BigDeal - #50 WATCH THIS EVERY DAY To Brainwash Yourself! I Devon Levesque

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

🚀 Main Street Over Wall Street is where the real deals get done. Join top investors, founders, and operators for three days of powerful connection, sharp strategy, and big opportunities — live in Austin, Nov 2–4. https://contrarianthinking.biz/msows-bigdeal In this episode, Promix Co-Founder Devon Levesque shares insights on living a life full of adventure and excitement, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing fun and simplicity. Codie and Devon touch on the significance of curiosity, learning through experiences and unique paths, and building meaningful relationships. Their discussion encourages listeners to embrace change, pursue their passions, and not let fear hold them back from living a fulfilling life. This conversation touches on everything from innovative ventures and the power of gut health, all the way to the complexities of cannabis use and the importance of community for young men. All in all, Codie and Devon emphasize building grit through physical and mental challenges and the lessons learned from pushing one's limits. Want help scaling your business to $1M in monthly revenue? ⁠Click here⁠ to connect with my consulting team. Chapters 00:00- Living a Life of Adventure 03:06- The Everest Experience 05:54- The Mental and Physical Challenges of Climbing 09:13- Finding Calmness in Extreme Situations 11:56- Curiosity and Learning Through Adventure 15:00- The Journey from Ordinary to Extraordinary 17:49- The Importance of Simplicity 20:53- Prioritizing Fun and Adventure 24:05- Building Relationships and Partnerships 27:12- Creating Opportunities and Embracing Change 30:16- Embracing Life's Flow 31:47- Learning from Mistakes 34:12- The Journey of Farming 36:46- Creating a Community Space 39:57- Authenticity in Life and Business 41:41- Defining Success on Your Own Terms 42:44- Finding Your Unique Learning Path 44:54- Innovative Ventures and Experiences 47:47- The Power of Gut Health 52:14- The Unseen Effects of Cannabis 55:06- Addressing the Loneliness Epidemic in Young Men 59:55- Finding Your Community and Values 01:03:32- The Importance of Auditing Your Time 01:11:15- Building Grit Through Physical Challenges MORE FROM BIGDEAL: 🎥 ⁠YouTube⁠ 📸 ⁠Instagram⁠ 📽️ ⁠TikTok⁠ MORE FROM CODIE SANCHEZ: 🎥 ⁠YouTube⁠ 📸 ⁠Instagram⁠ 📽️ ⁠TikTok⁠ OTHER THINGS WE DO: 🫂 ⁠Our community⁠ 📰 ⁠Free newsletter⁠ 🏦 ⁠Biz buying course⁠ 🏠 ⁠Resibrands⁠ 💰 ⁠CT Capital⁠ 🏙️ ⁠Main St Hold Co⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You are set on not living a boring life. I'm going to go mountain biking. I'm going to sign a cold plunge. I'm going to work out. And if I have time, I'll work in between. And that's very simple. Some people are like, you're crazy for doing that. I'm like, you're fucking crazy for not doing that.

I think it comes back to simplicity. We're the ones that put the stress on ourselves with the more stuff that we want. If you want to live a simple life, you can. Literally the least interesting thing about this next guest is the fact that he just sold his business for a ton of money. And this wasn't even his first business he sold. He sold businesses prior.

to this. Also, maybe the least interesting thing is that he's partnered with a billionaire, another friend of mine, Jesse Eitzler, who you guys probably know married to Sarah Blakely and founder of a bunch of other companies. I actually think the most interesting thing about this next guest is that he's going to talk to us about how do you live a not born life? How do you turn your life into one big series of adventures and fun? Which quite honestly, when I first think about that, my immediate reaction is like, that must be nice for somebody else because, like, I have to work. Like, I don't got time for this. I don't know. Everybody, else has got time for all this fun. But by the end of the podcast, he kind of convinced me

of three things to do differently this year so that I actually have more fun, so my life is less boring, so that if I come to the end of my days, I will be happy that I lived them really fully. So I think this episode is really important from that perspective. He's going to talk a little bit about his crazy adventures, like Everest climbing it, back flipping off of Everest, like climbing multiple other mountains, like going and throwing a party in Antarctica with Diplo? The list is like so long it's ridiculous. But what I hope you take away from Devin Levesque today is that it is actually possible to build nine-figure businesses, like a company like ProMix, his company.

It is possible to build multiple businesses like Running Man and All Day Running, which he owns as well, while having a farm with a bunch of cool animals on it, having an incredible incredible life, living in multiple locations, all while having started by putting up drywall, just like his father had, working in construction. And so I think this is a great episode of a dude who just said, I'm going to construct my life, and I'm not going to let anybody get in my fucking way to do it. I hope you enjoy this episode with Devin LeBess. So I was reading some statistics.

Yes. We'll see if it's true or not. 800 people attempt to hike Everest every year. Only 50% make it. five to 20 people die in the pursuit and you just hiked Everest, summited it, but you also almost fell off the mountain or you did fall off the mountain. Can you tell me about that? Yes, so summoned it on May 21st, which statistically is the most common data summit in history.

Yeah, since 1953, Tensing, Norway, and Sir Edmund Hillary summoned the first time, as they say. And since then, May 21st has been. And so I summoned on the 21st when I, you know, did a backflip at the top. And so, you know, it looked like I almost fell off, but I didn't. I was clipped in, so that's good. And then I started descending down. Wait, so wait a second. You get to the top of Everest, which takes you how many days?

47. Holy seven days. Yeah. Holy hell. I know. Okay. It's wild. I got homesick.

Nina, my girlfriend came with me to base camp, which was a great two-week experience. and then after that, yeah, you just, you acclimate, you go up and down through the Kumbull Icefall, you know, try to just, you know, acclimate and get used to kind of what's out there. But when you're at the top, after 47 days of hikes, and my understanding is you have to push really hard for the summit because there's like a window. Sometimes never a window. Right. Yeah, we got lucky.

I mean, there was an open, clear bluebird day, and that's where you see everyone trying to, you know, attempting. Everyone's trying to gauge what time to leave, what day, because five, 10, 20 mile per hour winds, really, 20 you're done. But 5, 10 mile an hour changes the temperature drastically. So it can go from zero degrees or negative 10 degrees to negative 50, quick. And if you're up there when that happens, you know, it's tough to get back down. It's not good. There's no helicopters after camp two.

Camp one, camp two, camp three, camp four, summit. after camp two, it's no man's land. It's a free-for-all. And you're not just worried about the weather. You're also worried about your health. You're worried about your gear. You're worried about your guide, your Sherpa. You're worried about yourself, your mental state.

You're worried about the Nepalese. Look, some are super nice and some are a little sketchy. There is known cases where they'll cut your lines and push you off. And that's not just Nepalese. That can be foreigners as well, but it's a free-for-all. You know, and who's going to catch you, you know, at 25,000 feet pushing or cutting someone off? So, look, I don't know most of these people, and I just don't, I wasn't trying to trust anyone that close, you know, God forbid something to happen. So I think there's a lot of things going through your brain while you're up there.

But after I summited, I came, I was, you know, I was descending down and I must have been at, I don't know, 28,000-half, 20,000, you know, 28,000 feet where the Hillary step is. I went over it and, you know, 20 minutes later, the whole thing collapsed and people fell off. You know, they fell thousands of feet down and dead. So, yeah, they're still out there. Unfortunately, God bless them and their families. But, yeah, it's crazy. I mean, it's a, I would never go back. So you're not only battling the mountain, you're battling humans.

Yeah, humans, the mountain, health, yourself, gear, oxygen, weather, God, you know, the Himalayas. You're just, there's so many factors. It's not just, oh, I've climbed a couple 14ers in Colorado. I can go to Everest. That's not, you know, that's not what it is. Not the same thing. And obviously, I've never, I've hiked one mountain at or Mount Baker, and that was like scary enough for me.

And, but I remember when we were talking to the sauna, you were explaining how, like, there's portions of the mountain where they're almost vertical, while they are vertical, I'm sure. And you have to be careful that other people aren't sort of falling down on you. And you have to be able or rubble or whatever. Rocks. And there was a story you were kind of telling me about somebody who wasn't clipped in. Yes.

Yes. So that was from Camp 2 to Camp 3, say about 22,000 feet up. There was a storm that came up. You know, I was making my push to summit at the time. So I was going up. And once the storm came in, you have to make a decision to come down. and redo that hike all again the next day or at all, or just keep going.

And there was no weather patterns, you know, that extreme in the forecast. And so, you know, I said to Jen Jen and Dr. John, I was like, let's keep going. And, you know, they questioned it for a sec, but, you know, they kind of agree. They're like, yeah, we think this is gonna pass as well. So I kept going up.

We kept going up and we're on this ledge. And, you know, it's about, you know, a thousand foot drop below you. You're standing on, you know, couple inches of snow and now those people are coming at you and you have to make your way around them so you have to clip in one side clip in the other go around them clip unclipped one side and you have do that to every person and one of the girls that was coming down i didn't know was a girl at a time it just there was two people coming towards me on this you know this couple inches on this ledge

she was clipped to her shirpa and the shirpa goes to clip around me and he didn't clip and she happened to fall. But they were clipped together. And so she pulled the guy right in front me. So they both fell. And instincts, I just, I just grabbed their rope. And they were just dangling there. And I think, you know, obviously if I didn't grab that,

they wouldn't be with us anymore, but they stuck their feet in and, you know, pulled themselves up. And I remember the girl just looked. I saw her hair and she just looks at me. and I'm like, she's like, thank you. And I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, this is crazy right now. And 10 seconds later, I fell.

And I remember I fell, I was clipped in and I fell, you know, whatever, four feet. But that four, that, that, those seconds, I was just like, shit. I said, shit. I was like, shit. And it caught me. And I was just dangling there. and all I was thinking about was really Devin shit was going to be your last word like that's what you were going to say the last things you say on earth was shit found and so I just I always remember that that was scary my heart dropped I pulled myself up but I mean it's it's just scary up there you don't know the weather you don't know the people you know everyone's from all over the world every you know some people are out there for certain you know intentions some people are out there for others and you just don't know it's a total no man's land out there um and you're just so tired and exhausted and homesick.

And it's just crazy. I would never go back. I'm not, it's not really my jam. I also, you know, a lot of, I don't want to,

you know, put this category out there, but a lot of people that are on the mountains, a lot of men and women that I met are single. I'm a family guy. I want to get married. I want to have kids, you know,

I want, like I love being around my community. A lot, there's a lot of lone wolves out there that are just out there. And which is fine, but conversation is just a lot different with them. versus, you know, some of my best friends who have, you know, three kids, a wife, and, you know, we have different values in conversation. So I'm not saying I'm not about the mountaineering

community, but there's definitely a lot of lone wolves when you start to go to these, you know, more profound mountains and high altitude places. Oh, I can only imagine. You know, I remember one of our, we kind of got right when COVID had hit, uh, and was done, actually. So quarantine was over, whatever. Our guide, uh, was an Everest guide. But he, he like couldn't, he hadn't hiked for, for climbed or whatever the appropriate term is, for all of COVID because they were shut down. And he lived right outside Mount Baker, which is where we're going. So he ended up being our guy, but he was this hard ass, right?

He's with like seven chicks like me. We're like, no fucking idea we're doing. Never done a mountain. You know, shoes breaking. We're a total nightmare. This guy must have hated his life. And, but it was really interesting talking to him because he was exactly that. Like he was one like, God, Mount Baker's for Pussies.

He's like, what are we doing here? He's like, why are we even here? And then number two, you know, I asked him, I'm like, God, how often are you gone? Why do you keep doing this? What drives you? And he was just a very different human. He had like a singular almost addiction to that climb somehow. Which is cool.

But, you know, I also, I put those people in the same category of humans that are in the rat race on Wall Street. It's the same thing. It's just a different industry, you know? You're still trying to. climb the biggest mountain and do it the fastest and be out there and um you know it's like you know the guys and girls you see on wall street that want the bigger deal want to invest more want to make more money want the car it's the same rat race and i just don't see that as freedom even if you're out

on in the middle of the mountain by yourself i you still have this this um mindset of more more more more more business more more more more more more more more more more like when you're in that you can't get out of this you can never be calm you can never find true calmness if you're always wanting more, more, more, more. And so I think, you know, I noticed that with, you know, with some people out there as well, like, man, that's, this isn't calming. I came out here to be calm. I came out here to calm my mind. Why did you decide to hike Everest?

I've always wanted to do it since I was a kid. I want to see what it feels like to stand at the top of the world. I wanted, you know, to see what my body's capable of. I enjoy learning the different gear and, you know, meeting the different cold. cultures and food. I wouldn't recommend Nepalese food. But, you know, I dropped out of college. I used these different high altitude mountains and embedding myself in these cultures as my school. Like, this is my learning experience. So, you know, I've had some of the craziest conversations, you know, in Antarctica on Vincent or, you know, on Akinkagua, you know, with, you know, this random,

you know, business guy who started this, you know, drink, you know, in Mexico and now selling it in 7,000 stores. And I'm just like, wow, like I would have never learned this in college, you know, and how is he doing it versus the U.S.? And then I meet this one European who did the same thing but in Europe. So like it opened your brain into kind of what's out there. So one, learning, curiosity is big for me. Two, just like what is my body capable of?

And then three is I speak about this a lot, but Marcus Aurelius has an amazing quote. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to real strength. And so I want to try things and do things to help calm my brain as much as possible and find calmness. Being able to, you know, focus on one thing at a time and being able to turn this guy off when I need to. It's stressful and I think we grow old fast if this thing is constantly racing, racing, racing. So being able to, you know, add in some calmness and no phone and no society and no. no parents telling you what to do and no boss or no no one. You're just on a mountain.

You're worried about yourself and that other person. You're not worried about likes or views on Instagram. You're not worried about how much money's in your account. You're not worried about, you know, that next big business venture and, you know, if it's delayed or not. You're just worried about staying freaking alive and it comes back to the simplicity of life. And so that's what I gain on these mountains is just like simplicity. Here's a question for you. How much of your life do you actually control? And you've got to be honest with yourself. You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength. That was Marcus Aurelius. And it's as true now as it was 2,000 years ago. So are you in control of your life or is it controlling you?

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You should go to cody Sanchez.com backslash MSM. There'll be all the information for you. Did you start doing these crazy adventures before you had some money and freedom? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I would say the first big one was the bear crawl. I just, I wanted to see, you know. So you didn't have any cash. What were you doing for a living at the time? I had a training business. So you were in fitness? Yep, fitness. And you were probably not making what wanted to make? I was happy. I mean, yeah, I was living a, I was, I was, I, I was making what I were you. 20, it was in 2020, so five years ago. Oh yeah. 32, so 27. God, you've lived a lot in that in the last five years in the last five years. Done a lot. Interesting. Yeah. And before that,

you were just quote unquote kind of normal. You hadn't done these crazy adventures. No, I was running nightclubs in New York City. Whoa. Yeah. That's a wild progression. Yeah. So before that, I was, I was hanging drywall. I was in construction. Interesting. Yep. So how did you go from hanging construction to having a bunch of businesses, climbing Everest, bar crawling marathons? Um, curiosity. I'm just really curious and, um, try to just do my absolute best in every single thing I do, whether I'm pouring you some de-blote, whether I'm making you a coffee, whether I'm on this podcast or, you know, going to work out in the gym this morning. Like, I want to do my best every, every,

possibility I get. And so any opportunities I've had, I think I just give it 110% no matter what. But I grew up in a blue collar household and my dad hung drywall. And then when he passed, I got sent to military academy, got a scholarship to play football and baseball and college. And then dropped out. And I was like, this isn't for me. I started bartending, barbacking, trying to make some money in the hospitality world and just gave it. I was the best freaking barback in the world. Like I was a bartender's best friend. I will I will make your job as easy as possible. And I told myself, I'm like, look, barback is, you know, dishwashing and barback is one of the lowest positions in hospitality. But I'm going to be the best freaking one out there, you know?

And then the restaurant owner saw that he's like, do you want a bartend? I'm like, yes. And then all of a sudden they're like, do you want to manage a place? And I was like, yes. And then all of a sudden, I had an opportunity to open my own spot. And so it's literally just giving it 110 percent, you every time. What would you tell a young Devin today listening to this who's like, man, I don't want to live a boring life. I want to adventure. I want to do incredible things, but I don't really have much.

Maybe I'm doing drywall right now too. What would you tell them? I would say break up with the girl or guy that you're with and go travel around the world and get into hospitality and work at different restaurants around the world, learn different languages, and just be a good, kind human. Be kind, work hard. and just learn and let be a sponge don't be a know at all just take it take it take it take it and in that time figure out where do you want to be in five or 10 years and then work backwards

you know is it a ranch in the middle of colorado with cows and a wife and kids and you know you know your you know your pickup truck and whatever it is if that's what it is and that cost X amount of dollars work backwards how can you get there right did you make your first amount of cash How did I make my first amount of cash? I mean, I was training people in New York, and so I saved up some good money there, and then I built a training business and sold that. And that's kind of how I made my first million. And then I kind of just started.

Doing kind of a normal business. Very normal, but, you know, I had clients. Yeah. And I had cash flow with that. And then we had this product, a meal prep. And, you know, someone recognized that, and they needed those clients. So if you have something that someone needs, you can sell that. Yeah.

You know, anything. You know, if you want to drink some water and I have the glass, this is for sale, right? And so I think, you have a glass. I have a glass, too. So, I don't know, I just think it's creating, it's creating things you like to do because I think the passion and what you love is going to take you through the hard days, right? I used to love training people and making, you know, people struggle and sweat and sometimes throw up and get. back at it, puke and rally. Like I used to really enjoy and working out with them. I used to enjoy it. I still do something. Like sometimes I'll just train my boys for fun and have some fun,

but I genuinely enjoyed it. So the days where a client said, hey, you know, meet me at 4 a.m. I'm like, frick yeah. Like, let's go. I'll show up. Let's get it done. Let's get after. If you don't have that passion, then it's just not. It's not worth it. Yeah. You're not going to compete against me. If I like to wake up at 4 a.m. and work out. And you don't. but you want to start a training business. Like we're not, eventually I'm going to, you know, you know, surpass you.

Yeah, it's really hard to beat obsession, I think. It's almost impossible. Yeah, they can beat intelligence. Right. But it's super hard to beat somebody who's obsessed, more obsessed than I am. I agree with that. You know, one of the things I liked to last we were chatting is you,

I was saying to you something like, I'm going to do this work thing related. And you were like, yeah, I'm going to ask me. I'm going to skiing tomorrow or something, right? And I was like, well, you know, do you seem to go skiing or things like that a lot. Why can you do that so often? How do you integrate so much adventure into your life? Yeah.

You know, now people might say, well, you're successful. He has money. He can do that. But there's plenty of people who have more money than you or I that do not do that. But it seems like you're really, you are set on not living a boring life. Yeah, I put it first on the calendar. That's that if I'm making my calendar throughout the day, it's, I'm going to go mountain biking. I'm going to sign a cold plan.

I'm going to work out. If I have time, I'll work in between. And that's just very simple. And some people are like, you're crazy for doing that. I'm like, you're fucking crazy for not doing that. That is crazy to me that you're not doing the things that you like and you're not having fun. It blows my mind, actually, when people put work first and money first and like the things they think matter first. And then they're all like, man, I wish I went there.

Man, I wish I was mountain biking more. I wish I went in trout. So go do it. Put that first and everything else will follow. Okay, maybe you're exit. you know, your acquisition, you selling the company is delayed a couple of years. But you had fun. At least you had fun, you know, and you put the fun first and the things you love first.

People do it backwards. Right, we do. Actually, my husband always says there's 100% ROI on fun, which I think is a lot of how my brain works. But don't you ever worry about, like, what do you say to somebody who's like, but what if I do that and then I can't make enough money or I can't live? You can make. I can make money selling free. flowers, training people going to get a job as a barista. There's a million ways in this world to

make money. I could go pick up dirt, put it in a glass jar, put instead, you know, you know, you know, holy sand on it and sell the sand. Like there's not, it's not that hard to make money. It's very simple to make money in this world, especially in the United States of America. It's the biggest brand on planet Earth, the USA, right? It's not hard, especially in the U.S. If you're not in the U.S., I see people make money in Tanzania, Africa, selling random cow hides on the side of the road. You know, like there's random things that people just do in this world to make money. It's not complicated. It's just do it or don't do it.

Yeah. And people are afraid, well, that's too much, you know, that's too small amount to make. That's not enough. Well, that's on you then. You know what I mean? You got to start somewhere. When I rode my bike across America with a guest, you had Jesse Itzler, you know, it was interesting how many people lived in tents and how many people lived a simple life. And they chose to live the simple life.

They chose not to have the bills. They chose not to have, you know, the cars and the watches and the, you know, the rent in New York City. They chose to live a simple life. We're the ones that put the stress on ourselves with the more stuff that we want or the more things that we want to do, right? It's we put the stress on ourselves. If you want to live a simple life, you can get a tent. It's 100 bucks on Amazon, if that, and go find somewhere on this earth, because the earth is big, go live in a tent. You have a fire, you have shelter, you can get food.

That's it. It's very simple. And we add the stress. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, and I'd give you shit about that as a thought, except you've actually done it in a bunch of countries and in the U.S. So it's sort of interesting because you specifically. spent time in Africa. We were just talking about your drink that you gave me. And you've done this. You've sort of like camped all over the place. I've stayed in hostels. I've lived in tents.

I've lived in mansions. I've lived in a lot of different types of places. And what I've come down to is simple, like simplicity. I try to clear my closet a couple times here. I try to give away stuff. I try to have minimal amount of equipment in the kitchen. I try to have, you know, just simple things, try to wear the same shoes every day, try to, you know, similar shirts, similar pants, you know? I mean, you know, a couple of people are watching they know what I wear. I wear like the same

five things pretty much, you know. And I try to. I try to live as simple as possible. And sometimes I get out of it a little bit. I have some fun, but I think it comes back to simplicity. You partnered with Jesse on

a couple of big things. Yeah. He, I imagine, gets a lot are people asking him to partner on stuff. How do you get somebody who is big and famous and maybe a billionaire to partner with you and to decide that you're the guy? Well, when we're friends first, we like to sauna. We like to cold plunge. How'd you meet him first? I met him. When I bear called the New York Marathon, he reached out, congratulated me. So that was like our first intro. You did an interesting thing and then an interesting human found you. That's it. And then I went to his event 20902. 29, we hung out, had a crazy 36 hours.

And then we kind of stayed in touch. And he's like, hey, want to come to my house to son and cold plunge. Yes, I have one rule. Jesse asked you to do something, you do it. And so I went down. And then he's like, yo, that was fun. You want to go to the Hawks game? Cool, done.

You know, hey, you want to do this? Yeah. And I just kept saying yes. But each time, I wasn't looking for anything. I was never like, Jesse's going to be my business partner. I never even thought about business with him. I was just like, this is a fun guy to hang out with. We have similar values.

Family, health, community, freedom of time, giving back. Those are my five main values I live by. And that's kind of what he lives by too. So we align on values. And we just, I don't know, there's no egos. We just like to have a good time, host people, son a cold plunge. And I think we enjoy each other's company.

And when he came to me about all day running, I was I didn't even to be honest I didn't even look at the paperwork I know how much equity I own in the business but like besides that I was like I trust this guy you know I saw it doc you sign came in I signed up I'm like let's let's launch this thing it wasn't a there's some people in the world that you just trust you know it's like it's a good old handshake deal and that's that's kind of how him and I roll and there's there's no there's no hidden agenda with us you know it's interesting because that was one of Warren Buffett's famous lines was one you can't do a good deal with a bad guy and that a contract won't save you.

And so I think there's actually a lot of wisdom in that. Now, I am a crazy person and get very particular with contracts, but I think when you're young and you don't got much to lose, you can really shoot yourself in the foot by putting all of these what-ifs in there. Oh, yeah. There's not even a what to start with. Yeah. And like all the running, we all started at zero.

We started at zero sales. We started at zero followers. We started at no one coming to running, man. We all started at zero and then him and I had the agreement of, okay, let's build this to something. Him and I started at zero with all day. Then we're building this together with the team and everyone. So I think everyone has to understand everyone starts at zero. It's not like, oh, it was just handed to you overnight.

Everyone starts at zero followers. Everyone starts at zero views on the podcast. Then you're like, dang, I got my first 10 views. I got my first million views. This is crazy. Right? We all start at zero. And so the what-ifs are so unnecessary just in life.

What if it doesn't? We're all, we're naturally thinking that, but we're all starting at zero. So just go. Just say yes. Yeah. But now you have all-day running company, which is also, is that what owns like Running Man and the biggest sauna and all those things you have? What does that all encompass?

Yeah. All-day running, we started with like 20 different concepts. We started with a calendar. We started with daily workouts. We started with gear. We started with a monthly call. We started with run clubs. And we do that on purpose.

Throw it at the wall. See what sticks. You know, that didn't kind of work. That worked. That didn't work. This didn't work. Cool. Yes.

No. Running man was a festival. It came down to schedule. Jesse and I have limited time. So this allows us to do it once a year. It's a blank canvas for us. You know, we can do whatever we want there. It's fun.

It's what we like to do. And so, yeah, you know, we launched Running Man three years ago. We're going on, this is our third one this year. And explain what it is really quickly? Running Man is a running festival in the health and wellness community where there's no first place, second place, a third place. You have three days. We put the timer on and you can run as much as you want. Some people sign up for 5K and end up doing 50 miles.

And you can walk, run, crawl, do whatever you want. between you can stop you have a tracker on you could stop go hit a sauna grab a beer listen to mike posner play you know hit a goat yoga session you do whatever you want it's just a fun it's burning man without the drugs it's and more running that's all it is you know it's a cool idea it's a three-day festival in Georgia and we just host it we go down and literally just party for three days run you guys invited me and I was like I hate running I'm so nervous this sounds awful I have a conflict but I'm to come next year. I told Jesse. Last year I did four laps and and then I had 30 beers. That was my running. That's what I did. That's amazing. That's what I did at running man last year. You know,

it's kind of nice because with the new year and everything, you're thinking about goals, you know, and it's like, I'm going to do this. I'm not going to do this. And sometimes I can get really prescriptive. But half the time it's just directional. Like go someplace where more people are running, where you could be running more often and you'll probably do some more and then don't get that serious about the time or the specifics. Yeah, don't get serious. Life's too short. to be too serious. Is that a motto of yours? Yeah.

I don't, I mean, look, there's some things where I'm like, what the frick? But a lot of times I'm like Chinese farmer, right? It's, you know, it's just got to kind of go with the flow. What do you mean by that? So Nina showed, my girlfriend showed me this clip, Chinese farmer. If you're listening, you should go watch it. It's two minutes, maybe. And it's basically about this Chinese farmer that, you know, his, he goes through all these

obstacles in life. And each obstacle actually ended up being what it was supposed to be. it wasn't right and it wasn't wrong it's just what it was supposed to be and that's kind of the gist of it life is just what it's supposed to be you know if we mess up on the podcast that's just what it's supposed to be you know if I see something out of line that's just what if I see something good that's just what it's supposed to be and so it's not overthinking good or bad it's just going and just kind of go in the flow what do you do when you make mistakes like how do you get over a mistake is it that

I just don't make them again. Yeah. I just, I know what I did wrong or I messed up on. I will never make that mistake again. And it's embedded in my brain. I make it a point to the point where I'll tell people I made that mistake. Because with learning, if you read it, you speak it, you teach it, that's how you embed it. And so I like to tell people my problems or not problem, my mistakes, I should say.

You know? Interesting. Because then it's embedded. I will never, you know, bring on these 10 influencers at X amount of dollars and launch them at this and do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'll do it this way next time. And now I know forever I'm not going to, you know, make that mistake again. Yeah, that's kind of important. I think often when I make a mistake, the way I repeat it is you try to hide it.

You're like, oops, that didn't really. Okay, well, just kind of scan over that. Yeah. And then it's almost like the universe. It's kind of like, hey, man, remember, this happened? What are you going to do about it? Yeah. You know?

Yeah. I embed it. I speak it. And I'm okay with that. Look, we're not, we're all human. I've made a lot, obviously, a lot of mistakes. I think it's okay. It's good. That's how we learn. I look at mistakes is that's the, that's a school, you know? That's the learning experience. I made an investment maybe like four years ago. And the investment, it was like, it was a small amount. I think it was like 10 grand to make 250. It was a great return, right? And on the day where I was supposed to, to cash out the 250, I didn't, I didn't know how to cash it out. And so it took, it delayed. And the, the, the stock essentially started dropping and dropping so that 250 went to 50. And I was just like, holy shit, that was a, that was a $200,000 mistake I just made in one day. Because I just simply didn't know how to cash it out. And I was really furious for a couple minutes and then I was like okay I'll never make that mistake again that was a very expensive you know learning experience but it was a learning experience nonetheless so that's just what it is

and I will Cody I'll never make that freaking mistake again I promise you what's the mistake invested in the stock market with quick returns yeah yeah not knowing how to cash out was not knowing how to cash out yeah I didn't have the right system set up and and people set up to cash out so yeah well if it makes you feel any better that's happened to me a lot a lot of times when you invest in private companies before they go public, you have 90-day lock-up periods, right? And so, you know, you might think you're doing really well on the private side, but then when they went public back in our cannabis days, we had a lot of companies where, man, they did great for those first 30 or 60 days.

And I was just sitting there like, God, I don't think they're going to make it to 90, and they didn't. So I never really like investing in the stock market for that reason. Too many other people can influence your outcome. Yeah. I don't, I have a little bit, but not. I don't really do stock market. I like private stuff I can really control.

Yeah, one of the things that's wild that you have that I was looking up is you own a farm now. Yes. Tell me about the farm. Which one? Which one? Oh, you have two now? Yeah. Well, I have one in Austin, Cedar Trunk Ranch.

Okay, I don't know anything about that one. I know about the honey farm. Yeah, sweet honey farm. Uh-huh. Sweet honey farm. But it is my home. It's a farm. It's, you know, it's a working farm.

And I had an open-door policy to my friends. Come, come by. You know, I harvest my cows. I harvest, you know, the food. in the garden, you know, here, come, you know, come get it. And like, by harvest, you're there, like, you're... I have a team, yeah. Okay.

Yeah, I grew up in Idaho, in New Hampshire, on a farm. And so I know that I know what needs to be done. But, yeah, I don't... I have a team that runs it. Is that really expensive? It gets expensive. Yeah, very expensive if you don't have a revenue stream in. Yeah.

And so I kind of noticed that I was like, this is a black hole if I don't, you know, sell the meat or I don't sell the garden goods or I don't put some type of cash flow on the property. And so with farms, you can do CSA, community-supported agriculture. And so I opened up a CSA farm. And so people pay an annual fee and they get access to my farms. And second one's going in Nashville. Third one's going in Colorado. Wow. So it's basically like a subscription to your farm. Correct. And I get an allocation of a certain amount of vegetables or meat or whatever you want. Yeah. I have the unlimited policy, but everyone's very respectful of, you know, they take what they need, you know. Interesting. You don't have people coming in and grabbing 100 tomatoes and, you know,

it's not world-in- because you screen them. Well, yeah, and it's just like, people are respectful. Yeah, I screen everybody. I do a sauna session with them. But most of them, I have a big network. They're a lot of my friends and, you know, just people that come live local around New York City. Interesting. And so it's only 45 minutes from New York City. And, you know, we play pickleball, basketball, sauna, cold plunge, workout. There's a coffee shop on the property. Um, Pro Mix. I have my Pro Mix juice bar and my chef cook stuff from the farm, but it's all my friends and it's all free, you know, you pay one fee. There's no, there's no upsell. I think there's come whenever you want. Yeah, come, nine to five, we're open every day. Interesting. There's too many

nightclubs. There's too many club, you know, the, these, these clubs where they're pushing alcohol on you, they're pushing all these upstals of, oh, get a massage for 500 and, you know, use our hyperbaric chamber for another 500 and, you know, grab a dinner with your friends for 2,000. And, you know, leave you're like oh my god spent $4,000 at this freaking place i don't want that 7500 for the year and you get everything it's it's i'm just putting you know i'm not serving alcohol um there's no drugs it's just very come and feel good and so it's attracted a lot of founders you know a lot of people that i would say there's shoot maybe 20 members there that have all sold their company for over 200 million they cashed out and they just come for the day and hang out.

I love that because they get to be the gentleman farmers, which is like a new thing without all the hearting. Ride horses, yeah. Yeah, you have giant horses there that I've seen. Yeah, big, big boys. Do you also have mini ponies? I have one mini pony. I'm into that.

I'm coming. He's tiny. The kids can ride them. The big Clyde Stales. Yeah. They weigh 2,500 pounds. They're huge. And then I have a couple Arabian horses, a couple Mustangs, you know, the tiny horse, cows,

Scottish Highland cows. Oh, yeah, the cute ones, fuzzies. 300 chickens. 300 chickens? 100 chickens are meat chickens, so I'll harvest those in six weeks, and we just got them. How do you decide if it's a meat or an ongoing chicken? Just two different types of chicken. Okay, it's not personality base, no.

There's no scorecard. Like, you get to stay? You get to go? Pain in the ass. They turn to meat. Okay, okay. Meat soup, no. And then the other chickens, they produce eggs.

And then everything from the garden goes to the chickens. or it goes to the chickens, they produce eggs and we eat them. Wow, this is a big enterprise. Yeah, it's a super fun project. I love it. It's kind of, you know, some people sell their company and invest in restaurants. This is kind of my restaurant. This is not a restaurant, but it's like it's kind of my hobby.

And it just attracts really good people. And you're going to open up around the country? Yes. Wow. There's 10,000 people on the wait list. That's crazy from your videos. Yeah. You have a big Instagram where all, I mean, in as far as I can tell you, documents.

this stuff. It's not that much content creation. It's like, back today, I'm doing a 47 hour long sauna with all my buddies and then you document it. That's it. And then through that is how you get the 10,000 people on your wait list. Yeah, I'm just, I'm just raw, authentic, not, I don't want to use the word authentic because it's, I think it's overused, but it's raw. I mean, I try to put out as much raw stuff as possible. I don't like, I don't enjoy meeting, seeing things online and then meeting that person in, you know, in real life, and they're too. It's not the worst. I'm like, I don't know. It's just weird. It's not my vibe. Yeah, it always makes me sad. I'm like, I wish I didn't meet you because you seem super cool

online. I wish we could just stay there. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to, my definition of success is being yourself 100% of the time. And so if I can be myself to you or to the president or to someone I just randomly met in the airport or whatever, I think that's success. Yeah. You know. Yeah. you don't have to put on show. I think a lot of time we don't have to put on show, right? We just do for whatever reason. Insecurity, we're young, we're idiots. I've done that many, many times.

Of course. And then you realize, like, actually, everybody can tell. Yeah. It's not a good look. Yeah. And you'd probably be cooler if you just acted like who you were. Way cooler. Yeah.

Plus, the internet's full of everything. Yeah. I mean, you have a bunch of people that want to follow you talking about horses and honey and working out. And there are people that are really into, like, anime and popcorn. It's insane. There's 8 billion people. And everyone has different. interest. Yeah. You know, and you're never going to please everybody, obviously. That's very true.

You know, so it's like just do what you want and what you like and then what you put out in the world. That's what you attract back in. It's a law of energy. It's very simple. Do you think that a lot of this sort of free thought and being who you are and living this big, huge life goes back to sort of your dad. And you've talked about some of this publicly before, but, you know, how he passed and your relationship with him. Yeah. I think he was pretty, he did what he wanted. He was very stubborn.

Yeah, he was a stubborn, like curious, you know, he climbed Mount Rainier. He climbed some mountains. He was, you know, he was in, back when he was a kid. He was a boy of the year for the Men and Boys Club of America. He got invited to the White House. Like, he just, he did some cool things as a human, but he was definitely very stubborn in the sense of, he just, he just, just wanted to do what he wanted when he wanted, you know. And so I think that probably

translated over. My mom's like that as well. All my sisters are very free spirit. They all, you know, one lives in Hawaii. One lives in, you know, Oregon and New Hampshire. Like, they're all over. Everyone's very independent and doesn't necessarily let society impact the decisions or a degree or, you know, what society calls success. It's kind of like, what do we, where I was taught to like define success as my own. And so I don't know. I think all my sisters and kind of how I grew up was always like that. And so I don't know.

That's just how I live. Yeah. Do you think that kids these days need to go to school, that university helps? I think it depends on, you know, how you learn. I think some kids are amazing in school and that's, that's, they need to sit down and they need to be taught, you know, X, Y, Z on a board. and some are like, I need to be outside and touch with my hands. You know, some are visual learners.

Some need to read it. Some need to listen. I think once you understand how you learn, then freaking deep dive into that. I know me learning is sitting here with you or traveling to different mountains or climbing to top of the world or, you know, putting my body through mayhem, you know, in the bear crawl or riding across America or going to Antarctica or hosting an event with Diplo in Antarctica. Like, I don't know, just like doing different things. Did you do that? I did do that last year. That's my school, though.

You know what I mean? That's my school. Not what, so back to your, I think some school is great, but what's your school? So school is good, but to find what your school is. Maybe it's Harvard. How does one find that? I don't know. I think you just do.

You just go. You just try different things, yeah. So say you try a lot of stuff. I think a lot of people don't know if they like it or not. Like, what's your process for like, I'm not going to do this again. Or I liked that. I was great.

Do you sit and think about it? Is it just a feeling? Do you go with your gut reaction? How does a young person actually decide what is their school? I don't know. If you get those butterflies inside when you're doing something, you're like, that was fun. You know, like think of a time back when you were a kid or a teenager or in college or any time in your life. And you've got those butterflies inside.

Was it helping someone? then maybe you should try some philanthropy things. Was it building something? Maybe you should look into architecture, building houses, building a company. You know, was it reading? Maybe you're meant to be a freaking lawyer. Maybe you love reading.

Maybe you're meant, I don't, you know what I mean? Like everyone's different, but you've got to try. I've tried so many things. And so I know exactly how I learn, and I just deep dive into that every day. Yeah. What did you do with Diplo in Antarctica? Which is a weird question.

We hosted 150 people on a ship on the coast of Antarctica for seven days. We jumped in the water. We had saunas and we did yoga and he performed. And it was just a fun seven-day trip in Antarctica with 150 random people. So you just do kind of like these. It's almost like mini businesses. Like there's just like a, this is a cool idea. Let's try it once and see if it works.

Yeah. That's interesting. Have you always done that? Yeah, I mean, I was in survival mode since I was 16, since my dad passed away. I was just, I got to figure I got to pay my bills. I don't have anyone paying my cell phone bill. So I got to pay the $60 a month. How do I do that?

Okay, well, what if, you know, I was in military academy at the time and no one would, you know, pay for my cell phone? And, you know, every other parents were paying. I didn't, you know, I didn't have that luxury. So I was like, how do I pay for this $60 a month? I'm not making any money, but I have $10. And so I remember I snuck out of, I don't think I've ever really. told this story before. But I was in study hall in our rooms in the barracks at Valley Forge Military Academy,

and I had like $10 on me, and I need to pay my $60 bill. And so I snuck out the window, and I go to McDonald's. And meanwhile, Valley Forge is $60,000 a year. I was on a scholarship. So there's a bunch of rich kids there. And I bought, I went to McDonald's, and I bought 10 McDonald's, and I came back, and I sold them all for $10 a piece. And the kids bought them. And so I was like $100.

60, I just made 40, so I had 40. And I would do that at study hall. You know? And so I think I was always in survival mode since then. And now I just get, you know, get scrappy and get creative with it. But what I have noticed with people that do get scrappy is that some, you can go two directions. One direction, you can always be scrappy and sell stuff. But it's snake oil.

Yeah. and it's quick in and out. The other is you protect your reputation no matter what. And I kind of went that route. I don't just sell stuff. I don't just create stuff just to make money. You know, I want to actually help people and create products.

Hence why we started Promix, right? I was like, man, I grew up in a health and wellness, you know, household. I met Albert, my partner. And, you know, there was nothing affordable with like really, really clean ingredients,

you know, like raw, where we traced it back to the farms. that we got them from and we packaged them up ourselves in glass containers. So there's no microplastics or anything. Like, how do we do this? And so we were fixing something for us. And then we're like, I think other people are going to like this as well.

You know, some good grass fed weight protein, some de bloat for your gut, some things that we want to use, you know, in our daily habits. And that's kind of how it came about. But it's an honest business. You know, it's not like, oh, freaking tallow is hot right now. Let's do tallow or cryo change. chambers are hot right now. Let's do a cryo business. I don't like going down that route. I want, you know, a good analogy is nightclubs versus restaurants. Nightclubs are in and out. They're quick. Two, three years. They're hot in the city. People go to them. And then, you know,

three years later, they rebrand new nightclub. I like the restaurant that's open for 25, 30, 50 years. I want that family-owned restaurant. And so I try to go down that route with businesses and have some longevity to it versus sustainability versus these quick wins. The quick ones. The quick, Quick wins are, normally I don't make money on them. They're just good marketing plays. They're fun. They're just fun. You know what I mean?

And they attract a bunch of interesting people. Did we make money on the Diplo and Irica trip? No, zero. You know what I mean? For a couple of years of running, man, we've made no money. Like, these are just fun things we want to do. And I don't know. We just try to bring people together.

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Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Tell me about the trip to Africa where you found this weird nut that you're turning into a... Seed, yeah, yeah. Okay, into... I don't even know what the difference is. between a nut and a seed? That's right.

Do you? A seed grows and a nut you eat. Is the end growth? Is that the end product? Back check. Whatever. YouTube will tell us. I actually kind of want to know that.

Not for seed. A nut you can eat, but you could eat a seed too. Can you? I mean, sunflower seed. What's the difference between a nut and a seed? What do you think, Christian? Wow. Doesn't it sound better when he says it.

too. He's like a plon. Yeah. Can we put that on here? Of course. 100%. We will edit in Christian's beautiful British voice telling us what another seat is. So you're in Africa. Where are you? I'm in Africa in Tanzania. I was climbing Kilimanjaro, which I recommend. It's a very easy climb hike per se.

There's 14 years in Colorado are much harder, right? It's a suit. It's just fun. So I'm out there. It maybe takes us six days. I'm with some buddies. Get invited to the village. that, you know, we just went up with our guides with. Is this like a Masai Mara? Yeah, it's a Masai community. It is a couple hours outside, Tanzania.

And so I'm, you know, just eating some goat and some other stuff that they give us. And these kids were coming up to me with a seed. And the seed is huge. I didn't know what it was at the time. But it's called the Beobab seed. And the Beobab seed has an insane. amount of vitamin C and an insane amount of potassium. And so I was like, there's got to be something I can do with this. This is like this is a really cool concept. So it's like the size of enough football?

It's huge. Yeah. And so we had ProMex at the time. And when I hear, you know, four times the amount of potassium, four times the amount of vitamin C, I'm like, I want to take this every day. And so I bring it back to my partner and I'm like, what can we do with this? And I've always been big and gut health because gut is, you know, your second brain. You know, it's, it's where you're moved, your energy, 70% of major diseases are formed from your gut. And so if you can get your gut on point, you're good, you know, like you're that much more de-risk from death or diseases. And the two things in your gut that you really need to be focused on is pre and probiotics, pre-and-probiotics. So they are two bacterias that work with each other to essentially fix your gut

liner to help break down food, right? So it can then go, the nutrients can go in your bloodstream. And most people don't take prebiotics. They'll take probiotics and they think they're taking them with yogurt, but once you have artificial flavors in yogurt, right, or it takes out the probiotics. So like a lot of people aren't even taking probiotics when they think they are. So these are pre and probiotics. There's natural prebiotics in the baobob as well. Put turmeric in it for inflammation, and then organic oranges for flavor from Florida. And it's called de-blow. And it helps flush your pipes in the morning.

And it helps clear your gut, and it helps fix the gut liner. And it quickly became our top product. And I mean, you've got to see the testimonials here. I mean, people had acne for years. And they started, you know, taking it for a month. And boom, their face is clear. You know, they were constipated on the regular, not anymore, right? They're mood.

People's mood changes when your gut is better, when your gut is healthier, when you don't have a leaky gut, when you have good nutrients, right? I mean, I don't want to sound cliche, but it's really about what you're putting in your body. And if you can put some good fuel in your body, everything else starts to make sense. You wake up with less anxiety. You wake up happier. You wake up like, wow, like I'm not freaking, I don't feel like a thousand pounds right now.

I feel a little bit lighter. I feel happy, you know, and it all comes down to your gut. Do you drink alcohol? I drink alcohol. You do? Yeah, I've recently, you know, pulled back on it just based on some studies. And I'm a weed guy. Yeah.

I like weed guy. Really? Yeah, I'm a weak guy. Okay, I could tell the hat, you know. Is it the hat? I don't know if it's the hat or the overalls. Yeah. But I wouldn't be shocked if you told me that.

Yeah. I like that. Yeah, I like, I used to be, I used to do some of it. But it got too intense, like the amount of THC that they're putting in stuff today. I think it's fucking criminal. Oh, it's crazy? Yeah, it's got to be real careful. Because, but you probably do like more organics and like as opposed to synthetic.

But a lot of the, a lot of the stuff that they're creating like just has never existed in nature before. Wow. So, um, anyway, I'm biased because I was in cannabis for quite a while and I saw a lot of people starting to get cannabinoid hypermeosis syndrome. Which is? Well, they haven't been able to do enough research on it. So there needs to be more research.

But essentially, two of my family members got it. It's where you get violently ill by using cannabis. And this is for people who are using it quite a lot. But it's almost the opposite of what you think with cannabis. Like they give cannabis to people who have, you know, are going through chemo, right? And so this essentially, it turns off some of your cannabinoid receptors is what they think happens. And so it's wild. Like, I mean, I saw it firsthand.

And I remember my family, you know, for two weeks couldn't leave the house. They have like this insane amount of hot showering they do. So like I remember for two weeks, one of them was at my house and he wouldn't be able to get out of the shower. He'd get violently ill. So it would just be like really hot water kind of consistently for two weeks straight, basically. Lost like 25 pounds. Whoa.

Yeah, there's, I think. That's not fun. No. But like everything in life, you know, there's pros and cons. So definitely if you drink too much, you'd have other things. But then again, if you drink too much, you might have the best ever time with your boys. You know what I mean? You might have the best story ever.

That's my problem. I love Huberman, but sometimes I'm like, man, where's the joy? Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, you got to have 30 beers with the boys and just have at it. Could you have 30 beers at once? I'd be dead. Yeah, I mean, throughout the day.

Yeah. Naturally. Yeah. That's funny. The way you shrug it off. Yeah, 30. Then you sauna and I sponge immediately following. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Sona cold the next day and you're boom, right back at it. And you're ready to go. It's like the Wolf of Wall Street clip when he just gets, have you seen that clip? You got to put the clip in. Okay. What's the clip?

You know what I'm talking about? The clip. Is this like a man clip? When he just gets after it and then steam, sauna, gets in the helicopter back at it. This is not me. It would take me out for two days. You know, kind of on that same vein, I've been obsessed lately about reading a ton of research about young men in our country.

And basically, you know, loneliness epidemic. getting married later, not having as much sex, higher suicide rates. And then I see somebody like you that I think could be an antidote to some of that. Like, what do you say or tell to young men who are struggling in today's society? Get a community around you. Find a community and join it. And also just do the basics, right? Are you drinking enough water?

overdose with water are you just getting sun in the morning right are you just going outside taking your shoes off and just looking at the sun the community is big because you know we we as humans make 250,000 decisions per week and with those decisions

normally they're just up in our brain and we're not talking to anyone about it when I have a big decision to make I have a group chat of 12 of my buddies I call each one of my buddies and I say the exact same issue to each one. Yo, I'm going on Cody's podcast. I don't know or, you know, yada, yada. I don't know what I'm going to talk about, blah, blah, blah, blah. He gives me an answer. I say the same thing.

Yo, I'm going on Cody's podcast, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know what to. He gives me an answer. And I go down the list. And out of those 12 guys, I come up with my answer. And now I'm here in the podcast and I feel good. You know what I mean? Obviously, an example, but we go through so many decisions that we don't have people to lean on. And so, yes, the suicide rate is going to skyrocket, you know what I mean? Yes, you're going to be depressed because you're making up these stories in your head. It's called the vicious cycle, right? I've just, well, they, she didn't answer my text. Well, she didn't answer my text because I was wearing those weird shoes that day. And I was wearing those, fuck, well, I didn't mean to wear those weird shoes. Someone gave me those

weird shoes. And now, meanwhile, she was at church. Yeah. You know? And so if we can just calm that voice and we can have a community to lean on, and there's tons of communities out there. I mean, you see all the new run clubs, all the new member clubs opening up, all the, you know, all these new podcasts, all these new just churches, you know, there's so many different gyms. There's so many communities. Tech, you know, get together's book clubs. There's communities out there. Try them. Try them all. Go try Jiu-Jitsu. Join a book club. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Go to Sweet Honey Farm. It's a really good point. I went to a community. I went to a church the other day in a movie theater, a converted movie theater here. It's called Red Rocks.

And if it wasn't the best-looking group of young men and women, I was like, geez, this is not what my church was like back today. Catholic Church, we were a little sad-looking. But this group, I was like, whoa, if I was young and single in Austin, bam, I would definitely be there. Like ethical, moral compass, young people care about mission. I mean, all stereotypes arguably. But I think you're right. I mean, we have two members of the team, Christian would know who, that, do you know what they do, Devin? Tell me if you've ever heard of this before.

Okay. They go to a bar and they play Dungeons and Dragons. What? I know. Unbelievable. Super nerds. Wow. They love these guys.

They're my sweet little nerds. But they go to this. There's a bar every Thursday night where people get together and they play Dungeons and Dragons in person. That's a community. It's a community. And I didn't even know. I kind of thought Dungeons and Dragons was like a board game.

Yeah. But I guess you acted out. I've never played Dungeons and Dragons in my life. I don't even know what that is. I thought it was a video game. I asked them. I'm like, because they're two. kind of good-looking women who work for me.

I'm like, huh, what does the group look like when you walk into Dungeons and Dragons? They're like about exactly what you think they look like. Oh, really? Yeah, they're like, but, you know, it's awesome. And one of them's funny, Lindsay. She goes, I'm a 12 at Dungeons and Dragons. She's ripping it up. Yeah, she's killing the game.

I also think with that, like to find the community, you have to have the values. But you have to know what you're no matter what's are in life. too many of us are going through and living off values of, you know, that business you're working for or your boss's values or your parents' values or your grandparents' values versus like, what do you care about? Yeah. You know, you're not the same person as your grandfather or grandmother or your best friend. You're a different person.

And so it's like, what are the five things that you're absolute no matter what's are? And once you know that, you can align with people with the same values versus the same industry. You're not going to get along with everyone at that real estate happy hour, right? It's just not going to happen. But you will get along with everyone if they have the exact same values as you. If mine are family, health, freedom of time, community, and giving back, and you have similar values. We're going to have a conversation. We're going to get along. I'm going to be able to call you and say, yo, man, that workout was freaking tough. You know, that sauna, man, that was, I need a hotter sauna. And you're going to be like, yeah, I need a hot,

Like, we're going to connect on the things that we like and the values that we believe in and the health and, you know, take the gut health medicine, take the de-blot, right? Like, we're going to connect on that. You're not going to connect with those people at the real estate happy hour. Yeah. So is that one thing you would tell somebody today, like, hey, tell me what you stand for? Like, what are your five? Yeah. Do most people that you know have a five or a value system?

No. And people, yeah, I mean, my friends, my group, yeah. But no, not a lot of people do. If I'm to ask everyone listening to this podcast, do you have five things you absolutely no matter what live by? And if something comes on your schedule right now and it goes against your value or are you doing it, I would say 90% of people are saying, shit, yeah, he's right. Like, I do do things I don't want to do. My schedule, I'm not doing it.

Cody, if there's something on my schedule that doesn't allow with one of those fives, a person, a place, a thing, a business opportunity, an investment, I'm just not doing it. I don't give a fuck. I'm not doing it. I'm just not doing it. That's how stubborn I am. I like, I'll just tell people no. Not enough people say no. The power of no.

What Nina say the other day? She said, your yes means a lot more if you say no. You know? She's more powerful. I knew I liked her. You know? Wait, so how did you get really set on me? It's like that is, those are five.

You've listened to them off twice. They're obviously real. You're not prepping for a podcast. Those are part of the real deal. When did you sit down and say, these are my five, and how did you immortalize those? When I started feeling overwhelmed and not losing direction of life. And I called my therapist guy at the time, and he gave me that advice, Johnny, Johnny Martin. He goes, he's like, you need to write this sentence on your whiteboard.

And the sentence read, if a person, place, or thing does not add value to my life. from a family, and I list out my values, family, community, health, freedom of time, or giving back perspective, then it's taking value from me. So if a person, place, or thing does not add value to my life from those five things, then it's taking value from me. And I wrote on my board, and underneath my board I had promix and all day running and um, olipop and,

you know, all these different companies I was, you know, I started or I invested in or, you know, whatever, all these things I was doing with my life and my schedule. And I simply took a red marker.

I started crossing shit off that I did, that did not align. And all of a sudden, my board got smaller and smaller. And I felt the whole, oh, that feels better. Let's go.

Let's go. So then what do you do? You call up the companies and you're like, I'm out. Yeah. You kind of just, you cut. Yeah.

You know? I do that once a year too. I think you have to do it. I think it, uh, you don't know anybody anything. You know, you got, you got to be selfish sometimes and worry about your, your own health and your, your mental space and how you're spending your time. You know, if you don't, if you don't own your time, then someone else is going to puppet you around, you know, you got to own your time.

But how do you know, how do you own your time? If you don't even know what you want to do with your time, that's where the values come in. It's like the same thing with money. I want $100 billion. What the freak are you going to do with $100 million? Do you even know how to spend a million dollars? Do you even like, what do you mean you want $100 million? Well, I can just chill on a beach.

You're going to be bored on a beach after day five. You want to chill on a beach? No, I'm not. Yes, you are. I promise. Like, you're going to be bored. Figure out what you really love. I love Sweet Honey Farm.

I love ProMix. It's fun. It's like, it aligns with my values. My values are embedded in these companies all day running. Jesse, like, it's an embedded. bed at it. Like it doesn't feel like work. People in the Western culture separate life and work. You know, it's all life. It's all 24 hours. It's all life at the end of the day. And so why are we separating things and categorizing? It's life. Our time that we've spent here so far, we're never

getting it back. Ever. Ever. No one's creating a time machine. So it's like you got to you got to own that time and know how you're spending your time. And I think the values are something you can lean back on to derisks the decisions, the 250,000 decisions you make every week. That's really good. Yeah, one of the things that I learned early on, if you're going to invest or do multiple businesses, is that every year you've got to prune just like a rose bush. And I remember one of my mentors saying that to me. He's like, I wish that you were smart enough to make the right decision every single time, but you won't be. And he's like, so if you know you're not going to be, what do you know you've got to do, get a pair of scissors? So every single

year, there's going to be some cutting. But I think I fall in. to the camp of often waiting too long. You know, I'll let them, I'll let them hang on. I'll really try to fix it. I'll try to be the good partner. I'll try to meet them. And I think that is where misery really starts. Yep.

I agree. So is this a process that you do continuously on a weekly basis, a daily basis, a yearly basis? Yeah, all the time. I'm constantly looking at, I don't do anything if it's not in my schedule, an outlook. I look at my schedule. I mean, feeding the dogs, going to the farm, son of cold plunging. It's all on there.

And yeah, I look at it every morning, night before, call my assistant, yo, take that off, keep it on, whatever, and just audit accordingly every single day. A lot of the times I cancel calls, I push the calls. I don't want to take the calls. And they're probably great humans, and they're doing great stuff for the world. But I'm just not spending my time doing that. Yeah. You know? And if you're not that way, you'll get taken advantage of. You'll waste your time. You'll have regret 10 years down the road. Shit, I was doing what everyone else wanted me to do, but not what I wanted to do. You got to audit your time. So true. Yeah. I have a guy who really admire Tim Ferriss, who's become a friend. And he's coming out with his new book, the no book. And, you know, he was kind of laughing about like, you would think that's not that long of a book. But he's like, actually, all these things creep in on you.

every single way possible. And so life is a series of like, they want you to say yes to things. And you've got to figure out, how do I say no more often? Yeah. And then, you know, everyone's going to say,

well, how am I supposed to pay my bills? Well, how about the guy I just spoke about that's in his tent in Arizona? That doesn't have the bills. Backtrack of what you really need. Not want need.

We just sold ProMix, and I asked all my sisters, what do you need? And they all said, nothing. We're good. And I know they need. something but they all said no I'm good I'm like do you want anything no I'm good

I don't need anything I'm like those are those are some good sisters you know they're not leach and they're just they're like how can I help you Deb and I'm like cool too many people go through they think they need something but really it's just a want so if you can't if you're if you're trying to own your time and you're trying to do what you want but you're you feel like oh man I'm I'm held back because of bills or I'm held back because, well, my parents want me to do X, Y, Z, because I got this degree and I have to go do. Nah, fuck that. Delete it.

Start from zero. Move to Jamaica. Go sell some coconuts. You know? Get a place that's 100 bucks a month. You know what I'm saying? Paul Saladino on here. He moved to Costa Rica.

He brings coconuts with him to the airport everywhere. You know, one of the cool parts about a podcast like this and why I like bothering people like you is because there are so many ways to live. And like when you get to see these other humans, whether it's traveling, or just listening to a podcast, you're like, that motherfucker doesn't seem much smarter than I am. Those two aren't that one, and they can live these lives? What's the deal?

I'm not that smart. I'm a D student. I'm like, look, I'm just figuring out like everyone every day, and everyone's like that. I've met the richest people in the world. I'm talking Elon Musk, and I've met some of the poorest people in the world. And every single person in between is everyone,

everyone's trying to figure it out. You know what I mean? Everyone, everyone's trying to figure it out every day, all of us. Maybe I was running late. today to the podcast. I'm just trying to get to the traffic like everyone else. You know what I mean? 100%. Yeah. So if we were to end it with one thing, which is, well, actually, you know what I want to end it with? I was going to ask you. Can we do a fun segment? Yeah, I'm down. Okay. I want to do rapid fire questions on your gym and your farm. Okay? Rapid fire. Favorite animal on your farm.

Sir pepper corn, a horse. Which one? Big one? He's like a spotted thoroughbred. He's just, I love him. He's great. Okay, we'll find him on your Instagram. Yeah, sir peppercorn. Okay, I like it. Most expensive animal at your farm.

Sir peppercorn. How much did he cost him by? He's a $75,000 horse. Wild. Yeah. Okay. Favorite piece of gym equipment? Ooh.

Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids. And I want to give back to the community. Ooh. Then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need

with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IDPrivatewealth.com. Favorite gym equipment? The sauna? Most expensive. The sauna? Yeah, sanas are expensive.

Is this a special sauna? Yeah, I have an infred and a traditional, yeah. Isn't it? I think I've seen it on. It's like you can fit a small little army in there. Yeah, I have a 50-person sauna and then a 10-person sauna, so they're both pretty big. What does a 50-person sauna cost? 100,000.

That's wild. Favorite event you've ever been to or hosted? Running Man. Yeah, I need to go to this one. Running Man's so fun. How much does Everest cost to high? $250,000. And two months.

That's wild. And no sponsors. That was all out of pocket. I didn't want any thing deviating me and my brain from drink this, try this. Oh, good point. Yeah. You didn't want to have to like make content on the mountain. I did test our own, my company, ProMix.

We created a blood flow product. And it's beats and berries. And it helps get circulation going. so you're a little bit warmer and blood flow is essential for your body. That's why your heart's pumping. And so I tested that on there. But besides that, yeah. That's crazy.

You were testing new products on the mountain. Yeah, you must believe in your shit. Oh, yeah, I do. You just sold ProMix? Is that what you said? We did, yes. I didn't realize that. Yes.

Is this a big exit for you? Yes, it was. Oh, that's amazing. All right, wait a second. Yep. That means we should probably, we should cheers. Cheers. Man, that's a big deal.

Yes. I know you've sold a few companies, but, uh... No, this was the biggest so far. That's amazing. It's really, it's hard to build something in general, and then real hard to build something good enough, strong enough that another person wants to take it over. Yes, it is.

It's hard. And you sell a lot of this per month. Can you say how many units you do, or is that private? Oh, man, it's private, but we do a lot. Like hundreds of thousands. That's great. People drink this every single month. Deep blow, yeah, it's good.

That's amazing. Okay. Let's end with this question. So, new year, new you, people are like that everywhere. You have what appears to me to be like a wild amount of motivation and sort of grit to grin and bear really terrible things. How would you inspire somebody else to do the same thing? How would you inspire somebody to keep going when they don't want to, when it feels terrible when it seems like they can't? Yeah. You know, we're all faced with life. And life only

gets you to a certain level of grit. It's those times where your body feels like it's going to break down or your brain's about to give up or it's cold or your feet are frozen for 12 hours or you're, you know, at mile 24 of the 26.2 marathon. It's those last couple miles that you start to learn things about yourself massively. And I can't teach that. No one can teach that. You just have to do it. And a lot of the times it's in some type of physical adventure where you learn the most about yourself. And when you can take that information and implement it into your business and life,

it's where you start to separate from the rest. And so that's my motivation. It's my learning. It's where you learn about everything. It's about really yourself. And so many of those times where my feet were frozen on Everest or my body was given up on the bear crawl or, you know, I'm doing rim to rim to rim to rim in the Grand Canyon.

And I'm like, holy shit, I can't feel my legs anymore. It's those last couple hours, the last day that you start to learn who the freak you are, you know. And that grit level, you've got to just keep increasing it, keep increasing it to an extent, right? I'm not saying, you know, risk your life. But I am saying, like, it's important to add in those grit challenges, you know, see what this body's capable of. it is pretty remarkable what the human body can do. Yeah, you're right. I actually have a bracelet I wear that says that I give out to people.

It says, remember who the fuck you are. And I think it's a good reminder because a lot of times we forget. We're way more capable than we think. And it's really easy on the Internet to tell people that all the excuses and the reasons why they can't. And part of the reason that I do any of this stuff we do is I think that's fucking terrible. I think like the biggest crime you could commit against another human is trying to get them to not believe in themselves. Yeah.

And that's so much easier. You sound way more sophisticated when you talk about all the reasons why things won't work. You sound polliana as fuck when you say that you might be capable of a lot. Right. So I like your mission a lot because you kind of show it live. Yeah, I appreciate that. So, Devin Levesk. Yes.

On all the socials, mostly on Instagram. That's where I watch you the most. Instagram. Yeah, YouTube, TikTok, but only for a couple more days. No, fuck the Chinese. We'll keep it American. Yeah. Even if Duck does censor us, we're going to go with Instagram.

That's okay. Yeah. Hit me on Instagram. Yeah, okay. Amazing. And then Pro Mix as well. Pro Mix. And we'll check out this drink, which I'm digging. So thank you for bringing me some de bloat. I'm into that. Yes. African Beobobobob. Biaobab. Nut seeds were unclear. Could be either. A seed, definitely a seed. Definitely. As the seeds inside, technically. Okay. Full circle. Thanks, Devin. You're the man. Thanks, so much.