The Rich Roll Podcast - How Hellah Sidibe’s 3,350-Day Run Streak Rebuilt His Mind

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

Hellah Sidibe is a former professional soccer player, transcontinental runner, and now 3,349 consecutive days into a run streak. This conversation explores the tenets of the run streak and the architecture of Hellah's relentless positivity. We discuss gratitude, why abundance is a consequence of the way you walk the earth, happiness as moments created with people, and his role as the counterweight to the grifters preying on vulnerable young men online. We need more Hellah energy in the world. Consider this a dose. Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: AG1: Get the Welcome Kit + D3 + K2 + Flavor sampler pack FREE ($126 in gifts)👉🏼https://www.drinkAG1.com/richroll  Squarespace: Use code RichRoll to save 10% off your first order of a website or domain👉🏼https://www.squarespace.com/RichRoll  Rivian: Electric vehicles that keep the world adventurous forever👉🏼https://stories.rivian.com/richroll  WHOOP: Join now and get one month free👉🏼https://www.join.whoop.com/Roll  Check out all of the amazing discounts from our Sponsors👉🏼https://www.richroll.com/sponsors  Find out more about Voicing Change Media at https://www.voicingchange.media and follow us @voicingchange Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I ran this morning. It's day 3,349 consecutive run. Hela Cedeve is a New Jersey-based YouTuber. Known as Hella Good to his massive YouTube following. Run from L.A. to New York in just 84 days. My number one run streak rule, it has to be outside no matter the circumstances. Treadmill doesn't count. I have run two miles outside when I had oral surgery and I had implant and a wisdom teeth remove all at once. So within one mile my mouth was full of blood. When I went to Australia in 2019,

So four flights to keep my streak alive. When you start telling your brain, I'm good enough, eventually you're going to prove to yourself that you were right about it. What do you think is the biggest thing that people misunderstand about you and this run streak and what you're doing? Okay, so. All right, everybody. Your favorite run influencer, runner is here, the guy who ran across America,

the guy who is on year nine of his run streak. The hello, my beautiful. people man himself held a citibet is in the house how are you my friend thank you thank you for your conrood i'm excited to be back it's been five years almost exactly like i checked i checked the date it was july of uh 2021 when you did the show uh so lots to catch up on the run streak is intact you look good you have a smile on your face thank you as you always do you look great as well yeah thanks great good see how are you doing what's been going on i'm doing incredible that's all i can say because I'm still doing what I love, which is running.

And there's nothing to it. Sometimes you think about how the future might look like, and then you have the way you envision the future. But the biggest thing for me was I want to keep running forever, and we're still here five years later. And that's why I can't complain. So in May, you eclipsed your eighth year and you're into your ninth year. Yeah, I know, I did nine year.

But you did nine years. So you're into your 10th year. I'm on 10th year. It would be a decade next year. That is insane. So how many days is that? So today I ran this morning. It's day 3,349 consecutive run.

And so by the time we hit, what, another 365 days will be, what, more than 3,700 or 800-something days. Well, 10 years, wouldn't that be 3,650 days? Yeah, I think that's what it is. If I'm correct, I hope. I can do that kind of math. Yeah, 365 times 10. Exactly. Exactly. Is there ever, I know the answer to this, but I want to hear you say it out loud. What do you do when you wake up and you just don't want to do it? I've never had that. See, I have never had to. Is that true? A hundred percent rich. I'm telling you. There's never been a day in the last nine years where you woke up and you didn't want to go running. No, there's never been. How? This is what happens.

Okay, so there's been time where I'm injured. Well, there's an injury lingering around, and I hate the run because I'm in so much pain. I can't enjoy what the run gives me because you're just in pain. When you're in pain, your mind goes to the pain, and I can't even enjoy my scenery. When I run, I daydream, so I look forward to every single run because I'm talking to myself. I used to ask my grandfather. I used to ask my dad, so what does grandpa always talking to himself? Is he crazy?

Because he just doesn't mumble. And then now I find myself talking to myself. So when I go running, I'm talking to myself. I'm daydreaming. I'm pretending I'm in a race. I'm pretending that I'm envisioning what my future would look like or what's going to happen when I get home or what I'm about to do. Or when I'm angry, I talk to myself out of it, look at life on a different light. So I'm not feeling the same way when I get home.

So I look forward to those moments when I go running. And when I do feel like I don't run, there's something wrong. So we came up to this turn and you're going to hear it first time on the ritual podcast. I've mentioned it in one other podcast. but no one's ever heard this and I'm patting this word. You know, you get angry. I get angry. Meaning you get angry if you don't run.

And I don't even know that I'm mad until Lex calls me out. She'll be like, did you run today? And I'm like, you know what? I did not run today. And then she'll be like, go run. And as soon as I'm out there, I just feel so bubbly as a kid and I come home complete different energy. I have a hard time imagining you angry.

And then the angry is not as angry as you think. I'm just like in a bad mood. I just look like my energy is. down, I'm quiet. Like something is wrong with me and I don't know what it is. It's not like I'm like angry screaming type of angry. Something my mood is not, it's not exciting. I just, I'm too quiet, which I'm never quiet. And you're oozing positivity out of every single poor in your body. Thank you. Is this always been you? Like were you born this way? Or is this something that has developed and evolved? I think I definitely was born in a scenario where that transpired into

my life. And then it got better as I got older, seeing life differently. So, where I grew up in Mali, West Africa, we don't have much. And one other thing I learned right away, when I went back home when I got older, I see these kids playing with these piece of stick. I might have talked about it before where they're so happy. And I've asked one of them, what's this? And they're like, this is a toy. They're naming a toy, but it's a piece of stick in my eyes.

They're imagining what it is. And I started thinking to myself, wow, this is crazy. This is making them happy. And I didn't know that I was missing anything until I came to the U.S. Came to the U.S. Now I'm seeing kids with video again PlayStation. But when I was back home, we could have a little ball, were happy with it. And now that I came to see something else, I never knew I was missing something

until I saw something. So that, I always had that happiness in the back of my mind. And we talked about when soccer didn't work out for me, then I lost that because I started being, being really mad about how the world is happening to me and being jealous, that's the word to you when I see my peers are going on to live their dream. And I can't because I have zero control. So I didn't like that feeling. And then I got sick of being mad. I got sick of being jealous. I have sick of being making excuses. And you're just sick of it.

You just feel not good. You feel disgusted about yourself. And then I try to find ways now to go back to how I used to be. And I always used to smile. I always just have a good time. One of the things that I grew up in Mali that we always did. We didn't have much when we're hanging out outside. We laugh about our misfortune.

People would be like, well, at least we have this right now. Because if we don't have that, that's something else that we could lose. So if you don't have something, we look at it. You have this at least because it's better than nothing. So I always have that mindset. And as you get older, you try to see life from a different light. It could always be worse. Whenever things get tough, I look back home.

How do you stay present with that, though? Because I think a lot of us, if not most people, we have our fleeting experiences with that where we're like, oh my God, you know, I should be grateful for what I have. And we can kind of hold on to that temporarily. But it fades. And then, you know, we adapt to our environment. And then we look around and we're like, how come I don't have that? Or why isn't this working out for me?

Because it's working out for that person. Like we adjust our expectations based upon our environment. Yes. So to be able to maintain like that perspective and, you know, connection to where you came from as a means of like always maintaining this like positive disposition. Like that's like it's a gift, but it's also. work, I imagine, to be able to, you know, kind of maintain that, stay present with that. You have to work at it. So one of the things that helps me a lot, you know, you said you can do perspective, like, oh, at least I have this. And then that can last a short amount of time.

So one of the best example that happened to me in life was in 2015. I just got my first lease in a car. My credit score was 500. And I just, I just delusionally saw this car. It was a Mustang. went to the dealership that Lex's dad recommended because he bought his car there and just showed up, I want to get this Mustang. And they're like, do you have a good credit score? I was like, I don't know. I was cutting grass at the time.

All I got paid was actually cash. I didn't even have a credit score going on. And then they ran my credit, and the guy said, your credit score is $5.40. And he goes, you know what? You look like a good kid. If I get you approved, would you make sure you make your car payment on time? I said, I promise.

He said, once you make this car payment on time, you're going to build a relationship with four credit. So the next time you get a loan from us, it's going to be easy and easier. So I said, copy. I love cars so much. I'm going to make sure I don't miss this one up. So I love this car. I'm obsessed with this car.

I remember one time I was so mad. Something happened. I can't remember it. I was actually mad. And I was complaining. And I said, I'm going to go sit in my Mustang. Like, I don't care. Like, my Mustang is going to be the best thing.

I'm going to go on a drive. I go sit in this car, Rich. I turn it on. And I couldn't leave the driveway. And I'm looking at the car. I'm like, I don't even want this piece of crap. because I was so mad I couldn't even enjoy the car. Right away something, a bell hit my head.

It was like, oh, materials can't make you happy. So I started thinking, it's not what you have that's going to make you happy because I couldn't get out of this anger that I was in and I realized you can't be happy because of things. When I keep hearing people, material, money, all of that doesn't make you happy. I really didn't experience that until I was in that moment. So that's when I found out how I can get my happiness back from what I used to have back home.

So it was moments that I created with people. So happiness to me comes from moments that you have with people and moments that you create with people. You know, you reminisce, or you talk about, remember that back in a day where you still kick around? And then you get happy, you smile because it brings you back to that time. So I started registering in my mind. You got to create moments in your life for the present moment. And then in the future, that becomes the happiness because you think about these moments, how it makes you feel and you feel good. So happiness to me comes from moments that I create with people, even being here,

friends, family, you know, your partners, everything like that. So when it comes down to it, when it's really, really bad, you got to think about the people. And everything to me is about the people, without the people. Life is really, what do we do it for? We get excited because you get to share moments with people. Beautifully stated. You're my new guru. Thank you. I know you love cars. I know you love that Mustang. Oh, I love that Mustang. Nothing made me happier, though, then seeing that video of you picking up your 9-11. Yes. Because I know how much you love cars.

Oh, I love cars. And I just, I was like, I can't imagine how much this means to this guy. Yes. But also knowing that you have it in proper perspective. This is not the answer. You know, this is not going to make you happy. But it's kind of awesome that you were able to go get this crazy car. Like, how old are you?

I'm 35. 35? like driving this beautiful Silver Porsche 9-11 And then I was reflecting on The relationship between your love of cars And your love of running Because your run streak only happened

Because you were obsessed with a certain car channel on YouTube Where the host was talking about Trying to take care of himself And starting this streak for himself And that gave you the idea So it's all a piece It's all connected. It's all of peace.

Yeah, his name is Paul Wallace. Shout out to Paul Wallace. Super cause of London. In fact, when I started the run streak and then I went to a year, I DM'd him. He didn't see it for years until two years ago. He goes, oh my gosh, I've seen your TikTok before. I said, Paul, I want to let you know you're one of the reason where I'm at here today. Now we're friends.

I'm so happy that he heard about that. Is he in London? Yeah, he's in London. So you're going to the London Marathon, right, with Apple? I did that. Oh, that was last April. Okay. I was going to say, did you go meet him?

You should go make a video with him. I would love to. And I'm going to go back to London. Yeah. But it was you're in such a tight time frame because you're doing a lot of stuff with the partners that you're with. It was hard to do something extra outside of that. And the goal was to help pace my blind friend. That was the biggest thing for me.

So I didn't get to do too much of the stuff, but I'll go back. Yeah. Do you have anything in mind to celebrate the decade? Yes. Assuming you're, yes. And whoever is listening to this. But hopefully, I mean, my, my biggest sponsor,

of my favorite brand to work with Hoka. I talk to them about what I want 10 years to look like. And one of the thing I want to do is like a, almost like a festival day, like a hell of good day. Everybody, not being me necessarily, but everybody's going to have a hell of good. You know California to say hello? Yeah. So a hell of good day. So basically it's going to be a whole day where you are eating, you're running.

So let's say you, for example, want to come to this 10 year celebration. You can't come in at 10 in the morning, but you can come in at 1 p.m. because I want this to be continued like a whole day where you come in and run at any time you want it, you can just come and hang out, eat a lot of fun stuff, a lot of give away my favorite things that I like to use throughout this run streak,

my favorite shoes, my favorite watch, my favorite supplement. So that's the envision, almost like a carnival type of mindset I'm thinking about to celebrate the 10 years. Would you do that in New York City? It has to be New York City.

It has to be New York City. Well, that could be an annual event also, like the hell of good day. Like May, what is it, May 11, 17, something like that? May 15. May 15. I've done every year I'll do like a group run. So for the first time ever actually since I started doing this celebration, I did in New Jersey

this year. But I would come in New York City. We've done Central Park, West Side Highway, we've done the Hoka store before. So went to New Jersey this past May just to, because everybody in New Jersey would message me, how come you never done it in the home state? So I did that, which is pretty fun. Let's break this down. So I want to understand the rules of the run stretch.

The run streak, because there is some like kind of tenets to all of it. this. First of all, you travel a lot. So this is an added complication. The more well-known you become, the more in-demand you are, you're on planes all the time. This is now making it a little trickier than when you started. Yes. Okay, my number one run streak rule, it has to be outside no matter of the circumstances. Treadmill doesn't count as a run for me, but treadmill could be extra miles. And I'll tell you an example how I utilized treadmill yesterday. It has to be outside. And then I had a minimum requirement in the first year. You have to average seven miles a day because that happened to be by default. But my minimum miles is 5K, 3.1 miles or just three miles flat.

And I've had scenario where I have run two miles outside when I had oral surgery and I had implant and a wisdom teeth remove all at once. So I still want to run. But I did two miles out those days. And but even after. Like while you were on pain meds and stuff. No pain meds. My doc, my, my surgeon told me the orthosurgeon said, hey, yeah, it looks like you have high pain. tolerance, I'm just going to give you a higher dose of Tylenol. That was it. That's all I got for that. And you ran after, how many hours after dental surgery? So I ran six in the morning surgery was at eight. So I took care of that day. So the next day, I waited until 8 p.m. And when I went out there, he warned me, I don't care. I'm not really worried about your pain tolerance. I'm worried about

the stitch coming, the stitching coming out. With the blood pressure, you're going to have your mouth full of blood. And I went out to run. So within one mile, my mouth was full of blood. And I can feel with my tongue a little of the stitch. This is where the run streak. Is it cross purposes with your, you know, your hella well-being? Yes. So I said to myself one more mile and you're done. So I cut it at two miles. And the following day, it got better.

But those are some of the rules. And also, because it has to be outside, it doesn't mean that I can't use the treadmill. So we've been having this smoke happening in New York City in New Jersey. I don't know if you've noticed you go out. Yesterday was terrible. Yesterday was awful. So I looked at the AQI, looking at the air quality. and it was the least amount like bad air in the morning.

It was still bad. You can still smell it. So I wore a mask to go run two miles outside because the run streak has to be outside. I had an eight mile run, but I put on my mask. I went out there two miles and I came home, took off the mask. And as soon as I took off the mask, Max actually I said, I'm so happy I did this because it was actually that bad. Imagine even being out there for that long breathing that airing. And I'm looking at longevity for my health.

So I went on a treadmill and did an extra six miles. So I took care of the business outside. So now I want to do the rest of the day. So 5K minimum, but not all of that has to be outside. No, it doesn't have to be outside. But if I end up doing a 5K minimum, 100% of the time, I'll be outside until this scenario were because of the smoke. I was smart about it.

I told myself, even Lex was like, I don't think you're going to only do two outside. The way you were, I said, you know what? I'm thinking about my lungs and my future and running. I'll do two outside and then do the rest of the treadmill. So this morning, I want to do two outside. And the air quality is much better. but it still wasn't great. And then when I go home later today,

I'm going to hop on a treadmill and do four extra to get my sixth total in. What about international travel? Okay. So the crazy thing about me, if you ever see me anywhere in the world, my phone is always going to be at East Coast standard time. My watch, it never updates.

So I have mine set up as manual. So, you know, when you land on a flight, you turn on your phone and it updates to whatever times. Mine never changes. It's East Coast. The run streak started in New Jersey. So when I go to L.A., I don't get an extra three hours.

So when it's 9 p.m. in LA, that's midnight New Jersey. If I don't run by them, the run streak is over. So I have to run within that 24 hour. That's my own rule. When I went to Australia in 2019, took four flights to keep my streak alive. Right. Because if you flew direct from New York to Australia, it would have blown it. No.

You would have been on the plane too long, right? So you purposely created stops on route so that you could maintain the street. So what did you like go to Okinawa or something? So I flew from New Jersey to L.A., got off the flight in L.A. May I ran there. So when it hit midnight already, I ran in L.A. So I got on a flight to Brisbane, got off the flight to run. And then when I went from Brisbane to Broom, got off the flight and ran in Broom to get to my destination. And it was designed because big shout out to GoPro. Because GoPro offered me this trip. I told them no because I don't want to ruin my run streak. I said, I really appreciate it. And I told them, the reason that.

I have this opportunity to even go on this trip is because of this run and the run is really important to me. I would have to kindly decline. And they said, what if we connected to a travel agent, we figure it out? And that's what happened. Yeah. What's the closest that you've ever come to the streak getting broken? So there hasn't been. This is why.

You know, it says if it's important to you, you'll find a way. When I even, if I have to catch a flight, I will never risk anything. I've had a six-term flight going to California. I was out running three in the morning. because I know that I'm in control of that time frame. But if I get stuck in a plane, what am I supposed to do? And I've gotten stuck in a plane for a couple hours, a few hours before. Yeah, what happens if you're, you know, they don't let you off?

The run would be taking out of flight. I wouldn't be in a situation where you have no agency over like your freedom. I'm going to say if that's the case, but that'll never be the case because I'll never get on a flight before I run. I've never done that. I would have never done that, rich. I would at all costs. You have to avoid getting arrested. At all costs.

Yes. You know, like there's certain situations. If anything happened, I'd be like, hey, officer, can I run around? You know, I'm a little question around you perpetuating the run streak through injury. You know, like this is like as you get older, like there's the risk, you know, calculus gets a little bit more steep. I also tell people, too, the run streak isn't is not as important as recovery because how am I recovered? I can't run the next day. How do you do this and not be neurotic about it though?

I, as soon as I feel something, I attend to the professionals. Because back in a day, I used to be like, oh, I'm a super trooper. I can fight this. And it will be three months long of pain. So this time, when I feel something, I back off the pace, I back off the distance, and I go to PT right away, a little manual therapist right away. So I pay attention to my body very well now. To me right now, it's not about ego anymore.

I used to be very ego-driven when I started. I'm like, I can do this. Nothing can stop me. Now it's being smart as things happen unfolds. If you're viving on Hela, I'm talking to the audience, you should check out our first podcast from five years ago because we kind of tell your whole backstory. So I'm not going to do that today. But I did write down just some fun questions that I thought I could ask you. What are the polymarket odds on how long this streak is going to go?

So I love that question because I have no idea. And I always say the only answer I have to this is if I pick a date, let's just say 10 years, I would settle, do the bare minimum to get to 10 years. it'll allow me to just, you know, your body will, your mind gets to this situation where you're just going to do what it takes to get to that point because you already calculate in your head. Yeah. So I don't want to have a date. I'm just going to let it go.

So you don't think about. No, I don't think about it at all. I mean, this is a very AA thing one day at a time. Like, all you can do is like, okay, I'm going to do my run today. The only way to perpetuate a streak is to focus on what you're doing today. Yes, absolutely. So if I do wake up tomorrow and I absolutely hated the run and I'm as miserable how I used to be before I started, I always said to everybody,

I'll be the first one to pick up my phone. What's up my beautiful people? The shriek is over today and I'll be happy about it because I know the fact that I found this run streak, I can find something else. So I have to be open about that. Will you be, will you be relieved?

Will it be cathartic, like a burden being lifted off of you? Or do you not feel like the pressure of that? There's zero pressure. And when I, when someone asked me, how do I start a run streak, one of the first thing I say, you gotta do a pressure free.

You gotta do a pressure free and you gotta do something attainable And you got to do it because you love it. Those are the three things I always talk about. And the pressure free came from when I played soccer, coaches are always on you. When you're in the back of the line, when you're doing fitness tests,

there's some kind of pressure you can't be last. You got to pick it up. You're too slow. So there's zero pressure there. So I won in that section. And then you got to do something attainable. I started 10 minutes a day because I didn't know how my body would react. 10 minutes was definitely attainable.

I could have done more than that, but I didn't know how long I could keep that up. So as that time went on, 10 minutes started feeling like nothing. So I added more. And then the last was because I was like, wow this is not bad I actually like this I love it now it doesn't seem like a chore is there somebody else who has a longer run streak than you yes who has the record so there's a record

of this gentleman 52 or 55 years people ask me that do you want to do that said 50 that I can answer to you no that like legit like verify yeah I mean there's some guy out there yes I think it's legit because you got to take his words and you got to trust him back in the day I wear multiple watches All you had when you run is a notebook and you write it down. So 50-some years ago, that's what he was doing. And to me, I guess if you ask someone who has it from day one on a record, I can be the one to prove that to you 100%. So I have mine because of the digital age that I grew up in.

So you can say maybe something on a record to show, but I don't have the record. I'm far away from the record. And I never thought about that. And I'm glad I didn't know that was a thing before I started. Because then again, guess what you started doing? Start comparing yourself to others. So ignorance is a bliss.

That's the path to suffering. I'm just fanatical about routine. I crave it, I need it. It helps structure my life. It helps me progressing towards my goals. But summer has a way of derailing our routines. Then again, fall is just around the corner, meaning that if you have fallen off a little bit,

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because it was impossible to do any of this stuff yourself. I think about this all the time, especially when I use Squarespace because it's kind of insane how completely that is flipped. Squarespace is the all-on-one platform for building a beautiful professional website, and you're the one who's driving it. You start with Blueprint, their AI design, partner or one of the award-winning templates, and you shape the whole thing yourself with drag and drop. No code, no designer on retainer, no experience required. And it doesn't look DIY, it looks like you meant it. Squarespace makes claiming your name simple, one fair, all-inclusive price, privacy and security built-in, none of the hidden add-on nonsense. The barrier I paid through the

nose to get past, it basically doesn't exist anymore, so there's really no reason to wait. head to squarespace.com slash richroll for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, you use offer code rich roll to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. If you could speak to young Hela when he was a little kid in Molly, what are you telling this kid? Everything will be all right. Everything will be all right. If you just have to stay happy. Just don't lose that joy.

Everything will be right. And I tell my sister, my sister had three kids now. two boys and a girl. My niece is one years old now, and I was like, she's my favorite. I can't let my niece, my nephews hear that. Did they live in the States? Yeah, they live in Illinois, DeKal. So when I see that little girl, Rich, she's always smiling.

And I said to my sister, I said, Fadima, can you do everything in your absolute power to not let her lose that joy? She's like, what do you mean? I was like, you see that innocence right there? She's just happy. We don't know why. We don't know what she's thinking in her head. I don't know if we can do that.

I wish every kid could just keep that joy because I had it and I lost it. What about every person? You know, like we're all just trying to get home. Yes. You know, every person. Just be more childlike in life. Like life just wears us down. Absolutely.

I see it as a parent. You know, you know, on your phone like it put the little photo thing is like memories, you know, it's like, it's always like pictures of the kids when they're really young. And I was like, oh look how happy they are like life is hard. It's hard. It's hard. And it like, and all the incentives of our culture, it like squeezes all of that out of us. You know.

Yeah. And it's really difficult to like hold on to that. And for for me to tell her, she said, how am I going to do? When she grew up, I can't control that. I said, yeah, you can't control certain aspect of life. But the point is to always remind her what makes her happy to keep doing that. Because when I grew up my parents and I love my parents, my dad, he's going to hear his name a lot. He wanted me to do life his way.

So now that was taking my joy away because now I was forced to do something. I don't like. So when I was telling that to my sister tomorrow, like, let her be her. Because if you let somebody be themselves, yeah, there's going to be ups and down. But it ultimately, even that down when that happened, it will not outweigh the joy because you will find your way back to the joy. You've been with your partner like 16 years? 14 years. 14 years. Kids?

No kids. No. I know, no, but are you thinking of? We, okay. The answer is sometime we're like, this run streak's too easy. You need to complicate it. You need to have a child. Sometimes.

Then the degree of difficulty. Sometimes I'm thinking to myself, I would love kids. I would be a great parent. We talk about it. We would be awesome parents. And we're not afraid to have kids. And there's some time we just, we're like, maybe we don't want kids. Because you think about so many things.

And some of them is definitely selfish. And I like my freedom. I say with kids, you're probably not going to have the same freedom, but I can make it work. And then also you think about the world that we're in. You're like, do I want to bring a kid into this world? Do I want to have something else to worry about? Do I want to put a kid in a situation where they can control what happens to the world? you can bring your kids into a world, but you can't control what the world is going to expose itself to your kid, even if you do whatever you can.

So I think about, I go back and forth. We go back and forth. So we're like, we want kids sometime. We're like, we don't want kids sometime. We're like, we don't know what to do. So it's just back and forth. So I have no idea. This is the portal into the darkness that I've been looking for.

I'm like, where's the darkness? Like, it's all smiles. I'm like, oh, okay. So he has a he has a world view. like the world is in such a great place. Yeah, the world isn't, but you can make it a great place in your situation, in your mindset. Because I always say the happiness come from a mindset. It comes from a state of mind.

I feel abundant. I feel happy. I feel rich. And somebody said to me the other day I was at a party, a friend's party. There was another person I met. And he goes, you should have played soccer. You would have been super rich. That's what he said to me.

Didn't I play soccer. And I said, actually I am rich. I said that to him. And he looked at me. I was like, it's not the rich that you're thinking, though.

I'm not talking about material at all. I don't care about those. I feel so rich because of how my life is. Like, look, I'm hanging out with awesome people have friends that I'm here with.

I am rich because I'm just enjoying what I do. And I said, it's not what you think. And he's like, oh, so you're not talking about money. I was like, no, no, I said,

that can only make you so happy to a certain point because you're always going to want more. You're always want to try to figure out the next thing. So you can be happy within your own state of mind, moments and stuff, but also it doesn't neglect the fact that you can also see what's going on in the world and to see to see that what it is and to see what you can do with your best effort

to make it better one at a time. Like for us, for example, we can't change everything in the world. My way of giving back to the world is eating, not eating meat. So to me, being vegan, being plan based, is catering to a different way. So if we all do a little bit by a little bit, it comes together as a collective big power, then the world could be this beautiful place we imagine it to be. If you want the world to be a compassionate place, you have to act with compassion. Compassion, 100%. You're an incredibly charismatic person. Your energy is infectious.

You're beloved. People want to be in your orbit because of your energy. Thank you. When you see it, you're like, oh, like if you can comport yourself this way, the abundance is a consequence of like this mindset, like the way that you walk the earth, you draw people towards you and then that creates opportunities like people want to do stuff with you but for the person who struggles with this who has a negative affect or is like well nothing ever works out or like why even try like you can say to that person well you need to shift your mindset or you need to this and

like how do you like what is like how do you like reprogram that person or how do you speak to that person to try to reconfigure that like default setting in their brain that they're not capable or that, you know, those good things only happen to other people. Oh, I love you. You said that, Rich. I always say, I said to Lex when I went to your podcast, I said, Richville is so good at interviewing. He's so good at asking questions because you were posing some question to me where I've had my typical podcast and interviews where it's like, you're a run, trigger, this and that.

But you made me open up in ways where I was like, this is really cool. No one really asked me these things. And then you did it again. over here. So I just want to highlight that. Yeah, you're just buying time while you're trying to figure out how to answer this question. No, but not have the answer. So I'm going to answer this question, but I'm going to start with this area. So I got the portion 9-11. And in my caption, when I posted, I didn't even want to- You could have that guy too, like the guy who said, I'm rich. Like, I'm not rich because of this, but I do have a 9-11. Yeah. And I thought about,

do I even want to post it on social media? But I wanted to post it to show people what's possible. And even in the caption, I said, happiness doesn't come from material is who you get to spend it with. So I put this on my TikTok. I had two people who had different perspective in life. One of them said was, oh, man, you're just going to rub this on our face. And while I'm struggling. You're giving people a reason to resent you. And then someone said, the future is bright.

And then I love that because he saw it in a way where he said, my future is bright. he saw it in a way where like, I want to can have something that I want, whether it's a 9-11 or I don't know what he's thinking about. But the fact that he said, my future is right. I commented, I was like, yeah. So the other person was like, you're just trying to rub this on people's face. And I commented kindly because I'm trying to not, I don't want to come off because he said something because I don't agree with. You can disagree with people and still be respectful. So I said, where I grew up, where I come from, I didn't think this was a possibility until I came to a world where you get opportunities.

I love the U.S. because it gave me so many opportunities. And I said, because when I saw that, it's possible. I didn't know how I was going to do it. I just knew it was possible. And I just kept doing what I love and it became possible. So those are the two things. People are seeing stuff from different light. So to your question, how people can find this way to see how they can be somebody

or be hopeful or get the things that they want. I think it comes down to just self-realization and just talking to yourself and see how far you've come. So, you know, we've all had challenge in our life. I feel like all of us in this room, we can name moments, or if not at least one moment, where things were tough in life, and you didn't even know how you're going to survive it, and we're sitting here today. So you have to remind yourself, you know what? I survived this battle in life. So I made that happen. So there is a possibility where I can come up to be something, not saying I'm nobody, I'm nothing. I can't make this thing happen. So it made me think about the car. It's all about the mindset.

So me giving advice to somebody that's thinking like that, I'm never going to be someone. I'm never going to make it. I'm never going to be this. And I said, you are correct. First of all, I'm going to say that because you said it already. But if you change your mindset, you are going to be somebody and you don't know how you're just going to keep working hard and keep your head down. And then hard work doesn't come to me as like, oh, how hard I work I work. It comes from passion. You know, sometimes we do something where like, I'm working really hard. To me, hard work is passion because if you're passionate about enough, you're going to work hard. If you are super passionate about this podcast, you work really hard. I'm passionate about running. I work really hard to make my running goals as a reality. But if you don't have passion for it, hard work is only going to last to a certain degree. And then it's just you're going to do enough just to get by enough to just get to where you feel comfortable mentally. So everything always started in the head. And it doesn't mean it's guarantee.

It's just like I heard something from Steve Harvey's show. He was saying, if I do something today, this is paraphrasing it, there's a chance that it's going to happen. But if I don't do anything, it's guarantee that nothing is going to happen. So to me, life is risky. When you do something, there's a risk factor that something could happen. If you don't do something, there's a risk that nothing is going to happen. So I want to pick the risk of possibilities versus not something happening. So I just live by that.

The person with the negative affect or the lack mindset will respond to what you just said by saying, well, that's all well and good, but like you're different from me. Like you're living a charmed life. Like, it's easy for you. You don't understand how hard it is for me. It must be nice to have a career and a life where you wake up excited about what you do. But my relationship with work isn't like that. I hate my job and I'm in a cubicle and I don't really have any skills.

And when I look around, I don't see a lot of opportunity. And I'm just sort of resigned to have to, you know, kind of accept my life on the terms that have been given to me. I guess two things with that. First one, I would say I grew up in West Africa, Mali. People make less than a dollar a day. Now it's about $2 a day. The reason I came to the U.S. was because of tragedy. I was left with my mom's sister and she died.

We were left homeless. Somehow we got to the U.S. by the grace of the universe or God, whatever you believe in, came to the U.S. And then when soccer didn't work out, I was cutting grass making $250 a week. And I actually, in fact, cutting that grass, the person who was writing me the check,

you know when you get a check written to you, you go deposit it. Back in a day, you'll get a certain amount of the check back. until it clears you get both so whatever amount i was getting before it clears i was using that and then to be negative nine hundred dollars because their check never cleared so i hold over the bank nine hundred dollars and they actually shut my bank account so i was in a area where i couldn't even open up a bank with bank of america i couldn't open a bank with td i was put in a file where like because i i had a delinquency with the bank so the only bank that would accept me at the time was pnc

and so naming all these things i'm saying like if they're saying like you love the life that you have this life is easy you love this i didn't start at that point so I can only say I started from where I had no option but to try the way to get up. And when I was doing those things, now I see that it worked. I didn't know it was going to work, to be honest. I have no idea. Now that you see something happening, you can say if you do this and that, but before that I had no idea. But second, I think it's good to talk to a professional therapist.

I think mental health is very important. Speaking to someone who understand how our mind work and then let them know how you feel. And I think it should be normalized that we go talk to somebody with her mind. And I don't know how I was able to talk to myself, but I said to you in a previous conversation, I think I was depressed. I didn't know. But looking at it, back now, I think I was depressed, even though I'm not a medical professional because all those signs of depression were there.

So maybe if I did talk to somebody, I would have gotten out of that rut quicker than I did. But it still happened because I eventually stopped pointing fingers and took responsibility. But there's so many ways we can start from the bottom. It doesn't mean we can be successful. And somebody who starts from the top doesn't mean they'll say. stay there. So there's a saying in my language that says, be Masai, she's enjoying, today's king could be tomorrow's peasant. And then be joined Shini Maasai. Today's peasant could be tomorrow's king. So you just have to stay the course. You never know what happened in

life. And everything is impermanent. And now of this, exactly. It's all Maya. It's all illusion. It is. It is. Like sometimes I sit there, I'm like, well, I'm enjoying this while I can because you're here today and then tomorrow you're gone. Yeah. Are you in therapy now? I'm in this field therapeutic, Peter, because speaking your mind is important and I'm speaking how I feel and I think that's important. One other thing I learned from Lex, that's huge. She said to me one time and I never forget it. This is years ago. Your feeling is never wrong. The way you feel is never wrong. To somebody, it might look weird, but you're feeling it is never wrong. You can have somebody understand how you're feeling could be like you understand in a way.

where like, oh, okay, maybe I shouldn't think it that way because I'm actually, but you can never say that somebody's feeling is wrong because that's something they're actually feeling. That's what it's called a feeling. So when I started thinking that to myself, hell like, your feeling is valid. It's okay. Attend to it. And then find a way to move on. That has helped me. And one of the things that helped me with that was the book, Four Agreements. Four Agreements is the best book. And I have to go because sometimes I forget about it. That's your go-to. It's my go-to. Even my sister was telling me about it the other day. She's like, that changed my life because I made her read it because we took so many things personal. We make assumptions.

We're not, we're impeccable. You got to be impeccable with your words. And we're not always trying our best. And your best is different every day. I said that. Your feelings are never wrong. It's your body and your intuition trying to communicate something to you. Where we get in our own way is the story that we create around the feelings and then the actions that we take in response to those feelings.

And I think it's important to see if somebody can call you out. because so many times I go to Lex, can you tell me if I'm crazy or if I'm wrong? Like if I'm, am I thinking too much about this? And she'll tell me how she feels about it from her perspective, her lenses. And I'll be like, you know what? You're right. I'm done with this. Yeah.

Because I need somebody to tell me because sometimes you just think you, you're good. You got it. You got it. Yeah. But I need and I know I don't really got. If I'm asking that question, I knew something about it is not 100% true. Yeah, I already know. Yeah, I already know.

But I just needed her to tell me, am I crazy? What are the, what are the issues that come up in your relationship? Yeah. Where are the problems, the flashpoints? And relationship? Yeah. Like with Lex and everything? Yeah.

I'm trying to think like, what would she say? What would she say? What would she said about this whole thing? Yeah. What's her primary beef with you? Prime beef with me? I think I'm pretty, pretty perfect. Now, I'm kidding.

This is the beef. This is probably the beef. No, what would she say? This guy thinks he walks on water. No, to be the only thing she, she knows. when I don't have good... You can't be in a relationship with somebody for 14 years without like there being stuff. Like relationships are hard. Yeah, 100%. And it's not perfect. But we communicate so well. You know, we communicate so well. If anything bothers me, I feel so confident and comfortable

that I can speak about it. And it doesn't make me scared. Oh, what if I heard her feelings? But she knows it's my feeling and vice versa. I think we communicated really well. But she taught me that. by the way. I think I didn't grow up with that because I didn't see my parents do that. I never did. I've never seen my parents like solve stuff in front of me. And I've heard both sides of the stories, but I have never seen them actually do that. So I don't, I didn't know that. You have a model for healthy communication. I didn't know that. And then I saw my sister, we're changing or they're called it generational curse. I said, we're changing everything. And it's a blessing that we learn it that way because we know what not to do now. I always said that. But one of the things

is she always, whether it's around with her or anybody, she always say, speak how you feel. And don't wait. Do not wait till days later, because that means you're holding onto it. And then you're blowing up not days later. If it happened in that moment, even if it's not exactly, you kind of check out the scenario where, oh, maybe I can't say it now, let me wait. Speak about it. And even me, she gave me a boss back in the day when I used to train people soccer,

people used to ask me, Rich, and I was a little shy. And I was a little, I felt a little embarrassed because I thought people didn't look at it as a career. Hey, Hela, what do you do for work? I coach here and there. I'm like a little calm and a little like scared or a little shy. Lex call me out one day. She goes, just own it. Just tell him what you do. Like, be proud about it. And since that day happened, what do you do, Hela? I'm a coach. I coach kids. I love it. And I've used to play soccer and I'm teaching kids and I make a living off of it. But she had to tell me that. And I knew she was right because every time I'm like, I feel embarrassed to tell people. Because what I was taught by the world was,

That's not a career. How is that a, it's nothing guaranteed. Because the only way I was guaranteed to be paid if that kid comes to training, if they don't. So they didn't see it as a career. You went to college for four years and this is what you're doing. So I had all that because of society that I was telling you about the world we live in. But she has taught me that.

So, yeah, sometimes you can step on each other still, but it's nothing crazy. Nothing like, oh, where it's so bad that you know. So you're 35. Yes. You have quite a presence on social media, TikTok, Instagram, always posting this positive content. And you are a very positive role model for all kinds of people, but particularly young men. And I think a lot about the young man who is confused and is looking around and maybe doesn't see a lot of opportunity and the vulnerability that that creates online. that then funnels them towards some not so great influences out there, like this whole

manisphere sort of situation. Do you think about that at all? Because there's so much energy around the kind of grifter personalities out there who are taking advantage of these vulnerable young men. You're presenting an alternative, a positive alternative, and it's super powerful. The algorithms tend to favor the negative and the controversial and the contrarious. and the contrarian and the conspiracy addled, et cetera. So you're kind of swimming upstream

against the current of culture. But what you're doing is important and it's impactful and it's meaningful and we need more people like you because there are a lot of people in need of your kind of influence. Thank you. Yeah. I think it's a tough situation to be in. One of the things that I noticed right away was within the first.

within the first year, my run streak, I had this young, he was 12 years old, DM me about that he was having issue of wanting to be staying in this world. And I kind of panicked a little bit. I'm like, shoot, I got to figure out how to help this kid. So we did some digging and found his sister-in-law and on social media and then they had no idea. And then they communicated with him. So like since that day, I've been thinking about the youth, the people who were watching me. And I also let them know anything you see flashy on social media, take it with a grain of salt because it's a world that we're in where people are selling in front of the private plane Yes, people are selling stuff.

And if you don't see it as a source of motivation, leave it alone. If you see it, if it's putting you down, leave it alone. If it's motivating you, then that's great. You're like, you know, I do one day could be like that. Whether that guy's doing it for real or they're just doing it for social media, you got to come in that way. Also, the people who are who don't know anything, they're vulnerable. buy this package, buy this thing. And it's just getting people into the top of some funnel to sell them courses and a bunch of nonsense.

And one of the reasons I love, if I work with a sponsor and they have to understand this, and I love Hoka for that BPN also that allows me to do this, if I'm working with you, you just let me live my life because my goal is not to sell a product to somebody. My goal is to share my job with someone. Hell, what's your favorite running shoes right now, racing, CLX. one, three point oh. Why do you love it? I tell you why I love it. Do you recommend it? Absolutely. But what kind of running shoes are you looking for? Ooh, the CLA won't work for you. I think you should try this kind because the kind of way that you explained to me my work.

That's my only way. But I will never be like, hey, you need to get this because, you know, I don't build trust between you and I and then trying to sell something to you based on the trust. So I just sell to you. You don't have a transactional relationship. Yeah. Yeah, mine is just sharing joy. So like you can you can talk to the team, RxR. I'm always telling whenever we, we do something, I'm not trying to sell anything. I don't want to do any links or anything because then it doesn't seem right. It's not me. I feel awkward. And you can even tell in my body language and I try to stay out of that 100% of the time. So these young kids, you're just modeling an aspirational life. Yeah. These young kids, when they see flashy stuff with me and I actually miss somebody. Do you know,

you know, you know Dylan Efron. Yeah. So Dylan Affron is a friend of mine. Yeah. We hang out last week in New York City. And I miss some younger kids. They're just graduating in college and I was talking to them. And one of the thing I made them realize, they keep asking me the number one question. I'm not kidding you. Dylan, you're the man. How are you friends with Dylan? How did you guys become a friend? Every time they come and talk to me.

And one of the thing I made them realize is that you see me, I'm a normal person because I'm not as I'm not big or anything in my mind. So I'm regular to you, right? I said this to this kid. His name is Thai. He's like, yeah, I said, think about everybody just like that. We're all human. We all have capability. Yes, we all have level of.

what we're at in profession, but we're all human at the end of the day. You see this big person, this big CEO, or this big celebrity or this big person, that could be you. They're human. If you stay down on top of them, they're human like you. So don't feel inferior. Yeah, you can respect people. I respect levels. I know there's level to the sports that I do. I respect the least level. I never, I respect the coaches. Just because I run every single day, I don't tell somebody, this is how you should run. I share with him. This is how I run. Maybe you can use that. But always remember you being that young person that you are somebody. It's just that we're in just different avenue, different lane of life right now.

And you find your own road. And if you want to use us as an example, as a blueprint, go for it. But you'll find your way as you go. So I always let the younger generation know that. Like you have to be okay with who you are and don't think you're not enough because of what you don't have. And show that you can actually have all of this. Because I didn't think I have all of this. I have it.

You can have that and more. When somebody said, I want to be like you, I always say I want you to be more than me because I'm already happy with what I am. So it's not even a competition. I want you to win. I want you to, I want you to be bigger than me. I literally want you to be bigger than me because I'm not going to miss out on anything because I'm already enjoying what I have. Yeah.

And you have an abundance mindset. Yeah. It's not a zero sum game. No, it's not. We can all win. I always sell people too. We can all win in life. Sometimes I actually actually get so sad, Rich.

I'm not an emotional guy. I used to get so sad. We're like, not crying, but like I'm so sad because I'm looking at people. I'm like, I feel this happiness and I feel guilty. And I look at somebody and I'm just assuming sometime how they're looking. They look sad. They're sitting. I want them to be happy like I am.

Like, how do I make that happen? I don't know how to make it happen because I feel like there's this happiness that we're not far away from. We can all get to. But I've discovered and I need this person next to me to discover it because when they do, nothing matters. It doesn't matter if somebody come and just smack them in the face and walk by. They're just going to look at them. You know what?

I feel bad for you. Maybe you're crazy or something. I hope you get better. I used to get sad about it when I see people. I get sad when I see people sitting. They can't move physically. I still do because I'm thinking that we can all have this joy. We can all have this win within our own right. And a win for me is doing what I love. A win for somebody. If it's like, I want to be a multimillion. If that's what makes you truly happy, like deep down, not because of money, you love that, that hustle. I want that to be for you. Yeah. Yeah, but most people who want

that, that it's going to answer all of life's questions. Yeah. That's true. And you have to go on that journey to realize that it won't. Yeah. But you're a deeply empathetic, sensitive person. I mean, you know, to feel that, to feel that pain and I want something better for that person. Yes. It's a beautiful, like, it's a beautiful emotion to have.

Thank you. You know. Thank you. And if you can unlock that for people. That would be amazing. You know, what is the answer? Yes. You know, that was really my question.

Like, how do you help that person who's suffering see a different way and start to take contrary action to, you know, build a different life. Hanging out with people and then doing what they like doing. Because what I noticed when I do, like, what is your favorite activity? I mean, have lots of different. If you have to pick one thing or you're like, I can do this all day or I can do this every day. Well, running, swimming or cycle.

Yeah. Like physical movement things. But there's also nothing better than being around your kids when they're, when they're happy and laughing. Uh-huh. Like there's different types of joy. So let's go to physical. And doing what I'm doing right now.

like this is my happy place. So I want to be, so if I know that, like, let's even just pick cycling or swimming or even running. And I know you enjoy that. And I see that you're really, or struggling a little bit. We know each other enough where I can see something is not right. Hey, Rich, you want to go on a bike ride today? I would go cycling with you because I know that's what you like.

And now it makes it easier because you have somebody to go cycle with. So me helping with that is like, I want to do the activity you enjoy doing. I already do the activity I enjoy. But let me go do your activity with you. Swimming I want to do because I can't swim. We got to go to the pool. I'm going to give you a swim lesson. I'll sit by the pool and say, hey, Rich, show me out of that stroke.

But that's something that I would do. And I notice certain things that I do now that I see that people that I'm getting into that people really love. I reach out to them. So I'm in this car world. And one of the reason I made this guy, gentleman, he's the reason I got a good deal on my car because he advocated for me. He's a portion to enthusiasts. He has so many 9-11s in cars. And I realized that this guy, when he gets his car, he wants to share it with somebody.

He picked up a brand new Porsche literally less than a month when I got mine. And he wanted to come to my house right away. And I didn't want to shut him down. Say, come over because he knew that I appreciate. He wanted to share it. When he showed up, he was so happy that he got to share that with someone. I was happy that I was able to let him come share his joy with me. So he feels some type of way about himself and his life, whatever that may be,

because I can just tell he loved that. So he always, whenever something he would call me, hey, hell are you around? Because I feel like I want to be that friend to him. You know, so I think that to answer that question, I would go do something and activity with someone because to me it doesn't take much energy. I don't feel like, oh, I have to do this. I just feel like I love being active anywhere. I love cars.

I'll just go share your own moment with you because it doesn't hurt me, but it helps you. So I get joy out of that. Autonomy wasn't something I was thinking much about when I recently got behind the wheel of Rivian R2 with founder and CEO, RJ's Gringe. But when RJ started talking about where Rivian is headed with it, I couldn't stop thinking about it after. What's your latest thinking on the short and long-term future of autonomous driving?

I think short term it's going to continue to get better. For us, we get to a place by the end of this year where we'll do hands-off point-to-point navigation, so meaning you could plug the address and tell it to go. and it'll drive there on its own. Today we have hands off what we call Universal Hands Free where you can take your hands off. It can drive but it essentially stays on the path it's on. Yeah.

But the next step is to integrate that into navigation so it navigates through turns, obviously stop lights, stop signs, everything and that's this year. And then next year we get to that plus eyes off. So we'll start with eyes off on highways so you can be completely removed. It doesn't beat. It doesn't beep. You can read your hands back. Yeah, you can do whatever you'd like.

Yeah, you can do whatever you'd like. like. The autonomy and assisted driving features on the R2 today and the ones on the horizon are just part of what makes it such a compelling vehicle. You can learn all about the Ravion R2, watch the rest of our conversation, and even book a demo drive at stories.rivian.com slash rich roll. This episode is brought to you by Woop, the wearable health and fitness coach that for five and a half uninterrupted years has delivered me tremendously valuable. highly personalized insights into how my habits impact my sleep, impact my recovery, and stress levels so I can uplevel those habits and make more informed decisions about the strain I impose upon myself.

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whoop. When we first spoke, you talked a lot about some goals that you had set for yourself. You have achieved most of those goals. You've run Western States. You run the Havolina. You've run Leadville 100. Do you think about goals? Do you have goals now? Yes. What are you looking forward to? What do you want to achieve? Where are you taking all of this? I love goals and I love achieving the goals and I am currently working on a goal and I want to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run two hour 45 minutes at the 2026 Chicago Marathon. So that's what I'm training for. Your current PR is 255. So we're taking 10 minutes off. 10 minute. But you know the thing is rich that 255 was supposed to be a 245 for me. Something didn't click, and I think I'm going to figure it out. Because I was fitter. Most people thought I could have run a 240 that race. I either went into the race with too much miles on my leg close to 40 miles,

or something didn't work out. Maybe I needed to incorporate a little bit of hill even though it was a flight of race. So I'm trying to figure that out. So a coach is helping me with that. But that's one of my goals right now. And I haven't raced a marathon in two years, so I'm very hungry and very motive and so excited. and I'm changing everything. I'm cycling.

I love cycling. I'm cycling so much more. Cycling is part of the prep. I have to cycle. Like, I cycle twice a week, sometimes three times in the prep. So I have to cycle. I have to cycle on Wednesday. I have to cycle on Sunday.

It's a must, a one hour spin. And my coach will tell me how crazy to go with the cycling. Who's your coach? His name is Mario. Oh, Mario. Mario. Yeah. You know Mario?

No, I know Mario. Oh, sweet. Oh, we had Malcolm Gladwell on you. here the other day. Chris, is it Chris Chavez? I think, yeah, I think Chris Chavez like brought him as his coach too. Oh, yeah, Mario, and I just started working with him. And I've been on his podcast, 2022. So I didn't know. So this is the funny thing. I'm at Western State. I'm shopping for coaches, looking for coaches. And I'm speaking to, I talked to Tim Tolson and I talked to a hookah engineer. And they both mentioned Mario. I'm like, I need this Mario's number. Didn't put two and two together

that I knew who he was. You had been at a show. Yeah. And then they're like, it's very. Vincent who won the Western State 100 race coach. I'm like, I want Vincent's coach. Vincent broke Jim Walmsley's record 13 hour 46. And I need a coach that's helping that. Maybe I'll be a Vincent on the marathon course. So to find out I was Mario. And I was like, oh my gosh, small world.

So we talked and we have the prep going on. So we're a full weekend. So that's one of the goal I'm working on. And he believe I can do it. I believe I can do it. So I'm excited and hungry to be back the marathon. It's been too long. I know you have some other exciting things that are cooking.

right now that you can't talk about. Yeah, we'll tease it. It's going to be something that no one's ever seen. Yeah. And I'm super excited about it. Yeah, once it's ready. I want to talk about it so badly. So we do a tri-fecta? Yeah, for sure. Once that gets through. Dude, you're meant. You can come on whenever you want. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I could podcast with you weekly. Yeah, let's do it. That's exciting. It's super excited about it. A fast marathon. What do you think is the biggest thing that people misunderstand about you and this run streak and what you're doing. Oh, you don't ever get sick or injured. Every time I post like a run streak like five years, 10, nine years or for 3,000 something

days, the comment would like, so you never get injured or sick. I'm like, I'm not bionic man or robocop. I do get injured. And I really do get sick. And one of the biggest thing that happened to me when I get sick is like my headache will be pressure. But as soon as I feel pressure anywhere, I go running. the pressure literally released.

So I use running as a medicine to get rid of a headache. And I've talked to my doctor about it. She's like, maybe you're just getting the blood circulating. You're getting rid of the pressure by moving your body. The body works in a beautiful way. So the injured part, I do get injured. Am I smart about the injury? 100%.

So don't do what I do. I don't recommend anybody running every single day. It is possible. But I get injured and I minimize it as much as possible because it's just bound to happen. You're pounding your body every single day. And sometimes it doesn't have to even be like, You step on the wrong rock and you tweak something a little bit. So I just make sure I'm on top of it right away.

I back off like I was saying earlier, recovery, PT. So people think that I never get injured or sick because I run every single day. You've also become a running correspondent of sorts. Like you were doing the Western States live stream. So you're kind of a commentator at large. Like that's a different role also. Yes. That's so fun because, you know, I love the sports so much.

I love talking about all the participant in the sports and I love highlighting them. And I think that's really important to see what they're doing. And we tend to see podium finishes, but it's cool to know a little background of these athletes as they're racing. And, you know, when you love, you love interviewing, talking to people, you can talk all day. I love being in this sport. I can talk about the sports all day. I can talk about running all day, shoes all day. cars and bikes.

I mean, getting into bikes, which is really dangerous. Crazy. I can go there with you. And I've bang this drum all the time, but I think more runners should do more cycling. I think cycling is an incredible tool to develop your aerobic capacity without the pounding. You know, like you can go out and ride your bike for hours and hours and hours. Like you can't run as much as you can ride and you can be in that zone two state and build that engine over time. without exhausting yourself and setting yourself up for injury and also strengthening the stability

muscles that make you more injury resistant as a runner. The glutes, I feel my glutes activated getting used. And Lex always laugh at me. I would do something two times. Like, oh my God, I feel the difference. I'm already fit. Cycling for this week, I feel like I feel the difference in endurance. You don't have to run as much.

No, and you can go eat, rich. People forget the social side. I rode with my friend 50 miles one day. we stop at a coffee shop, 25 miles in, got these vegan, delicious muffins, and I stuffed myself with it and drink coffee, and we hop on a bike again for another 25, nothing. I said running, there's no, I could do that. So the social part, I was getting a good working. We were averaging like 16 miles per hour. That was work on me because I don't cycle. I really felt that, but I was able to do that while enjoying the social aspect and while enjoying the food. And I still got good work because my

legs were shot the next day, but I got the work. Do you do 9W? Like, where do you ride in Jersey? So we've got, we parked at Fort Lee, rode across the George Washington Bridge, and then stay on the Hudson and then went up toward Yonkers. And you can, this little path can go all over to Canada, I heard, if you want to. Also have a local park where I live. Everybody in Manhattan is crossing the bridge to go to Jersey to ride and you're coming the other way. Yeah, I've done that.

And then also I have a beautiful park in my neighborhood that's 18 miles long. You can get in with water stop and bathroom, which is pretty fun. But it just gets crowded in the weekend with people. So I know when you started the run streak, every year had a sort of theme. The first year, it was self-discovery, the second year because you were injured. It was about mental toughness. Going into your third year, it was about joy. Have you labeled each year with a different theme that you've tried to live up to?

What are the themes in those subsequent years and what is the theme for this 10th year? So every year had to have a theme because as I'm going through it, you already live, you already, the first year, it was joying. I'm like, I mean, I'm self-discovery. I'm like discovering myself. I'm like, this is happening. This is cool. But then again, now you know what's going to happen. So the next one being mental toughness, I'm getting injured now because I'm pushing a lot more.

And I know exactly what to expect. That high that was coming in is not so new anymore. and then the year of joy and I had to go back and bring that feeling back from the first year, working on it purposefully and not caring about the distance anymore, not caring about if I hit seven miles in a day, I can just go run three miles and be fine. So keep going on. And I had even racing theme, I had the Renaissance year. So the Renaissance year was rebirth for me.

So a rebirth is coming as another person, as another runner. This is why I wanted to run so much faster because I didn't care about racing much, but now I want to see how fast I can really go. And I didn't want to use run trick as an excuse because you can technically on paper say, hell, if you took a couple of days off and allow your body to heal with your cardiovascular, you will be a fast runner. But that's not a priority to me. But I want to use running every single day.

This is why you're going to be a fast runner versus have it the other way because I could easily have an excuse. Why you didn't hit the 245? So that was the Renaissance heat. I wanted to rebirth myself. And then now the 10th year is going to be literally like the glory, the glory meaning like almost like, I want to put it away where everybody come together. I got to find the right word for it. Like a community thing was it's all about the people, the people year.

Because the people got me to where I'm at math. So this is the year of the people. So the year of the people, yeah, we're celebrating my 10th year, but it's all of us coming together as a community because you guys been part of the hell of good family, the hell of good community. And it's not only me that have done it. You know Nathan from the team. Sure.

So Nathan was at my house on Monday. And one of the thing I said to Nathan right away, because he's so smart. He makes me understand stuff in a way. I said, Nathan, it's crazy when people always said to me, and I said this to Lex. I said it to many people. Oh, I did it on my own. I said, how far on your own did you do it on your own? Yeah, you have to take action.

You have to move. But if you look at the bigger picture, there's so many people that have come to help me. If it wasn't for Lex, there's no hella good because she told me we need to put videos out. And she edits video. She does she still doing all that? Gritch, I don't know how to edit a YouTube video. I don't. And I try it.

It's so hard. I do my Instagram stories 100%. The feed, TikTok, YouTube 100% has been heard since day one. And then I say, without you, Nathan, you help me with certain things. Without the team, R-X-R-R-X-O, without my sponsors, there's no, like, it's a village thing. We always say it's a village thing in my country. It's a little a village thing. So I want this year, tend to be like, it's about the people.

I got to find the right word for it, but we have a few months still until we get into that. You have great partners. You've worked with Hoka for a number of years. You've done some stuff with Apple. You've been with BPN, the hybrid athlete, grows. I'm not so. Have you been to the ranch? Like, what's a whole scene?

I haven't been to the ranch, but I was. How come you like I see those video, you know, like those guys, Dan Churchill, Max Joliffe? Yeah. I might have to host, because I did talk to Nick about going to the ranch to do like a training camp for my marathon prep. And they said you can do that. So I might have to actually set that up. And you haven't done a backyard race. No, I haven't either.

And I want to Nick because I said, huh, if you sign up 2027, I'm there. But I need you to sign up. I said that to his face because I said, for Nick to sign up. Yeah, I said, I don't want you to just be sitting there. You need a few of what everybody's feeling. I'll sign up if you do. But I did get the answer. If you are the race owner by the backyard rule, you cannot participate.

So that one he can do. Yeah. So, but the backyard, it doesn't interest me, but I also want to do it and just to say, I know I can do it. That's ego speaking. because I know the thing about the back head, I've done 100 mile race. I can get to 100 mile easy in my head. I think I can. And I get to sit down for a few minutes.

And I know it gets harder as you go because you sit down and it gets harder and harder. You go slower. But anyone that has done 100 miles, I think this is from the hellest perspective, you know what that feels like on the body. And that's continuous. There's not sitting. And if you sit it for a minute or two just to change something and go, the first few lap, the first 15 mile, you're probably sitting. you're getting yourself 15 to 20 minutes. Yeah, but if you're getting into Harvey Lewis territory, you're looking at 300, 350 miles.

Oh, no, I'm not getting to that territory. I think me, if I do this, my goal was to get to 150 miles, 150. That's it. Harvey Lewis is another level. I wouldn't even name myself a nap breath. He's insane. Harvey is insane. Speaking of another vegan runner, do people give you grief around the vegan stuff?

No, you know, the thing is I actually, vegan, you know, I never talk about veganism on my social media like that, but if you ask for my diet, I go into it. But some of the things that people love to say about vegan, your protein, I'm sure you had that conversation. What do you get your protein? And I said, if I had protein issue, the fact that I run across America, I would have been done every single day for 10 years, I would have run across America and done all of these. And I started teaching them about photosynthesis, you know, you know how photosynthesis work. And I said, you know how animals eating plants and how they get their protein and they're like, oh, okay, I didn't know all of that. So they think that because I'm not eating

meat. I'm deficient. Still working for you. Yeah. And I still do blood tests. I'm always making sure everything you must be the only vegan on the BPN. 100% Nick Bear team. And I told Nick Bear, you got to hold on to that vegan protein. And I think I won't say I'm the reason. I'm definitely one of the reason where that protein started because when I first met him back in 2021. And then the company was still on the come up. It's not where it is today. We talked. about it, I said, there's nothing really for me to want to use from the brand. And they didn't really have, they had electrolytes, but they didn't have gels. I'm a runner.

We need protein. So when that started coming around, I was actually buying the product myself because I liked it. So when they asked me to be an athlete with him, that was easy for me to decide because I like the product. So the fact that they have vegan protein, they have the electrolytes himself, that's really nice. I said, Nick, would you ever go plant-based, go vegan? He said, you know what, I would love to eat the vegan food, but I would love to eat the vegan food,

but I don't think I can do it. I said, he's like, I'll come to you. You take me to your favorite restaurant. I would be down to eat it. So that's what I used to say, too, a decade ago. But look where we are right now. Yeah. Well, if you could get Nick Bear to dip his toe into the plant-based lifestyle,

like that's no small feat. That'd be a nice challenge to try. There you go. Do it for the views. Yeah. I'm going to try to get in. Yeah. Is there a brand out there?

Like, what's the brand you're not working with right now that you were like, oh, that's my dream brand to work with these guys. There's two brand. One of them you already work with, Rivian. There you go. And the reason Rivian, I'll tell you the whole background. I knew Rivian before Rivian became popular by the general public. You have to be a car enthusiast to know what Rivian was.

The history, Jonathan told me more about the history. Because years ago, four years, five years ago, I went to Jonathan's house. I drove his Rivian. Jonathan is our manager for people. Yes. Pickup truck. The Rivin. He let me drive it.

I'm like, oh my gosh, this is insane. So when Raven came out, all the auto, the car enthusiasts, like auto news people, they were just doing the reviews. And I'm watching this. I'm like, this is interesting. This is something we've never seen. And I thought it was really cool. So I got into digging into the car and I learned about the history and I learned about what

it's about. And I'm like, this would be a really cool car to have. And I knew they were one of the first people to even have their own network in terms of charging. The first one was in Colorado. They put the first charging. It wasn't Electrify America. It wasn't like the other chargers.

It was in charge point. They started their own. And I was wishing Ford started their own, but we have to land on the third party. I do have an EV. It's not a Riven. It's a Lexus car. It's the Ford Maki. But I've been so interested in the Ravion because EV, once you drive an EV, you can never

go back. Once you drive a Rivian and the practicality because of the pickup truck. And I saw they came up with a little smaller one. I saw the R2. Yeah, the R2. It looks really cool. They're launching right now. Yeah.

And it's fully dialed. It's like the evolution. I mean, it's a little bit smaller. than the R1, but it feels like a more mature product. Like they've worked out whatever kinks and like everything is super tight and it drives amazing. It's super fast. You don't feel like you're in a truck. It's a unique experience.

And RJ is just one of the most impressive people I've ever met. And the obstacles that he has had to overcome to realize this vision and to see, you know, how this brand is being embraced by people and he's just got this premium product that's a wonderful, you know, It's just wonderful. And he's just one of those guys that you want to win, you know? Absolutely. And the experience of driving this car is incredible. Like, yeah, you should, you should be working with Rivian.

That'd be sick. And if not. You need a car. I mean, being a car guy, come on. And I, either that or like, you need to, you need a Porsche sponsorship. I was going to say, you need to train for Lamans and you and Michael Fast Fender can get into a teammate or something. I love my Porsche. Porsche would be also sick, but also I need an EV.

I know Porsche has also make EVs, but I have the 9-11. If I have Rivian as an EV, that would be pretty cool. And I think the thing about, you know, we see ourselves, I trail run. I don't run as much as that than I have on the road. But how cool it is, we're talking about, like, being environmental friendly. You know, we don't have to go all into the detail. But bring a zero emission car into the trail, park it, you have enough range. You pop the trunk.

You take your trail shoes out. You take your mountain bike out. You go on a ride. You cruise. You come back. and you have that car sitting there, that's not, you don't have to work, you can have it on while you're taking a nap in there, you don't have to worry about exhaust, none of that. I think that's pretty cool. And we talk about having preserving nature. So if you like being in nature and you need to get up

to nature, having something that's zero emission in terms of letting go of CO2 exhaust, I think the best ways to go is EV. It really is. All right. Well, let's let's end this with a few inspirational words for the person who is still struggling, the person who's, on the couch is hearing you or watching you and is thinking, I'd like a little bit of that energy. I just don't, I don't know what to do first. How do I interrupt this pattern that I'm in? How do I get out of my negative cycling thoughts,

my inner monologue that's defeating me while I sit here and eat Cheetos and watch you on YouTube? Okay, so if you watch stuff, even reading books, if you don't take action, it's just like a movie to me, you're just watching to be entertained and you put it away. So the first thing I would say is it's the simplest thing we hear about it all the time, gratitude. You know you're eating Cheeto? Oh man, I'm so happy and grateful that I'm sitting on a couch actually because I have a couch to sit on.

I'm so happy and grateful that I actually, even though it may not be my favorite food if I have to eat Cheeto to survive. I'm so happy and grateful that I have a Cheeto. So even my thing is when I see it, I love doing dishes. It's my favorite thing to do. It's a sports to me. I compete doing dishes. I look at the time at the stove. when I'm, but when I see a sink full, my mindset is, man, how lucky are you to, to be able to eat so

much food that your sink is full? So coming from a place of gratitude. If that person's sitting in there right now, just trying to revive yourself like, you know what? Things are really bad right now, but there's little lights at the end of the tunnel. Some of the little lights is I have a roof over my head. Or if you sadly don't have a roof over my head, because homelessness is a thing. I'm happy and grateful that I can have a friend to talk to or somebody who's next to on the street. And then now you make little steps. And you're going to get to a point where you need a professional because we all need pros. The reason I have a running coach, it's not that I can't do it, but I need somebody to take me to that level. So you're going to get to a point where you need

somebody. But before you get to that level, you got to pick yourself up a little bit. Picking yourself of is self-talk, self-motivation. It's really hard. It's easier said than done. But once you start talking to yourself, you start believing. Because I reading both, I believe, or brains are brain believe anything you tell it. You really can trick your brain. When you start telling your brain, I'm good enough, I do this. Eventually, you're going to see yourself trying to do stuff to prove to yourself that you were right about it. And you make the efforts to show that you are right about because you're tricking yourself.

I do it all the time. It almost work 100%. Unless if I get into my conscience, like, oh, you're just trying to trick yourself right now. But when I let go of that, I can trick myself to believe things. So self-talk, gratitude to get yourself going. And you're going to have to get to a point professional. And I tell people to reach out to me. I hope I can see your DM and answer.

And if I can do it, I'm not a pro. I'll say, go see a professional. If somebody asks me, this hurt on my body, oh, I've experienced that. This is what I do. But you should go see a physical therapist also because there's people who are in line with that. Oh, you don't have access to physical therapist. Let me see if I can talk to my physical therapist. If he can give me some advice and I can give it to you.

I've done that so many time. If you can't afford a physical therapist, I'll go talk to my physical therapist for you and your issue. And then they can tell me something that I can bring to you. You're the best, man. I mean, I think we're all great. Well, we're all just trying. I think we're all trying. I think that's what's important.

We have to realize that when you see somebody in the street, they're trying too. You might not see it, but they're trying. You just have to remember that. You're trying. They're trying. Everybody's just trying to get through. Yeah, and if you have something, nothing nice to say, just walk away. You just got to walk away.

That's the best solution. And you will be happy you walk away. It just made me remember one thing that I have to say. I've had a situation where I come to a stoplight. This is before the four agreement and after the four agreements where like somebody's standing at the light or you get caught off and I just hit the hunk. Like I'll be like, what are you doing? You're about to hit me because you're scared. You're going to get hit.

And then I feel really bad after it. I'll look at like something like, I feel bad. I don't know why I did that. It's so embarrassing. I'm like, I feel really bad. I just did that to that person because I come to my senses. And then next time Lex will be like, okay, before you react, remember how you're going to feel after. So that's when I say, you have nothing nice to say, walk away because I know how I'm going to feel after.

I'm going to feel bad. Especially, like, somebody's at the light, and then I try to do the baby hunk to let them nice green. Would I be like, you're trying to, sometimes you overheat it because the baby hunk, you're not giving enough pressure and you end up overhitting the hunk. Right. So, and then you see, you get to the light. It's an old lady.

You're like, oh, my gosh, why did you do that to her? Hell on. Why did you hunk? So I always say, don't act because you're going to regret it. So that's why say you have nothing nice to do or say, just go. Just go by your day. That is a good policy. Yeah.

You keep mentioning the four. agreements like what is your media diet like what are the books that you return to what are the change in my life you consume what kind of information rich i love that i love you're asking those questions okay the four agreement okay by uh don miguel ruiz yes um you all the placebo jo de spenza you are the placebo and you i learn about the history of the placebo how the sugar pill happen and you are the placebo that's why i always say the mind you can trick yourself of believing what you want to see uh you are the placebo and then also I think I'm trying to this is a tough one um is it you you were born you were born rich maybe you might have been that one uh I think it's a Napoleon is it Napoleon

Hill Napoleon one of those old Napoleon Hill book yeah or think and grow rich is also a good one thinking grow rich sometimes when people hear the word rich it scares them I see richness not material not money I just see richness of peace of mind and happiness. Because when you read these books, it kind of shows you everything starts about having good energy. You don't have good energy. You're going to find things that makes you feel the way you're thinking. If you have negative thought, you're going to find things that's going to enforce that. Because you look, you find what you're looking for. So these books allow me to change. I like self-help books. I love those books. The secret. Have you heard of that? The secret is so great.

I read all the secret secret, secret love. You're a manifester. Yeah, I'm a big manifest. You're a big manifest. I'm a big manifest. I'm too cynical. Why? I want to elaborate on that actually. I'll interview you.

You know, like we'll go down like a, you know, like we'll take some weird, you know, kind of trajectory down a dark alley. But like all of my like spidey senses kind of get alerted when we, when we start to tiptoe too close to some of the more like mystical self-help. Yeah, I see, I see, I see. I understand that. Like the idea, the reductive idea that all you have to do is like, you know, manifest your dreams and they happen. No, it's not all that.

It's more than just that. Yeah. Yeah, it's not just that. I guess that's the way of putting myself in a positive mindset. Mm-hmm. That it can be good. So that's a good way to put it. Like, it can be good.

You can change your mind and change your life. Because if you don't take action, nothing is going to change. You know, you're not just sitting there and be like, sure. Like, or what is it? What's your boss? Clicked your heel three times. and then wish something happened. But I guess putting you in an area where your mind is not at fight or flat

mode all the time. Like, okay, something's stress, stress level, stress level. Thinking like, you know what, it could be good. I saw something about Alexis Pappy. Oh, Alexi Pappi. Alexi Pappy. And this was years ago. She goes, you know what?

When I'm having a bad day, I go take a nap and get up and it's a brand new day. And I'm like, up, good morning. She posted this. I'm like, this is genius. This is genius. And I want to give her credit. She's part of the podcast. She's got a million of these, yeah, like little things like that.

Yeah. Yeah. No, she's in the family. Yeah. Yeah. So I had to, I'm giving her a shout out for this. Because when I guys, have you ever met her? I met her multiple times.

Especially we've seen each other on race course. She's guiding. I'm guiding. We'll say hello to each other. But she said this, when I'm having a bad day, I just go sleep and I wake up and pretend it's a new day. I'm like, I like, I like that. But also that stuff of like all these book I'm saying, it's about changing the mind.

Your mind creates your reality. Yeah, that's what you're saying. And, you know, your brain comes up with all of these stories and we buy into them and assume that they're true. Yes. And not understanding that we can rewrite those stories and tell different ones that are going to move our lives in a better direction. Exactly. And that is something I can buy into. And I feel 10% less cynical.

Yeah, there you go. See, I'm getting him too. Yeah. This is amazing. Thank you. This is awesome. This is fun. I met it when I said it.

I literally could do this with you every week. Let's do more of this kind of stuff. Absolutely. And anytime you have any news you want to share, I'm going to be spending more time in New York. And so it can be easy. Awesome. Yeah.

And I have to let you know more when I'm in the L.A. area. Because I travel there a lot and see if you're not busy, go for a bike ride. Yeah. Next time I'm here, I think I'll be in a situation where I actually could run with you. And at a minimum, I would love to go and ride with you. I'm going to take you up on that, my friend. And I need to know all your crazy bike advice.

I'm getting some sick bike nowadays. But I will get you in a pool. I'm going to make you get in a pool. It'll be a great fitness for me. Yeah. Perfect. It's a deal. I'm already going to do that with Dan Churchill.

So maybe you can join and we can do a double team on that. Perfect. All right. Perfect. You're the best. Thank you. I love you. Thank you.

We need more hella energy in the world. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to help amplify it a little bit. I was an honor. It was fun. We're always laughing and having a good time. This is fun.

Where should people go to find? find you, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. Everything hell of good. Everything is hell of good. Everything is hell of good. It's a unified brand. It's a hell of good group. Thanks to Lex.

Thank you. Thank you to Lex. Yeah, absolutely. She definitely made this life happen. Sometimes I said, I'm like, thank goodness I listened to her because I was fighting it. I was like, I don't want to do a video. She's like, come on, this is really cool. You've got to share people you're doing a run streak.

And the world is a better place. Yes. All right. Peace, my friend. Thank you. Thanks, too. Appreciate it. Cheers.