How to Design a Life That Runs Without You | Rob Dyrdek

30:26Sure. But they don't look at it like that. You know what I mean? It's like we're going for that plantar. So that's number four. Yes. Number five. And number five is, you know, I'd rather say sleep, right? So huge. And all these things are standard. Yes. Right? All these things are standard. And to me, here's what I've learned. Here's the biggest lesson I've learned in five years is the mastery of my capacity. And your capacity is taken by a lot of different things. But one of the main things that takes your capacity is stress. And what I'd call stuck stress. things that you just can't release can't let go people in your life all these different things people just don't like the stress over money stress over where you're at like relationships yeah it's like there's it is this this this drainage on your energy that pulls from your actual capacity right then now you uh try to over correct and try to do all these things and then you get burnt out, right?

31:31Like even super like, like ambitious driven people, like they just like, it's like, just keep the hammer down all the way till you need a complete reset. Right. And, and, um, the only way to get capacity, once you get to a place of, of free, right, where I have no more stuck stress and that stress doesn't exist inside me. Right. Like, um, all of the things that ever caused stress, I cleared and then built systems to protect me from ever happening. Right.

32:01Lewis Howes:What was the one you had to let go of? That was the hardest. Look, I'm there. There's no specific one because I do that. The beauty of that qualitative asking yourself every day, how do I feel about my life? How do I feel about my work? How do I feel about my health? When you ask yourself that you come up with a number and a reason why. And when the number is low and you and the reason why is someone you work with like and that happens two or three times it's so clear to you that okay i need to remove this or i need to adjust it or whatever yeah and i think even like a big one early on was just not understanding money right like and you know we talked about in 2016 how profound uh you know money match the game was for me and and how it began this evolution of learning money.

32:50But it was a huge one for me. But in that period, once I saw that happening, man, this is actually bringing to surface all these things about my life, work and health that are bothering me that became now easy to eliminate because it's like, oh, well, there's that again. Like, okay, let's just stop that, right? Versus like when it's coming from all these different ways, it's hard to tell what is actually causing the stress, Right. And so as I got to that level of getting clear, now there's this extraordinary energy behind it. Right. And so part of that process, too, was like, OK, I no longer want to do things that take energy from me.

33:32I only want to do things that give me energy. So here's your option. You need to either like learn it really well so that that it can be it can take less effort. So it now begins to give you energy, like not take it from you. You either need to automate it or you need to hire someone. Outsource it. Yeah. You know, and it's like as I as I transition to seeing everything through the lens of how do I drive it to automation? Everything began to change.

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36:24Lewis Howes:What were the three biggest things you automated or outsourced that were taking a lot of energy from you? I mean, look, you've got to think I've built an entire system around my life. And this is my chief of staff and my two assistants run my life operating model called the Rhythm of Existence. That's an 80-page document that is basically food delivery, how our housekeepers and nannies work, like travel, like haircuts, like meeting agendas, schedules, family agendas, all the weekly date nights, everything to do with operating and running my entire existence. All the else, like if there's a leak, you just go into the document, here's all the plumbers that would deal with it.

37:06Like it is basically eliminating a giant aspect of your core life that now is humming by itself. In a great example of true, like create something, automate it, and then optimize it, right? Because greatness is found in optimization after you've automated, right? And is ridiculousness, right? Because you've got to think, I used to shoot 30 or 40 a year and, you know, it would take all this time of lead up and production. It would take so much energy. I'd be there all day to shoot two episodes. And I eventually started to optimize it, evolve it. Then I went to shooting three a day. Then I started to stop going to production meetings and standardized how we delivered scripts to me.

37:59And now I no longer have to look at no guest scripts. I just slowly got the entire thing down to where I don't even need to meet with producers anymore. They send me the shows. I have the scripts with all these adjustments I can make. I watch it one time, make all my adjustments, and then go shoot it. And now I shoot six a day instead of shooting two a day. And I shoot six between 9 a.m. and 3 o 'clock where I used to shoot two between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. right and so you know when you look at my time you know where i i've tagged my time and and you know again designed pure balance right and then tagged it all in the calendar and so it gets it pumps out the dashboards of how i spent my time and it's even fascinating to me that you know i i spend 30 with my family 30 uh sleeping 30 working 10 on health but when you look at the data i shoot 250 episodes and it is four percent of my total time in a year right and that is when you have just gotten to a place of extraordinary optimization and efficiency but what what is it it becomes effortless right you're not even like it's not even it's no longer even like a part of your you don't have to you it's not it only requires the energy to go and do it where in the beginning you're thinking about it all the time you're thinking about the get what do i got to do and like and then you're trying to get prepared and all of these things that are part of that that ultimately get there now i go back to it's four percent and takes very little energy so it leaves i have a i have a ton of capacity right so it's like every time something comes every time i do something new it's like how can i drive it what's the pathway to automation you Because even doing the podcast, it's like launching a podcast.

40:04Lewis Howes:Bill with Rob, make sure you subscribe. Watch it. Subscribe, subscribe. But it was, I didn't want to just, I didn't know how I wanted to do it. But I knew that I didn't want to do it interview style. Because it's like, I just think of how hard it is to book guests. That's a lot, man. It's a full-time job. That's what I'm saying. I think of all that, then researching to get all these things. When I think about pushing to that, it just didn't, it was too difficult. Then it was like, why am I doing it? Because I need a platform for people to hear the way that I speak and think about business to attract other great entrepreneurs to want to build companies with me.

40:49That is the primary focus of it. Right. And ultimately, like, who better to do that with than just the people that you build companies with? Right. So that's why I launched it of just telling the stories and now it's partners going through it. You know, even bringing a partner investor in Mind Ride and Outstanding Foods on and being a part of a show. It's still not automatic. Right. That's still a ton of difficulty. And I'm continuing to transition the format until I can get to a place where I can see it, where I could do it effortlessly.

41:28Lewis Howes:It's almost like you need a co-host to queue it up for you or something. Yeah, no, the really way I envision it, because you know I take pitches on dirtickmachine.com if people want to pitch businesses. Then I've transitioned to basically giving advice to them about their business. And I get a ton of energy from that, right? and using the background of my experience and my current portfolio companies to give them business. Then I also give them life design advice as sort of a mentor and like here's how you just think about your life. And what I realize is, man, that gives me a ton of energy and has broader appeal.

42:01It's much easier for me to execute. And then I've been doing on the ones that I'm doing now like a big monologue in the beginning of just like what, like a philosophy in business or life that I'm in the middle of. So now I can share these thoughts that I have about the way that I'm thinking about everything. I have a great forum for that. And then I can share advice and knowledge with fellow entrepreneurs as like a tool for people that are actually in it. And I can automate that. Yes. Because it's the people that are sending in the questions that want to be on the show that are producing the show.

42:40And then I'm in the rhythm always of ideating on big ideas that I can share as something more unique as part of the show to go along with it. But together those, I don't got to try to get you out there. I don't got to try to get Billy G out there. I can do these at scale. And now I can optimize it. Now how do I just make this better and better and better? And how do I just turn that now into the entrepreneur's life and business Dave Ramsey type of show? You know what I mean?

43:15Lewis Howes:He doesn't need guests on all the time either. It's his philosophy, coaching, mentoring. Right, right. And something I get way more energy from. And then I still bring on my partners to be part of the monologue, to be advice on part of the show. When we launch a new company, I still do the specials to do it. But I launched it and I had to feel through it. I had to feel through it, right? Because another thing that I really discovered over these five years that, you know, I originally developed it for the process of creating businesses. But I realized it's actually anything you ever want to do in your life.

43:51And you first have to come up with the idea, right? You know, the discovery phase. We call it the machine method. The next thing you do is diligence. Okay, do I want to do this? What does it take to do this? Like you've got to like figure out like, you know, do I want to do this? Then you got to build the plan, right? Like so now you build the plan and boy, it's exciting because now you're like, oh man, this is going to be amazing. Right. Then the plan fails at some point. No, look, then you launch it. Right. Now it's real. Right. Now it's like, oh my God, this doesn't work. Is this ever going to work?

44:21It's all the doubt. You know, in business, they call it the valley of death, right? You don't have a real business until you have product market fit. But I believe that then when you get past the launch and you find product market fit, you scale. You now grow. You expand and grow because you figured it out. You learned everything that you needed to learn to be able to plan more precisely to actually achieve what you didn't fully understand when you built the plan earlier because you'd never done it before. You have to actually experience something to begin to understand what you actually need to do to accomplish it.

44:53But you could almost tie that to anything you attempt to do. That's a relationship. right when your first relationship oh we kind of like you're like let me see is she really like the one like hey your couple dates like hey let's get into a relationship oh was that offended you like oh you don't like oh you're like i don't really like silent movie you know whatever it's like before you decide if it a fit boom you can grow together right like it's it's this almost foundational structure of any creative idea growing having the ability to grow and scale

45:25Lewis Howes:right and you gotta take the exploration phase test it out see what works when i think about our first podcast my energy five years ago yeah five years ago you hadn't built a brand yet look no i had had super jacket a little bit at streetly but had not like like and sold a company yeah hadn't built and sold a company had the vision was i'm gonna build and sell a hundred and make a billion dollars in liquidity never sold one in my life but i did that first i decided this is what i'm gonna do i'm gonna build this plan then i then i spend all that time uh going through all the things that i need to do that then i designed it when i um sat with you five years ago august 26 2016 i had just launched and it was like this is gonna be amazing look at this the machine i got you know it's like here's all the do or die you spent two years like with research firms helping you develop this process.

46:22Lewis Howes:You had the whole thing mapped out, ready to go. It was going to just explode everything. And I literally got into the deepest, craziest waters. And by 2.0, I had almost an entirely different philosophy. By the time I redid and now discovered those phases, discovered capital staging, discovered all of the points of growth, what had happened to all the different companies because keep in mind i did like literally and from when i left like our podcast to like eight months later it was like it was like like 10 brands i did you made a bunch of investments boom boom boom boom boom you know and really um you know again coming out of here introducing me to billy g and then doing you know taking fresh soul to pig out and outstanding it's like was in that era momentous black feather whiskey like um where to like all of these like like made by science chemistry it was like one after another in that gap and then by the time the second year came by and they were like in chaos right like it was all of our chaos we're like i need to restructure it was some were really working some were not it was like well why is that like what happened like why is this one out of care like it was it was it it was this extraordinary like awakening of beginning to see like the triangulation of like all the things that they were going through were so similar and how i could have present prevented them with a better process and then i just took the time to redo that process and then built like the machine 2.0 and launched the machine method right and and then started doing businesses through the machine method but i digress back to no different than the process i discovered there i was i was in the launch phase and i finally found my my product market fit as it relates to the machine and the business in 2020 and then now have built 3.0 to now scale like you know to as far as I could possibly even dream.

48:35What is the 3.0 version? 3.0 version is where I really realized is I systematically fuse art, science, and magic. It is that you've got to create it. It's this building businesses and ideas, this creative process, but the science is the proven fundamentals of success, business, all these things have to happen in order for something to work. And then the magic is these intangibles. You know what I mean? Give me an example. Here's the perfect one. Tie it back to Superjacket. Like you negotiate for unit economics, get this big order. Then when it comes out, it has an entire resurgence because linear cable goes down.

49:20Then a pandemic hits. And then now your show goes to an even higher level because everybody's sitting at home and they've watched everything on Netflix and they can just sit there for four hours and just laugh and just forget how it has another research. You could never, and what did all of that do? It led to these bigger orders and giant return that drives lives to a bigger earn out for the acquisition, way bigger than I could have ever even dreamed when I built it, the original idea, or when I actually sold it versus what it actually became. you could it's completely unexplainable and it is pure magic right pure like like complete magic

50:01Lewis Howes:and so what season are you shooting on now uh 24 right you've already got order for 30 yes i got six you know i got the rest of this year then 250 next year so i'm i'm gunning right but again i say it to and then you know where the machine itself and how that comes alive like now it is a a a fully integrated multi-platform universe of brands, media, community, and philanthropy. So what did I do? Not only did I create this system for taking businesses from an idea stage all the way to acquisition, but then I'm launching the complete media vertical that starts with Build with Rob and building content around our philosophy and creating businesses.

50:50Then I launched The Machinist. So the machinists are people that sign up and now become part of the machine method process where they are consumer collaborators where every step along the way we're asking them what they think about the product. So I'm building loyal consumers because they're actually part of the process. So you do that. I launched the Doer Dyer Foundation for underserved and underappreciated entrepreneurs and put a million dollars into that. And our first program is we're doing business competitions with other great entrepreneur charities, right? We have three tracks, youth prodigies, women and people of color and recently incarcerated, right?

51:33And building the programs to support and give them like non-dilutive capital, like proving they have the do or die or spirit in the idea. And again, all of these ultimately are built to scale, right? And, you know, even as I evolved as a business person, I understood that like, you know, you operate a business, not from a traditional standpoint, because everything's integrated and everything integrates through you, right? And when I realized like I run a flat organization and that it's me and my president and COO and then the heads of all these divisions, man, if I put somebody in every single one of these divisions, venture, media, product, community, philanthropy, founder, brand manager for myself, like operations, finance, and brand and marketing, right?

52:27You look at those 10 verticals. They integrate all the way across, and ultimately I can put KPIs on all of them. And so all those KPIs ladder up to the strength of the machine and the performance of the machine to essentially be one of the most impactful venture studios ever created. And everybody understands it and understands their mission. It's fully organized and completely integrated to basically create the amplification for our existing portfolio and the gravity for our future portfolio. Right. And all of that now driven to automation systemization so that I again, it's it's 10 core divisions that all have people.

53:15But I and I oversee all of them, but it's done in a way that is highly organized and highly efficient. Right. And even even how I do a Monday, I do a Monday. I start at 4.30. I spend all morning going through a fully connected hot sheet where all divisions go through my hot sheet, where I have a master hot sheet with both my personal and business. And then all 10 divisions and managements go through it. And then so I have complete and total visibility on all aspects of my life. Right. And then I go first with my chief of staff for an hour, then my president and COO for an hour. And then I go half hours with every division through the hot sheets that integrated into my hot sheets so that ultimately at the end of Monday, we're all completely reset.

54:05And we set the week's goals and the week's meetings like instead of because what did I used to do? have all these standing meetings and then I'd rely on people to have like note, like be kicked, picking up loose ends and having things organized. Like, and then it's like trying to fit it in that hour time slot. And then you're trying to do five things when you really could only do one. And so I dead it all that. And then on that Monday, then we set the week and it's like, okay, half hour on Tuesday for the Russell collab we're going to do for the foundation. Okay. An hour on wednesday for kpis for uh the new head of venture right it's like so so you become so much more efficient but you're also um creating more clarity for those that work for you and more clarity for yourself and amplifying your output because it's so focused and organized But I digress.

55:03I would have never I had to get to a place of like understanding, like, you know, the paradigm is a structure of a company kind of has these hierarchies and people report to them and they handle all these different things. But when I was able to finally get the clarity of like, here's the 10 divisions, here's how they integrate. I need somebody to own every single one. then I've now I've basically added 50 hours to my output by putting one body in each of those where before I used to like have three or four of those mashed together with someone more junior that I tried to support and it's pulling energy and time and like all this stuff how do you find these people you can trust you know I'm I'm it's it's funny because I've hiring is the hardest thing in the world it's so hard hardest thing in the world and and i and i i always looked at it as ah it's just this this it just is what it is it is what it is hard and i realized that that i made it hard because i never even though i'd write these great detailed job descriptions i still would ask you i would try to hire people and have them do all of these different things and then have unrealistic expectations on their ability to do the things that I wanted them to do.

56:24And they would sell themselves that they could do it all when really their skill set was really built to do one of them. And I think that changed because when you put someone, when you're trying to hire someone through a lens that you have total clarity on as management and your ability to interview them becomes so much clearer. Then when you test them, right, you give them a test, then it's so much clearer, like, oh, this is the right fit. This is going to be amazing. And they drop right in and their experience has led them to get here, right? And I would say even the one I was most patient for, which is the most complex, is my chief of staff.

57:03Lewis Howes:Oh, man. Because it's like if that's the actual like cornerstone of my existence, that's basically everything, my entire time, energy and this rhythm of existence. I created this rhythm of existence document, 80 page operation like system for my life. And in 2015, I did not implement it until 19. Wow. Because the assistants I would hire couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. And so when my assistant that couldn't do it quit, right, quit on me, and it's like, oh, man, here we, you know, because what happens? I'm so busy. The idea of trying to get another chief of staff was, like, too much, too insane.

57:43Lewis Howes:So you're taking it on yourself, and you're trying to pass it off. So when she left, then I committed, like, no, I need someone that cannot, that has the skill set, is the perfect personality that can really do it. And I was patient until I found the absolute perfect person and then came in and became the cornerstone. Now that rhythm of existence is not what I did in 2015. It's the 2021 fully flushed out, fully operating. You know, there's like our family sync agendas in there and how we meet as a family and keep everything fully organized. It's like, you know, everything to do with all my doctors and health and everything to do with my entire life.

58:25Life and business? Like, yeah, life and business. Wow. As it relates to organization, right? It's like my main top hot sheet has it all. But then each manager's hot sheet, I click through into theirs, right? So they stay separate. And she mainly focuses on making sure I'm doing everything that I would say I would do from a business standpoint. Wow. But what did it do? What did it do? I have more capacity.

58:58Lewis Howes:Yes. You're not thinking as much about all the details. That's it. Because you underestimate how much capacity you lose by not thinking about exciting things and ideation and execution, but stressing over, is someone taking care of that? Like, what do I got to do over there? Oh, this thing happened. What am I supposed to do? All these things, it is from the way I travel to food. It is every last thing has been dialed. And when something isn't, a note is made, added to it, and optimized. Because beyond automation is optimization, where you just get better and better. And the better it gets, the less effort it takes.

59:39Your system gets smoother. The longer people are with you and stay in the system, the more efficient they become, the more optimized like they are and how they communicate with you um but it it in and you know i heard like ray the great ray dalio um say it recently of like you know i just kind of live more life than other people live because i've figured out how to like get more out of my time and he talks about like he has 25 direct reports that he gets basically an additional 50 hours each out of to scale his capacity. And to me, I have a micro version of that. Hearing him say that is what gave me the breakthrough of like, no, you are a flat organization and that's where you get your capacity back.

1:00:31As I was drifting into this, becoming so aware of what's taking from me. What's taking from me? because what happens to a guy like me, you add another thing on. More time. Let me add this to my point. But I don't want to compromise my balance. So I don't compromise the time with my wife or family. You've got 30 % there, 30 % sleep, 30 % work. Right. So that 30 % of that 30%, 12 of that is committed to ridiculousness. So that means. For the year, 12 % of that 30%. So my total work time, 12 is gone now. So that means everything that I do with the machine, all the companies, everything that I do, I now have that 88 % is what I can fill in.

1:01:21And I won't compromise it. So what happened when I started doing press for the first time in years? I launched Machine 3.0. I launched the foundation. I launched the podcast. I launched the machinist. I launched our entire product line. I built and launched MindWrite. I launched Lusso. So like so it is like I got I it was this amazing awakening of like, look at you. You just like did you've just taken on so much. You can't do it. Right. And that's when it was like I also was forced into like like, no, you have to like be patient because you took this all on. Don't overcorrect and be like, well, I got to stop.

1:02:00It's like it's like look at what you can automate. Look at what pain points are. Slow down with some things and ease things into automation and then be more aware of your capacity. Because you don't at this level, you've grown into this amazing life. Like everything you do gives you energy. You're fulfilling all the vision that you had five years ago you realized. And now it's like you're even more motivated and driven and excited about like what the future holds now that you have gotten so good at essentially manifesting the future. Like you get even more excited to bring it, bring it alive. So you, you, you don't want to lose that energy or feeling.

1:02:46So it's like overwhelming yourself. Yeah. So, so what I have to, that's when I really was like, no, I always looked at like you have mastered time and energy. And I'm like, this is some like, I'm on some like, I'm like a yogi at this point. I'm getting into the mystic level. Me and Sad Guru are like in the same vibe right now. Then I got overwhelmed. And then I realized like time and energy is what you mastered. But now you have to be aware of capacity. So now all you have to do is learn to manage it, understand it and be aware of it and master that. And the connection between capacity, energy, and time is where you will now essentially operate forever to where you're constantly fulfilled and energized.

1:03:36And I was trying to explain to somebody like when your systems are moving at such a pace so harmoniously, it builds this energy that basically draws in all the things you want to happen. It is the power of the law of attraction. And when you're clear and open, all that stuff comes pouring in. But I reached a second level in this where it's like, okay, I'm swirling. But then I almost create a cone. And it's like when I get to that level of elevation, it's almost like I'm simultaneously planning the future and experiencing the present. Because you can't really do both. You're either experiencing the present and everything you experience the present is based off of what you did in the past.

1:04:22Every action, every decision, everything that you've decided in your life, how you're feeling, your angst, your anger about yourself, your company, your diet, your relationship is based off of what had happened in the past of what you're feeling right there. and you have way you have and you know you have the control to change in the future but understanding that every decision actually all ladders up to having experiencing the present in an extraordinary way uh but the unused and then or you're looking to plan the present and what that future is it's hard to live in them simultaneously and when i get to the truest state i am like i am almost like drawn to like seeing the future why while like just experiencing what i'm doing so purely you know what i mean and that to me is like my machine mindset and my system as a whole that's like reaching into this like more magical level that i've experienced like like hits of that i know like someday i will be able to like live in that state And it really does feel it's like some weird, like high performance, like mystic level, because it's still like material and output and data and all of these things like like, you know, that a lot of the great books will tell you that you and you got to let go of all those things to actually do them.

1:05:48You know what I mean? And in to me, you know, I'm I think it's the idea of you have to let go of when they happen or how they happen, but not let go of what they look like and how to make it clearer and clearer. right because the clear the more clarity you get you get drawn by the clarity because it's like the more you go in a single direction the wider your field gets the more you can see the more you know what to do the more you accomplish the more belief the more energy you accelerate towards it so you can't just lose sight of the idea of like oh there's the goal if i get there i'm not i'm not married to the goal you know what i mean it's like that's not the way but you can't be obsessed with the outcome of the goal right you have to be obsessed with you have to be obsessed with making the process more evolved more effortless and more enjoyable on the way there right like

1:06:47Lewis Howes:that's the reality be obsessed with creating more joy in your day-to-day life and think about it like you know the great gary vee what's he going to tell you fall in love with the process right and to me it's like fall in love with making the process fun and enjoyable effortless yeah Yeah, making it effortless, right? Because the truth is, in the beginning, the process sucks. It sucks. Because you're trying to fit. You're not sure about so much. You're trying to get it going. You're trying to get it. But when it eventually gets to this place where now you understand it, now the process becomes enjoyable.

1:07:20It's taking less energy. It's more clear to you. Now you're accelerating. Now it's pulling you towards what you're trying to do, right? And that's almost like this event horizon that you've got to break through. And again, I go back. It's kind of a through line of everything. Like it's in anything you ever want to accomplish, whether it's a relationship, a goal, or a life. Right? If the life that you want to create, you still have to design it. And then you have to build the strategy and plan to get there. Then you've got to go on the hero's journey and go through that same chaos. but stay focused on knowing that you're getting better at it and you're eventually going to automate it and get it to optimization where it takes less effort and you get more energy back.

1:08:09Lewis Howes:My friend, I hope you're enjoying this episode. And the School of Greatness drops new conversations every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday around money, mindset, healing, manifestation, and relationships. And if you're not yet following the show, then you're missing all of them. Please tap the follow button right now and you'll get notified the moment every new episode drops because the next one might be exactly what you need. Now, let's get back to the conversation. You know those moments when you're ordering everything to your house? From groceries, gear, random things you didn't even realize you needed until the last minute?

1:08:43Lewis Howes:It just makes life a little easier. And now you can add internet to that list. Get same-day delivery for T-Mobile 5G home internet powered by DoorDash. No store visits, no waiting around for a technician. It shows up, you plug it in, and you're online in about 15 minutes with one cord. T-Mobile has the fastest 5G home internet. For me, working from home on the podcast, that simplicity matters a lot. I'm on video calls, uploading episodes, researching guests, and sending emails. And when everything just works and I don't have to think about it, I stay focused on what actually matters. It fits right into my workflow and it keeps things moving throughout the day.

1:09:26Lewis Howes:Visit t-mobile.com slash home internet to check availability and get your home internet delivered today. Same day delivery for most internet eligible customers. See if it's an option during checkout. Fastest according to Oogla speed test intelligence data. Second half 2025. All rights reserved. You know those moments when the right person joins a team and everything just clicks a little more? I've seen that firsthand. Not because one person does everything, but because they bring the right skills at the right time. It makes communication easier, the workflow smoother, and the whole team stronger.

1:10:04Lewis Howes:When workplace chaos hits and the right hire becomes urgent, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Your post gets a visibility boost so it's seen by candidates who actually match what you're looking for. Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. What do you think have been the three best investments you've made? whether it be financial or a personal investment that has allowed you to have more energy more freedom joy during the process yeah i mean look i it's it's so many things you know i mean because you got to look i go back to my soma dome you know what i mean you know i didn't like that price tag of 25 g's we bought maybe i don't need that right now Let's get some headphones.

1:11:12We'll see. And look at that. Things paid for itself a thousandfold. It's like the idea that it's the people and developing the systems. You know what I mean? Investing in the people and investing in the systems. Yeah, and staying committed to that. Right. Like and it's it's but but at the end of the day, you're not going to buy your way there. Right. Like there's no silver bullet. There's no there's no thing you can invest in to do it. Yes. You have the only way to get there is through discipline. Right. And discipline and consistency is the hardest thing to do. Right. How do you how do you get more disciplined and consistent?

1:11:55You have clarity on where you're headed. What's going to make sure you get there? Energy. You know all the things that you need to do to get energy, diet, less stress, like working out, all these things. Choosing better friends.

1:12:09Lewis Howes:Choosing better friends. Choosing the right partner. All these things, all that stuff. Now you've got clarity and you've got the energy to push it forward. Progressing creates belief. Progress creates belief. That's right. Because as you're moving towards it, you're like, oh, I can actually do this. Right. And as I said in our first podcast, back in 16, if you can break it down into believable steps, now you it's the first action of belief. And the next milestone, you have to absolutely believe by all bit of your being that you're going to be able to get there. because if you can't get there to that next milestone, uh, that is the next milestone on the way to your big goal, you're not going to do it.

1:12:55And it's okay to lose belief there. It's okay to fail there. Right. Because it's, it's everything you want to do. You don't, you can't always do it. Right. And so it's like, you would rather, uh, fail with intention and fail with clarity than the pain of like, like having no idea why you're failing and you just keep trying other things and like keep trying like it's that that lack of understanding but if you know exactly uh where you're supposed to go and you can't get there it becomes your your point of failure is so much easier to digest and then you're as the great ray dalio would say reflecting on that that pain of like deciding i can't do it it's not going to work and they couldn't figure out how to move forward then the reflection of why okay move on to something else and create a new plan again and step off on that journey to do it the same way and and to me you know it's that that that power of evolution um that you expand into anything you're you're ultimately wanting to achieve achieve and and and ray will tell you pain is where you learn the most of course great teacher and to me you know and it's you know for him it's the loops where it's the audacious goals you know make a plan go for it fail uh learn audacious goals right that's how you you get there

1:14:25Lewis Howes:but but how did you have the belief in yourself to get to a billion and launch 100 brands and get to a billion when you'd never done any of that when you never launched and exited one brand yet Yeah. How do you believe that it's possible, such a big, audacious goal? Or is it, okay, this is the big goal that's going to be a long ways away. But what's the first step? What do you think the first step is? Do it once. Do it once. But you've never done it before. I know. So how do you believe that you can do it once? So I, you're not sure. Right. I want to do this, but I'm not sure. So I designed a plan to do it.

1:15:05To do it once. I designed the system, right? The way I designed, I did all the planning. And so, like, I'm, the path was there. But for me, I had to actually do one to do it. And when they started going, then it was like, got this. This is easy. And the beauty of it was, right, is all of them were like nothing like I planned them. They unfolded so crazy and unreal. And that's why, again, I fell back into this like, man, you plan for clarity of direction, but just know that the way the universe works is it is just completely unpredictable. Yes. But it still goes the same direction. It doesn't like figure itself out in some willy-nilly way.

1:15:59It goes the same way you thought it would. It happens completely different than you expect. and that to me is like another reason of why that magic was so important you know and again you you build a lot of belief at the beginning in your plan right i knew the way i was building the plan that was like okay you know it's like it's like in order to do this like you're gonna have to build at this stage you're gonna have to look at the data and make sure that there are industries and products and markets that have scale that people are buying like you're going to have to like look at the type of product and make sure it has scale and has a wide consumer base, right?

1:16:38Like there's all these fundamentals that I learned in the beginning that I didn't practice in my early days of being an entrepreneur that were like basically leading to it. So, you know, as I'm, as I'm going, evolving and learning, I'm getting even clearer and clearer on what that even means, how to create value, what companies would buy companies and what for, and how to look at an industry and how to look at where is an opportunity that is white space versus one that's too advanced, right? How do you begin to look at how do you protect a company from losing value? Where are the pitfalls of what happens to companies and they don't work in the valley of death when they launch?

1:17:21How come so many of them are struggling? Like you begin to see all this to then make another way of doing it that gets clearer and clearer, right? But the beauty of it is I looped through failure and winning.

1:17:37Lewis Howes:Yes. Right? Because you also, I was still like, whoa, got lucky with that. And then why did I get lucky? Wow. The reason you got lucky is because it was pure market timing. Yes. Right? Like you didn't like it should have like been a failure that you learned from because the entrepreneur wasn't experienced enough. And and you realize that you were no longer looking for people that were just do or dyers. You were looking for people that understood the seven core capabilities of business, the business engine, because I used to just think you just you got the do or die. Someone's just like, I'll do whatever it takes, but someone who understands.

1:18:15Right, because when you'll do whatever it takes, you're slamming into walls because that are unbreakable. And I used to think you were either a brand, creative, product guy, or you were like a business guy. And business guys weren't creative and creative guys didn't know business. And I realized like, no, business is brand, product, media, marketing, sales, operation, finance. And then it is all of that working together is what creates a business. And the best CEOs like a good guy, Billy G, they have general knowledge in all of them. So they can hire the right people in every single one of those.

1:18:58And they have growth mindsets where they're trying to learn as much as they can as the person who's the visionary behind it To make sure that they continue to hire better and optimize further to build their engine that is their business, right? And so to me, I still was getting wins and crazy things. And I would get a big win. And it was different than the pain of failure because it's like, wow, amazing. How lucky did I get? Why did I get lucky, right? And now you can begin to see like why, what actually occurred there and how can you replicate that going forward. How can you get better and tighter?

1:19:40You just keep adding those pieces to the toolbox. And here's an interesting thing that happens along the way, right? You go from like early on trying to diligence so many things and see in it and understand it. And you get more and more intuitive. I can talk to a founder about his idea for 15 minutes and can see every hole that he has and everything about the idea, even if I don't fully understand it. The same way I can talk to – a really good example is the recent company that we built, the Jolie Skin Care, that's like a water filter system with Ryan Babazine, who's the former CEO of Greats. like it was 15 minute conversation with him how he looked at the opportunity like how he talked about the business like every single i didn't even need anything else i didn't need anything else i i did all the data as well you understood it all i knew i i could he understood every single aspect of it he chose the idea looking at like where the opportunity was why there was an opportunity what the business model and unit economics were of that opportunity who the consumer was where the where sort of the marketing initiatives kind of lived in this this free zone between like uh you know hair care and makeup and um and how big all those places were but nobody's really attacked the the thing that keeps you uh that that's that's doing the most damage which is your water that you're washing your hair and face with right then you're you know using all these creams and things to try to help but it was it and i could see it all intuitively and and and just did the deal like you know went through our entire didn't need to go through our entire process because it was just like this this is it we went and validated right we do our big immersion and looked into the market and saw you know how much white space it is and even when you do these big like data insights to the market and opportunity all it is is like a reason not to do it you know in almost every single case right and the reason to do it is the reason not to do it right and so it's like you know in the game of building businesses i don't care in the venture game all of it it is it is all opinion based right and and nine times out of ten it's like the founder's experience and like opinion based because you know you're kind of rolling the dice and there's literally a reason to never invest in anyone's idea ever right because it's just an idea you know but since it was my mission as i sat here back in 2016 my personal mastery would be to curate ideas and individuals and build profitable sustainable acquirable businesses

1:22:35Lewis Howes:And so. Why was that something you wanted to do when you'd never done it before? Well, I had been through the process. I knew I loved creating business. Yes. But I knew I didn't like it unless it worked. Right. And I knew I was the type of person that needed a score. I needed some sort of ending to it. Get you excited. Yeah. Like to be like, this is what victory looks like. I didn't feel comfortable in this like maybe like, you know, it could turn into anything type of vibe. and and so that's like what got me focused on like and then when i read the book you know start at the end like and the idea of like decide what you want out of a company before you ever do it like that that really defined like okay we're gonna build this for 150 million build this to 20 you know 50 million in revenue and sell it for three times uh revenue and at it's gonna need uh 500 thousand to start a million to launch two million for growth five million for a b round and then it can be sold for 150 million at that point uh we would have been diluted down to 35 okay great we're gonna make you know 50 million dollars off of this transaction let's go right and that's how i do every single one of these businesses with every single founder and and so for me it's like it's the map for everybody and then i don't want to build with somebody that doesn't think that way I don't want somebody, if they are like, oh, this is my passion.

1:24:05I want to keep this forever. And sometimes I would consider it if it was like, hey, we're going to grow this to a$10 million business that is worth, that kicks off$5 million profit that we split. I will do those where it's just like a dividend split.

1:24:21Lewis Howes:And what are the six exits? Which companies? made by science chemistry holding super jacket street league where to and momentous just merge with Matt and I think you might you want to check your email to see if this other let me see oh man this is extraordinary that's the magic if it actually came through man you come through right now we'll see you come through right now because you've been working on a deal for the last couple weeks where are you where are you it's going to be in before the end of the episode before we launch it yes no no it's going to be in before we leave okay let's do it one last check before we leave yes okay so those are six exits which one surprised you the most and what was the biggest one well Super Jacket for sure is the biggest one the production company yeah you know and why it's also so extraordinarily significant is they acquired Street League as part of it.

1:25:22I own 70 % of it. And who acquired it was the same group in 2013 that offered me a 360 deal to own half of everything I did for the rest of my life. And this group, basically I was raising money for Street League and this group was like, we don't want to just invest in Street League, we want to invest in everything you do. and when they offered me this 360 deal to own half of everything that I would do for life.

1:25:56Lewis Howes:How much would they give you up front? At the time, it was going to be$50 million. They were going to value me to$100 million. I was going to keep$30 million. It would unlock over time. No, then they were going to put$20 million in the company, and then we were going to grow this Deerdeck Enterprises to a billion-dollar business. That's interesting. At the end of the diligence, we won't talk about pain. It was essentially this rude awakening. And not only am I not a business person, I don't understand money. I don't understand. I'm not creating any value. They could not invest in me because I was not investable.

1:26:39They were willing to loan me$7.5 million, put me on a salary, and then help me figure it out so that they could have the right to then, you know, put in a few more million to own half of everything I did for life. Wow. And it was like, you know, the main guy there was like, look, take the money and then you're our problem. We can make, we'll figure this out, right? And I'm like, like, I'm going to give up half of everything I did for life. And I don't even know who I am. What am I even doing? what you know and and that that that sent me on the journey of really like getting clarity getting clarity changing light the entire everything that that moment forward and even when they they came in as like a bitter to buy super jacket and i was like let's get this deal done i need it for the story of course yeah i need the full circle and they they thought no kidding in the beginning they were like what's like they were like freaked out like why is he being like talking about the story of this in the full circle and the like and like this poetic justice like and they kept asking like are you gonna take this money and just like stop working i'm like what this is like one one company this isn't even like my vision it's like one company i built because it was the easiest one to sell because i already had a television company like no i want this for the story and then this is like the beginning of the rest of my life you know and And so it made it that much more special because think about it.

1:28:14In that era, before I got rid of every company and everything that I had built up to that point, the only thing that I kept was Street League. And I had not launched Superjacket yet as a regular production company. So 2013. Well, no, that's when I spent those two years building it, right? So by the time 2016 happened and I was ready to launch the machine, the only companies I kept was Street League and then Superjacket was just a label. Superjacket was the first company I put through the development process of Built to Sell. And we launched it that year. And then three years later, six years from when the 360 deal, then three years later, they come in and acquire the only two things I kept from that period to basically give me the capital to now go the vision that I own 100 % of and will for life.

1:29:11Wow. Like that's the – I'm talking about – You know what I mean? And it's like – it's magical. It's magical. You know what I'm saying? You can't sit back and not be like, whoa, what? And again, it just, from 2016, for the mega one to be that story, right there at the end of 2019, it is really why magic became part of it for me. Where it's just like, man, you can't write that. You know what I mean? Like that is so extraordinary, so amazing, but also like not something you could ever have planned, thought of, or even considered as being part of the narrative of the entire journey.

1:30:00Lewis Howes:How do we cultivate more magic in our lives? You know, again, I think you position yourself for magic to happen. and when i talk about like automation and capacity and effortlessness and clarity all of those things are the actual energy that create the magic right it's like you i built the company to sell i went i taught myself first how to do it i took took my licks said i'm going to teach myself everything about business I'm going to learn money I'm going to like never I'm going to be the person I thought I was rather than after I realized I really wasn't I'm going to become the business person that I've always envisioned myself to become and then when I went on that journey to become that I it was I began to learn and learn and began as I began to learn I began to see how much I actually needed to to know which like got me even more hungry to learn more and more right so So by the time I got to the machine itself, I had really developed so much clarity and understanding.

1:31:16And then I – now, where's my advantage? It's in television. You have a television show. So I built the first company to sell in there. So keep in mind now, I had the big vision. I learned it all. Then here's – okay, I'm going to launch. I'm going to build 100 companies. I'm going to make 20 to 30 million off of each. I'm going to make a billion dollars in liquidity. Like, okay, here's the first one. Then it's like, oh, no, it's going away. Then, oh, my God, no, I got this mega order. Now it's going to be even easier to sell. Like, now it's unprecedented. Take it out. Like, all the production companies are all over it.

1:31:50And then who comes in? The random group that gave me the 360 deal. Crazy. From the five years earlier, right? And it's like, clear out. These are the guys. And it's like, it's like, like it's inexplainable, but it was done with clarity and purpose. It was part of the bigger vision. I planned it. I did it. It just didn't unfold the way I would have expected, but it unfolded because I had the diligence, made the plan, learned what I needed to do. And then I went out and executed and by executing and do it. Then what happened? The magic came in. The law of attraction came in. So, you know, I only say that to you should be in awe of it because, you know, it's luck.

1:32:42Right. And I don't care. Like there's, you know, there's this, you know, there's that great debate of like, you know, I don't believe in luck. You know, I've, you know, I've worked so hard. Of course, I've positioned myself for it. But no, no, no, no, no. It's luck. You know what I mean? It is such an intangible of so many circumstances that have to line up, that allow something to happen. They're so beyond your planning, your control, and all these things that you must be humbled by it. And be like, man, you are what? Wow. How lucky. And be in awe of it. It's more like how in awe I am of all the magic that I've been able to create.

1:33:24because it happens not like sometimes but all the time.

1:33:31Lewis Howes:Magic happens every day, every week, every month. It's just so constant that what do I believe? I believe that I control reality and create magic. You know what I mean? And nobody can tell me otherwise. And so all that does is make me more disciplined, make me more consistent. So you want to create more of it. Yeah, because it's like I'm living in this really high elevated energy that's super fun to live in. And I designed it in a balanced way that it puts no pressure on me because I have such control over it that it makes it more fun and enjoyable to live through and experience and really experience, right?

1:34:23Rather than just keep working for the goal, you know what I mean? Like we're just going to go until we get there. You know, we're grinding. Get up and go. Hustle. like no it's like like like push to effortlessness right and and even when i go back to the idea of mastery right like i'm getting better and better and better in a single direction and so it made me think a lot about like when people choose careers and like what you choose to do in life and and we all we we in in in in the traditional sense call it like oh they're really experienced right and the truth is when you become experienced become an expert you become a master here's all these extraordinary intangibles you have more security because people could use your expertise you have more value you have more self-confidence you have more purpose you would more have more self-worth more self-belief there's all of these intangibles that come along with that that go so far beyond just being really good at something, right?

1:35:30And the truth of what that is is you grow into that. But you can't grow into mastery if you don't know what you want to master. True. You know what I mean? Like you just, like if you try to choose all of these different things of like what will be the thing that I want to be best at. You know, I'll keep trying all these things. And then you just, you get a little bit ways and like, oh, I don't know if that's going to deliver on what I want. And keep in mind, here's what happens to people that do that. They do not have aligned with who they are, right? Physically, mentally, emotionally, with what they do, right?

1:36:12Their passion, their interest, their finances, their work, and how they live, their free time, their adventure, their relationships. the coordination of all of those and and this the integration of all of those are actually at the core of how you have to build your life design who you are what you do and how you live yeah because ultimately if your passion is skeet shooting uh but you want to drive a ferrari uh and you're never going to connect it so what you would have to do then is create financial stability at such a level in some other form that limits the amount of time and energy so that you can put your time with that skeet shooting most of the time you can be working for the weekends if that's where all your energy is from so what type of job do you choose you choose one that takes the least effort in the least amount of time that gives you the most capital to live the lifestyle that you can live that you want to live it's the connection of all of those like is actually where, you know, what I'd consider like the extraordinary life lives.

1:37:22Yes. Because when you like are emotionally fulfilled by doing something that you love, that is your work and it provides you with the time and space to have the relationships and live the lifestyle you want, that's it. That's where happiness lives and all those things are connected together. Right. So to me, as I began to see that, I naturally gravitated towards it, but it really connected for me when it was like, my ambitions are so great. Why do I need to fly private? Why do I need this$40 million house? And why do I want to do all these crazy exotic adventures? Why did you need these things?

1:38:11because i i i love them and that's like how that's like and i'll tell you why i needed them because i when i look at myself and my identity and what i connect with like who i am that's where my identity i my identity lies right because what happens is a lot of people then get you know like the people that boom and bust where their identity is similar to mine where where they love like kind of living on this elevated lifestyle and kind of having the fruits of their work be part of their identity, when those people lose that revenue source, it is where depression and pain and all that because it's tied to their identity.

1:38:59So to me, I knew it was part of my identity, but I knew that I didn't want to ever risk it so i knew i had to grow into it so i didn't spend the money to build forever estates when i could i refine i kept designing and designing and refining and refining you saw me so many different models of the last that's what i'm saying and i i've i've continued this week i got another vr model of what is one of the final versions and i'm like extraordinary i moved like Like two stair sets down and pushed out part of the land. And I did these like pulled out this overhang and like this like nuanced stuff. I'm like extraordinary.

1:39:41Right. Like that's how much work, effort and process and passion I put into evolving that. But I didn't allow it to put pressure on myself. Right. Like I wanted to grow into I established the money and lifestyle that I needed. And then it didn't matter if I made, you know, you know, 30 or 40 million dollars or I made five million dollars. I still spent the same two million dollars. Right. And then again, when I sat here in 2016.

1:40:15Lewis Howes:What happens if one thing goes away? What if the ridiculousness contract went away four years ago? Or what happens if you don't sell a company? Then what do you do in that position? i'm i'm at no risk right so understand this what i did from a savings perspective is i have all my high risk venture over here i since we met in 2016 i've invested in 25 buildings right and so that 25 buildings has now ballooned not only in value but it produces the cash that covers my lifestyle so those buildings that investment covers lifestyle covers lifestyle So I and I referred to it as a freedom fund back in 2016 when we sat, but I had nothing in there.

1:41:01I hadn't done it yet. Right.

1:41:03Lewis Howes:And so now that was this last five years you started building. That's it. Yeah. Wow. And so not only do I now have that, I'm free for life. I'm free for life. My lifestyle will never go away. But because that wasn't enough for me, I also then always keep 10 years of cash. of what that is at all times. Where? In the bank? In the bank. Wow. And so people will tell you, oh, that's silly. You're losing money. Well, guess what? A pandemic hit in 2020 and it was like, dang, that's crazy. I got money here. Anyway, even if the real estate stuff stops or collapses, I got 10 years. It's just more peace of mind.

1:41:43Or five years. It's more peace of mind. And that's it. And so I digress. I digress all the way back. That's the system I created in 2016. I live it today. Wow. Shocking. Shocking. But what is the output to me? It's another thing of stress that keeps me, my foundation is so tight now. I don't ever have to contemplate whether or not my lifestyle or identity will be compromised.

1:42:07Lewis Howes:Because you know within five years you'll be able to figure something out. If you lose it all, you've got five years of runway. And it's like, that's just the system. I have so much money beyond that. Other backups here and there, yeah. But what I don't do is spend beyond that. I am not, I didn't go buy a jet, right? Like I will one day, right? I didn't go and build the house. I'm still waiting till the house would never be a burden. You know what I mean? And because to me, it's like, it is this absolute peace and peace of mind. And the pandemic is the perfect example. what happened in the pandemic is like and i and i and i say this from i what you experience in the present is based off of what you created in the past and i knew that i wanted to build that system because i needed that security for peace of mind not for anything other than it eliminates it but it was tested in the pandemic and then when it happened like what did the what did it allow me to do, it allowed me to now take all this free time and go deeper on my strategy and planning and organization and everything that I was going to do to launch this year, right?

1:43:24So you don't even skip a beat. What happens is I immediately got back all of this time that I could now turn to optimizing my systems, like getting further in to do it, like, okay, beginning to plan out the fully integrated multi-platform universe, start working on the brand, like I want to evolve the brand like and turn it into systematically fusing art science and magic like all these i basically everything that i'm living now all this press all this ideology the podcast the machine all these companies all of this stuff is because of the time that i had to go and build and because i had all this additional free time during lockdown in those first six months because you

1:44:06Lewis Howes:weren't stressing you had already automated you already optimized things you weren't stressing about details, you had a free time, energy, peace, clarity to go. That's it. That's it.

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1:44:58Lewis Howes:Quince's 100 % European linen pants and shirts are breathable, easy to throw on, and the summer upgrade your rotation needs. Their tees are soft enough to live in all day, and the lightweight cotton sweaters are exactly what you want when summer nights cool down. Make your summer wardrobe easier. Go to quince.com slash lewis for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com slash lewis for free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash lewis. As a loyal listener of this show, you're always challenging yourself to grow, to be better, to keep learning, and Southern New Hampshire University can help.

1:45:41Lewis Howes:Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 career-focused degree programs online. Plus, Southern New Hampshire University has some of the lowest online tuition rates in the U.S., so balancing school, work, and life actually feels achievable and affordable, too. Find your degree at snhu.edu slash greatness. That's S-N-H-U dot E-D-U slash greatness. And what did I do? I just accelerated further into becoming the ideal version of myself and the person that I envisioned that I could be. Five years ago. Right. Ten years ago. I would say even five years ago because five years ago, it was this extraordinary feeling.

1:46:28because I made a deep transition because I had finally you know you got to keep in mind when I launched the machine I had a stat a team of about 25 that I all let go I remember when I moved to Beverly I went from driving to down living in Hollywood and driving downtown through East LA into my warehouse next to a dump and and sitting in my warehouse to now and driving back to Hollywood to now living in a gated community in Beverly Hills, driving through the most beautiful city in the world to a penthouse in the sky.

1:47:02Lewis Howes:Looking at a 360 view of the world. Looking all over this energy. So then it was that I had found the love of my life, the extraordinary and tangible. When did you meet her or when did you guys get married? 2015. So right before you came on, yeah, you just met. Yeah, she was pregnant with Coda, my first child. So I still wasn't even a father, still didn't even fully understand that. but it was now you transitioned to now you had the entire plan you reduced your entire cost structure because you got rid of all those bodies you were now just you and an assistant in your penthouse living in beverly hill like and now you're going to do company after company here's the vision of how you're going to realize the machine and all that and so it was at the launch phase so it was like it was like the energy was like oh you knew that you were going to like invest in buildings and and and and chase chase cash and investments and build all these businesses and then you went and did it and then had the cold reality of like whoa this is like whoa this is way more complex than i the envision how come i'm not all these didn't work but you began to see some of them really working and you're learning from and you go so it wasn't um it wasn't all like dread because you were so planned but it was still like this like you know you had to fight through it as you're evolving learning and growing but it was just like when i hear my voice in that og podcast it is light as a feather and excited about like the possibilities you know what i mean where if we would have did it like in year three it would be like you know i'm you know i'd be like Imagine we scheduled a time to do the podcast like when I was going through ridiculousness not coming back, which then would have been like would have crushed my dreams of building the cell, the production company and like, you know, the entire sort of aspect of everything that was kind of happening like versus.

1:49:03And I knew it. Right. the same way that that when i i did um you really just did your podcast and never did anything else didn't do any more press stop doing everything and um it was because i realized like man you were talking about all the things you're gonna do go do it yeah and it was like it was like go do it and then like even as it's like when i finally broke through into 19 and was like man this is really going down then when when all the acquisitions started going down right like it was it was like okay now it's time to begin to tell the story but then the panty hits right and then i'm like like man you get another year to to like like keep building the story right like keep keep evolving it uh and and really think it through on how you want to launch it and give yourself another year of developing and building and having everything before you go and do it.

1:50:04Right. So now when I have gone out and doing press and talking about the philosophy and everything that I'm doing, it's what I've done rather than what I'm going to do. And it's what I said I was going to do realized in a short period of time.

1:50:21Lewis Howes:Five years is quick. And that's what i'm saying and that's the most people can't launch and sell one company in five years right six right and look and to that point too inside that podcast i told you at the end i said you're like i don't want to write a book i don't want to i'm not a teacher you're a teacher you love like sharing and teaching people and and like i'm like i'd rather just like like i don't like want to share like i'd rather just be an example of what you can do that's how i felt because i hadn't done it you know what i mean now after doing it i'm like man i gotta share this this is like i really i really figured out some stuff along the way here that i know that i can like create and share in a way that people could replicate and experience what i'm experiencing right and it's a completely different philosophy and like now like i truly look at it as like no like this is your your Your gift for storytelling and entertaining needs to be in sharing your philosophy because you know you're going to be able to help so many people, right?

1:51:30Short window of transition, right? And another big thing that happened in 2020 after all those exits was you now have two children and you're beginning to shape your children and think about your children. And the universe presented to me Tiger 21. And Tiger 21 is basically just a high net worth peer group. And it's really amazing, all confidential, just other high net worth individuals. You meet once a month and you just share philosophies, investment philosophies, all these different things. And they do this thing each month. One of the members of the group has to do portfolio defense where you have to show all your assets.

1:52:17To the group. To the group. and then discuss your assets.

1:52:21Lewis Howes:And they come at you and say, what about this? What about that? This is wrong here. Yeah, yeah. And to me, I was like, this is what I need to be a part of. Because I knew only the realest of the real are going to be in that room. Wow. Because you aren't going to be in that room and be like, here's everything I do, unless you are real deal, right? And to me, I'm like, that is the peer group that I need to be in. And so super eclectic, amazing, interesting group. It is insane. And really interesting thing about everyone in there, they all have sort of the same sort of expenses. There's just sort of the standard sort of what I consider normal guy wealth management.

1:53:08And then everybody manages their own money and has their own system on how they do it. there's nobody in there with like like people that manage their money it's super interesting right and because like i'm like oh i can't i just i've had advisors in the past i would never i was expecting to get there and be like what do you who are all your guys advisors you know i mean it's like nobody does right they all they all manage their own money they they have people like help but they've created their own personal system that they have oversight on right and But in portfolio defense, they ask you have to like also give certain aspects of your philosophy and principles.

1:53:46And one of them is what is your hundred year plan? And it was this like crazy awakening where I had finally crossed this threshold of where I was no longer like looking at self-preservation and I had shifted into generational preservation. Like what can I do to make an impact on what it means to be a deer deck for not 100 years, for 500 years. and like what are the concepts and the things and what does it mean to be a Deerdeck and our core philosophy and now building this book and designing this book is for like what it means to be a Deerdeck and ultimately how to live an amazing life and how do I create a system to manage this capital that gives everybody that for generations to have an opportunity to become entrepreneurs, to live their dreams and fulfill through creating a family bank system that can go on forever way beyond now of course my version is super next level i'm also going to like before i die hide like um like you know picassos and rare watches and ferraris all over the world and once a year i'm going to have a family meeting where they reveal the treasure map wow i'm going to record like 500 inspirational messages a hologram so that like every year here comes the inspirational from from our patriarch right like you know i'm going to make like my legacy so crazy and then it even it even changes what forever estates is to me when i'm designing forever estates i'm thinking about how the how it will be remodeled in a hundred years and how the family meet where will the family meetings occur inside here, when I'm at G6 and there's 200 family members, it's not just five of us, right?

1:55:49And think about that.

1:55:55It's because you've gotten to the horizon and now you see so much further than you could have ever imagined. Because if you did not reach the success level, you would never have ever you wouldn't be thinking about generational wealth unless you created generational wealth right and and that's the like another side of this sort of intangible magic side of the unfolding right because i think that i as you grow older grow older and get more clear you can see out five ten fifteen years and i think as you get older you can see further right but it but you but knowing things are going to change and evolve in such a way you're you're you're always changing every every three to five years and seeing further and the distance is a little bit different yes but the anchor that's never changing is i'm the you know the way i own my company the way i manage my assets the way i'm managing the pro all these things are built knowing that you want this to be part of your family legacy forever right and it changes even like when i looked at the machine i was like oh i'm gonna the ultimate is i'm going to build the machine build the portfolio then take on huge capital uh to cash out for half of it then sell the whole thing and now it's like no no no i'm i'm going to keep it forever right like i'm never i I will, you know, all the executives, I give them, you know, profit shares and everything that we do.

1:57:26But it's still a Deerdeck family business forever. And it has no bearing on whether or not, you know, my children ever wanted to be a part of it, you know, or any company. I won't build it like that. I will never. You know, really for me, if they can just fundamentally have solid biomechanics. mechanics and and great relationships and just simply like lock in on this philosophy that your life's this system and you get to control and design that system find harmony in that system and whatever gives you harmony just get really good at deciding what you want to do whatever it is and breaking it down and know that it's it's tough in the beginning but you'll grow into it and if you don't like it midway through it's okay to quit and try something else but you really want to get to a place where you find the things that you love to do and you can grow and no different in a relationship you know what i mean like you want to find somebody that you connect with and then grow with yes and it's like you know the intangible is i already you know had this extraordinary like by fate and destiny magic again love but then what we've grown into over five years is extraordinary because we grew into each other and then with each other at such scale.

1:58:49And I defend it and protect it because I know how rare it is and how impossible it is. And so I defend and protect it and evolve it as like my number one priority in life. And it's why I never compromise like our balance as a couple and as a family. I don't want her to ever feel like I work too much.

1:59:13Lewis Howes:Right? I don't want my kids to ever feel like that. And again, even today, like I had to jump on a Zoom and my son was going to the park and he's like, why don't you come to the park? And I said, look, man, I'm about to jump on a Zoom meeting. You know what that's like? He's like, it's like playing. I'm like, no, it's like I'm about to go to the park. I'm like, I just can't wait. He's like, all right, dad. Okay, I'll see you afterwards. Have a good meeting. I want them to be so connected to the idea that there is not some separation between work and fun. When life is at its best, every aspect of your life is fun and enjoyable and gives you energy.

1:59:57And to me, I just want to mentor that and self-belief in them and just the tools that teach you to grow and evolve. And then you know that this is the process of life. This is how it works. And when you try something new, this is the risk associated with it. But it will never be the end-all, be-all. And to me, then how do I turn that into teachable to their kids and then their kids' kids, right? To where what it means to be a Deerdeck is at its core, like, balanced, happy, and harmonious, right? To where, like, and that doesn't matter if you want to, you know, you love McDonald's and want to work at McDonald's.

2:00:42you have no ambition and you just want to like, you know, play video games all day with zero ambition as long as that aligns with your entire, like, who you are, how you feel about yourself and your passion, your interest, your time and energy. And that's where you feel amazing and you're truly happy. Do it. But I doubt anyone would truly find happiness sitting in that position. Right, right.

2:01:11Lewis Howes:I've got a few final questions for you. I feel like I can go another few hours with you because I want to ask you so much about, I feel like I am so blessed because I get to speak to you off camera about how you found the relationship of your dreams, how you structure your relationship, energy management, fun, love, intimacy, how you do all these things. Maybe this is in two and a half years you come back on for another show and we talk about how you do all that. Because you told me one time about there's very little like stress in your relationship. It's like almost all peace. Maybe there's like a moment of like a small misunderstanding that goes right back to peace and joy.

2:01:49Lewis Howes:Which I think that probably gives you so much energy in creating that and finding that. I think a lot of people struggle with that. So there's more things I want to talk about with you in the future. I'm taking a lot of notes. I've got a few final questions. I'm curious, what do you think everyone misunderstands about failure and success? What do you think most people misunderstand about both of them? You know, I think that, you know, because failure, we've done a great job of like just bringing failure up to the surface of like, you know, there's no failure. There's lessons, you know, there's evolution.

2:02:24But I think the like the reality of failure is it's not so black and white. it's like you can micro fail along your way that prevents a major fail right and and like of learning and evolving from the micro failures uh is just as important as as the pain that happens from the lessons learned and the big ones right because the big ones you want to avoid at all cost because they are startovers they are they are much they are they they take a toll emotionally physically energetically right and they take a recovery period it's it's much different so to me there's so much a range inside it and i i swear when you fail with clarity it's so much easier to digest when you can when you can see where often the horizon of this if If this thing happens that this is going to cause this to not work because you were diligent on understanding the risk inside it and you stayed focused on trying to avoid it.

2:03:34But if it's inevitable versus getting blindsided, you know, and look, and a lot of people get blindsided and it's the nature and it's tougher to pick up from. but more often than not you could have seen it and made a decision to either move away from it or or stop way before it gets too painful you know and then I think in success it's you know it's the the reality of success is the same way and and in in in the fact that it's it's there's so many ranges of it, you know, and to me, you know, your success will always lead back to the your quality of life, you really just want to live a high quality of life.

2:04:23So if success is financial, that leads it to there, it's emotional, it's relationship, whatever it ultimately is, like success is always found in quality of life, which ultimately is happiness, fulfillment self-belief confidence like like all these things that make up who you are that make you feel the way that you feel about yourself you know and and that has so so many ranges but you want to get good at creating success yeah you don't want to just you don't want success to just happen and then not know how it happened you want to know how and why it happened so you can create it over and over again.

2:05:11Lewis Howes:Yeah. I was just talking with Matt, my good friend and COO, right before with you. And we were talking about how 15 years ago, I was roommates with Matt. We were broke, right? We were broke and we watched Robin Big when it first came out. 15 years ago, was that when it first came out? Yeah. 2006, 2007. And I always tell people you want to find, in order to gain, once you find some clarity in your life, you think you have a direction you want to go, You want to find a mentor or mentors with models that you can mimic. And you always had, from afar, before I knew you, you always had a great lifestyle.

2:05:48Lewis Howes:You had a great vision. You were building things that has been amazing for me to see and mimic and model in certain areas. I don't do exactly what you do, but I've been able to see your lifestyle design, how you built your relationship, how you structure your life, you organize it all. You optimize with health, everything, nutrition. So it's been really fun to learn from you. And I hope everyone watching and listening can learn from you as a great mentor with an amazing model, which for some might seem extreme. I mean, you track every data point of your day over every month or every year. You analyze it.

2:06:25Lewis Howes:You obsess over it. But that's part of the reason why you've been able to create so much momentum around your success. So it's not by accident you've created this much success. There's a specific design, a specific model, which takes extreme discipline and consistency like you talked about. And I'm just so grateful that I get to check in with you every now and learn about how you're doing these things. Hope I can come over soon and just, I want to get in the pod. Check out the pod, the meditation pod. And again, I'm as grateful as I was to be able to meet you for the first time and connect with you, to share it.

2:07:03it's like the same joy to share the evolution i know because i i give you i give you updates and i give you the bite size you know and you're just like what like like and it's always like it's it's always like this guy like the next in in but it's the format of being able to now have like the true more in-depth conversation yes um that gives me value gives me this another historical marker and here we go we get to now see like okay what does the next five years that's what's

2:07:41Lewis Howes:gonna ask you right now so you had a vision five years ago um you know this is something i do i've had grant cardone on my show many times and every time he comes on he always tells me you know i get frustrated because you challenged me to step up bigger than i ever thought before and i always say you're playing small grant you know you're playing small i think he's got a couple billion under his ass. I remember seeing that one. You really jammed it. You really jammed it. He's like, ah. But it goes out and creates it. So I'm curious, what is the vision in five years? What will you have created for yourself?

2:08:14Well, first of all, I will probably float in here. Levitate. I will probably be sitting here and no one will be able to hear it. Because I'm transmitting. because he's transmitting the energy to you, you know. But I truly believe.

2:08:36Lewis Howes:What's going to happen in five years? That I will be on the truly realized, like, ideal version of myself holistically. Okay. Because I think I still, forever state's done. That'll be done. You know what I mean? Yeah, it'll be done. Five years will be done. Be done. like so now i've lived out that vision it's like the the portfolio of brands will now be at such a scale um that that i will evolve into holding certain ones that are built to be like no we're going to carry this one to a billion dollars and go public right there's going to be such how many brands in five years you think you'll have a piece in oh in five um i would say I would say at least sold already combined.

2:09:28Combined at least another 25.

2:09:32Lewis Howes:So how many do you have right now? 14? Right now I've done 14 since we were here sold it so the remaining ones we have 10 remaining right now. So I will for sure have 35 at a minimum. But it's the quality and the scale of those. I will have at that point raised at least$20 million to$30 million through the foundation that I was able to deploy. For your philanthropy? Yeah, for the Do or Die or Foundation. Wow. I think, you know, we're talking not only flawless biomechanics, but by that time I will have been able to, what I'll probably be working on at that point is the system that I created on the baseline of human function on how, what I learned through my seven years of learning all aspects of my body and fully integrating it and healing it into one harmonious way.

2:10:39operating system both inside and out, I will now have been able to turn into a system. I would have had an extraordinary best-selling book that would have already been out that was a feature film and was the backbone to my now great joy of doing keynote speakings because I will want to share that energy and passion with people. Of course, on a limited basis because I will want to be spending that balanced time with my family. And beyond that, I know that I want to eventually grow into only working 15 % of my time total. Right. So now that I've mastered time, energy and capacity, I can also plan into like working much less as I get up into my 50s and my kids get older.

2:11:46Because even in my planning documents, I have like the next 15 years planned out and all my kids age and my wife age and all these milestones that are coming along the way. And I and I know that there is a point where I want to be able to be spend more time and be more influential in my children's life before I go back to working more. Right. So in that sort of like 12 to like 18 phase, you know, so I want to be able to live that fully. But I also know who I am and what I'll transition to next. Right. I know that like I'll transition this same ambition into one off projects. Right. That I'm going to want to do these big one off creative projects that like have these finite event or something.

2:12:38they're just not about money anymore they're just about like how can you create something super crazy right and to me I know that that's going to be where I transition into right because at some point I will now have because I'll never go beyond doing you know five six companies a year because if me and the founder don't connect and don't like and I don't help shape it with them and create it and we we birth something that's i'll never do it i don't i'm not building the company so that it can go on without me and build companies like at the end of the day it will always be me as the co-founder of these businesses rather than just being this place that makes companies because then it would like no longer be connected it's fun for you yeah

2:13:31Lewis Howes:what's the thing you'll be the most proud of that you do of all these things or something maybe you didn't talk about yeah look i'm i'm i really believe like the same way i am just in all of what the last five years have brought but the the next time we meet it will truly be to any and every person this is what's possible in a 10-year span you know like every person alive could achieve this much and here's when it happened why it happened and how you can do it too is what I look forward to sharing. RobDyrdek.com, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Rob Dyrdek. Where can they go to be a part of a Build with Rob podcast?

2:14:19Lewis Howes:If you want to learn more about your philosophy, the machine mindset, where else can we go connect with you, support you during this year and the next five years? Hey, you want to be a part of the machine method, become the machinist. You know what I mean? You got an idea. You want to pitch us. you want to be on Build with Rob, go to dirickmachine.com. But really, love and support all the businesses and entrepreneurs we build with. They're all amazing founders and amazing companies. And we continue to build great ideas with great people. Absolutely. I'm involved in two of them, Outstanding Foods and MindWrite.

2:14:57Lewis Howes:So make sure you guys check that out. We'll link it up there. I've got to get involved in more now in the future with you. So now that I've seen you just hit one after another, I'm like, I got to get involved more. This question, I don't know if I asked you this question the last time. I don't know if I started asking this, but it's called the three truths. So I'd like you to imagine that you live as long as you want to live, but it's your last day on earth. And you've accomplished all the goals and dreams that you want to accomplish from Tiger 21 and developing the 100 year plan and all that stuff.

2:15:26Lewis Howes:You've done it all. You've amazed yourself at how much magic you create every single day. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your written content, audio, video, message that anyone has access to. It's got to go somewhere else, whether with you or to another place. But we don't have access to this anymore. But you get to leave behind three lessons you would share with the world. Three things you know to be true from everything you learned. What would you say of those three truths for you? You know, I think, and I'm going to try to make it concise this time. I rambled on in the first one we did.

2:16:00but you know number one is chase energy right like you have to hunt the things that feed you not pull from you and if you focus on building a life of around relationships, job everything that you do about doing the things that give you energy happiness is found there And chasing energy above everything else will lead you to fulfillment. And the second one, design life. Don't live life and let life happen to you. Don't try to work really hard and then try to have free time and be focused. Just decide what type of life that you want and design it. Then learn to grow towards it and get better and better at creating the plan that you will grow belief in can happen.

2:17:08And then you will become the ideal version of yourself. But you cannot do that without designing life. Okay. you know and um you know i i'm you know we spoke about it pretty extensively but find joy in the process right like it is not about um you know it's not necessarily about the process fall in love with the process it's life you're living you're doing it you're growing, evolving, expanding towards your ideal life, what you want to accomplish, who you want to be, but learn to get better and better at it so it takes less energy and that you have total joy so that it is nothing more than this joyous journey to where you want to be and beyond.

2:18:03Because you'll never stop growing and never expand. When you fall in love and find joy in the process, you will then just do the process forever and go beyond what you could even imagine was even possible.

2:18:16Lewis Howes:Chase energy, design your life and find joy in the process. I'm really grateful for you, man. I'm so grateful we're friends. I'm so grateful I've been able to watch and have access to your information over the last five years but watch you for 10 years before then and be in your life in the last five years and hopefully contribute to your life in certain ways as well by bringing you different things as well Big time. Yeah. Breeding Billy G. Hopefully that was a good one. But I'm grateful for and I acknowledge you for you not only talking about what you're going to create, which so many people say what they're going to do.

2:18:52Lewis Howes:Probably 99 % of people don't do it and you've done it. Yeah. And that's what I really acknowledge you for. It's like you created it. You designed the vision for your life and you did so much in five years. Yeah. Every time I talk to you, you're always doing and being the better version of yourself you want to be. You're living it. Since the moment I met you, you've always been about positive energy and finding joy in the process. Everything. Even when it's like, oh, this happened and this TV show didn't work out and we spent all this energy on this thing and it didn't work out the way we wanted it to.

2:19:24Lewis Howes:You always find the joy in the process. And I've watched you obsess over designing your life. Obsess over these metrics in the dashboards you show me on your computer of like, this is how I analyze it. And every morning and every night and I track it and I measure it. And this is the whole thing at the end of the year, the report. And now I know what to do next year for it to be even better. You fall in love with the process. You design your life. And I can't wait for you to start creating this in book format and speech format for others to start learning how to replicate it. Because I think that's where your legacy will really live is how you teach others how to do this.

2:19:59Lewis Howes:Because I want to keep learning how to do this myself. So I acknowledge you for all this, my man. And I acknowledge you for the joy you bring to your friends, your family, your business partners. Because every time I'm in a meeting with you and there's other people around, you bring energy. You don't chase it. You create it. And that is a gift. So I acknowledge you for all this stuff. I can't wait for five years and all the times we hang out in the future before then. Anything else we can do to support you or to talk about before the final question? No. No. Because, you know, really, just being on here again and allowing me to be on this glorious platform that you have grown and evolved, you know what I mean?

2:20:40I'm just thankful that we're friends and ultimately that we get to share this conversation to share with others.

2:20:49Lewis Howes:Yeah, we're helping a lot of people. You're helping a lot of people, man. I appreciate it. Okay, final question. What's your definition of greatness? Oh, man. To me, I really believe that very similar to before because I see it in other great individuals and I'm trying to chase it. But it really is when your personal mastery becomes so highly optimized that you grow into a level that almost no other people have ever done, which then inspires the masses to try to emulate you and be the best version of themselves. But at the end of the day, it's still like who you are, what you dedicate yourself to, your personal mastery reaches such a level that others can't help but be inspired by it.

2:21:47True greatness.

2:21:49Lewis Howes:My friend, I hope you're enjoying this episode right now because we are on a mission to impact 100 million lives every single week. And every follow here on this podcast helps us reach more people. Make sure to hit the follow at the top of this show's page right now. It's the single biggest thing that you can do to support the show and the impact of us reaching you every single time we have new episodes. I appreciate you and I can't wait to see you in the next episode. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links.

2:22:30Lewis Howes:And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now, it's time to go out there and do something great.

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