Habits and Hustle - Episode 71: Jesse Itzler – Co-founder of Marquis Jet, Founder of The 100 Mile Group & Minority-Owner of the Atlanta Hawks

Episode Date: July 7, 2020

Jesse Itzler is the Co-founder of Marquis Jet, Founder of The 100 Mile Group & Minority-Owner of the Atlanta Hawks. Jesse’s here to challenge the conventional wisdom of what it takes to be spontaneous. Surprisingly? Routine. 24-hour running marathons, buying an RV on a whim, climbing to the top of Mt. Washington at 50, the concept of never saying no… Jesse plans his life guaranteeing an adventure instead of just waiting for one to happen. If you’ve been stuck in a rut- in need of something new, or just don’t know how to find time for yourself, this guy’s got 30 years of picking up skill after skill after skill to wake you up and get you motivated for a life of doing what you want to do. Better have a planner handy. A couple of simple scheduling tricks, and see just how wild your life could get. Youtube Link to This Episode Jesse’s Website Jesse’s Instagram ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. 📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal. ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website 📚Habit Nest Website 📱Follow Jennifer – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Jennifer’s Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So what? Everybody does. But your gym, your watch, your yoga pants. You will fail. So what? Everybody does. But your gym, your watch, your yoga pants, they pretend you won't. So when you miss a day, eat the pancakes. Give up on a workout. You failed? Seriously, what the hell?

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We all will. But we're not going to let that be the end. You see that? We're already making progress. So let's keep going. We are Body. Start your free trial at Body.com. That's B-O-D-I-D-C-M.

Welcome to The Habits and Hustle Podcast. A podcast that uncovers the rituals, unspoken habits and mindsets of extraordinary people. A podcast powered by habit nest. Now here's your host, Jennifer Cohen. You are a rapper, co-founded Mark Jets. You're a founder. You're one of the owners of Atlanta Hawks. There's a company that you introduced me to called No It Foods, like back when, years ago at the party. Are you still involved with them? Yeah. Because you're pushing it hard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They don't work out great, but I still am a fan of the product.

Oh, okay. Because you got me hooked on it, by the way. And you're obviously the endurance athlete. There's so many things about you. I'd have been aware to begin, but what I love about you is that you are so tenacious, you have such a football. And where does it come from? Was it something happened while you were growing up, were you always like this, was it a Nate thing, were you trying to catch your parents like that? Like what's your thing? That's a really good question. I don't know what that dates back to, it's definitely in my DNA. You know when I first started out, I grew up in New York and in the 80s, like when break

dancing and hip hop was just evolving and really coming on the scene and I got into break dancing and I went down, I was like 15 years old, I convinced my sister to take myself and my break dance partner, Myron, to drive her license. And I'm like, let's go to DC, because I was like, there's no way the kids in DC are as good as the kids in New York, you know like we invented this Right, I'm like we'll go down DC. I'm trying to make some money. So we drove down a DC and I remember like the whole time going down I'm like 14 years old thinking to myself like

What if the kids are better than us? What if no one shows up? Like what if we get booed and I was like almost like well, let's just turn down at all this like fear and Feelings that I think every entrepreneur has like I'm not good enough. What is someone's better? I don't have what it takes all that stuff anyway. We go out there and we set up our boom box in this little parking lot in Georgetown And my ring goes like puts the music on and he starts spinning on his head And he passed it to me and I do my stuff and blah blah blah blah and a crowd comes around We take our hat off you know after comes around, we take our hat off, you know, after an hour or two, we pass our hat around to collect money.

And is this a PG or G-S show? You can do it, we can say whatever you want. You're good. Last round, okay, I gotta keep it real. We test the hat around. And we collect like $230 or something. And I pay my sister for the gas and tanner and all that stuff. And my aunt and I split like $82, $41 each.

Like give him $41, I have $41 and he counts the money, and then like he recounts the money, and then he runs over to the bear hug and he's like, yes, we're fucking rich. And I was like, we'd $41, but the lesson, that was like a big lesson for me. If I have to look back up, because, you know, like I realized at an early age that if you get over those fears of like,

I'm not good enough, I don't have what it takes and you actually keep going and get rewarded for it, that's like an amazing. And I got really addicted to the feeling on the other side of that wall of fear. So that was a big wall of fear. I knew I could either turn around and go home or I could figure out how to go through the wall

or around the wall, which I did, and it felt good. So most of my successes, I've had those same kind of doubts or butterflies, and more times than not been rewarded. So that was like a pivotal moment for you where you saw a reward and that progressed to keep on doing the same type of tenacity, relentlessness, puts a like... Well, here's the thing. I grew up in an era where in today's world disappointment and

Has been like stripped from kids, you know like like everybody gets participation trophy Everybody makes you know, you know like disappointment is a real part of life And I don't even call it like Hutzpah. It's just like my parents didn't you know, it's natural now And I'm the same way I have four kids. I try not to like, I don't want to be disappointed. I don't want to be hurt. But like, when I was growing up, if there was a baseball again thrown at me

and like, my dad was next to me and my myth was down and it was gonna hit me in the face, he let it hit me in the face. And so I don't even call it, you know, it's just like, it's the way that I kind of grew up. And I think it was a gift from my parents. They didn't really give me everything. They gave me a lot.

But they let me figure a lot of stuff out by myself. Yeah, I think that's a very good point. I think you're totally right. I'm two kids, same thing. And in these days, it's very much, it's kind of creating soft kids in a way, right? Because people, they're so, parents are so afraid of the kids failing that they,

I'm with the kid with my kids also with their soccer teams and I, me and you are very, I think, have a lot of similarity. That's why I've been so fascinated by you because when I was growing up as well, my parents wouldn't, I failed all the time. But that creates character, that creates resilience, right? And that's the only way to create resilience. I also learn, like, I don't like to fail. No, no, some people like it's okay. They tried, it's the effort. You know, like my brother said to me the other day,

I was talking to my brother and he was asking me how the summer was going. And I said, you know, this is actually last summer, but it got reminded of it a minute ago. But he said, you know, I said, you know, this is actually last summer, but it was, it got reminded of it a minute ago. But he said, you know, I said, he asked me how my son was doing in swim. He's on the swim team. I'm like, well, you know, he's, he's, he's, he's a really good swimmer, but like he's really not that, you know, into it doesn't try that hard. I wish try harder. And my brother's like, well, as long as he's happy, you know, and I'm like, well, actually not. You know, like my son would be happy playing Fortnite and eating hog and dies every day on the couch.

So it's not like as long as he's happy, it's about like getting him to understand his potential and try to get, you know, get motivated to tap into that potential. And you know, like I, my parents incurred, they praised my effort. Like everything was about effort in my house, you know, like I, my parents, they praised my effort. Like everything was about effort in my house. You know, it wasn't like they encouraged me to try. It wasn't a failure. It was about effort trying, you know, and it was never like, oh, that was a great game.

You guys won and you scored so many points. It was always like, I loved watching how hard you tried. It was so great to see you guys play together, all working together, so hard. And that tone, and there's a lot different than what I think is happening right now. So, look, I'm not a parenting expert, I'm a work in progress with my kids,

but that's something that stuck with me from my childhood. So how do you motivate, you're right, always kids now is all but the iPad, right? with me from my childhood. So how do you motivate, how do you motivate? You're right, always kids now is all but the iPad, right? It's both video games. Do you kind of, is your whole approach lead by example? Like if faced monkey, steam monkey, do you, if I do it, they're going to eventually want to kind of be the same way?

What do you do to kind of get them off of that? You know, I know you're an apparenting expert, but still, like how are you doing it? If he doesn't want to play or doesn't want to like, how are you doing it? If you just don't want to play, or just don't want to swim, what are you doing to make them? I think it's a series of things. For starters, it is definitely trying to lead by example. I include my kids in conversations about, you know, big races that I have or projects

that I'm doing or the struggles I'm going through to how I'm pushing through them. They see me outside every day. They see my pace. They see my friends. They get a sense of all that stuff by watching me. So that's really important. And I'm aware that they're watching. But the second thing is like, I really encourage them to try things.

They don't have to love it. And if they try it and sign up for it, they have to stick it through till the end, till the end. They don't sign up again next year, but if they commit to it, they have to do it. And I don't run over them when they fall. I don't run over them, or even like, and I'm not insensitive to that.

Or if they fail. I listen, we talk about it, but I have four kids with my first kid I did, with our first child. I was like, oh my God, just skin your knee, I gotta go bubble, oh my God, let's call the doctor and I'm like, now it's like, and I'm really hands off on it. And then the other thing is, kids are very scheduled today, over scheduled, baseball and this and after school and they have to play date. And I was growing up, my mother would take me to a meeting. She was on the board of ed in our district school district. And I'd sit for three hours with the

box of like crayons or toys, or at to figure it out at home if she had stuff to do. It was like figuring it out. So she put me in a position where I, you know, I didn't grow up and I had no access to anything or I, you know, but she put me in a position where I had to figure it out. Right. Exactly. She didn't solve my problems by saying, Oh, your board, let's watch 11 hours of Netflix. When you're done, I'll make you popcorn. So I really try to have

my kids do that. And it's not easy. I'm not great at it. And they watch plenty of Netflix too. But in general, that's important. You know what I found really interesting about you as well. I saw a video that you did which I think you know for people who are usually is at who's has as much success as you have it's all about structure and routine right they're very much about their habits right and their hustle but a lot about like being very on point. You said a whole thing about you think that that's when you get stuck in a routine, it's kind of like being in a rut. And you, I really thought that was very, it was just very unique by what I was just saying.

And that you don't get better at anything if you keep on doing that. So first of all, like, so does that mean someone like you don't have a routine, you don't have particular habits that you stick to on a day and day basis. No, so as you get older, it's really hard to create newness. So you want, I'm turning 52, because we live in routine and schedule and we play defense. Our calendar's our whole life is defense. Our calendar's filled up with meetings, appointments, schedule weddings, anniversaries, charity events, other people want advice, and like you're playing defense. And you know, I completely flip that model upside down.

I try to play as much offense in my life as I can and prioritize as much of what I love to do with the people that I love to do and what. So you know, you have to work it that if you don't work on creating newness and live in routine, you know, you're in like a tie, it that if you don't work on creating newness and live in routine, you're like a tie, it's like you're fast try, you're going to be 70 before you snap your fingers. And you won't have a lot of experiences. And I have roots, I have routines, I try to add as many winning habits and routines to

my life as possible, but I don't live in routine. I don't live in a scheduled, you know, like I just bought an RV, like on a whim online. And like 40 years later, I was driving my kid, you know, now that's an extreme example, but you know, I try not to do it. And let me tell you something, Jen. I have, I actually have a system that I've put in place. I call the, it's called the Big Ass Count. I have actually have a program. I still have that. It's amazing. Cheats this whole thing.

It's called the Big Ass Club. Where you actually lay out your year and in advance, 12 months and a minute, but I actually map out one big life changing thing that I do every year and five little mini adventures, things that I would have normally done, you know, on a Saturday and instead of watching the Alabama football game, I might take my kids fishing or go for a hike or whatever. So at the end of the next 30 years, let's just say I stuck to that

routine, which is still introducing new things, but it's a routine. From 40 to 70, I would have 30 like huge things that I've done, and I'd have 150 adventures that I wouldn't have had by the time I'm 70. So that's what I mean. Like you have to plan stuff like that. You're going to be 70, the average American gains 2.5 pounds a year from 30 to 35 to 65. Now you're 50, 60 pounds overweight. You can't do the shit you wanted to do. And you're 70. I didn't see it. I just climbed the top amount Washington last winter and the fucking snow. I didn't see any 70-year-olds on top of the mountain. Like our window is so short to do the stuff we want to do if you're in routine and you don't plan that stuff it's gonna be

too late. Right. You know I saw that. You did a bunch of friends. You kind of like take a bunch of you take a gag of the people and you kind of go climb that mountain. Yes. I like how I like to do with my friends. I see that. So you have to have a very particular kind of friend or you just can worse people. I don't feel like, Sarah doesn't seem like you buzzer similar in that way.

So you have to coerce her probably. Like, hey, we're having RV, we're going to go, we're going to be doing that for the summer. Or she didn't go with you on them She didn't climb that Washington I get to buy the or up she'll go on trip. I'll go to the No, she loves it. She loves you know every year. She does this challenge with Richard Branson that he has strife She does something she has the same kind of philosophy and she just doesn't in her own way So okay, so get back to that. So then basically you say that you

Structure so your routine is basically a little bit different, but still a still a routine. You just plan it advance So you're basically embedding new challenges new things yearly, so you kind of experience as much as you can in your lifetime. Which is kind of what you build your own life resume. Is that the other? Yeah, I like to, you know, I really believe in that, in not traditional resumes, but building a life resume. And again, just to be clear, I have routines and habits.

And, you know, like, and I try to make them good routines and try to introduce new winning habits all the time. In fact, almost every month or two, I try to pick one thing that I introduce into my life that's new. For example, I don't trick a lot enough water. So this month, I'm going to start tricking 100 ounces every day. That would be a new routine that I'm going to try to do forever. And then in two months, I might add another routine like I'm never going to do forever, you know, and then in two months I might add another routine like I'm never gonna be late to another meeting.

So I'm always kind of taking inventory. I'm gonna write that down, and I'm gonna hold it just at that one. That's cool, I'm gonna say, I said in another two months, yeah, 50 days. All right. But yeah, I think, I think, you know, again, I have, I definitely live in a framework.

I have a structure and a, I don't, I would call it a routine that I follow, but I'm always trying to add winning habits and I'm always adding things into my routine, you know, to create newness. When I say, so I just want to be clear, so no one's gonna be talking to different things. When you just do a routine, like, I'm gonna take two weeks a while, and every year I'm gonna go to the beach in Miami for those two weeks, and I'm gonna work till eight o'clock,

and that's great. I'm gonna go to the gym every day. Amazing, that's most people. All I'm saying is, instead'm going to go to the gym every day. Amazing. That's most people. All I'm saying is instead of going to Miami, maybe you want to go and learn something or instead of maybe on Wednesdays, you say, you know what, I'm going to carve out an hour, I'm going to take a cooking class or I'm going to go learn, you know, you have to create some newness. Gandhi said it best.

Learn like you're going to live forever, live like you're going to die tomorrow. So I really try to follow that. So give me some of your habits, your daily habits that you kind of have. And then we could talk about the ones you've kind of in kind of brought in like your water one, for example. What do you do? Yeah, so they're no longer habits because I've been doing style choices. They're not even just lifestyle. They're not going to be clear about this. They're not disciplined. Discipline to me, of course, you want to be disciplined, but it also connotates deprivation.

People think if you have to be disciplined around not eating chocolate or losing weight or I don't know what's a good example whatever it they relate that to like some sort of deprivation deprivation never works in the long term it just doesn't if you feel like after a while you're like I'm just killing myself give me the damn chocolate cake right it's a lifestyles style decision and it's like it's unwavering Right. If it's a lifestyles style decision and it's like it's unwavering, it's not like a chore, I risked my for a run. I didn't really want to go for a run, but that's what I do every day.

It's not, it's unwavering. I exercise, it's part of my lifestyle, who I want to be. I mean, so it's like, it's not, there was no discussion in my head, even though I really didn't want to do it. It was never like we'll take today off, came in my head, even though I really didn't wanna do it, it was never like we'll take today all that came into my head, ever, never. So some of the things like, and this might sound extreme,

but it's not when it's part of your lifestyle. On the diet side, I only eat fruit until 12 o'clock, noon, every day, the 30 years. What kind of fruit do you eat? until 12 o'clock noon every day, 30 years. What kind of fruit do you eat? Can it be any kind of fruit? Any fresh fruit. But I stay in my prayers before I go to bed and when I wake up, that is a daily routine.

An example of something that I didn't do maybe 20 years ago, but I do do it now. And that's, I drinking more water, That's a routine. Planning out my day the night before people talk about morning habits and morning routines. Morning routines are important, but I don't think there is important as evening routines because you really need to start your day the night before when you map out what your day looks like. I'm just following the script today. Like I planned my day last night. So, you know, I don't think I, because I don't think at this age, I can just wake up and wing it.

People are at the competitions too good. I can't wake up and be like, hmm, what should I do today? Like at work and, you know, what am I going to do with my kids? Like, I need to have it out. Otherwise, the day will probably get away from me. So I believe in that's a routine. Every night I lay out what my day looks like the night before. Keep coming back. You got plenty of space. Oof, not how you would have done that. You like working with people you can rely on.

Like USAA, who has helped guide the military community for the past 100 years. USAA, get has helped guide the military community for the past 100 years. USAAA, get a quote today. Vitamin water just dropped a new zero sugar flavor called with love. Get the taste of raspberry and dark chocolate for the all warm. All fuzzy, all self-care, zero self-doubt you. Grab a with love today. Vitamin water zero sugar. Nourish every you. Vitamin water is a registered trademark of glass O. So what about all this enduring stuff? Have you always been very

like, like, exercise or when it kind of start to become such a big part of your lifestyle? I mean, we're not talking about you're not just like, you know, going for a daily jog down, like you sat down the street, you're climbing out Washington, you're doing all sorts of like, I saw you with Wim Hof doing that whole thing with him back a few months, like five, six months ago. You're like very, you do a lot of hard things, you know, when a battle thing start. Well, I grew up, I was suburban athletic. OK, yes, it's not. Not like, I had to have been the kids in the city or like... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, my own in the suburbs is not athletic. Yeah. But I wasn't a runner. In fact, when I graduated college, when I was in college, a friend of mine told me he was running the New York Marathon. He was like a junior in college. I was like, what? Sounded impossible. Like, you was running the New York Marathon. He was like a junior in college. I was like, what? Sounded impossible.

Like you're running a New York Marathon. So like when I graduated, I was like, let me see how far can I run? You know, I give him like two miles. And I actually worked my way up to two miles. And I said to myself, I can get to like two miles and 18 minutes or under. I'm a runner, you know. And I ran the New York marathon a couple years later. I said, I'll never do this again. I decided to do it next year just because. And then I was like, I'll do this every year until I'm 50. And a couple years later, I saw, I did a 24 hour event running race with five friends.

We were part, we were real a team. You run a mile, Jen, I run a mile, my friend runs a mile, and then you keep going until, you know, whoever has the most miles is a team wins. And there were a handful of people that were doing the race solo. They didn't have it at the team. And I was, I was, I was floored that someone could run a hundred miles. Yeah for hours and Was it what even floor me even more was the fact that they didn't look like an Olympic at Olympic athletes At all that in fact now we're not even impressive physically impressive said, you know what, if they can do it,

they're doing that because they just don't stop. It's just a test of like will, pain, threshold, and you know, stubbornness, patience, like all the things that weren't like about like, you know, like, I'm never gonna be in the eye, I can't even dunk a basketball, you know, that'll never change. This, if I could change the way I could handle pain or I could, my willpower, I got pretty

good willpower and handle obstacles and gut it out. Can I do it? It's like the playing field is completely level. So I took a two mile goal. That was my goal and And ran a hundred miles nonstop. And nothing physically changed from the two mile mark to the hundred mile mark. My legs are the same, same lungs. God gave me. I'm not very strong. But I completely changed my approach mentally on how to attack this. and and I did it twice. So that was my

job. Did you do that before Dave Goggins lived with you for the for the book before that whole thing you were ready and during the athlete, right? I ran a hundred miles before I'm ever met him face to face. So then what like, and what, like, why did you think to yourself, okay, I'm gonna have this guy, you know, I kind of got the whole thing even happen where he even moved in with you, Dave Goggins, I mean, he's like a crazy badass, right? How did that whole thing happen?

Well, nobody knew, I mean, very few people knew who, this was like 15 years ago. Nobody knew who he was. Nobody knew, I didn't know who he was. There was no internet. I mean, there was no social media. I just saw him at a race. He looked like it was impressive, obviously. And I just kind of reached out to him. And I met him, I liked him.

I thought I could learn a lot from him and what makes him tick and ask him to come live with me. And he did. And you know, he lived on and off, you know, with me and Sarah. He was in our life for several years, not just 30 days. And then, you know, obviously, I wrote a book about our journey about five or seven years after he even stayed with me. So um... Oh my gosh, it was that long after?

Yeah, yeah. So I just, it was like, I didn't invite him over to write a book. I invited him over because I liked him. And you know, we were friends. And um, yeah. And then so what were the top three things that he made you do that was like the most like awful Like physically, emotionally mentally because I know you said you slept in the chair that back kind of stuff like that Where the couple give me some other ones

well It was just it was just never ending. I mean, it was just every day. And I asked for that challenge after challenge. You know, we ran four miles every four hours for 48 hours. That was hard, just because it was freezing when we did it. We did it in the mountains in the middle of the winter in the snow. We jumped in a frozen lake. We cracked the ice and jumped in the lake. We jumped in a frozen lake, we cracked the ice and jumped in the lake.

We stayed in a sauna until I basically passed out. We ran, we did like a thousand push ups in a day. When he first came to my house, I was doing like 20, you know. So all these different things came into play. It's unbelievable. So I can't really wrote the book that much later. I didn't realize I was so much after the fact. And then with your other book, when you went to live with monks, what kind of possessed

you to live with monks? Again, why do you keep on putting yourself in these very difficult and very know very very hard. Well you know what you said. Like I said I'm a big believer in building your life resume. I want to milk life as much as I can because I realize in 20, 30 years, 30 years, I'll be in my 70s. So like my window to do stuff, it's like it's shrinking so fast. And I'm aware of that very. So like my window to do stuff, it's like it's shrinking so fast.

And I'm aware of that very. So on my quest to just do things that are interesting and learning and fun, I thought like I have invested so much in the physical side of my life. Like I have trainers, I've run races, I got to quit men, but I've really not invested anything in the spiritual side of my life. And partying an entrepreneur is figuring out how to get from point A to point B the fastest. And I was like, well, who are the spiritual masters? And I was like, monks.

So let me go live with the monks. I don't learn well, but there's disrespect. My learning style from podcasts or reading books. I don't learn well with no disrespect, just my learning style from podcasts or reading books. I don't retain stuff. Well, I learned by throwing myself in the fire. I want to learn, I didn't read a book, I wanted to learn how to free dive, I had an instructor to come. I went from holding my breath for 32 seconds. By the way, there's no correlation between being an endurance athlete and how long you can hold your breath under water.

So I thought I'd be able to hold my breath for like two minutes, three minutes underwater. They held my head under the water. I flipped out, 31 seconds, I tapped out and I'm up. Two sessions later, I'm holding my breath for three minutes. So my gosh. Through the experts, through the monks of the world, the whims of the world, the Navy seals of the world, you can really accelerate the greatest entrepreneurs in the world. You want to read a book about entrepreneurship or you want to go live, work under, you know, underwarm buffets, tool hitch, or on, you know,

bezos, or any of these guys that, you know, Elon Musk, whoever, you're gonna learn a lot faster than reading 50 pages and taking notes. You know, it's just gif that I got from Markey Jet. Markey Jet was a company that started when I was 29 years old. We had no aviation, it was a private jet company. We had no aviation experience, we had no airplanes. Four years before it, I was a kiddie pool attendant.

And we grew that company into a five billion dollar company. We sold it to Buffett's net jets. And the greatest gift from the company was not the wire that they sent when we sold the company or the EBITDA numbers. Those were all great. The greatest gift was for me, at 30 years old, we flew 4,000 of the who's who of entrepreneurship, pop culture, athletes, entertainers. And I was obsessed with their lifestyle. And any opportunity that I had is a young kid to ask them, how do you guys live? What are your routines? What time do you get up, how do you guys live? What are your routines?

What time do you get up? How do you live rich? What do you do with your money? What do you do with your time? How do you vacation? What do you do? You have a chef, you know, like, um, how do you learn who your mentors? I would ask them.

And I like all of these different pieces of information, living with the monks, having a seal come live with me. These are all part of the, the same journey from when I was 30 years old. I just have, I got more chips in front of me that I can throw at it. But even when I was 20 and I slept on 18 different couches, friends that put me up when I was trying to make it in the music business, bouncing from friend to friend, you know, like didn't have an apartment at the time and friends were putting me up. But even then, when I had, you know, not a lot, I was always experiencing. I would take the train to Jones Beach in the winter and do a pole plunge.

I would go to a seminar. If there was something in New York, there was a free concert or speech or something going on, or, you know, I would go, I would volunteer, whatever. I would go, I remember going to Jack Walsh had a seminar. I never been to a speech. I never heard a public speaker in my life. And somehow I got there and I didn't pay to go. And I just remember like, whoa, whoa, man. Like this guy is just dumping 50 years of best practices and I was doing those things

and now I'm just doing them on a bigger level. Right. I mean, the book, Marky Jeff's story, was it, I saw something again. Can you talk about the story? How, you were, weren't you like doing something where you were taking people, and people who were really well-fade story. I saw something again. Can you talk about the story? What are you doing? Something where you're taking people who are really well-fated and you're giving them

really amazing experiences? And so somebody you are working on, someone wanted like Kristina Gavera to come to the party. Can you talk about that? Tell the story. It's a great story. We're in a company called E Superstars. Yeah. We would, we would, we would get anything that anybody wanted to do. We would try to, we would make Captain. So it's the point of the golf of Michael Jordan, we would figure out a way to make it happen. You wanna go backstage to the Rolling Stones concert,

we're gonna figure it out. We had people look like we're ball boys or bat boys at the World Series, like crazy stuff, man. And someone called me up and said, hey, I have a friend of mine. His daughter's having a sweet 16. She's a huge Christine Aguilar fan. I was friends with her manager at the time.

I don't remember his name now. Anyway, somehow we hooked it up where she was able to go. They got great seats with her friends. and somehow they got her on stage like Back, background singing with the mic off kind of thing like she People like participate on one of the things and I'd like to talk to the town the next day the guy called me up He's like, I don't know who you are or what in the world you do But if you need every any help with anything, you know, let me know. His name was Jim Jacobs.

He was the president or CEO of this company, NetJet. They did private jet travel. And I said, great, it was like, whatever. A year later, we start this company called Markey Jet. We need 650 airplanes. Jim, it's Jet thee. I don't know if you remember me. You know, with the Christina Aguera, I'd love to talk to you about your airplanes, man.

And they were our partner. That's amazing. I mean, it's great how you leverage it. So it's basically you're you're really a master at leveraging relationships and networking. I mean, that's kind of how you... I'm a master at putting myself in a position where I can attract a lot. Where anyone could do it. I am a good, I don't leverage things because I never really ask anybody for anything. But when I was between the ages of 20 to 50, I never said no.

If you want to make tickets, when I wrote the Nick song, Go New York Go, is 22 years old, and I had no money. And the song became the number one most requested song on New York radio. So when the Nick's go to the playoffs, my song is banging all over the city, and all my friends are like, well, Jess is going to be able to get me tickets. And anybody who called me up for tickets pretty much, oh wait, I didn't get it, they didn't give me tickets. The Nick's paying $4,000 to buy the song. you call me up for tickets pretty much, oh wait, I didn't get it, they didn't give me tickets. The next paying $4,000 to buy the song, I sold it.

It cost me $4,800 to do the song. So I lost $800. And everybody thinks I, like I did, they gave me 300 level tickets, that was our deal. Oh my God. No, I put my credit card out and I got tickets. I wanted to be known as somebody that could like get anything done, you know. But I never did it and call people back, Hey, man, I got you Nick tickets. Can you get me US Open tickets?

Or can you get me it? I never did that. Right. Never. You can ask anybody in my role. I never, I never, I never ever did that. Right. Never. You can ask anybody in my role. I never ever do that. But I've never said no. So I wouldn't say I'm a leverger. But, you know, and I love doing stuff like that. I wasn't doing it because I thought, oh, in 10 years I'm going to need airplanes or I was like, I like doing it, you know, and I built a crazy network off the charts network of

friends and you know connections and I invested a lot in keeping those relationships. When I was 22 years old, I wrote 10 letters a day because there was no email, there was no internet, there was no internet, and there was no social media. So the only way I could leverage, or build my network was either show up somewhere meet people or I would write letters. So for a 10, you know, 200.0, I said 10 a day,

3,000 handwritten letters to anyone that impressed me, influenced me, moved to me, touched me, helped me. I was inspired by, and that was my, and that was my marketing plan. And, you know, even to this day, people still talk about, I still write them by the way, not as many.

But that's what I've always done it. Yeah, I know that. It's a nice added touch, right? Because people are too lazy usually to do that extra step. So when you act when people do it, it stands out, right? Progressive presents precious moments. Nothing beats driving cross country in our RV. When people do it, it stands out, right? But it could bundle your home and other vehicles with progressive and you could use the savings to make sure that our V is always ready to hit the road. Who knows, your teenager might actually put down her phone for five minutes. It could happen.

Progress a casual team insurance company affiliates and other insurers. When you can use people some advice, I think the networking is a really important piece to a lot of this. Now everything is very saturated, right? Like even if you're on social media and you're very popular in social media, it's very hard to penetrate through that wall because people get so many DMs, they're so many aren't like, it's very difficult. Can you give people beside how can people get in the door? Like what are some like, you know, easy or should say easy.

Some smart strategies that people, how people can network now or kind of take their, yeah, network now. So I think the first thing is consistency. So if you send three texts or DMs a day for the whole year, you'll send a thousand 365 days, three, if you send 10, you'll send a thousand 365 days three if you send ten you'll send three thousand so if you know That's a whole not not everyone's gonna respond to you, but some people will

Right a lot of people get discouraged after 40 50, but those are three thousand so you know I call it the three-minute miracle it takes me 45 seconds to send the text to someone or a DM So minute miracle. It takes me 45 seconds to send the text to someone or a DM. So, it's not sending three a day. That's a thousand a year. So, I do do that. The other thing is, there's an art form to how you wordsmith emails and DMs. If it's an important email, an important DM, or important text, I could spend up to 45 minutes on an hour, maybe even, you know, because when you get interview, Jen, they ask you questions, you're on the spot.

You gotta answer right then. When you write an email or a text, you can pick the words, you can look up words, you can sit on it, you can reflect, you can get people's opinion, you're in control. So if I'm gonna write an email that I wanna get a reaction, I put myself in the seat of the recipient and I say, if I got this, would I respond?

And what would make me respond? Because most people only care about what's in it for them. Down. So you said me a DM and says, hey, I don't want money, I don't need, you don't need to do that. I just want to pick your brain for 15 minutes. Well, what the fuck is in it for me?

Right. Now, a couple of times I'll do that, and I'll, I'll, you know, I will, I'm glad to help, and I do open my doors, and I do a lot of, you know, big seminars that are for free all that, but I can't spend 15 minutes with somebody I have four kids Right, right so so you got to think about like what would make the person react? ego

Not a win-win a no-lose and a no-lose isn't I'll interview for you for for you for free. That's not like a no lose. That's like more work for me. I got to vet you and but I will really wordsmith it. The first thing I do is I focus on the subject line. Is it catchy? Is it funny? Will it draw them in? Will it make it open? It will stand out. Does it look like spam? And then I'll make say, how do I make this email as short as possible? Ask for whatever it is I'm asking for it, make it easy for them to say yes, like in one click or one response, not like call my assistant or what's a good day for me to call you back, none of that. And I'll sit on it. And I'll read it again in the morning having a chance to let it just digest and then I'll hit send so I Do that now

You know like if I'm writing an email and I would say almost once a day I will and if you want to ask me when I'm a master out, it's not leveraging stuff. It's emails and meetings. Like, oh, Jen, I can go into a meeting. There's probably going to be, I don't know, there's 200 million Americans. There's probably, I don't know, man, like when this coronavirus may be like 10 million meetings a day or something I In meeting today. I don't know right a lot a lot of meetings a lot of meetings. I don't lose the meetings

Because I can control that I can I can not all the time Almost mm-hmm. I walk into a meeting and I say um I don't know, let me think about this. Guys, hey guys, I walk in. First of all, I'm not sitting when they meet me in the lobby. I'm not low energy. I'm standing because I'm excited and I don't want to get up. I got to adjust my suit or my thing or what do I look like? I'm standing and ready to go. I go in the meeting and I say, hey, Jen, oh my God, I had a crazy night last night. Before I even start, my parents are at my house. And my parents are my dad's 90. So I had to help him get his pajamas on and get him ready for bed.

And you know, it was just and then he'd actually blank it. And it was just I'm just glad to be here because I had a crazy night last night. Now that took me 20 seconds. It has nothing to do with the pencil I want to sell you. Or the one. It took 20 seconds. But in those 20 seconds, I've already told you, without you even knowing, I'm loyal, I'm a family guy, my priorities are right, taking care of my parents, you know,

no matter what, even though it was a long day, my priorities come first, like, without even me telling you anything about me, you now know everything about me, you didn't even ask, I won the meeting. I don't know if it's established credibility, I don't, I already told you, without you knowing what you want and I'm not being sneaky. No, I know. No, I'm not like baiting, switching you. Oh, Jan, I see you got a running watch on. Are you, are you, I'm a runner too.

This is a crazy thing. I'm running this race in three weeks called the murder mile in Tennessee, which I am. And you know, I'm exhausted today because I've already told you so much about me. And we didn't even start. No, it's amazing, right? So you're, I think you're basically like, you're also making them, you're pretty them in ease, right? Because right away you're very friendly and You're you're you're you're off your you're kind of like taking the guard the guard down My kind of be always

Because let's say I got a 980 on my SAT How am I gonna go into when I'm a 28 year old kid? Trying to sell tell somebody that I want to start a private jet company and I have no airplanes The first thing I got to do is they have, I'm the business plan. They're not the only thing they can bet on is me. Right. Well, I know that going in.

I got to sell them on me, my enthusiasm to the project, making them feel like, man, this guy's gonna figure it out. I don't care if he has any airplanes. You talked about no foods. I don't invest in things anymore outside of my own projects, but when I invested in that company, I had a team of advisors that I would vet investments for me.

I sent this over to him and the guy sent it back and he said absolutely not is the past. And I said why? He said the CEO, the founder has no experience in the food industry. The price is too much. They have no idea they've never done this before. And this whole list of things, which by the way sounded a lot like me. And I said, well, I said, Jim, have you ever met the CEO, the founder? He said, no. I said, okay, why are the money? Because I looked at the guy and I was like, this guy is never going to say no. No matter what, he's going to figure this out. I don't care if he has no experience.

That would have been great. Why are the money, man? Because in that one meeting, his passion, his enthusiasm, his personality and all that stuff. That's what I'm talking about. And I remind it. And also it reminded you of you. It reminded you of you how you were when no one, when you were that person, you know, when you were like buying, I remember I had another thing.

Like we were at a tech talk conference. You couldn't get in. You wanted to talk to those people. You basically went to like Starbucks and like bottled the donuts and, you know, I mean, like you have, you always always had you kind of always like Showed perseverance and To math to be and you thought and you are nobody so you took you see that and said one else and that basically I think resonates with you and it kind of that's quite why you took a chance on it

Yeah, you know, I never thought of myself as a nobody Not I don't mean it like that. You know, I wanted to explain this for people that are listening. I never, I always thought, I always walked into a room and even though I didn't belong in some of the rooms from an experience, maybe even intelligence perspective, I knew that I had something that I could offer that nobody in there had and I didn't know what it is. I still don't know what it is. But I always had, like, I used to walk into my office when I was sleeping on my friend's couch and I had a partner and we would go in,

you know, I meet him at our office, I was his office. And I'd be like, man, we're millionaires. They just haven't paid us yet. Ha, ha, ha. You know, so I never felt, I never, I just, because a lot of people think Where they are today that they're gonna be stuck in that

Same you know balance sheet or same net worth or same bad relationship or whatever forever I never felt that way. I always knew something. I know like I'm not gonna be a kiddie pull attendant my whole life I'm gonna figure this shit out and I'm and I'm not in a rush. I know like I'm not going to be a kiddie pool attendant my whole life. I'm going to figure this shit out and I'm not in a rush because I know I'm not I'm not going to go through my time on earth. I have there's too much I wanted too badly. So I never thought of myself during any of those years. Even when I got dropped from the record label, 11 publishers passed on living with the seal before a small imprint took it, it became a number one best seller. I got rejected from every record company until finally someone signed me.

You know, I got, I didn't get into the top five schools I wanted to go into in high school. I never thought during those moments, oh, it's not gonna work out for me. I was disappointed, of course, but I never felt like it's not gonna work out for me. I was disappointed, of course, but I never felt like it's over. I was like, now, let me show these fuckers, man. That's amazing.

I love that you obviously had desire and passion, but confidence. Now, do you feel like confidence can be, if someone doesn't have that confidence, like you obviously had it, was a native view can somehow how does somebody In your opinion of course build that confidence kind of like get to that place where they are They're not the self-doubt is it taking them over? It's not confidence. I want everybody to understand this. It's a standard It's what is your standard? So I don't

let me give you an example. I give speeches. I'm a public speaker and I get both and I don't want to be a public speaker. I want to be the best public speaker. I want to leave the conference as the highest rated speaker they've ever had. That's not confidence. I'm not confident. That's a standard. I don't want to write a book. I want to write the best book I can possibly write. Ever. That it's not confidence. It's a standard. I'm a dad. I don't want to be a good dad. I want to be the best dad. I can be to my four kids Using every ounce possible of my soul to make that happen. That's not confidence. That's a standard. I am not a confident guy. I've

Meg I standards that I want to hit and That's I like that. So how did you become because you are a really good speaker, I mean, I think you have, it's captivating. How did you be, how did you craft that? Did you hire someone to become that, to help you become that really good speaker? Or what was your, because that, your career obviously evolved, right? You went from a rapper to like, the jet company,

to this things, you know, there's so many different, you're like a chameleon, you keep on like as you grow, you keep on evolving. Who helped you become such a good speaker right now? Well, I started out when my book came out, I got asked to speak to 40 people for free, and I said absolutely. Yeah, I don't. Is the seal book or the month book? I'm like, I mean, I don't have to pay you guys to come.

You're gonna, I can just actually come and speak. All right. I show and the guys like, there's no microphone. They're all sitting around. No one knows who I am. Eating their donuts, like who's this guy? And the guy that said, speak slowly and loudly. You have 40 minutes.

I said, okay. And I spoke and when I got done, he came over to me, he's like, that was unbelievable. You know, he's like that. People really liked it. I was like, oh my God, thank you. And one person in the room called me up and said,

can I book you first speech? What's your fee? And I said, what's your budget? $2,500, and I said, that's exactly my fee. I'm in there. And then two people, and then two people from there booked me. And reps after reps after reps and a year later, I'm on stage in Miami in front of 35,000 people at the Marlins stadium and you know, rated very high, knock on wood, you know,

and then Tony Robbins, you know, it just evolved. And I don't know, I love it. I think that's why I just, I absolutely love it. Well, you also seem to go to the best for everything. We know when you wanted to, you know, was it like you were trying to get your memory better? You hired a memory guide and come help you guys, when you're trying to, every time you seek out something that you want to get better at or take it to the next level,

you get somebody in that world, like the monks, Dave Goggins, whatever it is. So who helped you, who was your person for this, you know, this phase or that? No one? You just did it yourself. It's my story I'm telling and it's these things are so beaked in me. When I started out, I thought, you know, I like to incorporate humor. I took a public speaking class in college and I remember the teacher told me four things. I got to remember the four things. She said, open up with an icebreaker, preferably humor. It doesn't have to do anything,

have anything to do with what you're talking about. But I like to have an icebreaker when I open up. A story or something like, when I walk into an office, I'm talking the same process, right? Right. That's the first thing. The second thing is tell people what it is that you're going to be talking about. People like to know where they're going. They want to know what they're going to follow along.

Three is to live on that promise and four is leave them with actionable takeaways. And if you can entertain people and accomplish those four things, you're going to have a pretty good speech. These are my life stories, my life lessons, the good, the bad. And because I've had so many different experiences in multiple business, businesses in music and Ziko coconut water and private aviation and the Atlanta hawks and writing books and living with, you know, going to W whimhouse house and living with monks. I have a lot of things that I can share. The more you experience, the more you have to offer. And I'm rich in experiences. So then just by definition, I have rich in offerings. So, you know, and it was just trial and error. Like anything else, started really small. Try to get better, wraps, wraps, get better,

get more comfortable, see what works, see what doesn't work, craft it, craft it. And I'm not the best, I just said, and I'm not claiming to be the best. I'm just saying that's my standard of what I'm shooting for is to be that. Well, you're great at it. I gotta tell you, you are, you're great at it. I got to tell you you are great at it.

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Can you give us, because, well, before I even say that, you're doing now another thing, right? You're doing the radio like the 24, 7 content, right? Yeah. When is that, it's all content, right? It's podcast, it's music, it's, what else is it? It's like, it's everything. It's like a smorgasborg of content, right?

Yeah, it's a 24 hour live stream called B-Y-L-R radio, build your life resume radio. That's a combination of hip music, podcast, original shows that we put together and interviews, and it's amazing. When is it launched though? Well, once again, in July, and not an official date, Apple's a little backed up on their apps right now because of the coronavirus and everything, but I'm hoping like mid-July.

Wow. Okay. And then can you give us a few? muscle up there Let's do it. Can we do it? Yeah, we can do that it for sure. I love it. I love it because Everything I gotta say like a lot of like before people would always say to me You would love this guy. I don't that told me like you would love him You so he's like a male version of you, forever. Okay, so that one I started following you and knowing about you, everything you said,

even in this podcast, whatever. It's like, and it hits home. I mean, and you do it with such passion and it's amazing. It's like such a flip spot. And it's just amazing. I really appreciate who you are I really do. Thank you. No, you're welcome. Um, and that's like a side note, but A couple of actionable items for people to build their own resume because a lot of them don't have access

Let's say they're going to win off so to do this or you know to really kind of get to that level How do people build start building their own life resume in a more modest way? Yeah, I think the actual items. I think the number one thing people can do is put one big thing on their calendar in the next 12 months that you normally want to have done. So one year defining thing.

And if I were to ask the listeners or you, what you do in 2012 that was big like what you do eight days ago You'd be like I have no idea because like we just live in that routine. You talked about So you want to have one thing that's like whoa, oh in 2012 You know I ran a hundred like you want to be able to go a point to it kind of right away, you know, last year I did a hundred mile race, two years before that I did 29 or 20, like I can go back pretty much and do it. And you know, last year I took my son to Mount Washington, which is a in, in, um, Maine, oh my God, where's New Hampshire? And, New Hampshire. And we're camping out in the snow. It's like minus five degrees out.

We have a minus 20 degree sleeping bag. We're bundled up. There's 7 billion people in the world. And it's just like me and my son and his friend is, my friend is his daughter. And it was like incredible. And it cost 13 dollars to park there at Mount Washington. You know, like, catapult.

No, I'm just saying like it didn't cost 25. It cost definitely exactly. It was a cheap trip, I thought you were saying. Like a pair of shoes, you know, we hiked up, we parked, we drove and then we drove. And like, so, you know, of course, it's easier if you have means and resources, but there's plenty of things you can do, you can jump in a cold ocean, you can go camping, you can go fishing on the Hudson River, you can, there's a lot.

So I just encourage you, you know, anyone listening to do one big thing a year. And then the, how do you, and so incorporating the other habits into what you're saying, the water. How's it going for you, by the way? Are you drinking the hundred ounces of water? Yeah, I'm not wondering it like, but I'm drinking a lot more than I was. A lot more. And then you just kind of, I like the other thing that you said earlier, which is like you kind of embed new thing, new winning habits to your routine that you're already doing. And that could be, that doesn't have to cost anything, right? Is there? Right, you know, I actually, I wish I had one here. I have a calendar. I teach

this in a program called the Biggest Calendar Club, but I have a calendar. It's like custom made. I spent a lot of time putting it together that has these trackers on it. So it has like every month a line for your new daily habit. It has what's your big thing. It has like, and so I have a system that I use. Like I said, I don't just wake up and wing it. I'm very aware of it. And it might sound goofy or hunky or whatever, but it works, man. I have big ears every year, big. And so people want to get involved in this big ass calendar.

Where do they, is it just on your website? On my website, jessieathor.com or on Instagram at jessieathor. Right. In my link in jesseathor.com or on Instagram at jesseathor.com. My link in my bio. All right, so if people are interested in this, you go check it out. I want to try it myself. I think that's basically, I think I kind of took up enough of your time. It's been about an hour. I don't know how long you kind of carved out for me.

So I appreciate this. But I have one other thing thing when you come to LA next would you do this live like how it normally says and we can like walk on shredmills? if you keep that treadm on us real low in time and a moderate pace I'll consider it. when you're talking about you can run a hundred miles what do you tell you? what are you talking about? I know I know well this Well, this was great. I'm glad we got to do this. This was great. I'm really happy.

It's great talking to you. And how do people find you if they want to be inspired by all your stories of life and then some? At Jesse Itzler on Instagram, and Facebook, and Twitter, and Jesse Itzler.com. It's pretty simple. It's pretty simple. Your energy is infectious. Thank you so much for coming on podcast.

I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Bye. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm Heather Monahan, host of Creating Confidence, a part of the YAP Media Network, the number one business and self-improvement podcast network. Okay, so I want to tell you a little bit about my show. We are all about elevating your confidence to its highest level ever

in taking your business right there with you. Don't believe me? I'm gonna go ahead and share some of the reviews of the show so you can believe my listeners. I've been a longtime fan of Heather's, no matter what phase of life I find myself in, Heather seems to always have the perfect gems of wisdom that not only inspire, but motivate me into action. Her experience and personality are unmatched and I love her go getter attitude.

This show has become a staple in my life. I recommend it to anyone looking to elevate their confidence and reach that next level. Thank you! I recently got to hear Heather at a live podcast taping with her and Tracy Hayes and I immediately subscribe to this podcast. It has not disappointed and I cannot wait to listen to as many as I can as quick as I can. Thank you, Heather, for helping us build confidence and bring so much value to the space. If you are looking to up your confidence level, click creating confidence now. A blank page holds infinite possibilities. POP-E-A creates thoughtfully designed stationary journals, notebooks, and more. Each page is as special as the ideas you put in them.

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