#730: Reed Hastings, Co-Founder of Netflix — How to Cultivate High Performance, The Art of Farming for Dissent, Favorite Failures, and More

25:56But by having that explicit agreement, I think it's pretty helpful. You don't strike me as someone who has trouble saying no. maybe you are, but would you then, let's just say number 12 comes in, invite number 12, and you say no, would you state your policy in the sense that I have a budget for 11, sorry, I'm out of slots and that's that? Or would you just say no? Not generally, I would say I just can't make it as if I had a big conflict with some other meeting. The reason I'm asking about this is it does seem like focus is a strength of yours, and you've been able to institutionalize that in a number of different settings.

26:33For instance, to give credit where credit is due with Reid Hoffman and his class related to blitzscaling when you had that conversation. And he said, yeah, I reached out to Reid, this Reid sitting in front of me. And I think he asked you to be on a board or something and you're like, sorry, I'm focused on education. How do you phrase those declines? Not to get too much in the weeds, but I am curious because this is something people struggle with. Yeah, I mean, I've always thought the people who really focus on a few things will get the most done. The problems of society are ones that our parents and grandparents couldn't fix.

27:04So they're like all very hard. And if you make, you know, some material contribution in one or two areas, that's remarkable. And I think what can happen is people get drawn into 20 different things and then they don't make much of an impact in any of them. And, you know, once in a while you get an Elon Musk who can do magically a wide number of things, but that's very rare. And it's not me. And so to answer your question of how do you say no, I say really, I'm just honest about it. I really can't do that because I want to focus, let's say, on education or Powder Mountain or whatever the thing is.

27:41Coming back to the radical candor or the transparency, there are very few people I imagine in the interview process who are going to say, you know, I actually prefer to be quietly deceptive in a harmless way. On paper, they'll agree. And my question is, how do you, I think this is a term you've used, farm for dissent? How do you actually help encourage that transparency? During the hiring process, I think we try to just listen and be intuitive and try to figure out which people to give a shot at. Then when you're in a company, and especially if you're a leader, it's important to farm for dissent because it's not normal to disagree with your boss, right?

28:22Normal, we learn deference. My job is to please my boss, you know, as opposed to we want people to feel my job is to help Powder or Netflix or Pure Software grow. Sometimes if to help them grow, I've got to be willing to argue with my manager and that's okay. And so because it's difficult emotionally in most companies to disagree with your manager. We call it farming for dissent. And we have managers do things like, what are three things you would do differently if you were in my job? I would regularly, every 18 months or so, do that with 50 top executives and have them write down what would be different.

29:01We would be in games, out of games. We would be in porn, out of porn. We'd be in sports, out of sports. 100 different business decisions, what would they do different? And that was an example of farming for dissent. When you were going head to head with Blockbuster back in the day. Yeah, shipping mailing DVDs. That's right. So they come out and they decide to launch their attack. And then my understanding is, and I've read and listened to different versions of this, but there were a number of things launched in sort of counterattack that ranged from banner ads or advertising to selling used DVDs.

29:42And then I don't know if it was several months later or a year later. And in retrospect, none of those things really contributed to the success that you had, the victory that you had over Blockbuster. How did you take that learning? Meaning if we just doubled down on our core competency, we would have probably beaten Blockbuster sooner. how do you, this is not quite the right word, but institutionalize it, put it into the organizational memory so that you don't make the same mistake again, or you lessen the likelihood. When I was a kid, there was a dishwashing soap crystal maybe, and supposedly a clean batter because it had green crystals in it.

30:19And it's an example in human behavior of assigning meaning or causality to something. It wasn't very effective to just say, we're a great soap. They had to say we're a great soap because of the green crystals. And we're the only one that has these green crystals spread throughout the dishwashing fluid. So when you've got a big competitive battle and all your employees and investors are wondering, why are you going to win? How are you going to win? We say, well, we got to talk about the green crystals. And we didn't understand it at first, but we would do various things that were kind of irrelevant, like selling used DVDs.

30:55And in hindsight, it's because we ourselves needed to believe in the green crystals. Okay. And so there's a temptation in all management teams to focus on shiny objects in that way, as opposed to just focus on we have great soap in that case. So in hindsight, what we did is, wow, we really got a, we spent 20 % of our effort, not 80, but 20 % of our effort on green crystals. And we could have done better if we had had the discipline and confidence to just execute on the core better. So that would be DVD shipping times, reducing DVD breakage, better envelopes, making the core work better. And I think this is on the Netflix website.

31:34My team sent this to me because I was asking a number of follow-up questions on the culture deck. And I believe it's very explicitly stated if you are being disloyal to Netflix, if you disagree with someone and you do not voice that disagreement, or if you disagree with your boss, it's very, very explicit. it. To disagree silently is disloyal. Yeah. Okay. There we go. In the early days, let's just say sub 100, maybe it's sub 50. Which of the principles in that culture doc do you think were most valuable to have permeate the smaller organization? And it could be the ones you've mentioned. The fundamental one is high performance, team, not family.

32:13Because if you've got that, that is the energy driver because everyone around you is amazing. You learn so much, you attract other amazing people. So kind of talent farming in that way, and specifically the density of talent. Almost every organization has some fantastic people. It's an incredible feeling when everybody is amazing. So part of that is hiring. Part of that is firing. I mean, there's a lot in between, but how did the keeper test, what is the keeper test and how did that come to be? When I was maybe seven or eight years old, I caught a large fish. And my dad said, that's a keeper, Reed.

32:51So I always remembered that. And when thinking about this test, so the test is if someone's thinking about quitting and going to a different firm, would we try to change their mind to keep them? Or would we say, bummer, but go ahead. And so we wanted to fill the company with people that we would fight to keep. And so that's the keeper test. And what we say is, if we wouldn't fight to keep someone, we should proactively give them a generous severance package and try to find someone that we might well fight to keep. So I'm going to ask maybe a mundane question, but well, a few. One is, how frequently was that done as an exercise for the managers in the company?

33:35And secondly, would you fire someone and then find a replacement or get the search going for a replacement and then fire the person? I know it might seem like a really kind of nitpicky question. Generally, we would let people go and then do the search because you want the search to be open. And we want to treat the person with respect. They're trying hard. And think of it as we wanted to let people go in the way that we would want to be let go if we're on the other side. Okay. Which is, it's difficult, but, you know, let's be direct and thoughtful and supportive on it. And then, you know, it's up to managers how often they might think about it once a quarter.

34:13Would I really fight to keep that person? And then it's the degrees of, oh my God, I'd pull out all the stops. I'd be like, that person's the most incredible of two. Yeah, I think I'd fight to keep them some, and that's fine. Versus the big one it uncovers is, no, if the person left, I'd be fine. And we want to make sure that person, that manager, gives that person a severance package. I've read at least in two places, maybe three, about your fondness for Beyond Entrepreneurship, Jim Collins, but specifically the first 80 pages, I think, and the ability to go back every year and reread these 80 pages.

34:49So I've had Jim on the show twice, I think, and he's amazing. And I've read quite a bit of his work. I've never read that one. What are some of the things that really stick out to you in those first 80 pages? And that's where he really does the role of self-discipline, sort of rinsing the cottage cheese for an athlete and the importance. Wait, what does that mean? I'm sorry. It's someone who's so manic about their diet that they rinse the cottage cheese of something, you know, the milk way, I don't know. So for me, this was when I was 32, it came out. And it was the first management book that made me feel like I could succeed because it wasn't, you know, like Larry Ellison or these huge personalities, you know, he pointed out of how many people had great success of sort of quiet determination and discipline, and how much caring about the organization first over yourself made a difference.

35:42So a lot of fundamental precepts, which gave me permission to be myself and not try to be Mr. Charisma, Flamboyant, which is kind of the CEOs that you read about. So I think that's why it was so impactful. what are i'm sure there are the other handful of books that you have recommended the most or gifted the most to people who are would-be entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs slash founders probably the jim collins oriented stuff is good uh patrick lincione's you know five defunctions of a team the advantage those are excellent so those are ones and then you know on the more human side Sapiens, Yuval Harari's book of sort of the meaning of life and understanding the big picture, you know, is extraordinary.

36:30Do you read much fiction? I know you read the, and liked the overstory, I believe. Yep. But no, I don't read that much. I tend to do fiction on film and series, and then I'll do biography. Although I'll watch, I just watched a Helen Reddy biography, I Am Woman. So, you know, I like a lot of nonfiction, both in reading and in film. and in film. Any standouts in recent memory? Well, again, two days ago, I watched a five-year-old biopic of Helen Reddy, Australian woman who broke through in New York and LA. I had an incredible number of hits in the 70s and 80s, including I Am Woman. So it's a super well-done biopic.

37:13Just a quick thanks to one of our sponsors, and we'll be right back to the show. This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront. There is a lot happening in the US and global economies right now. A lot. That's an understatement. Are we in a recession? Is it a bear market? What's going to happen with inflation? So many questions, so few answers. I can't tell the future. Nobody can, but I can tell you about a great place to earn more on your savings, and that's Wealthfront. Wealthfront is an app that helps you save and invest your money. Right now, you can earn 5 % APY. That's the annual percentage yield with the Wealthfront Cash account.

37:46That's more than 10 times more interest than if you left your money in a savings account at the average bank, according to FDIC.gov. So why wait? Earn 5 % on your cash today. Plus, it's up to$8 million in FDIC insurance through partner banks. And when you open an account today, you'll get an extra$50 bonus with a deposit of$500 or more. There are already nearly half a million people using Wealthfront to save more, earn more, and build long-term wealth. So why wait. Visit wealthfront.com slash Tim to get started. That's wealthfront.com slash Tim. This was a paid endorsement by Wealthfront.

38:23So we could talk about, and certainly I'm open to it, but you've had a lot of big wins. You've had a lot of highlights. I'm wondering if you have any favorite failures, and I'll put that in quotation marks, from Netflix days or before. And I say favorite failures, meaning something that really did not go as you had hoped, but that actually somehow set the stage for larger successes later in some fashion. I get a little bit of irony in favorite failure. I would say our Quickster episode at Netflix. So we were growing in DVD and streaming. This is 2011. And we realized the future was streaming. The customers currently were doing DVDs.

39:05And we decided to split into two companies, one called Quickster to do the DVDs and the other Netflix to do the streaming. It was roughly the right idea, but five years too early. The customers were screaming mad because they mostly used DVD. Streaming at that point, you couldn't get to the television. So it was really just like streaming to a laptop. So it wasn't like a very great solution. We didn't have that much content. And what I learned about it was sometimes you can be so strategic in long term that you don't bring along the customers with you. Then I made it worse by trying to do a YouTube video of an apology.

39:43And I had this very odd teal shirt. And it was just like, everything was wrong. I take it there were a lot of comments about the teal shirt. Which four years later, we burned at a ceremony. So the reason it's the favorite failure is because you can go from a string of amazing successes to arrogance. And that's kind of what happened. And so it's ever since then, we've done a lot more kind of grounded checking. So just to follow up related to that, internally, how was that decision made? And could you kind of spot the train wreck in the making if you look at it in hindsight? And then related to that is, how do you, I suppose, buy some insurance with better process in the future, if that's the right way to phrase it?

40:27That's exactly the right way. We didn't do much farming for dissent in those days. So I was messianic, convinced this is the right move, looking around the corner. And it turned out that lots of people had severe doubts, but they didn't know the other executives had doubts. So the thing we instituted is on big decisions, we make everyone say 10 to negative 10, whether they think it's a smart idea. Okay. And so if we had done that at the time, we would have seen a whole tons of like negative sevens, negative six, negative eight. And then that would have been shocking. And so establishing a clear input mechanism on big decisions, and we'd have the top 50 or 100 people weigh in on it, is a very positive step.

41:09Are there any CEOs or leaders who stand out? Let's keep it to CEOs or founders who stand out to you as being courageous in talking about the uncomfortable things. Jeff Bezos, I think, is probably a great standout in that and has always been very clear about being customer-centric. And they have various controversies at times, but he's very clear about what they stand for. So I think he might be the standout example. Paragon, one of the Paragons for sure. So customer obsession, certainly Jeff has written about that since shareholder letter one. Right. And you've said that you have two religions, customer satisfaction and operating income.

41:53Could you hit both of those and just expand on what you mean by both? Well, I think customer satisfaction is clear, but it's probably incomplete because customers would love to have everything for free. So the challenge is to have great customer satisfaction and to charge them enough to have growing operating income. And that constraint is what makes business challenging, fun, exciting. So I lean into that. What were some of the greatest insights or decisions that have allowed you to find that Goldilocks medium that contains both of those? You know, I think the main thing is back to setting context.

42:29So whether it's Powder Mountain, Netflix, or Pure before that, not saying we're only about customers. I guess just naive, right? We are about customers and growing operating income. And so I think that really, back to the honesty theme that you talked about, it may not be as sexy, but it's more complete context for our employees and shareholders about why we're making certain decisions. Let's talk about Powder Mountain. Yeah. Why Powder Mountain? I've been a small skier because of intense work most of my life. And we've had a place in Park City for a long time and loved raising the kids here skiing.

43:13But it got super crowded. And when you look around, skiing all around the United States because of the growth of the Epic and Icon Passes has gotten very crowded. And so Powder Mountain is counter-positioned as the uncrowded mountain. And that creates some constraints on what we do. But it's an incredible opportunity. Patty and I had a house there and we've enjoyed it, but just really been homeowners and nothing more. And then after Netflix retirement, I was like, oh, here's a project. Why don't we figure out private skiing? So about 20 % of US golf courses are private and they have better tea times, nicer clubhouse, you know the people, that kind of thing.

43:56And that's what private skiing is. So we've introduced private skiing on about half of the powder territory. And so that's skiing just for the homeowners. And then, you know, the people on the left, the powder is untracked, you know, because there's only a few hundred families there. It's pretty amazing. There's a couple other private skiing places, Wasatch Peaks, Yellowstone, but they're all super expensive and were relatively affordable. So we think it's just a great opportunity, again, in reaction to all the super crowding that everybody's feeling in Tahoe and Colorado and Utah. So for a lot of people listening, they might think of Project as making a canoe with their kids.

44:39But you're taking on this huge - 10 ,000 acres. 10 ,000 acres skiing territory. I've spent a lot of time there. The skiing's fantastic. You have lots of on-track powder, as you would hope, given the name. Amazing cat skiing. And it doesn't seem like a minor project, I guess, is what I'm saying. So at least to mere mortals. No, we've invested over$100 million in it in this first year. We got three new public lifts and one private lift going in this summer. So it's definitely a big project, but also a big opportunity to build a community that's very adventurous, artistic, creative, outdoorsy. I mean, it's an amazing place that we hope to spend a lot of time over the next 30 years.

45:21So you're in a position, I would have to imagine, where the menu of options is pretty long in terms of how you could spend your time. I'm sure you get plenty of offers and inbound things are interesting. And then that doesn't even take into account the number of things you might be interested in. Of all the things out there, why this? What do you personally get from this experience? Helping to nurture a place of beauty with a warm community. So I do Netflix, millions of people, but I don't know most of them who are customers. And then I do a lot of philanthropy and education, other things. And again, it affects, hopefully in a positive way, millions of people, but I don't particularly know them.

45:58Power Mountain is very intimate. It's this close little community where everyone has coffee together in the morning. So it's doing Sky Lodge is amazing. It's been upgraded since you were last there. Service is cool. So it's something I can touch and feel. And so I think it resonates in a very deep way because it's personal connection. So Utah's famous for champagne powder, light fluffy powder. For people who do not have any familiarity with Utah, where is powder? About an hour from Salt Lake City Airport. What's the name of the closest town? Eden. Yes, yes. Yes, there's Eden and Paradise and Liberty, all some great town names.

46:41But we're on a mountaintop in Eden, Utah. And again, it's really an extraordinary ski experience because of being uncrowded. And so the powder lasts for days. Lasts for a really long time. I've been there where it's lasted a week plus. That's what I want everyone to feel. It's even better than you said. What do you think, and I'm sure you have thought about this, what are the biggest challenges? For Bouter. For Bouter, yeah. It's been poorly managed for a decade. They just didn't have really good people, but didn't have any money. And so then I get to take it over in Walton and then invest, you know, again, over$100 million so far.

47:21And it's relatively easy transformation because people want uncrowded skiing. So it's hitting a market opportunity, you know, in a significant way. And then it's just very joyous because we get to like ski in the morning and then do meetings in the afternoon. New England. And so it creates a great team feeling. Do you think you have the hard wiring to ever retire in a capacity without an enormous project? Unlikely. I do like being engaged and making a contribution. So I hope to be able to do that for a long time. What is one or two of the best investments you've ever made? It doesn't need to be financial.

48:02It could be an investment of time. Warren Buffett talks about DL Carnegie, public speaking courses. I mean, it's a bit of the y 'all shucks grandpa thing that he's got going, but do any particular investments of time, energy, money come to mind as a real inflection point? Financial investments, the few times I've done investing, I've lost my shirt and I realized I'm just so optimistic. I'm like, anybody seems to have a good idea. I'm like, sure. So I think it's a different DNA than investors have that are differentially good investors. So I'm a pure index fund investor. I'm Netflix plus index fund.

48:36So if we broaden the definition of investment to think about time and energy, I put a lot of work into charter schools, and I've done that over the last 25, 30 years, because I see a real opportunity for these nonprofit public schools to create great learning environments and great teaching environments. And so I've been on the board of KIPP Academy, one of them, for 20 years, been on the board of many of the other related charter organizations. And they're somewhat controversial because they're not the same as the district schools. But I think it's a very healthy kind of creative tension. And the cities that have high charters, percentage of charters like Denver and Washington, D.C.

49:14and Indianapolis have done much better than other cities. So it really is a positive effect, you know, on kids and on the profession of teaching, where, again, you can start your own public school. I'd love to chat some more about this. So starting with my first book, even before that, but 2007, I became involved with DonorsChoose.org where I was an advisor and then QuestBridge, which seemed to do a lot of really good work. And at least from my perspective, I was deeply interested in education because I recognize how my trajectory differed from a lot of my friends growing up because of educational opportunities.

49:51It seems like an excellent way to try to maybe level the playing field is too strange a statement. But when you see a movie like Waiting for Superman, I'm not sure if you saw the documentary, but you can leave the theater or after watching this movie, feel quite demoralized. Like low-performing teachers can't be fired and X, Y, and Z, that there are all these challenges in, say, the U.S. public school system. What are some of the changes that you would like to see that you think can be catalyzed in some meaningful way? The fundamental problem in U.S. public education is our school boards turn over pretty quickly, especially in large urban districts, which makes the superintendents or the CEOs turn over quickly.

50:32So the average superintendent tenure in Dallas and Denver and Atlanta and Boston and L.A. is three years. So superintendents come in, they last for a little bit of time, the school board changes, and then the superintendent has changed. And so, you know, why is that? Because the school board members run on change. That's how they got elected. And these are big prizes, running big organizations and big budgets. And then you go on to city council and state representative and all those things. So we've got a system that because the superintendent changes constantly, the organization is kind of chaotic.

51:08You know, it's not some well-run nonprofit like the Red Cross or Sutter Health, or it's not certainly a for-profit. it. But the main issue is that turnover. And so shifting to nonprofits running public education, it would be a big positive from where we are now. And that's what charter schools are. Again, in some cities like Washington, it's about half of the kids go to one of the charter schools, one of the nonprofit schools in Atlanta. It's about a quarter. Denver, it's about a quarter. Indianapolis, it's about a half. So we're making a lot. In New Orleans, it's 100 % of the kids. So just for clarity for people listening, because almost everybody will have heard the term charter school, but that means it's not dependent on taxpayer dollars, it's dependent on fundraising?

51:54Or how does that work? It's just a public school. So it gets full tax dollars, but it's run by a nonprofit instead of the school district, a government entity. So that's the big difference. What are the, and maybe this isn't the objective, but what are the biggest challenges to scaling charter schools in the United States? Usually it's the political climate. So it's difficult in blue states. The unions generally oppose charter schools because then they would have to organize many different nonprofits as opposed to one big school district. So that's more expensive for them. But in red states, which are relatively low, union charters are growing very quickly because parents want choice.

52:32The teachers want a climate that's innovative. And when they work in a nonprofit, it can be very stable and have great leadership for a long time because it's got a stable board of directors. So that's the big difference is a governance. So when you express the frustration that people at DonorsChoose or others feel, it's because people have been trying to fix the school districts we have for 100 years. And they've made very little progress because they get a program in and then the superintendent changes and the program goes. So all the work that Annenberg and Gates and others have done, it gets deployed in some school districts for a couple of years and then it gets unwound.

53:11Whereas the charter schools are very stable and continue to grow. They're not all perfect, but the parents have an ability to choose and the kids and the families. And so if it's not a great charter school, you could move to another, but it is free like public schools. If you were to teach a class, it could be a seminar, it could be one day, it could be a semester. Let's just say for the time being, that was an obligation. Anywhere from fifth grade up to, you know, master's, what age range would you choose and what would the subject matter of the course be? You know, because when I was 22, I was teaching high school math.

53:44I think I jumped right back in there. You know, it just brings back so many great memories of helping kids solve problems and gain confidence. So I don't know if that's the strategic answer of the highest impact, but in terms of the emotional payoff, it is the highest. god you know i had one this is not to turn this into a personal therapy session but i was pretty good at math back in the day and i had a really abusive teacher in 10th grade and i just got turned off on the other side my brother same school had a fantastic 10th grade teacher and then he went on to get a phd in statistics and so on and so forth it's just wild how these little things well it's i'm gonna know horrible that that happened to you but it happens again to kids all over, and in particular in lower-income big cities where the average level of teaching is not that high.

54:36So you have all of this involvement in education. It's very deep involvement. Now Powder Mountain is your primary focus, is that fair to say? Do you continue to do the education or do you have a conversation or send out emails to those people to set expectations that now you have shifted focus and therefore there's a firewall? here's your budget for certain things. How do you make that transition from one focus to another? So for 25 years, I was CEO of Netflix, which consumed a lot of my time. And I did philanthropy a couple of days a month. And I do powder intensely and I do philanthropy a couple of days a month.

55:10I got it. So they coexist. It hasn't really changed. And then now I'm doing a bunch of work in Africa on economy and technology, sort of better cell phones, better coverage, solar, things that I hope will stimulate the economy. So I'm in Africa once a quarter and some country doing some investment and trying to make a difference there. So that's my kind of additional frontier that I didn't spend that much time on during Netflix, but I've got a little more time now. Now, is Africa in this case the chance beneficiary of you having been assigned to Africa way back in the day? Or could it just as easily have been someplace in Latin America or elsewhere?

55:50You'll notice that. So most people are very strategic. And for me, what are my causes? Education and Africa economy, basically because I was a Peace Corps volunteer math teacher. So I think I'm just trying to relive my 22-year-old self. Seems to be working out pretty well, as far as I can tell. What else are you doing at Pattern Mountain that is different or exactly the same as, say, what you did at Netflix? In other words, what lessons have you carried over, if any? Fundamentally, on the culture, we talk about being big-hearted champions that pick up the trash. So the big-hearted is the warm and loving and caring, which we didn't have enough of at Netflix, at least in the culture description.

56:33The champion is someone who wants to win and is willing to go the extra mile to win. And then the who picks up the trash is the self-responsible, self-disciplined, self-learning, does the right thing when no one's looking. So I think at Powder, we actually, with our employee phrase of big-hearted champions who pick up the trash, that's what we want to hire, we actually are better than the old Netflix description that I've learned from because we're willing to be tighter, more memorable, and more loving. That's the big-hearted part. It makes me also think of, you mentioned Lencioni earlier, it makes me think of the advantage a little bit, the humble, hungry, and smart.

57:10Absolutely. No, very, very impactful. does rhyme. What would you, metaphorically speaking, put on a billboard, a message to get to millions or billions of people? I might say hope is everything. I think the fundamental positive human force is hope, hope of better things in the future. When we live in a very imperfect world, we always have. We are very imperfect creatures. We always have been and will be. And then we have hope of trying to do better. And so when people lose hope, then it's a very tough situation. How do you cultivate that in someone? Let's say there's a parent listening and they have a kid who doesn't have any clinical psychiatric disorder, but maybe they see the glasses half empty, they're barraged by negative news and headlines on social media, and they're just kind of apathetic.

58:02What would your advice be to that parent in terms of what they can do to help. I would say in that case, the kids are being withdrawn in protection from a world that confuses them or doesn't treat them well. So it's trying to understand from the kid's perspective, why are they feeling that way? And then certainly, you know, helping them understand that growing up is really tough. And then by the time you get to 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 and 60, you start to know yourself better and it doesn't feel as bad. It feels better. And there is hope of great happiness in the future for them. Well, you have very, you were talking about high density of talent.

58:42You have a very high density of clear, actionable thoughts. We've checked a lot of boxes. Reid, is there anything else that you would like to say or discuss before we land the planet? I mean, I'm not in a rush. I've got time. So excited to be with you, Tim, and hope we get to do this more often. And love to have you and your listeners all come to Powder Mountain. Check it out, folks. Powder for days. Thank you, Reid. Is there any place you would like to point people? Is there a website for Powder Mountain? PowderMountain.com. No, no, right on the nose, baby. Right on the nose. Well, thank you very much, Reid, for the time.

59:20I really, really appreciate it. It's nice to be looking out the window at Snow as we're talking about Powder Mountain. And for everybody listening, we will put everything discussed in the show notes, as per usual, at tim.blog slash podcast. And until next time, just be a little kinder than is necessary to others, but also to yourself. And thank you for tuning in. Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just one more thing before you take off. And that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend? Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday.

1:00:00Easy to sign up, easy to cancel. It is basically a half page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kind of like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests. And these strange esoteric things end up in my field and then I test them and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about.

1:00:39If you'd like to try it out, just go to tim.blog slash Friday. Type that into your browser, tim.blog slash Friday. Drop in your email and you'll get the very next one. Thanks for listening. This episode is brought to you by AG1, the daily foundational nutritional supplement that supports whole body health. I view AG1 as comprehensive nutritional insurance, and that is nothing new. I actually recommended AG1 in my 2010 bestseller, more than a decade ago, The 4-Hour Body, and I did not get paid to do so. I simply loved the product and felt like it was the ultimate nutritionally dense supplement that you could use conveniently while on the run, which is, for me, a lot of the time.

1:01:22I have been using it a very, very long time indeed. And I do get asked a lot what I would take if I could only take one supplement. And the true answer is invariably AG1. It simply covers a ton of bases. I usually drink it in the mornings and frequently take their travel packs with me on the road. So what is AG1? What is this stuff? AG1 is a science-driven formulation of vitamins, probiotics, and whole food source nutrients. In a single scoop, AG1 gives you support for the brain, gut, and immune system. Since 2010, they have improved the formula 52 times in pursuit of making the best foundational nutrition supplement possible using rigorous standards and high-quality ingredients.

1:02:03How many ingredients? 75. And you would be hard-pressed to find a more nutrient-dense formula on the market. It has a multivitamin, multimineral superfood complex, probiotics and prebiotics for gut health, an antioxidant immune support formula, digestive enzymes, and adaptogens to help manage stress. Now, I do my best always to eat nutrient-dense meals. That is the basic, basic, basic, basic requirement, right? That is why things are called supplements. Of course, that's what I focus on, but it is not always possible. It is not always easy. So part of my routine is using AG1 daily. If I'm on the road, on the run, it just makes it easy to get a lot of nutrients at once and to sleep easy knowing that I am checking a lot of important boxes.

1:02:48So each morning, AG1. That's just like brushing my teeth, part of the routine. It's also NSF certified for sports, so professional athletes trust it to be safe. And each pouch of AG1 contains exactly what is on the label, does not contain harmful levels of microbes or heavy metals, and is free of 280 banned substances. It's the ultimate nutritional supplement in one easy scoop. So take ownership of your health and try AG1 today. You will get a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first subscription purchase. So learn more. Check it out. Go to drinkag1.com slash Tim.

1:03:27That's drink AG1, the number one. drinkag1.com slash Tim. Last time, drinkag1.com slash Tim. Check it out. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Shopify is the all-in-one commerce platform that powers millions of businesses worldwide, including me, including mine. What business, you might ask? Well, one way I've scratched my own itch is by creating Cockpunch Coffee. It's a long story. All proceeds on my end go to my foundation, Sisei Foundation, to fund research for mental health, etc. Anyway, Cockpunch Coffee, it's delicious. The first coffee I've ever produced myself. I drink it every morning.

1:04:05Check it out. We use Shopify for the online storefront and my team raves about how simple and easy it is to use. It has everything we need and nothing we don't. Whether you're a garage entrepreneur or getting ready for your IPO, Shopify is the only tool you need to start, run and grow your business without the struggle. Shopify puts you in control of every sales channel. It doesn't matter if you're selling satin sheets from Shopify's in-person POS system or offering organic olive oil on Shopify's all-in-one e-commerce platform. However you interact with your customers, you're covered. And once you've reached your audience, Shopify has the internet's best converting checkout to help you turn browsers into buyers.

1:04:42Shopify powers 10 % of all e-commerce in the United States. And Shopify is truly a global force as the e-commerce solution behind Allbirds, Rothy's, Brooklyn, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across more than 170 countries. Plus, Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way if you have questions. This is possibility powered by Shopify. So check it out. Sign up for a$1 per month trial period at Shopify. That's S-H-O-P-I-F-Y. Shopify.com slash Tim. Go to Shopify.com slash Tim to take your business to the next level today. One more time, all lowercase, Shopify.com slash Tim.