The School of Greatness - 901 Rob Dyrdek: From Small Town Skateboarder to Media Mogul Empire

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is episode number 901 with Rob Dyrdek. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Michael Jordan said, some people want it to happen.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Some people wish it would happen. Others make it happen. And we've got the iconic and legendary Rob Dyrdek who makes it happen on every area of his life. Here's a guy I've known for many years now, and I've seen him build massive businesses from ideas. I've seen him create the relationship and the family of his dreams. I've seen him master his health and do so many different things on so many different levels. And if you don't know who Rob is, he became a professional athlete at 16 years old. And at 18 years old, he used the knowledge he gained from skateboarding

Starting point is 00:01:15 industry to create his first company. Surrounded by entrepreneurs in his youth, he quickly learned the power of building massive brands. In addition to building footwear, apparel, and skate brands, he also launched the world's first professional skateboarding league and skateboarding channel, ETN. He's produced multiple hit TV shows, including Robin Big, Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, and Ridiculousness, amongst many others. He's also launched and incubated many brands and he's quickly rising as one of the top entrepreneurs out there. And in this interview, we talk about the difference between a business and an idea. We talk about how Fantasy Factory almost didn't make it on air, the key to living a balanced and full life, and why it's so important

Starting point is 00:02:07 to pick one thing to master, that and so much more. And this was an interview I did many years ago with Rob, and he has since then transformed in many other ways in his life. So I'm very excited about this and what you're about to discover from his wisdom. I'm super excited about this interview with Rob Dyrdek. Make sure to share him some love online at Rob Dyrdek and use this link lewishouse.com slash 901. Text it to a friend, post it on your Instagram stories on Twitter and Facebook and get this out there to a friend that you think would be inspired by Rob Dyrdek from small town skateboarder to media mogul empire.

Starting point is 00:02:53 Welcome everyone back to the school of greatness. We have the legend from Ohio, Rob Dyrdek in the house. Just two guys, two guys on guys out in beverly hills now yeah you know um i want to before i get you to share your bio because i have an intro that i already did before this i want to do some things we have in common sure all right so some common things here robin lewis have in common uh both from ohio first and first i mean i got my hot shirt on you do you do always every time you see the shape of the buckeye state you just get you feel some type of way yeah i mean and and just before we get too deep into ohio i want you to know that

Starting point is 00:03:30 i went to game seven oh the nba finals and it was like i have never like how much pride did you have i have never you know who i watched it with was d wWade, right? Oh, my gosh. It was like I've never – I don't believe in my life I have ever lived through dramatic storytelling. And to where I couldn't – an entire like 20,000 people experiencing this just riveted like just storytelling. And when they – I couldn't – like i almost like cried i was so excited you know what i mean i want to tell you where i was yeah i was playing with the usa national team in buenos aires in argentina for the pan am championships now we just finished and i think we lost a game to i don't know brazil or someone who was just in the olympics and i'm like we got to get back to watch game seven right up like i don't care what we do we got to get back to the hotel

Starting point is 00:04:24 and there's no english speaking espn it's like espn the ocho or whatever you know what i mean I'm like, we got to get back to watch Game 7 right up. Like, I don't care what we do. We got to get back to the hotel. And there's no English-speaking ESPN. It's like ESPN, the Ocho, or whatever. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. But they're like, so, they're like, goal! You know, every time they score, it's like a soccer game. Oh, so you had to listen to it. I'm listening in Spanish.

Starting point is 00:04:39 But I can feel it, right? That's cool. And it's down to the last minute. No one, I'm in my room by myself, and'm literally screaming like the whole city must have heard me. It was unbelievable, man. So much fun. And you got lucky that you were at least in a place that was like on the same time zone. Exactly, yeah.

Starting point is 00:04:55 It was like an hour or two off or something in Europe or something where you were like jammed. It was amazing, man. Good for you. Shout out to Ohio. Shout out to LeBron, the whole Cavs team. There you go. Dan Gilbert and everybody. The second thing that we have in common, we're both former pro athletes.

Starting point is 00:05:09 That's right. That's right. Skateboarding. Yeah. And I played professional football. Okay. Yeah. There you go.

Starting point is 00:05:14 That's number two. And how long were you a pro for? Oh, I forgot. Officially a pro. Look, skateboarding is a little gray. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long did you get paid to compete, I guess, right?

Starting point is 00:05:26 Up until last year. Wow. You know know what i mean but i didn't get you i would say last year is when i stopped all my signature product okay i mean so that was you know 20 plus years wow i mean so it's 16 uh living in ohio you were pro yeah and then made this a very long run. And, you know, there was points in it where I had to check myself and reevaluate myself and rededicate myself to my craft. As 23, I thought it was over. You know, at the time, they had signed my final. They gave me a two-year contract for DC and one more shoe. And they were like, we think your best years are behind you.

Starting point is 00:06:03 At 23? Yeah. That's like not even your prime yet. No, but back then i was like i'm a mess but of course i was eating shitty and drinking a ton you know what i mean and not not nearly as focused lost my way because my ambition was so much bigger than being a professional athlete and uh from that point on i only signed two-year deals i said look i promise you two years from now i'll be completely different human being and then i never signed a two-year more than a two-year deals. I said, look, I promise you two years from now, I'll be a completely different human being. And then I never signed more than a two-year deal ever again because I made a commitment of every two years, I will shape shift to another level. And that's what I did

Starting point is 00:06:34 continually up until I signed a seven-year deal. Then they went bankrupt. Sure, sure. How much does a pro athlete make? What's a two-year deal back when you're 23? Is that 100 grand a year? Is that 20 grand? What is that? I mean back there you could make $200,000 to $500,000 depending on the shoe, right? Wow. A year. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:53 But one of my early big hustles was I was so good at designing shoes. And I would design these hit shoes and make all this royalty money, right? So even though you'd be guaranteed $200,000. You're making two bucks a shoe for life. Right. So you could end up making five, six, seven hundred. Some guys would make like a million, two million dollars off one shoe, right? So I did a deal with them when I signed that second year contract of allow me to go through

Starting point is 00:07:20 the same process as the designers, right? And what the designers did is they did hand sketches then they made illustrator files and then put them on boards and presented to sales so i would just i'd like do like 20 of them i would get up there and i was the pro skater you know i was 24 back then right i would razzle dazzle them i would put on a show in that sales room because it was like yeah because it'd it would be like, oh, what? The pros here, right? And I ended up –

Starting point is 00:07:48 You could speak from what athletes wanted. Yeah, yeah. And but I – like, look, I sold it to even so many deeper levels than that. It's like this is what's trending and, you know, all that and all the colorways and materials. And at one point, I had a third of the entire line. So I was getting royalty off of 30 or 40 shoes. Oh, my gosh. And when Quicksilver came in and purchased DC, they were like, what?

Starting point is 00:08:16 Why is one of the pro skaters getting paid so much money? Because the designer gets paid like – 60 grand a year. Yeah, and I'm literally getting like 100 plus for all these shoes you know what i mean so um uh they kind of put the kibosh on that after they were like look like you giving you too much we just can't do this like you know like when they bought it you know what i mean but that's uh just a little insight that's amazing dude i love that side hustle yeah dude i didn't know you were designing like that.

Starting point is 00:08:45 What I called at a younger age, we called that stir frying. Stir frying. Where you would just throw a bunch of different things in and cook it up. You know what I mean? And that's, again, seeing an opportunity, approaching, not saying, hey, let me design 10 shoes. It was like, let me go through the same process as the designers pitch that to the ceo he's like shit okay well yeah you know if he out designs our team sure let's give him a royalty you know and uh even he didn't fully anticipate it you know

Starting point is 00:09:16 and the sad part was is like you know i'd go in there and just razzle dazzle and dance and and sell them and then then they would pick them and literally i would hand pick a designer and hand it to him and he'd literally have to do everything right he would have to do all like get everything made to get all the manufactured go through the whole process of and i would just like check in all that looks sick oh cool yeah change that check wow amazing and you were in ohio still during this no no that That was California. That was – like I left Ohio at 16. Really? Yeah. So I stopped going to school at 16 and got guaranteed at the time. I had already turned pro.

Starting point is 00:09:52 And right when I turned 17, in that sort of era, you just got board royalties and maybe some little demo fees. So I would get like $200, $300 a year. some little demo fees so i would get like two three hundred here you know and christmas of that year i sold one board and got a two dollar check and um they were like if you move to california we'll give you a thousand a month and i was like you're like i'm rich like gone you know what i mean and that that was sort of the the genesis of getting out there and then once i got out there then it just really started building because then all the other companies out here were trying to steal me thinking that I would leave the small Ohio company, which I just leveraged to get a little bit more money out of those guys. Sure, sure.

Starting point is 00:10:34 Of course. You're smart. Where were you living when you first moved out here? I moved to San Diego. And at the time, I moved in with these three girls, homie from ohio and these three girls and when i told my mom this is the arrangement that i made and we got a room inside an apartment three girls she said oh my god you're gonna have aids like immediately equated me living with three girls as as being aides you know So that was my first thing.

Starting point is 00:11:05 I moved to Encinitas, California, down the beach. Yeah, man. Near PB? Is that near Pacific Beach? No, I eventually moved to PB because North County was pretty far from where the action was. So I had eventually moved to Pacific Beach and just wild in the streets. I was wild. Pacific beach and, you know, just wild in the streets. I was wild, you know, and I had,

Starting point is 00:11:32 I had went to the Ohio DMV with my friend's social certificate, social security certificate and, or social security card and birth certificate. And cause back then in Ohio, if you had those two, they give you an ID. You didn't have to wait. They give it to you on the spot, you know? So I think at the time I had stayed up all night and and went there like six in the morning i was like shaking you know what i mean like trying to fill it out like you know like i'm such a criminal right now you know feeling so illegal you know i already look you know imagine how young i looked at at 17 and you know i'm like there i fill out all the paperwork and i go to take the photo and they're like you're not 21 wow and i'm like i am 21 everybody says i'm not but i am and he's like excuse me he's like can you move the background to blue for 21 i was like oh oh sorry sorry oh my

Starting point is 00:12:15 gosh and then i have this like like photo of like that id and i took that thing out of there man and i partied so hard in pb i was 17 i was known as little bill because my my id was william weiss a friend of mine so in in pacific beach california i would go out seven nights a week and i was known as little bill at the pb barn girl you know what i mean so uh pb and me uh weren't wasn't exactly the right way to take off my career in my teenage years. I wasn't really focused. Sure. Had all the ambition to drive, but didn't really quite.

Starting point is 00:12:51 Was still very exploratory in the early ages. That's hilarious, man. Another thing in common for us is we are both entrepreneurs who, what I heard you say in the video, is you never started out to be an entrepreneur. Your dad was selling suits. My dad was selling insurance. Yeah. A couple of Ohio guys. are both entrepreneurs who, what I heard you say in the video is you never started out to be an entrepreneur. Your dad was selling suits. My dad was selling insurance. Yeah. A couple of Ohio guys.

Starting point is 00:13:12 But you didn't start out to be an entrepreneur, right? You just wanted to be an athlete. Is that what I heard? No. Well, no, I was raised by entrepreneur wolves, right? I wasn't, I knew no other way, right? It's like, despite wanting to be a professional athlete and getting so good really quick. But, uh, the first person I made a phone call to when I was 11 years old was a guy named Jimmy George at the local skate shop. Right. And I said, if I get 10 people to enter your contest, he was having a contest. Can I get in for free? Now, Jimmy George was an 18 year old entrepreneur

Starting point is 00:13:40 who skated, started his own skate shop. And shop and uh what has sort of happened is this sort of ecosystem of of skateboarding entrepreneurialism exploded in Dayton Ohio really so he started not only did he start the skate shop then he started a boutique then he started a distribution company so then one of my close friends uh that was working at the shop then started a clothing line. Then when the Alien Workshop, the company I was pro for my entire career, those guys moved back and started the Alien Workshop in Dayton, Ohio. And all of this incredible – so to me when I was young, it was just this is what I'm going to do. All my – everyone around me, all the people that I spend the most time with are all starting their own companies. This is just what I'm going to do.

Starting point is 00:14:27 So that's what led to the moment I got to California. First thing I did was start a company. Right. And, uh, that, uh, to me is that great outlier sort of aspect of your, you didn't know any other way. Like it wasn't even weird to you that you're already thinking about like you're, you didn't look at it as business. Like it was just, this is what you did. All your friends didn't, everybody, you know, they built companies and started companies, even though I didn't fully understand what that meant. Right. Like I have always, it took me many years to understand the difference between a business and an idea. And a lot of people with drive and will and the ability to execute bring ideas to life.

Starting point is 00:15:12 But they're not good businesses. And some of them are, quite frankly, terrible businesses and great ideas. And that's what I suffered with a lot in my early days of being an uneducated guy who didn't go to his last year of high school, who took a night class to get a diploma, and who apparently, even though I don't fully remember this story, my mom says they tried to tell me that, no, you got to go to school. And I just convinced the counselors and all of the principals that I was like, I just didn't – I didn't need to. And that they finally just let me – like he's not coming. So like I guess he doesn't have to. They just let me go. But that's sort of the difference. I had a very unusual upbringing in that sense. And even when I was like 14, I spent no time with kids and, and, and my school,

Starting point is 00:16:06 Jimmy George would pick me up from school and we would go, my dad would drop or my mom would drop me off the shop during the weeks. And then on the weekends, I would stay with him all weekend. Skate shop. Yeah. So the kid that owned the, who had built the skate shop. So then I would travel all over with him and, and just be literally up in the mix of their business and how they did everything. And that was really like the major influence on me at a really early age of like calculating what my version of my business was going to be. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:39 Who was most influential in your life growing up? Yeah, I think that core group. was most influential in your life growing up? Yeah, I think, I think that core group, there's Jimmy George, a guy named Chris Carter and Mike Hill, who went on to start the alien workshop. It was this kind of core group of, of entrepreneurs and mentors that were older and, and that I skated for almost right. One at the skate shop, one built the company, you know, and, and then, you know, God bless my mom, who I found out when I was like doing all my biomechanical body research, like they were like was having a problem with her eyes and they said not to let you – because she started walking after six months. So I didn't let you walk for a year even when you tried to, right? And like I really believe that's like the foundation of like what allowed me to become an athlete. And she would – she was the one that was like, he's small.

Starting point is 00:17:40 We got to put him in karate and like try to chase it down. And then my dad was always like literally like he could do anything i could do anything right so it just be like dad this of course i can do that i'm your dad right of course you can and i got that same sort of like of course i can like you know like from him you know and that spirit of like like understanding people and calibrating with people's energy and just enjoying life combined with this sort of paranoid mother who wanted to get me into stuff because she was so afraid I was going to be bullied because I was smaller, which led to this athleticism and this foundation of success at such an early age and this true deep belief that you can do anything foundationally at a very young age that uh when then mixed with these older entrepreneurs and and older mentors created the the the pool that eventually birthed someone like me to do the type of things that i do in a history, in a career, in a life on so many different levels.

Starting point is 00:18:49 Yeah. Amazing, man. Steve. Steve. But I knew you'd appreciate it. I love all this stuff. I knew you'd appreciate it. I love all this stuff.

Starting point is 00:18:57 Another thing in common, we're both ordained ministers from the Universal Life Church. Yeah, man. Who'd you marry, man? I actually didn't marry anyone. But when I was in college, I was like, oh, this looks cool. I want to be like an ordained minister.

Starting point is 00:19:07 Yeah. So I went online and did it. Let me give you some depth. Let me give you some depth. I know you did. Well, you did it on a show of yours, right? Let me tell you how it went, right? So I had this,

Starting point is 00:19:16 I embrace stalkers, right? I think it's just something kind of funny. Do you have a lot of stalkers? I do, I do. And I have this theory on stalking is like when people are on, when you engage with them, it humanizes you and makes you less interesting. But I had this deaf couple that would follow me everywhere I went. Whether it was when I jockeyed the horse, they'd go there. When I'd do my car stunts, they were there. Whatever. If i had to do a party in a club you know they were there and and i kind of just thought they were cute you know what i mean like they were in love and a deaf couple and they're just super fans you know whatever

Starting point is 00:19:53 so he he shows up to my birthday presents me with a rolex right uninvited uninvited yeah he's just there public at one of the clubs, you know what I mean? So he shows up, you know what I mean? He's like, you have heart, you have heart. I said, motherfucker, I wouldn't take a Rolex from one of my best friends unless they were really rich. I'm not taking this from you, right? And so then he gave me a card that just said, hey, I want to get engaged. I can't remember the name of the time.

Starting point is 00:20:24 Like, will you help me? And I'm like, you want to know what? I'm going to do an episode about this. That's crazy. So I learned sign language. I set this entire thing up, had her surprised, like blindfold her, set the whole thing, put her on the zip line at the factory, sent her down. Like, you know, he jumped out. He lays down like, will you marry me?

Starting point is 00:20:45 And she's like, no. What? I'm like. On TV? Yeah. And we're like, wait, what? He's like, no, no, absolutely no. Then he's like, for TV?

Starting point is 00:21:01 She's like, fine. Shut up. And then like, it's like, I'd marry you to me. I'm like, oh God, okay. Whoa. All right. Like, and so I had planned, no part of me thought that he hadn't had that part worked out. Right. So I just laid out the entire episode, went and got ordained for all of that. And, um, and then, and then when they did it, I couldn't do it, right? So, fast forward two years later, and it's such a good idea for an episode, right? Amazing.

Starting point is 00:21:31 And I'm like, God, it would only matter if I could marry someone that was significant in my life. My sister had had a boyfriend for like two years at the time. So, I called my mom, and I'm like, they ever talk about getting married? And she's like now they said they're just gonna go to the courthouse and i'm like okay will you tell them if they're willing to get married in the in the next three months that i'll shoot an episode and pay for their amazing wedding and and give them a big honeymoon and all this stuff and so she's like okay so like an hour later i'm like man, man, what am I doing?

Starting point is 00:22:08 Like why am I trying to mess with her life and their life? Like don't put the pressure on. Like I don't know. Like why are you messing with their life for your own TV entertainment? And so I call her. I say, what? Oh, shit. I'm like, do you talk to mom?

Starting point is 00:22:23 Yes. And I'm like, what? She's like, well, just so you know, I just brought it up to Jason. He was like, oh, oh, shit. I'm like, do you talk to mom? Yes. And I'm like, what? She's like, well, just so you know, I just brought it up to Jason. He was like, oh, great. Because it's just something we've never talked about, right? And I'm like, never talked about? My mom just made that up saying like, oh, they said they're going to go to a courthouse. They've never even – these two have been together for two years.

Starting point is 00:22:42 They never spoke about marriage. So I said, man, put him on the phone. I said, hey, dude, look, I'm so sorry. I'm not trying to fuck with your life, you know, on this whole TV thing and whatever. But look, on some real shit, if you'll get married in three months, I will pay for your wedding. And I'll give you guys like 100 Gs. Holy cow. You know what I mean? And he was like, all right, let me talk about it.

Starting point is 00:23:06 And so we shot that episode, did it like the whole thing and, and had my sister's wedding inside the fantasy factory. And, and, um, does she love it or was she like, she loved it, you know? And to me it's like, yeah, it's blending entertainment and creativity and being absurd and over the top. But that's special. You know what I mean? It's another one of these incredible life moments that I have and a highlight reel of incredible moments that money can't buy. And it is timing and creativity and opportunity, all these things mashed into one with a little bit of magic, you know.

Starting point is 00:23:52 And for me, you know, I'll never do it again. You know, it's like people hit me up all the time. I want to, you know, get ordained. And that literally is the most significant one, right? Because it's like I only – it's just my sister and me. And it's like, and she, you know, that was at 40, you know, and then she, they immediately got pregnant and she had my nephew at 41, a straight buzzer beater, you know? And, and that's why the following time I was like, okay, I really feel like i shifted their whole existence these are two people that didn't talk about marriage or now have a child and that's why in the following

Starting point is 00:24:30 season then i just bought them like a full house so that they could just have something free and clear that could be the true foundation of their family forever. You know what I mean? Like I manipulated the universe on that one. It's my responsibility to make sure that you're secure and peaceful inside your existence. You know what I mean? But as you know, in Ohio, you get a lot for – You get a lot. For a hundred grand, you're a king. Yeah, no.

Starting point is 00:25:01 Dayton as well. Like 60 grand, you got a mansion. Yeah. No, look. I spent like 380. Yeah. Oh, my God. I live in a large. It's a beautiful place.

Starting point is 00:25:11 My aunt has a place that she got for a half a mil on like the Scioto or the Ohio River right in Dublin, Ohio. I don't know if you know Dublin. But it's like a half a million dollar home. But it's got like 12 bedrooms and like six car garage and on the river with you know a boat or whatever it's like four wings for like five grand a month i'm like what yeah you'll never especially being from there you'll never not like think about how far what your rent is in this way what you the amount that you could own but the difference is too is you would buy it for three that thing is will be worth 400 yeah 10 years from now there

Starting point is 00:25:52 is no it's not like out here when the when the waves flowing out here you can double you could literally make millions off of a shitty house in the hills dude my first apartment when i was making a little bit of money was 495 a month in columbus ohio and it was like the most ghetto building in downtown uh in the short north and i remember i moved to new york city uh for like a month to go just try try it out because i had a couple speaking gigs and i was like let me just try it out for a month and it was 2700 bucks and i remember feeling like i wanted to throw up that I was paying $2,700 for one month when I was paying $4.95.

Starting point is 00:26:29 And then after one week of being there, I was like, I get it. Like the inspiration, like the motivation, I was like, I get it. And then I paid 3,600 a month for the next month and I was like, oh, I can't believe I'm writing this check, man. But I was like, you know what? It's just like driving me to create more

Starting point is 00:26:44 and be more inspired and do more. And it was so much fun. Plus, it's the price of your journey. It's the journey, man. Yeah. You know what I mean? You could have moved probably out to like Brooklyn or wherever. Right.

Starting point is 00:26:53 No, I was in Manhattan, like Soho. Like it was amazing. It was amazing. It was magical. And the fifth thing we have in common is we both love ridiculousness. Oh, man. You've done an amazing job at this show. Like I watch it for like, you know, I watch it for hours every night.

Starting point is 00:27:08 I'm like, this is the funniest show on TV. Yeah, yeah. It's so funny. So congrats on creating a winning formula, which isn't something new. You know, people have been doing funniest home videos for years, right? Yeah, well, look, even when I conceptualized it,

Starting point is 00:27:23 it was like I read an article with vinnie de bona in the hollywood reporter about the 500 million dollar syndication business of america's funniest home shut up so you're like oh this makes sense but then what i did when i pitched it in the beginning is i took an episode of america's funniest home videos and just stripped out all the fat like and showed that like hey there's actually only about five minutes that's good in here and then i would go in and pitched it to all the networks with like an xbox controller and like you know pointing it out and talking through like basically just almost how i i do the show at this time and even at the time i sold it during robin big right because i knew that i wasn't going to do that any longer, right?

Starting point is 00:28:08 It was three seasons? Four seasons? Three, right? Which was brilliant, by the way. In the third season, I sold it direct to series, right? And at the time, it was called Money Shot because we were going to give away money like America's Funniest Home Videos. And because we were going to give away money like America's Funniest Home Videos. And then they were like, we want another reality show.

Starting point is 00:28:30 And then offered me all this money. Right. And they were like, season four of Robin Big or your own show. Right. And to go with Money Shot at the time. Right. So, but I got paid probably a a quarter on the money shot show right so i decided at the time like let's just do fantasy factory first you know what i mean and because it's like so much more money even though that was a dog fight uh and then by the time a lot

Starting point is 00:28:58 of production value right a lot of production for fantasy factory yeah well no it's just it it's it it wasn't wasn't that as balls the wall on that you know i knew i had to make something so much bigger than robin big and that's why i knew you know i went all i spent like 750 g's on that building and midway through shooting it they were like this show sucks like they didn't like the executives were like this thing sucks like i was getting attacked by a shark in the bahamas and the night before i was getting attacked like basically the top of the food chain and mtv was like this show is not going on the air we shot all these episodes they're like cut it down to six episodes no way and i was in my hotel room going through probably 200 cuts trying to figure out what's missing here

Starting point is 00:29:48 because what what had actually happened is we tried to the the team that i created the show with only knows how to make a buddy comedy so they tried to basically take this big building and take me and my cousin to be robin big but we're not Robin Big, right? And one of the first cuts, when it had my lawyer and my manager and all the different characters, I'm like, no, this is an office dynamic. But the night before I got attacked by a shark, I sent out an email of basically like we over-edited it. We went down to Robin Big. This is really like the office, but set in this extreme world. Right.

Starting point is 00:30:29 And, and it reeled everybody back in. And then we were able to recut everything to, to now have that office dynamic that then allowed it to go and explode. Right. But that's the depth before I got up in the morning and had to be like what am i doing do i really want to lose function of this arm right because the whole thing they're like you can do this but if you don't if you let go of it of your arm when it's on you it will shatter your

Starting point is 00:30:57 arm oh my gosh because it's gonna thrash so crazy and like and the worst part about it too is like as you go to dive like where you got to get attacked oh my gosh dude like you have to jump through like 50 sharks all up on the surface because they know someone's there like gonna feed them so you gotta jump through them and go down and then if you can imagine like like you're like this, you are, like, got a piece of tuna on your arm. I saw them put it out there. And it's like, and when that thing locked on, I just remember, like, good Lord. Like, I can't believe, like, that's a shark on me.

Starting point is 00:31:36 This is, like, real, you know. And I remember when it was over, I was swimming back up, and I just told myself, just stop and look at this world. Like you will never be here again. Like just look at – stop and never forget this moment and look down at a sunken ship and just sharks everywhere. And what was literally the dumbest idea I had ever thought of in my life at 10 in the morning was now like I got talk about a shark you know i mean it's like now it's like nobody's taking that away from me like this is like put you know it's like it was it was the beginning of like where i started chasing these crazy stunts really after uh going through that and what that gave me now it created this sort of desire to build a highlight reel that leads to flipping cars for Super Bowl commercials and jockeying horses, getting attacked by tigers and all the different things.

Starting point is 00:32:33 It led to this insanity. Kissing bears. Yeah, kissing bears. Yeah, like all of like this really incredible life moments that, again, no one can ever take away from me. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's funny. I had Travis Pastrana in here a couple weeks ago and he talked about you and talked about some of the adventures you guys had had and how you were always like the cool young guy, you know, just always can make people laugh and all these things.

Starting point is 00:33:01 He's done some crazy stuff, right? There's three people like him, right? Lairdy way and him yeah i believe they're they have a genetic malfunction like i'm a real dude i'm scared and this none of this makes sense i'm only doing this for story and like part of a business hustle yeah he literally just loves to do it you know what i mean and he doesn't have the fear gene like all of us have those three guys specifically they have this this thing that says first oh this is too dangerous they only think about making it they only think about making it and when they get hurt doing it it's like ah shit like didn't expect that like they literally are like travis specifically like

Starting point is 00:33:40 I didn't expect that. Oh, six surgeries now. Like, they literally are like, Travis specifically, like, he's like, what? Dang it. I don't want to get hurt. I'm hurting. Yeah, another surgery. Like, and, like, you know, and Laird, him, Danny Way is the same way where, and you can't trust them, you know? The same way when I told Laird, can I get, you know, I'd never surfed before.

Starting point is 00:34:00 Can I get towed into a big wave? He's like, easy. And I'm like. And you did it, actually. Right, like, easy. And I'm like – And you did it actually. Yeah, right. But I didn't trust – I just know him. They're tight. You just can't trust them because they think everybody is as gnarly as they are.

Starting point is 00:34:14 They think – and I've been through it with all of them. From almost dying on the wave with Laird to trying to backflip a motorcycle with Travis. Oh, my gosh. And whiskey throttling into a crane and trying to jump the mega ramp with Danny Way and like could not get myself to break through, you know, but look, Danny Way, they all have that missing element of being fearful of something and literally only think about doing it. And, but Danny Way will have surgery on his knee and only get local anesthetic so he can watch it and talk through like oh i kind of see that yeah let's let's kind of pull like that's how like

Starting point is 00:34:51 gnarly he is you know i mean like that's just like a despite doing so many insane stunts like i still look at myself they were all done with sort of a reason of content or for a major you know flipping that car for chevy was they were the title of my league. They were, it was the season premiere was a Superbowl commercial. It was just this multi-platform mega multi-million dollar deal that boiled down to like, okay, you got to really go flip a car now. But they'll do that like on a Tuesday afternoon. Right. Like to them, they're like, but they respect that.

Starting point is 00:35:24 You know what I mean? They're like, dang, that's a gnarly one you know what i mean like they props they rest they give they give me respect like i'm in their zone you're in the club like i know like that's just i'm just trying to make tv or content you know what i mean like i'm retiring you guys will do this forever right you know what i mean even like Even like I'll go work out with Laird. Have you done a Laird pull workout? I did a breathing workout with him and we did like other type of exercises. But I want to do the pull workout with him. It's insane I hear.

Starting point is 00:35:53 It's just – Have you done a few or just one? I've done a couple and – It's gnarly, right? What I love about him is like especially like getting in and out of the ice tubs in the middle of the workout, which is just the worst, right? But he's always like – he literally has so much confidence in me. He's like, hey, not a thing for you. Not a thing for you.

Starting point is 00:36:10 You know you've got the mind for this. And it's like just so that Laird isn't like – that I live up to Laird's expectation, I am like dying inside that ice thing but acting like I'm just like, so anyway, Laird, what do we do? No big thing. No big thing. But when I got – he really thought I died. He was so shook.

Starting point is 00:36:29 In the ocean or what? Yeah. When I got towed into the wave, I got held under by two waves. I had two life jackets on, and I literally – Still under with two life jackets. Yeah, and I finally was fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting. And I finally had to give up. Like, just give up. Like, I'm like, I'm going to die.

Starting point is 00:36:48 No way. I was giving up. And the moment I gave up, like, I popped out. And he just come flying in. And he's like, we're done. We're done. Like, he really thought I died. He was shook.

Starting point is 00:36:59 He was, like, really, really shook. He couldn't breathe or what? No. Because I was, like, I was spun so crazy. You didn't know which way I was down. Because I got caught in two of them, right? And I could never get out, you know? And it's an interesting way to experience fear, right? Because you're floating on your back in the ocean, right? And I'm like, man, just get me the up because I don't want to get bit by a shark, right i can think of is like sharks coming underneath because i just wanted to get up and then on most really dangerous shit you face it you don't yeah you go towards it versus like this one you're just kind of cruising and

Starting point is 00:37:36 it comes from behind oh so now you're just like you get towed in an angle where you're not looking at it right so when you get towed in yeah the wave is're not looking at it, right? So when you get towed in, yeah, the wave is completely – so you're like, oh, and then like a house falls on you, right? And then you are – now it's a fight for life, right? It's so nuts. So still the only time I've ever surfed. I never – the first and only time I've ever surfed. I saw a clip of you, a highlight clip of you getting on it though. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:38:00 Is that right? So you actually hit a wave? Yeah, yeah. It was great. This is after you almost died or before? Before. Okay. It was like, let's Yeah, yeah. It was great. Is this after you almost died or before? Before. Okay. It was like, let's get one more.

Starting point is 00:38:08 You know, it was like that type of thing. One more of a dud. Okay. That type of thing. So if you were to describe yourself or a bio that you would give yourself, who would you say that Rob Dyrdek is? Well, I have it very refined. You know what I mean? In the sense that it's a core trait you know what i mean where i

Starting point is 00:38:25 consider myself a do or dire you know what i mean like someone that um has the fortitude the worth work ethic and the grit to turn all their passions into reality you know by seeing it believing it planning it and doing it you know and and to me, in a self-discovery of like really what makes you tick, you know, and, and, and then I look at it as an even deeper level of I'm passionately compelled, right? I don't have contrived ambition. Like I'm not being driven by trying to prove something wrong or trying to do anything. I genuinely am passionately compelled to do all the things that

Starting point is 00:39:06 I do, right? I am obsessively curious, right? That's why I relentlessly learn, you know what I mean? And completely evolve and continue to shift into different levels of reality based off of the knowledge that you have and the ability to set goals and build plans only based off of the knowledge that you have and the ability to set goals and build plans only based off of what you believe in your belief is only based off your knowledge right it's just the an experience right um relentlessly consistent you know i mean i i you get me the same way parking attendant gets me the same way as as lorenzo fortita you know what i mean and and and billionaires and tv executives to skate kids, like, and you know what I do. If you around me, you know how hard I work. I've never not worked

Starting point is 00:39:50 hard. I don't, all of a sudden I don't go high and low and disappear, you know, profoundly grounded. You know what I mean? It's success or failure. There's a lesson and it's all humbling. Yeah. You know what I mean? At the end of the day, grateful based off of God, what an amazing life that you've even been allowed to live, right? I love that. And honestly brilliant. You know what I mean? There's things that I really know that I'm great at and I'm honest with myself on the things that I'm not, right? myself on the things that I'm not right and and I think that someone like me who's who thinks they can do everything you tend to like you tend to think you can do everything and get caught out there when you're uh you know Mr. Know-it-all about everything that you don't fully understand

Starting point is 00:40:40 because you decide what it is based off of your experience, right? And I think that's sort of a part of me that has evolved, you know, like energetically driven, you know what I mean? Like where you're inspired by energy. You know your energy is going to control all those around you and that ultimately we're all energy and how it all feels and feeds in and out is going to determine how everything around you ultimately works. You know what I mean? You're the source of all the outcomes around you. 100%, right?

Starting point is 00:41:12 100% responsible source. And even mastering how to master that energy is the fundamental core principle of happiness. Yes. You know what I mean? It's like you literally either wake up and you see the world half full and that means it doesn't matter what's going on you're handling it you're looking towards the future you're progressing all this stuff you see it half empty you're you could pick apart in every aspect of your life right so to me in this evolution um it's becoming how do you get up every day and make sure you're looking at it half full and the simple fundamental controlling your energy, right?

Starting point is 00:41:50 Because at the end of the day, that's all that you have. You can sleep for two hours and you're living in that energy. You could go 100 miles an hour. It doesn't matter. You could sleep for seven hours and be healthier because your diet is on on point every last aspect and you could just feel dead to the weight of the world could be on you when you're half empty yeah a lot of that stems from gratitude which talked about being grounded in gratitude right yeah yeah to a degree right it's like every tool even being gratitude does you no good when you're half empty you can be like oh

Starting point is 00:42:23 i feel like you can start picking everything apart and you can tell yourself the same way that you can put out a vision for whatever you want. But if you don't believe in the steps or understand what the steps are, you don't believe that vision.

Starting point is 00:42:38 So many people are over positive without having realistic positivity. Now, it doesn't mean you shouldn't dream big, but you better dream in sequence. To get to there, I'd have to go to here. And if I get to that, here's like, if you can't identify what levels you've got to reach to get to that, you're never going to truly believe it. you've got to reach to get to that, you're never going to truly believe it. And if you don't, if your subconscious doesn't actually believe it, you're not going to manifest even what you even set out of your goal that's too big to even ultimately achieve.

Starting point is 00:43:14 So how do you manage your energy with all the different things that are going on, the relationships you have? You got a baby coming on the way, you know, businesses, TV shows, executives, brands, you know, how do you manage your energy so that you're always half full? I live a completely systematic life. You know, it's, I think you know well, it's the habit side, right? And now imagine if your habit level goes even further, right? Where now you only pick projects and build projects where you your part of it is only where you find energy.

Starting point is 00:43:49 So now – It doesn't take your energy. Right. And then now connect that to having a complete life plan and total purpose that's scalable. Yeah. Right? So now every aspect of your life has purpose and meaning. So your faith in your big ideas is always there because you believe in your plan.

Starting point is 00:44:14 And you're not getting outside your comfort zone because you've built your entire system around making sure you stay there. It's almost impossible to drift out of it. Now, I have intangibles, like incredible love, right? I have the love of my life and the person that I was absolutely meant to live on this earth with forever, right? And create a family and build forever. And that's something that we all hope and dream for. But actually achieving it is the that forever plan with someone that you are fully aligned with in that purpose together, and now your entire universe is built around the both of you, it's something to be grateful for at an at an extremely fundamental level yeah you know what i mean because it's not many people i know could articulate it like that or actually live it and

Starting point is 00:45:33 understand what it actually feels like because it's it's especially relationships it's peace you know what i mean and it's you get up each day it don't matter how chaotic things are you look at it half full you just you just deal with it as it goes and you've built your world in a way that nothing there's the stakes aren't so high in anything that you're doing and at the end of the day your family and your core relationship that's at the center of it all is the most important, right? So your balance naturally occurs because you're not – a lot of really driven people have to fight to find balance, right? Versus building an entire balanced system so that you live in balance. You never have to search for it. You actually live in balance. You never have to search for it. You actually live in it.

Starting point is 00:46:28 And part of living in that balance is making sure that you live in the energy of everything and get up every day and look at it half full, right? Because you just look at you're happy, you know? And that's, it's a difficult thing to achieve. It took me three years. I would say meeting Tony Robbins was a huge part of it. When did you meet him? Two years ago, right? I had basically three years ago, I had just finally had enough of what I was doing.

Starting point is 00:46:51 Which was? Everything, right? And if you- A little bit of everything. If you choose, because when you literally can do anything and you choose to do it all, you end up standing for nothing. Yeah. Right. And none, I was always doing all these things thinking one of them was going to be the answer. And I finally stopped and said, no, let's decide what it's all for and what you actually want to do forever and begin to build that and transition into the rest of your life

Starting point is 00:47:24 and a plan that is scalable to who you are. So it's put you in what you love to do the most. And that gives you that same sort of creative freedom to have a ton of variety. So you can still do a ton of different things, but not be burdened by any of them, right? Is sort of ultimately what it is. And then what can you master? What do you want to be a master of, right? You have to decide what your mastery is so that you can spend the rest of your life getting better and better and better and better, right? And that was sort of my self-discovery along with the idea of what does money mean to you? And you do all these companies and do all this stuff and TV and all this stuff.

Starting point is 00:48:09 What are you – What is it all for? What is it all for, right? What is it all for now? To me, I love to create, right? Now, I love the lifestyle that money provides you, right? Because it gives you this immense amount of freedom and security, right? And the problem is, is if you don't build it in a way that it's built

Starting point is 00:48:34 to be secure, where you're risking all the time and doing all this stuff, and you don't have a plan for all of it holistically, sometimes you swing into this very burdensome where you over leverage yourself or got too risky. You know, it creates like, but because you're chasing a bigger thing, well, what's the bigger thing? Like, and I, and that's really what Money Master the Game did to me was like, just made me stop and build a plan for money for the rest of my life. Right. build a plan for money for the rest of my life, right? And ultimately, that is

Starting point is 00:49:07 to create a lifestyle that my money provides, right? And as that scales, my lifestyle scales, right? As opposed to getting a place of thinking that I'm going to get rich and a system that I've created. It doesn't matter if I make $100 million or $500 million or $5 billion. The system will never change. It's scalable with where I go, right? And for me, it's why I built a systematic entire venture system, right, that I call the Deer Deck Machine, which is basically my philosophy on how I will build businesses. So that's my passion, right? Building from scratch and investing in businesses?

Starting point is 00:49:55 Both. Builds and invests. I invest to learn. I build because it's my passion, right? And I build with do or dyers like me, right? And long-term, I want to master curating talent and ideas and do or dyers building their ideas and then selling them right i don't uh like running companies right i don't like operating businesses right like i love being in the creative side of it and it's only fun when it's in that hyper growth right it's so exciting and and the ultimate payoff is that exit and i want to build it with people that hyper growth, right? It's so exciting. And the ultimate payoff is that exit. And I want to build it with people that want to take and run their ideas forever. We're going to build these businesses to last forever. But I only want to be there in a three to five run of helping you build, codify, and just do that over and over for the rest of my life. And just get better and better at it, right? tactical revenue model that approaches disrupting alcohol distribution by

Starting point is 00:51:05 building a distribution by neighborhood strategy connected to marketing and storytelling to owning on and off premise in neighborhoods instead of cities right and what it allows you to do is go underneath this sort of super strict distribution world and use your brand's identity and what it stands for in a community to scale revenue that ultimately, if you break through at any level in the alcohol space, they buy them at 10 times revenue. Really? So it's not about creating a profitable business. You literally get to 10 million, you sell for a hundred. It's that clean, right? So it's like I invested in three to test three different tactical models, a college

Starting point is 00:51:53 distribution one for a boxed wine, a white flavored whiskey with an elite, elite team of guys that have built and sold businesses at a really premium valuation, early startup, 22 million posts, like, and then a media-based group that are creating a ton of content. But I've all shared them. This is a tactical model on how to disrupt alcohol distribution with this neighborhood revenue matrix. And let's see what happens. So now I get to test and learn once once i refine and see that it works i'm gonna start building right i'm gonna start building because that's

Starting point is 00:52:30 what i actually love to do is like like oh like come up with the idea come up with the name ah the name all the websites available what like think about that you know like in in add to it like that's my passion so if i get to do that in my venture side, right, and that's what I love to do, I'm only going to get better and better at it forever, right? And then for me, I put all my money in private placement real estate, multifamily homes, right? Here or in Ohio or all over the place? But only with high-level expert operators because you get a tax-free dividend, right? And then they roll them. They sell the units every five to ten years, and you roll that into another one, 1031 exchanges, so you never pay taxes on that either, right?

Starting point is 00:53:20 Wow. So now that creates sort of your – sort of like what I call the financial freedom fund with that dividend. If you keep your expenses inside that dividend, your lifestyle is never at risk. And so as you continue to play in your venture world – You're risky and other things. You have – like live in your venture world. Every time one pops, then you load it back into your freedom fund. And the beauty of that system is it snowballs over time.

Starting point is 00:53:49 And that's the cleanliness of how I look at it. You want to live within the means of your freedom fund, have fun and your passion and your mastery inside your business, and then my personal home. passion and your mastery inside your business uh and then my personal home you know i'm going real extra big on like the personal home because you know conceptually i want to have the center of gravity for my family i want to have five kids you know and and i want uh the home that they grow up in to be where they come back to for the rest of their lives like i want to tether them. It's an Ohio feeling, man. You go back home. And I just want that as part of the great stability of just knowing like this is where you truly come from, you know, and that's never going to change. You know what I mean? And that holistically now is connected everything. The entire plan of every decision I make connects back to that entire system.

Starting point is 00:54:50 You know what I mean? And even doing a – I wrote and I'm doing a business show for NBC, right? And it's – everybody is like, what's your next TV? All the networks, everybody is all on me. And I did not want to do anything until I figured out my entire system. So it makes sense. Right. And it adds to my mastery. So the show is about a built around a fund that is curating ideas and investing in having a competition for three businesses where one wins the capital.

Starting point is 00:55:24 So it helps your business, your system. It all feeds into it. And having a competition for three businesses where one wins the capital, right? So it helps your business, your system. It all feeds into it. And the beauty of it is I can look at so much deal flow as sort of my own venture business, but I've been open to this entirely new world because I'm looking at so much business now because I'm casting for a television show, right? So it all again ties back to this entire holistic picture that at the center is just being happy. You know what I'm saying? That's it.

Starting point is 00:56:00 You know what I mean? That's it. Be happy. You know what I mean? Yeah, of course. It is, man. And then how do you be happy? Just live in the energy.

Starting point is 00:56:05 What do you get energy from? I actually get energy from all that shit. I get energy from the stable side of it. I get energy from building this amazing house and having this amazing family. I get energy from the entrepreneurs I work with and my venture business, right? It's like – It's all of it it's it literally now is is where this entire swelling universe of at the center is just literally just a happy day you know what i mean and that's very difficult to discover within

Starting point is 00:56:36 yourself especially when the train's going a thousand miles an hour and you're doing a million things i just was like no you have, you got to do it now. You know what I mean? Like you got to do it now. And you've, you've ran 40 years of just all over the place. You know, it doesn't work. It's like, stop and think about it all. And then what does it all look like in the beauty? And I would, I would argue that even when that self discovery is right around the time I met my wife, this is meeting T-Rod. This is like, you know, all sort of the aspects. I, you know, I, I, uh, hired this really brilliant strategist, uh, that, uh, came from the agency world that helped me bring all this out of my,

Starting point is 00:57:18 my mind and codify it, uh, from a business side, as I was doing all the self-discovery of trying to see how it all adds up, you know, and, you know, cause even, you know, I, I, you know, try to explain to Tony, like, you know, you have no idea how much meeting you changed like my life, but we haven't, I've never gone to any of the big stuff. I've never like, you know, it's just me and him, you know? And like, he just doesn't like, I just feel like he doesn't understand the actual impact and what I actually did with how much it shifted me into this mentality. Because even the guy who led me to the private placement strategy is AJ Gupta who wrote the book with him, right? And he was like – right as I was prepared to start like doing – meeting financial advisors, he had emailed me. And I was like, oh, man, I was prepared to start like doing, uh, meeting financial advisors, he had emailed me and I was like, ah, man, I was actually going, he just immediately put me on with AJ. And then AJ comes

Starting point is 00:58:09 to my office like the next day. And then it's like, I'm trying to like, I'm literally laying out this whole plan. I'm missing this element. And you know, cause there's a lot of different theories and what it is. And then he's like, well, if that's your true theory, then, and that this is the balance of your portfolio of this is your risk and venture then then it needs to be real estate and this is how it needs to look like he really like like like put all that he was the final piece to put in even when i try to explain that to tony too he's still like you know because he's he's like serve over everything you know what i mean like it's hard to like you know even he sent me an early copy of of i am

Starting point is 00:58:46 your guru and i'm like man i'm like i just wish there was so much more like who you really are and the beside the scenes of you is so interesting it's like but i wish there was more of you he doesn't want to make it about him it's about the students yeah i watched it with him the day before it released and it was amazing yeah a little uhAA, actually, there was a small screen. Oh, you did? Okay, I went to – there was two here, right? There was the CAA one and the one down on Wilshire, right? Uh-huh.

Starting point is 00:59:13 You went to that one? Yeah. Look, this is what happened at that one. He was sitting right behind me. It was so funny to watch him, like watch himself. Look, after that one, there was a Q&A with the director. An hour and a half workshop, dude. Did he give you the workshop?

Starting point is 00:59:24 With the music and the visualization. Oh, so great. It was amazing, man. He's amazing. So much value. Look, this is what you need to learn from him. I'm not trying to mentor you here. I'll take it.

Starting point is 00:59:41 Think of his mastery. Think of how tight his message is so tight right it is like and it's like like to me that his principles should be taught in elementary school because it would help you begin to build a foundation of who you are as an individual as you decide to to journey into your life you know and and that is from doing it for so long and so much that it is – obviously, he continues to optimize it. But damn it, that shit is like – it is a philosophy that is so tight and it's deeper than people even realize. Because you might drift off and add some things to it and realize, ah, it's not. It is the core epicenter for evolving yourself continually and making the best version of yourself.

Starting point is 01:00:32 You know what I mean? Even I was on a tough, you need to be curriculum, man. You need to, you want to influence, really influence the world. Such with kids. Yeah. Influence, like really influence the world. Such with kids. Yeah, like make a movement to add this as part of being taught in schools on how to empower yourself and build your own self-confidence and find your mastery and purpose and understand who you are. Like this should start in school.

Starting point is 01:01:01 This shouldn't be for the few that are driven enough to figure it out. I hear you, man. Preaching the choir to me. Yeah, maybe you should start a school curriculum. Yeah, school of greatness. Shit, what am I saying? I'm curious. First off, I want to respect your time because I feel like we're a little over. Can I ask a few more questions?

Starting point is 01:01:17 I feel like it was 10 minutes. I just get to talking, man. I just want to make sure I respect your time because I have a few more questions. Damn, it's 108? I have like 20 more questions, but I wonder if i could ask a few more yeah yeah if you got a bounce we can yeah okay cool what are the non-negotiable habits every single day that you must do in order to have an optimal life that day look i'm it's very because i think you know that athletes don't more than anybody because you understand the unfair advantage i think and when you get in you understand people that have never been an athlete will be like oh i've been eating well and i don't feel any different right it's like turning things

Starting point is 01:01:56 to habit matters right so this is just what i do i look at i look at life in three levels, right? I look at health, life, and work, right? So every morning I get up, I weigh myself, full body composition. You know what I mean? I brush my teeth. I immediately have an oatmeal and a water and then have a coffee. I track how many hours I slept. I rate at the beginning of the morning how motivated I am between 1 and 10. If I'm below 5, it's half full.

Starting point is 01:02:35 If I'm above 5, it's half empty. If I'm above 5, it's half full. Then I track everything I eat. All day. Yeah. And when I eat, but I have a food system, so I don't have to think about it, like, during the week. So the meals just show up at the time, so I don't have to think about it.

Starting point is 01:02:53 Because, again, you take your – Too much energy to be creative with the food. Don't want to. And then you have the freedom to trail off. The discipline is tracking it. So you understand where you're at. And then I track how, um, much I worked that day and how much I spent on health. Right.

Starting point is 01:03:13 So a trainer comes to my house every day at eight, uh, and I either do body work or mobility or, uh, whatever it may be since I've been re-engineering my total structure. or whatever it may be since I've been re-engineering my total structure. And then I try to do a stretch and elliptical at some point during the day in some form. And now in my new office, there's like a holistic center in there. So I've been going down there and doing different things. So I'm murdering it when I put in two hours a day on the body, right? So I track how much I work, how much I'm just living life, how much I slept, and how much time I spent on my health, right? And then at the end of every day, I'd give it a life, a zero to 10, health a zero to 10, and work a zero to 10, right?

Starting point is 01:04:06 That's cool. So I have this incredible data, you know what I mean, of like looking at like, and it's just so interesting. What do you track it? Is it on like software? Yeah, it's so sick. I have it all on Google Docs. No, so I put it all on the Google calendar.

Starting point is 01:04:21 I got to get this system, man. calendar i gotta get this system man uh put it all on google calendar and then um and then then my assistant then pumps me out like in google docs like my monthly numbers right so you see look as an athlete yeah you'll appreciate like understanding every aspect of your body composition but as an athlete you know when you're losing it, right, and you're fading and you stop tracking for a couple days and now you watch. It's that you might stop weighing yourself for a little bit and now you're afraid to get on it. Now it's like two weeks goes by and you get on and bam, there's like seven extra. You know what I mean? It's that. Yeah. The purpose of the and bam, there's like seven extra. You know what I mean? It's like, it's that.

Starting point is 01:05:05 Yeah. The purpose of the system. Now, it's not foolproof. Like, life still hits you. You know what I mean? I'm over here preaching. Traveling your dance. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:05:13 You know it because you understand it, right? Travel all the time, yeah. It's the, it's, you know what is absolutely perfect for you. It's so hard to maintain. Very hard. Right? perfect for you it's so hard to maintain it very hard right so it's the the system for me is just what like by turning gamifying it yes i get excited about the numbers and like oh i'm you know i kept it at 1500 calories and i was at like 26 and like i get i get into the gamification of it i love

Starting point is 01:05:41 looking at the data yeah um that that's what motivates me to stay inside the structure because I ultimately know it's the best version of what I'm going to do. And I believe even when you're that healthy, there's about three layers deeper that you're able to accomplish because your mind is thinking about everything all the time and then you're solving problems in between other tasks because you're so much more clear, right? that is for you it's just not filling yourself with a ton of garbage you know what i mean and there's layers that you begin to unlock that you you don't realize because you might just equate it to like oh i feel great you know or if you know like and then you could get hit by something in life and all that healthy diet and everything could literally make crush you because like what just happened in life uh was such a burden.

Starting point is 01:06:46 It doesn't matter how healthy you are. You're not going to live through that. You know what I mean? You're not going to find energy through that sort of burden. But being an athlete and understanding your body at its good, bad, and really bad, right? Right, yeah. And really great. And you know how hard really great is to sustain.

Starting point is 01:07:05 So hard. It's the how do you how do you just be good? You know, I'm not trying to be really great because it's just unsustainable. You know what I mean? It's it's good is just part of consistently. Yeah. It's just part of living in that. And that's sort of like the structure to how I have it. And then I just, you know, there's a company out here called MyFitFoods. I don't know if you're-

Starting point is 01:07:31 I love MyFitFoods. Right down on the street from me. Right. So I have, you know, my team just manage MyFitFoods. Cauliflower mash they have. Yeah. And it's just, you know, you get to manage your calories clean and like it's fulfilling. get to manage your calories clean and like you're it's fulfilling and and i you know even recently shifted from the every two hours uh to the tim ferris every four hours right and especially if

Starting point is 01:07:52 you're not doing a ton of physical activity because i'm only doing rehab and trying to like re-engineer my structure that you know you you can stay lean that way and and and still have the energy without uh overdoing it and of course i did all the blood tests and and like you know you know and what i found you might find this interesting you ever do blood tests to kind of see what you're looking to any of that what i found really interesting is all these uh allergies and all these different things when i just went to this clean diet and and sustained it for a year i went and got all my tests back. I didn't do anything specifically where they'll be like, take this vitamin for 16 hours.

Starting point is 01:08:30 All I did was just eat, clean, and then retest. And my gluten tolerance was like almost nothing. Before it was like, you're so allergic to gluten. It's like all these different things. And it really leveled everything out by just – Eating what we're supposed to eat. Yeah, and trying to be on like 80-20 where you you know when you lose it you lose it a little bit but look life gets you you know what i mean no matter even with this great purpose and bragging about how this little guy in

Starting point is 01:08:56 the center all happy you still hard to manage expectations. It is. Expectations is that great burden of our life because it's this hopefulness, like a new opportunity, big thing. Whatever it may be, there's so much energy associated with expectation and the hope behind whatever that may be and getting a couple of those in a row getting slapped back at you can can drain the strongest most driven purposeful person you know what i mean and and it's just a part of life no matter how much you've calibrated who you are as a person and built your life, you're still going to get like punched in the gut, you know, every couple of months. Of course. What's missing in your life right now?

Starting point is 01:09:50 Man, I don't look, I'm, uh, it's not very interesting. Uh, but to me, it's the family and home growing, you know what I mean? Like sons do here any day, uh, really excited about it, but you know, I'm want to build the house, you know what i mean like suns do here any day crazy man uh really excited about it but you know i'm want to build the house you know what i mean i've just been going through the process it's going to take so many years to do it i want to i want to build just this you know place that that that i love and live forever so it's like by the time that's done and and i've sort of transitioned out of dancing on a laptop and being the skate guy and sort of evolved into like this sort of do or die or entrepreneur, retired adventurer and athlete. Like when I can evolve into that space fully and have built the home that I'm going to live in forever. And now had the become a dad for a couple of years.

Starting point is 01:10:47 Like I'm still like, I still long for, uh, beginning to, to get into that forever of my life because I just am at the beginning of it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. Final couple of questions. I promise. Um, this is called the three truths, three truths.

Starting point is 01:11:04 So you've lived in your home forever. You've been there for a long time. Yeah. And it's the last day for you. Yeah. And everything you've ever created, the videos, the books, the products, it's all been erased. Yeah. And everyone's there.

Starting point is 01:11:18 You're happy. You've done everything you want to do. And they say, we don't have anything to remember you by except for memories. But here's a piece of paper and a pen. And we want you to write down your three truths. Three things that you know to be true about everything you've experienced in your incredible life. Bit by sharks, bears, all the stuff you do. What are the three things you know to be true about life that you'd pass on to us?

Starting point is 01:11:39 I think number one is that everything you seek to achieve, build a believable plan. You know what I mean? It is whether you're – you literally just want to like become a paper person. Build a plan on how it is and what it's going to be. Like whatever you want to do, like build a plan you believe in because you'll have the faith through the tough times to actually do it because you actually know you can do it. Number two, I think it would ultimately be to learn to be passionately compelled in the sense of learn to find what drives you based off of you wouldn't have it any other way. Because ultimately, if you're using something for fuel, it's inevitably going to run out.

Starting point is 01:12:31 But if it's an internal engine that is literally, you don't know any other way to do it because this is why you do what you do is because you're compelled by your passion. That will fuel you forever. Number three. Number three is simple. Love people and have fun. At the end of the day, you still get up every day and interact with people and their energies. And if you don't really learn how to find beauty in every single person and calibrate to an exchange of what you're about, you're just not going to be a happy person. If you can't find joy and fun in literally pretty much anything that you do, especially

Starting point is 01:13:21 when it comes to interacting with people, you will never be happy. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Those are great truths, man. Those are great truths. I don't know if those are exact truths.

Starting point is 01:13:30 They were pretty long. They're good. I like them. I like them. Before I ask the final question, how can we as a community, a School of Greatness community, support you? What can we do? What can we promote?

Starting point is 01:13:42 Make sure everyone watches Ridiculousness. But what can we really do to serve you? What means the most to you right now? Oh, no. I don't need any of you. I mean, I'm just, you know, look. I would just hope that I think people that find you are just seeking knowledge and looking to elevate themselves. You know, I don't do too many things.

Starting point is 01:14:02 You know what I mean? I appreciate you coming on. And I just knew philosophically you would enjoy. I love this. I want to go for five more hours. I can't get enough of this stuff. I knew that you would philosophically enjoy the evolution of who I am and my way of thinking. Yeah, of course.

Starting point is 01:14:20 And to me, I would just hope that long term, I'm not a teacher. You know what I mean? I love having conversations and talking about why I do what I do. One day, I will say this is how I lived my life and why, you know, as just not for everyone, but this is why I did it. Not for everyone, but this is why I did it. But I'll never be someone that will be speaking and writing books and doing all this type of stuff. You know what I mean? But it's ultimately I'm not a teacher.

Starting point is 01:14:59 That's along the self-discovery because you would think someone that thinks like this would be like, damn, this is a teacher. I don't look at myself as a teacher either. I look at myself as a student that shares what I'm learning. Yeah, but your passion is sharing and inspiring and teaching others. You're taking this knowledge, repackaging it, and giving it to them to help them. And I just think that ultimately, in that self-discovery, I just knew it was never something that I – You're doing it in your own way. You're entertaining, teaching through entertaining. And I would rather like, like doing this, I don't mind because it's a conversation, you know? And, and, and I think it's the reality of, uh, when someone like you has a conversation with me, it's just another,

Starting point is 01:15:38 uh, hopefully to the, to the listeners that are on your podcast to be inspired, that there's just some, some truths in there that they can just apply. Because it's the same way that you read Think and Grow Rich when you're 20. You barely understand it. You read it at 25, you get a little bit more out of it. You read it at 30, it's like, oh, wow. You read that shit at 40 and you're like, god damn it. Like, this is the most powerful lessons ever.

Starting point is 01:16:10 Like, you can literally control reality if you master this book, right? And you're only – We're both in the documentary, by the way. Think the documentary. Oh, you are? I'm in it as well. Yeah, I saw it here in the also. I'm excited about that.

Starting point is 01:16:24 Yeah. And look, because it's truth, man. It is, man. And it's the sketchy ones of the sexual mutation and sort of what happens when you can control reality. It's the stuff that's hard for a young man to fully understand. You really get it at 40, you know what I mean? And, and it's just the idea of, um, every single thing, you know, to this day, you know, what I listened to today working out is, uh, the richest man in Babylon, you know what I mean? It's like, it's, I listened to your audio book and watched a bunch of your stuff just getting an understanding of and wanting to ultimately hear your philosophy, which has a ton of think and grow rich and a ton of that sort of – to me, it's the athletic mind.

Starting point is 01:17:22 Yes. Like applying that sort of the same thing from from the athlete's mind you know what i mean which is a i can relate to because i actually i know what the effects are you know not unless you're really in it it's hard to understand what discipline can do to you physically and what how you grow, you know? Yeah. That was a really long way of saying, I don't have anything to promote. Okay. Well, robdeardack.com is your site.

Starting point is 01:17:51 It's a beautiful site. And you were sharing your 10 principles, but you got to like five or six. Yeah. So I want to make sure everyone goes and reads your 10 principles. Cause when I read them, I was like, this is really profound to have your own kind of mission statement, you know, declaration of what you stand for. And I think everyone should follow that process for themselves. So go check out robderedek.com and see those principles at the bottom.

Starting point is 01:18:13 Also, you have a foundation, right? Yeah. Haven't launched it yet. You haven't launched it yet? We never even got into that. I saw the video trailer for it. It was like, you know. To give you the concept is I'm a do or dire i want to build

Starting point is 01:18:26 companies with do or dire entrepreneurs right and i want to build 50 to 100 businesses that i sell over the rest of my life and from a philanthropy side i don't want to help entrepreneurs i want to help people live these insane moments like i got to live, you know, and, and rather than build a foundation around any like entrepreneurialism or a cause or something, I want to build it around achieving life moments. So if you can prove to me, you've planned out every single aspect, you know, I don't, you figured out a way to put a rocket on a, on a, on a motorcycle and you've got an idea to jump it, you know, 500 feet and parachute out and it's going to cost you 2000 for the bike and 6000 for the ramp and you need this much space. It's going to cost you 75,000 to be like, you laid it all. You planned it beginning to end to your achievement.

Starting point is 01:19:19 I'm going to give you the money. Right. Because I want to live vicariously through the do or die orar like me who's got a crazy thing that they want to do. But no one would ever provide a resource for that. And if I look back on my life when everything's been erased and all I've got to do is tell stories, it's going to be about those hundred individuals that I built and sold businesses with and how excited I was about their ideas and the thousand or so dreams that I made come true for those people who are just like me that cut from that spirit that created some amazing idea that I helped bring alive. Right. And you have these two things and what, what do they all connect back to?

Starting point is 01:20:02 They're all just like me, just do or die. Same mentality in that sort of realm. That's cool. And I can do that forever. Yeah. So when are you going to launch that? Probably in like a year or so. Okay. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 01:20:15 Well, I'm going to write a check for $1,000 for one of the first people that you want to support. That's cool. I appreciate that. Of course, man, because I believe in everything that you've done, and I appreciate your energy and the impact you're making in the world. So I'll get you to check today. Well, let's wait appreciate that. Of course, man, because I believe in everything that you've done, and I appreciate your energy and the impact you're making in the world. So I'll get you to check today. Well, let's wait on that. I'll get it to you right now.

Starting point is 01:20:31 Okay, final question. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Rob, for your incredible spirit, your incredible heart, and your passion, man. You've got such a will to live a happy, joyful life. And you're like a symbol to me. You're like a symbol of someone who is, who can come up with any idea and make it happen. And that symbol for me is such an inspiration because so many people look up to you and say, hey, if this guy, the small kid from Ohio, who's a skateboarder can create anything he wants and have fun doing it. And it doesn't look stressful. Like you're exactly the way you are on TV. You're like the way you are on TV.

Starting point is 01:21:07 You're just a good old happy dude. Just a fucking happy dude. Good old happy dude. Just a happy dude trying to be a dad. That's it, man. But you're a symbol of a lot of inspiration for people because of the way you're being every single day and how you show up in the world. So I want to acknowledge you for your gifts,

Starting point is 01:21:20 for your ability to be creative and also have systems for yourself because a lot of creative people don't have that. They're all over the map. And I acknowledge you for taking your life and relationship to the next level and becoming a dad and having this vision that's a beautiful, incredible thing, man. So I acknowledge you for all the gifts in the world that you bring. And my final question is what's your definition of greatness? And my final question is, what's your definition of greatness? You know, to me, because I think, you know, we tend to look at greatness from a performance perspective.

Starting point is 01:21:55 You know what I mean? And I think that's fair. Right? And I think it's owed to Tony Robbins to be that. Greatness is when, like, someone's true personal mastery inspires the masses. You know what I mean? Like when, when whatever it is, when your personal mastery is at such a level that it inspires a mass amount of people, you know, and when you, you tie that to the Jordans and different athletes, when the Tiger Woods and great thinkers and different things, when you're – what you became so masterful at personally became this great source of inspiration.

Starting point is 01:22:35 You know what I mean? And that's what leads to greatness. Super difficult, man. Super difficult. Rob Dyrdek, thanks so much for coming on, man. Appreciate it. Appreciate it, man. Love the apartment.

Starting point is 01:22:45 Thanks. There you have it, my friend. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I love connecting with Rob. Every time I sit down with him, I learn something new from him. And his example of constantly pushing the boundaries, constantly taking risks, putting himself out there and doing what he does best. He's really learned about

Starting point is 01:23:08 what his unique superpower is and he goes all in on that thing. It's what I love about him. He also brings this positive attitude and this positive energy to every situation in his life. And he's such a great example of a role model

Starting point is 01:23:22 that anyone could be following and learning from on a daily basis. So make sure to check him out, follow him on social media, watch his show Ridiculousness and everything else that he has available on his site. Again, make sure to share this with a friend. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it. lewishouse.com slash 901. If this is your first time here, then let me know by subscribing over on Apple Podcasts. Just click the subscription button on your Apple Podcast player. Subscribe over on Spotify or anywhere you like to listen to podcasts. And

Starting point is 01:23:56 leave us a review. We'd love to hear from you. We've got over 6,000 five-star reviews over on Apple Podcasts. So go leave us a review. Let us know what you enjoyed about this, how we can improve it, and any suggestions you have for the future. Also, a big thank you to our sponsors today, Hemp Fusion. And you can go to hempfusion.com right now and use the promo code GREATNESS for 20% off your first order and free shipping at hempfusion.com. Again, that's promo code greatness over at hempfusion.com for 20% off your first order plus free shipping. And also thanks to our sponsor, Zoom. Now, Zoom didn't invent video conferencing.

Starting point is 01:24:36 They just made it a whole lot better. We use it for pretty much everything all day. Check it out right now. Go to Zoom. It's used by millions to connect around the world. So why wait any longer? Visit Zoom online and set up your free account today and meet happy with Zoom. Again, I love this quote by Michael Jordan. Some people want it to happen. Some people wish it would happen. Others make it happen. Whatever your dream is, I want you to go out there and make it happen today.

Starting point is 01:25:06 Just take one small action today that's going to move you closer to your dream. Obviously, the bigger steps you take and the more consistent action you make, it's going to get you even closer, faster. That's up to you. But I'm asking you to take one step today. Whatever that fear is you have, that uncertainty you have, that discomfort you have, lean into it and move you closer toward your dreams. You deserve it and you are worth it. I hope you know that. I love you very much and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music

The School of Greatness - 901 Rob Dyrdek: From Small Town Skateboarder to Media Mogul Empire

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.