabet City record. So I was managing Run DMC and I stare shared it a desk with Jam Master Jay. We shared the same desk and he said one day I have this kid as a boxer who wants to be a rapper and he needs to make some money once learn the music the business the music business. We were doing theme songs for sports teams. Can he in turn here? I said sure he goes in exchange. He'll help you write some theme songs.
And you give them as much let them shatter you so I did so this guy would come in. He had no tattoos. He was a boxer literally. I don't even know if anyone knows that and fifty had a partner named case on I signed case on them like this kid is so talented. Oh my God, and I passed on 50. So that's why I'm not in the a I'm not an A&R guy. And yeah, and we worked with us for a year and a half. He actually just put it in his book. He wrote about in his book, which was really cool.
I just bumped into 50 on a Delta flight like maybe like six months ago and I go 50. I don't know if you can remember. He's like Jesse and was we spoke for like a half an hour is unbelievable. I haven't seen him in like 20 years.
I want to know how 10 years 20 years later you and 50 or on a commercial plane and 9au. I'm
like, I still feel like a rye still fly commercial. I am again the underdog mentality I try to you know.
I just try to keep it my dad on the plumbing supply house. My mom was a teacher and I don't know man. I don't want to get too fat, too. Fancy.
Your dad was an inventor,
right? Yeah, he was a plant you on the plumbing supply house and he invented like kind of drains and decorative faucets and stuff. He's like the guy from Back to the Future but the flux capacitor doctors like but my yeah, that's what my garage looked like as a kid in high school.
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So
clearly the inventor side of you is from your dad and this this kind of speaker and and Inspire or that you are is from your mom who was in academics. How important is legacy to you. I've heard you real off some things on this call that blew my mind right? Like I didn't even know some of the things you've done in your close friend, and I'm sure there's a myriad of more accomplishment how important
Legacy for you in this kind of relationship with time because the reason I ask is part of my 30s and 20s that you reference. I realize now I didn't really know shit. I really believed in rainbows men. You know, I really did like I really thought there was something else and then so many things have happened in our world the last few years and I've gotten older where I start looking at things and go damn that didn't mean anything right none of that meant anything so then you have to
To take an inventory start to say well, you know what? I'm gonna take advantage of my time here and what am I leaving behind? Like what is important when I when I'm when I'm no longer here obviously relationships, like you said 70% of these successful men said They wish they spent more time with their children. So obviously relationship strong family relationships that will go on and people will talk about the love that this family had think we all can do that money or no money, then you start
Thinking about what your accomplishments are, right you have so many and there's so many more in front of you. I mean, have you climbed Mount Everest?
Not the actual Mountain. Yeah,
I mean it's crazy know most people hang up if you ask a question like that. So what is legacy to you?
You know, I don't really think of it in terms of Legacy. I think more in terms of regrets and there's three kinds of regrets. So the first kind of regret is the regret that you can fix. So I have a bad relationship with my dad. Let's just say I can call them up and I can fix that right? So I regret that but you can fix it. The other kind of regret is a regret that you can't fix like I broke up with my girlfriend in high school. I wish I didn't do we can't fix that. You can't go back. She's married. You're married like it just it's a regret you're gonna have
Live
with and the Third Kind of regrets are regrets that you can prevent. So let's just say for example, I always wanted to climb Mount Everest as you just said, you know, well if you know that and you know that if you don't do it when you're 70, you're going to look back and be like God, I wish I did it. Well, you can prevent it Go and climb it, you know, so the way I look at Legacy is I look at it more in that third bucket of regret where what are the things that when my time is called I want to look back and be like man.
I wish I did this differently or I wish I would have done this while I was still healthy enough to do it or able and capable enough to do it. So I really try to focus on you know, what do I love to do? Who do I love to do it with and how do I put more of that on my plate? So that's sort of how I'm going into the future specifically as it relates to Legacy. You know, I really just care about how I make people feel
And not how much money I gave away. I mean all that stuff. I checked the box and most of those areas but the thing that I can really control that's really personal is you know, how many people have I touched and that's how I want to be remembered. I want, you know, if you went through my phone contacts and you called everybody. I want 10, you know, I want 5 stars.
What do you think Jay? I want five stars as a friend, especially like this is a time during Corona. I'm taking inventory rich like who are the people that reached out to me? I'm taking inventory on the great cut companies that have contacted me to see how I'm doing. I'm taking inventory on all of these different people that during this tough time have contacted me and I'm saying am I doing that? I want to be remembered as a great human during this time. I want to be the the Sun the checked in on the parent. I want to be the friend that called.
Friend, I want to be the business owner that called the customer. So this is the time where you can really stand out from everybody else just by checking in and to me that's the path to Legacy that I tried. I'm trying to build organically naturally authentically, you know Inlet if you would ask me 10 10 20 years ago, man, it would have been about a whole different thing. You know, maybe I got a little softer with kids I cry easily.
Now, you know I get emotional man every story that comes on and I'm fine with it, but it's a little bit different man when you hit 50 and then all of a sudden you're like man in 30 years you're looking at 80 right in the face. I'm staring at 80 and 28 years, you know, you start to think differently and you start to think about like, you know, and I know I'm rant I've been in quarantine for
so long. It's good to talk to a human like the talk to
humans. Again. It's unbelievable, but when I was in my
He's I would go to the gym because I wanted to look good. I wanted to get girls when I was in my 30s. I wanted to stay fit and be like, yeah, like I'm going to the gym. I'm just a fit and strong six-pack when I'm in my 40s and 50s. I want to stay alive.
I want to fucking stay alive, you know, and so you get these shifts man, you know, and because they're I always say this with my wife the more you experience the more you have to offer think about rich think about where you were 20 years ago. Okay, you just said you didn't know shit, you know where you are now think of the back how battle-tested you are. You've been through Wars man. I mean Biz in business you've had to make
Here all you had to make deals you've lost deals you that egg on your face you had victories you have an MBA ring, you know, you've had all these different things. So now think about how how you and you doing it now through this platform how you can advise and guide people and take all of these experiences and package them, you know, and I feel at this age that I I've had a lot of experiences on business in business in running as a parent as a
Son of taking care of my parents were getting elderly, you know, it's a whole different Challenge and experience through mistakes through victories through charity. All of these different things. Allow me to have this conversation with you because I'm not talking about shit. I read I'll talk about shit that I've done hmm, you know, I've been through it man. So the those
battle wounds like you talked about and going through it. You said business you're referring to I'll go as far as
Say life, like my there was battle wounds in my marriage. There was battle wounds with friends. There was battle wounds with people that I was in business with and you lose friendships over it, right? The battle wounds are real along the way which is why I find your relationship with your wife. So incredible because I mean, I don't mean this the wrong way, but there's she's more successful right? She there's an argument that there that like for someone as much success as you you look,
Across the bed and you have another entrepreneur with you. What did you have to do in your life when you got married because you guys got married in your 40s, right? Early
40s. Yeah. Yeah.
So what did you have to change about yourself at that point?
Well, I had no idea.
What Spanx was or what Sarah's anything about Sarah's business when we started dating we met she was a custom of mine that Marquis jet we met in an event and you know, we started dating and etcetera etcetera. I started learning but literally a week to 10 days before our marriage she sat me down and she said I you know, I have to tell you something that I don't think you know, and I said what she said, you know, I make a lot more money.
money than you think I do and I was like, well, what do you mean and she started to open up a little bit about the success of her business and her company and this is before she was on the cover of Forbes for being the you know, the youngest female billionaire and all this other stuff that she would ever so I had no, you know, and I just started crying and I was like, it couldn't happen to a better person, you know, because I would have never have known in a million years and you know, look I won't say that it
Have its challenges because it does or did we've been married for 12 years now. I'm just so happy for her. And when it is her time to shine the the light shines for her. I'm her biggest fan. And when the shut when the light shines on me a little bit. She's my biggest fan and that's the best way to approach it. And but I love how Sarah's whole approach to money. You know, she always says it's fun to make it's fun to spend and it's fun to give away.
And that's she's not driven by money. You would laugh. If you saw the Simplicity of our financial scheme. I mean, it's like we live a very simple we have a lot in a very simple way and you know as you get older, what's the one thing that all your friends parents Gianni and you'll start to experience this to have in common as as you start to get older you're going to see that most people do one thing they don't
Downsize as they get older. The first thing they do is they don't buy more yachts and this and that they downsized they want Simplicity. They want this boy. It makes it's crazy to me the wealthiest guys that I know as they get older want to live the simplest life, but everybody else is fighting to get all the wealth, you know until you get a swimming pool and you know, the filter breaks and the guy comes in and he says it's $10,000 to fix it.
You have no way to check it. You just say, ok. I'll give you $10,000. You know, he could say 20,000. All right. I'm not a pool fixing. I don't know. Yeah, so and I'm a capitalist. I'm all of it out making money and money is amazing. But you're like I said your relationship around it is interesting Jionni. If I said to you man, I'm gonna wire you ten million dollars tomorrow. I don't even know what I do with it, right? So what do you working for? Most people don't even know what they would do with a check for five or ten million dollars like
How could you not know exactly what you want and what you how could it even come into your life? How could you even manifest it? If you don't know exactly what you want to do with it. I used to when I was your age Jionni. I used to walk into my office off of the couch that I was sleeping on and I would be like say to my partner Kenny Kenny. We're millionaires. They just haven't paid us yet and in my head, I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted three things. I wanted a swimming pool. I wanted a fruit tree to grow my own.
On fruit and I wanted to be able to take a two-week vacation every year if I did that I was like that was all I wanted but it was specific. I knew what it was and I knew what I was working towards and it helped me drive me towards my goal. It's it's shocking to me how many people don't have Clarity? They're like, yeah, man. I want a million dollars. I want 10 million dollars. Okay. What do you want with it? I said this to my friend. He goes, I would move to, California.
My friend Brian I said Brian guess what? He's 55 is Right. Nobody's watching you ten million dollars. If you want to go to California, man, save six months of money and go to California. You don't even need the wire to hit your account. Like most of us can do our dreams now, you know with a little bit of planning so rich, you know, it's interesting because we fight for this and like I said man, I'm a capitalist. I want to make money. I want more we're all wired.
heard from more
But more isn't better better is better
more isn't better better is better.
Yeah, everybody wants to do more and more and more. I want to run more but just doing more isn't as good as doing as doing it better but Jesse you do
more and more and more and
more I do but I try to do it at a level. I have I'm in a different position. I have staff. I can hire people I have assistance. I have bandwidth because of that.
You know, but I don't sacrifice or compromise quality because of I'm trying to do more if I'll do that. I'll just shut it
off but you understand the mentality still because you're still running and pushing yourself and pushing your physical limits. So you get the mentality and that mentality is never going to is going to leave
you the only difference is as I've gotten older. You know, the number one question I get when people ask me about business is about scaling their business.
And the first question I ask them is why?
You know, I even had this conversation with my wife talking about scaling and growing and I'm like, well what's wrong with what you have now do it amazing to have a great life. You know, you have a great so, you know our immediate reaction Rich what I'm saying is scale scale scale, but I'm not like that by the way, you know, you would think because I'm doing all these things that it's like I'm not I'm not even trying to do all that. I'm not trying to acquire this or by this company or bill this or take over the world or own a
And I don't I'm not sacrificing my quality of life for more and that's my point. So once yes, I'm doing more because I want to have this really full life. I want to Milk Light, but I'm not scaling just the scale. It's with purpose and it's without never going to compromise.
My run I'm not getting out of the pool to go to a meeting for something just because it's more and more and more and more and more Yep. If that makes sense.
It does. So before you go. I want to talk about sports and as it relates to your life. So for me in one way shape or form. I know at least that Sports was behind a lot of things that I did in my life whether it was being a bookie in college, right which was the wrong way for it to manifest or doing the music on the show for ESPN.
It was all in the name of the fact that I wanted to be around the World of Sports. I think there's some ties throughout your career the Nick song. I know Marquis Jets was very connected to athletes and Executives from the World of Sports and coconut water you continue to pull from the entertainment business connections and your sports connections. What's the dream ever to own a sports team or was the opportunity in front of you so good because for me
we clearly like and most of my peers that's like endgame that's goal. Right like can buy a hoop team talk to me about the Hawks and buying that organization and your excitement about it.
Well, I've been around the NBA for years because I wrote the that a lot of the theme songs for the team from multiple teams in the 90s. I did the I love this game song for the NBA. I sold my first company to David fought David Falk was my boss and aren't tell him I report it to fall.
Until them in the early days. So I was surrounded by the agents. I worked with a lot of the players. I was filming them for the NBA videos and I was doing the in game programming for a lot of the teams as in my 20s. So I was very familiar with game operations and and and then I was an MBA license. I was licensee. So I've been around this for a long time and partners partners with LeBron in projects Chris Paul, Amar'e so
And I'm a basketball fan. So you put all of those things together and then I moved to Atlanta and I got hired as a consultant to the team. So I spent a year traveling with the team before the sale and then when the team was up for sale, I'd already fall in love with the players the city the management team the coaches. So I really put my hand up in a big way and said I want to be involved in this and got involved with you know, this group Tony wrestler and Grant and a bunch of my friends.
Is and and it's been amazing, but I'll on it. I can honestly say when I got to Atlanta and I went to my first hockey game as a consultant. I went right to the end of the movie. I went right to the end of the movie
and by and the Hawks right follow the script that we talked about
early on, you know, I got to get in here and I'll tell you the script changed a lot the plot changed a lot that the process of the sale process of an NBA team is remarkable is actually could be its own episode of this.
Of a podcast because it's really fascinating and there's only one winner. You know, there's no second place
take us and we're process. Give me a quick inside. Look at the process.
Yeah, so well now it's a little bit different because now there's guys like bomber and other guys like could just come and take the whole thing out in one stroke of a check and annihilate blow up the whole process, but for the process with the Hawks was there were groups.
That were forming there were different groups that had to go through a process and you could commit and they all wanted me being in Atlanta and Sarah to commit to their group exclusively, but I didn't really want to do that because if they lost then I would be out of the process. So it was like it became a chess game and then trying to figure out how to use leverage in this. You know, I live in Atlanta. My wife is a big business in Atlanta. I've already been a consultant to that to the team. I really know.
No game operations and marketing. You know, how do I kind of Leverage all that and it became a massive chess game and plus I'm not a banker. These guys are old Goldman Sachs Executives and you know hedge fund guys and finance guys. I am not in that bucket. I'm a runner. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm Scrappy I check all the other boxes. But like this is a box or like I kind of ruined the whole process of like violating the rules. I didn't even know you can't call this guy.
But I was able to work it out. And at one point, I think I was in all three groups to be honest. I'd like to know until until it was sorted out. It's wild
so is sitting on the floor.
Watching your own team play basketball. Does that feels some sense of like brings a smile to you and you're sitting there with your kids knowing like 30 years ago. You were trying anyway to get on and the stories you've told us and the things that you've done. They took you in so many different directions and it's incredible to see where you're at the sitting on the floor give you some of that like I did some because you know, you worked for that,
you know, the craziest thing about it is which I did not anticipate is a
Much deeper connection to the community and the responsibility to this City to Atlanta and all the fans. I don't even that never came into my head. Originally. I was naive I was there was ego involved and then all of a sudden you see all these people standing up and high-fiving and it's emotional and we have an amazing leadership team. Tony wrestler. His family has been what they've done for this city. So I just feel very lucky to be part of it, you know, and but I also feel responsible.
Isabel, you know, I feel responsible to the players. I feel responsible to the community and sitting in the seats. I feel lucky man. It's the only way I can explain it like just so ridiculously privileged to have this opportunity. My dad gets to watch the games I get to call him. He's 90 after the games and talk about it every games is Super Bowl for my dad, you know, we didn't make the playoffs he felt like we you know where the chant we had the best team and it's just the whole thing.
Is amazing so and it's I feel like I can be added to so I feel like I you know, I can be heard and contribute and I'm participate so it's
really good.
Well man, Jesse, I appreciate you very inspiring and very it's very motivating to know that some of the things that I still feel and I feel like I'm very much like you said in my Prime and while I've gotten over certain obstacles in my life, and I think I've learned a bit. I still have so much to learn and part of doing this podcast was to be able to pick up some gems like we've been able to do today and knowing that you still visualize
Eyes and you still maximize and you still understand how important the journey and the chases and the zest you live for life is really inspiring men. It's been good and even just watching you through the Graham, I think some cold scary-ass nights of covid. I was like man Jesse's running up this ridiculous Hill again, man. I feel all is well in life. So I appreciate you coming on bro,
and I would just say this Rich, you know, you know, you have a job that all of us I grew up in Long.
Long Island all the Long Island kids all the New York kids all the kids. I went to summer camp with we're in the same world where in the same universe you and I and the same Circle and you have that job that everybody wishes they had and and and you've done a lot with it, you know, and it's not easy. I'm sure there's a lot of pressure on you at times, you know, because it comes with a lot of responsibility, but I just want to say as a friend I'll say it publicly.
You've used your platform in a really really positive way and not just what you've done with the foundation with with Katie and and stuff that you do the people don't even really understand what you guys are doing. But all the Investments the the this this platform the TV show it's all bringing the documentaries. It's all bringing to light stuff. That's I think really impactful and they say you find your true purpose when you
when these three things Collide when you figure out what it is, you're good at what you love to do and providing a product or service that helps people and you've really figured out what it is. You love to do. You got unbelievably good at it quickly and you put out products and stuff that have helped people. So you really kind of at a young age found, you know the right lane and the purpose and it's been fun to watch man from the sidelines as a friend because you got the job that everybody
wants. Well, I'm very
Honored to have this job and have the opportunity Kevin gave me and flattered for you to say that and I know G. I told you this was going to be a good one man
incredible man, Jesse. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. Oh Gianni, my pleasure man. Thank you
guys. All right, Jesse. Talk to you soon, man. Okay guys. Thank you.
