My First Million - Brendan Schaub: From UFC Fighter To Comedian & Podcaster

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Episode 442: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) talk to former football player, UFC fighter, comedian and podcaster, Brendan Schaub (@BrendanSchaub) about building his podcast network, how to deal with the haters, and how fighting is like entrepreneurship. Click here to sign up for our event in Austin, TX on Saturday April 29th: mfmpod.com/atx Vote for MFM to win a Webby: mfmpod.com/webby Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here. Check Out Sam's Stuff: * Hampton * Ideation Bootcamp * Copy That Check Out Shaan's Stuff: * Power Writing Course * Daily Newsletter ----- Links: *The Fighter & The Kid *Thiccc Boy *Thiccc Boy (YouTube) * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. ------ Show Notes: (02:50) - Introduction to Brendan (14:00) - How Brendan manages his businesses (18:25) - The size of his shows (22:20) - What's your goal for the business? (33:05) - The Kool-Aid Point and Dealing With Haters (42:15) - How does the comedy rat pack work? (01:01:40) - The similarities between entrepreneurship and fighting ----- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

Back to the point of, you know, getting tossed on the deep end. You know, I'm doing stand-up for about two years. I think I'm the fastest comic to ever get a network special at Showtime. So I was like, no, for the most part, being like, oh, this guy's, you know, two years, this is good for him. No, man, when you do that, what happens is it actually pushes you further away from them. We're live now. Fred and Scha, what's going on? I'm Sam.

This is Sean. We just get right into things. but we uh, Sean and I have been huge fans of you for a long time. You were both huge UFC fans. We go to a bunch of those shows. Been watching you on Fire the Kid for a while. Then the show with Theo Vaughn. Yeah.

That was awesome. So we've been fans forever. I think, uh, we each actually might have a thick boy shirt. I love it. I don't have the shirt, just the body, actually. So I'm a real fan. I went all the way. Dix in the heart, fellas.

Thicks in the heart. I don't drink. Otherwise, I would have. your your whiskey. But, uh, but, you know, you do lots of stuff, uh, like I'll, I'll kind of give like what I know about you, but basically you were, you're from Colorado, played a little bit in the NFL. I don't know if you actually made the cut entirely, but you were like very serious, uh, for the Broncos, went into the UFC. You did awesome. You knocked out some great guys. Um, and then, uh, you got into show business via podcast. So you originally were just on Joe Rogan a

bunch, eventually launched your own thing. And now you have Fighter and the Kid, but you also have like three or four other podcasts, right? That I don't know how, how big are they? I mean, I know that you get, you have hundreds of thousands of subscribers and each video gets like hundreds of thousands of views. But I actually don't know like how big the empire is. Yeah, sure.

So just going back to like the football. Yeah, so I played at University of Colorado for the buffs who they just got Dion Sand or something excited about that. And then I had a cup of coffee with the. Buffalo Bills, and I got there, and they're like, we're all set on slow white guys, so that broke my heart. And then I, and then I, yeah, then from there, I was selling supplements door to door, like pursuit of happiness style.

And then I started training in jiu-jitsu and boxing. And then next to me, you know, you know, I'm fighting grown men in a steel cage of my underwear. And then two years after I started training, I was in the UFC. I made it through the ultimate fighter, where I was a final. there. With Kimbo Sliced, right? Yeah. It was the biggest season with of Shot Evans and Rampage Jackson. So, yeah, then, you know, shortly after that, you know,

there's a common theme in my life. It's like I get put in the deep end, man. It goes zero to a hundred in every aspect of my life. It's just this common theme throughout my entire career, whether it's comedy, football, fighting, whatever it is, podcasting. I get thrown in the deep and I got to figure it out. So I was in the UFC and then probably two years in the UFC. I'm ranked top ten.

in the world, you know, and it was terrifying. But then slowly after that, I moved to L.A. because I grew up in Venice Beach in the summers at my uncle's house. When I was a young boy, my dad would always bring me out here for the summers. So I always felt, you know, a weird connection to Los Angeles. So once I could make the move, I made the move, and then I started a podcast. This is damn near 11 years ago, 12 years ago. I started a podcast called The Fighter and the Kid with Brian Callan.

And yeah, that thing took off. And then now, fast forward to 2023. I own a podcast network. So the Think Boy Network where we have, you know, probably around seven shows, you know. So, yeah, so between the fire and the kid, the shop show, Food Truck Diaries, fight companion, the Golden Hour, you know,

it's going well. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Yeah, your output's pretty insane. And, you know, the thing about you said, you got thrown in the deep end and you're kind of right like transitioning from football to UFC was a really short transition and then you're doing it at the kind of the high level you're in the actual UFC it takes most guys like a long long amateur journey then they go to a small

promotion then they go to a bigger promotion you kind of fast track that and then in comedy you did the same thing where you kind of went from i'm a ufc fighter to i'm a comedian to i got a special on showtime really fast and i think there's probably i don't know i don't know how you think about it now but like there's good and bad with that fast track. On one hand, you learn fast. On the other hand, you kind of get your ass kicked because you're pushing the boundary further than maybe you were ready for or had done. And you're learning publicly.

Yeah, there you go. Correct. So it's, you know, in hindsight, looking at it, even when I was in the UFC, in comedy, I just, I wish I had people around me that went slow down, man. Now, I'm fighting. You don't really have that option. And once you're in the UFC, you know, it's the big league. So, you know, they call you with Mercco Crowe Cop or Matt Matrione or, you know,

Brock Lesnar, you got to take the fight. So you really don't have control there. I could have been smarter about making decisions about I was young, you know, and had a lot of belief in myself. And, you know, eventually that experience catches up with you. You know, I was a lot more athletic than a lot of those heavyweights. That's why I excel so fast. But, again, that's a blessing and a curse because you hit to allow.

where you're fighting these vets with 40, 50 fights. And they've seen an athletic dude, you know, with a good right hand and, you know, good wrestling. But, you know, eventually, you know, you're this cheat code and it catches up to you. There's nothing replaces the experience. So that was a blessing and a curse, a blessing as far as I was able to transition, get out and build a fan base and going to something I've always wanted to do. And then comedy, you know, really, you know, it's true.

When I started comedy, you know, I have some great mentors, you know, and Joe Rogan's like a brother and Brian Callan and D.O. Vaughn and Tom Sager and Bert Kreischer and Joey Diaz. So I have just this plethora of just amazing comics that I was around. And I was only, you know, I'd go to dinner with them and do all, you know, the podcast with them, make them laugh. And they all encourage you to do stand up, which I, you know, always want to do since I was a child. So, you know, everyone told me it's going to be 10 years before you find your voice. I'm like, yeah, that happened. You know, I'm never scared of hard work. Let's do it. the issue with that is, you know, I get catapulted.

You know, instead of doing open mics, you know, one of my first things I did was, you know, Chicago Theater, you know, the Vic Theater, which is how did you even start? Because it's a big jump from, oh, this dude's funny when we hang out, cracks jokes, bust ball. Oh, yeah, this guy, this guy's a funny guy to you're on stage and you've got to do a set. That's like a, it's like a different thing all together. And, you know, me and Sam, we try to like, we try to be funny in our little pond. It's like, you don't know how it would be that funny to be the funniest business podcast. So we're, we're a dwarf among midgets is what we are. Yeah, it's like, it's like, you don't have that funny uncle at the party, you know,

and if you're, you know, if your brother's like, man, I think you're really funny. There's a big difference between your family and friends going, oh, you're funny, man. You should try stand up. And then Burke Kreiser, Joe Rogan, Joey Diaz, Brian Callan, Christa Lee, and Theo Van doing, dude, you need to stand up. But you know, you got, what did you even do, though, to develop that first set? Are you reading a book? Are you just going to Joe Rogan's house with a notepad and being like, hey, how do I write this shit? No.

No, it's like sink or swim. So, you know, I had my 10,000 reps on podcast with comedians keeping up with them making them laughing, you know, really quick at it. And then really, it's almost the perfect situation in order to get started. in stand-up because the finding the kid got so popular. We do live finding the kids. But remember, Brian Cowell's been doing comedy for 30 years. So when we got off to do a live firing the kid, I told Brian, I'm like,

you've ever been to a live podcast? They suck. They suck. They do the worst, dude. And Brian goes, no, man. No, no, I've been to show business with 30 years. We're going to do a performance. So I go, okay, what do you want to do?

So we came up with this whole idea to make it a show. And Brian at the time knew I wanted to do stand-up, but he didn't want to, I guess scare me because it is scary, you know, especially doing for these sold out crowds when most people are doing open minds with 15 other salty comments, you know? So for me, you know, doing it a sold out crowd, Brian go, I hear, because Brian was always late to the podcast. You know, I'm very professional. I'm not late. I'm never late. And whatever 12 years of podcasts, I've never been late. It's not what I do. So Brian would be late and used to drive me nuts. I used to roast him every time coming late. He was like, so our first live show,

let's keep up with the theme. We're going to pretend I'm late. I'm not there and you've got to start the show by yourself. So you're going to tell a story for 10 minutes and I'll come in, you get all upset, we do the whole act. I'm like, okay, cool. I'm like, I can handle that. So I tell a story because I was good.

I tell them stories. So that carries on for, you know, four or five shows. And then again, we're at, like, I forget, probably Portland or Seattle, some sold-out theater. And I'm backstage before the crowd. I'm pretty nervous. I tell Brian, I go, man, I don't know what story I'm going to tell him. You know, Brian was like frantic.

You know, again, he's looking for something. He goes, what? I don't know what story I mean. Tell you. What are you talking about? Story. No, you're doing standup, dumb ass. I was like, oh, and then it just clit.

I'm like, oh, so storytelling, you just told me that because you didn't want to skimmy. He goes, crack, you're doing standup, dude. And I was like, oh, that's what I'm doing. So shortly after that, I come to the realization, like, this is standup. It's just your way of doing it. So then we do a live fight with the kid at the comedy. store, you know, the world famous comedy store, which as a kid was like, you know, the MECA. It's like Mess and Square Garden for basketball.

So I, uh, we do their comedy store. Goes great. And then six weeks or six days later on driving, I get a call for the manager of the comedy store, Emily. And she calls me and she goes, hey, Brett, this is Emily at the comedy store. You really? How you do it? She was a great show the other day.

I'm like, thank you. She goes, hey, we're seen if you'd like to do a set in the belly room. Give you six minutes. I go, let me call Brian Cowell and see if he's available. She was no dumbass. just you. You had a great set the other night. I'm like, me? You want me to do stand-up in the comedy store? She goes, yeah, it's in the small room, the belly room, but if you want six minutes, it's yours. So I was like, say less. So I did that. And then I was just, you know,

I was in 2014, 2015-ish, like early 2015, I probably right around end of 2014. And then, you know, you get that bug and then it's off to the races, man. You know, I knew it takes a lot of work. But back to the point of, you know, getting tossing the deep end, you know, I'm doing stand up for about two years. I think I'm the fastest comic to ever get a network special at Showtime. And, you know, I just, in my eyes, I thought at the time, I'm proud of that special. Don't get me wrong.

I challenge any comic just within two years to do a network special and have 60 minutes, you know. Now is it as good as Bill Burr special? No. But in my head, I thought, people would see that and go, oh, my God, for only to do it, two years? Look at this guy. Think how much better he's than getting in four years and five years and ten years and we're just going to be on 15 years. But a lot of people don't have that insight. They don't give a shit about that.

They don't see it like that. And again, you know, this is a wild guess while I was young. And I always, it might be, it could be an asset or it could be a huge gap in hole that I have. But I always see the best in people in society. Like, I don't pay attention to, hey. Everything's all good. You know, I just, you know, I gravitate towards positivity. So I was like, no, for the most part, people are like, oh, this guy's, you know, two years.

This is good for him. No, man, when you do that, what happens is it actually pushes you further away from them. I thought it would bring me closer to being legit and be like my peers. No, it pushes you farther away because a lot of those guys that I mentioned earlier on and even outside of those guys, a lot of famous comedians, it took them 15, 20 years to get a network. special. So there's a lot of, it's not even jealousy. It's just like, you know, it just rubs people the wrong way. And I didn't see that coming. I got to be honest. And I don't think really anybody did, you know, but it is what it is. You know, you do that and you move on. And you just keep grinding and you go to the next one, the next one. So yeah, it's been interesting,

man. It's been really interesting. I learned on the fly. I also learn the hardest way. That's the only way I make changes. I learned the hard way. So I wouldn't change anything. You know, Things are pretty good. Are you the CEO of the network now? I mean, how are you? So you're having to be the talent and you're running the business? Yeah, heavy lies the crown. And so I grew up in a business-minded family.

My dad's an entrepreneur. You know, he's always been business-minded. I have a double major from University, Colorado, and sociology and business. So I was gravitated towards business. And, you know, I worked for showtime for six years. I built their entire podcast branch, which is crushing it now. And shout out to Brian Daly. And, you know, at the end of six years, so this is December last year, 2022,

six months prior, they offered me another six year contract. And I was just looking around and showtime was great to me. You know, I was getting a salary and, you know, they're reaping the benefits. And it was good for both sides. I thought, man, I feel like I could do this on my own. You know, I am an entrepreneur. I feel like I could, I see what they'd bill. And, you know, and I've helped them out a lot.

They've helped me out a lot. I feel like it can invest in myself and do this on my own. So I turned down the contract and was like, I'm going to do it on my own start thick boy studios. And I owned all the IPs to all the shows that I started with them. So I brought that over. And it's, you know, in hindsight, I didn't, you know, I didn't really know who to talk to.

Nobody in my lane kind of has done this where you leave a major network in podcasting and bring it over on your own. And it's a different animal when you're not only, new talent, but you also running the business side? Did you raise money for that? Or did you just self-funded it? What'd you do? Yeah, self-funded it from all the other shows and stand-up. I just put all my money into that. And then whenever I start a new thing, I'm like, you know, people are like, oh, congrats. And I'm like, ask me in a year. Like, we'll find out. What's going to be fun to find out, like, this is either a bad idea. It's an all right idea or it's

an amazing idea. We'll find out because, you know, I go into things relatively blind. Like, I don't do a ton of research before I go into things, but I got confidence. I'll figure things out eventually. But the reality is that some ideas are better than others. So a year in now owning your own podcast network, is this a bad idea, good, okay, good idea, or is it an amazing business? I think it's still too early to tell, oh, meaning we're a year in. Financially, am I making more money?

Yes. But, you know, that can't just be the main focus, you know, because my life's more complicated. You know, my life's more complicated. I have less free time. So what's that worse? You know, so it's like these pros and cons I didn't think about because at showtime, I was the talent. I would create shows. They would make it happen, you know, and they would have the employees and the creative team and the producers and the editors. And I was, I would come up with ideas. They would execute it. I would sit down, knock it out. Great. Get paid for that and move on and just not worry about to, you know, the next day or the next week. Now it's a little deaf.

Now, I would say one of my biggest kind of fault is not like I'm a control freak. So I need help. And I'm getting there. And I just, you know, you want somebody to care as much about your business as you do. That's impossible to find. And, you know, with Showtime, they're CBS. So they're doing all the right stuff as far as hiring and, you know, and bringing in the right people. And I didn't take that in consideration.

Like hiring, you know, hardest out finding good employees and people that actually care and can get the job done. They mold with the team and gel with the team. So it's just those kind of dynamics I didn't think about. And then also when you're at Showtime, you know, for six years and we started with zero subscribers, and then six years later at like 600,000,

you know, well-known in the space, we're up for awards. You're starting from dead zero again. So that's six years that you built. for them. That doesn't come with you. I don't own that showtime page. That's there. So you just start from zero again. I think we're at like 160,000 170,000 now a year in, which isn't bad, but it's, you know, it takes time to keep chipping away, chipping away. So what about a listen, like, Sean and I, the metrics that we know is downloads, which is, we describe downloads as

like Spotify, YouTube and also iTunes and all that shit. What are you, what's the size of, your biggest show, I think is firing the kid. What, what size are you guys at? now for that. We do, we look at it per episode because otherwise you can get a lot of downloads if you just pump out

more and more episodes. Like per episode is the real, real deal for I think for these shows. Well, see, so firing the kid and the golden hour,

which is formerly known as King of the Sting with the O'Von. So finally can and King of Sting, even though they're on the Think Boy Network, those haven't changed

just under my banner, but those have, those weren't part of Showtime at all. Showtime was below the belt, which is now the shop show, food truck diaries, and some other shows and then I wasn't doing fight campaign with them

that's all new so you know I would say probably cut my audience in half you know probably in half and what's the fighter and the kid at fighting a kid I mean now we're going down you're going down a different road

because there's factors there that have you know caused that show like you know when you're doing it for 12 years, it's like this. You know, it's like this. So, you know, we've been as high as 600,000 an episode, as low as 100,000 episode.

So that, that, and it's, you know, there's been some outlying factors, you know, that caused those issues. So each end up with the changing of King of this thing with Theo leaving, you're talking about a whole new show. So you start from, basically from scratch again to start with Christelia and Air Griffin. It's a completely different show. The dynamic's completely different. So you're reinducing that show to.

kind of a, although there was an audience there, I think we're at 500,000 subscribers. Those 500,000 subscribers were there for Theo Vought and Brendan Schaubb. So when you go, all right, well, here's Brendan and Christa Lee and Eric. Some people will know we like to dialogue with Theo and Brendan. So that's fairly new. You know, that's about six months old. So, you know, that one's probably around 150, 200,000, just on YouTube. But I think a lot of people in podcasting, because it's the thing in 2023 is they look at

YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. Audio's key. For the most part, people listen to podcasts on the way to work or when they're at the office. They're sitting down and watching a podcast for two hours or three hours, where the however long of your podcast is, the audio is key. So my main metric that I focus on is always audio. Now, if audio starts to go down, we got problems. Yeah, we're at, like, we'll have guests on every once in a while,

and they'll be like, are you guys big? And they'll just look at the YouTube. And like our YouTube only gets like 30,000, 20,000 all the way up to 200,000 per episode. But then our audio is like consistently 100, 200,000 ish or something like that, like consistently every single time. And that's crushing it. And I'm like, no, it's pretty big. It's just like you can't see those numbers.

But our audio, I mean, it's like, that's like as true to subscription as you can get because it's just consistently a big. Audio's king. Yeah, Adios king. but this new generation of podcasters coming in, you know, see the Logan Pauls or the Andrew Schultz of the world. And, you know, Rogan was massive on YouTube, but it's, again, and I don't know what Logan Paul's numbers are as far as audio.

Logan Paul's a buddy, I guess I could find out. But because he's a YouTuber, his numbers are massive on YouTube. I'd be curious to see what his audio is like, because again, audio is king in podcasting. So I never focus on YouTube too much. Now, if there's a decline, you're like, we've got to figure this out. and we'll work to it.

But if my audio's solid, I don't, you know, I'm not, there's no red flags. What's your ambition level in terms of this business? Like, are you, are you thinking like, I think we can get to 10 million revenue? Or is it like I want to exit for 100 million? I think we can get to 50 million in revenue. Where do you, where's like your not quite North Star, but like your two, three, five year goal? Yeah, that's a great question. Rob Deerick's a good buddy.

And he's such, I don't know, you got Rob Derrick would be great for you. We've had them on and he killed it. We were, I think we were a little bit early in his like public business persona and we had him and he blew us away. He was amazing. Yeah, I've known Rob for a year. So I always knew he was just like so violent when it comes to business. He makes so many great decisions.

And he came into the thick boy studios here in Calabasas and I was probably, I don't know, he's two or three months into it, you know, so you're still trying to figure it out. And he's looking around and he's like, man, this is cool. and he's asking all these questions, they kept going, you know, what's your goal? What's your goal? What's your goal?

And finally, I think he was even out there. I'm like, you got a chill, dude. I was like, let me get to cruising altitude and get to Wi-Fi before I start figuring out goals.

Like, this thing's just taking off. Once I get to cruising altitude, I'll let you know the goal. So we're kind of getting to cruising altitude. I don't know what the goal is. I think once I get to the network where I think it could be at, that I would start looking at, other options, but the other thing I would say, too, as far as business, whether it's whiskey,

merge, whatever it is. Even stand-up podcasting, I've never done anything for money, ever. I do it because I love to do it, and it's fun for me, and it's what I want to do. If it makes money, fantastic. Man, that's great. But if it does it, all good, it's something I want to do. So hopefully this thing goes great and makes a ton of money, and I can retire. When I say retire, do less shows, but with just more money in the bank. But I love doing it. That's why I started it. So hopefully, you know, when we do this show in, you know, three years or five years,

I'm talking to guys and we're celebrating some big moment. But I couldn't tell you what that looks like. And that might be a problem. I mean, you guys are the business guys. Is that a problem that I don't have some sort of end goal here? What do you think, Sean? So I don't think you got to have an, like, what people want like a five-year plan. And you're kind of taught this at a young age.

Like you're 18 years old, what's you going to major in? I don't know. I don't know shit about shit yet. So people are often pushing for that. It's great when you have it. So I always say that if you know the direction you want to go, you know the outcome, it's great when you have it. But the reality is most people don't have it right off the jump and that's totally normal.

You just got to get in motion, get momentum because as you start going, you'll start navigating. You'll get a better vantage point. It's like you start climbing the mountain. You're higher up. You can see more and that'll give you a little more. But what I do think helps. is a vision for your life.

So a vision for like, what kind of, what do you want to do with your life, your talents? Or like, so for example, I might not know, oh, I'm trying to hit this revenue target.

I'm trying to sell in X years or whatever. But I do usually know, man, it'd be fucking awesome if, dude, what if my job was, I literally get to sit down with my friend Sam and we just shoot the shit about business?

And what if there were millions of people listening to that. Wouldn't that be cool? Yeah. All right. That's literally when I started this podcast, it was, I was walking around with a friend.

We had just signed the paperwork to sell my, my first company. And he was like, what do you want to do next? And in Silicon Valley, where I live, there's only one answer.

I'm going to start another company. It's going to be bigger and badder than the one before that. There's only one socially acceptable answer in Silicon Valley. It's like in Hollywood. If you're not trying to make it, what are you doing here?

And so, but I gave him the honest answer. I go, you know what? I think what Tim Ferriss does is awesome. It seems like that dude gets to wake up, just be curious about shit, run experiments, learn about things.

And then he just takes the coolest stuff he learns. He just, He just gets to talk about it and a million people have them in their ears. And he gets to influence a million smart people by sharing little nuggets. I go, that would be awesome. I want to be in a million people's earballs. And that's just what I kept saying. I want to be in a million people's earballs.

And he was like, dude, I never heard that word. But like he goes, that's a, like, that's like a vision for like what would be an awesome life. So I think that sometimes you don't have to have the number. But it is cool to have a, man, that'd be awesome if my life was X or if I was able to do that, do X. I remember I remember talking to you guys know Justin Khan Justin Khan so Sean actually sold his company to Twitch Justin Khan's one of the guys who started Twitch you know they sold it for a billion dollars I was talking to him backstage

one time like two years or three years after the sale we're at an event I was hosting and he was like I was like what are you going to do next Justin and he goes 10 billion I want to go after 10 billion and it didn't work it didn't work out for him by the way it didn't work out and like he I remember I read like this blog post where he was like I was motivated to like out and do what I did before partially out of like it was like it was like rage like out of rage out of like a chip on my shoulder which is actually I think great fuel but like I was in it for the wrong motivations and it didn't work out but yeah something

Sean has said that I said it differently but he said it better which was A B Z which is like I like I like to do this all the time I'm like all right step one is a step two is B I don't need to worry about anything else in between that but step Z is like the One day, maybe, maybe one day this becomes a billion dollar company. But let's just focus on getting to a million in revenue or let's just focus on like paying the rent. And then after that, maybe we could hire a handful of people. And then I'll figure out the rest. But maybe one day it could become this.

And that's like a fun way to like, that's like a fun North Star to like help some decision making. It's also very motivational. You're like, I'm doing this for this reason. Yes. It's also less pressure. It's also less pressure where, you know, I and, you know, I think half on that entrepreneur spirit that I was born with from my dad. You guys, it seems like you guys have the same thing too.

You have to be the success you've breached. You know, I never stop and smell the roses ever. It's always what's next? What are we going to do next? And what makes this successful in this next thing and the next thing? And in my sports career and even in comedy, I've never just stopped and, you know, smelled the roses. I'm constantly, constantly pushing, constantly pushing.

You know, I don't know if that leads to happier life. You know, I think sometimes you need to check and go, if you're doing, it's all good, man. If nothing changes, your life's pretty freaking great, man. If you just stay here, it's all good. But I wish I was more like that. You know, I don't know what else I could get. That would make me happy. I guess if, you know, if I'd have to fly commercial, my life would change, that'd be great, you know, but outside that, like, things are good.

Fly private? You mean? Yeah, if I didn't have to fly commercial, I hate flying. But, well, you, hey, I see you got the nice 9-11s. You got the cool Ferraris. I mean, you got the toys. Yeah. Private's a nice next step.

Yeah. If you had told 10-year-old Brendan, you know, some of the stuff you'd be doing some of the stuff you'd have, you'd be like, holy, man, this is insane, dude. Get for you. You made it. But I don't feel like that. We always talk about them in the pod. We say a lot of people ask, like, what advice would you give your 21-year-old self

or your 15-year-old self? And we asked the opposite question. It's like, what would our 15-year-old self say to us now? If it could look at our life now, be like, dude, you're unhappy. Look at your shit, man. Like, are you joking? You got to marry her and you get to do this every day. Like, you better be smiling, bro.

Like, that's what I, that's what my teenage self would be telling me right now. And that's almost a good reminder. It's like, like, I always say dogs and kids got it figured out. And I want to be more like, I want to learn more and be more like my dog and my kids. Oh, dude. All day is play. Everything is good. They're happy.

They're grateful. Like, we get, we get things screwed up when we get older. And do you guys have kids? I got two little ones. Yeah, I have a seven and three-year-old. And I don't think I've ever been as happy in my life as my two boys were yesterday. I bought them two, I bought three lizards. I was like, man, if I could just that level happiness.

One time. Bairded lizard one time my life is complete. Yeah, kids give you a different perspective on things, man. You know, I might be stressed out about work or some might come home and that stuff goes out the window. You know, there's nothing better than being a dad. Tony Robbins, I don't know if you've ever been to one of his events or looked into his stuff. But like most people think, oh, Tony Robbins, I don't need motivation or that's like a cult thing or whatever. I've been to a bunch of them and I found it really, really useful.

It's a good, I don't know, I'm not very religious. So it's a good operating philosophy for life. But one of the things he says is he's like, you got on one hand the sort of the science of success. And that's kind of what you've kind of done well, which is whether I'm going into football or football. fighting or comedy or podcasting or now the business side. There's the science of success is basically like there's an approach to set, you know, figuring out a target, working hard every day, making progress, like taking it seriously, all that stuff.

And then there's the art of fulfillment. And they're unrelated. And if you want to have like the full, the complete life, you got to figure out, oh, just like I learned the skills of how to be successful, I got to learn the skills of how to be fulfilled. And the magic happens when you sort of integrate the two. you both like create new projects and try to be successful while being fulfilled because what most people do is they go for that success thing mostly from a point of view of like,

you know, try to prove themselves or it's like some insecurity a lot of times that will drive it. No, I love that. Yeah, I think, yeah, for me, I do a pretty good job. I'm trying to stop and smell roses a little bit. So I'm doing a better job. My kids help me get there. And then I think a lot of mistakes that people make, whether it's business, entertainment, you know, stand-up comedians, especially with social media now, that's why I'm not a big social media guy, is you can always compare yourself to somebody doing better. So for your friend that made a billion, and next thing was 10 billion, because he saw a guy make 10 billion. So if you're constantly chasing that, compare yourself to others, that's where the happiness never comes. So I try not to compare

myself to the others, especially me, because my journey is so different than those guys that I look up to. So, you know, my journeys can be different, man, whatever that looks like. And I just have to accept that, which I try to do. I was reading something yesterday that reminded me of you, Brandon, which was, I was reading a blog post. Sam put out this great tweet asking for what's the best blog post you ever read. And one of them was this thing called the physics of passion. He basically goes, there's this thing called the Kool-Lade Point. He draws this graph.

He's like, as you do shit and people start to like your work or admire you or love you or become a fan of you, you'll, it kind of grow steady, steady, steady, and then there's this point, he calls it the Kool-Aid point where it kind of takes off. It goes, then you're going to have two groups of people. You're going to have a bunch of people that love you and a few people that hate you. And he goes, what happens is, and he goes, here's how you'll know you're there. People accuse your fans of just drinking the Kool-Aid. They love everything you do, but sight unseen. And they're, they're Kool-Aid drinkers. That's how you know. If you have people that can be described as that, you've hit the Kool-Aid point. Yeah, I love that. On the other side, you're going to have people who want to tear you down,

the haters, you know, quote unquote. And, and, you know, at first, they're, they're always a small group, but they're kind of loud. And some people even support them and be like, oh, you're, you're speaking truth to power. You're, you're calling it like it is. You're, you're kind of exposing this person or this brand or whatever it is. Yeah. And you got both. And so I was reading that.

And I knew we had this pod today. And I was like, oh, dude, he's lived, he's lived that point because, you know, you have, for people who don't know, you got a big fan base. you got a big anti-fan base and the anti-fan base I think it's on Reddit I go to this subreddit a bunch but I'm not like like it's weird

I like you but I also find it funny like they're so clever these people are kind of dicks but they're also funny in the same way like it's kind of this double thing I'm curious like

for you obviously that's like you know it's probably funny for me because I'm outside of it I'm not the person that's the butt of the joke in some of these cases but you know

me and Sam got maybe one one hundredth of the like kind of the the passion and hate that you that you have because you've been doing this a long time you've you've made it pretty big but when i read our youtube comments and i see something like that it stings in the moment but also there's a lot of times where i'm like they're not wrong like you know uh there there is some truth to where they're being a dick about it but there's some truth to what they're saying i i could see that i'm curious for you when you when you hear about the sort of the stuff on the subred or you check it out or whatever do you have any moments where you're like, all right, they're kind of being mean about it or they're being

a dick about it, but there's some truth to what they're saying. Yeah, I'm sure. You know, I don't, in all honesty, I don't pay attention to it. I think it's a bad thing whether you pay attention to the negativity or the positivity. Yeah, I think you just got to keep doing your thing. You know, my heroes growing up didn't live this world, you know, so it can't be healthy. I think we'll find over years how it affects the brain, how it affects creatives and businessmen who do pay attention to that stuff and read the comments and stuff like that.

So I don't want to be that sample size. I'm not trying to get that digital CTE of reading comments every day. Yeah, I already have enough CT, man. I'm about to ride my Porsche off the PCH. But I think with the Reddit group, yeah, it's interesting because, you know, the watch everything you do and there's some things that I'm on board with. And then there's a small select group on there who are just evil. So there's difference between hate, which I get, I give you a lot to hate on.

I do a lot of content. I make a lot of jokes. I fend a lot of people. I get that. You don't get to a certain level without giving you a lot of haters. You just don't. If you look at Logan Paul, Drake, LeBron James, name some the massive celebrities that we have in this world. And you go online, you read their comments or my buddy Joe Rogan.

I don't know anybody gets more hate than that guy, but he gets more in love. You know, I'm in the business of likability. So if you watch my podcast, you buy a ticket to my stand-up, you buy the merch, you buy the whiskey, you're a fan. I make a living off likability. So I don't give the hate energy.

As far as the ready goes, I get it. And some of them are really funny, and I appreciate those guys, whether it's good or bad towards me. It gets a little dicey when they want to, I just, I don't understand. man, when they cross the line, when it gets into my personal life, it's like, I'm not Tom Cruise, dude. Why the fuck you give us? Who cares about that stuff? You know, and thank God, my wife,

she's been with me since I was in the UFC. So when you're fighting UFC, you get a lot of love, you get a lot of hate. There's no in between if you're doing it right. So she's conditioned to that. She doesn't pay attention to it. She doesn't care, you know, at this point. So thank God for that. But the only time I don't like is when they make it super personal. It's about the kids. It's about, you know, certain things, but, you know, nobody's harder on me than myself. You know, there's nothing they can say that I don't tell myself usually on a daily basis. And trust me, it's way worse, whatever they're putting out. So although I, you know, I get it, I appreciate it, and, you know, I just don't give it energy.

I think one of the things that I have going for me is, you know, I post and ghosts. I don't pay attention to that stuff. But then I'm also, you know, I'm on the road, whatever it is, 30 weekends a year. If I get done this interview, I go down the street without somebody to Hey, Brandon, love you, man. So that's real. That's what I care about. Social media, it's a factor for sure.

But it's not the end-all, be-all. I think when people realize that, if you're walking down the street, one in 10 people on social media, especially on Twitter, that you can't give your self-value, your self-worth of what social media is. You're going to live a much happier life. So that Reddit group, they're going to do their thing, you know, and that comes with the territory. And I was built for it. That's why God gave me big shoulders.

But, you know, I, they're going to clip that. They're going to love that one. Yeah, I think I was built for it. And then also, you look, you know, if you look at me, I know, I probably look like the guy that bored you in high school. And, you know, they'll use some of that, you know, like, oh, Brendan's a bully or whatever. And I know I look like the guy, but if they actually knew me, you know these people know me, they've never met me. You know, they're not buying tickets to a show.

So I don't give it energy because if I did, I wouldn't have a business. I wouldn't have this house that I'm talking to you guys in right now. So, you know, I think the lines get blurred where it's like, oh, he's a big, strong guy. He's fighting UFC. He can handle this. There's no limits. Everything's off limits. There's nothing off limits.

We can go as hard as we want. It's like, it actually hurts my feelings, man. It's actually not cool, you know, but I jokes. So I'm all four. I'm all four, man. I'm professional comic. We roast each other. We do our thing.

So if it's funny, it's witty, fire away. But you start going towards the, once you start going towards the personal side, well, then you've crossed the boundary, you know? And now, also, if you want to have this conversation in person, you want to offend me, we can do that.

I can do that. We can see how it goes for you. That's never happened. As long as I've been in entertainment, I've never run into anybody that said something to my face. So I just, I get what they're doing. and if it's funny, it's witty, and they're going to do their thing, I actually appreciate it.

But when you cross the boundary and you disrespect me a different way, you know, that's where I have an issue with it. When I say issue with it, it means it hurts my feelings. I'm not going to do nothing to you. I'm not going to be. I'm not the bully you expect me to be. Then also, I think that subreddit has crossed the point, not all of them. Some of them are actually just funny and they're fans and they just show it in a different way and I understand that at my age.

but a lot of them have crossed that boundary where they hide behind this keyboard and they want to do evil things which I just don't understand but to me it's like and for what for what? Because I do stand-up you don't have to buy a ticket because I do free podcast that triggers you

right we don't have to watch you know so I just I'm just cut from a different cloth I'm just a positive person now there's some podcasters that will lean into it And if there's beef between comics, the lean into that and they like that controversy and that drama all the time, like it's real housewives of L.A. And I would probably be much more famous and much further along my career if I entertained that. I just can't do it. Sometimes I think,

man, I should try that. It's just not what I do. I don't like being negative. I'm a positive person. I enjoy helping people out. So, you know, it's just heavy lies the crown with that stuff, man. You were saying how when you moved to L.A. I apologize. No, it's good. You know, someone's got to clip that. Some hater will clip that. Hopefully, but somehow, hopefully that hate pushes us forward somehow.

But you were talking about moving to L.A. and how that was like a big change. You basically, like, Sean and I both lived in San Francisco when we started internet companies. And like having a crew, we were in each other's crew. We had a handful of others where you like succeed together. That's like the greatest thing ever because it's like, it's, A, it's fun. And B, it's actually useful. Like you piggyback off each other and you, and you, and you,

motivate one another and you actually like you invest in each other whatever it's like practical you're in this cool world it's like you bobby lee theo von christalia andrew santino uh andrew shultz is a little bit outside of that but somewhat inside of that joe rogan yeah you got this like crew and like it doesn't like 10 years ago you know there was rogan but there weren't really like a lot of like comedy youtube channels like or podcasts but right now like if i go on my youtube app like it's basically a Theo Vaughn or Brendan Schaub clip, like constantly, or like the clip of Bobby Lee, tell him the story about the Down syndrome thing.

That might be the most viral clip in comedy podcast history. It's hilarious. It's so funny where he talks about getting molested by a Down syndrome guy. It's one of the funniest. I mean, and so like I can't go on without seeing like a funniest bits from whatever, like, and it's like someone in your crew. What's that like behind the scenes?

Like, are you guys, is this like a, like Sean and I, sometimes when we want to get like popular on X, Y, and Z, we're like, hey, can you like, can you like, can you like, hey, can you like, do you want to come on my thing? You come like, like, it's like, it's somewhat organized, somewhat or just sharing like, sharing being like, you know, I'm doing this and it's working. Like, uh, yes. You know, what's that like, you know what's? You have like a group text when you're like, hey Theo, like, uh, I've found that like this type of like, because you guys, and then by the way, I don't know if we told you this. If you go and look at when we first started MFM, my first million, we just bought the same fucking red sofa lounge chairs. that you had because I love it because I would see those on the I would see those in the thumbnail and I'm like yeah all that red pops like you make it makes you want to click it and I notice that you and Theo particularly you I bet you probably started it you have these like pretty eye-catching studios they're not like particularly fancy but they're just like they're just like an eye-catching and you're changing them constantly and I've noticed Theo does the same thing he's constantly changing the set same with Andrew Schultz are you guys like sharing all these tactics like uh when we're doing this it's working or like here how much for paying for blank or like you guys let's pump each other around this thing yeah you know going back to kind of the the whole like kind of it's it was almost like a team you know and out you know the team captain all this starts from joe rogan so before i hit the comedy but he doesn't give a shit

about any of that does he he just does whatever the fuck he wants in it sometimes it works he does whatever he wants and he's the leader of the pack but he's also the reason why we embrace each other and, you know, five, six years ago, seven years ago at the comedy rap act. And we were the, we were the rap pack. And we were the guys and every show sold out. Our names on the marquee. And Rogan, there was kind of, you know, their structure. Like, we don't tear each other down.

We support each other. And I heard Isaiah Thomas say this when he went on my boys' podcasts, All the Slope with Matt Barnes. And Isaiah Thomas said this. and it really resonated with me. He was on there. He's talking about Michael Jordan. And he goes, clearly I'm not a black man.

I don't know if you guys know this or not, but I'm not black. It's actually not that clear, by the way. You could be. You could be. No one knows what I am, dude. No one knows. If you told me you had a little in you, it wouldn't be surprising. It's not that clear, actually.

Earlier when you said Denver or Buffalo Bills didn't want slow white guys, I was like, yeah, so you're in. Yeah, so you made the team, right? Yeah. Wait, you tell me you're not Aaron Hernandez. No, but, so we're saying, oh, so we're this coming rap pack. No, no, you're saying Isaiah Thomas said something. Yeah, Isaiah Thomas, yeah.

So Isaiah Thomas said this, and I saw a clip that Matt Barnes Post, and I love those guys. I started with him at Showtime, and they're crushing it. But Isaiah Thomas, they brought up Michael Jordan, and Isaiah Thomas has issues with Michael Jordan's. And Matt Barnes goes, we'd love to have him on. And Isaiah's like, it's a tough one. He doesn't do interviews. Then Isaiah said, as an alumni from the NBA, as alumni and you guys are alumni, we're this tight fraternity.

And not only we're a tight fraternity that we've reached certain levels of the NBA in this, in this lane that we're in, but we're also black men. And it is our duty to support each other. It is our duty to come on the shows and make sure you guys get views, make sure people get your name out there. That is something that has, it's our responsibility being in this small group and the small club. And back, probably seven years ago, you know, Rogan, it was the same thing.

It is your duty to come on other shows, to broaden the audience, to bring everybody into these great talents. You know, whether it's, you know, back in the day, find the kid, outside Joe Rogan, finding kid was the launching pad. If he goes through it, you look at Tim Dillon, Andrew Schultz, Santino, Theo Vaughn, Chris Dillet.

You look at all the people that came on there and just exploded. Now, is it because the Final Kid audience? Maybe help the little. It's because those guys are so goddamn talented. And once people saw who they were, they out succeeded finding the kid. They've gone on, they've blown the roof off things now. But if you look back on Finding the Kid and I take so much pride and joy in that where we have these guys on before they're massive.

And as Isaiah Thomas says, it is our duty to do that. So that resonated with me. Now, this is seven, eight years ago, even 10 years. years ago. If I get the first start out, we'd have all these comments on, stuff like that. And then the pandemic hits. The pandemic hits and the leader of the rat pack leaves, Joe Rogan leaves. And the comedy store shuts down, common LA shuts down, then Comsiger leaves, then Joey Diaz leaves, then Tim Dillon leaves. Then Thielvan leaves. And then Brian goes through some bullshit Me Too movement, and he has to leave. And Chris DeLia goes some through some bullshit Me Too movie.

Christoply has to leave. And I'm on this island by myself. I'm like, whoa, where is everybody? I thought, let's, all right, the troops, although we're not in L.A., we got to rally. Let's rally around each other. And it broke my heart, man. It broke my, that, no, those days are over, dude. You got to figure it out on your own.

Those days are over. The days of, you know, being in the, in the hallways at the comedy store and the improv and the ice house, the laugh factory, where, you know, podcast tomorrow, yeah, podcast tomorrow, those days are gone. Everyone's,

they made it, everyone's in their lane. You got to figure it on your own now. It's weird because, you know, I was the comedy story last night, and I always have this, it takes me a while,

I sit in the parking lot for a while because it just kind of reminds me when I pull up now that, I used to pull up and roll up in this portion, we'd park next to each other, we talk shop about the cars, what's next, and then Santino would pull up

and we talked to him and Chris DeLea and then Brian would pull up and Bobby Lee and CEO and we'd be in there and there was a fun. It was the best. It was absolute best.

And I wish five, six, seven years ago, somebody would have tapped us on the show and like, hey, fellas, in two years, this is all God. I didn't realize at the moment that that was the golden age and what we were doing was so special

and we took it for granted. And I didn't realize at the time how special it was And in my theater, where my fish tank are, and like my man cave, I have four pictures from those days. I just put them up, probably, you know, when they were done, five, six, seven years ago,

I didn't realize that in that picture, in that frozen moment, that was the best time ever for me, as far as just being in that symbiotic, like, team. There's such a team man. Yeah. There's a special moment. You know, now we're all,

everyone's doing well. We still talk, we have our group chats, but as far as, like, you know, seeing each other all the time, like, those days are over, man. And it's heartbreaking. Yeah, it's important to have one of those, like, pay it forward cultures because it's like, I think Silicon Valley has that too, which is there's not really that much gatekeeping. You can go to the most successful, richest guy in Silicon Valley. He'll give you time. It doesn't matter who you are. And if you need a favor, they'll give you a favor with, they'll give you either advice or money or an intro.

and there's no like pay it back, it's all pay it forward because they got helped by the person before them. And correctly, that stayed together. Now, like you said, with the pandemic, a bunch of people moved out of Silicon Valley.

So who knows what will happen now? It takes a little longer in our world to, to sort of see those effects. But I remember when I was in San Francisco, living in San Francisco, kind of on the come up, me and Sam met doing one of these like founder masterminds where we would get dinner for hours and talk like,

okay, what are you doing? How is that going? How can we help each other out? And it felt like, you know, in Toy Story, when they go to that arcade and those little, the little minions are in the machine. And it's like, the claw. And the claw selects one and takes it away. And that's like, you know, they made it.

They got the fame, the fortune. They got picked. But the other minions weren't pulling them down. They were like pushing them up. Like, congrats, brother, go for it. You know, like, you made it out. And because it's like that in Silicon Valley, you'll know somebody. And they're broke for the four years you know them.

And then they're worth $150 million. overnight. And then you're like, oh, the claw picked you and you won. Yeah, the call got you. Yeah, the claw, which is Mark Zuckerberg buying your company happened. And like, it's same thing in entertainment. Someone hits a breakout point. And now they're famous. They're, you know, they made it. And there's a question of like, does it, do you just get left in the dust? Do you resent people when they're happening? Or do you realize that the rising tide lifts all boats? And you really want to be in that rising tide type of. Yeah. And just a side note in San Francisco, now, Pay it forward. Yeah, that's great.

You got worried about getting stabbed out there. Forget starting to now. Will your friend watch your back, watch your back, literally? Like, you got to actually watch your other's back physically. Just survive the day, you know? Paying it forward is carrying a gun so your buddy didn't get stabbed in the neck. Yeah, it's insane. I was going to ask a slightly different question, but I saw a few interviews that were cool.

One, it was Donald Cowboy Soroni and then Chale Sunnan. And I think actually Michael Bisbing said the same thing where they were talking about like in the locker room before they fight. And they're like, I think it was chale. He's like, people think that like we're tough guys. And like maybe we kind of are. But like every single time before a fight, I think my last one should have been my last one. What am I doing? I hate this.

And then like Michael Bisbing who's like a cocky dude and like is very confident. He was like, this is the worst thing ever. And then I think Cowboy Soroni was like, I throw up before every. fight. I'm so afraid. And then you had a really cool thing where you're like, I just beat up a crow cop. So if you don't listen, if you don't know anything about UFC, Crocop is like one of the, the goats of MMA. And he's scary as shit. Like he's like, yeah, Croatian dude, but like you think he's like a scary Russian robocop type of guy. And you knocked him out. And I remember like you said, you're like, I knocked him out and backstage, I went and said like, thank you or something or like,

you know, like, good fight. And he like had ice on his head. And you're like, what the fuck am I doing? I don't want to like do this for my life. I don't want to be 40 or. 38 or however old he was when you when you beat him up but uh what's that like backstage the 15 30 minutes before you're about to go fight to the death and your underwear in front of a million people yeah i think i don't i don't know if i was the i might have been the one of the first fighters ever say that you know but a lot of guys they want to give off the persona that oh were these warriors it's like gladiator we can't wait to get out there but i'm telling he so and i won't mention names. I've seen dudes cry back stage. They don't want to go out there. I've seen their coaches

slap them. Like, you have to go out there. It's just, I just don't think it's natural. You know, I think it's a level of intelligence of your body and your mind going, hey, you're about to get hurt. Do not go out there. So the anxieties through the roof. And every final, I was like, what am I doing, man? I was like so disappointed myself. And then once I hit the cage for most of my career, I was okay. I knew it was time to get out when I hit the cage and by, dude, don't Don't get hurt. Get out of here. You've got so much more to do in this life. You cannot, you know, suffer a concussion. We have got to figure this out. So, you know, I think there's truth and honesty for most fighters where it's like, it's terrifying. It's to me it was the worst gig in the world. There's some, the highs are the highest in the world. The peaks are the best. The valleys are the lowest there can be in professional sports or maybe in life. It's a tough gig, man. You know, so I think the more fighters talk about like, hey, we're human man. And it is. And it is. Gary going out there. And I think the more fighters talk about, the more people can relate to it. Because most people, have you ever, man, if, if tonight, you're today, after this, the podcast,

you go to the coffee shops and you're getting your coffee and some guy goes, you have some altercation. The guy goes, hey, man, tomorrow at 1 p.m. You and I are fighting. You're like, oh, I guess we got to fight. Imagine the anxiety you're going to have that night, that morning, walk in that coffee shop. And that's fighting Billy, you know, from in San Francisco, who's going to, you know, and fight you over coffee, and he probably don't have skills. Now, heighten that times a thousand. Not only you know exactly when you're going to get in a fist of cuff,

if the guy happens to be, I don't know, top 10 in the world at beating people up in your underwear, and everybody's going to see it. You know what I'm saying? It's human nature to be like, this is not healthy. Dude, this podcast, and our friends, it's been cool to see some of our friends become worth hundreds of millions or even billion dollars.

And it's cool because we'll talk to them like just hanging out and they'll be like, I have to fire this person and I'm so afraid to do it, like, that I haven't done it in like eight months. Like, I'm afraid of the confrontation. And what that does is it like normalizes fear. And you're like, oh, therefore I can do it. And I remember like thinking about like Habib and like, dude, this guy is like Terminator. Like he doesn't show that much fear. And then I saw some of these other tough guys like say like, oh no, like it's it's miserable. I've always wanted like a Connor or a Habib, like some of the the most

outspoken, confident guys, I, like, I want to hear them say, like, I'm about to piss my pants, because whenever I hear that, I'm like, that's fucking cold. I could do anything. If this guy's afraid, if this guy's afraid, which I know they are, even if they don't say it. I know they are. I think there are levels to, like, it does seem

like there are some guys, like a Habib or something like that where they're, like, they're more stoic than others, but there is, like, there's always self-doubt. And I think it's really cool when I see some of these killers, like actually say that. It gives me, like, It oddly gives me hope. Yeah, I think it makes them human.

You know, I think it would do athletes just so much more in the public eye if, you know, before the Super Bowl or even after the Super Alton, Tray, be like, I'm scared shitless, man. That defense was good. You know, I'm terrified to get hit and throw interceptions and fail. I just think more people would relate to it. Because we can. Were there ever any athletes that you know of or hung out with MMA guys or boxers where they were built different where they're like, this person's looking forward.

to a fight? Or do you think unilaterally it was... No, there's people where, you know, ignorance is bliss, right? You know, it's like there's guys I trained with and I'd be two weeks out from the fight, you know, and the camp's tailoring down. I'd be like, oh, man, the fight's in two weeks, man, Saturday, age? And the guys are like, I know, exciting, right? I'm like, no, dude. This is terrible. But they're just, there's certain guys where they live for it.

You know, there's guys like the Diaz brothers, even though they said that they hate fighting, I think there's some guy, like a Kane Vlasquez, there's certain guys that just thrive in that, Justin Gagey, who they just, they just love the violence. They just, there's nothing, they were just born warriors, you know, and they're not thinking about businesses or, you know, 10 years down the road or 15 years down the road. It's just, they were meant to do this. And God bless them. You need people like that. God bless them.

Even if you're not into UFC, if you're listening to this, go and look up Justin Gasey post-fight Michael Chandler on YouTube. He says this amazing thing. He goes, I was born in the wrong era. I should have been a gladiator so I could kill this person in front of all of you because that's what I'm built to do and that's what I love. I'm here to fight to the death. And I heard that and I'm like, there's two different types of humans. I'm one and he's the other.

This is crazy. True. And I think, you know, I think for me it came to realization because I've known Justin Gagee since he was in college. I used to go up to University of Northern Colorado and wrestle to get ready for my USC fight. So I saw just a young age, he's always been like that. And again, when I'd be in the locker

rooms or we'd be in the training camps and those guys would talk like that, you know, don't get you wrong, I'm built like a warrior. Like, you would look at me and I think that's one of the reasons I get hate from these guys and think it's okay to keep me the way that I that they do because, you know, I look like a gladiator. I'm this big dude with

tattoos and cauliflower ears. But really, push come to shove. I'm the guy behind going, and like, look to feel. Like, I don't like be in the front fucking lines, man. That's not what I want to do, you know? So I get the treatment of these warriors, but really I'm the guy in the back playing the trombone,

holding the flag, you know, making sure I look good. One of our, Sean and I talked about this after Rose Namibunis, this UFC fighter, she, like, before the fight, you see her saying, I'm the best. I'm the best. I'm the best. And it doesn't matter if you like UFC or not. It makes you cry because you're just like,

there's so much, like you have to talk yourself up to this. And it's just so like motivational, inspiring, cute. I don't know what you want to call it, but it's awesome. It's like one of my favorite moments of seeing her say that. And then afterwards,

Joe goes, I saw you saying you're the best. What's up with that? And she goes, because I am the best. And you like, that's her convincing herself that she's the best. It's so good.

It's so much self doubt. And it's just like, no, you're the best. And because I'm assuming she worked with a mental coach, which I did too when I was fighting. You work with these high-level mental coaches. They tell you that.

You fight the negative thought in your head with a positive. You say it out loud. So that's just for freaking trying to keep the demons at the door. Good, I'm the best. I'm the best. You know what I love about this podcast is usually when people bring up fighting, for me it's a nightmare. It's a nightmare.

Like, especially if I'm doing a show outside, like whether it's a Comedy Central, if it's a TV show and they talk fighting, usually they have no clue about UFC. Like even you brought up Rose, you brought up Justin Gagey and the Michael Chandler stuff. Like, thank God you guys have an insight into the UFC, like current UFC world. I'll do some shows and be like,

so what's your take on Chuck LaDelle and take Abbey? I think that's still going to happen? Like, dude, they have Alzheimer's, man. They're not in it anymore. How was Conrad McGregor doing? Yeah, no. No, man, we're super fans. That's why it's cool to hang out with you.

We've had, I've talked to Michael Bisbing, Ben Ascran. We've had Ariel Hohanian. Your boy. I know you guys had a spat. We've had, who else? A bunch of people in that world. It's always fun to talk to you guys. Because like, even though like the intensity level that you're doing, it's like literally

life and debt, starting a business is like a percentage of that. But it's like, I can't do this. I'm freaking out. I don't know how to do this. Like you constantly feel like inferior. Oh, there's similarities with all of it. With all of it, whether you're a UFC fighter or your uncle. There's similarities where you're banking on yourself and it's on you.

And the peaks of valleys are insane. Either way, so there's takeaways from both sides. You know, they definitely overlap. You know, you mentioned Aero Hwani, right? And I, there's that, and I think it's a fan thing. You know, I've had spats with over the years, it's just going to happen. I don't really entertain it. But I have no animosity towards Ariel.

You know, I'll do interviews, whether, whatever it is in a row. So you and Dana don't like each other. No, I have no anima. I don't dislike anybody. You know, I think that might be one of the reasons, too, why the haters, they can't stand it because they want that drama. They want some to feed off of. They call it feeding the trolls. I just don't entertain that.

I think that is, you know, upsets them. It's just not what I do. So when Aaron and I were having our thing, man, I made a mistake. I was on the fight campaign. I said some things I shouldn't have said. He was rightfully so to get upset. So he went on a show and did his thing. All good, man.

That's how it goes. You know, I take accountability there. That's on me, but the area is the best journalist we have. I listen to a show. You know, I have no issues with Ariel. With Dana, man, if anything, I probably should be given Dana 10%. Because when he made that deal with Reebok, it, you know, at the time, I was a young man. At the time, I took it personal.

I thought it was a hit against me. And it put a chip on my, when I say chip out of entire Pringles, and what you're talking about is before you could put any of the, logo you want. Then he made a deal with Reebok and it's just they are the guys. Yeah, I lost me, probably $100,000 a fight and, you know, and I took it personal. But being a business owner now, Dana wasn't made when the Reebok deal came, man, how's this going to affect Brendan Schaub? No, dude, I'm one of the, you know, I'm one of the elephants in the circus. You got to do what's great for all the elephants, not just me. So I was, you know, a bystandard

and the casualty of that deal just didn't work out in my favor. But that pushed me faster into what I was supposed to be doing. So, Damme actually helped me out. I have zero issue, Dana, huge fan, huge fan. But I think fans, some people, for the reason, they can't get over that. It's like, well, no, he screwed you over and look, and you have to retire and he did this. I'm like, no, he did me a favor, guys. That was 12 years ago.

It's all good. He's doing great. He's worth more money than God. I'm doing pretty good. If he called me today, I was like, hey, man, we need you to do this. No doubt. I'll help you out. No problem. Well, dude, you're the man. You, I said earlier that we had Rob on and he, like, I knew Rob grown up as a skater. And then he came on and he like just surprised us so much. I think his video has hundreds of thousands of views that when we did with him, which is good for us.

And you're kind of in that category where you're where I'm like, I had good expectations because I listened to you a lot. But you're a lot more insightful than I thought. And I thought you were pretty insightful. And you're just a good guess. Maybe next time you'll have a better setup instead of just being on your iPhone. Yeah. So here's the thing about that. So I don't own a computer. My company, like, Fig Boy Network has whatever, 12, 15 computers. I'm like that anti, I'm that anti kind of technology guy. I don't like.

That seems good for a internet company owner. I know, right? Mark, yeah, can you tell I'm going to fail by next year? No. So we did the same with a There's a guy Mark Lurie who bought the Timberwolves He's a famous entrepreneur He's a billionaire

And he came on he was doing the same thing He's like, is this good guys? He put his iPhone on a chair on top of his dining table And he stood up and he talked And we were like, do you, can you use your computer? I don't know a computer And we were like It hits different when a billionaire says it

It's like if somebody else says it You're just like man, what a schmuck And then you hear him say You're like this guy knows how to live He's not tied down by these fucking computers. He says it because he's got a person. He's got people. You know what I'm saying?

He's like, I don't have computers, but I have humans. Yeah, no, I owe you guys. Next time we do this, I'll do it at Think Boy Studios. Usually every Wednesday I'm in studio. But today, because yesterday I did three podcasts in a row, a two-hour meeting for this new project I'm doing. So I started at 7.30 a.m. And then by the time I had done with that meeting,

I was home around five, one of the two-hour. and bought my kids lizards, fed them dinner, put them to bed, then rushed over to the comedy store. And I got home at 1230 last night. So today's my first off day, and I don't know how long.

And then tomorrow I'm on tour in Atlanta, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I'm in Atlanta doing shows. So usually I'm always in studio and I have the team set up so it looks professional. So I owe you guys. I owe you guys, but I hate electric cars. I think they're a disaster.

I don't like electric cars. I don't like iPhones. I'm about to switch to a flip phone. I just, I don't, I just don't subscribe to it, man. I don't think it's healthy. Let's add a couple zeros to your net worth, and then we'll call it cool. But until then, we're going to call it.

You're a fucking caveman. You're a caveman. But like, maybe, maybe, maybe just out a few zeros and we'll call you a genius. But until then, you're Neanderthal. Yeah, until then I'm just this broke guy doing it on an iPhone set. Well, dude, thank you for doing this. You're amazing, and we appreciate it. Thanks for coming on.

Yeah, besides my setup, just got sad, fast. the end. All right. That's the episode.