Why Execution is the Game of Entrepreneurship with Jesse Itzler

22:30Jesse Itzler:But I feel like entrepreneurs feel like it's get rich quick and everything has to be quick. And we try to cut corners. And not all, but that's just the vibe that I'm getting. And because we live in an age of likes and Insta and fast and speed. And that's amazing. But that leads to disappointment. Like it takes time and that's okay to build the foundations of a long lasting business. I think what we've glossed over, and you touched on it lightly with the tickets, is a lot of your execution. It's really cool to get the meeting with the jet company. What's more interesting to me is why those really fancy people would go to that meeting and sit there.

23:10You built up equity through relationships, which takes time to be able to convert that energy for that execution.

23:16Jesse Itzler:Yeah. Yes. Right? Yeah. I mean, why did Carl Banks and Ron and all these people, why did they go? I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to tell you why. Because people buy into stories, people, and momentum more than products. Always. So you're the business plan. You're the business plan. Like, we had momentum and we had a story. And when you have a story that's exciting. But even taking it for, yes. But what I'm curious about is buying the tickets on your credit card. Hey, everybody. I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast.

23:56It'll make my mom super happy. You're right. How does one who's listening right now get in front of the Carl Banks and the run of their day? Gunna right now, get in front of Gunna and Von Miller right now for everybody who's listening is a disconnect. I want to go into that because I would argue the seed of so much of this foundation is within that.

24:18Jesse Itzler:You put yourself in a position where luck can find you. You put yourself in a position where you attract luck. So like when I was 21 years old, man, I had nothing. I wasn't, I wasn't like broke, but I had nothing. I was staying on couches. My office was the Beverly Hills hotel. Cause I realized that if I went to the Beverly Hills, I was 21 years old. I got invited to a lunch meeting and I walked in. I'm like, Russell Simmons, there's Lior, there's all these music moguls and entertainment moguls. And I'm like, this is where everyone is. You don't have to have a room at the hotel to come to here for lunch.

24:51Jesse Itzler:I was like, what? I can buy an$8 salad and sit here for 10 hours. And I did every day. And that was my office. And then people started recognizing me. And then it was on me to attract them. Hey, you're here again, you look great. Whatever. Just to get a face. And now all of a sudden after six months I put myself in a position where I could get a record deal where I could find somebody where I could call somebody where I could say hey can I buy you for five minutes let me interrupt I apologize it's the name of the show thank you very much what scares the fuck out of me is how unbelievably true that is how an eight dollar salad for that cost is the arbitrage and how somebody in Iowa that's listening to this story right now in the rural part of Iowa has something 37 trillion times more powerful than your ability to be in a place to pay$8 for that salad, which is called direct messaging on Instagram.

25:55What scares me to no end is that people will spend 80 trillion hours on dwelling and complaining and worrying about what they don't have. but we live in fumble bumble fuck Iowa listen to these two right now and not realizing what they do have which is us two schmuckos with all our charisma and all this still didn't have something called Instagram DM and the 21 year old you would have stayed on that couch and DM for 19 fucking hours because you would have bled for it and then there would have been one yes and that is such a real story right now for anybody listening not just people that happen to be in city areas where this shit could happen.

26:36The serendipity of creating that for you now is literally, but people then hear me say that because I put out that content and they give up after 29 people that they DM and then they DM me and they're like, Gary, you're fucking full of shit. I DMed a bunch of people. I haven't gotten my music out there or sold my t-shirt. I'm crazy. And I reply, I'm like, hey Carl, with three followers. I'm like, how many people have you DMed? They're like 29. I'm like, go fuck yourself. you sat there for fucking 12 15 hours a day i think can i add on to that you can do anything

27:12Jesse Itzler:you want so i think a lot of people do send dms don't even actually know how to send the proper dm i agree so people by the way real quick because i'm going to add on to it there's been plenty of people that went to the right places that lost oh you had the right tack to start the conversation with russell simmons i it's my life i'm on the other end of this now it is fascinating to me to watch people go with selfish behavior in their one serendipitous moment to get something to happen. When I write an email. People roll up on me, I apologize, 99.999 % of the time to tell me what I can do for them.

27:50Yeah.

27:51Jesse Itzler:It's the whole thing about this. It's like, as entrepreneurs, there's one rule of thumb. We have to create value. If you obsess on - As humans. Right. If you obsess on value and wake up, how can I provide value as a husband, as a boss or whatever, in the long term, it's going to pay off. And always you won't, you won't have the ability to pick up all the opportunities. Right. One thing that I do that really helps me, helps me. I asked myself a very simple question. Would I recommend myself as fill in the blank? Would I recommend myself as a dad, as a CEO, as a business partner? And if the answer is no, why and what am I doing wrong?

28:26Jesse Itzler:When it comes to DMs, I feel like people want to know, like what's in it for me so if i write an email i could spend three hours on an email sleep on it review it edit it how can i make it shorter is the caption punchier if i was the recipient how would i react to it like it's not like just oh i'm gonna dm and boom it's like how do i get this person to respond in the way that i want the response to happen and i don't believe in real quick yep and what we're painting for everybody who's listening is look the fucking internet has given everybody an at bat. It doesn't mean that you can hit a fastball.

29:03And so the work you put into having the ability to hit a fastball, but the fact that we're now in a place where everyone gets an at bat, which was not the case pre-internet is bonkers, bonkers shit.

29:15Jesse Itzler:You're a genius about this DM thing though, because like I got a lot of layers to get to me. I have my assistant, voicemail, email, people screen my email, but I check my own social. So I actually, to your point, now that you bring it up, the guy that does all my merch for my company, uh, 29 or 29, this race company we have DM to me. And you know what he said? He created a win-win. I'm sorry. He created a no lose. Win-wins don't work because if I say a win-win, wait, you talk about this too? No, no. I like where you're going. When you have a win-win, Gary might win here and I might win here. That's not a win-win.

29:51Jesse Itzler:That's a Gary's dominating the win. A no loses. Oh, there's no risk I can't lose. He sent me a DM and he said, hey, send me your logo. I'll send you a bunch of samples of stuff. No cost, no risk, no anything. If you like it, I'd love a shot to work with you. I'm like, okay. I sent it to him a day later. I get a FedEx with these amazing product line. And I'm like, done. Hundreds of thousands of dollars later. We talked about this earlier and it's great for everybody to listen. It's about doing instead of talking. People DM me all day long. Gary, I want to work for you for free. Okay, that's amazing.

30:26Like, if you think about it, that sounds win-win. No loses. Gary, I made this. And then we look at it. Our team looks at things that are made with my content. We 99.999 % of the time don't even hear you when you say you're going to work for free. Yeah.

30:43Jesse Itzler:Action. Always action. I invited, I went to a dinner party with my wife and they went around the room and they asked everyone to name three people that were alive they'd want to have dinner with. And you came up, oh, Gary, Buffett, this one, that one. But when it came to me, all three of mine were rappers. And the reason was I wanted to meet the three people that changed the course of my life as a 14-year-old kid growing up in New York. So at the end of the dinner, I called my 10, I invited the 10 most influential artists in my life to my house for dinner. And they all came. I knew two of them.

31:16Jesse Itzler:And people are like, how did you get Rakim, man? How did you get Big Daddy Kane? and I'm like, I asked them in a no lose and they came. People want to help people. Yeah, it's really crazy because again, it's super important because I want to make sure the listener gets value. You've put up enough W's on the board and had enough social currency to pull off that Hail Mary, which is amazing. You're right. On the flip side, it's also how you got there because the 21 year old you that had nothing was willing to ask a hundred people to get one yes. Yes. Okay, that's why I'm fired up. So for everybody listening, if you've put enough wins on the board, you're probably more likely to get seven out of 10 yeses than you think.

31:58And for everybody who's the 20-year-old you and me that nobody knows at all or gives any fucks, you will get a one out of 400. How do I know that? Because you and I are exactly the characters that say yes out of that 400 once every thousand times. I still do it. Me too, which is why I'm saying it again. Yeah. This is a very important conversation. and because we grew up in the same era, I shit on these entrepreneurs in this era. You gave me the internet? Fuck you. Fuck you. This internet thing? Fuck you, man. First of all, I would have definitely not graduated high school and second of all, I would have made some crazy shit happen.

32:41Like, you've got it so easy right now.

32:45Jesse Itzler:Yeah, I mean, I remember when I, just to that point, Gary, when I was starting out at Marquee Jet I was looking for my first customer and I didn't have a database I didn't have Salesforce I had no way to get lead the only way I could get a lead was to show up where rich people were this was like in 99 right but I had to go where rich people were I didn't we didn't have you had a pager? a what? did you have a pager in 99? I had a pager I probably had like but there was no but you had that pager to like act cool I had to show up 100 % I didn't like I had no email list and I heard about this event called TED this conference called TED in Monterey California.

33:19Jesse Itzler:And I'm like, there's gotta be rich people at Ted. So I flew 16 hours. I connected in Chicago, landed in LA, drove five hours to Monterey. And I get to the event and I recognize immediately, like you can't get into Ted without a credential. And I'm like, well, that's so ridiculous. You need a credential. So I just traveled 16 hours. I need a sale. So I go to the coffee shop and I realized that every 15, every hour and a half people are coming in and they're ordering lattes and muffins because they're on break. They have credentials. They're on break at the conference. So I'm like, so the next day I showed up at the coffee shop and I stole.

33:54Jesse Itzler:No, I bought every single muffin in the store. I controlled all the muffin inventory in Monterey, California. And the first break comes and the guy comes, I was like, I'll have a latte and a muffin. The guy's like, you can have a latte, but we're out of muffins. He comes back out. I'm like, I'm so sorry. I overheard you. I actually have a muffin. I have 450 muffins would you want one he's like well he's like no no no you can take one I says well what do you do we start talking I said I want a jet company he goes get out of here he's like I'm actually in this really happened to me I'm actually in the market for a private jet he goes do you mind if we sit down and talk about it I'm like Mr.

34:31Jesse Itzler:Qualified you can sit wherever you want to swim man absolutely and he was my first sale Josh Koppelman from half.com and And that's how my first sale. But if you think about, it's actually stunningly unbelievable and wildly not. It's incredibly practical. You know who your customer is, go there. What pisses me off, and this is why he's telling this story and it's an interesting take, is that's amazing and epic and iconic of a story. You can lay in your fucking bed and email and DM people. Like what does it matter with people? like back to nothing is impossible well the internet has made it uncomfortably easy and yet people are losing fuck you i think it goes back down to what i said earlier even deeper than the dms gary good is is negotiating your goals and i think you asked me about entrepreneurship and i said you know people want to get happen quicker and speed up the process and this and that.

35:34Jesse Itzler:But I also think it's easy to negotiate your goals. It's easy now to say like, oh, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to try this. I'm going to throw. And like, people don't stick with things. Most people do 95 % of the same thing. Because they don't mean it, Jess. They actually don't. It sounds good. Like there's a really deep psychology on this that people have to wrap through. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with it. Like, why do you want to be a billionaire? Why do you want to start a business? Like this is what goes into like a very deep conversation, which is people do things they think they're supposed to do.

36:06They don't mean it. When you mean it, there is no other option. When you mean it, there is no other option. When you don't mean it because you think it projects well or it's the thing you should do or your parents want you to or you think it's cool or it'll get you girls or it sounds fun.

36:23Jesse Itzler:The deeper layer of that, the deeper layer of that, of meaning it, comes from wanting it. And I could say, if someone said to me, what's the silver bullet of being an entrepreneur? I would say you have to really want it. And then people laugh. I really wanted the promotion. I really wanted to win the lottery. They don't understand what I'm talking about. I can look at someone in their eye and tell right away if they want it or not, if they're willing to go through the 18 couches that I went through. but I'm not, I have plenty of egg on my face too. You gotta want it so bad that the obstacles don't mean anything.

36:55Jesse Itzler:So if you do 400 DMs and they don't hit, it doesn't mean anything. You're on DM one. It starts with one. And when you're really there, you're like almost evil about it and you're happy nobody replied. Like where I go is a scary place where I'm like, like I hear that, I'm like, yeah. Like I'm, like I want, I want disgusting. Like I want, like I mean it. If I hit 400 DMs And it comes back goose egg I get crazy I'm like uh-huh I'm like you fuckers Are gonna be real sad When you see this DM In six years Yeah it's fuel It's real fuel Like I'm on some Real chip on shoulder I'm gonna fucking Kill your mother shit Well you can't When it comes to business No No I mean this When it comes to everything Like in real life I don't wanna kill your mother But in business Like when I watch Athletes play Like I love people That like I love Draymond Green.

37:49Like that's who I am as an athlete. Fuck you at all costs. I don't give a fuck. Fuck you.

37:55Jesse Itzler:See, I think, I think it's everything because if you don't have that attitude in other buckets of your life, it like, it's everything. It's, you have to create an environment in your head that no matter what, you're going to get it done. But real quick, and I'm, because your part ownership in the Hawks is a good comp. The, I'm always fascinated by this. You're on the field football game, right? that's a rough fucking sport. You're breaking people's fucking faces. Triple zero, game over. Everyone comes to the middle and you're like, hey, how's Sarah been? I actually feel that in my business life.

38:28Like in the context of business, I'm gonna break your ankle and like I don't give a fuck and fuck you and I want the whole crowd. The reason I've become friendly with Novak Djokovic is like he's one of the few people I've reached out to ever because I'm like motherfucker, there is only one thing I see on earth right now that I completely wish I could do which is be in center court at Wimbledon against Roger Federer and know every fucker in that stadium and everybody who's watching is rooting for Federer. When Novak goes into that zone when he's like basically like, fuck all of you, I get crazy.

39:00I have heroes on the back of my neck right now and goosebumps. Novak, when he's against Federer in center court in Wimbledon like happened this year and the entire world is like, let's go Roger, let's go Roger. when he hits a big shot and everyone goes quiet, the chemicals in my, like all I want to do is be in that moment because nothing excites me more to look at every single person in the crowd of like, what's up with your boy, dick?

39:29Jesse Itzler:Listen, if there's one thing we agree on, it's that. That's the way I'm wired. And I mean, that's the way. What that does is it makes you not be scared of losing. You actually already set it up to enjoy the losing. When I took my book, living with a seal to the publishers i got 11 rejections and all it did was make me be like i can't wait my brother aj and i have a sports representation business we we just went through a draft class right we got a ton of nose when i tell you i can't wait to see those fuckers in real life in six years and look them dead and i'm already doing it because there's some kids that said no three years ago that are already not doing as well as they thought they were going to do and their agents don't give a fuck about them anymore because they're not going to make any money and I would have fucking taken care of them for life, I look at them dead in the face and say, you fucked up, dick.

40:16Jesse Itzler:Listen, anger is a really, uh. No, it's not anger. No, no, it doesn't sound angry to me, Gary. First you're gonna kill someone's mother. It sounds, no, no, I know you're, no, no, it sounds wildly aggressive. It's actually unbelievably good oxygen for its deep merit-based competitiveness. it is i think listen i think you whatever you have to pull whatever emotion you have to pull from people say like get rid of your anger it's negative i anger to me is like fuel i need a little anger you know it's fuel i need it it's a hard thing to channel consistently and it there's a negative but it's funny it's funny just to play out the story to give context because i think all these things have layers it's funny i'm not angry at any of these kids i'm i'm devastated for them which then manifests me like it's like this incredible like all I want to do is have dinner with 11 people that said no to your book and you and like just sit, I love that shit I love, but I also like losing like if you're going to be that person you also have to be the person that when you're wrong you're like man you saw it, I didn't fucking see it I'll take that L so I love sports bro you win and lose, entrepreneurship's hidden right now Accu hires, fake headlines.

41:39Like, it's just not sports. Right. 182 to 79. That's what it was. You know?

41:46Jesse Itzler:Yeah, I mean, there's score. You can use bank accounts as scorecards and that kind of thing. You can, but there's a lot of hiding. There's a lot of manipulation in that where just like you're watching every, I wish everybody recorded every single action then you could see it more because that's what sports is. We're watching all of them. All the minutes. I think also at the end of the day, and we can talk about this. This is a great conversation. You know, going back to your question about entrepreneurs and what I see, at the end of the day, man, we humans, we all want the same thing. What do you think the one thing that we all want is?

42:19I think it's happiness.

42:21Jesse Itzler:Exactly. We want to be happy. So if you're happy, all for it. You know, things make people happy. Different things make people happy. People are driven by different things. When you said my dad's a family man plumber, you know, like I was like so awesome. Like, because I know that. like I know so many like people that feel different like to your point there's 7 ,000 ways to be happy this is about self-awareness of how you tick not how you think you should tick my brother asked me my son is a swimmer he's young 10 years old and my brother asked me how my son was doing his swim and I said you know he's doing really good but he doesn't have the eye of the tiger and he's a great swimmer but he just doesn't have my brother said that's okay as long as he's happy and I'm like no My son would be happy playing Minecraft and eating Haagen-Dazs every day and Fortnite on the couch.

43:09Jesse Itzler:That's not what I want. I want him to live up to his potential. And I don't see how anybody - But is that a different framework than the way your parents went about it? I'm just curious, because it was interesting to hear you. Like when you just said that, I went back to the beginning of this podcast, think about the freedom your parents gave you and were they into the guiding aspect? Is that why you run a basketball team or not? I'm just curious. Their potential. so like when I look at myself and I'll answer it this way I don't want to be the 80 version of me right I don't want to grow up and be like okay you could have been built Vayner to this but you only took it here or whatever within yourself I understand you know I understand my parents their scorecard was how they raised their kids that's what made them happy my mom's whole life I remember going to this grocery store and someone my mom got into confrontation I'm like I can't believe my mother even has a life outside of our family that she would even react like this their whole life was about building my family yep that was it that's what made them happy yep my life is bigger than that not in a bigger difference it's just got more buckets it's wider so for my family that's their happiness to them was taking care of their kids putting them in college giving them a car i got it and for me it's i want a number one my standards are high man i don't want to write a book i want a bestseller but do you want to impose that on your children So for me, when you went there, I'm like, I have no interest in my kids taking on my characteristics in any shape or form.

44:39I just want them to be in love and respect their characteristics as much as I do mine.

44:44Jesse Itzler:Oh, that's fantastic. And to your point, everybody does their own way. I'm just curious where you're going with it. My kids are on their own journey. And because I used to play basketball till midnight every night and my son wants to play Fortnite, I can't tell him to go play basketball. all they're on their own journey but i do want them to live up to their potential i just sat with a financial advisor and he said to me what would you rather give your kids a boatload of money or a boatload of life experiences i want my kids to experience and see what they like on their terms or yours on on both like i want to know i want to give them the opportunity it's amazing by the way first of all while we're talking about this because a lot of people listening i have 0.00 zero interest in ever getting into anyone's actual personal way of parenting because that's everyone's got their own uniqueness and they should i love the macro conversation of this game because where i go into this is kids are living in a reality that is intuitive to where their world is going versus the world we came from i think so much about esports for that reason and it's changed the last 24 to 36 months, but the demonization of parents, and you're not doing that, but I'm just, I'm using this as an example.

45:59There are a ton of parents out there who have taken their kids out of the path of becoming all-time great professional esports players because they've deemed that not being a thing, and I think about that every day.

46:12Jesse Itzler:My parenting's a work in progress, guys. I'm figuring it out as I go. I don't, you know, I have four kids. They're all under 10. Like, I'm curious about Fortnite all day in Haagen-Dazs as actually being the stepping stone to actually winning, to actually getting full fulfillment. I really believe that. Like I'm debating it for myself. I'm fascinated by that because I, and it sounds like you too for that matter, I didn't do anything that gave people confidence that I was up to something. When I was 11, I was doing everything off the reservation. I was an immigrant kid. Everybody had to get good grades.

46:43I was getting Fs. I never clicked into wanting good grades for myself. I clicked into this is all horseshit. and I always wonder what are the 10 and 12 year olds thinking right now that we can't see and I feel like some of them are exactly where I was and I think about that

47:02Jesse Itzler:listen again I think I can only speak for myself and just so you guys know my kids have glitches just like your kids have glitches everyone's got glitches you know it's like you think you sold a company it's like I got the same my kids don't get out of the carpool line because they have anxiety the same kind of stuff everybody deals with and I don't know I just know that I want to give them as much opportunity. Honestly, you'll appreciate this. I want to take even the four of them out of the equation. I just think you're a creative thinker and it's just an interesting conversation for me. You know, just, I think we're at an interesting time.

47:34I think people are in deep shit in thinking they know where the world's gonna be in 15 to 20 years. When I think about what 5G is gonna do as an infrastructure and what that opens up, you got fucking Elon Musk today talking about like living on Mars. Like people are like, people don't get it. Like we FaceTime people in fucking China and it costs zero dollars. The people that were making decisions for us didn't have phones that got off a wall. Like it's fucking crazy out here and it's about to get wildly crazier. You think technology's advanced now? This is dog shit. This is a fucking pager.

48:11Jesse Itzler:I agree. I know you agree. So we're imposing today's reality against kids that are gonna live in a world that's 15 years from now looks nothing like today and we must hedge for that in when we think about shit. Gary for president. But you know what I mean? It's fun. I know that makes sense to you. We're byproducts of that. White kids talking about rap in 1985 in fucking Long Island, rap wasn't even a fucking genre to people. It was a fad. Rock and roll. The internet was a fad. People laughed at my fucking father when I launched an e-commerce wine business. The internet was a fad. Fuck TikTok and Vine.

48:52The whole fucking thing was a fad. Do you understand what's coming? Fuck.

49:00Parting shots. What do you want people to know? You got a lot of people listening.

49:02Jesse Itzler:Well, first of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity. This is super cool. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I'm glad we did it. We connect once in a while, but it's good to sit with you. It's good to see you too. I like to arm wrestle you. How's Vayner speakers going? Okay, we'll do that. How's Vayner speakers going? How's Vayner speakers going? speakers going one thing that everybody should know is uh i think you guys saw about 16 months ago we started vayner speakers uh i uh i teamed up with my agent ca zach nadler he's now the ceo of that it's been really fun he's actually in the room while we're talking uh and one of the key targets for us was jesse because we were looking at things that arbitrage who is way better than people realize at this exact second they are at this thing um so it's exciting that you're with us.

49:47Straight talk, because that's what I love about you. How's it going?

49:50Jesse Itzler:It's been great. Zach's been amazing. I was hesitant to do it because I was getting a lot. Yeah. So, I mean, just so you guys know, I started speaking about three years ago. I wrote a book. The book became a number one bestseller. It was amazing, but it launched me in a completely different direction than I anticipated. I started getting asked to speak. And the first speaking event I went to, there were 40 people, no microphone. The guy said to me, speak loudly and slowly and you have 45 minutes and that has led to you know much bigger stages and i did it all myself for two years and then gary text me and said i don't even remember this i'm starting this thing and you know i saw you speak you're great or whatever and introduced me to zach and um what goes through the process like why am i giving the process i get so much inbound myself like the process for me was you know can i do this myself i'm doing it myself and it was became an easy decision for me because I fell in love with Zach and you know, you handpicked Zach and, and, and what you guys do at Vayner speakers.

50:49Jesse Itzler:And I weighed it all and it became super simple for me. Um, and it's, it's been a really good process. Listen, after I sold my last business, I'm like, I'm never having partners again. Right. I don't want partners. I want freedom, right? You'd work. So you get freedom. Correct. And I have a partner with partnership with you guys. And it's been really good. What's been the most surprising thing I like learning?

51:17Jesse Itzler:It's just there hasn't been really no big surprises. You know, you guys laid out exactly what it has been and it hasn't. We've been able to talk. The surprises that you can deliver on the hyper bike. Yeah, it actually did. For the first time, this is what we're going to do and we're going to do it. And when I was disappointed in certain things, I would say to Zach, like, I want something bigger. I need more. And, you know, and he would respond. So, yeah, it's been really. You like it? Do you like speaking? I love it. Yeah, me too. I wouldn't do it if I didn't like it. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, as you get older, man, it's like you only have two buckets, Gary.

51:48You got aggravation versus reward.

51:52Jesse Itzler:And I want low aggravation for the most amount of reward. If something's high aggravation, even high reward, I'm not doing it. And you guys have made it low aggravation. You know what's funny, Jess? If you, I, and many others can get people to realize you don't have to wait to 50 and some success to put yourself in a position for that. And you can actually do that at 22. You'll just have to be a little patient and a little more humble, but you can be way happier. You and I, in a lot of ways, did do that, which is what I think led to this. And I think a lot more people can do it, but they have all these expectations of what they're supposed to do from 22 to 30, and it fucks them up.

52:30Jesse Itzler:It's true. And just to add on about the speaking, because I've talked about walking in and speaking in front of 40 people. and then you know you as entrepreneurs man it's okay to start small and i just want to say first go ahead i'm sorry it's okay to start small you start small you think big you scale it fast something my wife always says you start small think big and scale it fast and that's the way we've been able to do it it feels really authentic and grassrootsy when i wanted to get into tech the first five public things meetups events i did this is in 2009 when wine library had gone from three to 60 million.

53:07The first five things I did was cold email conferences in the tech world and offer to set up a table and pour wine. I was a bartender at the first, a Robert Scoble JICU event, a Technorati conference. I literally, the first five of it, I found a picture of me and AJ recently at a tech cocktail event which was a DC meetup, I was the help. That was after real success. Most people don't have the humility to do that with no success. Yeah, that's what it is. 18 couches. 18 couches, brother. Love it, brother. Thanks for being on. Let's clap it up for Jessica. I think 18 couches could be a really, I think 18 couches could be a real framework for either a book or a talk because I really think, and you saw I zoned in on it, I think if you can go deep, in the way that I've gotten deep into like fear and insecurity, if you go deep into the network you built, which then became the foundation of everything you've pulled off and the pattern recognition of human arbitrage when you over-deliver and you ask for less in return, I think there's a real unlock there for you.

54:23And I think the framework of 18 couches could be a really cool starting point.

54:27Jesse Itzler:Yeah, and the mindset of me when I was on 18 Couches was I'm a millionaire, they just haven't paid me yet. That's how I was thinking. That's how I was thinking. Bro, I've owned the Jets for a long time. Right, exactly. That's a tough one though. I'm gonna pull it off. Everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.