The School of Greatness - 727 Business Growth and Raising Money with Matt Higgins

Episode Date: December 3, 2018

STOP PLAYING SMALL. So often we are afraid to go all in. Whether it’s in a relationship, in business, or in an investment, the fear of failure keeps us from fully committing. What a mistake. I’ve had to learn to love failure. I have to consciously tell my brain, “You’re going to fail. And it’s going to be ok.” Take the leap. Make the commitment. Dare to take a stand. If we’re not failing, we are staying too safe. And you won’t grow unless you are constantly making yourself uncomfortable. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I dive deep into the idea of going all in when the time is right with one of the most successful investors in the world: Matt Higgins. Matt Higgins is a proven operator, investor and business builder with a knack for helping founders at pivotal growth moments achieve breakout success. He serves as CEO of RSE Ventures, a private firm that incubates and invests in companies across sports and entertainment, food and lifestyle, media and marketing, and technology. Higgins co-founded RSE with Miami Dolphins owner, Stephen M. Ross, the most prominent private developer in the U.S. and a serial entrepreneur. Together Higgins and Ross have helped build enterprises from scratch, including the largest privately owned soccer tournament in the world (International Champions Cup) and leading brand strategy and communications agency Derris. Matt didn’t graduate from high school. He came from a humble beginning but never let that hold him back from getting where he is today. He says that when you do things your own way and you start with a blank page, it’s going to be a lonely journey. You have to trust yourself and be careful about the advice that you take. So get ready to learn what makes Matt a great investor and why certain businesses are winners on Episode 727. Some Questions I Ask: How did you start this business-building fund? (7:00) What are the characteristics of the people you invest in that made them stand out? (9:45) If the product is average but the person is incredible, can there be a massive business? (19:00) What’s the biggest lesson your mom taught you? (44:00) What’s your greatest fear? (46:00) What’s the thing you’re most proud of? (53:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: The two things you need to be a great business leader (10:00) The question Matt asks himself before he invests in a company (12:00) The story of Matt’s first investment (14:00) Matt’s advice for people who are playing small (22:00) Matt’s biggest regrets in business (23:00) What do you do when you go all in but then you fail? (24:00) About Matt’s surprising backstory (31:00) The one thing Matt thought about when he was diagnosed with cancer (51:00)

This is episode number 727 with Matt Higgins. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a 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. Warren Buffett said, in the business world, the rear view mirror is always clearer than the

windshield. And Winston Churchill said, success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. Today, we have my good friend, Matt Higgins, who I actually interviewed about eight years ago, back in the day when I had a whole other site called Sports Networker. For those listeners who've been following me for that long, you might remember Sports Networker as one of my first ventures back in the day. And Matt is a very successful businessman and the co-founder and CEO of RSE Ventures, a private investment firm that focuses on sports and entertainment, media and marketing, food and lifestyle, and technology. And in 2012, he co-founded RSE with Stephen Ross, who is the founder of

related companies and the owner of the Miami Dolphins. He's a legend, right? And Higgins also serves as the executive for the Dolphins, and he had been a high-level executive with the New York Jets before that. He's appeared as a guest investor on the 10th season of the incredible series that I love called Shark Tank. If you guys watch Shark Tank, then you probably saw Matt this season. And in this interview, we talk about investing in businesses and how Matt chooses the best companies to invest in, the power of pattern recognition over conventional wisdom when it comes to business, how lonely the journey is when starting a business from scratch, how to scale a business. We dive into Matt's journey through poverty and why he supports others in similar situations.

It gets very emotional for him. At one point, he shares some stories about his mom that he's never shared before, and we talk about the importance of celebrating everything in your life and taking the time to be present. So many powerful nuggets in this story. Whether you're an entrepreneur, you're just starting out with a side hustle, you've got a massive business and you're looking to invest money, you're looking to scale your company, you're looking to sell a business.

It's got it all in there for you in this one make sure to share it with your friends also connect with matt higgins over on instagram and twitter all right i'm excited about this one my good friend he's on the interview to reveal and share with you all about business strategies and all the things he's done to overcome in his life to get to where he is without Without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, Matt Higgins. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got the legendary Matt Higgins in the house. My man. How you doing?

Good to see you. Good to connect. We connected like 10 years ago, but I interviewed you eight years ago in 2009 or 2010. And you were showing me the video a couple of weeks ago. I hate that video because I'm a good 50 pounds heavier. You look lean, man. Right. But that's not the only time I had been 50 pounds heavier. There's multiple before and afters. So when I saw that photo, I was slightly horrified. You look great right now. Oh, thank you.

Thank you. That was fun. That was back when you were the head executive at the Jets, when you were looking to kind of build that brand up. And I had interviewed you about sports business and what it was like for your career and all these different things you'd overcome then. But in the last eight years, you've taken a shift. So can you share with us now what you're a part of in your main business now? Yeah. I mean, I'm simply put, I'm a business builder. I always had the desire to be an entrepreneur. And it was burrowed deep in my brain at two o'clock

in the morning. And I had all these ideas that I wanted the freedom to execute. And like everybody, there's a moment in time where you just say, if I don't make this transition right now, I'm never going to do it. I had that great office at the New York Jets. It was a great office. Yeah. You were like the VP or something, weren't you? I was the EVP. EVP.

Yes. Big deal. I had E in front of it. So I was running the business of the team. I had the coolest job, a big office on the 50-yard line. On the field. On the field. The video was like the field behind you.

I had a little button I could push and the windows would drop and they'd come out. It was amazing. Yeah, it was Batman-type stuff. But I used to little button I could push and the windows would drop and they'd come out. It was amazing. Yeah, it was Batman type stuff. But I used to always say I had everyone's dream job but mine. And I loved the job, but I knew that I had one more chapter. And if you stay too long, you get comfortable. And I made the transition to partner up with Steve Ross to create RSC Ventures. So my day job is just backing companies and entrepreneurs who are looking to go to the next level and they're missing something

Simply put yeah a lot of times. It's capital, but it's not just capital. It's conviction It's belief in themselves is belief in that I can do it It's maybe being de-risked even psychologically or you know financially if I've got someone backing me Then I can like take the risks I really want and exactly like created a PR firm with my partner, Jesse Darris, but he was pretty young at the time and I knew he had what it would take to be successful. And that was the deal. We partnered up together and he's got one of the best PR firms, I believe, in the country four years later. So if you look at all the deals that I'm doing, the common narrative is there's always a founder who's pursuing something transformative.

He or she is special, and they're missing something to go the distance. And that's why a lot of our deals have a real estate component. My partner is a massive real estate developer. Really? Yeah. In terms of what? Well, like, we'll look at restaurants. I'm doing a lot of fast casual deals in the last couple of years.

My partner, Steve Ross, is the largest developer in the country. Really? Yep. But if you look at a fast casual concept that has maybe 10 units or 20 units, and everyone's got their favorite emerging concept, Blue Stone Lane, Aussie coffee house, right? They live or die on real estate strategy in those early days. You make some bad real estate decisions, it's very hard to overcome it because you've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars

to build out the unit in the wrong location. And then you're stuck for five-year lease or something. It's the five-year lease. No one will give you money because now they judge your concept because you screwed up your real estate strategy. And you say, well, but I'm in the wrong spot. So that's a strategic advantage. That's smart. What's good when we think about that? Right, exactly. So if you look at my portfolio, sports and entertainment, media marketing, food and lifestyle, technology, there's always a connecting dots component to it. How do I take one aspect of a portfolio to help another aspect? And real estate's just kind of one piece of it. So I tend to play far afield, lots of different

investments, but always there's somebody special behind it. That's cool. And so how did you start this fund in the first place? Did Steve come to you and say, I want to start a fund? Did you come to him and pitch him this idea of like, hey, I want to start building businesses? Well, we met over the last 10 years. He owns the Miami Dolphins, and I had eight years at the Jets overseeing the business. I had learned the business and all these different jobs, so I understood it. overseeing the business. I had learned the business and all these different jobs. So I understood it. And for me, it always made sense if you have a sports team to try to put money to work around it. You see a lot of exposure to interesting ideas. You have an ability to make

sure those ideas get front and center and potentially reach millions of people. It just made sense to try to connect the dots. And Steve's entire career has been about connecting the dots. He's probably one of the biggest under-the-radar entrepreneurs in the world, not just a developer, much more than that. And so we had a similar outlook on life, and we basically formed a partnership that I would help oversee the Miami Dolphins on the business side. You don't want to put me in charge of anything related to football performance. The business side.

The business side, that I understand. Hired an amazing CEO. His name's Tom Garfinkel, one of the best in the country. And then we would work together to find deals and incubate technology. A lot of times there's this nonsense around the narrative and the PowerPoint in those early days. Nothing ends up resembling the PowerPoint, right?

So I could tell you the PowerPoint, but it doesn't look like it right now. Right, what it really is is we see a great idea, we have an advantage, we can help in a disproportionate way. We can acquire a significant enough stake so that we answer the call at two o'clock in the morning. So if I don't own enough, I'm not going to bother. And we back the company. And it's not venture in that I'm not just putting money to work. I work it as if it's my own. We roll up our sleeves and we build those businesses. How big is the fund? Is that public knowledge or is it?

No, but I mean, it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And I think what makes us different is we incubate businesses from scratch too. Before they launch. Yeah, before they launch. So sometimes, I hear this from founders a lot, right? If you go to a private equity shop or a venture firm, you might be dealing with somebody who business is just theoretical. And not to begrudge that, but everything was learned at a business school. Life is very different. Not implemented, right. So there's something, it's something important about going through the pain and suffering about building a business from scratch. And I've done it multiple times with partners. And so has Steve. So when you come to us, at the same time as you're struggling with

all the pain and employees leaving, or you're waiting too long to terminate somebody or, you know, it turns out that the product you thought was a business ended up being a hobby, I've made all those mistakes. Right. That's very different when you're working with us because of that background, right? And the fact that I think when people bring a problem to me, I see it as my problem. I'm not sitting there staring at an Excel sheet and wondering why you missed your numbers. I'm working with you to fix it. What are the characteristics of, let's say, the four or five different individuals you've invested in over the last five years that really made them stand out for you to be like, I have to invest in this person?

Whether it's this or the next thing, they've got it. Whether it's the idea or it's their passion or what's the thing that they have that makes you want to say yes. I love that. For me, the first thing I look for is tells of authenticity, little signals that are emitted, right, whether or not, because if you don't have a degree of authenticity, especially with your self-dialogue, when the moment comes that you need to pivot,

like we all do when we create a business, you're not going to make the pivot. You're either going to be too insecure to acknowledge that you were wrong in the first place. And if you don't have the humility to do it, you won't make the move, right? So I look for the confidence, a blend of confidence and humility. So when the moment comes, I know they're going to pivot. It's almost like- And not stay stuck in their own way. Yeah, because it's like downside protection, because I don't care who you are. Everyone has to, maybe it's a minor pivot. Usually it's a bigger one, right? That things don't work out

the way you thought. It turns out you're not as great of a leader and that you need to have a COO underneath you, which is a pretty common fact pattern, right? If you don't have confidence and humility, you're going to be embarrassed by that need and you're going to wait too long and your business will topple over. So it's more, it's like, you know, when you see it, I'm looking for those tells of authenticity because that tells me that over time you're going to be willing to do that. Intellect is important. Intelligence is important, right? Like, are you intellectually curious? Are you going to be constantly looking to figure out what's wrong with my business and how do I make it better? I'd say those are the biggest ones.

And then is it a scalable idea? One of the mistakes I've made constantly in my early years doing this, especially in the last six years, is I'll see an opportunity. It looks like a business. I won't ask myself the hard questions about how big can it really be. It turns out it was just a feature. I got enamored with my own creativity and my novelty. There's a big difference between whether you can do something and whether you should do something.

You can do lots of things. You can do lots of things. You can do lots of things, and you're also so incredibly clever, and then you can become enamored with your own brilliance, and you could waste three years of your life, and it was like that was just a feature of somebody else's business. Or it's the wrong, you know, I could sell toothbrushes if I wanted to because I've got an audience.

Right. It doesn't mean I should, right? It doesn't mean I should, I could also come out with my own rap album, but it doesn't mean I should. Right, can you, by the way? Do you think you can? No. That was actually a very... Maybe auto-tune.

Are you secretly vanilla ice? Yeah, exactly. No, but that's right. That's how people tend to not want to ask themselves that question because it's a scary question to answer because you're so excited. Right? You wake up in the middle of the night and say,

oh, this is amazing. I can invent a new product. But you never asked yourself whether you should. Yeah. And so I learned the hard way with a couple of bad ideas that I pursued. And I'd like to not admit which ones they are, but that was an important lesson. So now, like on Shark Tank and anything else I do, I say, is this potentially a scalable business? Can this be worth more than $100 million? Is this worth my time? Is that what you look for,

if it's worth more than a- Now I do. Could it be $100 million? Maybe in the early days, the standard was lower, right? Everyone graduates. And so I'm graduating each year. Now it's, could this be north of $100 million? Maybe in the early days the standard was lower, right? Everyone graduates. And so I'm graduating each year. Now it's could this be north of $100 million? Could I own enough of a stake so that it's worth my time? Because we're all humans. Human behavior is natural. You could be enthusiastic in those early days when you're trying to win a deal,

and then you get bored. And so you're being deceitful when you're like, oh, I'm going to work on this. I'll be your strategic partner. And I own 2%. That's nonsense. So I need to own enough of a stake that I feel like a co-founder so that I'm going to put the time and energy in. Because I know myself, right? And I know that I got other things competing for my time. How many deals do you guys invest in a year or in the last few years? Are you allowed to share that?

I'm allowed to share it. I'd have to calculate it. Right. I don't know. Is it 10 a year? Is it three a year? I think lately we are going deeper into the deals we have. Right? My partner is very disciplined about this. When you have something

that's great and you know why it's great or why it could be great, don't be a bottom feeder. Don't sell early. You know? And don't be a grasshopper. He always says that.

Don't jump from one thing to another. So I've adopted that logic. So I tend to go deeper and do more deals in the companies we have. Gary Vaynerchuk, we're partners in VaynerMedia. Wasn't that your first deal or no?

That was my first deal, yeah. So tell that story. Yeah, I'll tell you that story. So I was at the Jets trying to figure my life out. 2009, 2009. 2009, the Jets are located in New Jersey. And Gary is a massive fan. The whole world knows this, right, that his ultimate destination is to buy the New York Jets, right, which I believe he probably will pull off. My team was convinced that he would buy a suite, which I was not convinced that he's going to buy a suite at all.

No matter how big of a fan he is. Right, but sometimes you have to support your sales team, so they're like, just go see him at his wine library in Springfield, New Jersey. So we met at a bagel shop. I was like, what am I doing? But okay. So I sat down with him and I always break that conversation into chapters, right? So the first ten minutes was this guy Gary White. The hoodie and his quasi-weird

Caesar haircut and all frenetic about how I'm going to crush it and the internet's going to explode. So he had the authenticity and the confidence. He did, right. So that's the thing. Right, he was definitely authentic.

But is he out of his mind? That was the first time. Because I don't back out of one's mind. Right. Right, so then, but the second 10 minutes, right, if you listen to Gary, even circa 2009, you start to hear these prognostications about how the world is going to play out. And you could start to discern an inside voice that made sense and resonated with me.

So I tend to like to also look past the packaging, right? Because I came in a certain packaging. So I don't judge the packaging. I want to trust my intuition and what is the person really saying. So circa 2009, Gary was making these predictions about how the world would play out in the second 10 minutes. I was like, huh. He's probably being underestimated because I think he's right.

So, for example, one of his early days, he said, social media is going to continue to take off and democratize the creation of content. Content's not going to be in the hands of the New York Times or anybody else. It's going to be in everybody's hands. In people's hands. Corporations, though, these massive battleship carriers

are not going to be able to turn in time to figure out how to create that content or manage it because it'll be everywhere. So I'm going to... True.

Right. So he says, I'm going to create the first social media digital firm specifically to help those companies create content and navigate that and they'll never be able to... Because then my next question is,

but eventually they'll figure it out and hire their own in-house team. He's like, no, they won't. It'll move too fast. Wow, they'll need him. They'll always need somebody to help them navigate. And he says, so me and my brother AJ, we're still in college. Yeah, doing some t-shirt thing at the time. Yeah, right, right, right.

We're going to create this firm. And then a few other predictions. And that's when the seed of an idea started forming. And if I could partner with Gary, wouldn't it be great to have this machine of social media, digital content creation at your disposal while you're pursuing whatever you're pursuing? And also, if I could back him, we could put real money to work on some of the ideas he had seen. He's early in the past. He's in Facebook.

He's in a lot. I was like, well, why aren't you writing larger checks? Because he wasn't being backed because he was this frenetic guy sitting in a bagel store and did not have the packaging at that time. So that was my first big deal. At the moment, basically gave him four Jets tickets so that he could take a player at the time who probably wouldn't have the profile and didn't necessarily deserve to have the profile based on the position. And can you make them Twitter famous? And I remember we had a dinner in Summit, New Jersey

with Kerry Rhodes of Safety, and Gary went to work doing what Gary does, elevating his profile and showing me what he could do. Wow. That was my first. And you saw it happen in like weeks, probably. That was, I mean, so I credit Gary a lot. That was probably my first deal in business in this new iteration or current chapter of my life. Because it told me a few things. It doesn't matter what anybody says. I don't need anybody to agree. And at the time, nobody else did agree about what Gary would be.

I know it. So my pattern recognition skills tell me that I'm right. And it doesn't matter if the whole world is assembled on the other side of you. In fact, that's where the opportunities are. That you have what it takes. Because we all need reps, right? I always say that. We all need some reps. I don't care how confident you are. You need practice. You need practice and you need validation. And it doesn't mean you don't even need external validation. You need validation that you're not being delusional. So Gary, for many different reasons, but being right about

Gary was an important way for me to get reps. And then I think I've run that play a few times. You ran the same play over and over. I did. But then you made some other mistakes from other, you know, lack of reps. I did, but I haven't been really wrong on people. You know where I've been wrong? I've been wrong when, one, I thought it was a feature

and I got enamored with my creativity. And two, when I thought that the power of an idea would eclipse the downsides of the person. So I would say, this idea is so big. That this person, yeah. It doesn't matter that this person's meek, is not willing to put the time in, is not, all the things that make somebody

not ready to be an entrepreneur or has got a really bad personality and no one's going to follow them because they have no empathy. I've made the biggest mistakes when I've overlooked that fact. People is the most important thing first. Yeah, it's unfortunate because it's a damn cliche

and I hate to have to repeat it, but it's the jockey. And because it's a cliche, people want to say, ah, it's just, you know, nonsense. If the product is average, but the person is incredible, can there be a massive business off of an average product to start? Yeah, I love that. Some of my favorite deals are backing an average product that I actually don't even believe in. Really? But I love the person and it's a long-term play because I know that they will iterate through that mediocre product and will end up somewhere great, right? Do you have an example? Well, then I'm telling the person I think their product is mediocre. But in my head, but there's a couple. And I don't do that a ton because then the problem

is you're playing a very long game. Sure, sure, sure. And not only that, you have to then go through the dark days when the person has to iterate. But just because somebody is pursuing what is a small idea and maybe you see their destiny. Like I've had that. I sit across from a man or woman, an entrepreneur, and say like this is not what you're meant to be working on. But I believe in you. I believe in you.

And I don't need to talk you out of your dream because this is a good place to get some reps. Yeah. Right? And I don't know to talk you out of your dream because this is a good place to get some reps. Right? And I don't know why the hell you're pursuing this, but I know in four or five years when you begin to understand just how special you are, you will morph into what you're meant to be. And I like those opportunities. That's cool. Because that's exciting. Play the long game.

Play the long game. Like even Gary, I feel like, wow, you're so right. And you have such a chip on your shoulder. That's unnecessary because you really are right. You you have such a chip on your shoulder. That's unnecessary because you really are right. You don't need to prove it over and over again. When you iterate through that tendency, you have an even bigger destiny. We joke about that all the time. Like, you're still trying to prove everybody. Like, I think you did. I think it worked out, you know, but we all have our things. That's his thing. So I love that. I love when I sit across from somebody and say, wow,

you don't know how special you really are and how special you're going to be. I love that. I love when I sit across from somebody and say, wow, you don't know how special you really are and how special you're going to be. How long was it until Gary started VaynerMedia and then when you invested? Was it right at the beginning or was it like after they had reached a certain amount? No, it was probably, I'd say, two years later. Two and a half years later. And they had like 40 employees or something. Yeah, exactly. Something relatively small.

And that's what I love about my partner, Steve. He's done everything, right? He's in his 70s and certainly doesn't need to work, but loves building businesses. It didn't take him any time to convince him of what I saw. And that's where we connect. He can see the opportunity across the chasm and make a move. Do you guys ever disagree on a person or a product where you're like all in on something and he's like, nah, or does he just trust you? I think because he trusts me a lot. We might disagree because he might think I'm thinking small. And I disagree vehemently.

He's usually right, which frustrates me. But, yeah, I mean. Are you thinking small? Yeah, well, that's the thing. We're the transformational figure. Everything looks relatively small from where he's at. He's got billions, I'm assuming. Billions, but also just he's been through everything.

And the projects he does, it's been the largest development project in U.S. history. He's building a whole city, you know, off to the side. Where is this? In New York, yeah. He's building, yeah, 15 million square feet of commercial residential retail. Yeah, largest project in history in the United States.

Wow. That's like one thing. So my only point, he will look at some of the things I've done and say, you know, $50 million thing. Or even more point, he will look at some of the things I've done and say, you know, $50 million. Or even more, and he'll be in for anything. It doesn't matter how small the company is. It's my approach.

Am I thinking small in my approach? Am I focusing too much on downside mitigation as opposed to how great could this be? And it's great when you have people in your life like that who pull you forward. Steve has pulled me forward places that I was like, I don't want to go there yet. I need more time here. You don't feel ready yet. Yeah, I don't want to go there yet. I need more time here. You don't feel ready yet. Yeah, I don't feel ready yet. What would you say to anyone who's

been playing small when they maybe think they're playing big, they're listening or they're watching right now, but you know that we're all capable for more, what advice would you have for people playing small? I would say take that boulder that you're chained to instead of behind you and throw it in front of you. Let it pull you forward. Wow. Like, do not. Playing small is the best way to ensure that you won't ever achieve big dreams, right? That you have to, don't get comfortable where you're staying right now.

Get uncomfortable right away and press ahead. Because you probably know that inside yourself that you have more to give this world, and it's going to haunt you one day when you look back. So I do think there's something to be said for spending a little time, right? Look around, assess yourself, but quickly move off the dime and press ahead. Wow. In fact, my biggest regrets in business so far have been the times I've played small. Really? Yeah, it's true. I don't regret the misses because I understand why I did them. I don't understand why I played small. There's no great excuse for playing small in retrospect. When you mean playing small, is it like I made a small investment in this

where I could have gone bigger? I think mostly playing small for me looks like I know I'm right. I'm nervous about optics. I'm nervous about being judged for being wrong just in case or I'm insecure, whatever it is. So we only put 100K in as opposed to a million. Exactly, or something's teetering, and I know I'm right, and I don't double down.

Wow. Now, I haven't made a lot of those, but those are the ones that I regret. And this is Steve's, my partner's point. When you have a winner and you know it, those are hard to come by, go all in. Right? And the spray and pray is nonsense.

Spray and pray to me is the playground of people who want to hedge all day long and are afraid to be wrong. I'm sure there's investment index funds. That's what I'm saying. Right, right. You'll do better anyway. Get your percent return. Yeah, right.

Yeah, exactly. Get your annualized yield and you'll be fine. So I think when you have a winner and your hands doesn't matter if anybody else knows, you got to press it. And that's, that's my biggest regrets. Now, what happens when you press it and you go all in big and then you lose? Yeah. And you lose all your money and all your time and energy. How do you look at those deals? Those are tough. And you felt like, well, I thought I was right and I knew it, but the market or this,

the person, whatever. Those are painful. But what I say is when you dissect it and you put the patient on the table and you sort of do your post-mortem, you will quickly find out the thing you missed. And the thing you missed is usually related to some misalignment in your character or your personality, right? Like there was some, you were worried about the downside. You were worried about acknowledging that they needed to pivot.

You didn't confront the CEO because you didn't want to offend them. I have not had a situation like that where I was not able to dissect what I could have missed. That's what's great about life. We're all playing the same patterns. Maybe there are like seven allegorical patterns playing out. There aren't new ones being created. So if you spend enough time paying attention, you can dissect it. So I'd much rather have gone all in and be wrong than have never gone all in at all on the winners. Because you don't get many winners. Don't. Right? Big winners. You

might get small winners. Like, yeah, we made some money there. That did well. And we exited. But the big ones. There's like, how many of those every few years are the big winners? Well, for one, you have to see so many deals to spot a winner So many even like an uber it's like okay Even if you invested early like you still ain't got all your money out yet, right? You start to wait a long time. It's a wait and things change. I mean look at Birchbox right Birchbox But he's a million dollar company. I don't know what it is now. What is it now? I don't even know I don't want to say it because we were an investor in it Scared technology that was in our fund with Gary

But I just remember that one. I remember that one in particular because Gary would always be good at it. He'd always say, ah, you love paper. It doesn't matter. Like it had raised it a billion dollars and I think it's, I don't even know what it is now, but it definitely did not work out.

So, but that's why you have to look at hundreds of deals to spot what you think could be a winner. And then when you have a winner, there are so many intervening events that can make it lose that you have to put your time and energy to execute on it that when you actually have it and you see it, you can feel it, you have to go all in. And there's very few that don't take many, many years to grow and make a lot of money. There's very few of those winners that exit in general. That's going to take a lot of your time and energy.

So you've got to be patient with the winners too. That's the other thing. Everything in life takes five years, right? Has there been any investment where you're like, oh, two years later, we just made like 40 million bucks? No. I mean, maybe I'm looking at the wrong things. Although I tend to like brick and mortar elements to it.

I like the hard stuff because although the journey is more difficult, when you're there, harder to dislodge you. I like the restaurant space with fast casual restaurants just because there's so much hard work that goes into it. A lot of hard work. Like right now, Blue Stone Lane is a big investment of ours. I think there's an opportunity to displace Starbucks. Now what I'm saying is conventional wisdom. But maybe a year ago it wasn't.

That people are accustomed to paying for a premium experience in a coffee environment and paying $4 for their drink. But when you have more units than McDonald's, that doesn't feel premium or boutique. So I think there is a great opportunity to create the next, not necessarily Starbucks per se, but the scaled premium boutique experience. And so Bluestone is a company that we made a significant investment in. Where is that? It's about 35 units now.

We'll double them this year. We're in New York. We're in L.A. We're opening up different markets all around. Here in L.A.? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it one of West Hollywood or not? Yeah, West Hollywood.

Bluestone? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bluestone. I don't think I've seen it. I'm willing to go on record right now saying this will have been one of the best investments I've ever made. Wow. And again, going back to pattern recognition,

the fact that there's an opportunity in the coffee space was obvious if you were paying close attention about a year ago. But conventional wisdom... Because everyone's opening coffee shops. Right. And what conventional wisdom was, it's saturated. It's coffee saturated. And it's like, no, it's actually to have an exquisite experience

is not saturated at all. Remember how you felt back in the early days of Starbucks? And again, I'm not hating on them. I love Starbucks. I love what they've obviously done. But you remember that feeling? So you know that that feeling hasn't evaporated. You still want it. But now everyone's going to the boutique stuff because they want to get away from like the McDonald's of coffee. Exactly. They want to have a more artesian experience. Right. So Starbucks, so let's talk about the space in between. There are 27,000.

Blue bottles, the distillery. Yeah, there's the blue bottle, there's a La Cologne, there's Blue Stone, there's room for a scaled boutique concept. Doesn't have to be 27,000 units. It can be 500. It can be 500 or 1,000. It can be whatever it's meant to be

is what it could be. And stay at a standard at that scale. Exactly. And then when the moment comes, then maybe it's exited or whatever. So that, I mean, I tend to be agnostic about that too. That's the other thing about our philosophy. I tend not to worry about exits. How do you know when to sell? Well, we tend to take 20, 30% positions. The founders tend to control the exit. Our philosophy is that the exit should be an

inevitable byproduct of your success. And we don't have an opinion on it. I'd rather stay with somebody for 20 years who's got a great idea and a great business. Because you're getting returns too, right? We're getting returns, but also back to the conversation I always have with my partner. It's hard to find a winner, and when you have something that works, don't be a grasshopper. Stay with it. So one of the problems with traditional PE is they have to have IRR thresholds

and they need to exit with a private equity, sorry. That they have, thank you, thank you. I do that all the time. I did it with Shark Tank too. Can you not be so cerebral? Like this is TV. So private equity shops is that you have to have an exit naturally, which makes total sense,

but because this is a private firm, we tend to let it ride. And I love that because then I'm not looking like, when are we going to exit? That's not very gratifying. I'd rather take on the world and just keep building and building and building and building. So now I might be sitting here in 20 years and I haven't sold anything. But you still get returns every year, right? You get paid out dividends.

Yeah, of course. Yeah, but a lot of what we're doing is growth. I mean, we don't. We put it back into it. Well, we don't play. I like to play at the inflection point where an idea has been validated through some type of traction, which is different in every place. So drone racing, I was the first investor in drone racing. So one would argue there's no traction.

Well, the YouTube videos in Australia in a park of people playing Tron with drones circa 2015 was a form of early traction because organically people were playing with drones right in a restaurant fast casual space it's 20 units that are performing well or 10 units right so I look for early traction but then we go all in and we're patient so those early days it's not like you're getting a quick hit none of our stuff is like a flip wow and how did you get started in the first place? Because didn't you not graduate high school and then you got GED to go to college? Didn't you do that? Yeah. Did you grow up in New York? Go back to the beginning. Yeah. Did you grow up in New York? I did. I grew up in Bayside, Queens. And my mother was a single mother taking care of our,

I have three brothers, rotten brothers. We were all miserable kids growing up on the streets of Queens. And she was always my inspiration from my early age. She grew up really difficult circumstances, didn't even have a high school diploma. So when I was around 11 years old, she went and got a GED. And then I watched her try to crawl and fight her way out of poverty. I mean, we were desperately poor. I used to take the Q27 bus to Flushing and go on the weekends and get a box of food from the church pantries, which was always,

told me a lot about life and its own ways I'd feel demeaned or embarrassed. You're a little kid. And then wonder, it's interesting that people do this and if they weren't doing this, what would be happening to my family right now? So there was just, I'm just painting a picture. So embarrassed and grateful at the same time.

Embarrassed and grateful. Mostly embarrassed as a kid. Looking back, gratitude more. But that was the nature of our struggles. And at one point, maybe I was 13 or 14, I was working. I'd been already working at McDonald's. I already had two jobs. I used to scrape the gum off the chairs at McDonald's.

Tell your kids not to put gum on the bottom of chairs, by the way, because I was that kid who had to clean it. But it's the worst. Early on, probably one of the most important moments of my life and my career happened around 14, 15 years old, when I said, I have two choices. This situation is going to continue to get desperate. My mother had a ton of health problems. I used to say she had the trials of Job. And I could see her deteriorating. And that we weren't going to make it out of here through happenstance or luck. And

no one's going to save you, which as a kid I was very bitter and resentful about. The government should be saving us. Why isn't anybody stepping in? Where's my dad? Where's this? No one had ever come to my house as a kid because I was embarrassed. We were so boring. I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor. And I was like stepping in? Where's my dad? Where's this? Yeah, right. Like, no one had ever come to my house as a kid because I was embarrassed. We were so, you know, poor. Yeah, I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

And I was like, why? Nobody's going to save me. Like, nobody's going to come here. I used to have these conversations with my mother. Like, we have to do something. And then I had this idea. She dropped out of high school, right? And not deliberately, but got her GED.

And I thought, if I could get a GED, drop out of high school early, I can get to college early. Really? I can get a job that pays commencement with a college kid, and I'm going to accelerate and run as fast as humanly possible to get us out of this situation. So I made that choice when I was 14. Drop out of high school.

But you're not allowed. But again, I wanted to be practical with my time, because even then I was like, what's the highest and best you can lose is waste. So I got left back every year. Just sit in the same homeroom with the truant kids. And just beepers going off and all the things that you could have had your back in the day. And then got left back two years in a row and just waited until I turned 16. And then I made the hardest decision I've ever made

because it sounds good on paper when you draw up the play, but I'm like, am I really going to do this? I remember my last day of high school at Cardoza. You have to return your textbooks to every class, and you walk in front of the room. It's really embarrassing, right? Kids can be mean to each other, but dropping out of high school is like a pretty big...

You're like the loser. I'm the biggest loser. Right, Gary and I talk about dropping out 20 years, now you'd be like an entrepreneur. You're Mark Zuckerberg or whatever. Back then, not cool. Walking in front, my science teacher at the time said, you know, like Higgins, what a waste. And he's like, I'll see you at McDonald's.

And I remember I said, if you see it, it's because I own it. That was my hubris, right? And I walk out, ah, you know, Higgins. Then I was like, oh man, he's probably right. So I remember sitting down on the steps of Cardozo, opened up a Marlboro, smoked a butt, and thought I may have just made the most radical, terrible decision of my life. But for me, I know this is the right choice. Like that inside voice is telling me that if I don't do something to change my circumstances, like we're not going to get out of here. And while it seems unconventional to everybody else,

they don't know what I'm dealing with behind closed doors, which is something I always tell people. Like, be careful who you listen to. If they don't have visibility into your house, they don't know what's going on. So I dropped out and walked home and thought, okay, now you have to execute your plan. And over the next...

It was a 16-year-old. It was a 16-year-old. It was a 16-year-old. Wow. Working at a deli on Woodhaven Boulevard overnight. Just carrying my little butterfly knife because I was worried about getting robbed or whatever. And then I went to work. I went to this GED program and thought like,

okay, well, this doesn't make sense for me. I can do better. I'm not going to spend three months doing this. I went to Springfield Gardens High School, took my GED on standby, took my SAT the following week, maybe two weeks later. I can't remember the timing. And then got admitted to Queens College a couple weeks later.

Passed it all. Passed it all, yeah. And what's interesting back then, the GED, if you could score high enough, you can go to anywhere, like Harvard. Really? Maybe Harvard's an exaggeration, but not by much. Big school. Like you could convert your score. That is now not possible.

So I enrolled in, I started college when I was 16 years old. Wow. And then one of the best moments of my life, so now it's the juxtaposition, right? I'm sitting on the steps smoking that cigarette thinking like, okay. And I'm dying on the inside, by the way. I am literally dying. I'm embarrassed. I'm suffering.

I'm like, I don't want to be taking care of my parent. Who wants to as a kid? And making these kind of big adult decisions. You want to be taken care of. I want to be taking care of my parent. Who wants to as a kid? And making these kind of big adult decisions. You want to be taken care of. I want to be taken care of. But by the time I came, the best part is I came back to my high school prom, saw all the teachers, and I was president of the debate team at college. Like, how do you like them apples? So I always say I learned everything I ever needed to know about life during that time frame and about business, right?

What did you learn about business? Well, that idea is insane. You're actually going to torpedo everything and you're going to drop out of high school, right? Everyone was telling me that that decision makes no sense. So what I learned is I have the pattern recognition skills to even architect my own life. When you're starting from scratch, it's going to be a very lonely journey. Don't expect others to see what you see because if they did, your idea wouldn't exist. They'd be doing it. They'd be doing it, right? So they actually change the rules. You can't go get your GED and start, and I'm always proud of that, like call it the Matt rule. You can't, you know, in some places, at least in New York, don't be careful with the advice you take because they don't have a window into it. And if the idea was easily recognizable or implementable,

it wouldn't be there for you to take advantage of, right? And then just do what you need to do. Do what you need to do to change your circumstances and what works for you. And just because it doesn't work for somebody else doesn't mean anything. And going back to reps, that gave me some incredible reps. Like when I go through dark moments, and I've had them various times, or when I've had to transcend, I reach back to that moment. Like, all right, it doesn't get any worse than that.

Yeah. You know, sleeping on a mattress and, you know. Dropping out and getting embarrassed. So to finish the thesis, I spent the next 10 years of my life dramatically racing as fast as possible to get out of the situation I was in. I became a reporter when I was 17. Won a bunch of journalism awards. I started working for the mayor of of the situation I was in. I became a reporter when I was 17, won a bunch of journalism awards. I started working for the mayor of New York when I was 20.

Wow. Press secretary, right? Yeah, I became press secretary when I was 26. But it started playing out like, okay, so that one catalyst accelerated everything. Now, of course, you'll be judged forever. You know, you dropped out of high school. I have to clean that up. I went to law school at night, Fordham law. Really? I figure what's the best way to make sure

to clean that up. Right. Because you know, whether we like it or not, or it's fair, you're going to be judged forever. And that's not a fair indication of who I am, you know, and, uh, and I make sure I don't judge anybody else. Cause you don't know the full story, but taking the, um, going to law school then I graduate. I'm like, don't really want to be a lawyer. Right, right. That was the end of that. That was what, four years for you? Yeah, I never, yeah, four years at night. Never took the bar exam. Really? But you graduated because you were like, this isn't what I want to do. It's not what I want to do. Why spend six months taking the exam? Well, that's the other thing people do too. This

whole notion of sunk cost is a fallacy. It's one of the cognitive biases, right? There's no such thing as a sunk cost. And that you can make up for it by doubling down in the same area. I got the degree. I had the imprimatur of having gone to law school, but I had no desire to really be a practicing lawyer. But most people would say, well, I'm kind of committed, right? I just spent four years of my life. And I thought, it'll look good on the wall. So I raised, you know, the part that did not work out, another important lesson is during those years, 2016 to 26, my mother just, it just would get progressively worse. And back to nobody's going to come in and sort of save you,

despite me racing and racing and racing. Your mother got worse. She got worse. And I was, but yet I kept getting these bigger and bigger jobs. You know, by the time I was 26, I was making well over $100,000 a year, which is hard to do, you know, like coming from zero. Everything kind of collided around June of, it's hard for me to tell the story. So she was getting worse.

And then I got this job as press secretary. And I was debating, how am I going to do that? How am I going to go to law school? How am I going to be press secretary in New York at 26 years old? And she had said, like, please don't go to work. Don't go in today. And I was like, we have no money in the bank account. I'm about to become press secretary of New York. The youngest person to ever hold that job, it's well over, you know, $100,000. Like, I'll finally be able to take care of everything. Like, I have to go, you know. So I went to work that day. And she called me a couple hours later in the office and said, you know, apparently when you call, you know, an ambulance, like, you know, you have to go.

And just to put it in context, we would go to the emergency room, you know, all the time. People who don't, people when you don't have insurance, you go to the ER. Like, even when you have a head cold or you do whatever, you basically sit there and that becomes your doctor. Yeah, and you tend to say you have a stiff neck so they think it's meningitis and you can get in faster. Like there was all these little hacks.

But we would always spend time in the ER and then nothing would ever happen. Like there's no magic cure. So all throughout law school, all the time I would spend time at the ER, two in the morning, read my law books, the whole bit. So when she called me that day,

I was like, oh, this is just another time. But then by the time I got there, she had died. No way. Yeah, so for me, it was a – And she asked you not to go on that day. Yeah. Dang. Yeah.

But it's tough. Dang. But she called you on the way, or what did she say? She was going to the emergency room? Well, this is pre-cell phones back in Miami Vice, big clunky things. I didn't have one. No, it was more at the office. And I was actually kind of relieved.

Like, oh, if an ambulance is coming, maybe we'll have some serious intervention. Yeah, and I remember I went back to the house just to get some stuff, figuring this is not a crisis. And the doors were open, and there was one ambulance empty outside. And I was like, okay, this is different. But I still didn't think anything of it. I grabbed a bunch of items and went to Long Island Jewish, and she had died. So I was like, really? I'm at the finish line.

Quick, huh? Yeah. But also, for me, I'm press secretary of the mayor of New York. I finally have done it. And you can now take care of her and take care of things, but now it's. And now it's, yeah. So I'm still not sure the moral, you know, of that story. But, yeah, so that was tough.

And so, you know, that's when everything kind of merged. And I always look back and say, you know, could we have gotten more help? But society's not really set up to intervene to that extent, especially when you're very poor and your problems are kind of chronic. You know, she had obesity. She had all these different things that weren't, it's not like cancer. Not that, you know, cancer, you can intervene magically, but she had a lot of chronic issues.

And when you don't have resources. So for me, I don't know what the moral of that story is. But what it did is imprint in my mind that the highest and best use of my time, energy, and money when I accumulate it is to ameliorate suffering. As that little boy, that 16-year-old and 20-year-old, whatever, if somebody had intervened, it could have changed the course of her life and my life. So my big takeaway from that is, one, it doesn't always end well. And you have to take responsibility for your life. Be an agent in your own rescue. But when I accumulate resources, money, power, that's the best use of it. And so I like telling the story, even though it's hard for me. I still can't tell this story. I don't talk about this

particular day much, but that's what gets me excited about. When I think about my business and the track record and hopefully what I will do and what I'll invest in and the resources that I'll unlock, I get excited about that. Being able to help other people. Yeah, not in some hero way. That's grandiose. It's more, it's such a big impact. So one thing I do is I now write scholarships for single mothers through Queens College. That's cool.

Yeah, because I now can go back in time and say, well, that makes sense. She would open the letter and, you know, look, we got a scholarship. So for me, I get most excited about when I look about everything I'm doing, if I stay on the same trajectory, that I will be able to have a massive impact on people. What's the biggest? Thanks for making it so heavy. I can't even think you're going to talk about fun stuff and now you're making me

almost cry on camera. What's the biggest lesson your mom taught you? Be kind. Because so many people just, you know, be kind. Yeah. Is she kind? It's just more like the impact of being kind.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I can't talk. You can't make me talk about it. You have to change the topic. Well, and from a practical standpoint, too, like just what could happen if you're kind? You know, like the difference you can make.

Yeah, even if it's not with your resources but with just like your generosity or your kind heart. And also don't judge, too. She was very heavy. So we would always cart around the wheelchair, which would fill me with such resentment that the world is not set up for people with disabilities to experience it. It's gotten better in the last 18 years.

But I remember I would be so mad. And I was also aggressive too, as much as you're making me emote on camera. Why doesn't this place have like... Yeah, like I have another side of my personality too, which is very aggressive as necessary. And so I would go to these places and like, really? And then people look at you kind of disdainfully, like it's an imposition. And that would make me angry. My mother would calm down and I would create conflict all over the place.

But be kind because at the end of the day, life is about trying to eke out some joy and experience for the short time we have here. So if you take a step back, when somebody's suffering and if you have an opportunity to alleviate it, you focus on yourself first and feed your family, take care of them. But if you have some excess, be kind to others. What's your greatest fear right now? What is my greatest fear right now?

That's a great question. No one ever asks you these, Matt? No, I know. No, they don't. It's actually, I regret coming out with these. My greatest fear is that I'll fail my kids in some way. Two kids? I have two kids. Yeah. I have four kids now because I have stepkids too. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I have four. It's one big Brady Bunch. I have amazing kids. Truly amazing. I know people say that, but I really do. But that's my biggest fear. That you'll fail them? That I'll fail them. Well, imagine you come to the end of the journey and look at you. You have your books. You have this incredible life that you've created. You've inspired millions of people,

right? If you did all that and out of all those millions, there were two kids and you failed them, what would it matter that you inspired the rest? Yeah. So for me, because I'm thinking about it, I'm probably mostly getting it right. Nobody's getting it right perfectly. Right. And anybody who has kids knows that you're probably passing on your Freudian problems or whatever that you don't even realize, right? So unfortunately, there's little you can do about it. But on balance, I think I'm getting it right.

But that's the area that I focus the most about. I do not want to get that wrong. And you take a lot of time for your kids. You make sure to structure your business where you have time for them and all those things. You're not too obsessed about the business that you don't spend time with them as well. No, and I think that, first of all,

does a disservice when people act like that's the case. To me, you're not being a hero if you're ignoring the kids. You have to do what you have to do to feed your family and to agree to express yourself, your destiny. If you believe in God, God's will, but it can't come at the, or shouldn't come at the expense of your children. And then you have to define what that looks like. For me, it's regularity of contact and it's the intensity of how we are to each other. And so I do the best I can to draw boundaries around my life. I wasn't that good early on. Yeah, probably the Jets, you were probably more heavily growing your career. Yeah, and they have a great mom, and I think she's played a big

role in making sure that I stick to that consistency. Because I think when you have a high-powered job, you want the whole world to bend to what you're doing. You seem really important. And there's a degree of truth to that, right? Like there's only so much you can do if you're working on a deal. But I have created guardrails around their life to ensure that I'm consistent in them. I think about that topic a lot, and I'm mostly peaceful with how I've done it. And for me, an intervening event was having cancer when I I was, I was diagnosed with cancer about 10 years ago now.

I remember this. Yeah, because when I was interviewing you, I think you were going through that, right? Yeah, yeah. Wow, okay, I forgot about that. First of all, that's why I was so heavy, because I assumed, well, I'm now gonna lose weight, right? Like, like, I'm the one person who gains all that weight,

you know, with cancer. Dang. I had testicular cancer. Holy cow, How'd you get through that? Well, when I was first diagnosed, my immediate emotions were like, I can't believe I have hit this level of professional success, and then my life is going to be derailed. That was my first emotion, actually. Very defensive and very untrusting of the world. Now I'm going to be a lemon, and no one's going to invest in me. Wow. Yeah, I was very, I had crazy emotions. I mean, I got diagnosed on a, let's say a Tuesday,

right? I had surgery within maybe 24 hours. Holy cow. And then I went back to work the next full day. You're crazy. Yeah. And so, and right. And that- It should take like a week. Well, but remember, it's very macho culture working at a sports team. Right.

Two, I think I was borderline delusional. Like you have a little bit of a post-trauma response. Like, wait a second, no one's going to care, so I'm going to go to work. And I remember reflecting sitting and having wine, sitting around a table with a bunch of coaches, and here I have this big thing on the side, and everyone looking at me, looking back, thinking, probably you're out of your mind.

Why are you here? But once I... What are you having this time? Like ice or something? I don't remember what it was. Like, yeah, it was an ice pack. Yeah, I don't know. I don't want to get too graphic.

Yeah, yeah. Something that was like hanging out like... Yeah, you could imagine. It's real surgery, right? So, yeah, so I look back, and I look back, and I bragged about it, too, at the time, right? Because you're like... Look at me, I'm back.

Look how tough I am. I'm like, you're such an unbalanced idiot. That was one. Two, though. I bragged about it too at the time, right? Because you're looking at me, I'm back. Look how tough I am. You're such an unbalanced idiot. That was one. Two, though. I used to call it zero time. When you are facing the imminent prospect of death, which, by the way, we are every day. But for some reason, we're completely alienated from it. But when it's actually front and center, you then audit all the things you think about.

Because your mind still is working. And you realize 97% of everything you think about does not hold up against the prospect of immediate death. New York Times listings for brownstones don't matter. Nice cars, whatever it is I want to achieve does not matter. Status is irrelevant. And so I realized a ton of my thoughts, it's like zero time.

Wow, I might be dead in a year or less. Who knows? And nothing I think about matters. The one thing I thought about that mattered was what's my epitaph going to read relative to my kids. My son was only three months at the time. And I've held on to that thought ever since. Against the backdrop of death, your children will always matter.

They're the thought that holds up. And that'll be the thing that you probably think about on your deathbed. At least I will. How did I do? Right? Which does make sense, right? We're here to culture and nurture and cultivate and pass it on. So I've tried to hold on to that. All the other lessons from, and this is the other thing, unfortunately, many of the

other lessons fade away, right? Stay present. Life is precious. I struggled to go back to there. Sometimes for a while, for 10 years, I would go back or whatever it was, seven years, I'd go back to Sloan Kettering for very invasive tests and searches. And I always liked that day because I felt like I reconnected with the lessons of mortality. And, well, now I downloaded an app to do the same. It's called We Croak. We Croak? Yes. Five times a day, it reminds you that you're going to die.

No way. Yes. And it gives you a quote about death. And it's all based on, I know you're looking at me like I'm insane. No, it's great. It brings you back to urgency. That's right. Well, there's a little country, Bhutan, right?

And it's considered the, I hope I'm saying it right, it's considered the happiest place on earth. And one of the reasons why is because they require themselves to remind themselves that they're dying multiple times a day. Wow. And it sounds nuts. It makes you so grateful for the littlest things. Well, and also, you take a deep breath.

You're like, oh, that thing that I'm preoccupied with and I'm stressed out about is completely irrelevant. And it relieves you of it. You would think that then that would make you anxious about it. It actually relieves you of the stress that you carry. And that is consistent with when I went through a battle with cancer. Because that is the ever-present reality, right, that we have limited time. Every day we're dying.

Right. So somebody at ABC actually, Barbara Fadita, gave me this, told me, download this. And it's actually been great. So that's how I reconnect. Five times a day. Yeah. Somewhere in this interview I'm like, all right, he made you emotional because now I'm annoyed at you. But it won't matter because I'm going to die eventually.

Wow. What's the thing you're most proud of that most people don't know about? Maybe not some big accomplishment or business that you invested in early, but something that you're proud of that might be. The amount of energy I put into being a good dad because I don't think that necessarily would have played out that way. I don't know if it would have played out that way had I not gotten divorced, even though divorce is incredibly painful and disruptive and tragic. I mean, it does, as a divorced parent, make you lock in. And so I'm proudest of the focus because it takes a lot of focus.

And I don't think always society gives men enough room to be honest about their role. I don't think there's enough respect for the role of a father and the role that the challenges it takes to balance out being in the workplace and also being a dad. And I think a lot of men I talk to struggle with that too, to acknowledge that I want to carve out time. I want to go to the recital. So I do think my point of that is it takes a lot of discipline and a lot of sacrifice to ensure that you're being the kind of dad that you want to be. You have to be very intentional. It doesn't happen by accident. And you have to make sacrifices. Just carve out the time. Yeah, I'm not golfing. I don't do anything on the weekends other than be with them. I also don't want to do anything other

than be with them. And then I got to go do anything other than be with them. And then, you know, I've got to go to work to, you know, football games on Sundays. Like, I'm highly intentional about it. So I'm probably proudest of that. And that's not rhetoric. Like, everything else, again, I go back to the object of the exercise. Getting that right is more important than most anything else. Wow.

How old are your kids? Well, they're 10 and 11, and then they're 15 and 17. There you go. 10 and 11 are your original kids. Yes, exactly. And then I have the 15 and the 17 year old. But they're all just wonderful, sweet kids. And they all lean into each other and take care of each other.

And are you based in Miami now? Mostly full time and traveling a lot? No, I'm based in New York. New York. Live in New Jersey. Go to Miami. I travel. Come to LA a lot.

Yeah, I probably travel two to three times a day. But my rule is I don't stay anywhere for more than 24 hours so I can get back and see my kids and then I so like in the last seven days

I've been to Vegas and back Miami and back Green Bay and back back home back home and then you fly I always fly back

what? yeah you don't just stay and go to the next thing? no because if I can carve out that little bit of extra time like I flew back from Vegas and I got to take my son to school.

So why wouldn't I do that? I used to go to China and take the 2 o'clock flight, 2 a.m. flight on Monday morning, go there and then get back. But it's not about being a hero. It's more gratifying than anything else I could do. For that 20-minute drive to the school. The 20-minute drive, it's magic. And then you miss those little opportunities.

But so I'm proudest of the amount of intentionality it takes for me to be able to pull that off. Right? Because that doesn't come by accident. Wow. And I'm unhappiest when I don't forecast enough my schedule and I compromise. I hate that. Like that really kind of gets to me. But again, I wasn't always like that.

So all those out there who are listening saying, well, you weren't always like that. I was not always like that. You've improved over the years. And I think the other thing that I've been, that my brother will ask me this question, like, what do you think is the key to your professional success in the last 10 years? It's not like you were an investor or a business builder. I think it's, I'd made the transition from believing that I was the change agent. Like, I had the answers and my brain power could get me there. And other people were meant to draft behind me and just do what I say or follow my direction to realizing that the key to greatness,

significant success at a much larger scale, is to find people who are even better than you and submit to their greatness. Wow. And maybe like... And accelerate the process. Accelerate the process. So look at Gary, right?

Gary's exceptional. I sit down with Gary and marvel at the level of intrinsic self-confidence he has and wishes I could just, can I get a little more of that? Yeah, yeah. Like, he has no inside voice that's doubting anything. And it's legitimate. He's completely authentic. Say what you will. He is what he is.

So I draft behind that greatness, right? Yeah. And my partner in my PR firm is amazing at taking a direct-to a direct-to-consumer brand from scratch and figuring it out. Building it up. So that, I traffic in the land of greatness and trying to find those people. One, you get to learn from them. And two, it's nice to be humbled every day. It's not interesting to feel you're superior.

To be the smartest person all the time. No, it's much more interesting to reveal where you're not. Because then life will get boring over time. So I realize that has been the single kind of pivot of my life is to stop thinking that it all had to be on my shoulders and instead find better people. And there's nothing. Teams.

Yeah, teams have been even just marveling at, you know, Michelangelo and their own little field, right? And then doing what it takes to support them. That there's no, that that's an honorable life, right? That it doesn't, you don't need to be the name in headlights. The guy. Yeah. Although now, now I'm on Shark Tank, so I guess I'm contradicting myself. What is that experience like for you, being on Shark Tank? It's been amazing. It actually began because my son loves the show. Not big into sports and whatnot, but we connect over, over that show. Yeah. So I, we,

I've watched every episode. He would ask me if I did a deal, did you do a royalty deal? I was like, that's only on TV with Kevin O'Leary. Like, I don't know, that's nonsense, whatever. But anyway, I love the show. And sometimes you just gotta do stuff that's just fun for you. There aren't a lot of things that I do

that are just purely fun for me and enjoyment. And I thought I would enjoy it. I think I'm capable of doing it and I'm good at it. And there's some elements of the way the show plays out that I don't think are completely, represent the way I do it. And so I saw an opportunity to contribute. The experience has been amazing.

It's been fun. Yeah, much more authentic than I would have expected. Really? Yeah, I would have thought it was more made for TV. And then when you're part of it, you realize it's actually just- You're invested, yeah. You're investing.

It's just a longer version of what you see on TV, and it's highly, highly, highly competitive. Yeah, it's about, what, 30, 45 minutes per person. Yeah, per person, per pitch. And then when I went on, I took the approach of, why pretend that you are comfortable in this environment? Who would be comfortable going on the set of a TV show having never done it? First time when everyone else has played. Right, and Mark Cuban is sitting there. Like, it's an intimidating environment, so I asked each has played it. Right, and Mark Cuban is sitting there. It's an intimidating environment,

so I asked each one for nuggets of advice, and the advice was fantastic. What did they all say that you can share? The advice that I got from Kevin O'Leary. We went out to dinner in Momofuku at Co. Had an epic meal five hours before the show. Yeah, yeah. So I was like, let me have a rapport

and just spend some time with him soaking it up. And he said, listen, okay, don't worry about which shark you're going to be because you're going to be you. And the TV doesn't lie. He's like, you can't fake it. If you try to fake it, the TV doesn't lie. It's going to call you out. And that was a relief because everyone asked, well, which shark do you think? As if there would be like an amalgam.

Are you Laurie? Are you Robert Herkovich? shark do you think? As if there'd be like an amalgam. Are you Laurie? Are you Robert Herkovich? That was a relief because then I said, victory here is probably just being competent and being yourself. And then the other advice I got from a couple of different sharks was don't reach. In business, you don't reach. In business, you go after something that you really respect. So don't reach because you feel like you have to. Do a deal that you want to do. And I think that was a relief because otherwise your impulse is, I got to do a deal. I got to do a deal that you want to do. And I think that was a relief because otherwise your impulse is, I got to do a deal. I got to do a deal. I'm here. I got to do it. And of course, I definitely

want to do a deal. And I did do a deal. I'd like to think I didn't reach. The deal I did on the show that's come out is something I would have done out in the marketplace. With the same type of deal, maybe like slightly different. Yeah, slightly different. But I would have done this deal. I love Beyond Sushi. I love the founder. I think it's also fascinating to think you only have 60 minutes to dissect a person or 40. Can I learn as much about a person in 40 minutes

that I would take me months to figure out? With all this due diligence and background. Yeah, so Mark Akiba was making fun of me because I said, Mark, isn't it interesting

from an anthropological standpoint whether or not you could dissect a human being's like, who says anthropological? He ripped me in front of, like, a whole audience. Duly, I should have been. But my point is, can you learn everything you need to know if you refine your filter in 40 minutes?

And I actually think you can. I think you can. You can't learn everything you need to know about a business. Yeah. You have to do business on the information. Well, people will say one thing and it's another or whatever. But everything I learned about Guy, the chef in the show at Beyond Sushi, I think has and probably will play out, which is fascinating. So we can be a lot more efficient with our time.

That's amazing. That's amazing. Is there any question you wish more people would ask you that they don't ask? That's a good question, too. That question. I wish people would ask me about that question. I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Is there anything you're extremely passionate about right now that you want to

talk about or dive into? Yeah, I'm really passionate about fast casual because everything is about experience these days. And fast. And healthy and good. Right, but also exquisite, which in the past would seem contradictory impulses. How do you scale an exquisite experience? How do you scale a boutique experience? But that's what this generation in particular expects. So when a brand resonates, there's a tremendous opportunity, and I believe we have a few of them. A Momofuku and Milk Bar. You're part of Milk Bar? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm on the board of Milk Bar.

Amazing. Yeah, no, Christina Tosi. She was at the Pencil of Promise Gala. I met her for a quick, epic moment? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm on the board of Milk Bar. Amazing. Yeah, no, Christina Tosi. She was at the Pencil to Promise Gala. I met her for a quick, quick moment. She's amazing, yeah. The freaking, the docuseries,

Chef's Table. Chef's Table. Did you watch that? Did I watch it? Of course. It's amazing, because she's from Ohio, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She's from Ohio. I think I saw that. So that's my, I'm glad you know it. So if you look at my portfolio. Milk Bar's amazing. Yeah, Milk Bar. So I'm on the board.

I'm partners with Christina. Mama Fuku with David Chang. So why am I interested in that? I do think we are eventually due for a downturn in a relatively short period of time. Corporations are way over leveraged. There's going to be a correction. And fast casual tends to fare very well in a downturn. In fact, in 2008, fast casual was up 3%.

Only sector of the economy to do well. So I think if you could back winners in this space, it's a nice portfolio to have there. That's not why I'm passionate. I think that's why it's smart. Why I'm passionate is there's artistry in food. And even in fast casual, right? Somebody who's trying to say, I want to turn this into a big business because I have ambition. But I don't want to compromise quality.

But I want to scale my vision and the exceptional nature of what I'm producing. And by virtue of them being in the space nature of what I'm producing. Sure. And by virtue of them being in the space, they're also an artist. Christina Tosi is an artist. She's amazing, yeah. David is an artist. So for me, it uses all sorts of left brain, right brain things happening. It's also very aggravating. You know, you're opening up physical places and you're dealing with it.

It's a lot. It's not. And again, Snapchat would be amazing, or maybe I should use Facebook as a better example. Sure. It's great when you hit on a digital property, but there's something wonderful about brick and mortar. Physical, yeah. Physical spaces. So I'm really passionate about fast casual.

Cybersecurity, we have a big business in cybersecurity. It's basically privatized law enforcement if you think about it. It's only going to get worse and worse and worse. It's something that we all need, we all know we need to protect ourselves from. We don't know how. Yeah. And we don't know what it entails. And so it's why I bought,

I acquired a cybersecurity business. Wow. Thinking that if I could build a brand that was accessible and make it less black box, less Tron-like, so that I could communicate to small and mid-sized businesses,

this is the threat and this is what you need to do about it, I think there's a huge opportunity and that's something I'm spending a lot of time. It's called Scout. Scout. If you're letting me plug my, I'm going to plug. Scout.com. Yeah, it's just, just, there you go. S-K-O-U-T. S-K-O-U-T. Got it. Cool. What do you wish people would ask you about? Now I'm going to interview you. I think, I think the basics about the way we think, the way I think. And I think you kind of referenced it a little bit. It was like at one point and then something,

you went off somewhere else, but the thoughts you were telling yourself, the conversations you were telling yourself, I think it dictates someone's belief in themselves, which is going to dictate whether you want to invest in them or partner with them based on the conversations that I have with myself every minute of every day. So I like talking about that, like how I learned how to have more positive conversations.

It's simple and like woo-woo as that sounds, but just like the constant conversation that I have internally in the visualization of who I want to be and what I want to create in the world. What's your inside voice telling you when it's being helpful and what does it tell you when it's being unhelpful? When it's being helpful, it's just very light and positive and empowering. It's just like, yeah, maybe it's going to be challenging what you're doing, but you're going to get through it.

And you're not going to die. And it's not going to be the end of the world. Like, people may laugh at you or you may fail, but you're going to be okay. I like your inside voice. Right. And it's like, you're going to learn from it. And I think coaches in sports really taught me that. I learned from an early age that you have to fail through all the reps.

When I'm out in the football field and I've never played, I'm going to drop the ball a bunch. You have to fail to learn. So I learned quickly that was the foundation for achievement. It's like failure because that's where you get the most information. So I always embrace the failure and I just remind myself, I'm going to make mistakes. It's going failure because that's where you get the most information. So I always embrace the failure, and I just remind myself, like, I'm going to make mistakes. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. But it just keeps me pushing forward.

And so that's when it's helpful. When it's not helpful is probably when my ego gets in the way or I get too defensive. My thoughts are defensive, and they're like, they don't know me. Or how could they actually say that about me? And my ego gets in the way. But then I come back to gratitude. Gratitude, humility, and vision. I start focusing more on what can I learn from this? What do I really want to create in this moment?

And is this important for me to hold on to so tightly? Or can I let it go and breathe? Because I think when you have the reminder five times a day that you're going to die, these things don't matter. And it doesn't matter what people are saying about me or their judgments or if I make mistakes. It really doesn't matter. What matters is the kindness I bring to other people.

I like that. Like you talked about, like the kindness that I can bring every day because that energy is what will impact the people around me in their day. If someone's struggling and I'm just generous with my smile, that's a good thing. That's why you asked me what question I wish people would ask more. It's really more what topic for me. And I talked to my wife about this because I can get remarkably antisocial. It's small talk.

I think I don't know why we don't spend more time commiserating over that which we're ashamed of or that which we struggle of. It's almost like the little dark secret of the world. And we're way too set up to keep those things hidden. And yet it's the common struggle. Everyone has either the inside voice, going back to helpful and unhelpful, everyone has the unhelpful inside voice. And we don't provide a lot of room in society to have those conversations. And I think it does everybody a disservice. That's why I do this show. Yeah, I love that.

I go right into like, what's your biggest struggle? What's your biggest fear? I do like the Irish goodbye all the time. I'll just exit and literally leave because I can't take it when the conversation turns to small talk. I'm like, really?

Can't we talk about what we're really dealing with? I never go to bars. I don't drink and go out to those places because I feel like if I do, I'm going to have to get into someone's soul quickly. People don't want to do that. I'm so remarkably inappropriate. My wife will say all the time, you get excited when somebody's

struggling, like carrying around the pain of divorce. Yeah, because then you can talk about real stuff. It's like there's a layer of authenticity of the universe that we never reveal in our day-to-day most of the time. And that's what most people really want to talk about. Now my wife will say to me, like, well, maybe people aren't struggling with anything. I'm like, you know, perhaps.

They're struggling with something, though. Struggling with something. But isn't it just more interesting? Wouldn't you rather commiserate? It doesn't have to be. And talk about the weather. It doesn't have to be depression, obviously. It doesn't have to be anything even that big, so to speak. Purposeful things. Purposeful things are where doesn't have to be. And talk about the weather. It doesn't have to be depression, obviously. It doesn't have to be anything even that, you know, big, so to speak. Purposeful

things. Purposeful things are where I'd like to go. Or again, the inside voice. Like maybe we should all start conversations and be like, tell me about your unhelpful inside voice so we can make my helpful one battle it out. You know, that's good. I like that. But anyway, that's the thing I wish more, especially the more successful you have, whatever that means, however that's objectively defined, the more powerful revealing shame becomes. That's what I like to talk about because I do think it's a lonely journey. And people like to airbrush all the messy stuff. I'd rather take off the airbrush and show it.

What are you most ashamed of? Not ashamed of more. I guess I could be ashamed of the dropping out and could be ashamed of lots of decisions. I mean, particularly that and poverty. You know, Mike wanted to make it look like, you know, that I came from a perfect school. But I don't think I'm ashamed of much. It's more just a matter of I want to talk about what I struggle with. What do you struggle with the most?

Well, you never feel successful. It's annoying. You don't feel successful at your level? No. What would it take for you never feel successful. It's annoying. You don't feel successful at your level? No. What would it take for you to feel successful? If you had a billion dollars in the bank, if you owned the world? I think for me, a steady state of peace. I think success is a steady state of peace.

The other stuff. How do you find a steady state of peace? I'm working on it. I think everyone has their own definition of it. For me, it's probably being present. I think the present is the biggest gift that we're given as people, right? That the only reality that is true is now and present, not the past, not the future per se. Because you may not get a chance to have that future, right?

So I think for me, achieving peace is about being present, about being mindful. Not regretting the past and fixating on the future. Right, not being defensive like you talked about, being grateful, being connected with our mortality, being intentional, living an intentional life. I think the achievement of peace is much more successful than the achievement of professional success. So that's that, that's one part. But then just generally,

I don't reflect upon what I got right and sit around. I really reflect on what's not going right. I'm reflecting on the fact that you made me Tyrion this interview. See, that's the, even though I'm enjoying talking to you. I appreciate you opening up. I feel like I've learned more and more from all the people I interview. I feel blessed because I get to go to school every day here. Right. That, who was I interviewing a couple weeks ago? Tiff was about celebrating your wins like every day, every week. David Goggins, who is a guy who's done like more 200 mile races and extreme, like a world record for the most pull-ups in a day and like crazy extreme athlete. And he said he would just keep going

to the next 100 mile race, 100 mile race or whatever the race was and the next extreme thing and he wouldn't even collect his medal at the end. Like he would win and he would leave. He wouldn't even like take a moment to be like, here's my medal, I'm gonna receive it or the certificate

or whatever it is and go to the party and just be like, we did it because it was never enough for him. So we had to keep going to the next thing and keep proving something. Did he change? Yeah, he said he started to have peace in his heart

when he started to acknowledge and celebrate what he's creating every day, every week, every milestone. And it gives him that inner peace. Yeah, I think that's, for me, it's partly about I enjoy the act of creation and beginning to understand that that's what resonates with me. The recognition or the reflective glory of doing something is actually not the part that resonates. Appreciating the creative process.

Yeah, and so that's okay. Actually, it's not something I want to change anymore. I'm not seeking adulation or I'm not seeking attention. I actually enjoy the act of creation. But you have to be present to it. I do. So if I didn't appreciate that, so taking a step back and seeing the fact that I... But you have to be present to it. I do. So if I didn't appreciate that, so taking a step back

and seeing the fact that we created this PR firm and now there's 100 people who work there. And you started from scratch. Scratch. Like that, that I do enjoy.

But most of my mental energy does go towards what's not working. But I think it's why... You're a problem solver. I'm a problem solver and you want to go there. Right.

So I'm not unhappy. I mean, it's not a crisis. The balance of peace, yeah. Yes, but when I will feel ultimately truly successful is a steady state of peace, which is where I spend more of my time on thinking about now. Meditating. I don't know if you meditate. Of course.

Of course you do, right? So meditating is, I think, really important. Very passionate about that. Yeah. Maybe if you put your energy towards the problem of finding more peace, you'd solve it quicker. But then I wouldn't be able to solve all these other problems. See, this is the self-talk.

Like, I got stuff to do. You work on it. No, I'm dividing my time. Yeah, of course. But I do, I love solving problems, and I love creating things. I also like to be right and early. To me, that's amazing, right? It beats the ego, too.

It feels good. Well, and also, I do think you find this people who went through some form of early trauma, because you're so hyper-vigilant, and you're always scanning the horizon to be safe, you figure out patterns earlier. And that's the positive corollary. There's always a positive corollary, right? So I like using those pattern recognition skills to see things. And it's fun, right? But not fun in a I'm going to get celebrated for it.

Fun like, that's interesting. I hear you. Yeah. This is fun. Okay, a couple questions for you. This one's called the three truths. I'm like, that's interesting. I hear you. Yeah. This is fun. Okay, a couple questions for you. This one's called The Three Truths.

I ask everyone at the end this question. Imagine you've created all the success you want, you've invested in the businesses, you've got the incredible family, and it's hundreds of years away and it's your last day. We're hundreds of years away. You've lived as long as you want. Okay. But the app has finally come to life. Okay. The app is right. The app is right. You're going to die one day and it's your last day. Imagine. Okay. Hypothetical. You've created everything. Okay. Any dream you have,

it's manifest and you're at peace with all your decisions. But for whatever reason, all the stuff you've created, you've got to take it with you. So no one has access to the information you've put out in the world. Like your words, your writing, your videos, Shark Tank. Like they don't have access to this interview. And it's all come with you. You've had to take it with you. But everyone's celebrating you. You get to write exactly what you want on your epitaph.

Like it's all been great. And you have an opportunity to leave behind three truths. Three things you know to be true from all your experiences in life which would be the three lessons you'd like to share with the world like if they didn't have the information you you created but they have these final three lessons for the world your kind of bible to life what would you say are your three truths what are yours first can i hear you uh i'll share with you afterwards okay i'll share with you afterwards okay what am i so you can't deflect i know i was enjoying i was like let me buy myself more more time to think about it whatever's on the mind right now obviously this can change i would say that uh be in the moment that is the only

thing that is for that one number two on your deathbed you will ask yourself was i a great dad and love the journey don't focus on the result those are great yeah those are great where can we connect with you online where can we support you so um thank you uh on instagram which is where I'm focusing my attention, energy, which I think most people are. Matt Higgins RIC. RIC, which stands for? We don't have a meeting quite.

Raw Sports and Entertainment. He doesn't love that. So we just gave up. RICventures.com is the name of the company. Matt Higgins RIC. Matt Higgins RIC on Instagram. That's where to find me. And Autism Speaks is my passionate cause. Matt Higgins RIC. Matt Higgins RIC on Instagram. That's where to find me.

And Autism Speaks is my passionate cause. I just want to mention that. Autism Speaks. Yep, I'm on the board of it. I spend a lot of energy on kids on the spectrum. So I just want to make sure we talk about that.

Where can people find that? AutismSpeaks.org. Yeah, anybody out there who is dealing with any kind of issues related to child on the spectrum or is wondering whether or not they've identified the signs. There's tons of information there. Happy to connect with me on

Instagram if you need to connect with somebody, but I always want to put that out there. That's cool. AutismSpeaks.org, Matt Higgins, RSE. You're spending more time on Instagram, so people reach out to you or they... Yeah, I do the best I can. I just like Instagram. I like the positivity of it, right? And Twitter is just the land of hate sometimes. And there's so much vitriol right now in our society. I know everyone talks about it, but I really don't like where we are. And so I reject it, and I put my energy into Instagram,

where people are happy and where you are. Yeah, spreading positivity. Right, isn't that great? I mean, it's just better. And then LinkedIn is nice too, but a lot of effort. So Instagram. If someone's interested in raising money, how would they get a hold of you for pitching? Yeah, go to the website where you're actually building a RSEventures.com.

Okay. And post Shark Tank. Obviously getting inundated, so we're building a little bit of an onboarding platform. But yeah, feel free to send the ideas. We won't be shy telling you whether we agree with you or not. But I like to sift through to find the goal. There you go.

Okay. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Matt, for opening up and sharing these stories because I know it's not easy. So I appreciate you sharing everything from your business insights to opening up about your mom and all those challenges because you've gone through a lot man gone through a lot and I really acknowledge you for overcoming so much

and using the lessons to help people and I love your heart for wanting to give back with the resources and power you've created so thank you for it yeah thank you for your kindness as well. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate you saying that, and I love seeing you. I mean, I think we connected at a moment in time, and now I look back on where you are right now,

and I kind of knew it. I thought you'd be where you are. Yeah, you've always been meant to be. Yeah, we're only probably in the third inning as it pertains to you. I'm probably just getting started. I really do. I know you're just getting started. And I wonder when we do this again 10 years from now,

hopefully we're both sitting here. But if not, that's okay. But I know that you have a lot more to do. Yeah, it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. I appreciate it. Final question is what is your definition of greatness? What is mine?

Don't ask me mine. I know. I was like, what is my definition of greatness in any sector? Yeah. And just in your general definition, what do you think it is for you in this moment? Someone who is living an intentional life, is peaceful with that intentional life, and has organized their life and their occupation around do no harm intentionally, right? I'm very passionate about human rights. And the greatest right that we have is to live an unfettered life to pursue your own sort of destiny.

And so to me, it's a combination of peace, intentionality, and trying to do no harm as objectively defined as possible. Matt Higgins, my man. Thanks, sir. Thank you. Appreciate itiggins, my man. Thanks, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it, man. There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this powerful interview with my friend, Matt Higgins,

successful businessman who's on the pulse of investments and businesses and growth. If you have any questions for him, make sure to hit him up, send him a direct message, shoot him an email, connect with him online. Matt Higgins over on Instagram.

Check him out on Twitter as well. And make sure to watch the episode on Shark Tank. Very powerful insights. This is one of the smartest guys I know when it comes to investing and knowing what's going to be successful in business. He's done a powerful job at this. So I hope you guys enjoyed this. As always, tag me on your Instagram story,

share with your friends, text a few friends as well who you think might benefit from this. It's all about spreading the message of greatness. We are all in this together. We're on this incredible planet together and there's information out there that can support one another. If you know someone this can support, share it with them. Give them the gift of greatness. Like we said in the beginning, guys, you have an opportunity to do something great with your life. And Winston Churchill said, success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. And I don't care where you're at in your life right now. The courage to continue is what matters. Whether you've achieved great things already in one area of your life and you're reinventing

your life in a new area, or if you've been struggling for a while, none of that matters. What matters is that you continue, is that you learn, is that you shift. You take the adversity and you use the lessons in a powerful way to then grow and try something different. That's what this is about. Continuing in a positive, powerful way to inspire your own life and inspire the lives around you. As always, I love you so very much.

I'm so proud to be a part of this community with you and to be able to host this show with some of the most iconic people in the world to have them share and open up and give you the tools, stories, and inspiration to help you live your greatest life. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា Outro Music