The Jordan Harbinger Show - 498: Rob Dyrdek | Manufacturing Amazing with the Dyrdek Machine

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

Rob Dyrdek (@robdyrdek) is an entrepreneur, actor, producer, reality TV personality, and former professional skateboarder. He's the founder of venture creation studio Dyrdek Machine and host of the Build with Rob podcast. What We Discuss with Rob Dyrdek: How Rob negotiated with his parents to let him drop out of high school and become a professional skateboarder at age 16. The lesson veteran skateboarder Neil Blender taught young Rob about knowing his range when taking a shot at doing something extraordinary. How Rob hones the clarity to operate in what he calls "kill mode" by eliminating the stressors that keep him from living optimally. What venture creation studio Dyrdek Machine is and how it's been built to efficiently launch meaningful businesses that stand the test of time and have an impact on the world. How Rob has the uncanny ability to, as his friend Shane Nickerson says, put himself in a position where luck hits him. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/498 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger show. It's the golden sort of rule of are you providing value? And it's easier said than done, right? I think I approach that in all aspects of negotiating business, anything that I do, that I'm, how can I provide more layers of value in a more dynamic way when I go to ask for something unusually large or different or out of pocket, if you will? I learn the range to make sure that I do it in a very strategic way with the hopes of it actually happening. And I do it to this day and we'll do it forever.

Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets and skills of the world's most fascinating people. We have in-depth conversations with people at the top of their game. Astronauts, entrepreneurs, spies, psychologists, even the occasional Russian spy or war correspondent, former jihadi. each episode turns our guest's wisdom into practical advice that you can use to build a deeper understanding of how the world works and become a better critical thinker. If you're new to the show or looking for a handy way to tell your friends about it, we've got those episode starter packs. Those are at Jordan Harbinger.com slash start to get started or to help somebody else get started. Of course, we always appreciate that.

Now today, man, today we've got a guest who's been on my list for over a decade now, professional skater or former professional skater, an absolutely do-or-die-go-getter serial entrepreneur, Rob Durdek. Guy has 27 world records and counting. He's made over 2,000 hours of television. I took a look at MTV the other day for the first time in two decades. It is 100% Rob Durdek. 85% of the time, it's him 100% of the time. He should just buy the channel already.

He's designed dozens of shoes netting millions and royalties along the way. He's created and scaled loads of businesses, and is just one of the most motivated and driven people that I know. He's also one of the coolest guys in media and one of the sharpest minds I've dealt with in quite a while, in the business world especially. He just doesn't seem to have that part of your brain that says, I can't do that. Now, a lot of people know him for the television shows, Robin Big, ridiculousness, but I think the real element of genius is the business mind behind it all. And that is what we are going to explore today here on the show. And by the way, if you're wondering how I managed to book all these fantastic folks, these great thinkers, these creators, it's the network.

I'm telling you the network. Dig the well before you get thirsty. I'm teaching you how to do it for free. Go to Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. The guests you hear on the show, they subscribe to the course, they contribute to the course. Come join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. Now here we go with Rob Durek. Look, man, I know you dropped out of high school at age 16. Were you in a position where you were like, I don't need this? I'm bound for greatness? Or were you like, I just hate high school? And I want to know what your parents thought of you at that point, because they might have been like, this is a disaster. Well, you know, I think it's one of my very greatest negotiations because I just wouldn't have take no for an answer.

Like, I made my mom come in and meet with the counselor and the principal and just basically sold them on this idea that I'm going to be a pro skateboarder now. And that what I'm going to get out of this final year of high school is nothing compared to where I'm headed in the future. And they just agreed. They just, I ultimately put on the sales pitch. And then they were like, my mom cried. She didn't want this. But I had to take night class to get additional credit so that I could get a regular diploma. My last year was my junior year when I was 16 years old.

And then I went to the Munster, Germany World Championships two months later for my first pro contest. To me, there was no doubt in my mind. I said when I was 12, I'm going to be a pro skateboarder and move to California. I was a pro skateboarder. You know, at 16, it was like, you can. continue to sort of set these visions, then accomplish them. There was no doubt in my mind that I would go on to have this extraordinary pro-scapeboarding career, but never would I imagine what my life would evolve into. Of course, yeah. But the other thing is, like, you've got kids, they're younger now,

but if you're, not your kid, but someone's kid comes up to them in Akron, Ohio, or a suburb, or whatever, of anywhere where we're from, and goes, look, I'm going to be a YouTuber. I'm really good at it. Or a skateboarder. I'm really good at it. And it's like, calm down, you skate in the driveway, you skate at someone's pool that has no water in it. What do you mean? This is not a job that exists. Even if it were a job that exists, what are the odds that you, 12-year-old Dyrdeck, are going to be the face of these brands? Like, it doesn't make any sense. Go to high school and work at the Ford Motor Plant because that's how people make $45,000 a year and raise kids and don't end up homeless. Like,

your mom must have been, of course she cried. She must have been terrified. Because even though you were good and people said you had potential, it's kind of like saying he's really good at drawing with crayons like this he is the best we've ever seen and it's like well that's a novelty but he's never going to make a living doing that right yeah that was the fear right so of course how did i mitigate that fear yeah hey i'll do this if it doesn't work out i'll go go to college yeah that settled everything made it real clear because of course as you can imagine a path for a a mother in the midwest is like your only path to survival is getting a college degree. Yeah. So as long as you keep sending that out there, you know, so much so that, you know,

I joke about how it wasn't even that many years ago that she asked me if I had enough money saved for college. And this idea that like, I'm still going to somehow go to college and get an education that's going to change my life beyond this life and legacy that I have already built. You know what I mean? So it was also like, you know, you kind of started out like, how would I say it to like somebody else or somebody else attempting to do it? I'm always for like, take. the shot. Like, take the shot and, but understand sort of the pathway you actually have to begin to achieve to see if it's actually working, right? Like, create a milestone. Like, what's the first milestone? Okay. Like, if I'm a pro skateboarder and, you know, most pro skateboarders are making

no money. It's like, the first milestone is, can you make enough money to not get a job? Mm-hmm. Right. And so when I did that, I got guaranteed a thousand dollars a month to move to California. How old were you? I was 16. So that was ridiculous money. Like you'd never seen $1,000 in one place at any time probably at that age. I mean, look, I felt like I won the lottery. And then as soon as I got to California, people were all over me, wanted to steal me from the company that I was on.

They eventually raised my salary to $2,500 a month. And it was like doctor money. Yeah. I went out and bought a brand new Honda Civic. And it was just like, oh, just off the lot. and this Honda Civic, I felt I've never, I don't think I've ever felt more rich in my entire life when I reflect on it.

Like now you're in like this 20,000 square foot house probably has like a helipad, but you're like, that Honda Civic though and I went to go get one of those noisy mufflers? Hell yeah. Oh, yeah, 100%. 100%. Rims, stereo, everything at that point. At 16, I heard this or I heard this somewhere,

you wrote business plans for Nike in the Gap and you were like, skating's a thing. And this is probably what, the early 90s or something like that. Like skating's going to be a thing. to take it to the top, right? You realize that's not normal 16-year-old shit, right? You probably realize that's not even normal 26-year-old shit. You probably knew that at that time.

I don't fully understand the gravity of taking shots like that, right? Like, in hindsight, it's the story of my life. I do it nonstop and have and evolved in this extraordinary existence because of it. But it seems so logical to me at the time. Like, here are these big brands. Look at skateboarding. Is this evolving culture? And even being able to think like that is because I, you know, looked at myself as a business when I was young.

And I was raised around entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs that constantly were building and creating businesses. So I looked at it nothing more than like take the shot, you know, use some of your magazine photos and get them photocopied and a couple of your covers on the newspapers and add it to your resume and send it out to them because maybe they will recognize. is this evolving emerging sport as you see it because you're so close to it. But of course, neither business considered it. And I still have the gap letter, but I threw away the Nike letter. Like a rejection letter? Yeah, and it sucks because Nike now has a billion dollar skate footwear business. You know what I mean?

And it's like that letter would be just absolute gold of them saying they don't see an opportunity in skateboarding as footwear play, right? Yeah. That would just be gold. I'm sure they have a copy somewhere. and the CEO's like, burn it. Don't let them see it. NFT that.

NFT it, for sure. Speaking of like memorable milestones, tell me how you got your first skateboard because, or maybe this wasn't your first board, but one of your first boards. Because this is such a great illustration of strategic boldness in action, right? You basically just like saw this opportunity

to get the board. You want, and you're like, hey, want you hand me that. It wasn't quite like that, but it was kind of like that. But it is another piece of that. Take your shot. And I went to my very first skate contest. 30 days after skating, after picking up a skateboarder, I entered my first contest. And there was a pro skateboarder named Neil Blender that came

to the contest to do a demo, a demonstration if you is what they referred to it as when pros would come to local contest. And he was leaving, packed in the car, putting girls in the car, everybody, I mean, trying to get like nine people into this car. And I could see him. He had nowhere to put his board. And it was like, hey, I don't think there's enough room for you in that board in the car. And he's like, hey, you're right. And threw it to me. Now, what was it? It was like, this extraordinary moment.

Now, of course, being the ambitious young fellow that I was, I then wrote him a letter saying, hey, thank you so much for that board. I had a dream that you gave me 10 more. You did not. And so he sent me a letter back. that said, I wouldn't call you, I gave myself some curse word name, but he's like, I would describe you as a paddier. Maybe you should look that up. And I looked it up and it's, and a paddier as a beggar. Oh, man. It was this like, you know, take your shot, know your range. Take your shot, know your range. Be grateful that you got it.

You should have just said, hey, thank you. Now, of course, the irony in this is when I started the alien workshop in Dayton, Ohio, and turned pro, for the company when I was 16 years old. Neil Blender was the first pro for that company, and he hand drew my first graphic for my very first skatebook. Oh, wow. Just to give you the connection as it relates to the magic side of my life, of that individual getting into that car who threw me that board, sent me a letter and called me a padger.

We created a company, and he drew my first graphic, and we were pros together, you know, not even five years later. Did he remember that? Are you just like, hey, I'm the kid. He's like, yeah, I guess I gave you a board. I don't remember. I was with girls. They were the only thing on my mind.

I didn't care about the board. I believe, you know, it's a little gray now in our discussions about it. But I think he remembered it 100%, but specifically for the letter. You never forget calling somebody a Padger. Yeah. I don't even, I mean, I consider myself, I have a decent vocabulary, and I'm like, I've never heard that word in my entire life. P-A-D-G-E-R, maybe.

I don't know. I'm going to have to Google it. That's correct. I believe that's it. said take your shot, know your range, how do you know if you're ready to just walk up to somebody and start treating them like an equal? I heard that you went to, is it Miss America where you just started, this is years ago, you walked up to Trump and you're just like, hey man, cool pageant you got here or whatever. I don't know exactly what you said. I don't think you even remembered, but you're lucky

with the board, right, in that experience that taught you you can get away with it, but not only can you not always get away with it, but sometimes you shouldn't necessarily try to do that because it could damage a potential relationship in the future. Like sometimes you actually need to be prepared for that meeting or for that interaction. Would you agree with that? Yeah, look, I am big homie Trump. And keep in mind, like, look, my wife's the pageant girl. And she asked if I could get tickets to the Miss Universe pageant and, you know, the Trumpster, he owned it at that time. And I said, of course. She said, the only thing I want to do next year is go to the Miss Universe. I said, absolutely.

So I reached out to an agent to get tickets. Then they came back and said, do you want to judge? And I'm like, no, I don't want to judge, right? Like, I'm not like, and then I'm like, well, really, I watch more pageants than probably any of these judges. And then I asked her, like, maybe I should judge this thing. So we get the super experience. And so I went ahead and judged that. And it gave me this extraordinary behind the scenes look at the Trumpster.

but at that time they were asking him, are you going to run for president? He's like, maybe you just never know. And, you know, again, I wouldn't equate this particular life philosophy to the Trumpster. I just love the idea that I got to have a photo with me, Mani Pachian, Deshawn Jackson, and Trump before the Trump legacy really began. But for me, it's the golden sort of rule of are you providing value, right? And it's easier said than done, right? It's like when you're going for a big ask, it should be strategic. When I asked for the board the first time, it was strategic.

He really had nowhere to place it. I can take that for you. When I asked the second time, there was no strategy. I was being, I was overstepping the line being greedy, if you will, right? So I think I approach that in all aspects of negotiating business, anything that I do, that I'm, how can I provide more layers of value and a more dynamic way when I go to ask for something unusually large

or different or out of pocket, if you will? Yeah. I learn the range to make sure that I do it in a very strategic way with the hopes of it actually happening. And I do it to this day and we'll do it forever, you know. It's wise. I mean, it's wise to whenever you try to structure a deal

and this is, I can't remember if I heard this from you or somebody else, but it's like you go in there thinking, this is such a good deal that if they say no, it's either because there's something I don't see or they're straight up not thinking straight, right? Like, this has got to be a really good deal for them in structuring. I hate cliches like win-win, but it really is that. But it's like you have to bring such a good value to them that they go, of course we're going to do this. Like, you say no more.

Where do we sign? And you've mentioned to this on a few deals where you walk in and do anything from grabbing this penthouse. And I'll ask you that in a second to some of your business deals with DERDEC machines. but I want to start back at age 24 here again or go back to age 24. Your sponsor at that time, I think it was DC Shoes, right? They told you at age 24, look, we're dropping you. Your best years are behind you.

That's got to sting even now, I would imagine, to hear something like that a little bit, or at least the memory of it stings a little bit. Yeah, look, it was also the reality. When you kind of lost your drive, your passion, your focus, and now you had like earned all this money through having signature footwear and the explosion of sort of skateboarding, and you're starting all these different companies and now you're not skating that much, you're always getting injured. I think it was really his nature to be harsh, but it was also the truth of the situation.

So less pain and reflection and more of, you know, now I look at it more proud, right? Because I took that statement and turned my entire life trajectory in a completely different direction. What was the first thing you did to get back on track? Because I think if somebody said, hey, man, and someone who knew me well and was paying me like millions of dollars for my shoe designs and royalties, it's different if some schmow comes out and goes, yeah, you're 24, you're washed up.

No skaters are old, buddy, you're screwed. But if it's somebody who knows you well, and they're like, look, man, hurts to tell you this. You're not going up. You're going down. Just take a regular-ass job. Like, that hurts even worse than somebody who just doesn't know you being kind of a hater, right?

Yeah, yeah. Look, it does. But again, it's like, there's so much truth in it. I was just being lazy. And my first true action was like rededicate yourself to skateboarding physically. And that, you know, getting disciplined and now focusing on your health and your body and skating every single day and building that momentum. Then, you know, as I've spoke about many times, is then I got, I tried to find a sports psychologist to help me like. be able to be more focused in contest, but he was actually a hypnotherapist psychologist that then

did these tests on my subconscious that said my subconscious did not believe I was meant for true success. And then he just literally reprogrammed my subconscious and then that was it. My life truly was never the same from the moment I got hypnotized by the great Dr. George Pratt strictly to be successful in your true subconscious. I wonder, does that sort of maybe not that specific piece of feedback, or maybe even that specific piece of feedback from the CEO of DC, does that still motivate you? Because, you know, when I hit hard times, whatever,

I try to use negative feedback. Instead of beating myself up, I try to turn it into something actionable because otherwise it's toxic instead of fuel, right? But like also you, when you're through it, you go, like there's times where I go, I'm getting lazy, like, let me think about this thing that somebody said to me. a decade ago that doesn't necessarily even apply to me right now just to get back into kill mode get fired up again yeah look no i don't not even a little bit right like i don't think that fuel is real

i think that fuel was a little bit all of my fuel comes from clarity like the most remarkable where you actually become a perpetual motion machine where you are just constantly evolving growing and expanding is when you have deep clarity in all aspects of your life and then have deeply clear goals that you're making progress towards. When you have these deeply clear things that you know are leading towards you living an incredible life and you're making progression towards them, that to me is where like all energy comes from and sustainable energy. You know, for me, I'm the negative things like, they kind of hit me, but they don't stick with me and they've never really been a driving force for me.

And I'm lucky because my energy and engine is fueled by progression towards creating big ideas, right? And I would say it's just a little bit different because, Jordan, I live in kill mode. Kill mode is like my lifestyle. You know what I mean? Like I'm so optimized and operated such a high level. That alone gives me energy. You know what I mean? Like that's the actual evolution that I have done as a human being.

you know, over the last 10 years especially. You live in kill mode. I remember in an interview, I think this might have been with drama. You talk about when you wanted to be a pro soccer player, right? And you go, I just stared at a blank TV and eight oranges for 45 minutes before a game or before practice.

So you don't have any rituals like that anymore before you do something big because you're already there. Yeah, and I mean, look, you're talking about my existence is so deeply optimized. You know what I mean? I track every hour of every single day and have it tagged and it all pumps into a living dashboard of how perfectly balanced my time is. I track qualitatively each day, how the quality of my sleep, how motivated I am,

how I feel about my life, work, and health, zero to 10, right? This qualitative data that then pumps out these kind of reoccurring quantitative things that I can change that I've optimized over the years. And then I have my core five health things that I do, get up before five, meditate, brain trained, get in the gym, eat a healthy diet, don't drink that I track every single day. So I've gamified living at this deeply, highly optimized existence that's also 100% balanced by design, right? So to me, that was years and years of using that qualitative data to get rid of almost any

aspect of energy drainers that are around me to where it's, I only take stress. from incoming items. I have no institutional stress or nothing stuck to me that I have to worry about. I live as light as a feather, you know. That's interesting, right? So, right, there's nothing generate. You don't wake up and go, oh, man, I don't feel good because I ate a half of pizza last night and I had three beers. Crap, I got to film all day. Let me get a bunch of caffeine in me. Like, you don't have that. Your stress comes from, so it turns out the truck's not going to be here. So we have to make do filming everything backwards and upside down. You're like, we'll deal with it because I feel good and we'll figure it out. We got smart people here. Like that

kind of. Right. It's like it's just that incoming, right? Because it's like I discovered that life was this super simple formula. You looked at it half empty or half full. Right. And that's when I got into like the zero to 10 qualitative data because I realized like I would just wake up some days and look at it. I'd give my day a three or a four and I'm half empty. And when I'm half empty, I hate every decision I ever make. I'm like, why did I even buy this house? Like, why do I have so many car? Like, you end up picking apart so much versus when you're half full, a six and above, you can get hit by anything and you're cooking. You're like, oh, whatever, like, you know, like, whatever it may be. And by just looking at, like, beginning to track it through that simple lens, the same things kept popping up

that would pull me down into half empty. And I slowly over time eliminated all of those. That's using qualitative data for sort of quantitative results. Something that you can now point to that's clear if you fix will bring back this basically how you feel type of feeling. And now you do that for years. I've done it for five years. I'm so clear, so optimized, you know, that, because you know there's the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I don't have that because I don't have like this house of cards where one more thing comes in and it collapses, there's so much clarity on all aspects of my existence, all of it, multidimensionally now, that there is no, anytime something comes in, I can evaluate it as it came in as a stressor and I get to see it from 30,000 feet rather than it coming in and imploding my whole universe, bringing everything down, and then making me question every decision in my whole life. That's how it used to be for me my entire life. up until I began to use this process to gain clarity, like clear everything out and get to this level of optimization.

So you're tracking food, you're tracking sleep, you're making sure you eat right, go to the gym, no booze. I wonder were any of the things that you cut out? Yeah, you cut out booze, you probably cut out some of the junk food. Were any of those things people? Oh, big time. So many of them were people. One of the more significant ones that I had to do is I had a partner

that was building my company with me and in all the data it kept being that person and it was a major one because I couldn't just part ways I had to basically blow the entire company up but it was so obvious to me that it's like the only you've cleared up so much of your aspect and this one individual is killing the quality of your work and the quality of your life but the painful part of it was when I had finally decided that we had to part ways. I also had to part ways with basically the entire company because part of my strategy early on was I let this individual hire everybody. Oh, yeah.

So that they could be in total control. And then eventually like then it was just they built the entire team. So I had to basically start the entire company from scratch by disconnecting from that individual. But it was what I'd consider probably one of the bigger milestones of my evolution into the person that I am today. It was the last big, crucial step where now everything beyond that is much more micro decisions that aren't nearly as significant because I'm, you know, I literally don't have anybody in my life that takes energy from me. And I almost spend no time in anything. I evaluate where I spend all my time based off of like what gives and takes energy.

and I almost avoid, like, completely don't spend any time in a day with anything that pulls energy from me. It seems like that doesn't happen overnight, right? Because, yeah, you get rid of a negative person who's in your business, but like, without isolating yourself completely, it's got to be hard to be like, all right, this person kind of dragging me down, but not just because there's a real problem,

but because of the way that they are, I want to distance myself from that. This company, you know, sometimes you've got to take a good look at something like, hey, this line of shoes or whatever, 90% of my problems come from this one place. I got to hire somebody who deals with all of this and then just like exit. But you got to be managing that actively or one day you probably wake up again and you go, why do I have five things driving me down? But let me go back to it in that kill mode lifestyle.

I decided like I'm going to live this optimized free amazing life. Right. Then I began living, designing life inside that framework and now optimizing and automating in that framework. So I've never, all I do is get lighter and lighter. I don't even allow somebody inside the world to take energy. And I have an employee that works for me that I'm, is super talented and that I love to death, but we would get into some like energy issues where it would just push against me.

And I just said, hey, I think you're talented, love you to death. But inside, you are the only person inside my entire inner circle and life that I allow to take energy. And if we can't clear it up, it's not that like I don't love you to death and think you're a great and super talented. It's just you're one of one. And if it happens again, like I just want you to know, like we just have to part ways because I wouldn't sacrifice my own personal energy ever again. I don't need to. And so it just adds, you know, a nice framework to our relationship and a guideline for him to manage better. You know what I'm saying?

But that's also, I don't have to be emotional in it. I know that like, hey, this is how well I know my energy. It's not being stacked on. This is what you're doing to me. If it continues, it's just not the right fit. You know what I mean? And that's with everything. That's with even when I go to how I built the machine, right?

the machine is this system to curate ideas, individuals, and build companies, right? And then it's been automated and optimized to make creating companies more consistent, higher quality, better entrepreneurs, better market timing, all of these things, because that is when it's more fun and more exciting and more energy and more successful, right? It's everything in my life is just how do you systematize and automate, it to where it takes less effort and has a higher quality output, right? Now, you apply that to everything. You just have an amazing life and you're just happy.

When you taught, and that's DERDEC machine, we'll link to it in the show notes. This is like, would you call it a, is it an incubator? Is it a venture capital? It's kind of both. What would you consider it? Yeah, well, look, an incubator is more like where you have, you know, all different types of talent in one place and your testing ideas and trying to figure out one that works, right? A venture capital fund would be you have, you know, limited partners that put up the money and you're the general partner and you go and invest in ideas for 2% management fee and a 20% of the profits, the carry as they call it.

What I am is a venture creation studio. So I want to co-found and create the ideas with individuals and then I fund it myself. Then we co-find it, shape it, build it. I fund the development dollars, then I help take it out and raise the capital to bring it to market and bring it along. It's a bit of a hybrid between the both because I still judge myself off of the return on my capital invested. It's still venture in the sense that I look at every dollar in is what is my return on those dollars. The difference is that I have a staff that I pay for that supports these builds that I account for in sort of my returns, right? But it is a,

It serves both things for me because just investing in somebody's no fun for me. I have to be there and like let's create this idea. Let's talk like when it's just two people talking and then all of a sudden it's a name, then it's a logo, then it's here's the product. Then it's like in people saying now people are buying it. God forbid. Then you follow that all the way to a profitability. Then an acquisition is this extraordinary life cycle, right?

That I want to master and get better at doing. over and over and over again, because it's truly what I love to do the most. You're listening to the Jordan Harbinger Show with our guest, Rob Durdek. We'll be right back. Now back to Rob Dirkack on the Jordan Harbinger Show. You can see the passion and hear the passion

and you're talking about it now, but also whenever you talk about Dirtag Machine, the energy from that, a lot of people go, man, that sounds exhausting, I don't know how you do that. What are in your early 40s by now, right? So a lot of people who are at that age, our age, I should say, are like, they're trying to figure out how to kind of land the plane a little bit or at least get into a holding pattern. And you're like, nah, man, I'm done with my ramp up. Like now I'm throwing gasoline on the fire.

I'm trying to get as many fires going as I can. You can't do that if you have drama queens in your life, negative energy. When you say, by the way, that people who are taking energy from you, do you mean personal drama? Do you mean they're dropping problems on you without solutions? Like, what kind of negativity are you talking about when you say? you eliminate that? It's probably light negativity in the grand scheme of things. And you know what it is, right? In the workplace, especially when you're sort of a driver and visionary, if someone keeps pulling you back and keeps saying, oh, we're like, is questioning your ideas or your decision making, you're trying to push back,

it's like, I'm open to have a conversation about it. I still am quick to make the decision and want to move on. So when someone like would be pulling on my decision making, that would, Like to where now I have to spend energy to argue my idea again, like that is where it can, it'll pull a little bit from me. You know what I'm saying? It's like, then there's certain aspects of operating a business that sometimes, you know, for an example, most creative people don't like financials. Yeah. And if you go into a financial meeting and you're trying to like someone's explaining the financial stuff, it just, your souls, you're just sitting there. you're not creating energy, it's just being pulled out of you, and you're just trying to, like, see the numbers and put it together and all that.

That would be another example of when you're doing something that you don't like that pulls energy from you that you have to stop doing or learn. In my case, I decided that I couldn't be the business person that I wanted to be unless I mastered financials. Right. And then when I finally put in the energy to learn all aspects, I began to love them. Now it's like nothing I love more than going with my CFO consultants and creating financial models. And now I have these extraordinary, sophisticated personal financial models and how I look at how I manage all of my assets and my entire like money as a whole in my existence.

I love it. Where before I just had, it sucked the life out of me and I just had money managers and people handle it all for me and then I would glance over it when I you know I bought a company for five million dollars and glanced over the financials and lost five million dollars you know what I mean and when I look back in hindsight I can go back and look at that model now and be like this is like how could you're crazy don't ever invest in this oh wait that was me who invested in it all right yeah and forget hey I didn't invest in it I bought it you bought it right yeah you purchased it I'm saying I paid millions of dollars for it you know what I mean so and again

You know, like, where the things that give you energy, like, when me and you are just talking and getting going, I just, I love sharing my philosophies and experiences with people. It fills me up and gives me energy. And that's why I can get up at 4 in the morning and go from meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting and then work all into the night on my work night days. Like, because I'm going from energy to energy to energy, at no point along that trip. Am I being, occasionally I land in one that'll be bothersome, right? If it's something that I have to handle, but it's pretty rare, right? And it's just that sort of approach to optimization now. You have to like understand yourself at a really high level, then have total control of your universe,

then be able to design your world around your energy and then put in people to handle other aspects of the things that you don't want to that may take energy from it. it is something that you have to grow into. And there's a certain level of success that you need to achieve, I think, to also validate your systems, your plans, and your ability to continue to grow and evolve and turn those visions into reality that, again, give you more energy to optimize your systems that much further. Yeah. Look, well said, man. I think all of that makes a hell of a lot of sense. And I think people at a certain level of success start to think about that, but then maybe go, I'd love to optimize my energy, but I got way too much shit to deal with right now

and I can't even think about it. And that's exactly the problem, right? You get in this like swirling the drain cycle where you're, there's so many problems. You're like, optimize my energy. I'm just trying to make sure the house doesn't burn down. Like, I can't even think about it. And to me, you know, when I think about the way my life's constructed, right, It's these series of interconnected systems that basically are like perpetual motion that are constantly expanding together, right? So like the field of depth that I'm growing into, I'm just, I'm mastering myself, my life, my time, my energy, my work, my body, my mind, all of these different aspects. But since there's total balance in the system, it's growing together rather than you will, you know, you won't be able to put time into your physical energy because like your work takes up too much of your

energy because really all you care about is spending time with your friends and family and doing your hobby, right? So it's like you're just constantly being pulled by these things that are pulling apart and that you're sacrificing. Then I got to go back and get into my job like, oh, no, I got to be healthy. I'm going to try for a week. Like, oh, I can't, oh, that's too hard. You know what I mean? It's like when that system is out of balance, it's impossible to grow into your full potential, right? And if you haven't defined what your full potential is and what the life that you want to live and what all aspects of that look like, then you're never going to find it.

You know, like most people just think they'll keep working, keep doing something, and that'll be the solve when they can finally go and live the life that they wanted, right? Like, which is what I did when I was younger. It was like, I'm just going to keep going so hard. I got multiple television shows, pro skateboarding leagues, cartoon on Nickelodeon. I'm doing movies. I'm doing, I got all these different lines and products. I thought one of those was just going to be so big that then I would have time to figure out what my life is.

You know what I mean? And I realized like, no, I stopped in 2013 and was like, you have to decide what type of life that you want to create, want to ultimately live and then go and build a plan around that life. Yeah, that makes sense right. Like, look, why am I in a meeting with a toy line and another thing and another thing and another thing? and another thing and another thing, I need to figure out what thing I want to make big and do that and not just like, because you're basically just rolling the dice

on 20 different enterprises and like you said, hoping one makes it big and then you just, what, focus on that? But that's not really how successful people work, right? They plan with the end in mind, they start with the end in mind, and they work backwards, maybe. Yeah, and look, I think it goes both ways.

We've heard plenty of stories of like, you know, you just go and go, and then all of a sudden, boom, one of them worked, and it became that defining thing, right? I prescribe to that. I think a lot of entrepreneurs live that. I think there's a lot of stories that support that. I'm saying it's the most painful way to do it.

It's like the most extraordinary way is to begin to turn the idea of deciding what you want, defining four or five milestones and then doing one after another until you get to it. And doing that in all aspects of life over and over again, you begin to feel as if you control reality. Because when you get really good at like defining clearly what you want, then creating the pathway, and then you start doing that over and over and over again, that is essentially controlling reality

because you put something that didn't exist as the mile marker and then you built a plan to do it and you did it. For me, when I think about what I teach my kids, it's just that. You know, it's looking at everything you want to achieve and breaking it down to the very first task that you, know you can do because it's like the one that you know you can do you have belief now now when you start like making progress towards it now you're getting energy because you know you're making it towards that first milestone and you know that's the first step to actually achieving the big goal

because that progression towards a clear believable goal is what drives self-belief energy passion all of that's ambition and then when you get there then it's the self-fulfillment and I really did it. And now the belief that, okay, the next one, I can get to that one, right? If you set that first milestone and you can't get there, then you are doing something that you don't have the ability to do. It's as simple as that. You can't keep trying, you don't have to worry about the big one if you can't get

to the very first milestone, you know. That definitely makes sense and it keeps it practical. Shane Nickerson, one of your main comrades over at Dirtec Machine and Superjacket, which is your production company, right? He said, you have the uncanny ability to put yourself in a position where luck hits you. What do you think he meant by that? I know, that's a great one. You know, I think he lives firsthand on seeing some of the real depth of how I can create deals,

create opportunities, and maximize those opportunities. And I think, you know, and we were really tying that to sort of like how when we built and sold Superjacket and how I came to him and said, hey, here's the plan. This is how we're going to build and sell this thing. And then along that way, as the plan got tighter and we were getting more successful, all these unusual things kept happening that kept driving us further towards realizing this goal. You know, and I think for him as someone that's seen so much of the things that I say that I'm going to do become realized. You know, we used to refer to it as make your own luck. That's how I used to say it in the Fantasy Factory days.

of you can position yourself to get lucky. And I think that's really kind of true to the statement of what he says. But today I refer to it as art, science, and magic. You've got to be creative in creating sort of whatever you want, whether it be opportunity or whatever it is. Then there's sort of the proven systems and science behind actually doing anything. Then there's luck, man. That magic side is the stuff you could never explain that adds this level.

to push you forward towards that success that I think has been a huge part of my life. But, you know, it's one of those things, too. If you believe you're lucky and you always get lucky, you tend to always get lucky, you know. A lot of the people right now, they want to start businesses, they want to become entrepreneurs. But the whole thing seems like it's almost, it's idea driven, right? And I'm a fan of ideas, but you and I both know that the way you create a brand, the way that you operationalize it, that's really the key to succeeding. And there's this massive gap.

People just think like, no, man, I'm just going to make this idea or reality, but they don't realize there's a lot of spreadsheets behind the shoe design that you want to come out into the world or the board you want to come out or the technology company, right? It's not just like, here's what the app's going to look like. You need to do all of this stuff in the background. And I'm wondering, when you're looking at new entrepreneurs to work with, how do you evaluate their ability to operationalize versus just having cool ideas? Yeah, and look, I look at business multidimensionally. I look at entrepreneurs multi-dimensional, right? So a business, especially in consumer products, right, like it is made up of seven core

capabilities, right? It is a brand, product, media, marketing, sales, operations, and finance, right? And when I talk to an entrepreneur, I'm trying to understand what level of skill set that they have in those seven core capabilities, right? Because even the very best entrepreneurs and CEOs of the companies that I have, they are creative thinkers, problem solvers that have financial and operational backgrounds. When you lean too heavy into creative, like when I build a company with someone who's a creative genius and a product genius, I don't start that company until I've put in a counterpart from the sales and marketing operations and finance side, right? I balance it out.

Where before I'd be like, this guy's a genius. Let's ride with him. But it's like, that was in what I would call my first vintages of 2016 era of machine builds that I did, where I was looking more for the spirit of the person. I'm like, give me that do or die or that relentless work ethic and unwavering self-belief that's going to like turn their ideas into reality. But I quickly, really because even then I still was a I looked at business more simply I still looked at it as right and left brain like hey you're a creative brand guy or you're a business guy right but when I really broke it into these well as doing so me in the first year in 2016 I did like 10 companies right and so like in the following year I kind of began to see as they all came alive see these entrepreneurs

through that lens and then really realize that, like, no, you can't have a great operational and financial mind because they're not going to make a cool brand. They're not going to come up with an innovative product. They're just looking at it through the economics and like the supply chain and how this thing could be a great business, but they don't understand how to connect with the consumer and build something people care about. Then the people that are passionate and have amazing ideas, they only see, they don't even understand the economics of their idea.

They don't understand the cost. structure of what it even costs to even market the product and where the sales channel ultimately can be and ultimately what does it even cost to operate the entire business and then how does that whole business tie into a financial model that's actually sustainable, profitable, or creating enough value to be acquired one day. It's very rare, right? So it's also why it's hard for me to not partner with super experienced entrepreneurs. You know, like when I build a company, I'm looking for, you know, people that have been through a couple builds before and have sort of learned all these aspects of business. Then to a step even further,

it's hard for me not to build a company with good founder market fit. Meaning, you know, when I built Mind Right, it's with Chris Bernard, who is the CEO of another Better For You CPG company. When I built Luso Cloud with John Bouchemmery and Chris Noyes, a comfort footwear brand, they both have 20 years of footwear experience, right? It's now, you know, building these ideas with experienced entrepreneurs. So the learning curve is then then evaluating their overall ability through those seven core capabilities, then filling in their gaps and then supporting them by creating shaping and building an extraordinary brand to give them the best shot to go find product

market fit to where then you can pour money on it. scale it and then have it be acquired or be profitable depending on the type of build it is. You got to make sure those people can dance too, right? Because if you get a creative and then you get the so-called left brain or whatever person, you got to make sure the left brain person isn't killing the creatives mojo and the creative isn't going like draining the shit out of the guy who's got the spreadsheets and that we're just going, I can't work with this guy. Every day it's a new thing and I got to redo the model. You kind of put them in the ring and see if they can actually do the work. But think about it, you're still an entrepreneur, right?

Yeah. When it's that creative guy that would push back into no man's land, the same way when I start a company, I build, before we ever signed paper, in my opportunity package, I put together what I call the unified theory. And it is a financial pathway that's the model that leads to the amount of capital that's going to be needed to grow the business to a target acquisition price or a target profit number. And how much ownership that my co-founder partner will have, how much dilution will happen through capital investment and giving away warrants to key employees, and how long it will take and what

it will trade for, you know, in the case of a footwear brand, it would trade for four to six times revenue. And the goal is to sell it for $150 million. How much money my co-founder will make at that acquisition if we follow the plan according to what it is. That is a before you start win mentality, right? It is this is how much money if we do this, this brand, this right way that we will both make in five years. Do you want to do this? Right?

Because what I don't want is somebody that like, I just so passionate about their idea that they're not, it's still not about creating a return or building a financial story, right? and people that that will disrupt that will put creative over what's best from a financial side are just people I would never build a company with, right? So that, and again, this is evolution and growth and continual expansion of and depth of experience and field because also keep in mind, I sit at the center of all that as their sort of super experienced Sherpa co-founder with a team of people around me where we're constantly guiding and shaping and trying to make sure, like, helping with all the micro pivoting and

look out for this and that's not working. We should add this in here. Like, that's our other value that makes us extraordinarily unique compared to, say, a traditional venture fund or even an incubator. Like, we really, we say build together bound forever. The moment me and you decide to do a company, and I cut the first check in, we are bound for life. You are now part of, Like my ecosystem, my ethos, every, you're part of my soul and my legacy, right? So it's different for me. And we're going to fight to make this thing win no matter what, right? And even at that point, when I do that, I turn you into a gold action figure.

Because to me, it's like, let's commemorate this moment. You literally do that? Like, there's a gold action figure of like your co-founder in whatever era. All of them. That's done. And then when we sell a company, I do a championship trophy. that's a giant gold championship trophy. I keep one and give one to my co-founder.

And then I make 24 limited edition bottles of wine that I call the liquidity vintage that are designed completely like Deerdick Machine and whatever the brand is, that I sign a number all of them. Then I give 12 to the founder and keep 12 for myself. And so of the five companies we sold,

we have five exit trophies, and then all the vintages, from the liquidity vintages from those five companies. So when I look out 20 years into the future, it is just like my Hall of Fame of gold action figures, exit trophies, and liquidity vintages that mark the legacy of all of the brands that I helped create with amazing co-founders.

I love that. I think that's not only a fun idea, but it also sort of brings everything into perspective. Like, this is how serious we are. You are cast in precious metal. So we can't be like, it sort of sets the tone like this is serious. Like this is real now.

Like we're doing this. It's not just like you made a website and a business card. Like this is a real thing that's got to happen now. I wonder what red flags you look for when people knock on your door with a new thing. Because if you're casting somebody in a gold figurine and looking at like do or die, we're seeing this through to the end, there's got to be some stuff people come to you with and you go, love it. But this thing that he's doing, we're never going to be able to fix that.

I cannot work with this person. negativity, cool. What else? Yeah, I mean, look, it's why our process has this unusual diligence period, right? So we are in the machine method is basically our process to create businesses. And the first phase is discovery, right? It's like, hey, you've got an idea. Let's do a deep market immersion and come up with an opportunity hypothesis to see, like, is this white space?

Is there a real opportunity? Is the market sort of trending? Like, would somebody buy this? You're looking at these fundamentals, right? But then when we go into our diligence phase, we basically create a beta version of the entire business. So together now with this individual, we begin conceptualizing ideas and building financials and start developing marketing plans and thinking about like who would be great investors and where would we get it manufactured.

You start basically, you spend about six weeks building a beta version of this business on paper. And in that period, you begin to. to understand everything about them, right? You begin to see where their skill sets are deeper and thinner, but above all, you just see if you like working with them, right? Because it's like when you go into building this, it's a real collaborative thing. And if they're canceling meetings and missing and then having deliverables in this process and not doing it and then like, then you're talking about an idea and they keep pushing back

on like, no, like they're hard. They're not collaborative. it becomes so extraordinarily clear to me that like it's not worth my time. Don't care how good the idea is. Don't care how good the idea is because I know that the game is a long one. And it's like that you are together and you're married. It is a shotgun wedding over those six weeks. But the moment I cut that check, right?

Like, and keep in mind, the minimum check I cut is like $2.50 into that first one. Right. So at the bottom, the least I would ever cut into you is $2. 150 grand, right? And upwards of a few million. So it's like, before I cut that check, I want it to be someone that I'm going to enjoy every meeting with. Again, back to this controlling your life and your energy. I would never compromise building with somebody that I didn't think would be amazing and fun because it would then compromise my entire system because I would never want to like lay into my weekly meetings like, oh, now I got to meet with this guy. Yeah. Jordan.

And again, this guy kills me. Yeah. He's always complaining. He always shows up two minutes late. Yeah. But that is, again, optimizing it even further, right? And then I'm getting, your intuition gets deeper. You know, I built, you know, 14 companies have a 15th one going right now that's coming

out in a couple weeks. And it's like, by doing so many, your depth of knowledge and debt becomes so much broader, your feel for who are really high quality entrepreneurs and people. people you would actually want to build with and your process just gets better and better, which makes the probability of success higher and higher, right? Which then makes the fun and the energy higher and higher because business is amazing when it works. It is horrible when it doesn't. It is so painful.

And then you're just, you're trying all these different things. You don't know what. Then it's like your question and everything. You know, it is when it finds that road, that is the. the darkest of dark roads, you know, and I've been there many of times, you know. I think a lot of, I think anybody who started a business or two has been there before, and it's got to be, I've never been divorced or anything, knock wood, right? But I would imagine it's got to be kind of on par with that, maybe divorce with kids or maybe divorced with kids, depending on how successful your business was.

Yeah. You know, what's interesting about you is that normally when people are this, like, intense and systemized, they also have a backlash of some sort or there's a downfall of some sort. Either they struggle with mental health stuff or depression or they're intense in everything they do and they party until their freaking face falls off or they got three kids and three different mamas or whatever. But you have intensity. You kept a focus and you didn't fall off the edge, right? You didn't hit any pitfalls. So you have risk tolerance, but you haven't taken a bunch of unnecessary risks other than buying a company for $5 million, which is like at least that was the biggest problem, right? That's a good problem if all you did was lose some money, right?

Yeah. How did you manage that? How come we're not reading a about you and the inquirer, you know? Yeah, you know, it's funny because I think there's a sense of, you know, your personal limiting beliefs, right, of like what's possible, right? Like, I think a lot of times when a question is proposed like that, there's almost like it's this believability that you can operate at this level without there being some other force behind it, right? Yeah.

And it tends to come from, you know, I believe more of a personal lens on what you believe would be possible, right? And to me, you know, I always refer to it as like passionately compelled. Like my drive was always like around. I just felt compelled to create another thing. Right. And so, okay, cool. That's not fueled by some dark like high and low like type of aspect. Even though I ran in waves my whole life, right, it wasn't like dark waves, right? It was just work really hard, relax, work really hard, relax. It was really like how sustainable was the way that you operate. And again, when I self-evaluated what was preventing the same sustainability,

and then I used those systems to make myself more sustainable, more consistent, eventually turning these ways of being into living. I don't even like question. I get up five, seven days a week, every day of the week. Like I don't even like, you know, really I get up before half the time, right? it's like whenever I need to sleep, it's like, I meditate every single day. I don't like even think about like, I'm this out, let's put it in here and do it. Like, I don't even like, it's just evolved to such a place.

Now, the drive was ultimately mastering your energy, your time, but your happiness. When are you at your most happy? And it's like I was fortunate enough that I was also given, you know, the structure of the way that sort of television worked for me and the way that I lived in these businesses that I was given a lot of extra time, but while still achieving success to find that balance and that sort of perpetual motion. But again, as I began to see the results, as I began to get more clear, as I'm making progress towards this ideal life I put on paper in 2014, it's like the life that I'm living now and, you know, call it, if I finished my life design in 2015, call it about six years ago.

And this is like the life that I wanted to live in my lifetime. I am about 75% to that life. And I feel like I've won the lottery like 90 times. And I don't practice gratefulness. I will like just be, I will be walking up the stairs and be like, I am so lucky. I'll be overwhelmed with gratitude by just the life that I have been able to generate for myself. So I only say this to as I'm making progress towards this over these last few years, it's like, oh my God, you're really going to live this life. You're really going to create this life. And to me, that then fuels the energy, the drive, keeps you more discipline.

Now it's like the amount of output that you're doing is increasing driving you closer to those goals. It's like how you feel about yourself, how your relationships are, like your time. your energy, your happiness, all of it's getting better and better and better every single month, every quarter, every year, it drives us even further energy to like you're creating and controlling reality, right? And that's where like the actual drive and perpetual ambition, if you will, is fueled from and where it actually comes from. And I hope to create it and deliver it in a way one day that's super easy for people to follow and do for themselves because I do think that it is the

ultimate way to achieve an extraordinary life based off of what an extraordinary life is to you. And the most interesting thing about it is as you get closer, you begin to see farther, wider, deeper. You know what I mean? And I transitioned last year from, I used to like, it was self-preservation. Like what type of life do I want to live? And last year I transitioned to like generational preservation where I no longer have like a five, 10 and 20 year plan. I have a 500 year plan. Right. And now all the decisions I'm making now with the way I structure my business, the way I manage my assets, like and how I will go on and create a family bank that is creating systems and opportunity for the Deerdeck family for the next 500 years. That is. a transition that I would never have thought plausible when I just wanted a life plan and wanted structure and just wanted to be happy and balanced when I decided I'm going to stop and design

my life in 2015, right? Like, versus now you are almost to the life you thought was going to be your whole life and now you see so much further and clearer off of how you can create a larger impact and a bigger, a larger destiny than you had originally seen before. This is the Jordan Harbinger show with our guest Rob Derdeck. We'll be right back. Thanks so much for listening to the show. I've loved the fact that I can make an impact on you, teach you guys stuff. You know, I can't do it for free. I wish I could. All of the deals, all the links you hear on the show, all those codes. They're all on one page for ease of use. Jordan Harbinger.com slash deals is where that's at. Please do consider supporting those who support us.

Grab something from a sponsor if you're thinking about getting a freaking mattress or some underwear and sweatpants. I recommend everything we advertise here on the show. I try everything. I put it in my body or on my body, depending on what it is. Don't forget, we've also got worksheets for today's episode. If you want some of the drills and exercises we talk about during the show, all the takeaways in one easy place. The link to the worksheets is in the show notes at jordanharbinger.com slash podcast. Now for the conclusion of our episode with Rob Dirk. Do you have guardrails in your life? Like, in other words, for me, for example, I can make a big plan, look at my team to execute it, but sometimes I'll make a big plan. I've run it by my wife, especially, and she's like,

so this is going to kill you slowly and kill me quickly, please don't do it. Do you have something in your life that keeps you on track in a healthy way? If so, what is it? And how maybe do people build that if they're not married to it, for example? Yeah, look, you know when you make that plan, it's going to kill you. Yeah. Your wife just spoke it to you in reality. That's so true. Yeah, that's true. You know what I'm saying? You knew when you wrote, but you couldn't look at it as the plan of, of you really looked at if I did this, if I could get this out of it, then I could go back to be imbalanced and chill and living the life that I want. That's what I stopped doing completely,

where everything that I create inside my world is part of the entire plane. Even though I consider how I balance my time right now, because right now I could show you my entire time spent for last year. I slept for seven hours. I worked on my physical body for about two hours. I worked for seven and a half hours, spent seven and a half hours with my family and friends. Pure balance by design. My entire weeks are fully balanced by design. I take all meetings, podcast interviews, everything inside my time structure that keeps me 100% balance. So if it does not fit within that and then doesn't tie to like, were there any aspect of that that will draw energy? from me, then I just know it's the wrong thing to try to plan and do. But that's very hard to do. It is, yeah. But that's, I have developed the system, have so much clarity and now it operates

so seamlessly and integrated that it becomes so obvious that if you were to do that, do you want to disrupt the quality of your life? Right. So it makes it easier for you to say, that doesn't fit. So I'm going to say, no, you don't go like, oh, FOMO, what if I did this and it worked out? You're like, doesn't fit in here. So since you have that clarity, the FOMO was gone because you already know where you're going. So there's not even a space for feeling like you're missing out on something or for something that doesn't fit into the plan. 100%.

And then even when I went and built the way that I built the Build with Rob podcast, right, it still goes back to serving the core value proposition of I want people that want to build companies with me to listen to this show and be like, I want to build a company with Rob. Right? So it's really, that's the target who it's for. But then when I went and produced it, I did it in a way that allowed me to do it in a structured way where I could pack them together. I could shoot 10 of them quickly and easily rather than being beholden to sort of the weekly schedule that podcasts kind of get pinned to and trying to get guests.

And then the guests now are just my co-founders, right, and the lessons that we've learned through the actual building process. So it's not, I never got to go spend the energy of booking guests or go through the chaos of what that is. is I then can shoot, you know, 10 in a week and have them done out so I can optimize my time in the same efficient way that I shoot television, right? So even that I approach it, then it's purpose now is to showcase my way of thinking on the right platform, but ultimately to attract people that are like, I want to build a company with Rob. That's sort of like of doing it in an efficient way versus like I'm backed out of doing a business. television show, right? Because it's like, I don't, what am I going to get out of doing a business

television show other than it taking a lot of time and energy? And ultimately, I'm not, I've got to create a narrative that's not creating the value of what's going to serve what is my bigger plan, which is ultimately a higher quality entrepreneurs to put through my system to create amazing, extraordinary, profitable businesses, acquireable businesses with, right? That then kicks out the money that supports essentially the lifestyle that I want to live that gives me the time to balance the people around me to be optimized and live this perpetually happy balanced life. It all connects together seamlessly. Sure. No, and you only get that from working backwards and getting in the clarity that comes from that. Otherwise, you just go, Shark Tank wants me to be on. Oh, yeah, awesome. Clear my next six

months because I got to go do that. And then you're like, man, I'm six months behind all this stuff. This is failing. This is failing. This is failing. My wife's piss because she hasn't seen me. My kids are like, where's daddy? And then you're just like, oh, no, it'll be over soon. And then one day you're 60 and you're like, man, I screwed all that up pretty bad. But I'm rich, right? Right. Maybe.

And then, yeah, imagine then you're not. Yeah. And it's like, you know, for me, it's like even I then have all of my personal assets in cash producing passive income. So I invest in my high risk, high return ventures creations, right? And then all capital that's made kicks then down. into a non-correlated group of cash producing assets that then I keep my personal lifestyle within that dividend, right? So it doesn't matter how much money I make in a year. I pump that into a system. So essentially, the life that I live has nothing to do with my television,

has nothing to do with my businesses, right, which then for me gives me this deeper sense of security, deeper sense of clarity on even when I make a lot of money, where does it go to? What is the purpose of that? Then it keeps me disciplined on my personal spending and my financial structure, but then just gives me absolute and total freedom, right? Because it's the ultimate freedom, right? And so again, I learned that I needed that through my qualitative data. I realized one of the major things was like how I treated money and what I invested in was always bringing me, making me feel empty because I felt lost about how I was handling my own personal finances. And so when I finally stopped, learned all that, then began to build a strategy,

now optimize that strategy and now learned it at a really high level. I not only eliminated it, but my entire quality of life now is at this extraordinary level because of it, right? the amount of things like that that I was able to do over just using qualitative zero to 10, how do I feel each day about life, work, and health? There are thousands of things like that that I slowly cleared and optimized because the only way they became aware, aware of them specifically is when they kept happening over and over, right? And then as you begin to clear them out, it translates all the way into so many different aspects of your life. But for me, it's also perpetually getting clearer and clear and clearer,

mastering yourself further and further and further and getting more depth that allows your existence now to be effortless. Effortless and balanced with purpose and happy, and you never disrupt that. And when something does disrupt it, like an employee, you can have a frank, simple conversation of this is how clear that you're the only thing in here that's disrupting it. If it happens, we're going to have to move on.

You set the groundwork, there's your guardrail. Like your existence is so clean, you know. But again, easier said than done. Yeah, of course. You know, I've been speaking a lot about it. You know what I mean? I'm a systems thinker. But I think anybody that has push and pull from life,

you don't have your systems integrated if you have that push and pull. And they're not all growing towards your ideal life. You're picking things to try to grow to that you think will make you your life. You know what I mean? Right, exactly. Yeah, you're chasing something like shiny objects because you think. instead of creating a system that insulates you from that stuff so you can focus on the things that matter, which you already have identified because you're working backwards and getting that clarity.

No, this all makes a lot of sense. It absolutely does. In like the remaining sort of five minutes here, look, you've got a lot of kids, you've got a wife, you haven't, nobody's, we're not reading tabloids about how that's all messed up or anything. I kind of brought that up earlier, and I like that. And I've heard from drama and other mutual friends of ours that you have these meetings with your family and there's like goals and you systemize the family stuff in some way too. And I would love to hear about that. I'm a new father. I got a 20-month-old baby.

And we do like monthly, he doesn't join yet, but we do like monthly wrap-ups. Like, what did we do this month that was good? What were our wins, losses? What do we want to do next month? It's not super intense, right? Because it's still family. It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to keep everybody energized.

It's not like, oh, you got a 98 out of 100? Well, you fail now as a son. You know, I try to keep it cool. But I'm wondering what you do because I feel. like you've put some thought into this probably yeah and i mean look for me it's also my children are raised in this extraordinary energy you know it's like me and my wife don't fight there's never you know i was like joking with my son last night like if you ever seen uh me mad at mom he's like he's like gave me a face like come on like no and i'm like you know i don't know what we were joking about but i'm treated as

the most precious thing that i have right i relentlessly optimize but i relentlessly optimize both my family time, energy, and my time energy with my wife, right? And this is beyond, like,

the weekly meeting, right? So we have evenings that we just talk. We have evenings that, you know, we're going to start, we actually start this week

of going to movies. We have morning breakfast dates. We have two evening dates, right? Like, we have every Friday, a weekly family sink where we have a living document

that's everything to do do with our entire lives that we go through with the assistance to like make sure we're on the same page like looking at a month ahead every single thing to do with all aspects of our lives every day I get up and I bring my wife coffee at 615 every single morning and I send her an email every day of everything I'm doing in that day and a personal note of what it means to me and with a love quote on it every single day. And that was because she felt lost to me doing so much and would hear me talking about something

and would feel bad. Like, I never heard about that. Like, I didn't know you were doing that. Right. So I said, okay, you want to know what? And then she'd be like, what are you doing? Like, where are you? Like, I didn't know you were like.

And I'm like, it was a pull for her of feeling left out. How do I solve it? I'm going to send you an email every day of everything I'm doing that day. Right. So then now that solved it. I put the cherry on top. at the love quote. Razzle dazzle.

A little bit of razzle dazzle. She want to start getting up early. I said, I'll start bringing you a coffee at 615 every day, right? So during the day, we have a break and just sit and talk for a half hour in the middle of the day. I break for a half hour before my kids go to sleep and when they wake up for their naps, right? I spend the first half hour after my kids get up every day with them and then FaceTime my my parents twice a week on the heels of that so that we are connected as a family always. Once a week, then we do a full family meeting, all four of us where we shoot a photo with each other,

and then we lay in what we're grateful for, what we learned, what we look forward to, just getting them used to the sort of rhythm of meeting as a family. Once a week, we write down, what did we win? What are we celebrating this week? And we roll it up and put it in a bottle. And at the end of each year, we dump it all out and read the whole year's worth of what we celebrated. it is the system itself. You know, and even to this day, every day I have my wife, like, just email me so we have proof of it.

Because, you know, she's not fully bought into, it reminds me like Ray Dalio and like his family trying to be bought into like radical transparency. Yeah. Can you, like, how far can you go, Ray? You know, is it a meritocracy like with your family, right? Like, for my wife, I said, just, I'm not telling you to use this qualitative data. but for me, if you can just say zero to 10 how you feel about our relationship, then I have a gauge of your deeper feeling of feeling like we're balanced or unbalanced. So it becomes another tool for me that I now have, I can also show to her like look, look how strong the month was. Like look how,

you know, like if she's down or feeling like, I don't know, like there's data points, but it also is now this point for me of like, hey, you're obviously. you're, if she's feeling like down about the relationship, you, you haven't been engaged enough or you've been too focused on other things, you know, because even with that much balance now, designed balance, it's still, it's just baseline, right? Like, I still have to like go off of how I'm feeling, how we're feeling and make changes and shut a day down and just take her out to go get some dinner and go drive around for a couple, just to get, because her feelings like may be based off of something going on in her life. But sure.

What this allows, and then I have this incredible adaptivity inside the system, even though we have these date nights, no, I need to take her out right now. She's just like she's hangary right now. I should just take, stop what I'm doing and go get her get some food. You know, it's that sort of aspect. And so again, if that's at the core of my being in my existence and having this extraordinary relationship and happy life, making sure that that is put front and center and balanced above all is my priority. And then I already really balance my time to where like it's rarely, she really feels like any disrupt in the flow, right? Because then I have, you know, this deep cadence and consistency that like then you can rely on me and my energy as sort of the cornerstone and anchor of our family, right? Which again is because you take it all the way out. You're so clear. You're so optimized. You're so energized that it's like you can be that rock and you can be that consistency now you take that to that's how your kids are raised and the only thing that i like i wake these kids up every day like welcome to another extraordinary day in your amazing life you know and it's like do you say that i hope you say

that i do every single day and then i'm like you can do anything why it's like because i believe in me right it's like full like and i say we're we're hard workers when he's like i don't want you to work i'm like man I just love working, man. Like, you know how much you love playing with, like, the Superman toy? That's how I feel and these calls and stuff. I just love it. Because I want them in an effort to build a generational, multi-generations of what it means to be a deer deck.

It's like hardworking, happy, lucky people. You know what I'm saying? And it's like to them, like, they're hard. If you ask them, what are deer decks? They'll be like, hard workers. You know what I mean? And I want that hard work to be learned as a living, the life you want to live. Work hard to live the life. Work hard at the things you love doing that

give you energy like the right way. Not the get you. I hope you have the same drive as me. Right. And you have your willing, you know, to me it's like your version, if you have a life where you would, you want to golf most of the time and you want to live in a condo and have a Honda Civic and live balance, that's your balance because you'd rather be with your friends golfing. Cool. Right. I just want to make sure that you learn how to design that life and live that life, live a life of energy, rather than live a life of constantly battling and highs and lows and struggles. That's really like my main goal when it comes to what I want to teach my children. That is a great place to end it and right on time, man.

Dude, I love it. Thanks for going deep. You know, you never know what to expect in interviews because sometimes people just want to deliver talking points. I didn't think you were going to do that for the record. But I've been a huge fan for a while. I really love this message. I love the realness and the advice.

I'm waiting for the press release like DIRDEC machine, multi-billion dollar, you know, Bruce Wayne style venture, just backs the next biggest thing. Like I love seeing that. I'm rooting for you, man. I love it. And I hope we get to do this again in a year or two with even bigger news. Yeah, I appreciate it.

I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, no, I really enjoyed it. Look, and I appreciate your depth and your professionalism and how hardcore you prepare. Thank you, man. It certainly shows, you know what I mean? It certainly shows, you know. You're going to hear a trailer for our interview with Frank Abagnale,

the inspiration for the movie Catch Me If You Can. Frank used psychology and social engineering to pull off a stint as one of the most successful impostors the world has ever known. If you've seen the movie, you know, Frank posed as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer. He even passed the bar exam. It's more than I can say for a few of my law school classmates. That's at the end of the show coming right up.

When I put that pilot's uniform on, no one question. that I looked too young to be a pilot. I did walk up to a TWA counter. It was in a uniform. I was getting ready to purchase a ticket, and she said to me, are you buying or riding? I said, I beg your pardon.

You want to be in the jump seat? I said, the jump seat. Yeah, I gave you a pass. Just go on the jump seat. Well, I learned everything as I went. I had no idea you could do this, so then I started riding around on planes in the jump seat. I walked in a bank in Chicago.

So I went in the bank, and I opened the account and I handed the girl $100 and she said, well, here's some temporary checks. We'll be mailing you your printed checks. Now, because I was young and inquisitive, I just happened to say to her, I noticed that I don't have any deposit slips. Oh, no, if you need to make a deposit in the meantime, just go over there to that table in the lobby and help yourself to a blank deposit slip,

then write your account number in and then use these to you get your printed ones. Well, I wonder what would happen if I encoded my account number on the bottom of all these blanks, I went back to the bank, put them on the shelf. So that's exactly what I did. And everybody who came in put their money in my account. Oh, wow. Frank Abagnale could write a check on a piece of toilet paper drawn on the Confederate States Treasury, sign it you are hooked and cash it at any bank in town using a Hong Kong

driver's license for identification. I could and I believed I could and I probably would. They only saw that uniform. They paid no attention to the check. If you want to hear more from the mind of one of the most successful impostors the world has ever known, check out episode one of the Jordan Harbinger Show. I love this one. You know, he must move at 100 miles an hour doing all these different projects.

But I also know that he enjoys his life a lot because I actually see it on camera. I mean, you see it when you watch him on camera, even off camera. He's like the same guy. He told me that he consciously slows down to enjoy things, like getting married and having his first kid and playing with his kid, seeing his family and friends. It's not just an element on the scale. schedule. He really does try to live in the moment, at least at certain points during the day, because he doesn't want to just reflect on his life on tape later on. And I think that is very

astute and very smart. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that he's a listener of the Jordan Harbinger show. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But it's always flattering. It's always cool. His favorite episode is Ray Dalio, just in case you were wondering. I got to ask him if it was part one or part two now. Big thank you to Rob Durdeck. Check out Durdeckmachine.com. We'll link to it in the show notes. Links to everything will be in the website in the show notes. Please use our website links if you buy any books from the guest, any guest on the show. It helps support the show the worksheets for this episode in the show notes. Transcripts in the show notes. Video of this interview going up on our YouTube channel, Jordan Harbinger.com slash YouTube,

and I'm at Jordan Harbinger on both Twitter and Instagram. Or hit me on LinkedIn. I love connecting with you there as well. I'm teaching you how to connect with great people and manage relationships using the same system, software, and tiny habits that I use every single day to dig the well before I get thirsty. In other words, make relationships before I need to leverage them. That course is free. Jordan Harbinger.com slash course is where it's at. And most of the guests on the show, they subscribe to the course, they contribute to the course. We'd love to see it in there. You'll be in smart company exactly where you belong. This show is created in association with Podcast 1. My team is Jen Harbinger, J. Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Millio Campo, Ian Baird,

Josh Ballard, and Gabriel Mizrahi. And I couldn't do it without them. Remember, we rise by liflifting others. The fee for the show is that you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting. If you know somebody who's into skating, business, entrepreneurship, or just loves Rob Durdek, maybe they watch it a little bit too much MTV. Share this episode with them. I hope you'll find something great in every episode of the show. Please share the show with those you care about. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you listen and we'll see you next time. This episode is sponsored in part by Something You Should Know podcast. Finding a new great podcast shouldn't be this hard, so let me save you some time.

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and it's got thousands of five-star reviews because it's consistently interesting. So if you want another show that scratches that I want to understand how people in the world really work, itch, search for something you should know wherever you get your podcasts. Look for the bright yellow light bulb and start listening. You can thank me later.