702: Blake Mycoskie (Founder of TOMS) - Hitting Every Goal & Still Feeling Worthless... Gratitude, Mantras, and Hiring Like a Champion

23:19I was like 16. So that was had less influence on me maybe as a young person. but where my mom's influence really came in for me and my sister, because my sister is an incredible entrepreneur. I don't know if you know her story. But we saw my mom go from a woman that never graduated college. She saw that she had a high cholesterol and she wanted to work on that. And while she did that, she wrote these recipes that lowered her cholesterol and she also lost some weight. And then she just wanted to help people. And so she self-published this book and it became the best-selling cookbook for like five years.

23:54She made millions of dollars, way out made my dad. I mean, like my dad was basically retired early and it helped support her career. And my sister and my brother and I were like, wow, like that's cool. Like she went from like no experience to making millions of dollars because she wrote a book to help people. I think that's probably the biggest influence of all was seeing her do that and then believing that you can kind of start something from nothing.

24:19Ryan Hawk:So I think about this as a parent and I'm sure you do too. you said that you felt maybe pressure to achieve because your dad's this amazing surgeon. Was it talked about like, Blake, we expect a lot from you. You're not working hard enough. Your grades aren't good enough, or you got to get into this school. I know you played sports too, right? Or was it just, you just felt it because you saw what they did? I think it was felt. I don't, I never remember my dad putting too much pressure on me overtly. I think it was more, I just had a deep desire and maybe, I mean, depending on what you believe in terms of how you come into this world, I mean, maybe karmically, I came in here to really heal this wound of not feeling enough.

25:01And so it might not have had anything to do with my parents. And just that I just innately felt that I had to achieve and accomplish to earn love.

25:10Ryan Hawk:Cause I never, and that was never told to me of early. Okay. So now that you're a parent, how does that impact you as a dad trying to raise great kids to go up and feel enough, but also still leave a positive dent in the world like you're doing? How does that impact your parenting philosophy? Well, I think one of the most important things I've done is once I healed this wound in myself that I didn't feel enough, I feel like my whole relationship to my kids changed because I think I was putting that pressure on them, whether I realized it or not. And that's why I always tell, especially high performers, I'm like, wear the bracelet and give one to your kids.

25:49And my kids wear it. And it's like the best conversation you're ever going to have with your kids. I guarantee it. You will not believe the relaxation you will see in them when you tell them, yes, achieve your dreams, work hard, but regardless, you're enough and I love you just for you. And that is the conversation that I hope every parent has with their kids and they have it over and over again. Because what's going to happen is even if I tell that to my 11-year-old and my eight-year-old, they're still going to get the message that you're only good if you're smarter or prettier or you have this many likes on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat or whatever they're doing, they're going to still get that message from everyone else.

26:27So even more important that the parent is telling them that they are enough just as they are. And so that is at the core of my parenting philosophy. And I've seen a huge difference in my relationship with my kids since I healed it in myself. The second thing I think that is so important if we're talking about parenting is I just keep going back to like the most important thing is just to be kind, Just to be kind. You never know what someone's going through. You never know what their situation is. Just being known is the kindest person. And so I really work with my kids on what are opportunities to just be kind.

27:04Kind to strangers, kind to each other. They're not always kind to each other. That's the hardest part, Aiden, the 11-year-old. But I will say they're very thoughtful about other people and other people's situations. And especially when you have resources. Like one of the coolest things happened the other day. I was with my son. And we were walking down the street and there was a homeless person. We were in New York City. And he said, hey, dad, can I give them some money? And I don't really carry a wallet. I usually just stuff some cash in my pocket whenever I'm places that don't use cash that much.

27:34But luckily, I had some cash. And so I had a couple hundred dollars in my pocket. And so I pulled it out and I gave him like 20 bucks. And he goes, no, give it all to me. And I was like, really? He's like, yeah, we have plenty. And he just went and gave the guy like 350 bucks. The guy just exploded in happiness. And my son was beaming. And I was like, that might be the best$350 I ever spent right there. I mean, it made me so happy that that was his. It wasn't even a question of how much. It was like, no, we give him everything that we have in our pocket. And so I thought that was really cool.

28:06Ryan Hawk:The other part of your story that I enjoyed reading about, maybe because it's selfishly, it relates to like, I went to college to play football and played a little bit after college as well. And you went to college to play tennis on a scholarship. Yeah. and then unfortunately you got hurt. What role did sports play in your life, both doing it, being so good that you could go and play in college, and then also how it was taken away from you by injury? Yeah, so my whole life was tennis. So I actually moved away from home at age 15 to a tennis academy like you read about with the Agassiz and the people of the world.

28:40I was never as good as them, but I was one of the better players in the country, and I loved it. It taught me discipline. It taught me work ethic. And ironically, it also reinforced the fact that I'm not enough probably because when you're so good at a sport like tennis, then you play the very best people. And so even though I was one of the best players in the state and one of the top, say, 100 players in the country, I just lost a lot because I kept playing the guys that were the very best. And so my whole tennis career, I always say, is like, I just battled a lot of losing. Basically, I just kept losing.

29:12And in college, I was like the last guy on the team, even though I was on scholarship. but it taught me a lot and I'm really grateful. And I think sports is a great opportunity, especially for kids to learn, especially hard work and discipline. You know, having it taken for me was really hard because my whole identity was a tennis player. And so that was a very difficult time, but it ultimately led me to becoming an entrepreneur. And so I look back now and I'm like, oh, it all kind of happened for a design purpose. But I'm very athletic now. I mean, I still do a lot of sports

29:42Ryan Hawk:and it's a big part of my life. You said it led you to be an entrepreneur. A lot of us probably think of Tom's, but now I'm reading about Easy Laundry, a billboard company. Like what happened after you got done playing and you immediately go into this, I'm going to start creating businesses mode. First off, the funny thing is, is I did not know what the word entrepreneur meant after I started my first business, which is Easy Laundry, which I'll share about. And then I was at the bank, hashing a check from one of our customers. And the bank person said, man, you're a young entrepreneur. And I was like, I had no idea what that means.

30:19Like, I don't know if that's a good compliment or bad. I actually, back when we had dictionaries, I had to go look at a dictionary and figure out what that meant. And I was like, oh, okay, that's cool. I like that idea. I can be an entrepreneur. But yes, I, you know, basically I had this Achilles tendon injury. I wasn't able to really carry things because I was on crutches. So I couldn't carry my laundry. down to the facility at the dorms. I looked in the yellow pages back then and there was no place that would pick up and deliver my laundry. And so I complained about it to my roommate's dad at Thanksgiving and he was an entrepreneur.

30:51Now, I didn't know that, you know, at the time. And he said, I think, man, that's not like an opportunity, guys. You guys should start a laundry business. And so we did. We bought an old truck from FedEx. It cost us$1 ,500. We painted EZ Laundry on the side and we opened for business. And that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial life. Within a couple of years, we expanded it to multiple universities. I dropped out of college and, you know, I never, never kind of looked back. So that's how it all started.

31:18Ryan Hawk:And then you sell to your partner, right? And then you started another business with the billboard. Like what was this billboards? That was my favorite one. I mean, I've, I've had about eight or nine companies, I guess now, but that, that one was just, it was so great. So basically what happened was, is I was in LA, which I had never been to before. and it was after my sister and I were on the reality TV show, The Amazing Race. And this is back, like, we're in season two. And that's when, like, reality TV stars were, like, real celebrities for about 15 minutes, the 15 minutes of fame, right? And so we were there and we were going to all the parties and doing all the stuff.

31:53And we're staying in Hollywood. And one of the things I was amazed at is there are these huge buildings with, like, big advertisements that either painted on or hung on the side, like now we see in Times Square or whatever. and they were these big movies and it was all entertainment oriented and i thought wow that's like the most effective advertising i've ever seen everyone in town knows the new jurassic park movies out because it's on the side of this building 50 stories hall and at the time i was living in nashville tennessee and i had this idea i was like i've never seen this in nashville but we have country music and i was like wonder if i could get the rights to put garth brooks on the side of a building with his new record release.

32:33And if I did, I bet you George Strait's going to want one or Dixie Chicks or Amy Grant or whoever. And so I spent a couple of years, it took me almost two years working with the city council in Nashville, and they would not allow advertising. So that was pretty much everyone normally would say you're dead in the water, right? Okay, no advertising. But I recognized and convinced them that we would never have any ads. So there would be no price for the album. There would be no call to action. But what we would do is country music art. And country music art would be the album covers because they're beautiful things.

33:10And we'll just leave it at that. And I realized too that there was a lot of egos in town. So once I had one, they would all want a huge picture of their new album on the side of a building. And that turned out to be a great business. I sold it to Clear Channel. And that's when I really think I got the entrepreneurial bug. I mean, doing the laundry is what everyone knows. They know that story because of the first one. But I was bringing in like 30, 50 grand a month as a 20 year old, you know, selling country music art. That's when I was like, okay, I think I've got a gift for this.

33:38Ryan Hawk:How was the amazing race? How did you get on the show? I mean, season two is early. I love that show. It's early days, early days. How did that happen? Basically, my sister and I wanted to be on Survivor, both of us. And we both sent in tapes. That's when you sent VHS tapes then to try to get on. And we got pretty far in the selection process. And then they realized that they got down to like the final 20 or 30 people for Survivor, which was already a big feat to get to the final group, that we were brother and sister. And they're like, we can't have a brother and sister on the show, but we had this other show they're perfect for.

34:10And so they called us and they said, hey, the show hasn't even come out yet. It's going to come out next year. Basically, it's a race around the world. You guys wouldn't do it. We're like, we're in. Wow. How was it?

34:20Ryan Hawk:I didn't see that season. How was it? Yeah. So it was great. We raced around the world 31 days and we lost a million dollars by four minutes. And it was my fault. What'd you do? So at the end, what happened was we got to San Francisco, which I had never been to. My sister had never been to. And we were leading the race. There were three teams left and we had to get to Pier 31. And I didn't know that the way the bay is shaped. And so I just said, my sister wanted to get a map and really figure it out. And I was like, we don't have time to go find a store to get a map and all this stuff. Let's just get to the water because obviously the pier is on the water.

34:58If we get to the water, we'll find Pier 31. So San Francisco is like this. We're here. We go here, which we really need to go the exact opposite way. So then we had to go all the way around the bay to get there. And we still almost won, but we lost by four minutes.

35:13Ryan Hawk:Oh, my goodness. Wow. Incredible. Well, I mean, Tom's is there, right? So I think a lot of people know the story of Tom's origin story, the success of it. How much of that are you still enjoy talking about? I mean, I don't know if that's the right way to ask the question. Or are you like, I just kind of want to move on past that. Where are you at with it? It's interesting because when I was really suffering mentally after selling Tom's, I didn't want to talk about it at all because I didn't feel worthy of the success that we had. Now I'm extremely proud of what we did. I actually can accept compliments.

35:48And I look back at magazine covers and awards in the White House and things, and I'm like, man, I wish I would have enjoyed that more. Like, we did deserve all that. We created a company that changed the world. And now I don't feel like I'm being egotistical saying that, but I really look back at how many businesses have been inspired to create giving or put purpose above profits. And I'm like, wow, that all started after we started Tom Shaves. So I'm extremely proud of it. And some of my greatest memories of my life are from those 11 years that I was running it. And, you know, I'm also excited to talk about the things that I'm working on now.

36:24One of the companies that I'm a co-founder of is called Morning Water. This was something that I did for years myself as a surfer. I would always like make a really big 20 ounces or 24 ounce thing of water. And I put creatine in it and I put L-theanine and magnesium and all these supplements. but it was like all these powders all over the place. And my friends would always say, what is that? And I always said, it's my morning water. And then one day my friend Ben, so I really give him credit for this. We were on the surf trip. He said, Blake, that's a good fucking name, morning water. I can see that in a store.

36:57You should trademark that. And so thankfully I was able to. And then I sat on it for six years, didn't do anything. And it's a funny story. I was at a men's retreat while I'm at the deepest part of my depression. Like I literally am barely hanging on. And I'm like, I just got to get out of the house. And a friend of mine suggested this great guy, Andrew, who runs his men's retreats. He said, just go and get out of the house and be with other guys. And I did. And I was there. And when I was there, there was this guy, Austin, young entrepreneurial guy. Most of the guys on the retreat were kind of entrepreneurial.

37:30He was like a little bit of a fan. He was like, wow. He's like, you're the founder of Tom's. And he's like, what are you doing now? And I'm like, dude, I'm just trying to get out of bed. Like, I've been depressed for the past few years. I'm not in a good place. I got divorced. and he kept pushing me. He kept saying, come on, you have to have something you're working on. And I think the only idea I've had in the last five years is this thing called Morning Water. And this is what it is. And he's like, can I do it? And I was like, what do you mean? Can you do it? He's like, well, this is great. If you're not going to do it, someone should do it.

37:59Like, what if I did it? I'll go finish the formula, get it dealed. I'll come to you. And if you like it, you can invest in it. And that's how it happened. And so we launched Morning Water like six months ago and we're actually totally sold out now. You can't even buy it online. We have a wait list. It's grown so fast, well before we thought, but it's been so fun. And so I like, you know, now I have other things to talk about than just Tom Sheets.

38:21Ryan Hawk:Well, we just got ours. Beautiful packaging. Oh, great. You got it. Awesome. Yeah, literally just mailed on. I was, wait, what is this? And then I was like, but this is beautiful. I'm excited to like dig into it, man. Yeah, is it 30 days? Just try it for 30 days as we tell people. You really need, I don't know if you use creatine now, but you really need about 30 days for it to kind of, you really feel the effects and you just take it first thing in the morning. You just put it in the water and chug it and yeah. Love it, love it. Really, really cool. I'm gonna talk a little bit of like business stuff and business building.

38:52Ryan Hawk:And so we can go from any of the businesses, but you were the CEO, but you didn't really wanna call yourself that. You wanted to call yourself the chief shoe giver. So how did you balance being the chief shoe giver and being the business CEO guy too? Because I think others may have the, passion and purpose behind what they're doing. But the other part is also necessary. And so figuring out how to balance those two could be useful. I'd be curious to hear how you balance those things. So I would say, as I've reflected on my career, the thing that I'm probably most proud of in terms of how I work, and I think one of the things I'm best at is finding amazing people to compliment my weaknesses.

39:33So I am a great storyteller. I'm very creative. I'm very good at sharing a vision and I have lots of energy. What I don't do well is necessarily run a supply chain or work on the finances, or I have trouble, you know, saying no to everyone, you know, like, so I needed some real guard wheels. And so very early on in Tom's, I surrounded myself with people who were good at running businesses, who really cared about the mission. You know, there was a woman named Candice who was kind of my right hand on the giving side. And there was another woman named Jill who was the right hand on the sales side.

40:14And then we had a great CFO. And I think that's where I was able to truly be the chief shoe giver. I mean, that was a title, but it was actually very representative of what I love doing and what I did that helped the business the most. And that was out giving shoes to kids and then telling stories about it. I mean, that was, you know, really what was so unique. And it was a very unique time too because we didn't have the proliferation of messaging that we have now and so a story like Tom's I could reach a lot of people through some basic channels like People Magazine, CNN, the New York Times and then Vogue Magazine.

40:52Now it would be much harder no matter how good a story you have. I mean we're seeing this with Morning Water. I mean my social media presence has helped us get a lot of people and then get other ambassadors and we're kind of learning that game, but it is definitely different than it was then. But to answer your question, I feel like I've always been really good at surrounding myself with people who are really good at things that maybe aren't my passion.

41:12Ryan Hawk:I think that's a commonality among leaders who have sustained excellence over time is they're really good at that part. They're understanding that they become the people who they surround themselves with. So let's get tactical for a second when it comes to hiring. So you're a great storyteller. There are certain areas you're good, and then you have enough awareness to realize there are certain areas where you need help from others to be good. When you're hiring to add leaders to your team, okay, let's broaden that a little bit. Okay. What are some of the must have attributes that a person needs to be a leader to work with you, as well as what questions are you asking?

41:51Ryan Hawk:Like, take me inside the room or the conversations or however you're finding and then hiring these people. What do they have to have? And then what do the conversations sound like to ensure you're not getting fooled through the interview process? Yeah, this is a very relevant question because this is what I'm doing for Sonia, the AI therapy app right now, because these guys are young. They're 26 years old. They're AI geniuses. They know how to build an incredible product that is up to a lot of people. But when I said, okay, I'm going to help you guys. One of the areas they said is you interview our key people as we're building because they're growing really fast.

42:25And that's what I've been doing is helping them. And I think I hopefully help them, you know, avoid a hire that I don't think would have been a good hire, you know, about a month or two ago. And the way is, I really am brutally honest about how hard the job is going to be. And I almost try to talk people out of the job. I mean, I explain, maybe I do it even in a dramatic way, because then I'm like, okay, if I can basically try to talk to this person out of the job, and they still desperately want the job, especially at a startup where they're not going to get paid a lot, then there's probably a real commitment to the mission.

42:59Because that's what I'm really looking for. I'm looking for attitude. Is this a roll up my sleeves? I'll do whatever it takes. I'm a team player person because that's what's key, especially in a startup. You got to have everyone feel that way. And then the other thing is, are they looking to be building a resume or do they want to build a movement? So like with Sonia, I was very clear with this person that we were potentially hiring and being like, this has a big, big mission. I mean, these guys think that they're going to change the world of mental health. They're going to provide therapy to people who've never been able to access it.

43:32And in order to do that, and especially with the competitive nature of an AI company, we're all working a crazy amount. Even though I'm just advising, I'm still advising well more than I thought I was going to be advising. And so if you're going to take this role, it's going to be your whole life for a little while. And so I think that's one of the things that I try to do is just be brutally honest about the negatives of a role. versus a lot of people. I think what they start hiring is they start getting in sales mode of trying to convince the person why it's such a great role. And then they end up convincing themselves that the person's a good fit.

44:03And when really what success, I think looks like is how many people did you convince not to take the role before you get the right person? So you're in there.

44:12Ryan Hawk:I assume before they get to you, they've probably already checked some boxes. Oh yeah. I'm the last one. You're the last one. So you're the one trying to talk about it. And if they're like, nah, Blake, dude, this is what I'm doing, man. I'm committed. You're looking for commitment and attitude and a willingness to get after it, even when it's really hard and you're not getting paid very much. Yeah. In this particular situation, obviously, if someone's hiring people and there's a leader of a Fortune 500 company, it might be very different. But I still think, you know, the most important thing of all the things I've learned and I had, you know, with 350 employees at Tom's.

44:43So I've done a lot of hiring and I've seen a lot of things. I think integrity is number one, because in this day and age, if you're not highest integrity, it will get figured out really fast. And the second thing is, is really attitude that you're the type of person that is not going to say that's in my job description or not. Like you're just like, this needs to get done. Let's figure out how to get it done.

45:07Ryan Hawk:You, uh, posted a, I don't know if they're still called like a thread anymore on Twitter, but there's a few of them that I just wanted to riff on. Is that cool? Right. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay. So one of them is you don't attract what you want. You attract what you are. Want honest friends? Be honest. Want peace in your home? Bring peace. Want trust? Practice it when no one's watching. So talk to me about you don't attract what you want. You attract what you are. Especially in relationships. I mean, in business and personal relationships. So the best way to find, in my opinion, a romantic partner is to work on yourself, just to really work on your own inner work, your own issues, and to try to clean yourself as much as you can from anything of the past that's holding you back.

45:55So then you can attract someone who will be a good partner. I think in business, it's the same thing. I even think your customers, like I think you attract great customers when you are a really great company. And I think when you're a company that is maybe not the most ethical or not the most forthcoming about your purposes, then you attract crappy customers. And ultimately, that is the reason why the business doesn't work. And so I really do believe that there's this, and this is probably more woo-woo-y, but there is this energetic thing about a person and how they attract other people or aspects of the business that really represent who they are at that moment.

46:34Ryan Hawk:It reminds me of that Charlie Munger story. He was speaking somewhere and someone came and said, hey, Charlie, how do I get a great wife? And he paused and he looked at me and he said, deserve one. And I thought, ah, you know what I mean? Like that's, you don't attract what you want, you attract what you are. Okay. I love Charlie. Yeah, me too. Next one, don't wait for permission. Most people stand in line at the front door. I look for side doors in Argentina. I didn't have investors or a plan. And I had an idea one for one. So, but this idea of like, well, they didn't say they were hiring. So I don't know.

47:09Ryan Hawk:It's like, no, I try to say this as a dad. I like, go, hey, drive to the place, knock on the door, talk to them. Even if it's like, this is a serving job. We were talking about, go drive to the restaurant, go talk to the manager. Everyone can apply online. Everyone can do that. You can't, no, we're not waiting for permission. We're going to go make it happen. So talk to me about the idea of not waiting for permission. I mean, I think that's been the key to my entrepreneurial success, honestly. I'm so glad you brought that up because I always say to people, the reason why I was able to have success in the different places I have is I had no experience.

47:42Like I had never made a shoe before. I didn't know the shoe industry. I didn't know any of the rules about shoes. So I was able to break them. I didn't know anything about outdoor advertising or the contracts you got to have with the different cities and all this. So I figured out a way to do country music art. I had an online driver's ed company. I'd never been in the driver's ed business. At that time, it was all in classrooms. That's where you had to go learn. It's in a mall and a Sears. And so I thought a better way of doing this is online. And I really learned that from Richard Branson. I want to give him credit.

48:11He's been a mentor to me. And I think he's one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. And I really learned that first by reading his books, then later getting to spend some time with him. But he loves, I mean, he has a whole book, I think it's called Break the Rules or something, a guide to a renegade entrepreneur. And it's a great book. And it really is about breaking the rules, asking for forgiveness, not permission.

48:33Ryan Hawk:Let's do one more. Sure. Be known for doing what you said you'd do. This seems obvious, but it's not. People talk and then they don't execute. Early on, you didn't have skills. So your reputation was all about execution, moving fast, keeping it simple, doing it with integrity. Momentum, you're right. I like this. Momentum is a form of trust. Be known for doing what you said you'd do. Yeah, I think it's just, and even more so than ever, especially for young people, it's like if you say you're gonna do something, you can't flake. I mean, it's just, it's that simple. Like, it's just like people have zero tolerance for that.

49:12There's someone else that wants a job. There's someone who else wants a gig. If you say you're gonna do something, then you do everything you possibly can to do that. Now, that's important for parenting. That's important for relationships. but I also think it's really important for business and especially entrepreneurs that are trying to get large customers. So for instance, in the shoe business, getting Nordstrom is a huge deal, right? Or getting Journeys is a huge deal. If you don't follow through with exactly what you say you're gonna do and ship those shoes when you say you're gonna ship them, you're out.

49:41So it's really important to be someone. And that's also about don't over promise either. That's the other thing. I think that's something I have made a mistake in the past. I get so excited. I have some false confidence and I over-promise something and then I can't deliver and that's always painful. But if that does happen, just own it and be honest about it and then you'll have that relationship with that buyer or that customer for a long time. Okay, this is awesome, Blake.

50:03Ryan Hawk:One more question before we point people to where to go and that is, let's fast forward a year. You are exactly one year from today. You are surrounded by all of the people that you love the most, right? Friends, family, everybody you love the most. And you guys are popping bottles. You're spraying grape juice on each other, or whatever it is that you want to be popping, right? You're celebrating like crazy. What are you celebrating? That's a great question. I love that question. I think my biggest goal or desire right now is to design a harmonious life. I actually recorded an Instagram post that's probably going to go live on Monday about this because it had something that a woman said.

50:52I was just the can ad festival. And this woman who is the head of, I think Google Health said, I gave up on life balance this year and started focusing on harmony instead. And it really struck me because so much of my life, I've thought about trying to balance it all. And I think that's like not really who I am. I go really hard and get really excited about things. And so sometimes I am full in dad mode and everyone at the office is like, when are you going to respond to those emails? We can't do this until you respond. And I'm so into dad mode that I don't care. And then sometimes I'm like, you know, when we launched the No Magic Pill podcast a few months ago, I was like all in doing tons of press, everything I possibly could to get that launched.

51:42And I missed some things with my kids. So my point in this is, is what I would be celebrating is if I have found a way to really make it working in harmony and everyone in my life feels that they are getting the attention that they need to thrive. you know so that's my romantic partner that's my kids and that's my business interest and then myself you know i can't forget myself so so that's really kind of what i'm my biggest thing is to really stop worrying about the balance of it all but look at it like on a year-long kind of experience of harmony i feel that i'm i'm on my way so very cool we'll definitely be checking on

52:24Ryan Hawk:that in a year from now and i'll be following up this is awesome dude i really appreciate where would you send um there's a few different things you're doing so where would you send people to learn more about everything you got going on yeah probably just my instagram it's at blake mycoskie and then also i have a website blakemycoskie.com and it has the list of all the different projects and things that i'm working on and and uh that's how you can find out the best so yeah blakemycoskie.com or at blakemycoskie perfect man thank you especially while you're down in costa rica for joining me. I love this and I would love to continue our dialogue as we both progress, man.

53:00Ryan Hawk:Thank you so much, Ryan.

53:04Ryan Hawk:It is the end of the podcast club. Thank you for being a member of the end of the podcast club. If you are, send me a note, Ryan at learningleader.com. Let me know what you learned from this great conversation with Blake Mycoskie. A few takeaways from my notes. Make your gratitude specific. don't just stop at, well, I'm grateful for my family. Name the exact moment, like that photo of your daughter laughing at camp or a specific text from a friend. Specificity is important. It makes it tangible. It makes it real. That goes for giving compliments, giving thanks. Be specific. Then you don't attract what you want.

53:49Ryan Hawk:You attract what you are. You want honest friends? Be honest. Want peace in your home? Bring peace. Want trust? Practice it when no one is watching. As Charlie Munger once said, how to get a great wife? Deserve one. You don't attract what you want. You attract what you are. Then be known for doing what you said you'd do. Blake said early on, I didn't have all the skills, so I built a reputation for execution. Move fast. Keep it simple. do it with integrity follow through on your word do what you said you'd do once again I want to say thank you so much for continuing to spread the message and telling a friend or two hey you should listen to this episode of the learning leader show with Blake Mycoskie I think he'll help you become a more effective leader because you continue to do that and you also go to Apple Podcasts and Spotify and you subscribe to the show you're rated hopefully five stars you write a thoughtful review by doing all of that you are giving me the opportunity to do what i love on a daily basis and for that i will forever be grateful thank you so so much talk to you soon can't wait