BILLIONAIRE Reveals Key Habits of THE RICH! Do This NOW to Make Money & Build Wealth | Michael Rubin

26:17If I'm in business and there's someone I'm competing against, that's a different story. Okay? But I'm talking about life. I want my friends to do amazing. I'd say like, I have certain friends where like, hey, if you could make X or I could make 50 times that, I'd rather you make X because like I'm good and I'm happy and I'm having a great time and I'm living my dream. So I think it's the healthy people want the best for the others around them. One of the things I see a lot of time is like cultures of like people trying to bring people down. I hate that. And I'm always saying this to like my daughter because she's 18 and she's like, you know, she's, you know, developing the same way I'm still developing.

26:49I'm always like, you want, They always be inclusive, bring everyone together, have people want to do great. That's what I say is an interesting observation. A lot of people don't want people to do great around them, and that's really weird to me. Do you think that's what makes them stressed and miserable or unhappy or have broken relationships? Look, people think, it's just so hard to say. I'm going to get ridiculed for saying this, but people think money fixes things. It doesn't, okay? You're either going to make the most of your life or you're not. So obviously with money, you have more access to so many things.

27:22Okay. But, you know, I tell you, I outwork just about anybody. I'm still working 18 hours a day, 350 days a year. And I love it. And that for me is fun. And I enjoy it. I'm learning and I'm growing from it. So it's not like I'm trying to like, I'm not like, you know, people see like, oh, they see the white party and the, you know, great. So I do, you know, three fun, but you know, I do the white party, this financial world party and together the Reform Alliance, which, you know, when the panel was up, we do the, you know, we started last year, the gals. So we do three big events a year. So those are fun moments people see, but my life is about grinding day in and day out.

27:53And I like that. That's not every day. Yeah, yeah. The grinding's every day. No, I mean, the grind's every day. The grind's every day. Yeah, of course. Yeah, do I do a fun Christmas vacation? You know, I used to be able to make fun of my friends publicly. Now we have to do it privately because I get ready to cool if I make fun of my friends now. What do you think is the energy of, you know, that drives people to, again, I think a lot of people that want to learn from you or someone that's like you with a massive net worth, big businesses, all these different things. I think a lot of people wanna know, how can I do that or my own way of doing that in my life while also being healthy and happy?

28:28Because I see a lot of people get burned out, celebrities who are young, not know how to manage the success of the fame, billionaires go bankrupt, all these or just do things that maybe don't align with the values. So I guess I'm curious about, do you think it's possible to be actually healthy and happy, have good relationships, with your family and friends and be uber successful? And if so, what does it take? What are the key habits that your friends who are that do on a consistent basis? Yeah, I think it's 100%. It's 100 % doable, and a lot of people do it. But some people, you know, look, the thing with a lot of really successful people is, like, what makes me, also it does make me a little bit different, is barely having been out of high school, not having gone to college, not reading.

29:18I'm not an intellectual. I'm kind of like a street smart. I still feel like a kid even though I'm not. So a lot of really successful people, they're naturally, they're awkward. They're not. They're a little uncomfortable in their own skin. You've gone out and you've had all this success and you're not sure how to deal with it to be still a normal, logical, rational person. I'm still like, you know, if you listen to the conversations I have with my friends, we make fun of each other the same way we did 10 or 20 years ago. And I take more from people. I take more than I give, although I give a lot of it as well.

29:55You know, I think it's just like, look, I see the greatest people in the world do great with handling it. I see a lot of people that get, you know, huge success. And, you know, it's really hard for them. I say, like, you know, keep the eye on the prize. Just like, you know, for the way you're asking the question, it's a really small percentage of people. They're super lucky. Like, appreciate that. And like, look, I know it's easier to say that, but like, you know, people say to me all the time, like anyone who stops me, I always try to be as nice as could be. And people say like, why are you always like that?

30:22I'm like, because I'm lucky. Like, if I'm not, I'm a bad person. There's a problem if I'm not like that. Right. That's probably what keeps you fulfilled and happy. Yeah. And like, I'm rooting for everybody too. Yeah. I'm rooting for everyone to do great. I think that's a key differentiator because most people that I think are unhappy with success or with what they have at a big level, they're competitive in terms of, They don't want to see their friends and they think of more, it's when I have to win and you have to lose versus how can we all win together? Yeah. Look, I know a fair amount of people who have gone down in business because you just, you meet a lot of people, you know, and a lot of them have handled it great and some haven't, you know, and it just depends who it is.

31:07It just depends who that person is. The thing I like to see by the time is someone who can do something, who can do it two or three times. You get one success, it could be luck. You get two or three successes, that's proven skill. By the way, you win one Super Bowl, you're really good, but you win a couple, you're really special. That's another level. Yeah. Speaking of Super Bowls, what do you think? You're close with Tom. I'm supposed to be interviewing him next week at an event. What's something about him that makes him so unique that other people, other athletes don't have? he's one of the most unique individuals on planet earth look he's become a really close friend of mine in the last few years i'll tell you that when you see his determination and grind you see why he had the success that he had and you know he's very athletic he's not the most athletic guy relative to you know whoever would be the most skilled whatever they he did it based on will to win And I see when you you're going to text me after you say, sure, like, I fully get this guy is a beast and he's going to win whatever he puts his mind to.

32:10And so when I look at him having won seven Super Bowls, I'm like, yeah, I would expect that. Like he's more determined. Like, by the way, I talk to him at five thirty in the morning, you know, more days than I talk to him at nine o 'clock in the night. He's so disciplined. He's so focused. And you see it in business, too. And he's he's one of the greatest human beings, one of the hardest working human beings. and I will tell you, he's had no luck. That's all will to win. Wow. Ask him to tell you the story of how he came back 28-3. You'll probably give me a little bit of a PG version of it. Okay.

32:41But tell him I told you to ask him. I will. But it's just like, it's his personality. We had a meeting with our biggest investors and I asked him to come and interview him in front of our investors. And you literally, you're there, you're just like, I want to get up and go kill everyone. It's just like, he inspires you like that. And it's like, I know people are some of the greatest athletes in the world. They just don't have the heart, man. He's got the heart. But it sounds like you've got the heart in life and business. How did you develop that heart? Or is that from parents? Is that from kids?

33:11Is that from not being good in school? Like, where did the heart come from? And how did you sustain it for decades? I think it's a combination of, one, not being good at so many things. Like, I was the worst athlete always. I was always picked last on every team. It was a joke. You go to pick teams as a kid, I was always the last kid picked. I was that uncoordinated. How did that make you feel? That a little bit, maybe angry. But that fire was good for me. It just made me want to work harder in business. Like, okay, if I was going to be a loser in sports, let me be a winner in business. Let me go to what I do best.

33:49The school thing bothered me less. I was like Ferris Bueller in high school. You could be out of here, yeah. Yeah, like I did a co-op program in high school where in my 11th to 12th grade years, I got out of high school at 11 o 'clock in the morning to work at the ski shop that I owned. And my grade, 50 % of my grades came from the grade that my landlord gave me. He just said, pay my rent on time. I'll give you an A on your co-op. And I still almost didn't graduate high school because I couldn't pass chemistry. Like I literally couldn't pass chemistry. and so like that stuff was all motivation to me and even if like something if something makes me mad or sad it's motivation period end of story motivation by the way tommy is exactly the same way you're gonna see that next week yeah but what makes you motivated though and how do you sustain motivation to be driven to overcome all the obstacles that come in your way every single day You're working with big business challenges.

34:52People trying to kill me every day. Like, the bigger we get, people trying to kill me every day. That's just the reality. You know, you close one eye and there's someone coming for you behind. Yeah, 100%. That's business. How do you stay calm, though, during the chaos and stay motivated when everyone's coming after you? Well, if you're not calm, you're going to make worse decisions. So I think you need to be calmer during the most important times. Also, by the way, something I've always believed. um you see i actually put something out when i put tom in front of our thousands of employees we were talking about how do you deal with the most high pressure situations always be calm is during these situations interesting um so you know it's i look i think some of it you're born with it some of it you can just muscle to but the most interesting thing i guess is there's never a time i need to work less and i've never worked harder because to me this is business is my drug okay that's what i love because i'm overall good at it by the way there's lots of things i need to improve my game on but i'm overall good at it and that's how i um you know that's how i i don't know if you're let me ask you a question if you're a professional athlete you want to stop playing sports you want to play as long as you can i wanted to play as long as i could i got injured which made me stop and most athletes want to play as long as they can right for me the great thing about being in business i think i can do the sport for the rest of my life.

36:07Yeah. So you don't have to worry about, you know, injury holding you back from playing. Yeah. Yeah. You could still be injured and be on the phone and negotiate deals. I worry about mental injury, which some might argue I have already, but you and me both, man. One of the things that I, I really appreciate about you is that obviously you've built, you know, massive businesses, but you care a lot about philanthropy and giving back as well. Make a Wish Foundation, you guys have did a big partnership with them, which I think is really cool, but also the Reform Alliance, I think is really inspiring.

36:37It's really about criminal justice reform. Growing up, my older brother went to prison for four and a half years. And just watching what happens to inmates in prison after prison is a challenge. It's supposed to be rehabilitation. Yeah, exactly. And in a lot of cases, it's actually getting you stuck in the system. And I know there's a lot of people who will say, oh, once someone does something wrong, they need to be in prison. that could be the right answer in a lot of cases, but the point of prison is to help rehabilitate someone, not to entrap them for the rest of their little life. Exactly.

37:07So I really acknowledge you for not just wanting to make the most money and build the biggest business, but also for trying to make change in different areas with kids, with prison reform, all these different things that you do. And a lot of these things are public, and you have partners on all these things. But I'm curious, what's the thing that people don't know about you that you're most proud of? The stuff that's not out there online, the stuff that, you know, isn't public information. What's the thing about you that you're most proud of that people don't know? Well, first, let me, you know, you brought out the things that we try to do to make the world a better place.

37:41That's our responsibility. Yeah. Like if you're in the position that I'm in, you have a responsibility to try to make the world a better place. I don't think we can do enough of that. I mean, I really feel that way. I also will tell you something that I didn't know. Remember, I was a person, I've been very public about this until 2017, I would always give money to people that were important to me, causes that were important to me, always help financially. I never did the work. My work was just giving the money. And then obviously I went through the experience that everyone knows with my friend who went to prison for not committing a crime.

38:10And seeing that firsthand, being in a courtroom watching someone go to prison for two to four years for not committing a crime, for going for a probation violation, for popping wheelie on a motorcycle, like I felt powerless and hopeless for what was happened to my friend for the first time because I couldn't help him. And I think putting the work in for that changed my whole perspective because upfront people thought, um, and what everyone said to me is don't get involved with this is going to hurt your business. You know, everyone told me, I just went with my instincts of like, you know, I had to be there together with, you know, we ended up with another friend that helped as well to help make a, you know, to help fix this.

38:48And the most interesting thing was a couple of years later when the pandemic started, we did this giant um you know kind of fundraiser called the all-in challenge it was you know pretty spectacular raised 60 million dollars for you know for food insecurity and we were sure it was going to hurt our business and ended up helping our like we thought hey we're going to be asking our customers to donate to this at a time when there's no sports and we're a sports company it's going to hurt the business what actually happened was it created a halo for our business so one of the fascinating things interesting if you do the right thing some way somehow you're going to get paid back and karma eventually and i didn't know that before really so i will tell you i just gave money my whole life until 2017.

39:28then when we put the time and i spend real money like i spend i'm sorry i spend real time not money i spend real time in addition to money trying to do things to make the world a better place those things whether they pay dividends to yourself and how you feel whether it's the people you help it's whether there's overall just good karma that comes back to you they always benefit in the long run so i'm always saying to big business leaders man do the right thing personally helping people you'll get that paid back for sure yeah and i've seen that a thousand times over so and it may not happen this year or right away doesn't it you just if you're you're you're just you're you're building up chips yeah you're building up chips and look so so you used to give financially but now you're you're giving more energy i only i gave zero energy only money until 2017 yeah yeah and i used to me the question hey you know you're someone that's important to me you have something that's important to you how can i wear you the chicken check as quickly as possible to get you out of my office so I can go back to business.

40:23And then I had this life-changing experience with my friend, and that really opened my eyes. And then we've done so many charitable things since. It's like doing Make-A-Wish, oh my God, what an eye. By the way, if you don't care about Make-A-Wish, I say this all the time, because Make-A-Wish is like the greatest thing we're involved with. No one can say they don't like Make-A-Wish. You could say you don't believe in criminal justice reform. There are a lot of people who would say, hey, they don't care about your brother. They don't care what happened to my friend. You know, they made a mistake.

40:46They should go rot in prison. Okay. I've heard that a thousand times it's been said to me. Okay? I don't agree. I believe we should help people get a second chance or a third chance. But that's up for debate to who you want to debate it with. But helping kids who are terminally ill. Right. If you don't like that, you're a bad, I'll say right now, you're a bad person. If you don't like Make-A-Wish, you're a bad person. Like, tune me out of your life. Okay? So what an honor it is for us. Like, I remember I just, I was at an All-Star game and we had these kids and, you know, we brought them to All-Star Week and with Make-A-Wish and, you know, We do all the sports things we do together with Make-A-Wish and Finax.

41:18We do everything together in sports. And I say to these kids, you guys are so gracious to me. I want to thank you because you're inspiring me. You're inspiring our company. All the people that get to work with Make-A-Wish, man, they're inspired by you. And it's such a great thing to do. That's beautiful, man. But what would you say? Is there a moment or something that you're most proud of that people don't know about? it's probably the look there's so many little things you do every day to help people that you know you never talk about you just you want to do it to make a difference for people you know and I care about that because I think I'm lucky and so if I'm lucky I should be able to you know give back in whatever way I can absolutely how do you think someone creates more luck in their life so I'm a so I'm a pretty superstitious person which might sound weird but I'm a pretty superstitious person sure By the way, I'm the type of person that can't, like, if my team is winning, like, I'm not moving.

42:15Like, I'm weird like this. I've got some weird superstitions. You know, don't switch seats. If I'm playing blackjack in a casino, you know, I'm not switching up. Like, I believe in keeping what's working going. How do you make better luck? I think be a better human. Like, that's the truth. Like, be a good human, you'll create your luck. Okay? Hard work and be a good human. yeah do you ever feel guilty for your luck no no feel like i feel appreciative that's good feel appreciative but i don't feel guilty yeah what would i have to you know why do you know the things i would feel guilty about would be like if i miss something if i let somebody down that's where i feel the guilt why do you think some people who who have created more opportunities for themselves sometimes feel like bad for the success they've created have you ever seen that with anyone um not much to be honest no i think look at the end of the day you make your own luck anyone who says like you know look to be successful in business you need to you know be smart have a good strategy get the right people outwork your competition add luck to that yeah you need luck to go with that okay so it's a component but i think like you make your own luck too do you think if you would have chose a different business model or a different industry, you'd be able to create what you've already created by now?

43:39Or do you think a lot of it is kind of timing, the luck, being in the right place, right time to get you launched? But obviously you have to keep sustaining it year after year, and you could go out of business like you almost did in 2009. But do you think you could also just do this in a completely different industry at this time as well? I do, really. I do. I know it sounds obnoxious and confident, But I do. And I'm not going to lie about that. So here's the question. When I was 16 years old and I ran out of money and the sheriff showed up at my house, you know, every day with the new lawsuits for three months straight.

44:13And then I turned that near bankrupt experience into, you know, being the largest, you know, closeout company in the world at age 21, doing$100 million and making$10 million a year. Was that luck? Or was that, you know hard work and just unrelenting personality you know when i almost you know got margined out of my company pushed on my company in 2009 was that luck was that you know my just unrelenting attitude i would say i made my luck in those situations now still have good like like i might leave here look at my phone and someone might tip me off to something that i need to know about competition or something and like that's you know something but it's a common it's kind of like, again, great relationships, build great relationships.

44:56That'll make good luck for you too. That's great. A lot of people here who are watching and listening, there's a lot of entrepreneurs here. I see people struggle as they don't have a lot and they start to earn more and more. You know, if they go from zero to a hundred thousand in sales and then to a million, then 10 million and beyond, you see people's energy start to shift as they earn more. Did anything shift for you energetically inside or emotionally when you went from your first million to a hundred million to a billion yeah i got hungrier i'm just being honest and by the way i shouldn't say this but i think it's lame for the people who got more lazy and more complacent like i have a friend who we will not name or give any hints to but the person made tens of billions of dollars and um i was sitting with them once won't talk about where so i don't call anybody out and they were just like they were done they didn't want to do it again i was so uninspired by that i was like this lame man i left like i had no interest in that person interesting but what is there besides hunger of wanting to create more give more all these different things contribute more was there an emotional energy shift of like oh this is more exciting i have more money in my bank account or my net worth now it's like i've got a different feeling or identity about myself because i think a lot of people's identities shift when they hit certain financial marks or exit companies so So mine have never.

46:24People might call on that. Go for it. Yeah. I will tell you because I'm always paranoid about, you know, what's going to go wrong. Okay. And if you stay paranoid and you stay hungry, then I don't think that you, I don't feel those things. Like when we do, like we have great things that we happen all the time. Like I'll be like, okay, we can celebrate it for 60 seconds. Let's get right back at it. Okay. Okay. So, but I think it's more the fear of, I recognize like, you know, I built, we have three businesses today, Finanx Commerce. I built it from a$250 million business to a$6.3 billion business.

47:00And now, and I look at that and some people would say, oh, that's great. I'm looking at what are all the things we need to do to reinvent the business, to get from where we are today, to get to, you know, our next chapter. For us, it's about, you know, we haven't been good enough from a consumer experience. We need to be great, not good. Okay. Getting 99 % right. If you get 1 % wrong when you have 70 million transactions a year, that ain't good enough. Wow. Okay? And we're worried about how do we become just great at product where we haven't been great at product. So, like, I'm always thinking about how to, like, I'm not worried about, I'm not saying, oh, this was some great accomplishment.

47:31I'm saying, man, here are all the things we don't do right so we can be that much better in the future. You know, in our gambling business that we've just launched, we're now in 20 states with FNAX Sportsbook. I'm like, hey, I got FanDuel and DraftKings that own 80 % of the market. I want to figure out how I take real share from them. by the way, I'm friends with both of them. Great companies, but we're playing a game. I want action. Let's go, baby. In the collectibles business that I just got in three and a half years ago, I got lots of companies trying to kill me. That's my normal day is people trying to get me from behind, all kinds going wrong.

48:01You just got to be smart, be disciplined, be thoughtful, prioritize, and focus. Wow. When you go into a new business, like the gambling business, let's say, and there's already different market share leaders, there's a couple, two or three people that are kind of having the market share. What is the mindset you go into of like, we're going to launch into a new space. Sure, we've got a big customer base already, a big brand, lots of money, resources team, but they own the market right now. What's the thought process of saying, we're going to go into this. And what are the three things you think about of launching into a space and how to really take over market share?

48:41So it's a great question. I'm going to let you into my brain right now. This is like something like I've definitely never talked about. It's fascinating if I even examine it myself every day, which I do. So when we started in the merchandise business that we call Finanx Commerce, we were the third player in the market. And through, you know, a lot of hard work and innovation, we became the number one player still with so much to do. Like we have so much to be better in that business. Of course. Okay. But you're number one. We are. And in the collectibles business, we were - Side note there, how long did it take you to go from third to number one after launch?

49:20Third to one was probably only three or four years. Three or four years. Okay. Sorry, go next. Collectibles. By the way, 24-7. Like, I'm worried about everything. Paranormal about everything. Obsessed. Okay. Okay. And I think what's more interesting for me, actually, is where we are today. How do we completely reinvent ourselves? because now we're only focused on how do we become the best consumer company in the world? Anytime someone gives us shade over something we screwed up or something that they go well, it actually hurts me. It bothers me. Like, I sit up, I'm obsessive. I sit up and look at social media.

49:51I don't look for people saying great things. I look for the negative comments. Are they right or wrong? If they're wrong, I don't care. If they're right, how do I use that to be better? I'm sending notes to people all day long saying, how did this happen? How do we be better? Just to use it to make us a better business, okay? In the collectibles business, we weren't in the business three and a half years ago. Now we're the top player in the business and we're innovating and we're making the consumer experience, the collector experience so much better. And we're marketing that hasn't been done before.

50:19It's fascinating. But the interesting thing is we're the, you know, I'd say we're the leader in each of those two businesses. In gaming, I said, okay, look, gaming, online sports betting and iGaming is going to be a really big business long term. Okay? Potentially, if we had that same type of leadership, it would be the best of the three businesses. Okay? But today we're not in it, but we have some real strategic advantages. We have 110 million customers. We do 70 million transactions a year offline and online. We're going to use that to kind of cross-sell customers in the gaming. But now I'm a year into it.

50:56I came up with the idea three years ago. We're now three. Launched it. We launched a year ago. Now, we're just, as of today, we're in 20 states, 19 under the Fanatics brand, one under the PointsBot brand. We'll be all under the Fanatics brand April 30th. Okay, everything will be under one brand. And what we've been focused on is obsessively building the best product. And then once we do that, getting ready to cross on. The most interesting thing is, I don't know sitting here today, am I going to win or not? Now, I have that confidence that I've done it in commerce. I've done it in collectibles, but I have that concern.

51:32Hey, you got FanDuel, DraftKings, MGM, great companies, okay, that are really good competitors. But I love playing that game. That, to me, is so fun. And so not knowing exactly what that, like, am I confident? Yes. But do I know? No. So what do I need to do? I need to build a great product. I need to have great relationships with my customers, okay? and they leverage all the assets they have at Fanatics, the relationships with 110 million customers, the relationships with thousands of athletes, and use that to build our business in a way that's great for everybody. Wow. But I don't know what the answer is yet.

52:08This is fascinating. So by the way, if you're listening, make sure you give us a chance. Go to Fanatics Sportsbook. Get on the app. Try it out. I think you're going to like it. There you go. My only pitch. I like it. I like it. So when you're thinking of a new space to launch into, You know, you did the commerce, you did the collectibles, you did, you know, now gaming. Are you thinking, this is a really interesting space. I could see it blowing up. We should get into this. Is that kind of part of the philosophy? So what I'm generally thinking about is, is it a big enough business to be worth our time?

52:37Yeah. Which is probably a billion dollar minimum. I'd say at this point, we need to think it's a billion dollar profit business long term, not revenue, profit. Okay. So number one, is it a billion dollar profit business long term? That's actually our number. Number two, is it completely synergistic with the rest of our business? And most importantly, this is the most important thing, can we make it better for the fan? Okay? Than what's already out there. Yep. Interesting. And by the way, in some cases you have what's out there has not been good enough, so better is still not good enough. Right, right, right.

53:11Still not great. Right. And we've been there certain times. But at this point it's like, can I do something that's better for the fan? Is it completely synergistic? is it a big opportunity if we don't get yeses to all three we're out that's interesting i love getting inside your mind now now when you're thinking of like okay here's you know gaming betting all these different things are you then checking out all the competitors that are out there the maniacally so you're you're downloading the apps you're checking out you're researching it how many their business model everything i'm talking to everybody known to mankind really i'm meeting with the companies i'm meeting with the analysts i'm meeting with employees i'm interviewing people to learn.

53:48I'm learning everything I can. And how long I can't, I can't read. Right. So you're interviewing everyone to research. How long will you do that research phase for? Is that a few months? Is that a year before you decide we're going all in? It depends. There's sometimes like I've researched media for years and said, we're not doing anything. Really? I researched ticketing and said, we want to offer tickets to our customer. We don't want to be a ticketing company. We just want to work to have them for our loyalty program, for our most important customers. So I do a lot of research that nets out of not doing it.

54:20Interesting. Okay. For me right now, we have three businesses. Finax Commerce, Finax Collectibles, Finax Gaming. They're all massive opportunities. I don't want to do anything new. Anything I do is to support those three businesses, to be better in those three businesses, to make the fan experience better. Wow. And so you'll research yourself. I'm sure you'll have teams researching as well. But I'm a big, I will say on something new, I'm the biggest researcher myself always. Right. That's always how I'm learning. You have to love it and be excited about it. Look, we just started a new business called Fanatics Events, which is basically, you know, I went to, there's so many of these local trading card shows, and they look like they're, you know, they look like they're flea markets from 30 years ago.

54:56Yeah, mom and pop stuff, yeah, yeah. Then I went to Comic-Con, I'm like, this is incredible. How do I do this for sports? And then we said, we're going to launch this. By the way, I did that, and I walked into Comic-Con 10 minutes later, I said, I'm launching Fanatics Events, and I'm hiring the CEO of Comic-Con. Really? And I get this guy in my office, and we hire this guy. Yeah. You hire him just like that? I made the decision in 10 minutes. There are other times I'll look at something for three years and say we're not doing it. Wow. How did you get the guy to leave Comic-Con to come run your business?

55:22What would be more fun than building the biggest and best sports event in the world with Fanatics? I mean, think about this. Do you want to, I mean, Comic-Con, Fanatics Fest, Fanatics Fest can be so much more fun. That's cool. We're launching our first event, August, Javits, New York City. I bet you we have 100 ,000 people come to this with the best athletes in the world, best brands in the world, all the sports properties doing incredible stuff. That's amazing. Yeah, it's exciting. It's fun. But I still sweat it. Like, I'm worried every day. Is everyone going to show up? You know, by the way, is everyone going to be there going to actually be there?

55:53I mean, it's no different than, like, you know, you still have these crazy, you know, thoughts each night. I wanted to ask you about the Fanatics Athlete Immersion Program. Can you share more about that? Yeah. Look, first, without the incredible athletes that play on the field, on the court, on the ice every day, we got no business. I got nothing. I'm in a different industry. So we're super appreciative of that. One of the things that I'm always getting people reaching out to me and asking me from, you know, current athletes, you know, professional athletes is like, you know, hey, I'm interested in business or, hey, you know, I want to figure out what, you know, how I can build this business.

56:28So we thought like we were the company perfectly positioned to create like the dream intern program. And so basically we've played around with it for several years. But in the last couple of years, we said we want to go on and do this. So we're now taking 60 professional athletes, three classes of 20. We've got a class coming up in July that will be NBA and NHL players. We did – I saw the NFL one you did. Yeah, we just did an NFL and WNBA one, and then we did one in November that was baseball and WNBA. And we'll have curriculum from having – you know, the CEO of Mitchell Ness talk to them about how to build their own brand.

57:05The person who runs our social impact talk about how to make the world a better place. to our CFO talking about how to build the business to our strategy talk person talking about how we decide what to do and what not to do. Then we bring an outside guest. We have the CEO of Verizon, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, the CEO of the CMO of Visa, Robert Smith, who's the richest black guy in the world, come in and talk to these players about how they built their businesses. So it's like Fanatic's giving them kind of the day course of everything that we can show them and then getting great outside speakers.

57:39It's amazing. Watching the look on players' face, they love going through it. And we do it for one week, and it's a great program. That's amazing. There's so much stuff people can find out about you. I've got two final questions for you, but I want people to follow you on Instagram, Michael Rubin on Instagram. Where else should we go to be of support or service to you and learn more about everything you're up to? Well, first, we love, because look, we're in the consumer business. I mean, go tell us what we do well and what we don't do well. By the way, we like when you tell us we do well. We also like when you tell us we don't do well.

58:11That's helpful input. That makes us better. Where do they do that? Where do they send that message? People allow it. People email you. They hit the company. Sometimes they hit social. But we're looking at everything. And we're trying to fix anything. By the way, look, we're in the consumer business. We have so many transactions. We touch so many customers. 70 million transactions a year? Yeah. And we don't get everything right. And so if we don't get everything right, we own that. We want to be better at it. So we love feedback. you know so we love the good feedback we love like i went out you know what we did last week at the launch it was like the feedback was amazing you know you know there are other things that you know we'll just you know look you know we'll have issues that go wrong with things but we always want that feedback that's how we get better and we're learning we grow but we care so much that's beautiful michael well i want to i want to acknowledge you before the final two questions for your drive man it's inspiring to watch your drive this season of life with the success you have What do you mean I'm a kid?

59:03I mean, you're a little older than me, at least. I don't believe that. Make me feel like an old man. You're a kid. You're older chronologically, but biologically, you've got the heart of a kid and the drive of a kid. Always. But the thing I appreciate about you from our interaction is just your desire for feedback and your coachability and saying, how can we get better? We're not perfect. We make mistakes. We want to get better. Send us feedback. And I think that's one of the things that if people can take away a lot from this interview, but great athletes who sustain it for years are coachable, just like in business, you know, great individuals, great people in relationships.

59:40And so I love that you say, I know I'm not perfect with all the things we do, but I want to get better at giving me feedback. I'm not going to take it personally. I'm going to say, awesome. Thank you. Now I'm going to go improve it. And I think that mentality and mindset is one of the keys that has supported you continually in making you greater products, greater business, greater teams, and all these things. So I really acknowledge you for your drive. Thank you. Your commitment, just your passion for business. You make business look fun. It is. You make it look exciting. No, I don't make it look fun.

1:00:09It is fun. It is fun. Well, some people, it's exhausting. Well. And they're drained, and it takes a life out of them. But you show a different side of it. Then you miss an opportunity. Exactly. By the way, when you played football, was it exhausting? But it was also fun. It was a lot of fun, man. But it was also exhausting. But I don't know. Two people. One person could say it's exhausting. Another person could say it's fun. I look and say it's fun. Exactly. It's exhausting sometimes, but I love it. Yeah, exactly. But thank you. Look, I think that is a strength of mine. And I got lots of weaknesses, but that's a strength of mine.

1:00:40And I'm loving every minute of what I do. That's beautiful. Final two questions. This is a hypothetical question, so bear with me for a second. Imagine you get to live as long as you want in this life. Hypothetically, you can live hundreds of years old and you get to accomplish and create everything you want to create in your life. The businesses, the philanthropy, the success, all of it, it all comes true. But for whatever reason, in this hypothetical scenario, you have to take all of your content with you. So this interview is gone when you, you know, in a hundred years, anything you put out in the world of interviews or messages or social media, it's all gone.

1:01:17So no one has... Sounds peaceful. Yeah, right. But no one has access to your content anymore, the things you've said. But on the final day, you get to leave behind three lessons. And this is all we would have of your information and your content. I call it three truths. What would be those three truths for you? Rolling on this planet for so long, maximize every minute, enjoy every minute. And to me, enjoying every minute is doing what I do at work for the most part.

1:01:47to get the right people around you. The right people take you everywhere. The wrong people take you down. And so get the right people around you. And by the way, learn from each other. And third, you know, failure is an opportunity. Don't let it bother you. We all fail in life. We all have lots of failures. Take each one of them, learn from it, grow from it. Those three things would be three that I think of right off the top of my head. Those are beautiful, man. Final question, what's your definition of greatness? That's a really good question. I would say, I would think about two things for me.

1:02:22So I'm not giving you the exact answer you asked me. One would be winning at the highest level. And the second would be, you know, doing it the right way every minute of the day. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

1:02:57And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.