THE ED MYLETT SHOW - The 3-Step Success Formula with Jesse Itzler

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

What Are You Waiting For? Breakthroughs Start Where Fear Ends!" In this episode, I’m thrilled to sit down with Jesse Itzler, an unstoppable entrepreneur, ultra-endurance athlete, and master of unconventional experiences. Jesse's journey is built on facing down fear, embracing challenges, and doing what most people would never attempt. From creating Marquis Jet and selling it to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, to venturing into the unknown time and time again, Jesse’s story is proof that success is found on the other side of risk. Jesse dives into the art of tackling “the wall” — that point where fear, doubt, and hesitation threaten to stop you. He talks about how he built a mindset that not only pushes through but thrives in uncertainty. When he realized he wanted to experience private jet travel but couldn’t afford it, Jesse and his partner went straight to NetJets with nothing but a vision and unshakeable conviction. Against the odds, they secured a deal with Buffett’s team, setting the foundation for what became a game-changing business. We also get into why Jesse believes routine kills creativity and how he designs his life around extraordinary experiences. He shares his practice of "Kevin's Rule," a commitment to creating meaningful experiences every two months. Jesse has made it his mission to build a “life resume” filled with unforgettable moments and deep connections. Key Takeaways: Face the Fear Wall: Success often waits on the other side of your greatest fears. Innovate Without Limits: Breaking from tradition can be a competitive advantage. Build Your Life Resume: Pursue experiences that enrich your life and create unforgettable memories. Be Irreplaceable: In every role—parent, partner, or professional—make yourself invaluable. Time is Scarce, Act Accordingly: Treat each moment like it’s priceless, because it is. This episode is packed with strategies to turn ambition into action. Jesse’s journey reminds us that life is too short to play it safe. Start building the life you want—one bold step at a time! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So hey guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive and the question is, how do you find a way to get an edge? I'm a big believer that if you're getting mentoring or you're in an environment that causes growth, a growth based environment, that you're much more likely to grow and you're going to grow faster. And that's why I love Growth Day. Growth Day is an app that my friend Brendan Burchard has created that I'm a big fan of. Write this down, growthday.com forward slash ed. So if you want to be more productive, by the way the way he's asked me I post videos in there every single Monday that gets your day off to the right start he's got about five thousand ten thousand dollars worth of courses that are in there that come with the app also some of the top influencers in the world are all posting content and they're

on a regular basis like having the Avengers of personal development and business in one app and I'm honored that he asked me to be a part of it as well and contribute on a weekly basis, and I do. So go over there and get signed up. You're gonna get a free, tuition-free voucher to go to an event with Brendan and myself and a bunch of other influencers as well. So you get a free event out of it also.

So go to growthday.com forward slash ed. That's growthday.com forward slash ed. After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound waves, zero incisions, and that very same day, two steady hands.

From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at sunnybrook.ca slash special. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What comes to mind when you hear the word gratitude? Maybe it's a daily practice, or maybe it feels hard to be grateful right now. Don't forget to give yourself some thanks by investing in your well-being.

BetterHelp is the largest online therapy provider in the world, connecting you to qualified professionals via phone, video, or message chat. Let the gratitude flow. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more and save 10% on your first month. That's betterhelp.com. This is The Ed Mylet Show. Welcome back to Max Outt everybody. I'm Ed Mylet.

Today's show is going to be ballistic. So I am sitting next to the real life Dos Equis man. One of the most interesting people I have ever met in my life. This man has a resume that is too long to even start the introduction with today. And we're going to talk about that today, like life resumes. But to start, put it mildly, this is someone who started the company Marquis Jet. He ends up selling that to Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. Started a water company that he sold to Coca-Cola.

He's run 100 miles in one day before. He's a father of four. He's married to one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the country, and Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx. And most importantly for me, he is one of the most giving and generous people with his time, his information, and his energy

that I have ever met in my life. And I'm literally, look at this, I'm getting goosebumps because I've been really looking forward to today. So everybody, this is Jesse Itzler. Jesse, thanks for being here. Thank you so much, man, I appreciate it. Have we had good conversations off camera?

Yes. So good, I wish we were recording the whole time. So, you know, the other thing I didn't say too is I also think you're one of the greatest speakers in the world too, from the stage as well. So any of you looking for speakers, this is a guy that you ought to be talking to. So you're gonna get a flavor for that today.

So let's help some people. Let's do it. Let's do it. So we can go all the way back to the beginning. I want people to know a little bit about your background because I think one of the things that fascinates me the most about you is your willingness to do things that you're not prepared for. I think like going into the unknown, it seems to be one of these things that about you that's very unique but also is a trait that I see in people that win at really high levels. So talk a little bit about, we could start with any of the businesses you've had, but did your upbringing at all like prep you into being this sort of type of person you are? Like when you grew up, did you know you were going to turn out this way or no, not at all? I always was dancing to my own drum. My parents gave me a really long leash which was a great gift for me growing up.

They let me do whatever I wanted to do within reason. And I always, all of us, we always come against this wall of fear. This crazy wall of fear. And you can either go to the wall and turn around, you can go through the fucking wall. And I always, every time I went around, turned around and went back home,

because I was too scared, I had crazy resentment or crazy guilt that I wasn't able to do it. Regret, not resentment, regret. And every time I went through the wall and got to the other side, it was so addicting and I was so proud of myself. So, let me just give you a quick example. When I was growing up, I grew up in New York City

or in Long Island in the 80s when break dancing and rap and all this stuff was happening. And I was really into break dancing. I don't look like it, Ed, but get some cardboard out here. We need to do that. Mike, get some cardboard. Okay. And I decided that I could make more money probably if I went to Washington, D.C.

Because the kids in Washington, D.C. couldn't be as good as the kids in New York. We invented this whole genre. So I got my friend Myron, who's my partner, if I went to Washington DC, you know, because the kids in Washington DC couldn't be as good as the kids in New York. We invented this whole genre. So I got my friend Myron, who's my partner, my sister just got her driver's license, and I convinced her to drive us to Washington DC. And the whole drive down,

I was having all that self doubt. You know, at a young age, 14, 15 years old, like what if the kids are better? What if no one shows up? What if we get booed? What if, you know, what if we go there and I stink? And so I was almost talking myself out, I was building the wall of doubt up,

brick by brick in my own head. And when we got there, we went to a little bank in Georgetown and we set up a boom box in a parking lot of a bank and we hit play and my friend started spinning on his head and he passed it to me and the crowd gathered around and ultimately after I did my thing more people came, I took my hat and I passed it around

and we made about $200. I paid my sister for the gas money and then Myron and I split $82, $41 each and this guy, you know, he's counting up the money and he's counting up the money and he gets all the money and then he sprints over to me and he gives me a bear hug and he goes, Jess, we're fucking rich. And the reason why we were rich is because on that particular trip, despite all the fear, this young little kid that was so scared, I went around that wall and I realized I could

be rewarded. And I was like, I want more of that. I was doing Writing sports songs after the Nick song. Yeah my partner we set up a company to write theme songs for professional sports teams and I did that for a year and a half We sold that company to a public company called SFX You did and it was the gentleman that owned SFX that had a timeshare on a jet that invited us as guests. And that's how we got exposed to the world

of private aviation. So you're flying on this jet, was it the first private jet you'd been on? Oh yeah. So you're on a private jet and you take this flight rather than just enjoying the flight, you get off the flight and go, what? No, first I walked on the plane

and it was like the scene in The Wizard of Oz when everything goes from black and white to color. And I was like, people fly like this? We wanna fly like this. And we literally were like, let's start a private jet company so we can fly privately, because we definitely can't afford it. That's crazy.

And we were like. But did you know anything about jets? Did you own a jet? No. Nothing, so you knew nothing about jets, you didn't own a jet. But I knew that if we wanted to take two or three trips a year to go skiing with our friends

or take our college friends on a trip or my partner had a family and he wanted to go away for Thanksgiving, we knew that if we had a need for not for hundreds of hours but for maybe 25 hours, there's gotta be a lot of people like us. And that's really where the idea started from. It's like how can we make flying privately a little bit more affordable, more to the masses, and how can we solve the problem? Like how can we eliminate all the the pain points of

owning your own private plane like you know the pilots, the scheduling, the maintenance, all that, and provide all the benefits. And that's what we created this 25-hour jet card called, which ultimately is called Marquee Jet. Okay so let's talk about this for a minute. So here comes the note taking time, all you entrepreneurs out there, because there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there that have these ideas.

So it's great that you have the idea and brilliant, but idea to execution to business to profitability to selling it is a completely different idea altogether. How in the world do you get, you end up somehow getting net jets to allow you to use their jets somehow to do this card, right? How the hell did that happen?

Well, first of all, we thought about what's the fastest way to get from point A to point B. Okay, that was the starting point. And we realized that we needed airplanes, obviously. You can't have a private jet company without airplanes. And for us, there were only a couple of, there was only two games in town, or one game in town. It was NetJets, owned by Warren Buffett.

They had 650 planes in the fleet. So we were able to get a meeting, through a couple of phone calls, and in the meeting, we got thrown out of the first meeting in like 12 minutes. They're like, the CEO was like, there's no way we're giving two kids access to our airplanes. You got thrown out of the first one. He literally said they literally said there's no way we're giving two kids.

He said that probably didn't break a thousand on their SAT which we talked about which pissed me off. I got a 980. Just so you know in the history of interviews so he's he's 980. This is so. So you end up being on the same label as Young MC. I end up being a paid for free backup dancer for a few weeks for him. The people are laughing their asses off. I know right now, rolling their eyes. He gets a 980 on his SATs.

I'm in the high sevens. I'm a 780 SAT. And we've both ended up becoming, you know, very successful entrepreneurs. This should give everybody out there hope who thinks their prior resume somehow dictates their future resume, and that's not the case whatsoever. And so you get kicked out,

he literally quotes your SAT score back to you. I'm not giving you guys, you're 29 years old, access to my airplanes. And you know, our starting point is we have to convince them we have to have a Lot of conviction. We're the business plan. They're betting on us Yes, and the question we asked ourselves I think you know the starting point for any entrepreneur when you're going to give a pitch What's in it for them?

What's in it? What are we gonna say to convince them that they want to do business with us and for us? It was like we can they were catering to a much older demo. And we were 28, 29 years old. In my music business, I had access to athletes and entertainers just from the videos and just being in the scene. I lived in New York.

I was connected to that world. That was my demo and age group. So we offered the ability to attract much younger athletes, entertainers that we said, look, if these guys are introduced to your fleet, they're going to be customers for the next 50 years. And think about the lifetime value of that customer. Give us a shot. If it doesn't work, there's no harm, no foul. And they said, you know what? We'll give you guys a shot.

So the second meeting they say, we'll give you a shot. Put up your own money. You guys, we'll give you guys a shot. So the second meeting they say we'll give you a shot. Put up your own money. Okay. You guys will give you guys a shot. Okay and now this is one of my favorite stories of all time, literally of all time. So now you get a yes, which is just incredible. The idea to get in there to pitch, to get kicked out, to come back in to get a yes. Now the issue is though you have no clients. So that theory sounded great. By the way a lot of people, entrepreneurs listen to this. They got kicked out, they got rejected the first time, they've got an idea, now they're in business,

but they got no clients. And by the way, we really didn't have a business plan because we didn't know anything about the space. To present a business plan, they could have been like, well, we're not looking for that. We were the business plan. It was like, we're gonna make this, look me in the eye and I'm telling you,

we will make this happen. Give us a shot. I mean, those weren't the exact words, but me in the eye and I'm telling you, we will make this happen. Give us a shot. I mean, those weren't the exact words, but that was the spirit of it. Let's stay on that for a second, because I think this is huge, man. People buy into people. They buy into stories and people.

They don't buy into PowerPoints. PowerPoints are just words. And we had a passion and a conviction around the idea, because we knew we can make it work. We knew if we had the chance that no matter what, we were gonna work 21 hour days, we're gonna make it work. You and I are both involved in a business together

that we'll talk about at the end, and that's exactly what we both did in this case. We bought into the people. It's like so super true. But you have this thing that I think, I think to the extent that someone has this thing I'm gonna ask you about before we get into how you end up getting your first client,

which is the best story of all time. But I think all successful people on some level, and to the extent you are successful is the extent you have this thing, which is that you're willing to step into spaces you were ill prepared for. So it seems to me like you're willing to, you kind of think like, if I get my foot in the door,

then I'll figure this stuff out, right? Whereas what most people do, and this is killing you, by the way, I won't step into the door until I'm completely prepared, which is a total fallacy anyways as an entrepreneur, for sure, or wanting to become a rapper, or have a music career, or an artist, or anything great. If you're waiting for a threshold of,

I need to be totally prepared, then I'll step in the door, You will be on the other side of the door the rest of your life So talk about that you have this sort of thing about you. You'll figure it out once you get in there Yeah, well first nothing happens if you don't get into the door So you have to have you have to figure out how to get in the door Right and I've always trusted the process that I'd be able to figure it out But like the common thread throughout all my journey as an entrepreneur in everything is I had no prior experience in anything that I did. And for me, that was the greatest blessing. Because for me, it meant rip up the playbook.

No one taught me how to do it. So the whole industry was operating the same way. And I always say to my employees, Sarah, my wife does the same thing, you know, if no one taught you how to do your job, how would you do it? Like if you ripped up the playbook, and you said, like, how would I treat my customer?

How would I go after and pitch this? That's where innovation comes from. That's where innovation comes from. Everybody else in the space, they were doing the same playbook. All the brochures looked the same, and we didn't know anything. We didn't know anything.

So, for us, it was a greatest blessing. So, I think experience is overrated, it's important, but it takes so damn long. You know, and like if we would've waited to get three years on the line, there would've been four other jet companies, and we would've never done it. So. Wow, that's so true.

You gotta start the process. As an entrepreneur, I think like the number one thing is start, you never have it all figured out. It's never the right time. You never have it all figured out. It's never the right time. You never have enough experience. But if you let that slow you down until you have it's the right time and the right experience, come on, the world's so fast.

So you're telling me you did not know a lot about the rap game before you got in it. You didn't know a lot about the writing lyrics game before that, you didn't know a lot. Just listen to this everybody. You didn't know a lot about the coconut water business before you got in the jet business before you got in it or the NBA before you got in it I would say nothing literally. I would say not a lot. I would say nothing. It's incredible. Yeah I look, you know, I was fortunate, you know

I we were able to as soon as we were able to afford to bring in people that yeah more we were able to scale it And you know, but we started everything very small. We always thought really big. And once we got momentum, we were able to ramp it up super fast. The only way that I could really find, I had to go where wealthy people were. And I heard about this conference called TED

in Monterey, California when they were first starting out that was attracting all these tech guys and well-off folks, et cetera. So my partner's like, you gotta go to the tech conference in Monterey, California. So I think I connected through Chicago into LA. It's a five hour car ride to Monterey, California. It was a 16 hour journey.

And I get there, and as soon as I get there, everybody, it's like Fort Knox. I didn't have a credential to get in. So you couldn't go anywhere near the conference. So I'm like, man, I just flew 16 hours, I can't go in, I'm so frustrated. But it smelled like there was a sale there somewhere. So I'm like, let me go into the little coffee shop over here

and try to figure this out. And I'm sitting in the coffee shop and about 20 minutes into my sitting there kind of thinking, God, how am I gonna do this? A wave of people with credentials come in and they're ordering lattes and muffins. And I realized that they must be on coffee break from in between speakers at the tech conference.

So they're all ordering lattes and muffins, lattes and muffins. So the next morning, I show up at five o'clock, first one there, as soon as they open, and I buy every single muffin. I control all the muffin inventory in Monterey, California. I bought every muffin. And when the first wave of folks come in,

they're like, come up, have a latte and a muffin, like, you can have a latte, but we're all out of muffins. And as they would walk out, I would say, excuse me, I overheard, actually, I have the muffin, my office here, we have all the muffins, and would you like a muffin? No, no, no, yeah, what do you do? Next thing you know, I'm in a conversation with someone and he's like, and he asked me what I did.

And I said, well, I have a private jet company called Marquee Jet. And a guy who just sold his company called half.com to eBay. And he said, well, I'm actually interested in a private jet. Would you mind if I sit down and talk to you about it? And I was like, absolutely. Gosh.

I'm like, please sit down. You can have two muffins and we started talking and here's what's interesting And here's how I built my career He ended up being my first customer and and but he was the key because I serviced the hell out of them Anything he wanted carried his bags if he was going to Mexico, shock and awe. Here's a book of places, here's a reservation, here's where you can snorkel. That's not the business I'm in. I provide time on jets, no.

That's what everybody else was doing. This is what we're gonna do. I see your family's going, here's a floaty thing for your two year old, they would get that. And I just serviced him, how was the trip? Can I help you, Here are your bags. And he was my source of referrals. There you go.

And then the next guy came in. Same system. Same thing. Same thing. Same thing. And what was interesting about Marquee Jet. Wow. It wasn't that we built this amazing company.

It was an amazingly successful venture. Clearly. But that wasn't the goal for me. The goal for me were the people that we flew. Because we flew 4,000 of the who's who of entrepreneurs, CEOs, athletes, entertainers, and I was like, wow. Here I am, I'm 30 years old. I was obsessed with meeting these people

and learning about their daily routines. So what I would do is, I would say like, every conversation was like, what time do you get up? What do you eat? How do you spend your time? How do you live rich? How do you do this? What's a vacation look like?

And I would take all these habits from these winners at the highest level and start to incorporate them in my life. And the things that worked, stuck. And the things that didn't, I got rid of them. And over time, built this system, you mentioned in the beginning, like your life resume, built this system that works for me. And as I've evolved, now I have four kids, my system evolves because I can't have the same system as single Jesse, 40 years old and no kids where I have the freedom to do what I want.

Now I have way more responsibilities with my family so the system evolves. So that was the gift. Wow. See, for me, for someone listening to this and I already know what they're thinking, this is literally like an inside peek to like an absolute master class of how to do these things right here, everybody. And I just wanna illustrate two points you made and I wanna make sure that I say them correctly. The first thing is is that all of the most successful

entrepreneurs I know, and obviously you're at the top of that list because there's been multiple wins. What I, well the reason I want you all listening to what Jesse covers in his social media and his content is because he's not only is he a mega successful entrepreneur and also successful as a father, successful as an athlete of sorts, successful as an author, he's also had multiple wins. In other words, it wasn't a one hit business wonder.

This is a formula that has worked for him that he's replicated into many different business ventures and you said something brilliant. So hey guys, I want to jump in here for a second and talk about change and growth. and you said around other people that are growth oriented, you're much more likely to do that yourself. And that's why I love Growth Day. Write this down for a second. growthday.com forward slash ed. My friend, Brendal Bruchard has created the most incredible personal development and business app that I've ever seen in my life. Everything from goal setting software to personal accountability, journaling, courses, thousands of dollars worth of courses in there as well.

I create content in there on Mondays where I contribute as do a whole bunch of other influences like the Avengers of influencers and business minds in there. It's the Netflix for high achievers or people that want to be high achievers so go check it out. My friend Brennan's made it very affordable, very easy to get involved. Go to growthday.com forward slash ed. That's growthday.com forward slash ed. I love a great idea. Let me tell you about this one.

So one password is the great idea. While back, I kept switching people on my social media team and nobody could remember the different passwords from Instagram, Facebook, my website, our corporate website. It was taking up a ton of time and probably for you, you end up with hundreds of passwords, you forget them, it takes time to log in. If somebody leaves who has them, you've got a security issue because then you've got to change all the passwords so that people don't get access that have left. One password combines industry leading security with literally what you're thinking,

just one password. So it gives you privacy, gives you security, and it can go across all devices, all platforms at any given time. So you only have to remember one password that goes through all of the different platforms it's brilliant right now my listeners get a free two-week trial at onepassword.com slash my let for your growing business that's two free weeks at one password.com slash my let don't let security slow your business down go to one passwordPassword.com slash MyLet. This message is sponsored by Greenlight and I'm really glad that it is. You know, as kids get older, I've experienced that things about parenting can get easier and some things can

get harder if you don't lay a great foundation. And I know one of the things I am grateful for is that when my kids were young, we started to teach them the principles about money and budgeting and the value of a dollar, the value of hard work as well. And that's very much lost in the world. But thanks to Greenlight, it's back. Greenlight can help. Greenlight is a debit card and a money app made for families where parents can send money to their kids, keep an eye on their kids spending like I do with my daughter at college.

With the Greenlight app, kids learn how to save, invest and spend money wisely thanks to the games they teach in the app. It's got money skills in it, it's fun, it's really accessible. Millions of parents and kids are learning about money on Greenlight. It's the easy, convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids

and families to navigate life together. Sign up for Greenlight today at greenlight.com slash ed. That's greenlight.com slash ed to try Greenlight today. Greenlight.com slash ed. try green light today green light.com slash ed The unique thing for the ones I see is they create an experience for their customers that is completely different than everybody else I don't care if you're a personal trainer at a gym You're you want to dry cleaners or you know the jet brand? It's the experience because if they don't enjoy the experience, it's not mind-blowing

They're not gonna refer you to anybody in your business can't go viral, it can't multiply, correct? I always ask myself this one question, would I recommend myself as, fill in the blank, would I recommend myself as a dad, would I recommend myself as a business partner, would I recommend myself as a coach, would I recommend myself as a boss, and if the answer is no, why? Like why? Why aren't I, why won't I recommend myself? And I always tell people, like people call up and like my kids are going to their first job,

what would be the one piece of advice? Make yourself irreplaceable. Make yourself irreplaceable. If you have that relationship with the customer, with, if you're so important, you're incredibly valuable. And, but it's true. And I ask myself a lot of questions. I ask myself a lot of questions.

And that's one thing I always ask myself. Like, if I go, let's say I go sideways with someone for some reason. I don't very often. But if I do, would I recommend myself? What did I do? And very often, I'm okay with it. And if it's something that I did,

then I wanna get in front of it and apologize or address it internally so it doesn't happen again. You mentioned something about success. And everybody has multiple definitions of success. If you ask 100 people, you might get 100 answers. But you touched on something I think is important to the listeners. And to me, I have a lot of different definitions.

Success isn't being good in one bucket. It's not about like, I made all this money, and I know it's easy for you to say, no. Success is not about being good in one bucket. It's about being good in all the buckets. All the buckets. It's about being a good dad. It's about being good to your employees.

It's about giving back in the charity bucket. It's about doing the right thing when you do it. It's about standing up for something that you see is wrong. That's success. When I see people that are mega wealthy, they're just fucking wealthy. No, they're just wealthy. That's not what it looks like.

And you don't have to be wealthy. If you're struggling in one area, you can still be good in all the other areas. You can't spiral down because success, the way you look at it, isn't happening. Well then go be successful in the other buckets and fill up your plate. And then what it does too, by the way,

like I can feel you coming at me with that because you feel so strong about it, your physiology changed too. But what also happens is when you, and you talk a lot about this, but when you get wins in other areas, you get life momentum. And people just, I did a training on this the other day,

but like, you're, to me, I look at you, I go, okay, look, the thing you said about associating with these people and their habits, I didn't have a jet card company, but I joined the club where I could meet these kinds of guys. What is your schedule? What's your workout routine?

How do you eat? What do you workout routine? How do you eat? What do you think about? How do you talk? I'm sorry to interrupt you. You're getting me all fired up. Everything comes around your day. You're talking, we're talking about all these successes. They took years.

Yes. Years. I remember walking into the president of Coca-Cola about the Zico thing. He's like, it takes eight years to build a brand in this country. Of course there's get rich quick things and now it's a little faster, but it takes time.

But the foundation of that is your daily habits. It's creating winning habits, winning routines, and a winning mindset. That's the formula. It is. There's no way around it. It doesn't happen without that. What are the unique things for me,

because I completely agree, one of the things that's unique about you and I is we both will be creating this content for a while, and then when we looked at each other's stuff, we're like, my God, we so believe the same things. We say it a little bit differently, but we so believe the same things. One of the unbelievable things about social media

or podcasts like this is that you kind of can peek in to what you had at Marquee Jets doing this. If someone follows you on Instagram or follows myself, you get access nowadays to something you and I never had. You can get access daily to some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world or fitness people or parents or people of faith or whatever your area is through digital connection now.

It's not the same as live, but it's incredible the information you can tap into now. You are my virtual mentor. No, you are. I mean, I'm in tune to what you say. It resonates deeply with me. You're in it for the right reasons. Like, there's a lot of reasons why the things you say

really have stickiness with me. But you are, to millions of people, you're a virtual mentor, and that's exactly your point Yeah, and we didn't have that growing up. No our mentor was my like my dad and anyone in my small town Yeah, me too. Don't you think don't you think part of your life Jesse? You got some life momentum going though, right? I mean these the journey is I think it's the most I mean you're a young man And I but I think it's I think it's the most remarkable journey that I've, if anybody I've talked to. Because of the breadth of different areas. It's just bananas to me.

So let's even move out of one for a minute. Let's go to another thing, because I just would love the formula, because you talked about the formula. So you have these wins in business, which we'll talk about more of them in a minute. But then you like go, like I'm gonna go run like ultra marathons.

These guys run 100 miles in a day. There's some stat, like 36,000 miles you've run in 25 years, is that right? Yeah. What, what? Do you hear that? It's just consistency though. I know the number's big and I'm proud of it,

but it's, you know what Ed? It's just part of my lifestyle. So again, we talk about daily habits. I have a very, very unique lifestyle that's worked for me. I only eat fruit until noon. I've been doing that for 27 years unwaveringly. Happy to talk about that. I run every day.

Why? Because it's all about energy. And you use more energy to digest food than everything else you'll do in your life combined. You'll eat about 70 tons of food in your lifetime and to digest all that food takes a lot of energy. So if you could streamline your digestion and use less energy for digestion,

you'd have more energy to have a vibrant life, to deal with infection, disease, and I have boundless energy. I mean, knock on wood. You have boundless energy, and by the way, here's how real this is. When he showed up at my house today, he's like someone's dropping off food, right? Like, he's that meticulous about what he's gonna put into his body. I also enjoy on your social, by the way, the tips he gives on Instagram about the different

things that are in some of the foods we eat that harm us so badly, too. Think about this. I'm gonna tell you why it's so important to me. Let's say you're a billionaire. You have a billion dollars. You got the helicopters, the farm, the lagoon, you got all this stuff. You own sports teams and everything. And you're on a beautiful island in Hawaii with nine Victoria's Secret models feeding you grapes head and massaging your feet and life is good. Except you got a sore throat. And every time you swallow, it kills. The house, the planes, the lasooses, the grapes,

none of that matters. All you wanna do is get rid of your sore throat. That's how important health is. And there's a famous quote, "'If you have health, you have hope. "'If you have hope, you have everything.'" So nothing means anything if you don't, so I take it very very very very very seriously. I don't play games with that.

So I don't think you play games, well actually it's funny, I think you actually, life has sort of been this game to you that you're winning, but like you, you, I just gotta understand something man, like you do things now and I just think you, you kind of take them for granted. Like it's the same for me just think you kind of take them for granted. Like it's the same for me. Like if someone repeats back to me some accomplishment I've had or something I've done, it just, I don't even know how I feel about it. It's weird, right?

I'll tell you how I feel about it. I don't care about it. I mean, we have an audience that want to know the story and I'm happy to share it if there's value. But the way I look at my life, I'm 50. I'm about to be 51. You talk about this all the time. The average American lives to be 78.

So that means I have 27 summers left, if I'm average. All the past stuff, that's done, man. My life is this window. 51 to 80, that's it. And I wanna do this much shit in this much amount of time. So I have to be mega efficient. I have to focus on the things that I wanna do with the people I wanna do them with.

And I gotta eliminate the other stuff. So like the past, when people talk about it, it's like, okay, but who cares? Do you care that the Dallas Mavericks won the championship a couple years ago? No, this is the window. Yeah, this is now everybody, we're about to go into what I think will be the best 25 or 30

minutes in the history of any podcast you've ever listened to. This is why you're here. Let's do it. Right now. And so, because this is where I think you're literally my brother in life, because we're both unusually obsessed with this. Couple things I want to point out to everybody, things Jesse has said. My best friends and the people I know that are most successful are the most self-aware, you pointed that out earlier, just aware. They're in a bigger hurry

and they have a sense of they want to bend and manipulate time, but time matters to them. And so if you're a 20-year-old listening to this, we're going to save you so much in your life for a minute because you're going to talk to two guys now that are about 50 years old, okay? And for those of you that are in your 30s, 40s, and 50s, this is about to change your life because you and I both, I think this is what defines me and my life right now. And that is my perception of time. And actually to some extent, my thoughts about death and not being here anymore too. So talk a little bit about how time impacts you.

You said something earlier about I've got 27 of these left. How often do you think about this and why is that matter? What's it do for you? I think about it every single day. And I look at it in a very, you know, people talk about relationships in terms of all these different things and friends and relationship with your kids and people, but they don't really focus on their relationship with time and money. But time specifically. And I'm just super aware of it. I'm really aware of, you know, I just climbed Mount Washington

and I got to the summit and there were no 70 year olds up there, you know? I went wakeboarding, there were no 70 year olds out there. And the stuff that I like to do, that window is shrinking. And my parents are getting older, all these things are happening around me. You've heard me mention this before, like my parents live in Florida.

Anyone that has parents that are elderly, if you see them a couple of times a year, and they're gonna live another five years, you don't have five years with them. You have five times the two visits you see a year, you have 10 visits with them. Once you start to look at time that way, those visits become insanely valuable.

So like when I'm with my mom and dad, oh my God, like the TVs are off, I am where my feet are and I'm focused on it. And when I'm with you, I'm with you. This is a great moment. I wanna be here, here. And it's very difficult to be where your feet are. But that's something that I really try to do.

I try to be super present. Me too. And so let's dive deeper. So, see I'm this big believer, brother. The way you just said that, 10 more visits. Yeah, like where do your parents do you? My dad, my parents are older too, my dad's got cancer and I do, the gift of his cancer ironically was exactly that.

I don't know how many more visits I get with him. I hope I have 3,000 more but I probably don't. And so what happens everybody is, man you did that effect to me right there. So everybody, scarcity creates value. And so that's why a diamond is more valuable than a piece of paper. The more scarce something is, the more valuable it becomes in life. The more you begin to allow yourself through the prism of seeing time as scarce. I don't care if you're 20 years old or 25.

Listen to two dudes here. I think the reason we've both done so much young in our life is that oddly we've always been this way. We didn't just, we're more pronounced that way at 50, but we were both a little bit that way at 20. We were both a little bit that way at 25. It's not that I didn't, I thought I could live forever, but I had this sense of wanting to do things faster, of live my life faster.

And so I want you to talk a little bit about, just for you, do you have this sense like I have this weird thing man like I'll wake up some Mondays And I'll go how many more Mondays do I get oh yeah? Do you ever do that? I do with my kids my kid my son's 17 I'm kind of like I only have so many more days I do so you know that the challenge is so many of us myself included we live in routine And when you're in routine clock goes fast I make sure that I create a certain amount of experiences, it's something I call Kevin's rule every year. So Kevin is a police officer that I'm friends with from Suffolk County.

Probably doesn't make an amazing living, but one of the happiest guys that I know. And I went to Mount Washington with, I took my son and his daughter, we slept out in the snow in this blizzard, like in this minus 40 sleeping bags all huddled up, looking at the snow coming down, we're outside, I'm like, this is an amazing moment. I said, Kevin, how often do you do this? We're here with our kid, how often do this? He goes, well, every other month I take a trip that I wouldn't have done on a weekend

that instead of watching a football game, I'll go fishing, I'll go to a museum, I'll do something. And I said, wow, like if I can't take one day every eight weeks, once every two months, to create an experience, then I'm out of whack. And if I do do that for the next 30 years, I will create 150 moments that I wouldn't have had. That's the power of doing things cumulatively. I just, one of the advantages of having money

is you get to treat your friends and you get to treat people and that's the greatest gift and all that stuff. But you also meet some amazing people. The people you meet. And I was in a meeting talking about something with an advisor, and he said to me a really powerful question.

He said, if you could leave one of two things to your kids, all this money or a wealth of experiences, what would you rather leave? And I'm like, of course I wanna leave the experiences. And so that's defined this chapter of my life. You talked about build your life resume. That's brilliant. We focus on so much of our attention

on the traditional resume. Yep. But we neglect these experiences and the more you experience, the more you have to offer. Gosh. The more, right, I mean the more empathy you have, the more you can offer to your kids, the more you can offer to your team, your employees.

And so I have really made it in, and you have to work on this shit. As you get older, creating newness is hard. You got it. There's no newness unless you create it, you're in routine. Yep, you have to intentionally do it. You have to intentionally do it. So like I'm aware of that.

You're talking about time, man. Time is running out. We're insignificant. There's seven billion people, man. We're nothing. So I'm very aware of that. And I don't wanna go through life being the 80% version of me. I don't wanna look back and be like 77

and be like, I always wish I, you know, we talked about going away maybe, you know, what? I don't wanna look back and like, I didn't do that. Yeah, me too. So I'm just in action mode. I'm almost operating like I'm manic. Because there's so much I wanna do and I love life so much, I don't wanna miss it.

I don't wanna miss it because I'm, you know, I'm lazy, it's not the right time, I don't have enough experience, and it has nothing to do with money. You got it, that's what I want them to hear. Now Washington, it costs $18 to park. Exactly, so I want everyone to hear that. So this weekend I put a post out, it's amazing. I put a post out this weekend, I said,

hey, go do something new this weekend. Go to a new park, see a new beach, go to a new coffee shop, like just do something new. Have a new drink, eat a new meal, right? Meet a new human. That's also where creativity comes from. That's where it all comes from. What you just said earlier, man,

I just like, I get so fired up being around extraordinary people who get it because you said something earlier was brilliant. You're like I have this huge life there's not you don't have balance what you are is present where you are like there's no way someone with all of this stuff in our lives we can be perfectly balanced nor can you but these experiences don't require you to have money and and I recognize how hard it is for people to break the norm. Yes. But normal is completely broken. Look at normal.

Everybody's, the majority of this country doesn't have savings. The majority, what, the divorce rate is 50, 40, 50%. Obesity is like a third of something. I don't even know the stats, but they're overwhelming. One out of three people have cancer and all this stuff. Let me share this story with you real quick, Ed. You remember Rick Berry who played in the NBA?

So Rick Berry. With the granny free throw. Yeah, Rick Berry shot 90% from the free throw line, okay? One year in 1978 in the season, he only missed 10 foul shots the whole season. The league average is like 77%. I think LeBron is below 80, career. Michael Jordan maybe was 82.

This guy was 90, okay? And he shot every single one of those free throws underhand. He didn't care what anyone said. He didn't care if they laughed at him. He just kept fucking ringing up the points. Underhand, boom, boom, I'm good. Like didn't even hit the rim.

Since he played in the league, there's been about 2,700 people drafted how many of those people have tried to shoot the ball on their hand? No Zero because people don't want to do shit that looks funny or weird and it's broken The way you live is you rip it up and you don't give a shit and you're like like I'm so aware of my mortality. I hope everybody loves this. But if they don't, it's not, what am I gonna worry about it? Right, right.

I'm gonna go continue to do what I wanna do to get the most out of this precious time. So good. You know? So I get asked all the time, how did I get so much attention on social media, in my businesses, email lists, et cetera? I can tell you straight up, it's been constant contact. If you don't know who constant contact is, you need to know about these

guys. Constant Contacts award-winning marketing platform has helped millions of small businesses, mine being one of them, stand out, stay on top of mine and see big results fast. They've got an easy way to promote your business with powerful tools like email, SMS marketing, social media posting, and they even do events management, what they've done for me in the past as well. You're going to reach new audiences, you're going to grow your customer list big time and communicate more effectively to sell more, raise more, and grow fast on social media. So get going and start growing your business today with a free trial at constantcontact.com.

Just go to constantcontact.com right now. Constant Contact, helping the small stand tall. Constantcontact.com. The search for truth never ends. Introducing June's Journey, a hidden object mobile game with a captivating story. Connect with friends, explore the roaring 20s, and enjoy thrilling activities and challenges

while supporting environmental causes. After seven years, the adventure continues with our immersive travels feature. Explore distant cultures and engage in exciting experiences. There's always something new to discover. Are you ready? Download June's Journey Now on Android or iOS. So talk about that because that's the other cool thing about being aware of mortality because you speak about this better than anyone I've ever heard in my

life. Like a hundred years from now none of these people you embarrass yourself and talk about that a little bit because this will give you everyone right now you're so consumed with what people are going to think and just so you know they may actually think it in the moment but but long term they're not gonna remember anything you did tell them about that I love this. No, I mean, and look, I have my fears too. I wanna be liked, I don't want people, you know, but yeah, I mean, one of the tricks that I do is like I walk around when I'm super scared

or I'm against that wall of fear that I control and it's stacked up and I'm like, I'll say to myself, Jesse, nobody on this planet, I'll look around, is even gonna be here in 100 years. No one's living to 160. So what do I care? And no one in China or Russia, they're not gonna know that the speech wasn't great

or this interview wasn't successful. And that helps me. Me too. Stephen Hawkins, one of the greatest minds of our time, predicted that just the way that humanity is going, environment, nuclear weapons, all these factors, that in 500 years there would be no life on Earth. Then right before he died,

we're talking about one of the greatest minds ever, he changed that prediction to 100 years. Let's just say for a second he's right. Well, let's just say there's a lot of crazy people out there, the environment, disease, Ebola, whatever. Let's just say there's a lot of crazy people out there, the environment, disease, Ebola, whatever. Let's just say that was the case, because we don't know. If you knew that that was gonna happen,

you're telling me you wouldn't take a chance or take the trip or visit your parents or do whatever or go through the wall, of course you would. And that's how I look at it. I look at it like, you know, and there's three kinds of regrets. There's the regrets that you can't change. I broke up with my girlfriend in high school,

I wish I had her back. I can't change that, that's not the case, I'm just saying. Right, that's one kind of regret. The other kind of regret is regrets that you can fix. I have a relationship with my dad, it went sideways. I can pick up the phone and be like, dad, I'm sorry, and fix that, and now there's no more regret.

And then there's regrets that you can prevent, okay? And those are the regrets like, you always wanted to run a marathon, I'll do it next year, and I'll do it next year. And you can prevent it, because if it doesn't happen, you could have prevented it. So I look at those things too, I'm like, am I gonna regret this in the future?

I don't want future regrets. And I wanna fix the regrets that I have. So let me get in front of it. And these are all kind of strategies that I use that help me get over. It just blows my mind how much I, I want everyone, I'm just mind blown because guys,

no one talks about this. What we're talking about right now, you can go watch 3,000 podcasts, a million different speeches, no one talks about this because it's like a really vulnerable, almost odd thing to admit that we both think this way. But I just want to acknowledge something that you just said. I think about that all the time.

I'm obsessed with that. I'm so grateful for meeting you because I know I'm not crazy. No, because I think sometimes to comfort myself from fears I'll think, no one's gonna be here in 100 years. And you know what? The Earth could be by an asteroid tomorrow

for all I know, right? Like there's all these random events in life that I'm holding onto something that doesn't even exist. I just think it's so important. Like the one thing that always gets me back to ground zero is I get one shot at this life. I get one shot at it. I want to love, I want to give, I want to be loved, I want to do good things. Of course, everybody goes off the wagon and this and that, but I'm very aware of this is it.

I remember I was saying to my wife, this race that I wanna run called Badwater, and she was saying to me, it's a 135 mile run in Death Valley, it's like the hardest foot race, and she's like, why do you wanna do that? It's gonna mess up your hips, and then when you're 70, 75, you can't do anything,

and I'm like, I'm not playing for 75, I'm playing for right now. Yes. You know? Yes. Are you gonna do it? Absolutely, because if I don't, it's a regret that I know I'll have. See I live my whole life, you haven't heard me talk about this probably, but like everyone want you to hear.

Fast forward to 75, 75 year old Jesse is like, and then I'm gonna resent my wife. I'm gonna be like, you didn't let me do the race. That's right, I do that crazy regret future thing with death. So I have this image where I go to heaven and the Lord goes, hey, well done good and faithful servant. Whatever someone's religious beliefs are. But then I have this picture where he goes, and you've heard me say this,

and I run this picture constantly, man. It's like one of my greatest shrinkers of time. He says, hey, let me introduce you to the man you were born to be. This is the destiny version. This is the ultimate version. This is the maxed out version of you. I want you to meet him.

These are the experiences, the love, the memories, the moments, the contributions, the people, all the things that you could have done. This is what you were capable of. Meet him. To me, heaven, as I meet him, we're identical twins. Hell, as I meet him, and we're complete total strangers. And that's what that is,

is it's future projecting the regret, which you just said. So not to put you on the spot, but I'm just gonna put you on the spot for a second. So like, our existence, humans, it's like a novel. We have a beginning, a middle, and an end. We reflect on the beginning, right? So like, tell stories about our childhood, like, oh yeah, you remember that? Marquis, yeah, and an end. We reflect on the beginning, right? So like tell stories about our childhood, like oh yeah, you remember that?

Mark E. Jett, we're reflecting. The middle is like where we live now. That's where all of our worry is. That's where we spend all of our time. We think we're never gonna get out of this rut. We're stuck here, you know, and that's where we are. And then the end we often ignore. And let me just put it in perspective.

I'm sure most people listening have not picked out their graveyard plot yet, right? You probably haven't. No, right. So then you're not really taking it seriously. Have you? Yes. You have.

I've addressed it. I've addressed the end of my life as part of my life optimization system, which we can talk about. But that's an important piece. My wife has to know where my passcodes are. Everyone thing has to be in order. I wanna know how I, because it's gonna happen.

It could happen tomorrow. You're not really dealing with it if you're ignoring it, Ed. Like you're saying, okay. I'm glad you said that to me. No, you understand what I'm saying? Yes. This shit is real, man. You never know when it's gonna happen.

If you're really serious about it, you have a plot. You have a plan. Your wife knows everything. Everything is real, man. You never know when it's gonna happen. If you're really serious about it, you have a plot, you have a plan, your wife knows everything, everything is taken care of, that's responsible. And that, when you do it, then you really say like, this shit is real. It's real, and it creates urgency. Yeah, that's another level for me. So I talk about it all the time, I obsess about it.

And I'm not knocking you, I know you're super nervous. Listen, I'm just saying like, do you know knocking you. I know you're super-mild. No, no, no, no, no, no. Listen. I'm just saying like. Do you know how much I love that you say that to me? I love when someone pushes me to the next level, and none of them are like, hey brother, if you're really serious, you do this. That's what we do when we coach our best friends.

Like, hey, if you're really serious about someone you're new, if you're really serious about running this thing, here's what you'd be doing. So, by the way. End of life is something we ignore. Yeah, the next time we talk, I will have had that had that done by the way that'll be done within a matter of probably days like that's just I'm gonna take immediate action on that well I'll tell you how this this whole thing surface you have a second yes I was

driving with my son in the car and this is like one of those moments I hope I don't get emotional but I'm driving with them and my son he's in the back I'm in the minivan I'm looking at him in the window, and he says, Dad, can I ask you a question? And I'm like, sure. He's like, what's a curse word? I'm like, oh, a curse word is a bad word. Those are words we don't use in the house. We keep driving, he goes, can I ask you another question, Dad?

I'm like, sure, he goes, his shit had a curse word. And I'm like, well, is it even a curse word? I don't even know anymore. I'm like, well, is it even a curse word? I don't even know anymore. So we keep driving and I'm like, yes. And I'm like, who called you a shithead? And he goes, my friends have been saying I'm a shithead. All this stuff. So we're driving and he goes,

can I ask you another question? And I go, sure. He goes, when I die, this is a seven year old kid at the time, when I die, what if I can't find you in heaven? And that really hit me because, you know, like the image of me not being here, then my son waiting to come up and try to find me,

and then worrying that I'm not here. And that really jump started me thinking about how much I wanna live, how important what I eat is, how important my relationships are, how important my time is, how important my kids are to me, and how real this window that we're talking about is. I have a three bucket system, and it will be too much to do in this particular,

but let me give you a 30,000 feet. I have, and anyone can do this, I have a list of electives. When you go to college, you have mandatory courses, most of them you hate, calculus, whatever. I don't wanna take that. What about that? I wanna learn how to make money.

But then you have electives, the things you wanna do. So I make a list, and I love that. So I made a list of all the things I wanna do in the year. I wanna run a marathon. I'm doing a documentary. I'm writing a book family trips all the stuff that I want to do Okay, they go into an elective chart Then I have a list come back to it of what I call my sunshine Electives sunshines my sunshines are my daily habits That is and I try to introduce one new habit a month. That could be, last month it was drink 100 ounces of water.

This month is introducing a meditation practice. Because at the end of the year, if you have 12 new winning habits, that's a hell of a year. Wow, totally true. That's a hell of a year. Most of us think back to like last two years, like what have you added that's new?

Even myself, nothing. Yeah, if you're lucky it's zero to one. Right, so, and when I tell people that, they're like, well I'm gonna do three things. I'm gonna read the newspaper every day, I'm gonna meditate, I'm gonna drink water. I'm like, start with one. And then introduce the next one.

So my daily habits, I have a list of them. And that could be like I wanna play with my kids for an hour, I wanna read to my kids, I wanna drink more water. And every night before I go to bed, I look at my list of sunshine and say, how do I wanna put sunshine in my life the next day? I know it sounds corny, but that's what I do. And I'm like, okay, hour with my kids,

and I make sure everything is scheduled the night before. It's like, we can't afford to wing it anymore. So every CEO, top CEOs have three assistants, and they wake up and they come in the morning and their assistant hands them a schedule, says nine to 9.15 here, 9.15 to 9.30 here. We don't have three assistants. And they wake up and they come in the morning and their assistant hands them a schedule, it says nine to 9.15 here, 9.15 to 9.30 here. We don't have three assistants. Most of us don't have three assistants.

But we can't wing it. The night before, you have to have the day laid out. So I sprinkle in my sunshine into the day. And then underneath that, electives, sunshine. My electives go on a year calendar. So I schedule them. The marathons, my electives go on a year calendar. So I schedule them, the marathons, my year's already scheduled, it's done.

I know the races I'm running, the trips I'm taking, it's all in there. All the stuff I wanna do is written in, because I'm not gonna waste away the thing, I'm not gonna go through a year and not through the shit that I wanna do. Then my life plan, my system would be out of whack. But underneath the sunshines and the electives

is this big ocean. And that's all the stuff that takes away from the things I like to do. I have to get my oil changed into my car twice a year. I have to go to the doctor and get my colonoscopy at 50 and go get my dentist shit and all that stuff. I have weddings, all that is the ocean. That stuff takes away from this stuff.

So if you are fortunate enough to have someone that can help you with this, which I have assistance, then you can do it. But if not, then you can assign it and delegate some of this stuff. But if not, this big ocean, which I went 48 years of my life doing myself, what I do is I get it all on paper. So it's out of my head to free up energy.

And what that does is it gives me a snapshot of basically I have 15 things. I don't want to belabor the point. But everything from pets to cars to this. And it's all an end of life. It's all laid out. And I have this amazingly efficient system. I could walk everyone through it,

but I don't have the time to do it now. But I'm just saying, I take it super seriously because you can't wing it. Yep, and they can find more of the detail because I know a little bit about the program and I'm like, I want to... I didn't mean to get off track with it, but I think it's important to talk about it.

No, not at all. Like, I want them to hear this because I think people think, well, I have habits and routines, or I have a plan. Do you really? Because this is what one really looks like. This is what a high level thinker does. This is what a high level achiever does. When your celebration of life is prepaid in advance, it becomes a gift from you to your family later,

because no one should have to plan for a loss while they're experiencing one. Paying in advance protects your loved ones and gives you the peace of mind you deserve. Let us help you plan every detail with professionalism and compassion. We are your local Dignity Memorial provider. Find us at DignityMemorial.ca. So guys, there's something that you guys should go get, which is called living with the monks. Again, I know your listeners are going, are you serious? The same dude also lived with monks? Yep, he's also lived with monks.

So that's why we're going a little bit longer today, guys, because I'm just not going to cheat you out of this. So what the hell made you decide to go live with some monks and what is a takeaway from that experience? Yes, I was just realized I had invested so much in my physical side, run all these marathons and ultra marathons, trainers, this and that, but I really neglected the spiritual side. I invested nothing in that side.

And I felt like to be the best version of me, I really needed that. And again, speed up the process. I could listen to a bunch of podcasts, which are amazing, but I don't learn, everyone learns differently. I learn through experiences. So part of my whole like, kind of like,

build my life resume, collect these moments, and I was like, who are the masters? And I was like, monks. I gotta go live with monks and figure this thing out. So I did, I went for 15 days, I lived with eight monks that had been on a monastery for almost 50 years, and no phone, no anything, total isolation from my parent, from my family, everybody.

And I had a room about, which they call a cell, about nine, 10 feet by eight feet and I lived there for 15 days. It was unbelievable. Were you a meditator prior to that? No. What? I took a crash course in Transcendental Meditation. After you decided to go live with monks?

Yeah, like right before I went. Again, so it's another thing, you're like, you're in the door, now I'm going to figure this out. I probably should learn to meditate before I get there. Yes. Dude, you're crazy. I love it. I love it. I love it. So did you just hear that, you guys? He decides to live with monks. He's never meditated before. Yeah, by the way, I thought all monks were like, were Buddhist. I live with Russian Orthodox monks. The whole thing was insane. I had no idea what I was getting myself into or doing.

What was your primary takeaway from it? By the way, you should read the book everybody. You know, it's so interesting. When I left, people asked me how I felt. And this is going to surprise you in my answer. And and I had there's a lot of takeaways I mean, I don't know why just this one popped into my head But when I got in the car to go back to the airport, I lost all this weight. I'd shaved my head The driver said how do you feel and I thought he was gonna say black thought I would say relax Yeah, you know quiet the answer was proud. I was really proud of myself for sticking it out. And we talked earlier before we came on

about small wins and momentum. I realized that it's really important to me to make myself proud to create what I call an edge. You know, like these moments that you stick, because I wanted to leave, day three, I was like, I gotta get outta here. I'm done. The clock was going, it was like, tick, tock.

Every hour was seven days. And I'm like, this is fucking bananas. You know, like, I'm in my room, I can't even concentrate, I'm going crazy. I don't know, like, I had all these thoughts, like my wife probably hates me, she's probably mad, my kids might come, I was going crazy. I don't know, I had all these thoughts that my wife probably hates me, she's probably mad, my kids might come. I was going crazy.

And I have this saying, this saying that really, these two words that really changed my life, and that's remember tomorrow. Remember how your decision today is gonna make you feel tomorrow. And I said to myself, if I leave, which I could do, how's that gonna make me feel tomorrow?

A quitter, I didn't finish my journey, I didn't get to the end of the movie which I've been talking about that I live by. You know, so those two words which popped into my head, you know, have been something that whenever I have a split second decision, I'm like, how's that decision gonna make me feel tomorrow? You know?

So you don't wanna go for a run today, that's fine, but how am I gonna feel about that later tomorrow? You wanna drop out of the marathon, how's that gonna make me feel tomorrow? You don't wanna go visit, because all your friends are at happy hour, you don't wanna go make the extra calls, or go visit the property, or go talk to the investor, because everyone else is like, how's that gonna make you feel tomorrow when someone else gets the property? So that, those two words have really like, they're tattooed on my brain.

And I think about it a lot. Dude, I'm loving this so much. I'm getting so much from this. It's a really good tool. Yeah, it is. You project into the future a lot, even if you just do it a day. I love how you do that,

because you're going to be there the next day and so asking yourself how you'd feel that day I'm stealing that from you. Yeah that's so darn good. There's no stealing. It's so good. There's no secrets like you know again I'm here for 30. You think I care? I'm here for 30 years. I want everyone to get the most out of it. Well that's why we're recording it right? So yeah okay so last question about another person then a couple to finish. So then what's it like living with a seal so that's another one of his books you guys living with a seal and so take them through a little bit just really quickly everybody knows well not everybody knows that's not true

many of you probably know who David Goggins is and David's a stud but one of the reasons you know who David Goggins is is because you learned a lot from him and he learned a lot from you but you ended up you knew David Goggins is is because you learned a lot from him and he learned a lot from you. But you ended up, you knew David Goggins before the rest of the world knew David Goggins. And talk about how he ended up living with you literally and then what was a couple takeaways from being in his presence. Because that's a lot different than living with a monk. Yeah, I think, you know, we hear this whole thing about being around like-minded people. But you learn from being around people that aren't like you and that are mastered.

He's mastered a lot of things, the mind and all this stuff. I saw him at a race I was running. I saw a drive that I'd never seen. He had broken most of the bones in his feet because he weighed so much running this ultra marathon, yet continued to run to get to his goal. And I was like, if I could teach that drive to my kids. So I was like, anything in my life,

if I find someone interesting or different or unusual or the best, I wanna get them into my life. So I just really reached out to him. We've created this kind of friendship and I said, you know what, I'm not getting the secret sauce over lunch meetings and stuff, would you come live with me? And he came and he lived with our family for 30 days. Yeah, I mean, I guess a lot,

I mean, people in the ultra world knew about him, but yeah. What did you learn? He's just a fascinating guy. I mean, I learned that I'm capable of a lot more than I thought I could. I have an extra gear. I'm a wimp. I had so much respect for him for what he's done for our country. Again, he shadowed me. We went everywhere together

for a month. I picked up so much. I think the biggest lesson being around Goggins was just that I was capable of more. Even though I thought I was operating at a really high level, I still had more in me. I think that's what the people around you, the best people around you do is they stretch your capacity. They see something in you that you don't see. And there's a, see the lesson for me from it is,

and for everybody, because you said it earlier about podcast versus experience, it's like you built this muscle now where you're like, look, proximity is influence. Proximity is, and for everybody, because you said it earlier about podcast versus experience, it's like you built this muscle now where you're like, look, proximity is influence. Proximity is, right? So, it's great that, by the way, it's wonderful you access social media. It's wonderful you get podcasts, because that's proximity to a guy like you they would never otherwise get 25 years ago. But then there's another layer of proximity, which is maybe you attend a live meeting with

somebody. There's another one where they become a mentor. There's another one when they become your friend. And then there's another one when they live with you, literally. So what you do is you pull, and everybody listening to this, you pull the influence closer to you, its impact on you is greater, right? And I think that's the lesson for me.

That's why I want to pull you closer to me. It's like, I want you closer to me because the influence, this is more influential for me than what we did on the phone, than our first meeting. And the next time we're together, it'll be greater because of the proximity. So that is more influential for me than what we did on the phone than our first meeting and the next time we're together will be greater because of the proximity so that's a lesson for me guys think about everything we've covered today breakdancing rapping coconut water owner of the Atlanta Hawks married to the lady Sarah Blakely who founded

Spanx right like sells marquee jets runs ultra marathons climbs climbs these peaks in his life lives with monks but has a seal move into his house. It's just a banana story, one of the greatest speakers on earth. It's just, it's a crazy story. All that in there, I got a question for you, no one's asked you, what are you afraid of? Oh just everything's around my kids pretty much. That's my biggest fear. You mean something with your children? Yeah, I mean, what's interesting is when you have kids, the energy, at least for me, the energy of around worry is very draining.

So even though we're here, my kids are in Atlanta, I'm thinking about them, what are they, you know, today, anything happen, it's just the way I'm wired. So I think that's a fear. And then the other fear is just like not living up to my potential. It's just super scary to me I don't want to be 70 and look back and be like I didn't do this I didn't do this because I was scared because the wall or whatever the reason that freaks me out. Is it? Yeah. Yes

What would you there's no reduce? There's no redo is man You got one I heard you say your kids are four, then at some point they stop growing, right? Four to five, there's big change. And like the clock now for us as a percentage of time that we have left on Earth versus when we're born, it picks so much faster. So it just created more urgency. It's so true. It's so weird how I am.

I gotta tell you, it's like I'll watch a... My own time is interesting. I'm so bizarre. I'll watch a college football game still. Here's how weird I am. I gotta tell you, it's like I'll watch a, my own time is interesting, I'm so bizarre, like I'll watch a college football game still. Here's how weird I am. I'll watch the game. I'll see these kids playing out there. In my mind, this is so, my wife thinks I'm nuts. I'm like six, seven years older than these guys still. There's a part of me that's still delusional. Do you do that? Like I know they're younger than me, but you're reverse aging, so. No, I'm not. But like, I'm only like six, seven years in, then I go speak to the team and I see their faces and I'm talking, I'm like,

my God, I was that age that long ago. It just went by in a flicker and that's what happens, everybody, is it's just a flicker of time, like you have to max this time out. So I knew today was gonna be crazy, but I wanna do one last thing because I just think you're incredible. Thank you.

And the way you articulate things, man, like it's so clear and so easy to understand. But I think there's a lot of people here who would pay a lot of money to switch seats with me, even if it were for two minutes. And if they didn't have any money, they'd give anything to get a couple minutes with you. And so I'm curious if someone could have that seat, they switched with me and they said, hey, listen, I'm not where I want to be in my life right now, whether that's spiritually, relationships, financially, business, you know, I'm just, I'm not where I need to

be. And I've heard you, time's running out on me, I've heard you, I've only got so many Mondays left, so many Decembers left, so many summers left, I got it. And it's got me really worked up, it's got me wanting to really change my life. Well then we won. Because most of it is that's the start of the whole process. Is like, I think this could be a good way to wrap this up. You have to want it, right? Like people ask me like what's the silver bullet?

You can go through all these strategies and techniques at the end of the day. I think people want, we all want the same thing. We want to feel good, right? Like that's the one thing we all have in common. We want to feel good all this stuff money work Accolade it's just all about what you eat. It's all about how you feel. We all want to feel good No one here doesn't want to feel good But going back to your question, I think you really nailed it I remember in this if I can just say our one minute story,

and I was with my sister and one of her friends at a dinner table and they asked, what's the silver bullet? And I said, well, I don't know, I'm not really that talented. I'm never the smartest in the room, that's for sure. But I always really wanted it, I really wanted it. And they're like, the guy's like,

oh, well I really wanted the raise. I really wanted to make a million dollars last year. I really wanted the promotion and I didn't get it. And they're like, the guy's like, oh, well, I really wanted the raise. I really wanted to make a million dollars last year. I really wanted the promotion and I didn't get it. And I'm like, well, you don't understand it. And they were like laughing and mimicking me. A year later, we're at the dinner table with my sister. She just put out a coffee table book where she had to go get these quotes and pictures from celebrity around success or whatever and get all these amazing quotes from people that she didn't know. And I'm like, Jill, she's showing me the book.

How did you do it? She's like, I don't know, I had no experience. I had no idea what I was doing. I made all these mistakes. I would call the publicist, they'd hang up. I'd call them back and then finally I got a couple. I had small wins in momentum. And then from that I got more and I used that as my story.

People buy into stories and I would get more and more. And then I figured out, then I had time to publish it and I called all the publishers and this and this and then all of a sudden I got it all together and then I got a pure product, I put it out and I go, I don't know, I just really wanted it. And I'm like, you see, that's what I'm talking about, that those clowns didn't understand.

You wanted it. When they said no, you kept going because you wanted it. If you really want to change, you will change. If my wife said to me, let's go get better, let's go see a therapist, okay, and I didn't really want to go, I'm going because of her, it's not gonna work. If I wanna go to the therapist

because genuinely I want our relationship because why the hell would I wanna live in chaos? To get better, it's going to get better. So my advice would be like, if you really want it, you will figure it out. But if you're just telling yourself you want it, because you think you do, it's not going to happen. A hundred percent. And it all comes back to the very beginning.

It's getting your foot in the door and then figuring it out. If you want it, you will get your freaking foot in the door and then you will figure it out. I completely, totally agree. And it might take time. I never knew Marquee was gonna jet, jet was gonna happen when I was a kiddie pool attendant or when I was break dancing or when I got dropped from the rap label, but I knew I wanted what I wanted.

Yeah. Up at, you know, the script, plot change, oh, got dropped from the label, whoop, got kicked out of here, plot change, got kicked out of the jet company, but this didn't change. I love that, this doesn't change the plot changes. This has been an unflippin' believable conversation.

By the way, one other business we're both involved with, we should at least point this out. Oh yeah, definitely. So, Jesse and I are both involved with Outstanding Foods, we're both investors in that company, Rob Dyrdek, Caesar Milan, a bunch of other people. You guys should go to Outstanding Foods and check out Pig Out Chips and order some of these.

They're yummy and they're healthy for you too. So we're both involved in that business and we would be crazy not to take this time to promote it to you. So there you go. We're a business together. We are. We're business partners. We didn't even know it initially, but we are now.

So everybody check that out. Listen, today was unreal. Everybody follows you where? At Jesse Itzlar on Instagram. At Jesse Itzlar on Instagram. At Jesse Itzler on Instagram. It's some of the best content you're gonna see in your life and he's doing more and more and more of it too. And it's somebody who, like you guys, you can tell today,

you've watched me do a lot of interviews. You know when I know when I'm in love with someone and what they produce and that's Jesse. And I just really wanna thank you. I thank you so much for today, man. Thank you. Appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me. I loved it.

Today was unreal, brother. Heavy note taking. I know you're all super inspired. God bless you and Max out.