245. Jesse Itzler & Devon Levesque: On Life Design, The Misogi Ritual and Winning Routines

17 Feb 2026 · 1 h 22 min · 34 chapters

Ask about this episode

Ask anything about it. ChatGPT or Claude reads this page and answers with the times it was said.

Connect VO and ask about every podcast you hear, including the moments you saved. Add to ChatGPT · Add to Claude

In short

Podcast Summary: The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - Episode 245

Episode Details

  • Title: Jesse Itzler & Devon Levesque: On Life Design, The Misogi Ritual and Winning Routines
  • Description: Jesse Itzler shares his method of life design through annual challenges (his “misogi”) and mini-adventures, while Devon Levesque discusses personal values and intentionality in life.

Key Concepts

Life Design

  • Annual Challenge (Misogi):
  • This concept encourages individuals to undertake one significant, year-defining challenge annually.
  • The idea is to create a memorable experience rather than simply counting accomplishments.
  • Mini Adventures:
  • Every other month, engage in a smaller adventure to break the routine and introduce new experiences.

Framework for Life Design

  • Core Values:
  • Devon Levesque emphasizes identifying and “red-marking” commitments that don’t align with personal core values to streamline focus and intentions.
  • Intentional Scheduling:
  • Both guests advocate for structuring calendars around personal and family priorities, ensuring time is spent in alignment with core values.

Success Factors

  • "Yes, And" Energy:
  • Emphasizes the importance of a positive mindset and the willingness to say "yes" to opportunities, which can significantly influence success.

Importance of Experience

  • Experiencing Life:
  • Engaging in varied experiences fosters wisdom and personal growth.
  • The conversation references how wisdom often comes from diverse life experiences, not just traditional successes.
  • Friendship and Relationships:
  • Building genuine connections through shared experiences is crucial.
  • The bond formed through challenges and adventures is often stronger than traditional relationships formed in routine settings.

Discussion Highlights

Personal Stories & Growth

  • Each guest shares personal anecdotes about their adventures and the impact of their experiences on personal growth.
  • Jesse Itzler discusses how his life experiences have shaped his priorities, particularly regarding time spent with family and seeking out new experiences.

The Ripple Effect of Intentional Living

  • Impact on Others:
  • How living intentionally can influence the people around you, creating a positive ripple effect in personal and professional circles.

Spirituality and Wealth

  • The conversation touches upon being a "spiritual billionaire," where true wealth is defined not just in financial terms but in the richness of experiences, relationships, and personal growth.

Authenticity and Connection

  • Emphasizes that authentic connections and the energy one brings to relationships can significantly enhance life satisfaction and success.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Implementing a Misogi:
  • Choose one large challenge each year and plan six mini-adventures to infuse newness into life.
  • Identify Values:
  • List personal core values and align activities and commitments accordingly.
  • Focus on Experiences:
  • Prioritize time with loved ones and seek experiences that align with personal passions and curiosity.
  • Regular Reflection:
  • Schedule weekly or monthly check-ins to assess alignment with goals and values, ensuring personal growth remains a priority.

Conclusion This episode of *The Ultimate Human* podcast emphasizes the importance of intentional living through structured life design, engagement in enriching experiences, and the value of authentic connections. By adopting these principles, listeners can aspire to become more fulfilled and present in their lives while fostering meaningful relationships and experiences.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Understanding the Misogi Ritual

0:00 to 0:49

Learn about the Japanese Misogi ritual and its significance for life design.

“There's an old Japanese ritual called the Misogi and the notion around the Misogi is you do one big year-defining thing every year.”

Impactful Conversations with Jesse Itzler

2:12 to 4:20

Gary shares how Jesse Itzler's message has influenced his life choices.

“And I just want to say, I walked in here and my cells are freaking out.”

Living with Intention and Adventure

4:20 to 6:27

Explore the importance of intentional living and planning adventures.

“And I'm absolutely honored to have you on the podcast today.”

The Meaning of Mini Adventures

6:27 to 8:06

Discover Jesse's approach to incorporating mini adventures into life.

“You don't have to do a lot to get a ripple effect in your life, but that is something that I do every year.”

Life-Defining Experiences

8:06 to 8:34

Jesse shares how year-defining experiences can transform your life perspective.

“Oh, it's where you climb the height of Mount Everest in 36 hours.”

Building Lasting Connections Through Adventures

8:34 to 10:40

The hosts discuss how shared experiences create deeper connections.

“He's like, yo, you wanna go and hit some hot springs tonight?”

The Role of Adventure in Business

10:40 to 12:55

Explore how adventure and spirituality play a role in entrepreneurial success.

“Not since I walked into your house, Gary.”

The Power of Shared Experiences

14:01 to 16:44

Learn how shared adventures create stronger bonds and community.

“And, you know, Dev and I have been on these adventures, but we've been going with a group of 10 friends.”

Embracing Youthful Energy

16:44 to 18:08

Discover the benefits of surrounding yourself with energetic people.

“you're gonna go climb Mount Everest in a mountain like for 36 hours?”

Life Lessons from David Goggins

18:16 to 21:25

Explore the impactful experiences and wisdom gained from David Goggins.

“Yeah, and over your life, and we just went back a little bit to like the financial wins and some of the business wins.”
Show all 34 chapters

Simplifying Life for Happiness

21:25 to 23:08

Understand the importance of simplifying life to focus on what truly matters.

“if any of that could rub off on me or my children, like every bucket of my life would be better.”

Intentional Parenting and Life Design

23:08 to 24:18

Discover the importance of intentional time and design in parenting.

“I'm gonna put more on my plate, what I love to do with the people I love to do them with.”

Finding Balance and System in Life

24:18 to 28:00

Learn about creating a balanced system for a fulfilling life.

“Six weeks later, he comes up in this like kind of beat up pickup truck.”

Designing Your Life with Intention

28:00 to 29:16

Learn how to intentionally design your life around key personal values.

“we're kind of supposed to be wise in our 50s, right?”

Learning from the Elderly

29:16 to 31:51

Discover the importance of listening to the wisdom of older generations.

“And like, look, I get a lot of really cool opportunities to be in good rooms with people, make a lot of money, do something that people would dream of doing.”

Channeling Energy into Priorities

31:51 to 33:28

Understand how to prioritize your energy towards meaningful aspects of life.

“never gonna get it back and so like that's what i mean by being intentional like really really intentional.”

The Importance of Morning Routine

33:28 to 36:02

Explore how a dedicated morning routine can enhance your day and focus.

“Yeah, you know, I made a change six years ago.”

Digital Detox and Mental Clarity

36:02 to 36:47

Learn about the benefits of taking a digital detox for better mental clarity.

“talks about a detox and you do great detoxes.”

Embracing Innovation in Business

41:35 to 42:00

Hear how embracing a lack of experience can lead to innovative business practices.

“Well, I've had started multiple businesses in my journey, and the common theme is I had no experience or background or in any of them.”

Innovating in Business: Breaking the Mold

42:00 to 46:50

Learn how innovation and disruption can lead to success in business.

“than the competition because no one taught us how to do it.”

Overcoming Isolation and Redefining Success

46:50 to 51:13

Explore how social connections impact success and the concept of the 'spiritual billionaire.'

“But it's like, I mean, it's like that old adage of, you know, what a butterfly flaps in the forest, you know, and the ripple effect.”

Balancing Financial Success with Spiritual Wealth

51:13 to 56:00

Understand the importance of balancing financial achievements with spiritual fulfillment.

“But I love when Jess talks about the spiritual billionaire.”

The Power of Enthusiasm and Attitude

56:00 to 57:30

Learn how enthusiasm and positive attitudes can define personal and professional success.

“if you would just have$1, but your spirit is a billion, a dollar times a billion is a billion.”

Designing Your Life with Intentions

57:30 to 1:00:50

Discover practical ways to design your life with intentions and adventures.

“because it's a visual like example of your life.”

The Importance of Experiences

1:00:50 to 1:03:00

Understand how new experiences can enrich your life and enhance your career.

“And now maybe Dev works for a company and now he's in the lunchroom at lunch.”

Intentional Relationships and Family Planning

1:06:40 to 1:09:45

Explore the importance of planning and intentionality in personal relationships.

“But you got a girl in your life, but I'm just saying, I'm talking about those relationships, right?”

The Joy of Fun in Work and Life

1:09:45 to 1:10:01

Discover how having fun can enhance both work and life experiences.

“That's the only thing that went into our water.”

The Importance of Fun in Work

1:10:01 to 1:10:54

Discover how joy plays a crucial role in work and success.

“This is some cool shit to talk to him about.”

Wisdom from Life Experiences

1:10:55 to 1:13:18

Learn about valuable life lessons shared through a powerful speech.

“And so the whole room's quiet and we give him a lot of respect and he ambles up onto the stage.”

Authenticity and Emotional Frequency

1:13:19 to 1:14:19

Explore how authenticity influences emotions and intuition.

“And I think when we can find fun, and if you're intellectually curious about things, I think like that passion and curiosity to me are the most attractive emotions.”

Simplifying Life for Greater Clarity

1:14:20 to 1:15:55

Understand the benefits of simplifying various aspects of life.

“And six months later, you're pulling the knife out of your back.”

Defining the Ultimate Human

1:15:56 to 1:18:13

Contemplate what it means to be an ultimate human in personal growth.

“I heard you talk about on a podcast about how you, like I wanted to start the year clean and you went into your closet.”

Success Defined by Personal Progress

1:18:14 to 1:18:35

Success is about comparing oneself to who you were yesterday.

“i'm comparing myself right now to the guy i was yesterday and i'm not going too too much further back than that just from yesterday yeah and tomorrow saturday i'm going to compare myself to who I was the day before?”

Living Life to the Fullest

1:18:36 to 1:20:40

Learn how to maximize life experiences while staying healthy.

“And so like, was I a better person than I was before?”
Hear the part that matters, and keep it.Open this episode in VO. Double tap your headphones to save a moment as you listen.
Get VO free

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Jesse Itzler:There's an old Japanese ritual called the Misogi and the notion around the Misogi is you do one big year-defining thing every year. Like you don't have one thing to show for your year. Like your work-life balance is so out of whack.

0:12Gary Brecka:You're never like counting the accomplishments. You're stacking up the adventure of life. You bond so much more with people through experiences than you do sitting at a cubicle. The reason why you have so much wisdom is because you had these different experiences and you didn't just let them pass through your life. You said, what can I learn from this?

0:28Devon Lévesque:Why don't you go talk to someone that's 100 years old and just go listen to them. And every single person, the common denominator, is regretting what they did with their time, not maximizing it. People aren't lacking time. They're lacking a system.

0:40Gary Brecka:What is the life design that I can go through to make sure that I bring some of this back into my life?

0:45Jesse Itzler:Don't change anything. But you just layered in these three things. One.

1:03Gary Brecka:Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist, Gary Brecca, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. Today is definitely one of those in-between podcasts. I gotta actually set this up before we even start running the podcast. So every morning I work out with my son, Cole. I drive over to his house about a mile away. We run a workout and then I come back home. So Devin Levesque joined us this morning for the workout. And I'm talking to Devin. He's like, what do you got on calendar today? And I'm like, oh, I'm running a podcast with Jesse Yitzler, dude.

1:35Gary Brecka:I can't wait. This guy changed my life. And he's like, wait, that's my guy, dude. That's my boy. You know that Jesse and I are boys. And I was like, well, why don't you come over? So when Jesse got here and he did the tour of the house, I actually had Devin sitting in the podcast seat and he came around the room into the podcast studio, freaked out. So this is going to be one of my first triplet podcasts. It's a three camera shoot today. Guys, Jesse Itzler, Devin Levesque. Welcome to the Ultimate Human Podcast. It's great to be here.

2:04Jesse Itzler:Does everybody, does the audience know that you shoot this at your house? They do now. Yeah, so it's at my house, yeah. And I just want to say, I walked in here and my cells are freaking out. It's like the air quality in this place is on another level.

2:19Gary Brecka:He's like, I want to see everything. I'm like, all right, let's take the tour. We showed a water filtration, air filtration. We had a little meeting in the hyperbaric today. We'll probably hit the sauna before you leave. Because Devin told me that your priorities are sauna than everything else. And I was like, all right, well, I got that covered. You know, I got to tell you, Jesse, truthfully, I've had hundreds of people on my podcast. I can count on one hand, the number of people that I could say have truly had an impact on my life. And I really mean that. I've been inspired by all of my podcast guests.

2:52Gary Brecka:They tell amazing stories. They're some of the most impactful people in the world. I don't mean to take anything away from them, but people whose advice I've actually applied in my life that haven't made a material change in my life. And you are absolutely one of those five people. I remember a podcast that you did. You must have been around 50 because you were talking about how you had 28 years, statistically speaking, to age 78. Right. You're like, I've got 28 summers left. I'm actually getting goosebumps saying this. and I started thinking about 28 summers with my parents, 28 summers with my kids, 28 summers with my wife.

3:28Gary Brecka:What am I doing? Like, where is my head? Like, what, look at the goosebumps. I don't know if the camera can see that. But that podcast was so meaningful. I forget the host that had you on there. And then I saw you speak at a growth con right up the street here at Marlin Stadium. There's 35 ,000 people in Marlin Stadium. I don't even think your book had come out yet, but you were talking about living with a seal. That's right. And dude, your energy and your communication style. And I was like, I don't know where this guy is from, but I believe every word that's coming out of his mouth because you were just speaking with such conviction.

4:03Gary Brecka:And those two things married. And I have to tell you, I made some material shifts in the priority of my life, thanks to you. So I really, I want to just start off by saying thank you.

4:15Jesse Itzler:Oh man, thank you so much. It's an honor to be here.

4:18Gary Brecka:You're an amazing orator and you're really making a big impact in the world. And I'm absolutely honored to have you on the podcast today. And you too, brother. And I'll get to you in a second. But there's so many things that we could go down the rabbit hole of. There's so many things I love about your message. And I don't want to take words out of your mouth, but this life design. And you're never like counting the accomplishments. it seems to me like you're stacking up the adventure of life. Like you're really enjoying the journey. And I wonder if you would talk about that a little bit, like from the Genesis, you had so many of these amazing stories.

4:59Gary Brecka:You do these things called misogies. Am I saying that right? Yeah. Misogies. Maybe we just start there. Because people rarely get advice on how to design their life.

5:11Jesse Itzler:Yeah. Well, I think it's super important. I think as you get older, I'm 57 years old, but I found that as you get older, it's really hard to create newness. So many of us live in routine, you know, and our routine is very often dictated by other people. Zoom calls, you know, your calendar fills up with other people's requests for your time. And where does newness come from, you know? And I feel like really you have to create it yourself. Like you have to plan it and schedule it and think about it. so I'm really really intentional about planning and thinking of ways that I can create newness so there's an old Japanese ritual called the misogi for example and the notion around the misogi is you do one big year defining thing every year like like as we head into 2026 like last year 2025 like you want to have one if you don't have one thing to show for your year like your work life balance is so out of whack.

6:09Jesse Itzler:So I can go back all the way to 20 forever and be like 2015, I wrote living with a seal. 2022, I rode my bike across America. 2020, every year I try to have one big year defining thing. So that's like something that I always do. And then we talk about living by design. I don't do a lot. You don't have to do a lot to get a ripple effect in your life, but that is something that I do every year. And then the other thing that I like to do is every other month, I call it Kevin's rule. I named it after my friend Kevin introduced me to this. Every other month, I do one little mini adventure. I plan intentionally a mini adventure that I normally wouldn't have had.

6:49Jesse Itzler:So instead of watching the Georgia football game on a Saturday, I'll go fishing with my kids. I'll go to a lecture or whatever. I just do six mini adventures a year. Now, here's why that's important. You had mentioned the average American lives to be 78. So when I was 50, let's say I lived to 80, I had 30, let's say I had 30 more years left. If I did one Masogi, one year defining thing and took six mini adventures in just those 30 years, I'd have 30 year defining things and 180 mini adventures I wouldn't have had. So when you start to stack, that's freaking amazing. That is amazing. You start that at at your son's age, you're gonna have 400 mini adventures and 50, you know?

7:31Jesse Itzler:So without that, I don't wanna look back at the end of my journey and be like, yes, man, I was the 80 % version of myself. You know, like I wanna squeeze as much out of this insane opportunity that we have if we're healthy. You know, there's a famous quote, if you have health, you have hope. If you have hope, you have everything. So I wanna squeeze as much out of the journey as I can. So that starts with having a plan and being intentional about it. It doesn't just happen.

8:00Gary Brecka:Yeah. And I've got to ask, how did the two of you meet? You and Devin?

8:06Devon Lévesque:29029. Yeah. You know, that was one - 09? Yeah, 29029. At an event, an event called 29029. Oh, it's where you climb the height of Mount Everest in 36 hours. Okay, he was just telling my wife about this in the kitchen. And so we were actually, it was out in Idaho. He lives in Atlanta. And we were one of the sponsors for the event. and I remember I showed up and the year prior, I bear crawled the New York City Marathon. I saw that. He texted me about it. And so we kind of knew each other through the internet. And so I get to the event, he texts me. He's like, yo, you wanna go and hit some hot springs tonight?

8:38Devon Lévesque:And so I met him the night before the race. The next morning we start the race. It's 15 laps up and down the mountain. Dude, and by the way, this is from like 8 ,000 feet

8:47Gary Brecka:to like 10 ,000 feet back to 8 ,000 feet back to 10 ,000 feet.

8:50Devon Lévesque:Yeah, we're in Sun Valley, Idaho. It takes about two hours to go up, gondola down, nine minutes. four laps in Jesse texts me and he's like, yo, meet me at the lodge. I'm like, all right, meet him at the lodge. He's like, you know, I'm a part owner of the Hawks and you know, it's a, it's playoffs tonight in Atlanta. I think if we go to the game, we might be able to come back and still finish the race. And I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, let's get in the plane. So we get in the plane with a couple of our buddies. We fly to the game.

9:18Gary Brecka:So you've already done four laps on the hill. I have like mud on my boots. Yeah.

9:22Devon Lévesque:I just met this guy.

9:23Gary Brecka:I did three.

9:23Devon Lévesque:yeah i just met this guy like yeah 10 hours in we fly to atlanta walk in i'm just i'm still in mud of my boots he's like yo go to the go to the bar grab some we're in the owner's lounge he's like go to the bar grab some tequila shots i go up to the bar start ordering some shots we're starting to have a good time this guy walks up he's like you get me some more i'm like yeah i'm like what's your name he's like meek and i'm like meek mill she's like meek mill i'm like what is going on right now. Yeah. Yeah. Like all these people start walking up. We go, we watch the game. They lose and I'll never forget it.

9:56Devon Lévesque:Jesse looks at me, goes back on the plane. Yeah. We get back on the plane. We fly back to Idaho. Now we gain three hours. We get back to the mountain by about 3am. We have 11 laps left. We finished the whole race. Hold on.

10:08Gary Brecka:You started at 3am.

10:09Devon Lévesque:Yeah. Started at 3am. We finished the whole race with 30 minutes to spare. And that was the first 36 hours I ever I met Jesse.

10:16Jesse Itzler:By the way, since that encounter, Devin and I have rode our bike across America. We did a tour of the 30 best saunas in the world. That was wild.

10:26Gary Brecka:He told me about that. Yeah.

10:27Jesse Itzler:We've run marathons together. Rim to rim to rim. We did rim to rim to rim at the Grand Canyon. Like we've just set like, just on all these different - Yeah, different - Misogeis. Misogeis and adventures. Yeah.

10:38Devon Lévesque:And he's, I mean, you know, obviously I look at Jesse, we're in different age, 25 years apart. Not since I walked into your house, Gary. I came in here. He took pictures of everything.

10:47Gary Brecka:I have a feeling you and Sarah are about to upgrade. Oh, yeah.

10:51Devon Lévesque:And I mean, I look at him and I a lot of the times I'm just a sponge. You know, I'm trying to just take it all in. I, you know, I grew up respecting my elders and we might have the same energy, you know, but we're different ages. And so I still look at him as, you know, mentor and elder. You know, we might be business partners and friends. But like I take a lot of the things he says pretty seriously. And I think maximizing your time. And ever since, honestly, that time I met him at 29029, I've added a Masogi, you know, climbing Mount Everest, you know, bear crawling a marathon, you know, going out to all these different high peaks in Antarctica and across the world.

11:24Devon Lévesque:Like, it is a massive part of my life and using the big-ass calendar to set my calendar first of what adventures I want, you know? I do two, three a year, like big, big, you know, life-defining adventures. That's 50-50 chance I completed it or not. and it's really because of Jess that I'm adding this into my calendar but this has allowed me to schedule my life out and then everything else fits in between.

11:47Gary Brecka:Yeah. And it works. This is one of the biggest, most incredible things that Jesse gave us right there. So we started this year, the big ass calendar this year and so for Christmas, my wife -

12:01Jesse Itzler:This looks beautiful, by the way.

Read the full transcript

12:02Gary Brecka:Doesn't it? Yeah, it's amazing. And there's no work on here yet. So we scheduled things by family, our family time our time in Colorado that's our that's our time together out in Colorado we have a log home out there we love um holidays birthdays and then work and so I'm going to hand this over to my staff and let them fill in the rest of this calendar but this is the first time that we've ever done this and when I when when I talk about what an impact you've made on our lives I mean you really have my wife loves this idea I love this idea I've been so much more intentional about my time with my kids.

12:34Gary Brecka:I've been blessed to have them involved in my business. I'm working out with my son every morning. My daughter and I have chemical-free skincare line. My youngest is starting chemical-free active wear and just bringing them closer and then making them a part of this adventure.

12:49Jesse Itzler:What I love about that is, you know, you have all 365 days on one piece of paper, but you can A, track towards your goals. You can see where you have gaps in your time. You can literally see where you're spending time and not spending time, what you're neglecting, what you're not doing right. And it gives you a visual. I see things in pictures. I'm super visual. Oh my. And it just gives you a really clear picture of your whole year on one piece of paper. Yeah. And that's been really, really effective for me. Just to go back to one thing that Devin said that I think is super interesting. We've done all these adventures and I feel like there's two sides to business.

13:27Jesse Itzler:There's the financial side, which is so important, but then there's a really strong spiritual side. But not just in the culture that you create and how you treat your customers, but also like, are you incorporating adventure and living a life on top of the grind? And there's a million insane entrepreneurs in the world. I'm an entrepreneur and I'd probably back of the pack in entrepreneurship. I wouldn't say, dude.

13:52Gary Brecka:You've exited$5 billion in companies. But there's a lot of people that -

13:56Jesse Itzler:I wouldn't call that back of the pack. There's a lot of people that are better, but I've done a really good job in living my life and by design. And, you know, Dev and I have been on these adventures, but we've been going with a group of 10 friends. We all do these same things kind of every year, the same group to Finland, the same group that rode their bike basically. And what's interesting about that, and I never thought about this in my 30s, but in my 50s, all of the 10 guys that do these journeys together, we become super close. You bond so much more with people through experiences than you do sitting at a cubicle at work.

14:28Jesse Itzler:So true. So, you know, one adventure is like 10 years of sitting at a cubicle, you can learn more. I only knew one of the 10 guys 10 years ago. So it's like a whole new friend group has emerged. And I thought in my 50s, like, oh, my good years are done. You know, like in my 30s, I ran marathons. I went out, I had all my friends and I got married. Now I'm supposed to slow down. I have four children. It's been the opposite. It's like, I feel so alive in my 50s. One surrounding myself with people that think young, do young, act young. I mean, you're the king of biohacking and longevity and wellness.

15:08Jesse Itzler:I mean, I came in here as like, you're the Willy Wonka of the space, man. Like this is like Disneyland for well. I mean, seriously, I feel like I walked through a cloud of like wellness when I walked in there. The hydrogen water. Yeah, we're firing up the hydrogen water right now. And all the things that you do are so important and I took pictures of everything. I've already on Amazon, I'm ordering everything.

15:28Gary Brecka:He's like, I can't order fast enough. But thinking young, thinking young,

15:35Jesse Itzler:staying young by being around young energy. I mean, Dev just said he's been around, looks to me as like an elder, which is a compliment and an insult.

15:43Gary Brecka:Yeah, yeah, I felt the barb. I was like, ooh.

15:47Jesse Itzler:But the same can be said about me. I mean, Devin brings to me a newness, an energy, a youthfulness, play, fun, all the things that start to go downhill for a lot of people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. So surrounding yourself with adventure, and you don't have to go climb Mount Everest, people that are young, there's an old, and I think this is a big part of what you do. We were talking about this earlier, that like community and this kind of thing, but there's an old trait or trend or hack in standup comedy, that when people go around and they pass something, a story to story, an improv comedy, when they pass it to the next person, the comedian starts by saying, yes, and then, yes.

16:35Jesse Itzler:And then we went, you know, because it keeps the momentum and it keeps the energy. And I wanna be around yes and people. I don't wanna be around people that say to me, you're gonna go climb Mount Everest in a mountain like for 36 hours? Why would you want to do that? You want to go to Finland? I don't want to be around that. Yeah, you could twist your ankle. I want to be around people that give yes and energy. And I want to be that. Devin says he wants to go bear crawl the marathon. I'm like, yes. And go crush that, man. That's amazing. I'm not going to take that energy away from him. So the relationship that we have, it's energy based, man.

17:14Jesse Itzler:Like, and all my friends, like I'm on friend reduction right now. Yeah, same. I'm on friend reduction. and I'm bringing in people that give me the energy and getting rid of the people that take it away.

17:24Gary Brecka:If you know me, you know I'm a huge believer in the benefits of hydrogen water. H2Tab delivers cost-effective portable tablets that generate ultra clean molecular hydrogen at 12 parts per million, one of the highest concentrations on the market. With over 1300 published studies showing benefits of oxidative stress, energy, recovery, brain function, and so much more taking charge of your health has never been easier or more cost-effective. Just drop a tablet in water, let it dissolve, and drink it back. It's less than a dollar a day, science-backed and part of my daily routine. I never travel without this, and it is my favorite biohack.

18:05Gary Brecka:Visit drinkh2tab.com. That's drinkh2tab.com and upgrade your hydration today. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. Yeah, and over your life, and we just went back a little bit to like the financial wins and some of the business wins. I feel like you've had such an unconventional past. I don't even know how to really describe it. I mean, 50 Cent was an intern for you. Yes. I mean, Dave and Goggins lived with you. The book says 30 days, but he lived with you for a lot longer, right? Yeah, he did. He was security for your family. Correct. And it's almost seven years.

18:43Jesse Itzler:That's right. And like, did you like take something away

18:47Gary Brecka:from each of those people? I mean, for those that haven't read the book, like what was it that struck you? Because I feel like you are the combination of all of these experience. The reason why you have so much wisdom and you're able to orate this in such a constructive way that people can apply to their life is because you had these different experiences and you didn't just let them pass through your life. You sort of, you said, what can I learn from this? Like, what am I taking away from having this hyper-disciplined Navy SEAL live with me? And then I'm gonna actually add some of those discipline characteristics to my life.

19:21Like, what was it like living with David Goggins

19:23Gary Brecka:for seven years?

19:25Jesse Itzler:Yeah, well, Gandhi said it best. He said, learn like you'll live forever and live like you'll die tomorrow. And that's sort of been the way I've been living my life since I've been 20. My wife always says, the more you experience, the more you have to offer. and I have completely over-indexed in experiences. So, you know, you mentioned that Goggins lived with us. He did. I lived on a monastery with eight monks that had been there for 50 years. I lived with Wim Hof in Poland for a week. I've had, you know, I just have all these different experiences and I feel like I have a lot to offer through that.

20:00And, you know, you're told to like surround yourself

20:05Jesse Itzler:with like-minded people and that's true. We're like-minded. but I'm into people that aren't like me, that are experts like you in a field that I'm curious about. And I learned best through immersion, not through reading. So I like to put myself in those situations to learn. I met Goggins at a race in 2006 and no one knew who he was. He was running this race. He was probably 280 pounds at the time. It was a 24 hour race. I was with a team of five. We were a relay group of five people. He had no relay team. He was his own relay team. He did it by himself. And he had ended up breaking a lot of the bones in his feet because he weighed so much over the course of running this race, just the pressure.

20:54Jesse Itzler:And he only had crackers and water. It was a bring your own supplies. He brought a box of crackers and a bottle of water. And he ended up getting some kind of kidney issue. He was peeing blood down his leg at mile 70. and I was like, geez, we got to airlift, Mr. Race Director, like airlift this guy to a hospital immediately. Yeah. He duct taped his feet and then ran another 30 miles and finished the 100 miles that he wanted. That's insane. And I was like, I want to meet this guy because whatever secret sauce he has, if any of that could rub off on me or my children, like every bucket of my life would be better.

21:30Jesse Itzler:So I literally cold called him, flew out there and realized we had a quick lunch meeting. I'm not gonna get the secret sauce over lunch. Lasting change requires changing habits, mindset, and routines. You don't get that at lunch. I asked him to come live with us and he did. And that started a relationship. And there were so many takeaways from that. And I would just say that one of the things, and this is gonna sound unusual for like, oh, Goggins live with you and this is a takeaway, but I love the simplicity of how he lived his life. Forget the training and the mindset. I got all that. Now, I didn't want to get rid of my swimming pool.

22:13Jesse Itzler:You know, I still wanted my swimming pool, but what do people do when they get older? They downsize. They get rid of like, I'm not seeing 80 year olds buying huge mansions. They're downsizing and simplifying and whatever. I feel like there's so much ego in business. There's so much ego in business. And I feel like the earlier you can simplify and Dev, it does a great job. He does the best example of this for someone in his 30s that I know.

22:46Gary Brecka:No, I want to talk about Sweet Honey Farms. He's the best example of this

22:49Jesse Itzler:of anyone I know in their 30s. But when you can downsize to like figuring out what it is you love to do, the people you love to do it with, and you do more of that, that's a great journey. And he knew what he loved to do and he did a lot of that. So when I turned 50, I said, I'm gonna put more on my plate, what I love to do with the people I love to do them with. And that's why we're doing all these adventures and stuff. So that was a really impactful takeaway for me. And then each one of these little things, journeys, people that I've met, even my experience with you. I mean, I've been here for an hour.

23:27Jesse Itzler:I've taken so much away. One of it is how you invest so much in your children. Yeah. Getting up in the morning, starting your day, working out with your kids. You told me you never missed a game when they were playing sports. Not one. This is the stuff the world needs to hear, man. Like this is the things that I think the message gets lost when people are like business, business, business, business. I mean, no shit.

23:49Gary Brecka:Yeah.

23:50Jesse Itzler:You have to go to fucking Harvard to learn that you have to be good at, you know, work hard. Like no shit. Yeah. But it's the other side of that message. Yeah. I'll just say one thing really quickly that I, and then I don't wanna hog this conversation, but I hired a speed coach that I found online from my son. Speed. Speed to get faster. So I called the guy up. I don't even know if you know this, Dev. And he's booked out for six weeks. I wanted a 45 minute session. Six weeks, I can come in six weeks. Six weeks later, he comes up in this like kind of beat up pickup truck. He's got like old school gym cones.

24:27Jesse Itzler:he puts out, they go through this workout. And I said to him, I said, wow, man, you must be so busy, like six weeks to get a session. He goes, oh, she said, no, I'm not busy at all. I said, what are you talking about? He said, I was on a fishing trip. I said, what are you talking about? He goes, I'm not busy by design. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, like I realized if I give these sessions all the time, I'm gonna have no time for myself. So I started doing online courses, selling the online courses so I could design this life where I could go fishing. And I'm just here because I like following you on Instagram.

25:03Jesse Itzler:I thought it'd be cool to train your son. Wow. And I was like, I want my life by design. Yeah. I want to do that by design. Yeah. You know what I mean? So true. That's the calendar and that's these trips and that's the Misogi and that's Kevin's rule. People aren't lacking time. People are like, oh, I don't have enough time. They're lacking a system.

25:23Gary Brecka:Yeah. And if you can get a system, then you start to really,

25:27Jesse Itzler:it starts to really click. And I'm not saying don't work, obviously you have to work, but you wanna make sure that you have that kind of balance. And this is all part of what you do and talk about, but on a different, the different side of it. Not the supplements, not the eating, not the sleeping. It's the community, the connection, and feeling good about yourself. Devin does it better than anyone. I mean, he's the happiest guy I know.

25:53Gary Brecka:He is a happy dude, dude. He was firing us up during the workout this morning. I'll tell you a really funny story. So we all come back from this intense workout and we're getting ready to get in the sauna. We make this farm to table breakfast and my daughter Zoom calls me. And so I answer the Zoom call or FaceTimes me and I've got it on the counter. So it's Zac Efron and him and I are sitting there and we're having breakfast. And she's like, she sees that Devin's there and she's like, oh yeah, I took your probiotics this morning. And I'm like, wait, what? You take his probiotics? And she's like, yeah, and I eat his protein bars, dad.

26:27Gary Brecka:And she started talking about Sweet Honey Farms. Like, I'm like, dude, you're like, you're like a spokesperson for Devin Levesque. Remember that this morning? She did the blood test. Yeah, the blood test. And then, you know, I'm making eggs this morning and Devin slaps his blood test on me, this little, it was like a constant glucose monitor called Rhythm. And I start dripping blood into this little vial. And by the time I was done making eggs, I had a vial of blood. and I guess we're gonna send it to the lab and check my hormones. And I was like, dude, this is really cool shit. I didn't realize that you had had such an impact on my kids.

27:00Jesse Itzler:The results of that blood work, it's gonna be a buffalo. Yeah.

27:04Gary Brecka:I'm gonna be like, we don't do this on animals. This is a real,

27:08Jesse Itzler:we're doing a blood test on a wild buffalo.

27:13Gary Brecka:You're insane. Yeah, I actually can't wait for those. But dude, at your age, I love what you're doing because like these sweet honey farms, you know, these micro farms where you're growing your own food, you're actually providing farm to table food for people, a place where they can take their shoes off, touch the soil, put their hands in dirt, eat vegetables right out of the garden. I'm sorry about what happened to you in New York with the, you know, the raw milk. We're trying to change that at Maha right now. You know, it's funny because he got whacked and fined for selling raw milk and giving raw milk to people and, you know, all these chemical companies get a pass.

27:51Gary Brecka:but I would love if you would talk a little bit about the, you know, your life design at 30, because I think the younger generation, we're kind of supposed to be wise in our 50s, right? We take all of our mistakes and we sort of look back. The fact that both of you started so early designing your life, I'm truly a little jealous. You know, I'm intentional with my time with my kids now, very intentional with my time with them, and it's a blessing to have them in this circle.

28:20Devon Lévesque:but talk a little bit about your life design and yeah I think I think uh when I was 20 I'm 33 so I was I was 26 and I was on the phone with uh this guy Johnny Martin who is you know he uh he helps a lot of veterans uh design their life and I called him up I'm like I feel really stressed that you know there was there was a lot of uh opportunity coming into my life my schedule was getting overtaken and he was like he's like what do you care about like what are five things that or your absolute no matter what. And you were a personal trainer around this time. I was, yeah, I had a training business.

28:51Devon Lévesque:I just sold it. And yeah, we must have just started ProMix at the time. And so he gave me a couple of days. I think it was a week. And I come back and I'm like, the five things that are my, no matter what's in life. If I had$20 billion in my bank account, everything. Like, what am I no matter what? Family, health, community, freedom of time, and giving back, philanthropy. Like, I love giving back. and he's like okay he's he's like write this sentence on your whiteboard and so i had a big whiteboard and i have all these companies i'm a part of and you know you know all the things on my schedule whatever he's like if a person place or thing isn't adding value to your life from a community family health giving back standpoint then they're taking value from you and so i look at my calendar like you know my daily calendar and i took a red marker and a green marker and everything that didn't have to do with family health community freedom of time and giving back right freedom of time a little different but mainly those four then i put a red x on it and i immediately looked at my calendar and like half my day was gone and i'm like wow like none of this shit really matters and i was like cool and so then going forward i don't like i'm not kidding i don't care what the opportunity is if it does not hit on one of my values then i'm not i'm just not doing it.

30:11Devon Lévesque:And like, look, I get a lot of really cool opportunities to be in good rooms with people, make a lot of money, do something that people would dream of doing. If it does not hit on family, health, community, freedom of time, or giving back, I'm just simply not doing it. And like, I'm that stubborn. I was really bad in school because I was really stubborn. I hated sitting down. I hated it. Like, I am so stubborn on those five things. And that's what, honestly, the calendar also helps me with it because I list out all the things I want to do. And then I give my team the calendar and then they fill in the rest.

30:41Devon Lévesque:And like, if it does not hit on one of those five, I'm just simply not doing it. I also have another rule. If Jesse calls me and says, Hey, be here at, you know, wherever I'm, I'm there. It's an odd, I don't even think. Yeah. I'm in it. And, um, and I don't know, I think, I think it's important also just to go back to respecting elders. I've been able to spend a lot of time, you know, in, in these deep villages of Africa and at crazy tables in Antarctica and, you know, with the, you know, with the monks on Everest and Nepal and like, just like really deep conversations. And, um, I just listen, you know, I think a lot of, there's so much motivation out in the world and there's so much, um, inspiring and all these business talks, but like, why don't you go talk to someone that's 80, 90, a hundred years old, 105 that spent time just living their life through different wars, through different economy shifts and just go listen to them.

31:32Devon Lévesque:And every single person, the common denominator is regretting what they did with their time not maximizing it and so like yeah i might be 33 and i might have a couple more summers than you guys left yeah but it's it's still the time that i took to talk right now and you guys listening and everyone else listening you're never getting that time back now ever yeah it's gone that two minutes is gone see you later you're never gonna get it back and so like that's what i mean by being intentional like really really intentional.

32:00Jesse Itzler:Yeah. One of the big things that I, I always do, um, is if I find a couple or family that has children that are like in college or graduated college, I'll ask them all the same question because I have four kids and they're 16, 11, 11, and 10. I'll say, what would you have done differently raising your kids? Would you have traveled more? Would you have homeschooled them? Would you have played less sports? Would you not overschedule them? Like what I want to, and I ask them all the same question. And because I don't want to have any of those regrets. I want to know what they regret so I can prevent it.

32:37Jesse Itzler:And, you know, to Deb's point, like asking questions are really important. And I love what you did with the energy. Like we only have a certain amount of energy. You don't have unlimited energy. So it's like deciding where do you want to put your energy? What do you want to put your energy into in 2026? Like, where do you want to put the majority of your energy. Is it into your marriage? Is it into your children? Is it into your business? Is it into your wellness and health? Is it into learning? But I think that's really important. Like having direction, you know, like nobody listening to this podcast is good enough to wake up and wing it.

33:10Jesse Itzler:The competition's too good. You can't just wake up and be like, I don't know, I'm just going to wing it this year. It doesn't work like that. So like, you know, taking a little time to map out your year, thinking about what you want to do or the trips or like, you know, how much time you want to spend with your kids or whatever, it's really, really important.

33:29Gary Brecka:Yeah, you know, I made a change six years ago. I started to, it was a relatively small change, but I would say it's amplified itself. And as I look back, it's probably one of the greatest decisions I ever made. And I started scheduling all of my meetings and travel around sleep and exercise. So I said, first thing that goes on my calendar is sleep, then exercise, and then everything else fills in. This is even before I had the big ass calendar. and that shift alone, because the idea that you could be selfish in the morning and then give the rest of your day away. Yeah. And that made a lot of sense to me.

34:03Gary Brecka:What I would do is just wake up and start giving my day away. And by giving my day away, I mean my spouse, my career, my kids, my coworkers, whatever it was. And it's easy to just be busy. So easy. Right? It's easy to doom scroll. I mean, there's so much that we can just fill our calendar with. and that that shift like it it wasn't just a mind shift mindset shift it like gave me focus energy I started to see things really clearly because in that 90 minutes I always have some quiet space and it was really really really hard for me I've had ADHD all my life um it was really hard for me to sit in silence so I actually set a goal of like trying to teach myself to just sit in silence and like some of the greatest ideas like problem solving has come to me during that time and now i feel like i've been so much more efficient just because i'm just selfish with just the first 90 minutes and so he joined me this you know this morning i mean yeah i love it i mean i'll i'll miss just about anything i'll be late to a meeting but i will never be late for a workout

35:05Devon Lévesque:with my son yeah you know i'm just never going to disappoint i think that's why we you know why i and i know you sauna sauna and cold plunge on the i mean i'm an everyday guy you know three rounds 15 minutes in you know dunk in the cold go back in minimum three innings yeah and i think in that time jesse does something great i love when he does this in the sauna there might be five ten people in the sauna and he goes yo let's take a moment of silence real quick three minutes silence on is the best the best dude i love that no talking and your thoughts just come together you hear yourself breathing and like life just starts to make sense a little bit you know it's super quiet in there.

35:43Devon Lévesque:And look, I love a good conversation, but we can, you know, we can do that afterwards. Right. Just sitting there and letting the thoughts, that's why I love being on the mountains. You know what I mean? Like there's no social media. You're out there. You might not be talking for, you know, an hour, two hours. You're just, you're just climbing. Right. And yeah, that's where the ideas come in. That's where your brain starts to make sense. Everyone talks about a detox and you do great detoxes. Do a phone detox. Don't go, don't go to your, don't don't have a phone for 10 days see what happens if you don't his wife and i did a uh it's called the hoffman institute we don't have our phones for seven days it's an intense therapy like um you know sessions in the middle of freaking nowhere i noticed it was him and your

36:21Gary Brecka:wife you didn't go on that one no they didn't go again okay okay and um and and yeah they take your

36:27Devon Lévesque:phone away and like it's uh it's it's really insane what happens when you don't have your phone for seven days and you're just you're just writing and you're not allowed to work out you're not allowed to, you know, sometimes you don't even talk to people throughout the day and it, your brain just starts to make sense more just by.

36:43Jesse Itzler:The non-workout things are not, it's a non-starter for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to have that. I also don't like to talk about my feelings.

36:50Devon Lévesque:It's different, it's different. You gotta, you gotta lean into it, but no phone. I love the no phone detox.

36:54Jesse Itzler:Yeah. Sat my wife, Sarah, explain the Hoffman Institute as, or the program as like going to feelings camp.

37:01Gary Brecka:Yeah. I can't go to feelings camp. Yeah, it's intense.

37:04Jesse Itzler:It's intense. Yeah, and you've done it too? I couldn't do it. Oh, okay. It's not, I hear amazing things about it, but it's not for me.

37:11Gary Brecka:I can't do the no workout thing. The no workout thing. That's like that and cold plunge and sauna, those are my drugs of choice. Yeah, because nothing makes you feel better for longer. I can still tell right this moment that we worked out and did a sauna and did a cold plunge. Yeah, oh yeah. Like those really long international flights and you get there, I feel like a different person.

37:31Jesse Itzler:There's a massive ripple effect from it. Just also like, just, you know, we're talking a little bit about best practices for everybody, which I love. I love getting best practices and tips. I had a company called Marquee Jet and we flew -

37:45Gary Brecka:I love this story, by the way. Look, can we, I wanna, I don't wanna interrupt you, but I wanna go back to the first customer at your jet company before we get off this story, but go ahead.

37:53Jesse Itzler:Yeah, I was just gonna say that we flew 3 ,000, 4 ,000 of the who's who of entrepreneurship, pop culture athletes. I was 30 years old when we started the company and I would ask everybody, I was obsessed with their habits. I didn't know anything. My dad owned the plumbing supply house. I never took a business. I didn't know anything. So I'd be like, where do you vacation? How do you live rich? Like, what time do you wake up? What time do you go to bed? I didn't know it. I would just, and I was a sponge for all of those things. So I like that we're sharing some of the best practices, you know, but Devin had mentioned that he has five buckets and that if it doesn't fit into one of those buckets, One of the things that I do that I think has really helped me, it's kind of like a little bit of a hack, but like I did the same thing on a daily basis.

38:38Jesse Itzler:What are the things that if I had in a perfect day, like what are the things if I had unlimited time or money that I would love to do? What do I love to do? I love the sun and cold plunge. I love to play with my kids, maybe go for a walk with my wife, maybe read, maybe, you know, I don't know. Everybody has different things. And like maybe there's seven or eight items on those. Let's just call those your vitamins. Like those are things that like make you feel good, you know? Every day I try to do two or three of those things. And I found that if I can do those and check the Jesse box, you talked about being selfish in the morning with your time a little bit.

39:12Jesse Itzler:I am such a better dad or husband or boss, or I show up so much better. If my work or my wife or my children take those away from me for whatever reason, like, oh, you can't, I'm gonna resent them. So if I can't, if my work is taking all that stuff away from me, I'm gonna resent work. If my wife's like, no, we gotta go to the opera. Like, I don't like going to the opera, but if I can get my son in cold plunge in and check my box, I'm happy to go. Right. If I have to go and I don't do that, I'm mad at my wife. It's so true. So you gotta check, you know, it gets a simple exercise. Like, what do I love to do?

39:53Jesse Itzler:Go for a walk, whatever. Do those two or three things. and then like the rest is like, okay. Like, yeah. Yeah.

40:00Gary Brecka:I feel that same way too. Like being selfish with your morning, then you can give the rest of your day away. You gotta get wins and, you know. Yeah. So let's go back to marquee jets. I'd love for you to tell the story about your first customer because I feel like at 30 years old, starting a jet company is super random. Like, listen, there's what I share on this podcast and then there's what I share with my inner circle. If you've been following me for a while, you know how I hold nothing back here. But my VIP community, that's where the real magic happens. Picture this. You're struggling with energy crashes, brain fog, or just feeling like you're not operating at your peak, and you don't know where to get real answers.

40:40Gary Brecka:But here's what really sets this apart. You're not just getting my insights. When I have incredible guests on the podcast, VIP members get to submit questions for a private podcast segment. So that world-renowned expert we just interviewed, you get exclusive access to their knowledge tailored to your specific situation. This section is under the private podcast section in the Ultimate Human Community. And speaking of exclusive, you're getting my personal protocols, the exact tools I use for water fasting, gut optimization, and morning routines that have taken me decades to perfect. This isn't theory.

41:12Gary Brecka:This is what works in the real world. The community launches challenges throughout the year where you get direct access to me and my network of experts. It's like having a personal health advisory board for less than$100 a month. Your health is your wealth, and this investment pays dividends for life. Join the VIP community at theultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP and step into your ultimate potential. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast.

41:35Jesse Itzler:It was very random. Well, I've had started multiple businesses in my journey, and the common theme is I had no experience or background or in any of them. which for a lot of people, super - Terrible advice. If you have no experience, that's where you go. It's super intimidating, but here's the blessing in that. It guaranteed that everything that I did in those spaces and my partner and I would look different than the competition because no one taught us how to do it. It's like, if nobody taught you how to do your job, how would you do it? You know, if you ripped up the playbook that everybody in your industry has been using for, Devin did it.

42:13Jesse Itzler:He ripped up the wellness thing and opened up a farm and basically a camp, I don't even know what I have to call, a retreat center or whatever on a daily basis. What do you call it, Dev? It was like - Like a wellness farm. A wellness farm. I mean, like he ripped up the playbook.

42:28Gary Brecka:Yeah.

42:28Jesse Itzler:He innovated, he disrupted.

42:30Gary Brecka:Yeah.

42:31Jesse Itzler:So yes, I had no experience in aviation, but that guaranteed that I was gonna talk to my customers differently. I was gonna design a program. My partner and I were gonna design a program that would fit our profile and what the customer wanted, and not what the industry was telling me to do. And if you can get over that fear of being embarrassed or taking a chance or doing something different, because anytime you innovate, you're gonna get met with resistance. If that's such a good idea, how come the big guys haven't done it? Or you don't have enough experience. You're gonna get met with resistance.

43:07Jesse Itzler:So if you can get over that and go in, it's super liberating. So when we started Marquee Jet, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even know how to get leads. Like there was no, in the 1990s, there was no sophisticated way to get leads. I just went to where wealthy people went, where people that could afford time on a private jet. So I went to the TED Talks in Monterey, California. And because I heard a lot of people from Silicon Valley go there. And I was like, I'm gonna go sell a jet cart to somebody here. Like we just started this company. There's a room full of wealthy people, except you needed a credential to get in.

43:40Jesse Itzler:And I didn't have a credential and they weren't letting anyone near the building. So I went to this little coffee shop and I was like thinking, how am I gonna sneak into the fucking room? What usher can I, looks vulnerable that I could pay off. Yeah, like whose badge can I buy? Like I'm getting, I'm leaving with a sale no matter what. There's no way I'm not leaving here with a sale. So every hour and two hours, a wave of people will come into this coffee shop with the credentials and they were all buying lattes and muffins, like crazy lattes and muffins and lattes and muffins. And I'm like, oh, this is where they go on break.

44:12Jesse Itzler:and they're all coming here on break every two hours. So the next morning I came back to the coffee shop and I bought all the muffins. Like I basically controlled all the muffin inventory for all of Monterey, California. And I just waited. And then a guy came in when they opened up and start to get the action. He orders a muffin, latte and a muffin. They're like, we're out of muffins. It's a completely true story. He starts to walk out and I stop him. And I'm like, I overheard you. Like, I have an extra muffin. He's like, you have a muffin? I'm like, I have fucking 200 under my thing. And he's like, what are you doing here?

44:50Jesse Itzler:Just randomly, what are the chances? You have one pumpkin. You want chocolate? Yeah, yeah. Puppet seed. Anyway, we started talking and I told him what I did. And he was like, this is insane. I'm in the market for a jet card. And I recognized his name from, he would just been on the Wall Street Journal for selling this company, half.com to eBay. So I recognized the name. He was my first customer. I sold them there.

45:15Gary Brecka:Sold them there.

45:16Jesse Itzler:Yeah, and then you know what happened? I serviced the hell out of them. I did what everybody in my industry would do. They expected me to carry the luggage at the airplane and call and return calls, but I did the unexpected. If he went to Mexico, I give him a list of doctors. If anything happens to one of your kids, I vetted these doctors. I made reservations. I did, just went over the top. Anybody can care the most. So when you have no experience, your secret power, your secret weapon is caring the most. I cared so much about this guy's experience that you know what he did? He gave me a referral.

45:58Jesse Itzler:And then the next guy gave me a referral until we did$5 billion worth of referrals and sales and sold the company. so you don't have to have experience. It takes too long. You have to be able to go and not worry about how I'm gonna do it because that's intimidating. You'll figure out how if you really wanna do it. And that's how we started that company. And I had a great partner who was super smart and we built a great team. And yeah, it was a crazy, crazy story. I'm still friends with, his name's Josh Koppelman. I'm still friends with him. Really? Yeah. Selling them off and that is so awesome.

46:36Jesse Itzler:He sends me muffins on the holidays now. I don't think that is like a little metaphor.

46:41Gary Brecka:Dude, those 200 muffins turned into a$5 billion company. Yeah, that's what they call the tipping point. I don't know if you ever read that book, The Tipping Point. But it's like, I mean, it's like that old adage of, you know, what a butterfly flaps in the forest, you know, and the ripple effect. And I think you're right. So much of what impedes us is inside of our head, right? It's like, well, I don't have the experience. I don't have the education. I don't have the contacts. I don't have the money. and don't have the relationships. Probably dawned on you that you'd never been in the jet business before.

47:11Gary Brecka:And I think most of us, we drag the past forward and we focus on those things. And when you just blow through all that and say, listen, I'm just gonna figure this out. And tell me a little bit about your journey with, and you recently exited ProMix, right? Correct, yeah. But the funny thing is the impact that ProMix has had on my kid's life, which is a little upsetting because like I'm their dad and they should be using my shit. but they're using yours. So something about your marketing, advertising, market penetration or something made it to my kids. And they're tough, man. I mean, my daughter's a nurse, you know, my son's a pro athlete and like they evaluate things.

47:49Gary Brecka:And so now you've landed into their daily schedule. I mean, how was that starting for you?

47:56Devon Lévesque:Yeah, I think, you know, when Albert and I started it, our whole thing was just no artificial anything. You know, we didn't trust any vitamin or supplement companies out there because there was not really any transparency. It's sort of pre-Maha too. So like, that's very in vogue now, but yeah. And so we found this super clean farm where we got our grass-fed whey protein from. We saw how they treated their cows. We saw how they're milking it. We saw, you basically, to grade your cheese, to grade your whey protein or casein protein, you have to submit the cheese from that farm to a competition. And our cheese got ranked number one in the world.

48:31Devon Lévesque:And so we had the best grass-fed, We still do the best grass-fed whey protein in the world. And that's what put us on the map. And then really ever since then, I've traveled around the world and tried to find farms with Albert where we find the highest quality ingredients. So when I was in Africa climbing Kilimanjaro, we found this baobab seed, which is the tree of life in the Lion King. And that baobab has a ton of vitamin C, a ton of potassium, great prebiotics. We add some amazing high quality turmeric to that. a probiotic and then organic oranges. And that creates this gut health, digestion, helps with bloating.

49:11Devon Lévesque:And that's our number one skew at Promix. But same thing with the fish oil. We went out to the Unamak Islands of Alaska and we're not just using farm-raised Alaskan salmon. We're line-caught, wild-caught, cod liver, and salmon. And that's our fish oil. And so it's super high in antioxidants, super orange. Very intentional about ingredients. Very intentional. Our beets, Northern California, high quality beets, the way that we actually plant the beets and dry them. We dry them at 106 degrees. And so that allows 97 % of the nutrients to actually be absorbed in your body. So those are 20 times more absorbable.

49:49Devon Lévesque:So you feel the nitrates turn into nitric oxide in your body and you're just like, whoa, like this is an amazing proof of code. So everything has a story. It's not, we're not using a manufacturer. And I think, you know, it goes back to caring. We just fucking care. My dad was a pro weightlifter. My mom was a pro arm wrestler. And like, I've been taking vitamins.

50:06Gary Brecka:Your mom was a pro arm wrestler?

50:07Devon Lévesque:Yeah. Your mom was a professional arm wrestler? Yeah. That's also super random.

50:14Gary Brecka:I mean, that is.

50:16Devon Lévesque:Yeah, she's a beast. You got to shake her hand.

50:17Gary Brecka:It's like death grip. I thought you, because I thought you just mixed them up and you were going to say, my dad was a professional arm wrestler. I know your mom. You sure about that, Dave? Dude, if I meet your mom, she will be the only female professional arm wrestler I've ever known. Oh, you're me.

50:33Devon Lévesque:Her, like, death grip. Yeah. But, like, I've been taking vitamins and protein and working out and being on a farm my whole life. And I think when we started pro-ing, we just cared. We just cared more. We want to tell the story more. We just care. And I think, you know, we're not, I'm not, you know, I didn't graduate college. I'm not a biologist. You know, I'm not, like, the smartest guy in the room. But I fucking care. And I, and I, and if I'm going to put my name on something, um, then I'm going to care the most.

51:00Gary Brecka:It's awesome, man. I saw the way you showed up this morning for the workout, man. I mean, you just got after it. You got to get super motivational during it. Let's go guys. Let's go. Like, I'm trying not to die. You know, I mean, these two are way out front on the sprint and the run and I was just trying to get through it.

51:13Devon Lévesque:But I love when Jess talks about the spiritual billionaire. Yeah. And like, and I kind of want to segue into that because, um, it's don't look, we're in Miami. flew in last night everyone's you know taking an extra five minutes to get out of their ferrari in front of the hotel and you know they're taking photos and selfie videos and like doing the whole thing and like i just feel like priority priorities are off and and the world of social media um it puts that pressure on a lot of people on what how you define success and i love when he talks about spiritual billionaire um because i i feel like it's the right way to go um about life and I think it could help a lot of people.

51:55Devon Lévesque:Yeah, you know, I wanna talk about

51:56Gary Brecka:the spiritual billionaire. There's something that we discovered in the mortality space, in mortality science, and was basically that if you wanted to cut a human being's life expectancy in half, and I mean in half, at any age, you put them in isolation. Like we all know about broken heart syndrome, right? I mean, a couple that's married 40, 50, 60 years. Some of us have grandparents this has happened to. One passes, what happens to the other spouse? I mean, what's changed in their physiology? They're isolated. We are the most isolated we have been in recorded history because we think that connection comes through our cell phone.

52:30Gary Brecka:Connection comes from like what we did this morning, what we're doing right now. So having a principle where you could apply something like that to becoming a billionaire, because I think there's a segment of society that sees success as evil. Like if you succeeded at doing something you were passionate about, you must have done something wrong.

52:50Jesse Itzler:There's been a huge shift in that. You're 100 % right. Yeah.

52:54Gary Brecka:And it's sad because, I mean, that's the American dream, right? I mean, my intention is to make the biggest, wealthiest, most profitable companies in the world the companies that are the most intentional about what they're doing for their customer. Wouldn't that be amazing if the most profitable companies actually derived all of their success from actually doing something good for humanity? Right, for sure. So what is the spiritual billionaire?

53:20Jesse Itzler:How does - Well, I'm glad you brought that up. Cause I totally agree. I see that. I feel that, you know, like you're getting penalized for being successful or trying to do the right thing or whatever.

53:31Gary Brecka:I'm sure some people have judged you before you walked in the door.

53:33Jesse Itzler:It's crazy. Yeah. Well, I mean, like, I just think that,

53:40Jesse Itzler:I remember when I was growing up, someone, I had an opportunity. I had no, at this point in my life, when I graduated college, I was writing jingles, like commercials for brands, theme songs for teams or whatever. And I would do them on spec. And then I would, so it means I would go and pay my own money, go in the studio, make a song for like the New York Knicks, whatever, try to get a meeting, then try to convince them they need a song. But I had no money to make these demos anymore. And someone offered me$10 ,000 for 10 % of all of my future earnings. And I was like, I'll take it. And his argument was, you'll make a lot more money with me helping you and owning 10 % than you will on your own.

54:24Jesse Itzler:So I'll give you 10 grand. You give me 10 % of the rest of your life. And I almost did it. I'll come back to that story in a second. But I remember him telling, he was a music manager. And I remember him telling me he had a partner that was super successful that he left because he would rather make a quarter himself than a dollar with that guy. and like at 23, I was like, what? Like I'd rather make a dollar no matter what, you know? Like it didn't make sense to me, you know? But I understood that later on. You know, I've been in business relationships where I just left when I could have made a lot more money because I just didn't, I wasn't feeling where it was going or whatever.

55:03Jesse Itzler:And I think that's really important, you know, to understand like pigs get slaughtered.

55:08Gary Brecka:Yeah.

55:09Jesse Itzler:You know, and pigs get slaughtered. And sometimes if you're happy and you're making a little bit of money versus maybe pushing it to not, that balance has always been on my mind. And like I said, I think there's two sides of business. There's the financial side, which is so important. And obviously we tend to over-index and the energy we put into like making money. But then there's a huge spiritual side, where you're philanthropic, where you're kind to your customers, what kind of culture did you build? Did you have adventure on top of, in your life while you were building your empires, et cetera, et cetera.

55:45Jesse Itzler:And we don't get taught, we tend to neglect that side. And if you have a billion dollars, but your spirit zero, a billion times zero, zero. But if you just have$1, and I know a lot of people that are in this bucket, if you would just have$1, but your spirit is a billion, a dollar times a billion is a billion. And not everyone's gonna get the wealth, but everybody can have the other side. So like you talked about Devin in like a minute ago and you were mentioning like, oh, he came into the workout and he was so enthusiastic and he built everybody up and he was like, let's go. Devin's superpower, one of them, he has a lot, but one of his biggest superpowers is enthusiasm.

56:27Jesse Itzler:And if I were gonna ask the listeners to make a list of all the qualities they would want around people that in their life, maybe even if you're a CEO when you were hiring somebody. You would want passion, enthusiasm. What else? Integrity, honesty, you know, like fun. I don't know. You have all these different words. And I guarantee all the words that you put down, like enthusiasm, like passion, like caring the most, those aren't skills. You don't learn those in college. Those are attitudes, you know? Attitudes are free. Those are decisions. So when I say a dollar times a billion, the billion is the enthusiasm.

57:07Jesse Itzler:and the attitude, the taking care of people, the being nice, like those are free. You know? And those are things, even if you got a 980 on your SAT, you can master. And I feel like that side of it doesn't get discussed and gets lost.

57:24Gary Brecka:Yeah. And how do we get people to reframe that? Like the big ass calendar I love because it's a visual like example of your life. You can actually design your life for the next year. You have a lot more control over your time than you think you do. But for those people that are in that, I mean, most of the people listening to this podcast are either working for someone or they work for themselves and they got a business going on. So they're feeling that on both sides. How do we develop some of the intentions? Like, what is the life design that I can go through, the stages that I can go through to make sure that I bring some of this back into my life?

58:04Gary Brecka:Well, I think we gave people,

58:06Jesse Itzler:I was just thinking about all the things that we've covered in this podcast already. Dude, we have covered a lot, man. And I was thinking that we've given people a little bit of a blueprint. So imagine this, whether you work for somebody or whether you have your own business, no matter how old you are. But imagine we just did the two things that we talked about earlier. You do everything the same in 2026. Don't change anything. But you just layered in, let's say these three things. One, you put one big year defining thing on your calendar, right? The Masogi. Two, you do every other month. So every eight weeks, you take a day and you do something you normally went to done.

58:44Jesse Itzler:You just put a little mini adventure in there, go fishing, go to the farm, whatever. So you have six little mini adventures, okay? And the third thing I would suggest, I'm not big on resolutions. New Year's resolutions historically don't work.

58:58Devon Lévesque:And by the way, today, January 16th is - I was just gonna say that. Failure, what is it? failure day or quitter day. Today's national quitter night, by the way. Yeah, that's true.

59:08Gary Brecka:This is so like, that was serendipitous. Yeah.

59:13Jesse Itzler:But talking about a system that anyone can do. So one big thing, six mini adventures. And then instead of a resolution, I talked earlier about the importance of having winning habits, winning routines, and a winning mindset. I truly believe that's the foundation for a lot of success. Every quarter, add one winning habit to your life. It's very simple. I don't drink enough water. I'm gonna have a hundred ounces of water a day. I'm gonna start a 10 minute a day meditation practice. I'm never gonna be late to a meeting again. Just at the end of this year, if you had four new winning habits, or go out five years, now you've had five massive year defining things.

59:51Jesse Itzler:Maybe you launched a podcast. Maybe you stopped smoking. Maybe you ran a marathon. Now you'll have 30 new adventures you went to that. And now you'll have 20 new winning habits. Like you're starting to like get a process we're like, and it's gonna have a ripple effect on the people around you and your life. You know, like when Devin goes to, he's going to Africa. Dev's taking a trip with friends to Africa. That trip's in two months from now, but it's on his calendar. He's excited about it. He's willing to work harder now because he knows he's gonna, we're reward driven. He's gonna get a reward to a trip for Africa for 14 days with his buddies.

1:00:28Jesse Itzler:He's willing to go crazy for 60 days to earn that trip. because if that's not on the calendar, oh, I got a little work. What are you looking forward to? Yeah. So like having those carrots out there matter. They matter. They matter. And he's gonna show up. Now he goes to Africa, watch this play out. And now maybe Dev works for a company and now he's in the lunchroom at lunch. He's in the kitchen and he's telling me, I just went on a trip to Africa. I went this, I went on a safari. I was in this culture. He's interesting.

1:01:04Gary Brecka:Yeah.

1:01:05Jesse Itzler:Maybe he gets the promotion because he's interesting. Maybe he gets hired because he's interesting. Like I said, the more you experience, the more you have to offer, the more interesting you are, the more people wanna be around you. Like get out and experience, man. Like get out. And we live in this country with amazing rivers, insane oceans, hiking trails. I climb Mount Washington with my son when he was nine, It cost$18 to park there. We camped overnight in the winter. Like, you know, there's no excuses around. If you live in the United States of America, the adventures and opportunities that you have to do things, to break up your routine, to feel good about yourself, to feel accomplished are everywhere.

1:01:50Jesse Itzler:They're everywhere. Yeah.

1:01:52Devon Lévesque:And also with that, you know, the human makes on average 250 ,000 decisions per week. I don't know what the hell Gary put in this one. I feel like the hydrogen, don't you feel fucking great?

1:02:03Gary Brecka:The hell is going on? I feel insane. I'm falling away. Two hours in here.

1:02:08Jesse Itzler:I'm a teenager. I feel like I'm going through puberty.

1:02:12Gary Brecka:I tell people about hydrogen all the time. They're like, ah, he's just trying to sell hydrogen tablets. Pour this over my head.

1:02:18Devon Lévesque:What is going on in this house? That's the beauty of hydrogen. Holy shit. It's the comfort, yo. I feel amazing. God, I feel great too. I can't even sit down. I gotta shave.

1:02:27Gary Brecka:Sometimes I literally, I crawl on top of my wife in the morning. I'm like, there's like happiness coming out of my pores. And she's like, shut your mouth.

1:02:36Jesse Itzler:Like, I don't know what you have going on in here, but I'm smelling shit. I've never smelled in my life. I've smelled things going on in Sarasota from here. Sarasota.

1:02:50Gary Brecka:Fucking crazy. Oh, dude, that's freaking awesome. There it is. There it is. I feel great. God. Imagine you can feel like this every day. Yeah, I'll be back here tomorrow. Yeah.

1:03:02Devon Lévesque:What I was saying though, 250 ,000 decisions, everyone's so like indecisive.

1:03:10Gary Brecka:Yeah.

1:03:10Devon Lévesque:About making decisions. Like, should I do that? They're making up stories in their brain. I think decision-making becomes so much easier when you're around people, good people and different people. Yeah. If you take the same subway to work every day and you go to the same coffee shop and you go to the same gym every single day. You're seeing the exact same people. What if you didn't take that subway? What if you walked? What if you walked down a different block? What if you tried out a new gym and got, you know, most gyms do first seven days free. What if you didn't sit with those same people at lunch?

1:03:43Devon Lévesque:What starts happening to your brain? How can you create aha moments in your life? So you're not just doing the same shit every day. I totally agree. And that's what I love doing. And it's free. you're simply just trying something different walking a different way being around different people and then you can start making decisions um in a in a much more intentional way yeah you know one one because you're getting more aha moments in your life yeah because you're not doing the same shit every day if you're around your family every single day and your mom's like you know which my mom's not but your mom's kind of like wow son why are you doing that i don't i don't agree with that.

1:04:20Devon Lévesque:Get away from that for a sec. Go try to be around people that add a little different value to your life.

1:04:26Gary Brecka:Dude, I love that, dude. I probably am a byproduct of making decisions too quickly. Like, I make 100 % of my decisions with about 60 % of the information. Like, and I walked into my condo one morning, and I was like, I really don't like this furniture, and I haven't liked it for a while, and why should I live with this? And I called a buddy of mine who has a consignment shop in Naples and I had them bring three 25 foot moving trucks and take every ounce of front of my home. So my wife, my wife was on vacation and she walked in and it was a basketball court. It was completely empty. That's funny.

1:05:05Gary Brecka:I'm, I took the chandeliers out of the ceiling. I just got rid of everything. She goes, why did you do that? And I said, cause if I didn't, I wouldn't redesign it. So now we're in a box. Now we have to do it. And she's like, could you have left the couch? And then I had like Dana White and Tom Brady. I had all these folks who would come to my house and I had to bring the table because I forgot the table on the balcony. I had to bring the picnic table from in there that sit in my kitchen. It was the only piece of furniture we had for like three months. So, but how do you, how do you land some of this?

1:05:34Gary Brecka:I see how it's landing in business and life design. How do you land some of this in your relationships? Like with your, with your spouse? Because I think we all know that the choice you make, you know, in your spouse is the single most important decision you'll make for the rest of your life. I guess we would all agree on that. Or we better because our wives might watch this podcast. Hey guys, let me tell you about one of my favorite new hydration drinks. Now this is for distance athletes, hits cardio exercisers, people that sweat a lot or exercise intensely. An A game is a hydration drink. It has eight essential vitamins.

1:06:06Gary Brecka:It has all of the electrolytes, the entire suite of B vitamins. Before you freak out and read that it has 21 grams of sugar, which it does. The sugar is coming from natural cane sugar and honey, my preferred mechanisms for getting glucose into the blood during intense exercise. It also has natural flavors, but these natural flavors don't come from bacterial fermentation. They actually come from real citrus fruits and the color is from vegetable juice, not artificial dyes. So next time you're looking for a great hydration drink and you're exercising intensely, A-game is your choice. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast.

1:06:39Right.

1:06:40Gary Brecka:That is not that. Yeah, I'm not married in a little kid. But you got a girl in your life, but I'm just saying, I'm talking about those relationships, right? Your romantic relationships. I mean, at least if you're in a committed one. If you're single, it's all good. Yeah. But how do you land these into relationships? Is there intentionality about how you think about your marriage?

1:07:00Jesse Itzler:I mean, I think everybody's different. I think for us, I can only speak from my experience. We plan a lot. You know, we have four children under 16 and Sarah's, my wife's an entrepreneur. She had Spanx and she now has her new company and I'm an entrepreneur. So like we literally spent an hour and a half last week going over just this month of January, date night, meals, family dinners, times, what we want. Like we went through everything. It took an hour and a half. Really? And we went through, yeah, we went through and we'll do it again in February. We meet every Monday and we go through for about an hour, like just the kid's calendar, our calendar, what we want to do.

1:07:43Jesse Itzler:I just sent her a text last night. Like, would you want to go to three places? I said, we could take two or three nights this month or I gave her a day. It's like, we do that. And that's been a work in progress, you know, because like a lot of that was just because Sarah was like, we need more time. Like, you know, so we put this, okay, let's meet every Monday. Let's lay it out because I was neglecting that. I'm running around like a lunatic. So, but now that I have this height, this water here. Yeah, we're eating here. I feel like everything is four times as fast since I've been in here. It's crazy how the cognitive function.

1:08:19Gary Brecka:The hell is going on here? This is what I tell people that like the lights come on. No, I'm fluent.

1:08:22Devon Lévesque:I thought this was a black curtain. It's fully like pink now. Yeah, yeah.

1:08:26Jesse Itzler:Gary, Gary, I met you two hours ago and I am now fluent in Mandarin.

1:08:35Jesse Itzler:Because you went to China. Six months ago and now it's - Everything is five times as fast. No, I spent, we spent, so we spend a lot of time.

1:08:49Gary Brecka:I would like to, I'd actually like to make a suggestion

1:08:54Jesse Itzler:that we do the rest of this podcast in a foreign language.

1:08:57Gary Brecka:I'm fine. Well, I'm going to switch to French. That's my own, that's the only place I can go. So, dude, I'm telling you, when inflammation drops in your brain, the transmission speed picks up and it's like focus, energy, concentration, mental clarity, short-term recall. It's just right there.

1:09:17Jesse Itzler:No, I just drank this glass of water. I feel like I got a blood transfusion.

1:09:22Gary Brecka:You're like the best advertisement for hydrogen water ever. I forgot what we were talking about now. We're like so super intelligent beings that I've lost complete track of what we were talking about, our relationships. It's a lot. This is a very fun interview though. This is really fun, man. Thank you. It's almost like we smoked weed, but I want to promise you guys there was no weed, no CBD, just hydrogen. That's the only thing that went into our water.

1:09:50Jesse Itzler:Listen, you got to have fun, man. I mean - I agree, man. You know, like I like that. I love that you guys didn't send any questions. I called my assistant. I'm like, are there any questions or anything? They're like, no. I'm like - I also didn't write down a thing.

1:10:00Gary Brecka:Devin wrote these down before the podcast. This is hilarious. This is some cool shit to talk to him about. He just literally did this in the sauna right before you walked in. But I like to just like flow and feel it out. I like it too.

1:10:12Jesse Itzler:And you're like, you gotta have fun, man. Like I had a guy that I work with, this guy by the name of Bob Sillerman said, you wanna make money, you wanna have fun and you wanna have fun making money. And it's true. Like, you know, like making, you make a lot of money, but you're not having fun or it's just, you really want to have an element of joy in your work.

1:10:35Gary Brecka:Yeah, you know, we had a fraternity reunion years ago and one of the founding fathers of our fraternity came to speak and he was in his late eighties and he was one of the few that was still alive. So we brought him to our, and this is when I was, I think a sophomore in college. And so I wasn't really thinking about, I didn't have any like spiritual orientation at the time. I wasn't planning my life. And so the whole room's quiet and we give him a lot of respect and he ambles up onto the stage. He gets to the podium and we're expecting this really profound speech. And he goes, young men, all you'll get out of life are your family, your friends, and a few good times.

1:11:14Thank you.

1:11:16Gary Brecka:He walked off the stage and I get goosebumps to this day, like thinking about that speech. He's long gone now, but here he was like in his late 80s. And I was like, there was a lot of wisdom in that speech. Your family, your friends - I love that. And a few good times.

1:11:35Jesse Itzler:It reminds me of the famous speech where the guy comes on the stage and he says, you have a lot of food, many problems. You have no food, one problem. And I was like that, man. You get a lot of - It's yeah. It's like the way we talk about our health. By the way, I did that with an accent. I don't think the guy - Well, you speak Mandarin now. So much smarter if you say, lot of food, many problems. You sound like the - No food? Yeah. One problem. It's like chat came into me. It's fully American. It's fucking hydrogen water.

1:12:14Gary Brecka:It's like the healthy man has how many wishes and the unhealthy man has one wish. One wish, right. And that's, you know, that's been a blessing of my life because, you know, for me, I'm so curious. I'm like a child. I'm like fascinated by human physiology. And like, I don't even like to vacation because it takes me away from my work. So like when I vacation, I actually will like, I'm a nerd, so I'll like read peer-reviewed science and stuff and try to draw all these conclusions because I'm just so intellectually curious about it. I'm genuinely like excited and curious about it. and to have found a profession where I can meet my mentors, have conversations like this.

1:12:56Gary Brecka:Like, you know, for me, I'd read 12 or 13 of Mark Hyman's books that were New York Times bestsellers 10 years before I ever met him. And when he walked through, when he got off the elevator and walked off the elevator into my apartment, I was like, holy shit, this is so cool. Yeah, it's crazy. I get to sit down with you for 90 minutes and ask you anything I want. You're here to talk to me. This is just, thank you, God. You know, it's just so amazing. And I think when we can find fun, and if you're intellectually curious about things, I think like that passion and curiosity to me are the most attractive emotions.

1:13:29Gary Brecka:You know, I read a clinical study about emotion and it's called the Spain scale of emotion, the scale of positive and negative emotion. And what they did was they measured frequency leaving human beings' bodies. And they found that the highest amplitude and therefore the most attractive frequency, if you will, if you believe in the universal law of attraction, is the frequency of authenticity. and during this study, they found that authenticity was only emanated when someone's words were truthful and they believed what they were saying. So they could be saying the truth but not believe it or they could be telling a lie and believe it and it wouldn't be authentic.

1:14:07Gary Brecka:And it started to let me kind of understand this whole thing we call intuition. It's not really intuition. It's a sensitivity to frequency, right? Like my wife is really good at this. Like she'll be like, I don't like that guy. Something's up. I mean, I'm telling you, babe, I don't think that you should be doing business with him. And I'm like, what? Look at the shoes. Pulled up in a Ferrari. He's got a nice suit. You know, do a deal. And six months later, you're pulling the knife out of your back. Yeah. You know? So I think there's a lot to be said for, like, when you talk about your life design, I just love that, like, fun family adventure is right at the top.

1:14:41Gary Brecka:Because we lose it so much as we get kids. And we just get so stoic and freaking boring.

1:14:46Devon Lévesque:You know, one thing I noticed when we rode our bikes across America - That had to suck a lot too. A lot of it had to suck.

1:14:54Gary Brecka:I mean, can we be honest?

1:14:56Devon Lévesque:It was so fun.

1:14:57Gary Brecka:15 hours a day riding a bike.

1:14:59Devon Lévesque:We pulled a sauna with us. You did? Yeah.

1:15:02Jesse Itzler:No, it was like, we was like Ringling Brothers circuses pulling into everywhere we - I mean, we had - The Winnebago. Yeah, we had the whole thing wired.

1:15:10Devon Lévesque:But you know, it was San Diego to Florida and like, you know, middle America. we went the south route i mean there's a lot of people that just live simply you know they they live in a tent you know they they get what food they need for that day when you start adding things to your life you're asking for more pressure you're asking for more problems so anyone can simplify down anyone can like just take it away right clean out after if you're not using something in your house for you know three to six months donate it throw it out i love you

1:15:42Gary Brecka:Talk about your closet.

1:15:43Devon Lévesque:You know what I mean? Like simplify, simplify your friends, simplify who you're seeing, simplify, just simplify, take and watch the stress in your life to start to, and then maybe build it back up if you need to. Yeah. You know?

1:15:56Gary Brecka:Yeah. I heard you talk about on a podcast about how you, like I wanted to start the year clean and you went into your closet. Right. Oh yeah.

1:16:05Jesse Itzler:What did you do? No, I just like, I think one of the things that I do coming into the new year, which is appropriate now, as we go into January, but is I just want to come in light. I don't want to carry all the baggage from 2025 with me. So that means deleting my emails. That means getting rid of unsubscribing to stuff. You know, that means getting rid of all the apps I don't use, but it starts in my closet. You know, I try to like get rid of everything I don't wear. You know, it just makes me feel like less decisions. It just makes me feel like, I don't want to play catch up going into 2025.

1:16:40Jesse Itzler:So I spend a little bit of time. And a lot of times I'll look at an item like, I really like this, but I don't wear it. What do I do with it? And I'll just say like, well, someone probably needs this more than me. You know, if it's a jump ball and it goes in the donate box. So this year I had like maybe four or five bags of stuff I just donated. And I'll tell you, man, it might sound insignificant, but I walk into my closet and it's like organized. There's not a lot of stuff in there. Only the stuff that I wear. It's light.

1:17:08Gary Brecka:Yeah.

1:17:08Jesse Itzler:In general, I wanna walk around feeling as light as I can. Physically, light. We talked about fasting. We talked about dieting and all this stuff. I wanna feel not processed. All this stuff you talk about all the time. Light, people-wise, light. I don't want people that are like zapping me of energy. That's why I was on friend reduction.

1:17:29Gary Brecka:On friend reduction, I'm like, delete, delete.

1:17:31Jesse Itzler:Yeah, all of it. I wanna be light, man. And we talked about Goggins, super light. And that was my takeaway, right? I wanted to be simple. We talked about that earlier.

1:17:42Gary Brecka:So yeah, so it starts in my closet. Yeah, that's so amazing. You know, I always wind down my podcast by asking all my guests the same question. I have a feeling this one's gonna go on for a little while. But what does it mean to each of you to be an ultimate human? What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

1:18:04Devon Lévesque:Yeah. for me it's um i i don't really i don't compare against people i don't compare against you know even even you know i have multiple businesses i don't really look at competitors i'm i'm i'm comparing myself right now to the guy i was yesterday and i'm not going too too much further back than that just from yesterday yeah and tomorrow saturday i'm going to compare myself to who I was the day before? Did I work out a little bit harder? Did I call my mom and sisters? Did I, was I honest? Did I have integrity? Did I do the right thing? Did I, you know, I'm pretty religious. I'm actually do the Kabbalah right now.

1:18:48Devon Lévesque:I love reading the Bible. Like, I'm, you know, I'm so good. And so like, was I a better person than I was before? In every aspect, brain, spiritually, physically. And so for me, the ultimate human is just being a better person than I was the day before. I think that people talk about success,

1:19:13Jesse Itzler:and I think it's important that you have a definition of what success looks like for you. So for LeBron James, that might be winning the championship in the Olympics and being the MVP. But for a school teacher, it might be like success is changing the lives of kids. Everyone's definition is different. One of the definitions I have is being as good as I can be in the buckets that matter the most to me. So maybe that's business, wellness, family, whatever your buckets are. So I think part of ultimate means the best. So the ultimate human to me, I think is being as good as you can be in the buckets that matter to you.

1:19:54Jesse Itzler:That doesn't mean you're the best in the world, but you're as good as you can be or trying to be as good as you can be in the buckets that matter the most to you. And then the other thing that came to my mind when you asked the question was, I wanna be able to squeeze as much out of life as I can.

1:20:14Jesse Itzler:So part of that staying healthy and some of that's within our control, but some of it isn't within our control necessarily. Like we can't control everything. but the longer, I wanna stay young as long as possible. I wanna die young as late as possible. That's what I wanna say. I wanna die young as late as possible. Dude, I'm gonna write that one down.

1:20:40Gary Brecka:Can we write that down? I wanna die young as late as possible. If that's not trademarked, I'm trademarked.

1:20:44Jesse Itzler:Oh, it's the name of my next book.

1:20:46Gary Brecka:Oh, it is? Okay. You're gonna crush it with that. I have the manuscript here. I love that, man. I want to get a pre-copy I like why I said it like I just thought of it but like

1:20:56Jesse Itzler:it's the name of my next book I didn't make this up but it is true I do want to I want to die young as late as I possibly can

1:21:08Gary Brecka:that is such a good metaphor man and I completely totally agree with you guys the trademark's for sale if you want it we'll make you an offer as soon as the podcast is over brother guys awesome What a random workout turned into today. That was so fun, man. How amazing is life? Guys, this was absolutely incredible. We're going to follow this journey. I hope I'll have you both back on again sometime soon. And until next time, guys, that's just science.

From the publisher

What if your entire year could fit on one piece of paper? Jesse Itzler reveals how he designs his life around one massive annual challenge (his "misogi") plus six mini-adventures every other month to guarantee newness and kill routine. The conversation shifts to concrete frameworks, why Devon Lévesque red-marked half his calendar after identifying his five core values, how Jesse plans rewards to fuel harder work periods, and why "yes, and" energy might be the most underrated success factor nobody talks about.

CLICK HERE TO BECOME GARYS VIP!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg

Get Jesse Itzler’s books here: https://bit.ly/4rjKv6l 

Connect with Jesse Itzler

Website: https://bit.ly/4qI6Fyh 

YouTube: https://bit.ly/4cwY79U  

Instagram: https://bit.ly/46NVblt 

TikTok: https://bit.ly/4tE5cf5 

Facebook: https://bit.ly/4rOwyNK 

X.com: https://bit.ly/3ZCwAfN 

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/46Lg6Wr 

Connect with Devon Levesque

Website: https://bit.ly/40dTR7S 

YouTube: https://bit.ly/4rlCIVR 

Instagram: https://bit.ly/4amjIk6 

TikTok: https://bit.ly/4tCb34s 

Facebook: https://bit.ly/4kCyBSR 

X.com: https://bit.ly/4kC6D9C 

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4kKomvS 

Thank you to our partners

A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij

AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD

AIRES: "ULTIMATE20 " FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/4a3Duze

BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa

BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV

CARAWAY: “ULTIMATE” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3Q1VmkC

COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp

GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk

GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9

GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC

H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg

HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S

PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn

RHO NUTRITION: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: https://bit.ly/44fFza0

SNOOZE: LET’S GET TO SLEEP!: https://bit.ly/4pt1T6V

WHOOP: JOIN & GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW

Watch  the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST:

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8

Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0

Connect with Gary Brecka

Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs

TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo

X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf

Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2

Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU

Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1

Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws

Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG

Timestamps

00:00 Intro of Show

04:53 How to Design Your Life

10:27 Jesse and Devon’s Adventures Together

19:21 “Learn Like You’ll Live, Live Like You’ll Die Tomorrow”

27:52 Life Designing at Any Age

41:38 The Ripple Effect 

47:21 Promix Nutrition Journey

52:57 The Spiritual Billionaire

57:54 Intentionally Designing Your Calendar

1:06:44 Intentionality in Personal Relationships

1:13:30 Frequency of Authenticity

1:17:45 What does it mean to you to be an Ultimate Human?

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions.

Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation.  Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered promotional in nature.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More from The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka

All 133 episodes
245. Jesse Itzler & Devon Levesque: On Life Design, The Misogi Ritual and Winning RoutinesThe Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka · 1 h 22 min
Listen in VO