The School of Greatness - 373 Rob Dyrdek: From Small Town Skateboarder to Media Mogul Empire

Episode Date: August 29, 2016

"Success or failure, there's a lesson, and it's all humbling." - Rob Dyrdek If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/373

Episode number 373 with the legend from Ohio, Rob Dyrdek. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome, everyone, to a very special edition of the School of Greatness podcast.

Why is that so special? Well, I've got my brother from another mother from Ohio in the house. His name is Rob Dyrdek, and this guy is just one of the most genuine, honest, real, authentic dudes that I've ever met. And for those that don't know who Rob is, he is a renowned storyteller, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, pop culture personality, ex-professional athlete, retired stuntman, and brand ambassador. He was the host of the hit TV show Rob and Big, which is where I first learned about him. Also Fantasy Factory, and now the current host of the hit show Ridiculousness, which if you want to have an amazing laugh where you can't stop laughing, then make sure to watch this show. It is unbelievable.

He's also a pure blood do or dire, and he is compelled beyond reason to live the most amazing life possible and help others do the same. And in this interview, we go deep. I mean, this guy has so much wisdom, so much insight, and he's lived like a thousand lives, literally. He's swam with sharks and gotten eaten by a shark. He's kissed bears on the lips. He's done barrel roll flips in the air with cars and motorcycles. He's surfed big waves with Laird Hamilton.

He's done it all. He's unbelievable in his wisdom and in his experience. And we cover really the core principles that Rob lives by and his foundation for greatness. Also what the difference is between a business and just an idea. How Rob got started as an entrepreneur by accident and who some of his biggest mentors and inspirations are. How Tony Robbins' new book on money changed the entire game and the entire way that Rob structures his finances and his business. How Rob moved to California at 16, dropped out of school to start a company while skateboarding.

And what Rob is getting into now that he is focused on his purpose. We dive in deep, guys, and I didn't want it to end. I want to ask another like thousand questions because there's so much I could connect with, so much I could resonate with. I felt like he's speaking my language in terms of how he runs his business, how he thinks about his life, his family, every area of his life, and he's just so fulfilled and happy. I mean, for me, that's what it's all about. So I hope you guys get a ton of value out of this.

Make sure to share this with your friends because this is a big one. lewishouse.com slash 373. Share it with your friends or if you're on the podcast app on your iPhone or Android, just click on the share button on iTunes and share this out on Twitter and Facebook because it is powerful, guys, and everyone needs to hear this one. Also, check out the full video interview at youtube.com slash lewishouse to watch the video and share that. Leave a comment as well. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, Rob Dyrdek. Welcome, everyone, back to the School of Greatness.

We have the legend from Ohio, Rob Dyrdek in the house. Just two guys. Two guys. Out in Beverly Hills now from Ohio. Just living the dream. Yeah, man. You know? I want to, before I get you to share your bio, because I have an intro that I already

did before this, I want to do some things we have in common. Sure. All right, so some common things that Rob and Lewis have in common. Both from Ohio, first and first. I mean, i got my hot shirt on you do you do always every time you see the shape of the buckeye state oh my god you just get you feel some type of way yeah i mean and and just before we get too deep into ohio i want you to know that i went to game seven oh the nba finals and it was like i have never... How much pride did you have? Look, I have never...

You know who I watched it with was D-Wade, right? Oh my gosh. It was like, I've never... I don't believe in my life I have ever lived through dramatic storytelling

and to where I couldn't... An entire like 20,000 people experiencing this just riveted like just storytelling and when they were I couldn't like I almost like cried I was so excited you know what I mean I want to tell you where I was yeah I was playing with the USA national team in Buenos Aires in Argentina for the Pan Am championships now we just finished and I think we lost a game to I don't know brazil or someone who was just in the olympics and i'm like we got to get back to watch game seven right i'm like i don't care what we do we got to get back to the hotel and there's no english-speaking espn it's

like espn the ocho or whatever you know what i mean but they're like so they're like goal you know every time they score it's like a soccer game. So you had to listen to it. I'm listening in Spanish, but I can feel it, right? That's cool. It is down to the last minute. I'm in my room by myself, and I'm literally screaming. The whole city must have heard me. It was unbelievable, man.

So much fun. And you got lucky that you were at least in a place that was on the same time zone. Exactly, yeah. It was like an hour or two off or something in Europe or something where you were like jammed. It was amazing, man. Good for you. Shout out to Ohio. Shout out to LeBron, the whole Cavs team.

There you go. Dan Gilbert and everybody. The second thing that we have in common, we're both former pro athletes. That's right. That's right. Skateboarding. Yeah. And I played professional football.

Okay. So, yeah. There you go. That's number two. And how long were you a pro for? Oh, I forgot. Officially a pro. Look, skateboarding is a little gray. You know what I mean? Okay. So, yeah. There you go. That's number two. And how long were you a pro for? Officially a pro. Look, skateboarding is a little gray. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long did you get paid to like compete, I guess, right? Up until last year. Wow. You know what I mean? But I didn't get – I would say last year is when I stopped all my signature product. Okay. You know what I mean?

So that was 20 plus years. Wow. You know what I mean? So it's – That's legendary status. I turned pro at 16. Living in Ohio, you were pro. Yeah.

And then made this very long run. And there was points in it where I had to check myself and reevaluate myself and rededicate myself to my craft. As 23, I thought it was over. At the time, they had signed my final. They gave me a two-year contract for DC and one more shoe, and they were like, we think your best years are behind you. At 23? Yeah.

That's like not even your prime yet. No, but back then I was like, I'm a mess. But of course I was eating shitty and drinking a ton, you know what I mean, and not nearly as focused, lost my way because my ambition was so much bigger than being a professional athlete. And from that point on, I only signed two-year deals. I said, look, I promise you two years from now, I'll be a completely different human being. And then I never signed more than a two-year deal ever again because I made a commitment of like every two years,

I will shape shift to another level. And that's what I did continually up until I signed a seven-year deal. Then they went bankrupt. Sure, sure. How much does a pro athlete make? What's a two-year deal back when you're 23? Is that 100 grand a year? Is that 20 grand? What is that? I mean, back there, you could make $200,000 to $500,000 depending on the shoe, right? Wow. A year. Yeah. But one of my early big hustles was I was so good at designing shoes. And I would design these hit shoes and make all this royalty money, right? So even though you'd be guaranteed $200,000.

You're making two bucks a shoe for life. Right. So you could end up making $500,000, $600,000, $700,000. Some guys would make like $1 million, $2 million off one shoe, right? So I did a deal with them when I signed that second year contract of allow me to go through the same process as the designers, right? And what the designers did is they did hand sketches, then they made illustrator files and then put them on boards and presented to sales.

So I would just, I'd like do like 20 of them. I would get up there and I was the pro skater. I was 24 back then, right? 25. I would razzle dazzle them. I would put on a show in that sales room because it would be like, oh, what? The pro's here, right? And I ended up – You could speak from what athletes wanted.

Yeah. But I – look, I sold it to even so many deeper levels than that. It's like this is what's trending and all that and all the colorways and materials. And at one point, I had a third of the entire line. So I was getting royalty off of 30 or 40 shoes. Oh, my gosh. And when Quicksilver came in and purchased DC, they were like, what? Why is one of the pro skaters getting paid so much money?

Because the designer gets paid like – $60,000 a year. Yeah, and I'm literally getting like $100,000 plus for all these shoes. Shut up. So they kind of put the kibosh on that after they were like, look, you – Giving you too much. We just can't do this. Like when they bought it, you know what I mean?

But that's just a little insight to a random thing. That's amazing. Dude, I love that side hustle. Yeah. Dude, I didn't know you were designing like that. What I called at a younger age, we called that stir-frying. Stir-frying. Right?

Where you would just throw a bunch of different things in and cook it up. Yeah, it's super work. You know what I mean? and cook it up you know what i mean and and that's again seeing an opportunity uh approaching not saying hey let me design 10 shoes it was like let me go through the same process as the designers pitch that to the ceo he's like shit okay well yeah you know if he out designs our team sure let's give him a royalty you know and uh even he didn't fully anticipate it you know and the sad part was is like you know i'd go in there and just razzle dazzle and dance and and sell them and then then they would pick them and literally i would hand pick a designer and hand it to him and he'd literally have to do

everything right he would have to do all like get everything made to get all the manufacturing go through the whole process of and i would just would just like check in. Oh, that looks sick. Oh, cool. Yeah. Change that. Check. Wow. Amazing. And you were in Ohio still during this? No, no. That was California. That was like, I left Ohio at 16.

Really? Yeah. So I stopped going to school at 16 and got guaranteed at the time. I had already turned pro. And right when I turned 17, in that sort of era, you just got board royalties and maybe some little demo fees. So I would get like two, 300 a year, you know, and Christmas of that year, I sold one board and got a $2 check.

And they were like, if you move to California, we'll give you a thousand a month. And I was like, you're like, I'm rich, like gone. You know what I mean? And that was sort of the genesis of getting out there. And then once I got out there, then it just really started building because then all the other companies out here were trying to steal me thinking that I would leave the small Ohio company, which I just leveraged to get a little bit more money out of those guys. Sure, sure. Of course. You're smart.

Where were you living when you first moved out here? I moved to San Diego. And at the time, I moved in with these three girls, my homie from Ohio and these three girls. And when I told my mom, this is the arrangement that I made, and we got a room inside an apartment, three girls. She said, oh, my God, you're going to have AIDS. inside an apartment, three girls.

She said, oh my God, you're going to have AIDS. Immediately equated me living with three girls as being AIDS. So that was my first thing. I moved to Encinitas, California down the beach. Yeah, man. Near PB? Is that near Pacific Beach? No, I eventually moved to PB because North County was pretty far from where the action was. So I had eventually moved to PB because it was North County. It was pretty far from where the action was. So I had eventually moved to Pacific Beach and, you know, just wild in the streets.

I was wild, you know. And I had went to the Ohio DMV with my friend's social security certificate and – or social security card and birth certificate. And because back then in Ohio, if you had those two, they'd an id you didn't have to wait they give it to you on the spot you know so i think at the time i had stayed up all night and and went there like six in the morning i was like shaking you know what i mean like trying to fill it out like you know like i'm such a criminal right now you know feeling, feeling so illegal. You know, I already look, you know, imagine how young I looked at 17. And, you know, I'm like, I fill out all the paperwork and I go to take the photo. And they're like, you're not 21.

Wow. And I'm like, I am 21. Everybody says I'm not, but I am. And he's like, excuse me? He's like, can you move the background to blue for 21? I was like, oh, oh, sorry, sorry. Oh, my gosh. And then I have this like like photo of like

that id and i took that thing out of there man and i partied so hard in pb i was 17 i was known as little bill because my my id was william weiss a friend of mine so in in pacific beach california i would go out seven nights a week and i was known as Little Bill at the PB Barn. You know what I mean? PB and me wasn't exactly the right way to take off my career in my teenage years. I wasn't really focused.

I had all the ambition to drive but didn't really quite. It was still very exploratory in the early ages. That's hilarious man. Another thing in common for us is we are both entrepreneurs who, what I heard you say in the videos, you never started out to be an entrepreneur. Your dad was selling suits. My dad was selling insurance.

Yeah. A couple of Ohio guys. But you didn't start out to be an entrepreneur, right? You just wanted to be an athlete. Is that what I heard? No. Well, no. I was raised by entrepreneur wolves.

I wasn't – I knew no other way. Despite wanting to be a professional athlete and getting so good really quick, but the first person I made a phone call to when I was 11 years old was a guy named Jimmy George at the local skate shop. And I said, if I get 10 people to enter your contest, he was having a contest, can I get in for free? Now, Jimmy George was an 18-year-old entrepreneur who started his own skate shop. And what has sort of happened is this sort of ecosystem of skateboarding entrepreneurialism exploded in Dayton, Ohio. Really? So he started – not only did he start the skate shop, then he started a boutique, then he started a distribution company. So then one of my close friends that was working at the shop then started a clothing line. Then when the Alien Workshop, the company I was pro for my

entire career, those guys moved back and started the Alien Workshop in Dayton, Ohio, and all of this incredible – so to me when I was young, it was just this is what I'm going to do. Everyone around me, all the people that I spend the most time with are all starting their own companies. This is just what I'm going to do. So that's what led to the moment I got to California, first thing I did was start a company, right? And that to me is that great outlier sort of aspect of you didn't know any other way.

Like it wasn't even weird to you that you're already thinking about like you didn't look at it as business. Like it was just this is what you did. All your friends did and everybody you know, they built companies and started companies even though I didn't fully understand what that meant, right? Like I have always, it took me many years to understand the difference between a business and an idea, you know? And a lot of people with drive and will and the ability to execute bring ideas to life, but they're not good businesses. And some of them are quite frankly terrible businesses and great ideas. And that's what I suffered with a lot in my early days of being an uneducated guy who didn't go to his last year of high school, who took a night class to get a diploma. And who apparently, even though I don't fully remember this story, my mom says like they tried to tell me that, no, you got to go to school. And I just convinced the counselors and all of the principals that I was like, I just

didn't, I didn't need to. And that they finally just let me like, he's not coming. So like, I guess he doesn't have to let me go. But that's sort of the difference. I had a very unusual upbringing in that sense. And even when I was like 14, I spent no time with kids in my school. Jimmy George would pick me up from school and we would go – my dad would drop – or my mom would drop me off at the shop during the weeks and then on the weekends, I would stay with him all weekend. The skate shop. And then on the weekends, I would stay with him all weekend. The skate shop.

Yeah. So the kid that owned the – who had built the skate shop. So then I would travel all over with him and just be literally up in the mix of their business and how they did everything. And that was really like the major influence on me at a really early age of like calculating what my version of my business was going to be. Yeah, wow. Who was most influential in your life growing up? Yeah, I think that core group, there's Jimmy George, a guy named Chris Carter and Mike Hill who went on to start the Alien Workshop.

It was this kind of core group of entrepreneurs and mentors that were older and and that i uh skated for right almost right one at the skate shop one built the company you know and um and then you know god bless my mom who i found out when i was like doing all my biomechanical body research like they were like crawling patterns like find out when you find out out when you walked for the first time. And my mom was like – I thought for sure she was going to get – no, no. Your sister was having a problem with her eyes and they said not to let you – because she started walking after six months. So I didn't let you walk for a year even when you tried to. I really believe that's like the foundation of what allowed me to become an athlete.

She was the one that was like, he's's small we got to put him in karate you know and like try to chase it down then my dad was always like literally like he could do anything i could do anything right so it just be like dad this is of course i can do that i'm your dad right of course you can and i got that same sort of like of course course I can't like, you know, like from him, you know, and that spirit of like, like understanding people and calibrating with people's energy and just enjoying life combined with this sort of paranoid mother who wanted to get me into stuff because they were so afraid I was going to be bullied because I was smaller, which led to this athleticism and this foundation of success at such an early age someone like me to do the type of things that I do in a history, in a career, in a life on so many different levels. Yeah. Amazing, man. Steve. Steve. But I knew you'd appreciate it.

I knew you'd appreciate it. I love all this stuff. Another thing in common, we're both ordained ministers from the Universal Life Church. Yeah, man. Who'd you marry, man? I actually didn't marry anyone. But when I was in college, I was like, oh, this looks cool. I want to be like an ordained minister.

Yeah. So I went online and did it. Let me give you some depth. Let me give you some depth. But I know you did. Well, you did it on a show of yours, right? Let me tell you how it went, right? So I had this – I embrace stalkers, right? I think's uh just something kind of funny a lot of stalkers i do

i do you know and i have this theory on stalking is like when when people are when they you engage with them it humanizes you and makes you less interesting right uh but i had this deaf couple that would follow me everywhere i went right whether it was when i jockeyed the horse they'd go there when i do my car stunts they were there whatever if i threw a party in a club you know they were there and and i kind of just thought they were cute you know what i mean like they were in love and a deaf couple and they're just super fans you know whatever so he he shows up to my birthday, presents me with a Rolex, right? Uninvited.

Uninvited, yeah. He's just there. It's like a public at one of the clubs, you know what I mean? So he shows up, you know what I mean? He's like, you have heart, you have heart. I said, motherfucker, I wouldn't take a Rolex from one of my best friends unless they were really rich. I'm not taking this from you, right? And so then he gave me a card that just said, hey, I want to get engaged. I can't remember the name of the time.

Like, will you help me? And I'm like, you want to know what? I'm going to do an episode about this. That's crazy. So I learned sign language. I set this entire thing up, had her surprised, like blindfold her, said the whole thing, put her on the zip her said the whole thing put her on the zip line at the factory sent her down like you know he jumped out he lays down like will you marry me and she's like no what i'm like on tv yeah and we're like wait what he's like he's like no no absolutely no then he's like for tv she's like fine

shut up and then like it's like i'd marry you to me i'm like oh god okay whoa all right like and so i had planned no part of me thought that he hadn't had that part worked out. So I just laid out the entire episode, went and got ordained for all of that. And then when they did it, I couldn't do it. Right. So fast forward two years later and it's such a good idea for an episode. Right. I'm like, God, it would only matter if I could marry someone that was significant in my life. My sister had had a boyfriend for like two years at the time.

So I called my mom and I'm like, they ever talk about getting married? And she's like, no, they said they're just going to go to the courthouse. And I'm like, okay, well, you tell them. If they're willing to get married in the next three months, that I'll shoot an episode and pay for their amazing wedding and and give them a big honeymoon and all this stuff and so she's like okay so like an hour later i'm like man what am i doing like why am i why am i trying to mess with her life and they're like why like don't like don't put the pressure on like i don't know like you know like why are you messing with their life for your own tv entertainment and so i call her i say what

oh shit i'm like do you talk to mom yes and i'm like what she's like well just so you know i just brought it up to jason he was like oh oh great because it's just something we've never talked about right and i'm like never talked about my mom just made that up saying like oh they said they're gonna go to a courthouse they've never even though these two have been together for two years they never spoke about marriage so i said man put him on the phone i said hey dude i'm i'm look i'm so sorry i'm not trying to with your life you know on on you know this whole tv thing and whatever but look on some real shit if you'll get married in three months, I will pay for your wedding and I'll give you guys like 100 Gs.

Holy cow. You know what I mean? And he was like, all right, let me talk about it. And so we shot that episode, did the whole thing and had my sister's wedding inside the fantasy factory. Did she love it or was she like – She loved it. And to me, it's like, yeah, it's blending entertainment and creativity and being absurd and over the top.

But that's special. You know what I mean? It's another one of these incredible life moments that I have in a highlight reel of, of incredible moments that money can't buy. And, and it is, it is timing and creativity and opportunity, all these things mashed into one with a little bit of magic, you know, and, and for me, you know, I'll never do it again. I'm, you know, it's like people hit me up all the time. I want to, you know, and for me, you know, I'll never do it again. You know, it's like people hit me up all the time. I want to, you know, get ordained. And that literally is the most significant one, right?

Because it's like I only, it's just my sister and me. And it's like, and she, you know, that was at 40, you know, and then she, they immediately got pregnant. And she had my nephew at 41, straight buzzer beater, you know, and that's why the following time I was like, okay, I really feel like I shifted their whole existence. These are two people that didn't talk about marriage who now have a child. And then I just bought them like a full house so that they could just have something free and clear that could be the true foundation of their family forever. I manipulated the universe on that one. It's my responsibility to make sure that you're secure and peaceful inside your existence. You know what I mean? But as you know in Ohio, you get a lot for –

You get a lot. For a hundred grand, you're a king. Yeah, no. Dayton as well. Like 60 grand, you got a mansion. Yeah. No, look. I spent like 380.

Yeah. Oh, my God. They're living large. It's like – it's beautiful. My aunt has a place that she got for a half a mil on like the Scioto or the Ohio River right in Dublin, Ohio. I don't know if you know Dublin. But it's like a half a mil on like the sciota or the high river right in dublin ohio i don't know if you know dublin but it's like a half a million dollar home but it's got like 12 bedrooms and like six car garage and on the river with you know a boat or whatever it's like

four wings for like five grand a month i'm like what yeah oh man You'll never, especially being from there, you'll never not think about how far what your rent is in this place. The amount that you could own. But the difference is, too, is you would buy it for three. That thing will be worth $400 10 years from now. There is no, it's not like out here when the wave's flowing out here you could literally make millions off of a shitty house in the hills. Dude, my first apartment when I was making a little

bit of money was $495 a month in Columbus, Ohio. And it was like the most ghetto building in downtown in the short north. And I remember I moved to New York City for like a month to go just try it out. Because I had a couple speaking gigs and for like a month to go just try it out because I had a couple speaking gigs

and I was like, let me just try it out for a month and it was $2,700 and I remember feeling like I wanted to throw up that I was paying $2,700 for one month and I was paying $4.95. Yeah.

And then after one week of being there, I was like, I get it. Like the inspiration, like the motivation, I was like, I get it. And then I paid $3,600 a month for the next month and i was like i get it and then i paid 3600 months for the next month and i was like oh i can't believe i'm writing this check man

but i was like you know what's just like driving me to create more and be more inspired and and do more and it was so much fun there's the price of your journey yeah yeah you could have moved probably out to like brooklyn or wherever and i was in manhattan like soho like it was it was amazing it was amazing. It was amazing. It was magical. And the fifth thing we have in common is we both love ridiculousness. Oh, man. You've done an amazing job at this show.

Like, I watch it for like, you know, I watch it for hours every night. I'm like, this is the funniest show on TV. Yeah. It's so funny. So, congrats on creating a winning formula, which isn't something new. You know, people have been doing funniest home videos for years, right? Yeah. Well, look, even when I conceptualized it, it was like I read an article with Vinnie DeBona in the Hollywood Reporter about the $500 million syndication business of America's Funniest Home Videos. Shut up. You're like, oh, this makes sense.

But then what I did when I pitched it in the beginning is I took an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos and just stripped out all the – and showed that like, hey, there's actually only about five minutes that's good in here. And then I would go in and pitch it to all the networks with like an Xbox controller and like pointing it out and talking through like basically just almost how i i do the show at this time and even at the time i sold it during robin big right because i knew that i wasn't going to do that any longer right and so three seasons four seasons probably right so in the which was brilliant by the way in the third season i sold it direct the series right and uh at the time it was called money shot and because we were going to give away money like america's funniest home videos and then they were like we want another reality show and then offered me all this money right and they were like season four of robin big or your own show right. To go with a money shot at the time. Right.

So, but I got paid probably a, a quarter on the money shot show. Right. So I decided at the time, like, let's just do fantasy factory first. You know what I mean?

And because it's like so much more money, even though that was a dog fight. And then by the time a lot of production value right a lot of production for fantasy factory yeah well no just it it's it it wasn't wasn't that as balls the wall on that you know i knew i had to make something so much bigger than robin big and that's why i knew you know i went all i spent like 750 g's on that building and midway through shooting it, they were like,

this show sucks. Like they didn't like that. The executives were like, this thing sucks. Like I was getting attacked by a shark in the Bahamas. I saw that one. And the night before I was getting attacked, like basically the top of the food chain and MTV was like,

this show is not going on the air. We shot all these episodes. They're like, cut it down to six episodes. No way. And I was in my hotel room going through probably 200 cuts, trying to figure out what's missing here. Because what had actually happened is we tried to, the team that I created the show with only knows how to make a buddy comedy. the team that I created the show with only knows how to make a buddy comedy. So they tried to basically take this big building and take me and my cousin to be Robin Big,

but we're not Robin Big, right? And one of the first cuts, when it had my lawyer and my manager and all the different characters, I'm like, no, this is an office dynamic. But the night before i got attacked by a shark i sent out an email of basically like we over edited it we we went down to robin big this is really like the office uh but set in this extreme world right and and it reeled everybody back in and then we were able to recut everything to to now have that office dynamic that then allowed it to go and explode right but that's the depth before i got up in the morning and had to be like what am i doing do i really want to lose function of this arm right because the whole thing they're like you can do this but if you don't if you let go of it, of your arm, when it's on you, it will shatter your arm. Oh, my gosh. Because it's going to thrash so crazy.

And the worst part about it, too, is as you go to dive where you've got to get attacked. Oh, my gosh, dude. Like you have to jump through like 50 sharks all up on the surface because they know someone's there going to feed them. So you've got to jump through them and go down. someone's there like gonna feed them so you gotta jump through them and go down and then if you can imagine like like you're like this like wow wow you are like got a piece of tuna on your arm and it's like it's like and when that when that thing locked on i just remember like good lord like i can't believe like i'm really there's a shark on me this is like real you know and i remember when it was over i was swimming back up and i just told myself just

stop and look at this world like you will never be here again like just look at stop and never forget this moment you know and and look down at the sunken ship and just sharks everywhere and what was literally the dumbest idea i'd ever thought of in my life uh 10 in the morning was now like i gotta talk about a shark you know i mean it's like now it's like nobody's taking that away from me like this is like put you know it's like it was it was the beginning of like where i started chasing these crazy stunts really after uh going through that and what that gave me now it created this sort of desire to build a highlight reel you know that leads to flipping cars for super bowl commercials and jockeying horses getting attacked by tigers and all the different things it led to this kiss insanity. Kissing bears. Yeah, kissing bears. Yeah, like all of like this really incredible life moments that, again,

no one can ever take away from you. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's funny. I had Travis Pastrana in here a couple weeks ago, and he talked about you and talked about some of the adventures you guys had had and how you were always like the cool young guy, um you know just always can make people laugh and all these things yeah he's done some crazy stuff right he's there's three people like him right laird laird danny way and him yeah

i believe they're they have a genetic malfunction like i'm a real dude i'm scared and this none of this makes sense i'm only doing this for story and like part of a business hustle. He literally just loves to do it. You know what I mean? And he doesn't have the fear gene. Like all of us have those three guys specifically, they have this, this thing that says first, oh, this is too dangerous. They only think about making it.

They only think about making it. And when they get hurt doing it it's like ah shit like didn't expect that like they literally are like travis specifically like he's like what dang it i don't want to get hurt i'm hurting another surgery like and like you know and lair and him danny way is the same way where and you can't trust them you know the same way when I told Laird, can I get – I'd never surfed before. Can I get towed into a big wave? He's like, easy. And I'm like –

And you did it actually. Yeah, right. But I didn't trust – I just know him and their type. You just can't trust them because they think everybody is as gnarly as they are. They think – and I've been through it with all of them. From almost dying on the wave with Laird to trying to backflip a motorcycle with Travis and

whiskey throttling into a crane and trying to jump the mega ramp with Danny Way and like could not get myself to break through, you know. But look, Danny Way, they all have that missing element of being fearful of something and literally only think about doing it.

But Danny Way will have surgery on his knee and only get local anesthetic so he can watch it and talk through. Like, oh, I kind of see that. Yeah, let's kind of pull like that's how gnarly he is. You know what I mean? Like that's just like a – despite doing so many insane stunts, like I still look at myself. They were all done with a reason of content or for a major – you know, flipping that car for Chevy. They were the title of my league. They were – it was the season premiere.

It was a Super Bowl commercial. It was just this multi-platform, mega, multi-million dollar deal that boiled down to like, okay, you got to really go flip a car now. But they'll do that like on a Tuesday afternoon. Right. Like to them, they're like, but they respect that. You know what I mean? They're like, dang, that's a gnarly one. You know what I mean?

Like they give me respect like I'm in their zone. You're in the club. Even though like I know like that's just – I'm just trying to make TV or content. You know what I mean? I'm retiring. You guys will do this forever. Right. You know what I mean?

Even like, I'll go work out with Laird. You done a Laird pull workout? I did a breathing workout with him and we did like other type of exercises, but I want to do the pull workout with him. It's insane, I hear. It's just. Have you done a few or just one? I've done a couple and.

It's gnar I hear. It's just – Have you done a few or just one? I've done a couple and – It's gnarly, right? What I love about him is like especially like getting in and out of the ice tubs in the middle of the workout, which is just the worst, right? But he's always like – he literally like has so much confidence in me. He's like, not a thing for you. Not a thing for you. You know you've got the mind for this. And it's like, just so that Laird isn't like, that I live up to Laird's expectation, I am like dying inside that ice thing. But acting like I'm just like, yeah, so anyway, Laird. No big thing.

No big thing. But when I got, he really thought I died. He was so shook. In the ocean or what? Yeah. When I got towed into the wave, I got held under by two waves. I had two life jackets on. And I literally. Still waves had two life jackets on and i literally still under

with two life jackets yeah and i and i i finally was fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting and i finally had to give up like just give up like i'm like i'm gonna die i was giving up and the moment i gave up like i popped out and he just come flying and he's like we're done we're done like he really thought i died he was shook he was like really really shook like you couldn't breathe or what no no because i was like i was spun so crazy you didn't know which way i got caught in two of them right and i could never get out you know and it's an interesting way to experience fear right because you're floating on your back in the ocean right and i'm like man just get me the up because i don't want to get bit by a shark right all i can think of is like sharks

coming underneath because i just wanted to get up and then on most really dangerous shit you face it you don't yeah you go towards it versus like this one you're just kind of cruising and it comes from behind oh so now you're just like you get towed in an angle where you're not looking at it right so when you get towed in yeah the wave is completely so you're like oh and then like a house falls on you right and then you are now it's a fight for life right it's so nuts you know so still the only time i've ever served i never the first and only time I've ever surfed. I saw a clip of you, a highlight clip of you getting on it, though. Yeah.

Is that right? So, you actually hit a wave? Yeah, yeah. It was great. This is after you almost died or before? Before. Okay. It was like, let's get one more, you know.

It was like that type of. One more was done. Okay. That type of thing. So, if you were to describe yourself or a bio that you would give yourself, who would you say that Rob Gyrdek is? Well, I have it very refined, you know what I mean, in the sense that it's a core trait, you know what I mean, where I consider myself a do or dire, you know what I mean? Like someone that has the fortitude, the work ethic, and the grit to turn all their passions into reality, you know, by seeing it, believing it, planning it and doing it, you know, and, and to me, uh, in a self-discovery of like

really what makes you tick, you know, and, and, and then I look at it as an even deeper level of I'm passionately compelled, right? I don't have contrived ambition. Like I'm not being driven by trying to prove something wrong or trying to do anything i genuinely am passionately compelled to do all the things that i do right um i am obsessively curious right that's why i relentlessly learn you know what i mean in in completely evolve and continue to shift into different levels of reality based off of the knowledge that you have and the ability to set goals and build plans only based off of what you believe in. Your belief is only based off your knowledge, right?

It's just an experience, right? Relentlessly consistent. You know what I mean? You get me the same way. Parking attendant gets me the same way as Lorenzo Fertitta, you know i mean i i you get me the same way parking attendant gets me the same way as as lorenzo fortita you know what i mean and and and billionaires and and tv executives to skate kids like and you know what i do if you're around me you know how hard i work i've never not worked hard i don't all of a sudden i don't go high and low and disappear, you know, profoundly grounded.

You know what I mean? It's success or failure, there's a lesson and it's all humbling. Yeah. You know what I mean? At the end of the day, grateful based off of God, what an amazing life that you've even been allowed to live, right? I love that. And honestly brilliant. You know what I mean?

There's things that I really know that I'm great at and I'm honest with myself on the things that I'm not. Right? everything and get caught out there when you're uh you know mr uh know-it-all about everything that you don't fully understand because you decide what it is based off of your experience right and and i think that's sort of a part of me that that uh has evolved you know like energetically driven you know what i mean like where you're inspired by energy. You know your energy is going to control all those around you and that ultimately we're all energy and how it all feels and feeds in and out is going to determine how everything around you ultimately works. You know what I mean?

You know the source of all the outcomes around you. 100%, right? 100% responsible source. And even mastering how to master that energy is the fundamental core principle of happiness. Yes. You know what I mean? It's like you literally either wake up and you see the world half full. And that means it doesn't matter what's going on.

You're handling it. You're looking towards the future. You're progressing, all this stuff. You see it half empty. You could pick apart in every aspect of your life. So to me, in this evolution, it's becoming how do you get up every day and make sure you're looking at it half full. And the simple fundamental controlling your energy. Because at the end of the day, that's all that you have. You can sleep for two hours and you're living in that energy.

You could go 100 miles an hour it doesn't matter you know you could sleep for seven hours and be healthier than because your diet's on point every last aspect and you could just feel dead to the weight of the world could be on you when you're half empty yeah a lot of that stems from gratitude which talked about being grounded in gratitude right yeah yeah to a degree right it's like every tool even being gratitude does you no good when you're half empty you can be like oh i feel like you could start picking everything apart and you can tell yourself uh the same way that like you can put out a vision for whatever you want but if you don't believe in the steps or understand what the steps are, you don't believe that vision.

You know what I mean? It's like so many people are over positive without having realistic positivity. Now it doesn't mean you shouldn't dream big, but you better dream in sequence. If I had to get to there, I'd have to go to here. And if I get to that, here's like, if you can't identify what levels you've got to reach to get to that, you're never going to truly believe it. And if your subconscious doesn't actually believe it, you're not going to manifest even what you even set out of your goal that's too big to even ultimately achieve.

So how do you manage your energy with all the different things that are going on, the relationships you have? You got a baby coming on the way, you know, businesses, TV shows, executives, brands, you know, how do you manage your energy so that you're always half full? I live a completely systematic life. You know, it's, I think you know it well. It's the habit side, right? And now imagine if your habit level goes even further, right?

Where now you only pick projects and build projects where your part of it is only where you find energy. So now – It doesn't take your energy. Right. And then now connect that to having a complete life plan and total purpose that's scalable. So now every aspect of your life has purpose and meaning. So your faith in your big ideas is always there because you believe in your plan. your plan and you're not getting outside your comfort zone because you've built your entire system around making sure you stay there, it's almost impossible to drift out of it.

Now, I have intangibles, like incredible love, right? I have the love of my life and the person that I was absolutely meant to live on this earth with forever, right? And create a family and build forever. And that's something that we all hope and dream for, but actually achieving it is the greatest of great unknowns and actually getting. And when you are already built around creating a systematic life plan on top of optimizing that and building it to evolve as you grow. But now when you're building that forever plan with someone that you are fully aligned with in that purpose together. and now your entire universe is built around the both of you it's something to be grateful for at an at an extremely fundamental level yeah you know what i mean because it's not many people i know could articulate it like that or actually

live it and understand what it actually feels like because it's it's especially relationships it's peace you know what i mean and it's you get up each day it don't matter how chaotic things are you look at it half full you just you just deal with it as it goes and you've built your world in a way that nothing there's the stakes aren't so high in anything that you're doing. And at the end of the day, your family and your core relationship that's at the center of it all is to find balance, right? Versus building an entire balanced system so that you live in balance. You never have to search for it. You actually live in it. And part of living in that balance is making sure that you live in the energy of everything and get up every day and look at it half full, right? Because you just look at, you're happy, you know, and that's, it's a difficult thing to achieve.

It took me three years. I would say meeting Tony Robbins was a huge part of it. When did you meet him? Two years ago. I had basically three years ago, I had just finally had enough of what I was doing. Which was? Everything. And if you –

A little bit of everything. was everything right and if you a little bit of everything if you choose because when you literally can do anything and you choose to do it all you end up standing for nothing yeah right and and none i was always doing all these things thinking one of them was going to be the answer and i finally stopped and said no let's decide what it's all for and what you actually want to do forever and begin to build that and transition into the rest of your life and a plan that is scalable to who you are. So it's put you in what you love to do the most. And that gives you that same sort of creative freedom to have a ton of variety so you can still do a ton of different things but not be burdened by any of them, right, is sort of ultimately what it is. And then what can you master?

What do you want to be a master of, right? You have to decide what your mastery is so that you can spend the rest of your life getting better and better and better and better. Right? And that was sort of my self-discovery along with the idea of what does money mean to you? And you do all these companies and do all this stuff and TV and all this stuff. What are you – What is it all for? What is it all for? Right? What is it all for now?

To me, I love to create. What is it all for now? To me, I love to create. Now, I love the lifestyle that money provides you because secure where you're risking all the time and doing all this stuff and you don't have a plan for all of it holistically. Sometimes you swing into this very burdensome where you over-leverage yourself or got too risky. It creates like – because you're chasing a bigger thing. Well, what's the bigger thing? And that's really what Money Master the Game did to me.

It was like just – Powerful book, man. And that's really what Money Master the Game did to me. It was like just made me stop and build a plan for money for the rest of my life. And ultimately that is to create a lifestyle that my money provides. And as that scales, my lifestyle scales as opposed to getting a place of thinking that I'm going to get rich and a system that I've created. It doesn't matter if I make $100 million or $500 million or $5 billion. The system will never change. It's scalable with where I go. And for me, it's why I built a systematic entire venture system that I call the Deer Deck Machine, which is basically my philosophy on how I will build businesses. So that's my passion. Building from scratch and investing in businesses?

Both. Both. Builds and invests. I invest to learn. I build because it's my passion. And I build with doers and dyers like me. I build because it's my passion, right? And I build with do or dyers like me, right?

And long-term, I want to master curating talent and ideas and do or dyers building their ideas and then selling them, right? I don't like running companies, right? I don't like operating businesses, right? Like I love being in the creative side of it. And it's only fun when it's in that hyper growth. It's so exciting. And the ultimate payoff is that exit. And I want to build it with people that want to take and run their ideas forever. We're going to build these businesses to last forever.

But I only want to be there in a three to five run of helping you build, codify, and just do that over and over for the rest of my life, right? And just get better and better at it, right? And so for me, it's, you know, I'm, you know, right now I've been investing in a ton of alcohol brands, right? because I created this sort of disruptive tactical revenue model that approaches disrupting alcohol distribution by building a distribution by neighborhood strategy connected to marketing and storytelling to owning on and off premise in neighborhoods instead of cities, right? And what it allows you to do is go underneath this sort of super strict distribution world and use your brand's identity and what it stands for in a community to scale revenue that ultimately if you break through at any level in the alcohol space, they buy them at 10 times revenue. Really? So it's not about creating a profitable business.

You literally get to 10 million, you sell for a hundred. It's that clean, right? So it's like, I invested in three to test three different tactical models, a college distribution, one for a boxed wine, a white flavored whiskey with an elite, elite team of guys that have built and sold businesses at a really premium valuation, early startup, 22 million posts, and then a more media-based group that are creating a ton of content. But I've all shared them. This is a tactical model on how to disrupt alcohol distribution with this neighborhood revenue matrix right and let's let's see what happens right so now i get to test and learn once once i refine and see that it works i'm gonna start building right i'm gonna start building because that's what i actually love to do is like like oh like come up with the idea come up with the ah the name all the websites available what like think that, you know, like in add to it, like that's my passion.

So if I get to do that in my venture side, right, and that's what I love to do, I'm only going to get better and better at it forever, right? And then for me, I put all my money in private placement real estate, multifamily homes, right? Where it's – Here or in Ohio or all over the place? I put all my money in private placement real estate, multifamily homes, right? Here or in Ohio or all over the place? But only with high-level expert operators because you get a tax-free dividend, right? And then they roll them. They sell the units every five to ten years, and you roll that into another one, 1031 exchanges. So you never pay taxes on that either. Right. So now that creates sort of your sort of like what I call the financial freedom fund where that dividend, if you keep your expenses inside that dividend, your lifestyle is never at risk. And so as you continue to play in your venture world, you live in your venture world. Every time one pops, then you load it back into your freedom fund.

And the beauty of that system is it snowballs over time. And that's the cleanliness of how I look at it. You want to live within the means of your freedom fund, have fun and your passion and your mastery inside your business, and then my personal home. You know what I mean? Going real extra big on the personal home because conceptually, I want to have the center of gravity for my family. I want to have five kids.

And I want the home that they grow up in to be where they come back to for the rest of their lives like i want to tether them it's an ohio feeling man you go back home yeah and i just want that as part of the great stability of just knowing like this is where you truly come from, you know, and that's never going to change, you know what I mean? And that holistically now is connected everything. The entire plan of every decision I make connects back to that entire system, you know what I mean? And even doing a, you know, I wrote and I'm doing a business show for NBC, right? You know, I wrote and I'm doing a business show for NBC, right?

And it's – everybody is like, what's your next TV? All the networks. Everybody is all on me like, you know, and I did not want to do anything until I figured out my entire system. So it makes sense. Right. And it adds to my mastery, right? So the show is about a built around a fund that is curating ideas and investing in one and having a competition for three like businesses where one wins the capital, right? So it helps your business, your system, it all feeds into it. And the beauty of it is, is I can look at so much deal flow as sort of my own venture business,

but I've been open to this entirely new world because I'm looking at so much business now because I'm casting for a television show, right? So it all again ties back to this entire holistic picture that at the center is just being happy. You know what I'm saying? That's it. you know what i'm saying that's it you know that's it happy you know and then how do you be happy just living the energy how do you what do you get energy from i actually get energy from all that shit i get energy from the stable side of it

i get energy from building this amazing house and having this amazing family i get energy from the entrepreneurs i work with in my my business, right? It's like – It's all of it. You know what I mean? And that's very difficult to discover within yourself, especially when the train is going 1,000 miles an hour and you're doing a million things. I just was like, no, you have to. You got to do it now. You know what I mean? Like you got to do it now and you've ran 40 years of just all over the place. You know it doesn't work.

It's like stop and think about it all. And then what does it all look like in the beauty? And I would, I would argue that even when that self-discovery is right around the time I met my wife, this is meeting T-Rop. This is like, you know, all sort of the aspects. I, you know, I, I hired this really brilliant strategist that came from the agency world that helped me bring all this out of my mind and codify it from a business side as I was doing all the self-discovery of trying to see how it all adds up. You know, because even, you know, I try to explain to Tony, like, you know, you have no idea how much meeting you changed, like, my life.

But we haven't, I've never gone to any of the big stuff i've never like you know it's just me and him you know and like he just doesn't like i just feel like he he doesn't understand the actual impact and what i actually did with how much it shifted me into this mentality because even the guy who who led me to the private placement strategy uh is aj gupta who wrote the book with him. Right. And he was like, right. As I was prepared to start like doing, uh, meeting financial advisors, he had emailed

me and I was like, oh man, I was actually going. He just immediately put me on with AJ. And then AJ comes to my office like the next day. And then it's like, I'm trying to like, I'm literally laying out this whole plan. I'm missing this element. And, you know, cause there's a lot of different theories and what it is. And he's like, well, if that's your true theory, then, and this is the balance of your portfolio, this is your risk and venture, then it needs to be real estate.

And this is how it needs to look. Like, he really, like, put all that. He was the final piece. Even when I try to explain that to Tony, too, he's still, like, he's he's like serve over everything you know what i mean like it's hard to like you know even he sent me an early copy of of i am your guru and i'm like man i'm like i just wish there was so much more like who you really are and the beside the scenes of you is so interesting it's like but i wish there was more of you. He doesn't want to make it about him.

It's about the students. Yeah. I watched it with him the day before it released and it was amazing. At CAA, actually, there was a small screen. Okay, I went to, there was two here, right? There was the CAA one and then the one down on Wilshire, right? You went to that one?

Yeah. Look, this is what happened at that one. He was sitting right behind me. It was so funny to watch him, like watch himself. Look, after that one, there was a went to that one? Yeah. Look, this is what happened to that one. He was sitting right behind me. It was so funny to watch him, like watch himself. Look, after that one, there was a Q&A with the director. An hour and a half workshop, dude.

Did he give you the workshop? With the music and the visualization. Oh, so great. It was amazing, man. Man, and... No, he's amazing. Look, I... So much value.

Look, it's... And it's... And this is what you need to learn from him, right? I'm not trying to mentor you here to like uh mentor you here i'll take it hey think of his mastery think of how tight his message is so tight right it is like and it's like like to me that his principles should be taught in elementary school because it would help you begin to build a foundation of who you are as an individual as you decide to journey into your life. And that is from doing it for so long and so much that it is – obviously, he continues to optimize it.

But damn it, that shit is like – it is a philosophy that is so tight and it's deeper than people even realize because you might drift off and add some things to it and realize, oh, it's not. It's actually like – it is like the core epicenter for evolving yourself continually and making the best version of yourself. You know what I mean? And like even I was on a tough – like you need to, this needs to be curriculum that you need to, like, you want to influence, like really influence, like the world. your own self-confidence and find your mastery and purpose like and understand who you are like this should start in school this shouldn't be for the few that are driven enough to figure it out i hear you man preaching the choir to me yeah maybe you should start a school curriculum yeah school of greatness yeah what am i saying i'm curious first off i want to respect your time because i feel like we're a little over. Can I ask a few more questions?

What was that? I feel like it was 10 minutes. I'm just looking, man. I just get to talking, man. I just want to make sure I respect your time because I have a few more questions. Damn, it's 108. I have like 20 more questions, but I wonder if I could ask a few more. Yeah, yeah.

If you've got a balance, we can. Yeah. Okay, cool. What are the non-negotiable habits every single day that you must do in order to have an optimal life that day. Look, it's very – because I think you know that athletes don't more than anybody, right? Because you understand – You have the unfair advantage, I think. Yeah, and when you get in – you understand – people that have never been an athlete will be like,

oh, I've been eating well and I don't feel any different, right? It's like turning things to habit matters right so this is just what i do i look at i look at life in in in three levels right i look at health life and work right so every morning i get up uh i weigh myself full body composition. You know what I mean? I brush my teeth. I immediately have an oatmeal and a water and then have a coffee. I track how many hours I slept. I rate at the beginning of the morning how motivated I am between 1 and 10. If I'm below 5, it's half full. If I'm above 5, it's half full. If I'm above five, it's half empty.

If I'm above five, it's half full. Then I track everything I eat. All day. Yeah. And when I eat, but I have a food system, so I don't have to think about it during the week. So the meals just show up at the time, so I don't have to think about it. Because again, you take your- Too much energy to be creative with the food.

Don't want to it. I'm a do-it-yourself. And then you have the freedom to trail off. The discipline is tracking it so you understand where you're at. And then I track how much I worked that day and how much I spent on health. So a trainer comes to my house every day at eight, uh, and I either do body work or mobility or, uh, whatever it may be since I've been re-engineering my total structure. Um, and then I try to do a stretch and elliptical at some point during the day and some form. And

now my new office, there's like a holistic center in there. So I've been going down there and doing different things. So I'm murdering it when I put in two hours a day on the body, right? So I track how much I work, how much I'm just living life, how much I slept and how much time I spent on my health, right? And then at the end of every day, I'd give it a life, a zero to 10, health a zero to 10, and work a zero to 10, right? That's cool.

So I have this incredible data, you know what I mean, of like looking at like, and it's just so interesting. What do you track it? Is it on like software? Yeah, it's so sick. I have it all on Google Docs. No, so I put it all on the google uh calendar i gotta get this system man uh put it all on google calendar and

then um and then then my assistant then pumps me out like in google docs like my monthly numbers right so you see look as an athlete yeah you'll appreciate like understanding every aspect of your body composition but as an athlete you know when you're losing it right and you're fading and like you're you're uh you stop tracking for a couple days and now you're now and now you watch you know it's that that you might stop weighing yourself for a little bit and now you're afraid to get on it. Now it's like two weeks goes by and you get on and bam, there's like seven extra. You know what I mean? It's like it's that.

Yeah. The purpose of the system. Now, it's not foolproof. Like life still hits you. You know what I mean? I'm over here preaching. Traveling. You know it because you understand it.

It's the – you know what is absolutely perfect for you. It's so hard to maintain. Very hard. So the system for me is just what, like, by gamifying it, I get excited about the numbers and like, oh, I kept it at 1,500 calories and I was at like 26. And like I get into the gamification of it. I love looking at the data. Yeah. That's what motivates me to stay inside the structure because I ultimately know it's the best version of what I'm going to do. And I believe even when you're that, that healthy, there's about three layers deeper that you're able to accomplish because your mind is thinking

about everything all the time. And then you're solving problems in between other tasks because you're so much more clear. Right. And I think that that's especially really being super healthy and clean diet and whatever that is for you. It's just not filling yourself with a ton of garbage. Sugar, yeah. And there's layers that you begin to unlock that you don't realize because you might just equate it to like, oh, I feel great. you might just equate it to like, oh, I feel great. You know, or, you know, like, and then you could get hit by something in life and all that healthy diet and everything could literally crush you because like what just happened in life was such a burden.

It doesn't matter how healthy you are. You're not going to live through that. You know what I mean? You're not going to find energy through that sort of burden. But being someone, being an athlete and understanding your body at its good bad and really bad right and really great like you just you and you know how hard really great is to sustain so hard it's the how do you how do you just be good you know i'm not trying to be really great because it's just unsustainable you know what i mean it's it's good

is just part of consistently yeah it's just part of living in that that's sort of like the structure to how i have it and then i just uh you know there's a company out here called my fit foods i don't know i love my fit foods right down on the street for me right so i have you know my team just managed my fit food cauliflower mash they have yeah and it's just you know you get to manage your calories clean and like you're it's fulfilling and and i you know even recently shifted from the every two hours uh to the tim ferris every four hours right and especially if you're not doing a ton of physical activity because i'm only doing rehab and trying to like re-engineer my structure,

that you can stay lean that way and still have the energy without overdoing it. And of course, I did all the blood tests and like – and what I found – you might find this interesting. You ever do blood tests to kind of see what you're looking to or any of that? What I found really interesting is all these allergies and all these different things when i just went to this clean diet and and sustained it for a year i went and got all my tests back like i didn't do anything specifically like all where they'll be like you know take this vitamin for 16 hours that all i did was just eat clean and retest and my gluten tolerance was like almost nothing like before it was like he's so allergic to gluten it's like all these different things and it really leveled everything out by

just eating what we're supposed to eat yeah and trying to be on like 80 20 where you just you know when you lose it you lose it a little bit but look life gets you you know what i mean no matter even with this great purpose and bragging about how this little guy in the center all happy, I still get drilled. Of course. When you live in the excitement, it's still hard to manage expectations. It is. Expectations is that great burden of our life because it's this hopefulness, like a new opportunity, big thing, like, you know, whatever it may be, it's always, there's so much energy associated with expectation and the hope behind whatever that may be.

And getting a couple of those in a row, getting slapped back at you can, can drain the strongest, most driven purposeful person. You know what I mean? And, and it's just a part of of life no matter how much you've calibrated who you are as a person and built your life you're still gonna get like punched in the gut you know every couple months of course what's missing in your life right now man i don't look i'm uh it it's not very interesting uh but to, it's not very interesting. Uh, but to me, it's the family and home growing, you know what I mean? Like sons do here any day, uh, really excited about it, but you know, I'm want to build

the house, you know what I mean? I've just been going through the process. It's going to take so many years to do it. And I want to, I want to build just this, you know, place that, that, that I love and live forever so it's like by the time that's done and and i've sort of transitioned out of dancing on a laptop and being the skate guy and sort of evolved into like um this sort of um do or die or entrepreneur entrepreneur, retired adventurer, an athlete, like when I can evolve into that space fully and have built the home that I'm going to live in forever and now had the become a dad

for a couple of years, like I'm still like, I still long for beginning to, to get into that forever of my life because I just am at the beginning of it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. Final couple of questions, I promise. This is called the three truths. Three truths.

So you've lived in your home forever and you've been there for a long time. Yeah. And it's the last day for you. Yeah. And everything you've ever created, the videos, the books, the products, it's all been erased. Yeah. And everyone's all been erased. Yeah. And everyone's there. You're happy.

You've done everything you want to do. And they say, we don't have anything to remember you by except for memories. But here's a piece of paper and a pen. And we want you to write down your three truths. Yeah. Three things that you know to be true about everything you've experienced in your incredible life. Bit by sharks, bears, all the stuff you do. Yeah.

What are the three things you know to be true about life that you'd pass on to us? Yeah. I think number one is that everything you seek to achieve, build a believable plan. You know what I mean? It is whether you're, you literally just want to like become a paper person, build a plan on how it is and what it's going to be. Whatever you want to do, build a plan you believe in because you'll have the faith through the tough times to actually do it because you actually know you can do it. Number two, I think it would ultimately be to learn to be passionately compelled. learn to be passionately compelled, you know, in the sense of learn to find what drives you based off of you wouldn't have it any other way. Because ultimately, if you're using something for

fuel, it's inevitably going to run out. But if it's an internal engine that is literally, If it's an internal engine that is literally you don't know any other way to do it because this is why you do what you do is because you're compelled by your passion. That will fuel you forever. Number three. Number three is simple. Love people and have fun. You know what I mean? At the end of the day, you still, uh, get up every day and interact with people and their energies. And if you don't, uh, really learn how to find beauty in every single person and calibrate to, to an exchange of, of what you're about,

you're just not going to be a happy person. If you can't find joy and fun and literally pretty much anything that you do, especially when it comes to interacting with people, you will never be happy. Yeah. Those are great truths, man. Those are great truths. I don't know if those are exact truths. They were pretty long. They're good. I like them. Before I ask the final question, what – how can we as a community, the School of Greatness community support you? What can we do? What can we promote?

Make sure everyone watches Ridiculousness. But what can we really do to serve you? What means the most to you right now? Oh, no, I don't need anything. I mean, I'm just – you know, look, I would just hope that – I think people that find you are just seeking knowledge and looking to elevate themselves. You know, I don't do too many things. You know what I mean?

I appreciate you coming on. And I just knew philosophically you would enjoy. I love it. I want to go for five more hours. I can't get enough of this stuff. You know, I knew that you would philosophically enjoy the evolution of who I am and my way of thinking. Yeah, of course. And to me, I would just hope that long term, I'm not a teacher.

You know what I mean? I love having conversations and talking about why I do what I do. One day, I will say this is how I lived my life and why, you know, as just not for everyone, but this is why I did it. But I'll never be someone that will be speaking and writing books and doing all this type of stuff. You know what I mean? But it's ultimately I'm not a teacher. That's along the self-discovery because you would think someone that thinks like this would be like, damn, this is a teacher. I don't look at myself as a teacher either.

I look at myself as a student that shares what I'm learning. Yeah, but your passion is sharing and inspiring and teaching others. You're taking this knowledge, repackaging it, and giving it to them to help them. this knowledge, repackaging it and giving it to them to help them. And I just think that ultimately in that self-discovery, I just knew it was never something that I – You're doing it in your own way. You're entertaining, teaching through entertaining. And I would rather like doing this.

I don't mind because it's a conversation. And I think it's the reality of when someone like you has a conversation with me, it's just another, hopefully to the listeners that are on your podcast to be inspired. That there's just some truths in there that they can just apply. Because it's the same way that you read Think and Grow Rich when you're 20. You barely understand it. You read it at 25, you get're 20. You barely understand it. You read it at 25, you get a little bit more out of it. You read it at 30, it's like, oh, wow. You read that shit at 40, and you're like, god damn it.

This is the most powerful lessons ever. You can literally control reality if you master this book. We're both in the documentary by the way think the documentary oh you are you as well yeah i saw it here and also i'm excited about that yeah and and look because it's it's truth man it is and it's the it's the the sketchy ones of the sexual mutation and uh sort of what happens when you can control like reality like it's it's the stuff that's hard for a young man to fully understand um you really get it at 40 you know what i mean and and it's just the idea of um every single thing you know to this day you know what i listened to today working out is uh

the richest man in babylon you know what i mean it's like great it's i you know uh listen to your audio book uh and watched a bunch of your stuff just just getting an understanding of of and wanting to to ultimately hear your philosophy which has a ton of think and grow rich and a ton of that sort of, to me, it's the athletic minds, like applying that sort of the same thing from the athlete's mind, you know what I mean? Which is a, I can relate to because I know what the effects are, you know, not unless you're really in it, it's hard to understand what discipline can do to you physically and how you can grow, you know. Yeah. That was a really long way of saying I don't have anything to promote.

Okay. Well, robdeardack.com is your site. It's a beautiful site. And you were sharing your 10 principles, but you got to like five or six. Yeah. So I want to make sure everyone goes and reads your 10 principles because when I read them, I was like, this is really profound to have your own kind of mission statement, you know, declaration of what you stand for. And I think everyone should follow that process for themselves.

So go check out robderedak.com and see those principles at the bottom. Also, you have a foundation, right? Yeah. Haven't launched it yet. You haven't launched it yet? We never even got into that. I saw the video trailer for it's it. Also, you have a foundation, right? Yeah. I haven't launched it yet. You haven't launched it yet? I haven't even got into that. I saw the video trailer for it. It was like –

To give you the concept is I'm a doer-dier. I want to build companies with doer-dier entrepreneurs, right? And I want to build 50 to 100 businesses that I sell over the rest of my life. And from a philanthropy side, I don't want to help entrepreneurs. I want to help people live these insane moments like I got to live, you know, and rather than build a foundation around any like entrepreneurialism or a cause or something, I want to build it around achieving life moments. So if you can prove to me you've planned out every single aspect, you know, you've figured out a way to put a rocket on a motorcycle

and you've got an idea to jump it, you know, 500 feet and parachute out and it's going to cost you $2,000 for the bike and $6,000 for the ramp and you need this much space, it's going to cost you $75,000. You laid it all, you planned it beginning to end to your achievement i'm going to give you the money right because i want to live vicariously through the doer-diar like me who's got a crazy thing that they want to do but no one would ever provide a resource for that and if i look back on my life when everything's been erased and all i've got to do is tell stories, it's going to be about those hundred individuals that I built and sold businesses with and how excited I was about their ideas and the thousand or so dreams that I made come true for those people who are just like me that cut from that spirit that created some amazing idea that I helped bring alive. That's cool, man.

And you have these two things. And what do they all connect back to? They're all just like me, just do or die. Same mentality in that sort of realm. That's cool. And I can do that forever. Yeah. So when are you going to launch that?

Probably in like a year or so. Okay. You know what I mean? Well, I'm going to write a check for $1,000 for one of the first people that you want to support. That's good. I appreciate that. Of course, man, because I believe in everything that you've done, and I appreciate your energy and the impact you're making in the world. So I'll get you to check today.

Well, let's wait on that. I'll get it to you right now. Okay. Final question. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Rob, for your incredible spirit, your incredible heart, and your passion, man. You've got such a will to live a happy, joyful life. And you're like a symbol to me. You're like a symbol of someone who can come up with any idea and make it happen.

And that symbol for me is such an inspiration because so many people look up to you and say, hey, if this guy kid from ohio who's a skateboarder can create anything he wants and have fun doing it and it doesn't look stressful like you're exactly the way you are on tv you're like just good old happy dude you know good old happy dude but you're a happy dude trying to be a dad that's it man but you're like a symbol of a lot of inspiration for people because of the way you're being every single day and how you show up in the world. So I want to acknowledge you for your gifts, for your ability to be creative and also have systems for yourself because a lot of creative people don't have that. They're all over the map. And I acknowledge you for taking your life and your relationship to the next level and becoming a dad and having this vision that's a beautiful, incredible thing, man. So I acknowledge you for all the gifts in the world that you bring. And my final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

You know, to me, because I think, you know, we tend to look at greatness from a performance perspective, you know what I mean? And I think think that's fair right and i i think it's owed to tony robbins to be that greatness is when like someone's true personal mastery inspires the masses you know what i mean like when when whatever it is when your personal mastery is at such a level that it inspires a mass amount of people you know and when you you tie that to the jordans and different athletes when the tiger woods and in the in great thinkers and different things when you're what you became so masterful at personally became this great source of inspiration. You know what I mean?

And that's what leads to greatness. Super difficult, man. Super difficult. Rob Dyrdek, thanks so much for coming on, man. Appreciate it. Appreciate it, man. Love the environment. Thanks. There you have it, guys.

I hope you enjoyed this powerful, inspiring, entertaining episode with the man, Rob Dyrdek. Always love having guests who are from ohio who are cut from the same cloth who are up to big things and want to create inspiring things in the world as well and want to give back and want to be in service rob is definitely a guy who is living at a high level in life high standard and who's got an incredibly big heart. So make sure to share this out with your friends. Again, lewishouse.com slash 373. Follow Rob on Instagram and Twitter.

Make sure to follow and watch his show Ridiculousness, which is on MTV. And check out his website. He's got these 10 principles at robdeardek.com that I think are really cool. And I think everyone should write down their principles. You know, in the book School of Greatness, we talk about really writing down your principles as well and declaring who you are and who you want to become. So make sure to follow the similar process for you. If you don't have the book yet, make sure to pick up a copy of The School of Greatness.

You can get it on Amazon or in Barnes & Noble. And let me know what you guys thought. Leave a comment on the blog. Leave it on the video post on YouTube. Let me know what you guys thought. Leave a comment on the blog. Leave it on the video post on YouTube. Let me know what you thought of Rob. And what question would you want to ask him when he comes back on? Because he said he would love to come back on in the future with a new show that he has coming out soon. So let me know what question you would ask Rob.

And thank you guys so much for listening, for subscribing, for leaving reviews, for sharing. It means the world to me, and it's all about reaching the maximum people we can to support them in achieving their own greatness in whatever that is for them. So thank you guys so much. Big thanks to Rob for coming on, and you guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.