Digital Social Hour - How I Turned $5M Winnings Into a Mission | Jeffrey Allen DSH #1347

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

How does a $5M win turn into a life-changing mission? 💡 Join us on the Digital Social Hour as Sean Kelly dives deep with Jeffrey, the inspiring winner of MrBeast’s Beast Games, who’s turning his incredible victory into hope for his son Lucas and the fight against a rare disease. From thrilling challenges to heartfelt family moments, Jeffrey shares his journey of resilience, purpose, and giving back. This episode is packed with valuable insights into the mindset of a champion, the power of optimism, and the impact of using a platform for good. Learn how Jeffrey navigates life after winning, his efforts to fund research, and the lessons he’s learned from overcoming challenges. This conversation is a must-watch for anyone looking to find inspiration and purpose! 🌟 Don’t miss out—watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories and exclusive insights. 🚀 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Jeffrey’s Life After Winning $2,000,000 00:29 - Jeffrey’s Life Before Winning $2,000,000 04:59 - Our Favorite Hosting Platform, Kinsta 06:01 - Mental Game Choices in Life 06:41 - Moments of Doubt After Winning 09:48 - Duration of Jeffrey's Disease 13:06 - Maintaining Optimism Through Challenges 14:41 - College Decision-Making Process 16:04 - Filming Location of Beast Games 17:06 - Luck vs Skill in Success 21:18 - Reflecting on Regrets 23:27 - No One Took the Money 24:31 - Criticism of Dino 28:46 - Reality TV Show Applications 29:58 - Impact of Getting Laid Off 33:07 - Keeping the Win a Secret 34:31 - Stopping Gambling and Drinking 36:37 - Watching NBA Playoffs 38:54 - Future Plans and Goals 39:36 - Starting a Charity Foundation 39:44 - Closing Remarks APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Jeffrey Allen https://www.instagram.com/legacy.831/ SPONSORS: AIRES TECH:  https://airestech.com/ NORTHWEST REGISTERED AGENT: https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/socialhour PROLON: http://prolonlife.com/DSH LUMATI: https://www.lumati.com/dsh LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ The views and opinions expressed by guests on Digital Social Hour are solely those of the individuals appearing on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the host, Sean Kelly, or the Digital Social Hour team. While we encourage open and honest conversations, Sean Kelly is not legally responsible for any statements, claims, or opinions made by guests during the show. Listeners are encouraged to form their own opinions and consult professionals for advice where appropriate. Content on this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, financial, or professional advice. #mdscratchjedi #newpascratchofftickets #newscratchofftickets #palottery #jediscratcher

Jeremy after that one right? Oh my gosh. It's crazy crazy. And it's just I mean, it's just it's crazy how an episode before Lodding him because he turned down a million dollars Yeah, and there was the I mean it could have gone up to two million three million Jeremy wouldn't have taken it Wow, cuz he's just the kind of guy that if you put your trust in him and you ask him to do something He's not gonna screw you over history. Okay guys, Beast Games winner here today in Las Vegas. Jeffrey, about to be a fun week for you, man. Thanks for coming.

I know. Glad to be here. You got a lot of fun stuff planned. WrestleMania, right? Yeah, a little bit of WrestleMania. Then David Blaine and then heading down south to go to, or heading over west to go to Disney. How fast has your life been changing lately? Yeah a lot a lot different. I mean sitting here with you is super cool. A lot still the same you know still coaching my son's baseball team, taking

the kids to school. But yeah just I every few days I kind of have these sprints where a podcast recording sitting down with a TV station whatever it may be but life is good, man. I love it. Does it feel kind of unreal? Yeah, I know. I was sitting last night with my son in the hotel and it's just like so much to be grateful for.

It truly is almost a miracle that I won and that I actually, we get to do other things that my wife and I wanted to do for our family. Yeah, and you got a great head on your shoulders because when you look at the stats on lottery winners, a lot of them end up broke again or they blow the money. But it sounds like you're still doing- I'm not spinning a thing.

Yeah, we've spent a little bit, you know, family vacation, got to my wife something nice for her birthday. But other than that, it's kind of going, how do we make this work to ultimately achieve our goals? Yeah. And your goal, your son is a big part of your goals, right? Huge part, yeah.

It's with a rare disease, it's that doesn't have a treatment, doesn't have a cure. Just trying to figure out ways. And, you know, and part of me is like, how do I, how do I look at this fresh, you know, forever you want to throw money to academia to do academic research, but I do think there's other ways to try to help get creating to his brain. And I think I got to get creative to do it.

Yeah. I'm sure a ton of different people reached out to you with their opinions. Was there anything interesting that caught your eye for that? I mean, yeah, you get everything. And again, I'm probably open to too much, but like everything from, hey, I'm an expert. I've been studying plant medicine my whole life to, I am a prayer specialist who knows how to connect with people telepathically to a protein researcher at a prestigious academic institution who's like, Hey, like, I think I can help implant certain cells into the brain to be able to accept creatine. So like, part of me is like, I need someone to help kind of make sense of what's reasonable and what's not.

But either way, people want to help. And that's like the biggest, one of the biggest takeaways from Beast Games is I don't have a ton of people saying, hey, can I have some money? Can I do this? Of course I get that in my DMs, but these are perfect strangers. I have more people saying, how can I help? Or I'd love to help, or I'd love to pray, or I'd love to support. That's beautiful. I think Jimmy did a good job painting your story on the show.

Yeah, it's Jimmy, Mac, the entire team. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't be more satisfied with the edit. Yeah, your character arc was brilliant, man. It worked out well. Yeah, because they waited about halfway to start telling your story, and then it really grew on people, I think. But, and that's probably by design,

but also, like, I didn't get to tell my story until you get deeper into the games. Because that was my whole aim was I want to go on the show to tell Lucas's story. Yeah. But to do that like I need to have a camera in my face and have these questions being asked, but it really didn't happen until, until we got to the island episode 5-6. Yeah. And so like I just I'm like I just got to keep going. I have to keep going.

I have to keep going through each challenge to actually make it far enough to share the story. How tempting was the island? Did you wanna be one of the 10 on that one? Not at the time, but once like, once we saw the helicopter go by with the Navy SEALs and we were watching it on a big giant screen, like Hunger Games style.

I'm like, oh my gosh, I would love to be hiding from Navy Seals. But in retrospect, obviously, I wouldn't change a thing. Yeah, statistically it didn't seem like the right decision. It didn't. Especially when you look at the people who went for the island, like they were absolute studs. Athletes, right? Yeah, and like Mia who won it is just unbelievable. Like she is so tough, so resilient, and just knows how to get stuff done. So like it was just, wouldn't have been worth it for me. Yeah, shout out to her for winning that.

I did not think she would. When I first saw the 10 laid out, she was the only girl, right? She was the only girl. And there's just some really amazing athletes. And again, with Mr. Beast, you just don't know what you're getting into. Like when I trained for Beast games,

like I was lifting weights, I was sprinting. Like I thought it was gonna be super physical. And the only physical challenge in the Amazon Prime Games was episode six, pulling the monster truck and doing the sprints, but you had to choose into it. Everything else was mental chance, psychological, emotional. Yeah, yeah. Shout out to Kimsta, today's sponsor.

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traffic spikes and zero downtime, our SEOs improved with the speed boost and it's a huge relief knowing our site's protected with the best security out there. If you're ready for hosting networks, visit Kinsta.com slash DSH to get your first month free. And yes, they'll migrate your site for free too. That's K-I-N-S-T-A.com slash DSH. I had to pick, I think I would have picked the mental one. Yeah.

Because chance is too, I don't want to lose on chance. I want to lose on a skill-based game. But like going into that game, like you just, it's like you get sucked into these narratives that people plant and people are planting, hey, I think chance is going to be like, we're going to get rewarded if we choose chance. And so people start buying into that.

Granted they could have, they spun that wheel and it could have been, hey, we're gonna save 16 of you guys. But instead, I think 12 out of 16 had to go home. I know, that was rough. Super rough, like I would have, I'm so glad I didn't choose Chance. And there was like a small part of me that was kind of like, is this my time to let Chance take me?

And I'm so glad I did. Yeah, was there any part of the show where you thought you were gonna get out? Oh, 100%. Um, episode two. When, I mean, we literally got eliminated for an hour. Um, on the ball drop. Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah, and so like I was processing, what am I gonna do?

Uh, what is today? I'll fly home tomorrow, I'll hang out with the family for a day, then I'll be back to the grind. Mm. Um, episode three and the cubes, I thought I was gonna get out. After episode four and the helicopter, I didn't realize how much of a, kind of a ruckus Jeremy caused with his handing out the tickets.

So I had to earn trust back with people. There was like three episodes in a row, or three challenges in a row where I go, oh my gosh, my back's up against the wall. After the monster truck, I felt like super confident and kind of, I don't want to say I sailed, but I was remarkably calm kind of after that. You saw that on the show too, just with your demeanor. Yeah. It just, you kind of get into this zone and then you realize, gosh, like I looked

around and I think part of it, part of the thing that helped me win was the people. Yeah. And there was just, you know, out of the people who were on the island, there were 60 of us, I'd say 90% were really good people who didn't want to screw people over. And that helped. Yeah. I think that surprised Jamie.

I saw him talking about it on an interview. He thought there'd be more backstabbing, right? And I think season two is gonna have it. I mean, I think season two, I think people are gonna know what kind of game they wanna play. And I think season one, like this was so brand new to everybody

that it was like, I don't want it to end. And if you don't want it to end, guess what? Like you don't step in the shit. Like you don't backstab people. So I think season two people will know what kind of game they wanna to play from the get. I think it's gonna get nasty. I can see that.

Yeah, cause on season one when someone backstabbed they were a target for everyone else. Like right away. Like the brothers. Yeah, and even like the slightest backstab like people would like get really offended by. Yeah. So it's, but I think going into season two

it's gonna be cool. Yeah. How many of the final 10 contestants were you going into season two, it's going to be cool. Yeah. How many of the final 10 contestants were you on good terms with? I'd say all of them. Really? Yeah. You know, there was a couple I did like going into the final 10, there's a few I didn't

know very well, but I'd say eight out of 10, I was, there was four of us who were part of an alliance that we're on good terms with. The other four I knew really, really well. And the other two I would say I'm neutral with. So like for me, when I look at relationships, you're either negative, neutral or positive. And I don't think I was negative with anybody in the top 10. And I don't think there was really anybody

who was super negative with each other. That probably helped you in the phone game, right? Being on good terms with everyone. Totally. Yeah, and I think being interested in others, like truly interested in others and getting to know them, it's, you know, people want to help people they know. And when you are interested in others, you know, they reciprocate and become interested

in you and you kind of form this bond and the phone game really, really helped me. I think that was my favorite game to watch. It was all mental, psychological game. And you have to, you eventually have to make a move, you know? And like I was, obviously I was there, but after I get out, like I have no clue what's going on with the phones. And so when I watched that and I saw yes, he, uh, nine four seven make her move, which was awesome. So she planned to see it, I think in round three,

to get voted in round four. Um, and then gauge made his move. I think in round five. I'm like, oh my gosh These are two people I knew pretty well who made moves that I did not expect them to make Gage's move was no one Expected that one the way they edited too. I mean that the that edit was awesome. I've goosebumps thinking about it it was just brilliant and Gage is like the sweetest guy a really talented musician and He wouldn't never harm a fly. And then he makes this move. No one expected it. Oh, and just him giving the throwaway vote for Mikey 453.

I'm like, that was brilliant. Yeah, that was an iconic move and it helped you win another 5 million. So I know. I mean, again, like Gage, Gage will become a legend in the creatine transport deficiency because He you know in essence gifted me more money to invest into a cure. It's like he's going Our next conference we have I'm gonna make sure Gage is there to meet the kids. I love it He's he's an absolute stud. I love love the guy. So you have conferences for this. Yeah, so every couple years We have conferences where we bring together families and scientists.

Because it's one thing for scientists to be in a lab, working in Petri dishes under a microscope, but when they can see the families and the kids that they're trying to help, it transforms everything because it actually puts a human being behind the science. Yeah, that's so cool. How long has this disease been around? Is it a new thing?

It's been around for probably forever. But like it hasn't been discovered. It was discovered in the year 2000 at University of Cincinnati. But we have people who are in their 60s who got diagnosed recently. Meaning they had it in the 50s or 60s or 70s. So, um, I think it just, it's, it got misdiagnosed forever and it takes, it took us with, we put every ounce of energy into trying to find a diagnosis. It took us almost two years. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. You probably went to tons of doctors and tons of specialists, you know, one doctor would say one thing, another doctor would say another.

And usually they just say that, you know, he's's developmentally behind he's developmentally delayed like autism or something yeah and eventually like I think a lot of people just kind of throw up their hands kind of go okay it is what it is but for us we really wanted to see what it was so we could try to try to help yeah and then once we got diagnosed just kind of bittersweet like oh my gosh we have a diagnosis quit Google search oh no there's there's, there's no treatment. There's no cure. Um, so, you know, fortunately there's an association that funds a ton of research,

but they also provide resources to families and just kind of support. Um, and my wife and I are good balance. I'm like the eternal optimist. She's so pragmatic. So like, I'm like, Hey, everything's going to be okay. And she's kind of going, okay, this is what we need to do to make sure our family can move forward. I love that. It's a good duo though, right? You need both it is and it's like one it's one of these things where like You don't know why you find the partner you have and you know, clearly, you know Jen and I

You know have an awesome relationship together, but we were meant to be Lucas and Jack's parents together. Beautiful. Have you always been optimistic? Like, did you have that growing up? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I grew up a great childhood. And you know, obviously most people say, you grew up at the best time,

but a product of the 80s and 90s where I had an analog childhood. So you think about summer when you're 12 years old, like I get on a bike, I go away with my friends and my mom has no clue where I'm at. I come home for dinner. So they can't get a hold of me. There's no phones, there's no pagers, there's nothing.

And then once I get in the high school, we start getting internet. You know, it's like, okay, now I can get online and have an email and then you get to college and obviously it's full blown. So it was just a neat way to have a childhood. Yeah, last generation with growing up without tech, I feel like now.

It's good, it's analog and digital. So I'm not too old or I'm like, how does this thing work? But I'm not too young to not have experienced what life was like without a phone. Yeah, and now you're having to step into the digital world more and more, right? It's weird. Yeah, it's, you know, I used to post like twice a year for fundraisers. And now I'm like, oh, I'm creating content. Okay, how's this work? And it is so much more challenging than I ever thought it would be.

It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And it's like, you can literally not turn it off. You have to like force yourself to turn it off or at least kind of set boundaries. Yeah it's definitely addicting. Yeah it's crazy. They call it TikTok right now. I don't know if you're addicted to TikTok but just non-stop scrolling. Yeah and it's like if something doesn't catch your attention literally in a second and a half you move on. Yeah for real wow. So have you always been interested in kind of social media and tech? So I grew up not similar to you.

I didn't really care about it in high school and college. But then once I started making money off it, that shifted my perspective. When was that? That was probably right when I dropped out of college. So I went to New... I grew up in Jersey. I went to Rutgers. Yeah. And then I figured out how to make some money off Instagram.

Sweet. And that to me was like a switch. Yeah, it's like there's no turning back. Yeah, because then I figured out how to make some money off Instagram. Sweet. And that to me was like a switch. Yeah. It's like, there's no turning back. Yeah. Cause then I felt like I wasn't wasting my time. I was being productive with it. And I'm sure you've shared this with people, but like what is your advice for people who have this kind of entrepreneur spirit who are junior, senior in high school? Like,

how do you assess whether to go to college or not? That's tough. Yeah. For me, it's, it's passion-based, you know you know like if they if they really feel like college isn't the answer like Test some stuff out beforehand to you don't just drop out or like not go with no plan Exactly like I at least when I dropped out I had some money that was coming in Yeah, I could show my mother who was pissed obviously at the time But I showed her I had like this amount of money coming in and I was really passionate about it. Let me take a break What's your mother say now? She loves it.

She watches every episode. No way. Shout out to my mom. Hey mom. Is she still back in New Jersey? Yeah, she's in Pennsylvania now. You've been out to Jersey ever? Yeah, I grew up in Ohio.

Oh nice. Yeah, I grew up in Ohio. So just spent time all over. It's just a nice meet. It's an hour, 15 minute flight from the city. Yeah. Then I lived a little bit in Pennsylvania, too Where was Beast Games filmed that?

Originally the episode zero was in Vegas. Oh, yeah at Allegiant Stadium. So the one on YouTube And that was that was a trip that was a ton of fun That was 2,000 people or 4,000 people and I had no clue like I like when I signed up I thought it was this was Beast Games like I'm gonna be gone and then a video Jimmy gives us a video like an hour before we turned our phones. Like, hey, by the way, this is 2,000 people. We're gonna cut it down to a thousand.

And then you'll go to the Amazon Beast Games. I'm like, apparently most people knew, but I just wasn't in the loop. And then the remainder was Amazon Prime show was on, filmed in Toronto, aside from the island, which was in Panama. Wow, that's cool. I didn't know that. Yeah. And we had all these ideas of,

oh, cause in the contract, it shares a few countries that you might go to. It's make sure that you have kind of proper credentials. All kinds of support. Yeah. And it's like, it said France and Germany and Italy. So we're like, oh, we're going to leave here. Then we're going to go to a Chateau in Italy. And no, we were just in Toronto the whole time.

I love it. The first few games were a lot of luck based stuff, right? Chance. Yeah. I mean, I think when you watch it, you think it's chance. But there's this wild cascading effect to Beast Games, where things that happen in this challenge impact the next challenge.

So for example, people ask me, oh, were you just randomly assigned number 831? No, that was the flag I got in the challenge number three in the YouTube episode. So if you look at challenge number three in the YouTube episode, we had to capture these flags and there's 1100 flags, there's 1400 contestants left. You can either try to go like a free for all. I'm going to go after my flag, you know, screw everybody else. Or you can try to work together and kind of go who's getting what flag we help each other out. I was kind of the part of the crew that was helping each other out. So the people who were kind of in the first couple of hundred were like, Hey,

I need to go get this flag. I'm a go getter. I'm going to get that number one flag. Um, those were the first two rows that got eliminated in the first challenge on these games. Wow, I didn't know that. And guess what? Cause like you had to like, in that challenge is like you have to, someone in your row,

and the row is like 80 some deep, has to eliminate themselves in order for the rest of the row to move on. Yeah. And if you're thinking about how you're a type A charger, like are you really going to eliminate yourself? No. So like the rows that were safe were the ones at the end,

which were either the helpers or the more altruistic folks who needed help. So it's like, I think on paper it looks like chance, but actually it's the makeup of those rows. That is really cool. That you chose into. Yeah. And look out, the final two players were similar numbers.

Crazy. We were right next to each other for two and a half days on the first episode. That's nuts. Did you see her at the stadium too? Yeah, she was kind of a prominent leader at the stadium. Like for me, like at the stadium, I was like, what am I doing here?

Like, I'm such an old man. And obviously I'm not a bit like, I was probably in the, you know, the top 10% of age. Yeah, on the show, there's a lot of young people. A lot of young people. But like the cool thing is like age and everything else, age, color, sex, gender, all disappears. Like you just connect with people if you want to.

And so I became great friends with people who literally could be my daughter or son based on age. Um, but yeah, in episode zero, she was, she was a leader. She was a force. It seemed like throughout the show, she sort of had a group she was leading. Right. It's, it's interesting. She didn't have like an Alliance per se.

She didn't have a group. Just, she led everybody. Like if people called on her to lead, she would step up. She was, she's awesome. She's an absolute force. Like she's super talented, big heart, played hard. But that's, that's who I wanted to, like I literally wanted to go against her at the end.

Episode one, I told her, like, I want to go against you at the end. It's crazy how it happened. Wow, you manifested that. Cause she turned out a million too, right? A couple of times for other people. because she turned out a million too, right? A couple times for other people. So she turned on a million for 60 people in episode two, episode three. Yep. She turned on a million when she could have taken it in the money grab in episode eight. And nobody would have got eliminated. And at the end when it was three of us, me, Gage, 974 and Tawana, A30, she could have taken a million dollars to eliminate herself. Oh yeah, and she got written down on that one too, surprisingly.

Crazy, I was surprised. I was shocked. Yeah, I was shocked. I was watching it with my fiance and I told her, there's no way it's her. It's one of the other three. And I don't know... Because for me, I just figured everybody viewed her like me. Like, I had a ton of respect for her. She always put herself behind others.

Super integrity, integrous. So when I saw that I was like, I was shocked and I obviously I think that helped me too. I think that kind of shook her a little bit. It definitely did. You know, and so like going into the final episode I think her, her mindset might've been kind of a little shaken. You felt like you could have read her a little easier? Yeah, or I feel like, I feel like she was not expecting that. And kind of like when you, when you get news that you're not expecting that is directly assigned to you, it's like you start questioning things.

Yeah. Were there any decisions you regretted on the show? You know, I mean, I wouldn't, no, I'm not- Regret's a strong word, maybe like felt bad about. Yeah, because like, again, I don't like to have regrets and obviously I was the winner. So like, I have to thank everything that happened. Episode four on the helicopter, I wish, like I didn't, I wasn't privy, I didn't I wasn't privy

I didn't realize how much of kind of a hubbub there was about Jeremy and taking girls, but like I wish he would have whispered my you're like, hey, I Really? I really hope you take some and I would have taken from my friend Maddie 8 5 2. It's just amazing She ended up making to the island anyway. Mmm, but that was one of that was one of the instances where it's like, ah, maybe I would have done something different. But I picked my friend 930Patrick who made it to the top 10. So I mean, like I don't have any regrets, but that's something that like, I don't say I lost sleep on it, but I thought about it a lot. I could see that. You never know with the way they edit it.

So was it really that bad with the girls? Like they were pissed at? I didn't realize it. Like again, I was naive. So like when people were going around kind of saying, hey, we give Jeremy your coin. I was going around telling people the math and kind of going like, it doesn't matter who you give the coin to, but it does you no good to keep your coin.

Because if someone doesn't get a hundred coins, this helicopter goes off empty and your chances, my chances of getting to the island are less right it's just simple math it's like I didn't hear all the all the conversations until I mean I heard about it afterward but when we got to the hotel while we were staging to go to Panama like there was definitely some evil eye looking at me and Jeremy like and I'm like oh my gosh like what happened yeah so it was um I didn't I didn't realize how bad it was until after.

There was a lot of people after Jeremy after that one. Right. Oh my gosh. It was crazy. Crazy. And it's just, I mean, and it's just, it's crazy how an episode before lauding him because he turned down a million dollars and there was, I mean, it could have gone up to 2 million, 3 million.

Jeremy wouldn't have taken it. Wow. Cause he's just the kind of guy that if you put your trust in him and you ask him to do something, he's not going to screw you over. How shocked were you when all four turned down the million? I don't want to, because I knew, I knew Harrison 251. I sat next to him on a bus for four hours. Awesome guy.

Like super talented content creator. Tawana got to know. And Jeremy, I knew really, really well. Only person I didn't know was Dino380. And kind of once I asked around, I'm like, oh wait, so no one's going to take this. This is crazy. Um, who was the most shocked was Mac and Jimmy. Like they were blown away. And this is the crazy thing about beast Games is if Somebody took the money having 60 people get eliminated that changes every episode after that cuz like now you have 25% less people

Hmm, and it's just it's it's weird how they have to have all these plan a plan B plan C's Yeah, it's like they were shocked. Nothing happened. They probably planned for Someone to take it I'd imagine of course course, but they also kind of went okay in the crazy event that no one takes it what do we do? Yeah, that's smart. What did you, how did you feel about the hate on Dino? Because that was interesting to me. It was interesting. The hate, the experience in the game is Very different what people thought we were experiencing. Hmm. So like in the game You go through these challenges and you bond to people. So like for example, the most bonding I had was The physical challenge so the monster truck the sprint in the dead hang. Hmm. So we had eight of us on our team

It was me Eric 990 gauge 974 Patrick 9, Dino 380, Mike 453, Moniz 182, and Jazz 697. I didn't know Jazz or Moniz until that. I got so close to them. Like Jazz is one of my favorite players in the game. And so we had this strong bond that we just went through. And then so for Dino to choose Jazz was just like, what are you doing? Like we just went through this and jazz and Tawana weren't great friends. So like we knew that they weren't great friends and it wasn't like they didn't

like each other, but it was just neutral. We're like, man, like I, so I think in retrospect, what pop Dino was his social game kind of, kind of got turned off on the island. He kind of went dark. And so he didn't know who Tawana was close with. Like he would have been better off choosing me or Patrick 930 who were kind of close with Tawana. Wow.

But at the end of the day, I don't think it mattered. Tawana was gonna choose him and no matter who he chose. You think so? That was the track. Yeah, because the matter who he chose, that was the track. Yeah, because the other choice was her best friend on the show. Well, the thing about Tawana is you don't know who, like she kept her card so close to her chest. Like you don't know who her best friends were. Interesting.

Because, you know, if that was her best friend, why didn't she choose her when she gave out the second key in episode 8? True. There's a lot of questions. I will, I mean, Tawana would be a great guest. Yeah. Like I think she has so much to share. Yeah. I'd love to dive into her mindset.

Yeah. I'm also curious with the people that turn down the money, like if they regret it, you know, I'm sure I mean a million dollars, a million dollars, or even like you look at the first episode, like you literally could have pressed a button, eliminated six or seven people and taken home 100,000. Like a hundred thousand is not chump change. But you get into this FOMO like, oh my gosh, in the first episode, your whole goal is I want to get to the city.

Now you're in the city. Oh my gosh, I want to get to the island. Once you get to the island, you're like, oh, I want to make it to the top 10. So you have these things that just kind of override money, which is, it's like an amazing psychological experiment. Like I would love to see what psychologists who analyze this say about it. They had one on set, right? They had a couple on set.

So they had one on set 24 seven. So there's multiple psychologists. So if you ever needed to speak with someone, you could. Did you ever get to that point where you had to talk to someone? No, I mean, I talked to one at the end. Cause like, I think when you get down to the final 10 or final 20, when you get eliminated,

it's part of your kind of deprocessing or out-processing. So I sat with one about a half an hour after I won. Yeah, yeah. I bet when you're that late in the game, it's a lot of mental trauma if you don't make it. It is. And just even kind of orienting back at home, like I remember my wife was like, I was like, she was super kind, but like, I didn't know what to do.

Like you're so used to being told where to go. You don't have any technology at all. When to eat, literally you wear the same thing. Like what you see on, on the episodes, what we wear in between the episodes. It's not like we're wearing street clothes during the day. It was a month, right? Yeah, it was about five weeks. Holy crap. You're away from your family. Was that the longest you've been away from them?

Oh yeah. It was the longest I haven't talked to my wife since I've known her. Yeah, because you don't even have your phone or anything. Yeah, no phone, no internet. You don't even know what day it is. That's insane. A lot of times you don't even have your phone or anything. Yeah, no phone, no internet. You don't even know what date is. That's insane. A lot of times you don't even know what time it is. Wow. No clocks anywhere? I mean, people have them, but no one is wearing a watch. They're not on the walls.

Crazy. So you had a lot of time to just reflect about your life, I bet. A lot of time to reflect. A lot of time to chat with others. I mean, it felt like you're in the 90s again, early 90s, where you go hang out versus you go hang out with your phone. I saw you on Bradley Martin show say you applied to the amazing race a few years ago, right? It was like, it was, I think it was before my wife and I were married.

So it had to have been 2012 or so. And we weren't fully committed. So I think we submitted a video and that was it. So like we never moved any more forward, but we would, we would crush. It'd be so fun. I think you'd do well. It'd be a lot of fun. It'd be great to do with my wife.

It'd be great to do with my oldest sister, Stacy. I love it. It'd be a ton of fun. Have you ever done a show like this? No, I want to get on one. Survivor interests me. Um, there's one called the traders. Yeah.

Have you seen that one? Yeah. That one's very interesting to me. Yeah. That one, that one would be a the Traders. Yeah. Have you seen that one? Yeah. That one's very interesting to me. Yeah that one, that one would be a ton of fun. Yeah. I mean sorry, what about season two? I might have to apply but it might be closed by now right? No. Oh it's not? Not yet. Okay. I'll apply man. You should. I'm telling you it, it even obviously I'm biased because I won. Yeah. But even if I didn't like it was, it was life-changing. It was, it was just good to step away for that long and connect with people. And obviously, you know, I'm a 44 year old man.

Like to do, it's like to do these challenges, to be competitive again was awesome. Yeah. What a turn for you. Cause I saw you say on Brad show also that you recently got laid off, right? Yeah. So, um, you know, I so I've been kind of healthcare sales and sales leadership for my whole life. And last April, I got laid off from a sales leadership role

and I was kind of like, oh gosh, what am I gonna do? So I was exploring some kind of entrepreneurial stuff and God bless my wife for being patient with me. And I applied for this and it just kind of, as, uh, it wasn't desperation was kind of like, I got the time. Why not? And, uh, here we are crazy. How cyclical life can be.

Cause that was probably one of your bottom moments. And then, yeah, it's, um, I mean, I think one of the things about Lucas is just giving me a ton of perspective. You know, I think there's a handful of parents with whom I go, you have a child who's a rare disease special needs and kind of go, F this, I didn't sign up for this. Why did you do this to me? But really looking at it, Lucas has helped me find the beauty and the bumps and seeing that things are either blessings or curses and you can decide which one it is.

And so for me, I remember when I got laid off and like I literally was emailing who I reported into, emailed the CEO like, hey, thanks for the opportunity. It was great. However, I can help you guys. Cause I just realized it was business. Like they didn't have the funding. I was an expensive kind of price tag.

You know, they have to move on. So it's not, it's not like screw them, but some people could say screw them Yeah, wow you're good at controlling your emotions. That's impressive. It's it's help. I mean I Lucas You know and this is one of the gifts like you like you have to you can choose what you get upset about and I'd rather choose the things that really really matter. Yeah, a lot of people their emotions control them You know see it all the time. Yeah, I mean you seem pretty calm. Yeah, a lot of people, their emotions control them, you know, see it all the time. Yeah. I mean, you seem pretty calm. What kind of work do you do? Just been through

some stuff, man. Yeah. You know, had to address it and instead of like running away from the trauma, I actually addressed it. And then from there, that acknowledgement and that awareness is huge. And being a serial founder, it's like, entrepreneurship will test you. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Even now, like I'm going through some struggles, no matter what level you get to. But that's where the light is.

I mean, that's where you get a bigger vessel to be able to do bigger things. Yeah. And it's a very lonely road at first. Yeah. Well, I mean, because you've got people who, you know, you were hanging out with doing whatever before who kind of want to bring you down.

Yeah. Yeah. People, people typically want to cheer you on when you've made it or when you have nothing, but when you're actually doing it, people are kind of like, yeah, it's weird. Yeah, it is weird. Did you have a lot of long lost friends hit you up once you won the money and family? Yeah. I mean, in a good way, you know, I mean, I've been blessed

to have amazing friends since I was a kid and just good colleagues. I mean, I've worked with some cool companies who have met some amazing people. So just, you know, and there's people who I'm texting with who their numbers aren't in there. I have no clue who it is. But it's a lot of people send a ton of well wishes.

They know our story and they know that we'll do good with the prize and with the platform. How tough was it not telling people when you won? Cause you had to wait months. Right? Yeah. Um, it, it, it wasn't as hard as you'd think. I mean, obviously like, I wanted to tell my mom so bad, like just cause like my mom, her, my mom and I talk multiple times a week and she's great. She's always been a huge supporter of mine.

And like, I wanted to like, I wanted to watch the show with her too. She lives in Ohio and I'm living in California. So like, that was the one who I wanted to tell the most. But other than that, like I, like the power, like the concept of restriction, like I used to drink, I don't drink anymore. I used to gamble. I don't drink anymore. I used to gamble.

I don't gamble anymore. And like restricting these kind of selfish desires in order to kind of do something that's more sharing is something that like a concept that I believe in. And I've seen my life transformed through it. So it's like always knowing that, hey, if I restrict and don't tell anybody, there's going to be greater light that's shared through it.

And if you see my family's reaction video, it's like, it's unbelievable. Because they had no clue. And I just told them, hey, it's the final episode. There's six left. Like everybody's going to come out a winner in some way. I encourage you guys to watch it early. Like treat it like a football tailgate and like set up videos because you'll get to see how my journey ends.

like a football tailgate and like set up videos. Cause you'll get to see how my journey ends. And the, the, like the, the videos of them watching it are awesome. I love that. That's so cool. When did you cut the gambling and the drinking? Was it recent or? Yeah, it was a long time ago. Last bet was here in the city.

2014. Wow. 10 years. Yeah. 11 years. Well done. Yeah. It was cool. No, it was like, and for me, like it's just wild how the world works. Like literally within a year of me not gambling, money just starts flowing. You know, so a company I was at had an exit. I got a nice distribution,

was able to put that as a down payment on a home. And I quit drinking nine years ago. I just took a break and it was awesome. I kind of go, oh gosh, you know, I don't need to drink to socialize. And I feel so much better. And this is at the same time where I had my oldest son. That's like, I want to be able to wake up and be able to roll around and play versus like try to struggle through a hangover.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people drink to, they feel like they need to fit in. Yeah. But it's, you really don't. Yeah. and once you like once you realize you don't like it's like if talk about regrets like I wish I would have kind of trimmed my drinking or quit drinking earlier like it would have been so fun to be in my 20s and actually go meet people versus just drink. Yeah. And hang out at bars. Were you a big partier back in the day?

Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah. And Cali? I was living in Ohio. Oh, Ohio. Yeah. Yeah and hang out at bars. Were you a big part of your back in the day? Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah in Cali. I was living Ohio. Oh, yeah Yeah, you don't know better, right? Yeah, and we just did the rear and you grow up It's like hey like college football Saturday you drink Until you pass out It don't wrong. I mean I had some great times and I'm not I Was just one of those ones who I couldn't just have one drink. If I had one, I was going to have 12. Were you an angry junk?

No, I wasn't. I was just, uh, I would smile and I typically fall asleep. Oh, you were the ones that shut down in the corner. Oh yeah. That's me too. I stopped talking. Yeah. That's how I was.

So like, it's good that I wasn't angry or picked fights, but, um, yeah, it just, it was one of these, I'd wake up in the morning and kind of wait who did I talk to who did I lie to who did I maybe overshare with that I shouldn't have it was just one of those things my my physical hangovers weren't too bad it's the emotional and psychological that I was like hey I gotta be done with it yeah it's not worth it you still watching sports a little bit yeah NBA I'll watch the playoffs yeah same who's your team Lakers okay you too I'll watch the playoffs. Yeah, same. Who's your team? Lakers. You too?

I'll root for them. Oh, I grew up being a Cavs fan. Okay. Yeah, and I really don't, you know, and I live in the Bay Area, so Golden State is the team. I really don't have a team, but typically in the NBA I'll root for like an underdog. Yeah. Whoever's not supposed to win is who I want to win.

Well this year there's a good chance of that, you know. Is Golden State still in? Yeah, they're the sixth or seventh seed, but they're looking good. Sweet. They got Jimmy Butler now. Well, and it's just like, you just can't count out Curry. Yeah.

He's so good. How's it down there? I hear mixed things about living in San Francisco. It's getting better. That's good. Yes, I mean, I don't live in the city, but I mean, it's so damn beautiful. Like it's like one of the prettiest cities in the world.

So like, I don't think it's ever going to go away. Like you can't recreate that scenery. But I think some policies could change where it could encourage more business owners and kind of be a friendly environment on business and tourists. It's just, I think they've made some decisions that kind of come back to bite them. And it's, I think we've hit rock bottom and it's starting to bounce back tourists. It's just I think they've made some decisions that kind of come back to bite them and it's I think we've hit rock bottom and it's starting to bounce back up. That's exciting. Yeah it is

beautiful you can't knock that up. Yeah but like but a place like Vegas is like I love Vegas. My wife grew up here and it's just people out here are hustling. People out here know how to like survive and get through stuff. If you want to get something done guess what there's people around you who want to help you. I don't want to say the Bay is not like that. The Bay is just a little bit more kind of cerebral, a little bit more kind of head focused. I mean, that's where all the ideas are coming from,

with social media and tech. But yeah, I, where I live, it's just a great community of, um, you know, head and heart. So I'm, I like where I'm at. That's cool. It is hard to be Vegas though. It's cool. I mean, it's like one of these things where I growing up, you just think of

Vegas as you go through your phases. I'm going to go there to gamble. I'm going to go there to party. Yeah. I'm going to go there for girls, whatever it may be. And then like at my age, I'm like, you can go there for shows, for food, for hiking, um, I love it, man. For podcasts.

For podcasts, exactly. For conferences too. Two of the podcasts I've been on. Yeah, I saw you on Ice Coffee Hour. That was a great episode too. Yeah, they were great. What's the next show you're on or next project? This is it for now.

I have some kind of unique opportunities ahead from like a branding perspective that I'm looking at. But like ultimately, I just want to share Lucas's story. And the more I can kind of share his story, I just, I've had people reach out to me and I've made some amazing connections, facilitated some awesome meetings with researchers, philanthropists and people who are doing some cool stuff and startups around tech because of these podcasts. And. And so for me, it's like I never know who's gonna listen to this Who'd kind of go? Hey, I want to help Jeff. I want to help Lucas. I want to help their family. So

I'm gonna keep doing it as long as people have me. I love that man I know you're starting a foundation. Yeah, link that below when it's red if it's up yet cool I was in conferences as well. Sweet. Yeah, anything else you wanna close off with? No, I think we're good. Anything we're missing? No, I think we covered it all, man. Thanks so much for inspiring and I hope we find a cure one day for this thing.

Yeah, and once we do, I'd love to come back and chat about it. Absolutely. Check them out, guys, in the links below. I'll see you next time.