How Millionaire Entrepreneur Jesse Itzler Balances Business, Family, and Adventure

Jesse Itzler 0:00 I was talking to my friend, Rich, who worked for a hedge fund on Wall Street, and he was, like, 23 years old or something. And I'm like, "Rich, how's everything going?" He's like, "Oh, it's great. Just got my, my holiday bonus." I'm like, "Oh, what was it?" He goes, "$3 million."

Codie Sanchez 0:12 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 0:14 D- and then I was thinking to myself, I love Rich, but Rich couldn't tell me where the ocean is right now-

Codie Sanchez 0:19 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 0:19 ... and we're in it. It, it made me realize, like, if [censored] Rich can make $3 million, I can make $3 million. If so-and-so can run t- a marathon, I can run a marathon. If that guy can run 100 miles, why can't I run 100 miles?

Codie Sanchez 0:34 Welcome back to the Big Deal podcast. I'm Codie Sanchez, and this is for those of you who don't want to just be rich, but free, and are willing to do what it takes to get there. Okay, this week we've got Jesse Itzler. This man is an absolute legend. He is married to, famously, Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, and now Sneaks, her new company. He started Zico, uh, Coconut Water company, which sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. He started Marquis Jet, which sold for billions of dollars to NetJet. He started more companies than he can remember that are multi-million dollar companies, and a few others that are eight figure a year companies. The weirdest part, though, is he's so humble, and he lives his life by this code that I find fascinating. The code is essentially this: how can we create a life so good that we look back on it, and every single year we think that I lived it with adventure? So I hope you guys enjoy this conversation as much as I do. He's also kinda hysterical, and a beautiful storyteller. But before we get into the interview, I wanna share a quick business tip that I've been thinking about a lot lately. It's eliminate, automate, delegate. Famously Tim Ferriss, but if you assess the tasks in that order, your business runs 10X more smoothly. I learned it from him, and I'm still doing it today. I'm always looking for tools to help eliminate tasks, automate them, and then make the delegating them easier. So one of those tools is Riverside, the sponsor of today's podcast episode. Not only can it record 4K videos and audio remotely to ensure your podcast quality is top-notch, but it also drastically improved my team's editing speed with the text-based editor. So it basically transcribes your footage, removes silences in one click, and creates short clips just by selecting the text. Even better, if you make a flub, which I never do, obviously, then you can delete the sentence in the transcript, and it will delete it from your video instantly. Riverside has an in-platform editor where you can upload your own content, too, so it's not just footage recorded on Riverside that gets the special treatment. So how do people find new podcasts? Often from seeing clips online. Riverside understands this, and that's why I love their AI magic clips, which analyze moments in your podcast that have the most potential to get traction online. So this saves hours of listening to your podcast for the 50th time to find the perfect clip. Riverside got you covered. So don't waste your time doing what Riverside can do for you. I got you guys a deal. If you wanna try it out for yourself, get the Riverside link in the description and use code CODIE for an inclusive discount. If I'm not wrong, you have run a marathon

Codie Sanchez 2:58 in a coconut inflatable sack outfit.

Jesse Itzler 3:02 Yes.

Codie Sanchez 3:02 You were a rapper, uh, sang jingles, and, uh, also seem to have a penchant for, like, running up to famous people, getting them to do certain things. And I was just wondering, do you not care what other people think?

Jesse Itzler 3:14 You would be doing all the same stuff before, if the internet wasn't here. I didn't, I didn't have a choice. Like, when I was, you know, making my way up in the business world, you, we had to do anything we could to get, like, attention without clicks. So it was just the marketing and the way we went about everything was totally different. So, like, you know, you mentioned running

Jesse Itzler 3:34 a marathon in a coconut... I was in a coconut package, like, a bottle of our package, and I had six friends. We were a six-pack. And, um, Gatorade had s- paid, like, a bazillion dollars to be the title sponsor of the New York Marathon, and our company was doing, like, a million doll- like, $2 million in sales. Like, it was nothing in beverage. And we're like, "We gotta, you know..." We ambushed the New York Marathon, basically. We ran as... But you had to do those things back then to, to stand out, so yes.

Codie Sanchez 4:04 But d- are you ever freaked out when you do things like that?

Jesse Itzler 4:08 No.

Codie Sanchez 4:08 Or do you just go, "Fuck it, I'm here"?

Jesse Itzler 4:09 Yeah. I mean, I think if you wanna be an entrep- part of being an entrepreneur is you have to get over the fear of being embarrassed. You know? It's, like, the best gift you can give yourself in anything-

Codie Sanchez 4:21 Mm

Jesse Itzler 4:21 ... entrepreneur or not. Once you get over the fear of being embar- embarrassed, it's so liberating, and the only way to do that is to put yourself in situations that are embarrassing.

Codie Sanchez 4:31 What was, like, the first one that you did that was like... Do you remember, like, back in the day, where you're like, "Oof"?

Jesse Itzler 4:36 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 4:36 What was it?

Jesse Itzler 4:37 I was,

Jesse Itzler 4:38 um, I was 15 years old. I g- so I grew up in New York in the '80s, when, like, I don't know, like, when break dancing and hip hop was just coming on the scene. I was in New York. It was the heartbeat of everything. And I know I don't look like it, but I got into break dancing, and I was like, I said to my friend, who was, like, my partner in this, Myron, I'm like, "Man, let's go to Washington, DC. There's no way the kids in DC are as good as us. Like, we're from New York." You know? [laughs] So I convinced my sister, who just got her driver's license, to drive us up, down to Washington DC from New York City, and we sa- had this boombox. And uh, the whole ride down I was flipping out. I'm like, "We're gonna get out of our car and set up a boombox in a parking lot somewhere in Georgetown." Like, I was just nervous, you know? And what if we're not good? What if kids are better than us? What if, like, no one shows up? And all these thoughts that we all have about, like, self, centered around self-doubt. So anyways, we get out there. We put the boombox down. He starts doing his thing, I start doing my thing, a crowd forms around us, and, um, we take off our hat, we're collecting money. It's, like, working. And at the end of three hours we had, like, 80 bucks, and I paid my sister for the gas, and we split, like... You know, I think we split 80 bucks. Like, $40 to Myron, $40 in singles to me. I, like, stuffed my pocket. And I ran over to my, counted all the money, then I, like, put it, I counted all the money again, and then I gave him a bear hug, and I'm like, "Myron, we're fucking rich."

Codie Sanchez 6:07 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 6:09 But it was the first time in my life that I was like, if I could get over that fear and get rewarded-

Codie Sanchez 6:15 Mm

Jesse Itzler 6:15 ... then, like, whoa. The, you know, like, I just got paid. Even though I was really scared. And it doesn't sound like a meaningful lesson, but it was for me at 14-

Codie Sanchez 6:25 Mm

Jesse Itzler 6:25 ... 'cause I was like, "All right, butterflies are okay."

Codie Sanchez 6:28 That's such a... Did it ever not work

Codie Sanchez 6:30 out for you to do something really scary?

Jesse Itzler 6:31 A million times. I've been booed off stages. I mean, I had... Codie, I, I had, I had a record out, like, you know, right after college I signed to a record label called Delicious Vinyl, and there was a magazine called Rap Pages, which was like a big hip hop magazine in the early '90s. I get off a plane and I look to the, to the left of me and there's a magazine rack in the airport, and I'm like, "I'm on the cover of Rap Pages." So I flipped out. I'm like, "How can no one tell me that?" Like, they didn't even call me and tell me? So I bought like the 13 magazines. I'm going to send it to everyone. I'm on the fucking cover of Rap Pages. And as I'm going to check out, I'm like, you know, I wanna read the article, so I go to open it up, and it says, "Are white rappers ruining hip hop?"

Codie Sanchez 7:19 Oh, no. [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 7:19 And I was on the... I was the cover child of that.

Codie Sanchez 7:22 No. [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 7:22 So I mean, like, I, I've had egg on my fa- you know. And e- it was just... So I've had a lot-

Codie Sanchez 7:28 Did you still buy them?

Jesse Itzler 7:29 What's that?

Codie Sanchez 7:29 Did you still buy the magazine?

Jesse Itzler 7:30 No. Hell no.

Codie Sanchez 7:31 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 7:32 I was so mad at the writer. I was embarrassed.

Codie Sanchez 7:35 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 7:35 I thought everyone in the world was looking at me like, "That's the kid that's ruining hip hop. That's the kid."

Codie Sanchez 7:41 Ugh.

Jesse Itzler 7:42 But no one cared.

Codie Sanchez 7:43 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 7:44 I, you know, I did a show... I had a song that I did for the Denver Broncos when I was writing sports songs, which is something that I did, and they won the Super Bowl so I performed it at the Super Bowl.

Codie Sanchez 7:54 Wow.

Jesse Itzler 7:54 There were 675,000 people there, and I forgot the words.

Codie Sanchez 7:59 Oh, no.

Jesse Itzler 8:00 So I mean, but that's part of... You know, look, if you wanna have an exceptional life, you gotta put yourself in exceptional situations.

Codie Sanchez 8:09 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 8:10 And it doesn't always work out, you know? But you have to put yourself in those situations. Um-

Codie Sanchez 8:16 You do that a lot.

Jesse Itzler 8:17 A lot. Still do

Jesse Itzler 8:18 it.

Codie Sanchez 8:18 It seems like your life... Well, one, it, it kinda makes sense, 'cause you have this big ass calendar that's huge that I used, which is I think when I first started going back and forth with you.

Jesse Itzler 8:26 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 8:27 I was like, "This is so weirdly cool." I put up this big, huge calendar, and I blocked off all of the days on it that I wanted to have my, uh, you call it Misogis.

Jesse Itzler 8:37 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 8:38 And it totally changed our year. And we actually ended up doing a bunch of stuff. I work too much, so sometimes I just end up being in a spreadsheet all year.

Jesse Itzler 8:46 Right.

Codie Sanchez 8:46 And then all of a sudden you're 85 and... I'm not 85, I'm 38, I'm like, "Oh, my God, what did I do this year? I just, I just did business."

Jesse Itzler 8:52 Right.

Codie Sanchez 8:52 Um, and so it seems like that's always been part of your life, inserting that. Is that true? Like, how do you live an exceptional life?

Jesse Itzler 8:59 Well, first of all, to your point, most people spend so much time, you know, scheduling their work days, you know. Every Monday through Friday is like appointments, schedules, Zoom call, whatever, and very little time scheduling their personal life. Like, when are we taking trips? When's date night?

Codie Sanchez 9:15 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 9:15 What races am I doing? What concerts am I going to? So their calendar fills up with work stuff, and I think it's really important to prioritize yourself first. And when you have a, this, the big ass calendar, like, that we have, you know, we're all visual, so you can see all 365 days of the year on one calendar. You can see where your time's going, and you can also track towards your goals. So I think the ca- a calendar is the, one of the, if not the most important planning tool people can have in business and their personal life. As far as... What was the question though, specifically?

Codie Sanchez 9:48 Well, actually, I have a follow-up now. So if you're gonna schedule your life, how do you use the bi- big ass calendar? Lots of people have goals, goal-setting. You have some weird ways you do it. How do you do it?

Jesse Itzler 9:58 Well, the first thing is I put all the things that are import- that I know that are important to me on my calendar first. So for example, like, I take a one-on-one trip with my kids or... That goes on the calendar. Um, stuff that I'm doing with my wife, with Sarah, like our trips or big events that I know I have. Spring break trips, family trips. Like that, if that doesn't happen, something else, it's, your calendar's gonna fill up. But then I have three rules that I do.

Codie Sanchez 10:24 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 10:24 Um, so one is what you just mentioned, which is w- we, we tweaked the definition of this, but there's an old Japanese ritual-

Codie Sanchez 10:31 Mm

Jesse Itzler 10:31 ... um, called the Misogi. The way we've interpreted it is you do one big year-defining thing a year that really defines your year, and it has, and it has to be big. So, like, you wanna have something to show for your year at the end of the year. You don't wanna be like... If I said to you like, "What'd you do in 2021?" Like, you should be able to be like, "Oh, I launched my podcast," or, "I quit my job," or like something. Like, what are we, what are we all working for if we have nothing to show for it?

Codie Sanchez 10:57 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 10:58 So one big year-defining thing. Last year for me, I rode my bike across America, like big. And, but think of it this way. If you're 35 or 36, and you live to be 86, 50 more years, you'll have 50 year-defining things. That's a hell of a life-

Codie Sanchez 11:13 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 11:13 ... uh, that you've done, versus I didn't schedule it. The second thing that I do every... So that goes on my calendar first, when I know what that is.

Codie Sanchez 11:21 Yep.

Jesse Itzler 11:21 Um, this year, like rim to rim to rim like your husband did was, was something that I put on my calendar in that, in that regard. The second thing is every other month I try to take a little mini-adventure.

Codie Sanchez 11:33 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 11:33 So, and it could be just instead of doing something that I normally wouldn't have done on a weekend. So instead of watching the Georgia football game, maybe I'll take my kids fishing. Maybe I'll visit my-

Codie Sanchez 11:41 Mm-hmm

Jesse Itzler 11:42 ... college roommates. Maybe I'll go to a s- a lecture. But I wanna have six... And again, the reason there is you live 50 more years, that's 300 mini-adventures you would have had. 50 year-defining things and 300 mini-adventures. Like, you're starting to shape an insane... Like, being 85 and be like, "Ho- like, look, look what I did," versus, "Man, I worked my ass off, man." So that's the, the, that's the reason. The third thing is I just cre- I, you know, we're all... The number one thing that we can do to have the better life is have winning habits-

Codie Sanchez 12:15 Mm

Jesse Itzler 12:15 ... winning routines, winning mindset. Those three things. So I try to have good habits. I try to add every quarter or so a new winning habit, and that could be as simple as- I'm never gonna be late for a meeting. I'm gonna drink more water.

Codie Sanchez 12:29 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 12:29 I'm gonna drink 100 ounces of water a day.

Codie Sanchez 12:31 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 12:31 I'm gonna add a 10-minute-a-day meditation practice

Codie Sanchez 12:33 Oh, that's a good idea.

Jesse Itzler 12:34 That's probably a good idea-

Codie Sanchez 12:34 [laughs] Yeah

Jesse Itzler 12:35 ... while we're here. Um, so that's how my calendar starts to fill out, and then I, I work around it.

Codie Sanchez 12:40 So basically it's like immediately throw this huge thing on the wall, you look at it so it becomes visual, and then it's color-coded so you make sure you can see really easily, "Oh, man, I thought I had all these adventures, but I c- they're actually not on there."

Jesse Itzler 12:51 Well, yeah. And again, like, you know, I want my calendar to be fun, I want it to be l- to l- you know, like, light it up.

Codie Sanchez 12:58 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 12:58 It's a work in progress throughout the year. I'm adding to it as things, you know, speeches and travel, I keep adding to it. But making it color-coded, when I look at it,

Jesse Itzler 13:09 I think in pictures. We ... Most of us do.

Codie Sanchez 13:12 Yep.

Jesse Itzler 13:12 So when I see it and I'm like, "Wow, I have a lot of exciting travel coming up," versus like, I gotta scroll through my phone to do that.

Codie Sanchez 13:18 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 13:18 It's not the same.

Codie Sanchez 13:19 That is true. Yeah, you know what else is interesting with that is then you start to think about it as exciting as opposed to sometimes I look at my calendar, I get overwhelmed. I'm like, "Oh, my God, I have so much I have to do," as opposed to I get to do it. You have a m- a kind of a ridiculous mindset. Like, when I see all the th- you just got back from Running Man, which you put on, which is, like, what? A couple hundred people in sort of a remote location. We wanted to come, but I had something else going on.

Jesse Itzler 13:43 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 13:43 Plus, I suck at running, so small side note. [laughs] And you have, like, is that the same one you have, like, 100 saunas and the ... Or is that a different event?

Jesse Itzler 13:51 Yeah, we had 1,000 people there.

Codie Sanchez 13:52 Okay.

Jesse Itzler 13:52 It's a three-day, like, wellness festival-

Codie Sanchez 13:55 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 13:55 ... in the middle of Georgia.

Codie Sanchez 13:56 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 13:57 And it's kinda like the Woodstock of wellness.

Codie Sanchez 13:59 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 13:59 There's speakers and breakout sessions and music and bands and sau- we built the world's biggest sauna. It's f- almost 5,000 square feet. We get a couple hundred people in it with a DJ, and we have yoga sessions. So I need things... I work hard, and I have kids and I have a wife and, you know, like that whole work-life balance thing. I need things that I'm excited for on my calendar. It makes me show up better at work, it makes me show up better as a dad, as a husband if I know, like, look, I can work my ass off for the next 90 days, but then I m- I'm taking a trip to Florida, or I have this, a guys' trip that I'm doing. It, it helps me.

Codie Sanchez 14:38 Somebody was telling me the other day, um, it was about content. And they were like, "There's so many young people today that wanna be quote, unquote, famous, that want to create really cool things on the internet, but they haven't actually lived much life. And so when you ha- when you haven't m- lived much life, there's not that much to create about."

Jesse Itzler 14:54 Right.

Codie Sanchez 14:54 And they're like, "If you want to create incredible contren- content, live an incredible life."

Jesse Itzler 14:59 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 14:59 And it doesn't have to be, like, a fancy one. I mean, half the time you have an event at, at your house that, where you just run up and down a hill, like, three bajillion times and it's called Hell on a Hill, right?

Jesse Itzler 15:10 To... Yeah, I do. To your point, I was just at Running Man. I was talking to my friend's son, and, um, I asked him, he's, you know, in his 20, mid-20s now, maybe even a little older. And I said, uh, "What are you doing now?" And he goes, "Oh." He, like, lights up. He's like, "Oh, I have the dream job." And I'm thinking, like, "Whoa," you know? I'm like, "What do you do?" He's like, "I work the chairlift at the local ski resort in Colorado." And I was like, "Oh."

Codie Sanchez 15:41 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 15:42 He's like, "No, you don't understand, man. It's unbelievable." He's like, "You know, I get to meet everybody there. You know, I get to ski an hour a day. We get together as a group after." So, like, to him, he has the dream job. He runs the chairlift at the local ski resort, which is amazing. Like, people think you have to have these, be the CEO of a mega company-

Codie Sanchez 16:04 Uh-huh

Jesse Itzler 16:04 ... or climb Mount Everest to have these incredible lives. Like, no, you have to be around people you love, doing things you love to do-

Codie Sanchez 16:12 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 16:12 ... and feel accomplished. If you do those three things, you've really checked all the boxes, you know? And, and he did. And he, he's doing that right now. It was really, really, like, kinda eye-opening for me. Like, when he said that, I was like ... You know, you, you, you can learn something from everybody, man. Not, not ... You don't have to be famous. You don't have to be an influencer. There's lessons everywhere. I, um, I'll give you an example. Uh, my dad died in, two years ago.

Codie Sanchez 16:40 Oh, I'm sorry.

Jesse Itzler 16:40 And I woke up on the anniversary of his death, and, um, I got a text from a girl, Maureen, who I'm friends with, but not, like, we don't go to dinner. We're, like, we're friend- we're friends, but we're not, like, super close. And she just wrote, "I know it's the two-year anniversary

Jesse Itzler 16:56 of your dad's death," you know. She wrote me this really nice note. I have 10,000-plus people in my contacts. She was the only text that I got.

Codie Sanchez 17:04 Wow.

Jesse Itzler 17:05 And so I, I called her and I asked her about it. I was like, "Maureen, how, how'd you remember?" But, like, and was she like, "Oh, I have a list of monumental events, good and bad, of people in my life on a, on a, on, by month. And the days of those anniversaries, I just reach out to them." I'm like, "That's brilliant," because I'll never forget that. So I call that Maure- Mo's Rule. And I have rules that I've named after not... No one, Maureen's not even on Instagram. You know, I have rules that I've named after, you know, people in my life that have, that have, like, given me these lessons that now I'm doing that, you know?

Codie Sanchez 17:51 Oh, that's so good.

Jesse Itzler 17:51 And I have, I have so many of those.

Codie Sanchez 17:54 Whoa. Well, and the other thing that's interesting about you is you're not like so many people who have a lot of money. There's not a lot of pretense there. You throw a ton of events, and it doesn't seem like the thing that really makes you happy has a lot of zeros associated with it. Maybe flying nicely one way or another?

Jesse Itzler 18:11 I mean, flying definitely is amazing, and that's a g- a huge perk. I remember Warren Buffett saying that's, like, the one thing he'll never get rid of is-

Codie Sanchez 18:20 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 18:20 ... his private jet. Um, yeah. I mean, like, I still have very much so, like, an underdog mentality.

Codie Sanchez 18:28 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 18:28 I still feel like... I mean, I spent so many years sleeping on couches, so many years hustling, so many doors in my face, so much rejection.

Codie Sanchez 18:36 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 18:37 ... trying to make payroll, not being able to, I, I, I've, I've been, like my whole 20s was like that. My whole, I spent 20 years in that environment, and it's never left

Jesse Itzler 18:48 me. So I still, you know, I've been to restaurants so many times where like just freaking out when I hand them my credit card that it's not gonna work, that I still, I'm still traumatized by, I still get that to this day.

Codie Sanchez 19:01 Do you really?

Jesse Itzler 19:02 All the time. Every time I pull out a credit card, I'm like, "Oh my God, is this gonna work?" Now, but now I'm like, if it doesn't work, it's not really a big deal because, but, but yeah. And so that never left me. And, and Sarah's, I think Sarah, she was never, she was so mission driven always-

Codie Sanchez 19:19 Mm

Jesse Itzler 19:19 ... about making products that women love. I mean-

Codie Sanchez 19:22 So you don't end up feeling rich even when you have that amount of dollars.

Jesse Itzler 19:26 You know, my life is exactly the same. I still like to run. I like to take saunas. I love to go to like, I still coach my kids. I don't miss anything.

Codie Sanchez 19:35 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 19:36 Um, my friends are the same. Like everything's the same, it's just bigger.

Codie Sanchez 19:40 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 19:40 Like the swimming pool, I have a swimming pool now. I have like, you know, the house is bigger. You, you, you, but it, but ev- but the problems are the same.

Codie Sanchez 19:49 Yeah. What-

Jesse Itzler 19:50 The problems are the same. Like your-

Codie Sanchez 19:52 Don't the problems get bigger in some ways?

Jesse Itzler 19:54 It depends on how, what your relationship with money is.

Codie Sanchez 19:57 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 19:58 So a lot of people have, you know, when you think of relationships, you think of them in terms of like people, what's your relationship with your husband or your parents or whatever. But people don't think of their relationship with time and with money.

Codie Sanchez 20:11 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 20:11 So you have to have, like, and that's really i- important. So like Sarah always says, "Money's fun to make, money's fun to spend, and money's fun to give it away." And the best thing about it is you get to treat the people you love the most to the things that you love to do and do it with them, and that's really been the best gift about it. The other great thing is that it's opened up, it's given us an opportunity to meet so many cool people-

Codie Sanchez 20:37 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 20:37 ... that we wouldn't have had.

Codie Sanchez 20:38 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 20:39 Um, and it makes everything easier. But kids still have glitches, still have social concerns, still have like, you know, like [laughs] you, you know, you still have to stay healthy. It, it's, um, so yeah.

Codie Sanchez 20:54 But you know what's interesting about you is you have a lot of examples of you meeting famous people, celebrities, when you were young and didn't have much of anything.

Jesse Itzler 21:04 Right.

Codie Sanchez 21:04 So like for somebody who's young listening to this and thinking, "Yeah, it must be nice, you know, they're at this level, he's done all this stuff," what would you tell somebody who's young and wants to work for, learn from, a successful person, and maybe when did you do that?

Jesse Itzler 21:19 Well, now you can have, you know, you can have virtual mentors. You can, you can get mentored by anybody virtually just by watching them and... But I was a big observer-

Codie Sanchez 21:28 Mm

Jesse Itzler 21:28 ... when I was, when I w- like I was sleeping on my friend's couch in Burbank, California. I slept on 18 different f- friends' couches that put me up. I wasn't like homeless, but you know, I got out of college. My parents, like I was on my own, and my friends were putting me up. I'm trying to figure it out. For like two years, I'm couch to couch to couch. I'm in Burbank. We go to the Beverly Hills Hotel for lunch, and I'm looking around, and there's the head of Warner Brothers, you know, movie division, and the head, the head of the biggest advertising agency, and this actor, and this athlete. And I'm like, "You don't have to have a hotel room to go to lunch here? Like you could just get a salad and like a s- an iced tea for $18,

Jesse Itzler 22:09 and I could sit here for three hours?" And that became my office. So I would leave the couch, put on a shirt like this, drive to the Beverly Hills Hotel, eat a salad like couple days a week, almost every day, and I would observe. I would be like, "How do people greet each other?" Like not, I mean, not like, you know, I wasn't like taking notes, but I was very observant. And I was also getting my face out there. I was, I was, "Hey, I, I saw you here last week, but tell me," I was just starting conversations.

Codie Sanchez 22:38 Interesting.

Jesse Itzler 22:39 And it, it like, it trained me to... 'Cause like my dad owned a plumbing supply house. We didn't talk about money. We didn't talk about business. I had no training. I had to like observe people that were, you know... So that put me in a, in the room. I was, proximity, I was in the room. And, um, and then when we had Marquis Jet, which is my first successful com- second successful company, but the biggest, we flew 3,000 of the who's who of pop culture, entertainers, CEOs, whatever. I was 28, 29 years old when we started the company, and I was obsessed, Codie, with their habits. So like I would ask them, h- like, and I became, y- you know, I would go to the airport, greet them for a plane. I was, it was my company. So I would ask them questions like, "Where do you love to vac- h- where do you guys vacation?"

Codie Sanchez 23:30 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 23:30 You know, and if I was more comfortable and had a good enough relationship over time, "What do you do with your money?"

Codie Sanchez 23:34 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 23:34 Like, "What do you do when you get $8 million? No, seriously, like what do you do with it?" [laughs] I had no clue.

Codie Sanchez 23:41 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 23:41 So I would ask a lot of questions, and I got obsessed with their habits. "What time do you guys, can I ask you a crazy question? What time do you guys get up? What time do you go to bed?"

Codie Sanchez 23:50 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 23:50 "What, do you guys read newspapers? Like if you were me, what newspapers would you..." I was just asking questions, and then I would try some of the things they said. Some worked, some didn't. But you know, what's interesting, like in your, in your 20s and 30s, for most people, you're gonna make five to 10 times more money in your 40s and 50s-

Codie Sanchez 24:08 Yep

Jesse Itzler 24:09 ... than you will in your 20s and 30s. Because you'll have more contacts,

Jesse Itzler 24:12 you'll be better i- at whatever it is you do, you'll be much better. You'll know what m- mistakes to avoid. And, um, a lot, I think a lot of people in now see people on the internet like getting rich really quick. It takes time. It, first of all, I don't even know if they're getting rich.

Codie Sanchez 24:32 Yeah. [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 24:32 Like they're showing that they're getting rich, or they're showing a picture in front of a plane, but who the hell knows what's going on. Um, so that's another thing you have to be careful of, and that's-

Codie Sanchez 24:41 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 24:42 ... you know, you can't, that's their story. Who knows if it's, what the s- what's, there's no one Fact-checking that. But in your 40s, you know, you have all this... It's different. So, and it takes time. Like I was saying, when we had Zico Coconut Water, which we sold to Coke, uh-

Codie Sanchez 24:57 And how big was that company?

Jesse Itzler 24:59 Um-

Codie Sanchez 24:59 What was like-

Jesse Itzler 24:59 We were doing like maybe close to 100 million when we sold it.

Codie Sanchez 25:02 Holy crap. And that's your-

Jesse Itzler 25:03 But we got it up there. We ramped it quick

Codie Sanchez 25:04 ... second-biggest company after Marquis?

Jesse Itzler 25:06 Um, Marquis was d- I mean, Marquis we, we did like 5 billion in sales.

Codie Sanchez 25:11 That's so wild.

Jesse Itzler 25:12 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 25:13 But like really small margins? What were margins on private jets, or was that pretty big?

Jesse Itzler 25:17 We, we, the way that we started the business is... So we had no aviation experience.

Codie Sanchez 25:23 [laughs] Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 25:24 Very little business experience, and not a lot of money. Like, I think we raised, we raised $4 million from friends and family, which to start a jet company, I mean-

Codie Sanchez 25:33 Not enough

Jesse Itzler 25:33 ... doesn't make any sense.

Codie Sanchez 25:36 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 25:36 The way that we started out, we w- we were, um, NetJets was, was our parent company, was providing us with the airplanes, and they were carrying the paper. I mean, we didn't have to like buy the planes or lease them. They were holding the paper on that stuff for us. So like when we had an order, we could pay them, and we would just, we were commissioning it on, on... We were, we were commissioning, charging more-

Codie Sanchez 25:59 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 25:59 ... for time on their plane. And the-

Codie Sanchez 26:01 So you basically arbitraged the rate between what NetJets would charge a customer and what you would-

Jesse Itzler 26:06 We were drug dealers.

Codie Sanchez 26:07 Yeah. [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 26:07 We were buying a lot of drug, a lot of time on the planes.

Codie Sanchez 26:10 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 26:10 We were chopping up into smaller increments-

Codie Sanchez 26:12 Ooh

Jesse Itzler 26:12 ... and charging more.

Codie Sanchez 26:13 Love that.

Jesse Itzler 26:14 And we were selling 25-hour increments in jet cards. So we were-

Codie Sanchez 26:18 Interesting.

Jesse Itzler 26:18 Yeah, we were just marking up-

Codie Sanchez 26:19 And you were the first people to kind of think about doing it that way, right?

Jesse Itzler 26:22 We were, yeah. We, we were doing it.

Codie Sanchez 26:24 Before that everybody thought, "No, we have to have these long leases, or it has to be individual."

Jesse Itzler 26:29 Right.

Codie Sanchez 26:29 And you're like, "Wait a second. Why can't we just cut it with some lactose powder or something?"

Jesse Itzler 26:31 I remember sitting with my partner, and we're like, our average sale was, was... We, we were so... We- people were spending about $250,000 a year. They didn't have to, but like on average, a year with us on jet time. So we were just like, "If we could get to 4,000 customers, we'll be doing a billion a year." And like, we were just like, "All right, how do we..." We're just like, just like sitting there like, "How do we get to 4,000 customers?"

Codie Sanchez 26:56 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 26:56 Well, let's hire 100 sales reps-

Codie Sanchez 26:59 Wow

Jesse Itzler 26:59 ... that could, that could find 40 people each. That was basically like how we would-

Codie Sanchez 27:03 Like commission only?

Jesse Itzler 27:05 Yeah, commission.

Codie Sanchez 27:06 Yeah, you were basically like find a bunch of young hustlers.

Jesse Itzler 27:07 But we did it. They did it. Those 100 people were able to, you know, we built up this, this customer list. So-

Codie Sanchez 27:14 Interesting.

Jesse Itzler 27:14 But anyway, that was like, it felt, it feels like a lifetime ago.

Codie Sanchez 27:20 So I talk a lot about business buying, and I get a lot of questions about it. One of the most common questions is, where do you find a business to buy? The answer is sad, because the worst deals are oversaturated marketplace sites, but the best deals are off market or curated. Either way, finding a business to buy basically sucks, and I think it should suck less. So that's why we've built something for you guys, BizScout, a business buying marketplace full of only the best deals for both on and off market, and BizScout is just built different, okay? We've got verified buyers, so the best sellers are actually interested in selling. Scout sites, AKA at a glance, what's the quick analysis of this deal? Off market data so you can get all the info you need to direct outreach efficiently. Embedded lending so you can get your financing for the business right where you buy it. BizScout is going to change the face of Main Street buying and selling. Probably not immediately. We have a lot more work to do, but I want you guys to be part of it, to be part of the buyers and builders in this next round. So you guys are one of the first to hear. Go to bizscout.com and check it out. Was 50 Cent your intern?

Jesse Itzler 28:24 Yes.

Codie Sanchez 28:25 What, what is that story?

Jesse Itzler 28:27 Um, so I was managing Run DMC. I was managing Run DMC in the n- mid-'90s, early '90s. And Jam Master Jay, the DJ for Run DMC, who was-

Codie Sanchez 28:40 Oh, I remember him

Jesse Itzler 28:41 ... who was killed.

Codie Sanchez 28:42 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 28:42 He, um, he came in to my office, and he's like, "I'm working with this kid. He's a boxer. He wants to be a rapper, and he wants business experience." He goes, "But he's really good at writing songs and stuff." I was writing songs for sports teams-

Codie Sanchez 28:58 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 28:58 ... like theme songs. He goes, "He'll come in the studio with you and help you out and do some stuff, but in exchange, he wants some bi- he wants to like..." This is insane now that I'm thinking about it.

Codie Sanchez 29:07 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 29:07 Like, this is fucking insane. But he wants business experience. So Curtis came in, and he worked with me for like a year and a half, and then he became 50 Cent.

Codie Sanchez 29:18 That is wild. Uh, did you know that he was like really talented when you met him? Were you immediately like, "Oh, yeah, he's got it"?

Jesse Itzler 29:26 He, um, no.

Codie Sanchez 29:28 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 29:29 No.

Codie Sanchez 29:29 He was just like a normal intern.

Jesse Itzler 29:31 And like, I'm like 23 years old, and this kid's coming in. I have no idea. I don't have a crystal ball. So you have to imagine there's 1,000 people that are s- struggling artists or wanna be artists, you know, getting into rap. Everyone's trying to get a deal, and this and that. And this kid comes in, and he's got his boxing stuff. And I'm like thinking like, "All right, cool." Like, it wasn't even on my radar, you know? Like I'm like, "Just, cool, come... Yeah, you can..." And, um, and then like looking back on it, he became like an international mega star. Here's the coolest thing. Eight years later, so he goes, I don't, there's no contact after like, you know, he goes and becomes this huge star. We're going crazy in the office. Like we're like, "Holy fuck. That's Cur-..." Like, we're going nuts, and we're like, in, in a great way. Like we're feel like, you know, like we're all celebrating.

Codie Sanchez 30:26 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 30:26 But I have no contact with him. And then we start Marquis Jet. He b- he, I, every day I would get a list of who's flying on our planes, and s- I would like look, just look like who are the guests, who's on each flight. You know, maybe someone I know, maybe someone interesting. I see that he's a guest on one of our planes. So I call the pilot, and I was like, "Um, can you leave a note?" ... for 50, and said, "50, it's Jesse Itzler from Alphabet City." That was the name of our company that he worked at. "You're never gonna believe this, but

Jesse Itzler 30:56 I own the company that you're flying on right now."

Codie Sanchez 31:00 Wow.

Jesse Itzler 31:00 And then the next day, he wrote into all of his contracts he would only fly with Marquis Jet.

Codie Sanchez 31:05 Ah.

Jesse Itzler 31:06 Is that insane?

Codie Sanchez 31:07 That's amazing.

Jesse Itzler 31:07 Amazing.

Codie Sanchez 31:08 It's really fun to hear about celebrities. These days, it's pretty easy to shit on them, but so many people I've met, of like all of the people that I would look up to in the world, are incredible humans. And part of me thinks that that might be more common than people think.

Jesse Itzler 31:22 Yeah, I agree with you.

Codie Sanchez 31:23 You know-

Jesse Itzler 31:23 Even though there's a lot of... You get disappointed by people, too, in business.

Codie Sanchez 31:27 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 31:27 I've been burned, I've been disappointed, I've been surprised, I've been stabbed. But, um, but in general, I agree with you. People in general want to help people-

Codie Sanchez 31:38 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 31:38 ... and are good.

Codie Sanchez 31:39 Yeah. If you go back to thinking about some of those instances, what do you think of, like what was the biggest failure you've had in business?

Jesse Itzler 31:49 I had a company called Sheets. They were these, like, oral dissolvable, so like a Listerine strip that you put on your tongue.

Codie Sanchez 31:55 Yeah. Uh-huh.

Jesse Itzler 31:55 But they were infused with caffeine.

Codie Sanchez 31:57 Ooh.

Jesse Itzler 31:57 So they were, it was like, basically like drinking a Red Bull, but you put it on your tongue, and it just goes right into your bloodstream and, like, you get this burst of energy. And at the time that we launched it, 5-hour ENERGY was selling 10 million 2.5 bottles of 5-hour ENERGY-

Codie Sanchez 32:13 Mm

Jesse Itzler 32:13 ... a week.

Codie Sanchez 32:14 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 32:14 So the category was huge. And I'm like, "We're gonna, we're gonna, they're a- we're gonna put them out of business." And I was so sure. We just sold ZICO to Coke, Marquis had just gotten so... Like, I was in, it was a good, a lot of momentum for me. And I'm like, so we started this company called Sheets. I partnered with LeBron. I brought in a lot of celebrities, a lot of star power. I took in money from everybody I knew, 'cause I'm like-

Codie Sanchez 32:39 Oh

Jesse Itzler 32:39 ... "Give me 10 grand," and I wanted to be a hero. "Uh, you're gonna get an island back."

Codie Sanchez 32:43 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 32:43 Like, like, "Your 10 grand's gonna turn into an island."

Codie Sanchez 32:46 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 32:47 "And we're all gonna be neighbors because of this strip." And I had, I would back to back big wins. I, and I believed it. I was so sure. And we did a focus group. It didn't go well.

Codie Sanchez 32:58 Oh.

Jesse Itzler 32:58 And like, I just... Anyway, um, it didn't work, because at the end of the day, it was super bitter, and, um, your product has to be good.

Codie Sanchez 33:09 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 33:09 It doesn't matter who's endorsing it, who's in the commercial-

Codie Sanchez 33:12 Mm

Jesse Itzler 33:12 ... how good the packaging is. People have to buy it, you have to give them a reason to buy it, and then they have to buy it again, and they have to tell friends.

Codie Sanchez 33:20 Yep.

Jesse Itzler 33:21 And they didn't buy it again, and they told friends, "Oh, I don't like the taste of it." So it di- so it didn't work. And, um, the hardest part of that was I lost, you know, like, money for... You know, I lost the most money by far, but you know, like, that hurts. You know? Like, still seeing people that gave you money, even though they could afford it, and everyone knows when you make an investment. And then people are like, "Well, why don't you just pay them back?" That becomes weird. You know, like, there's this-

Codie Sanchez 33:51 It does become weird.

Jesse Itzler 33:52 It's just... It, it just, it was just, um, it was a tough time. I still think about it.

Codie Sanchez 33:56 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 33:56 I literally still think about it, and it was, you know, 20 years ago.

Codie Sanchez 33:59 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 33:59 20 years ago.

Codie Sanchez 33:59 I think, I think it's really hard for people to understand, if you have good moral character, losing somebody else's money is worse than losing your own. Like, it is... I had an investment company for a long time, and we were in the cannabis space. And we invested in all of these startups in cannabis. And from like 2016 to 20- or 2016 to, to 2019, we killed it. We just made so much money. We, like, 3x'd the fund, gave it, all the investors back their money. Then the second fund that we did was right when COVID hit.

Jesse Itzler 34:34 Right.

Codie Sanchez 34:35 And we kind of, before COVID, we thought, "We're gonna raise all this stuff, and they're gonna legalize this shit." Like, "It's gonna be legal." And it didn't end up getting legalized fast enough, and COVID hit, and I thought we were going under. I thought we were dead. And I remember Chris, you know, my husband who you met, at the time, we were just sitting in California and I was like, "I don't think there's anything I can do. My grandmother's money is in this." 'Cause same thing, I was like, we are legal weed dealers, money. And I was

Codie Sanchez 35:08 like, "Fuck, I'm gonna lose everybody's money." And I didn't have enough to repay it. I mean, it was hundreds of millions of dollars. Thank God the government, uh, deemed it an essential service.

Jesse Itzler 35:17 No way.

Codie Sanchez 35:17 In retrospect, yeah, it kept our, our companies af- afloat. In retrospect, I'm not even sure, though, that I'm happy I was in cannabis. Like, I kind of think-

Jesse Itzler 35:26 Right, right

Codie Sanchez 35:27 ... it-

Jesse Itzler 35:27 The reason why you can't repay it is, you know, first of all, that set, that sets the, um, precedent that any time you raise money, what if I want to raise, I want to put, build a spaceship to the moon and I need to raise a bazillion dollars? Well, the expectation is you pay, it didn't work, we're gonna get our money back anyway.

Codie Sanchez 35:44 Yep.

Jesse Itzler 35:44 That you're gonna pay everything back and every loss back. So that's, that's one of the reasons. Um, and there's a variety of reasons, but, uh, it's things-

Codie Sanchez 35:53 Well, also it can create fake guarantees-

Jesse Itzler 35:55 Fake guarantees

Codie Sanchez 35:56 ... so it actually owes you up to lawsuits, and, and then-

Jesse Itzler 35:58 100%

Codie Sanchez 35:59 ... you know, so there's, there's, there's a lot of reasons why sometimes legally you're not even allowed to in the docs.

Jesse Itzler 36:04 Right.

Codie Sanchez 36:04 And then who's to say what the actual cost is of money from an opportunity cost perspective? It's really messy. Um, but I do think, fuck, if you're in the game, you've lost money at some point, unfortunately.

Jesse Itzler 36:16 And, uh, but if you're taking in money, you have to understand it comes with responsibility.

Codie Sanchez 36:20 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 36:20 It comes with responsibility to report, you know, to, to, to have some kind of, you know, to have to be transparent. C- and it, it just, it's just, um, you lose your own money-

Codie Sanchez 36:31 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 36:31 ... it's one thing, but you lose someone else's money, it's tough.

Codie Sanchez 36:33 Well, you know what I think's interesting, too, is, like, I think you're one of, probably one of the best marketers out there pre-internet, um, in such interesting ways. But to your point, you can't really market a non-incredible product. And you had a little formula, formula there I, I really liked, which maybe was something like if you wanna create a really viral product, or if you wanna create a product that continues to sell forever, they have to buy the product, they gotta buy it again, and then they have to tell a friend. And a lot of times people leave that last part off. Like, is that your formula for creating winning products? Or how do you think about creating winning products? 'Cause you got a pretty good hit ratio.

Jesse Itzler 37:14 Yeah, I mean, I think sh- things getting, getting shared friend to friend is really important still, even with the internet.

Codie Sanchez 37:20 Oh, yeah.

Jesse Itzler 37:21 Spanx, Spanx exploded friend to friend, girlfriend to girlfriend. I think that's a really important element. PR is a really good way to get, uh, to reach a lot of people and get, and, and get validated and, um, back... I'm talking about, like, when we were starting out, when there was no internet. If you could get an article, something placed about your company, that was a great bang for the buck.

Codie Sanchez 37:44 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 37:45 Now you can do it, you know, by viral posts that are free. But without the internet, that was a good, a good resource.

Codie Sanchez 37:52 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 37:52 Um, but yeah, I think people talking about it is real- is really important.

Codie Sanchez 37:56 How, how many million-dollar businesses have you started that have hit seven figures, do you know?

Jesse Itzler 38:03 Like, top, just top line?

Codie Sanchez 38:05 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 38:05 Oh, a lot.

Codie Sanchez 38:06 What do you think's a lot?

Jesse Itzler 38:08 I've never thought ab- I don't know.

Codie Sanchez 38:10 What about eight figures?

Jesse Itzler 38:12 Uh, how much is eight figures?

Codie Sanchez 38:14 [laughs] That would be, like, 10 million or more.

Jesse Itzler 38:17 Oh. Uh, handful.

Codie Sanchez 38:20 Yeah. And then two that were nine-figure companies.

Jesse Itzler 38:23 Like north of 100?

Codie Sanchez 38:24 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 38:24 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 38:25 That's wild. That's probably pretty rare air, right?

Jesse Itzler 38:29 I've also had 20 companies that didn't work.

Codie Sanchez 38:31 Interesting.

Jesse Itzler 38:31 You know, so it's, um, I had a lot of balls in the air, but I've been doing it for 30 years.

Codie Sanchez 38:37 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 38:37 But I'm tired now.

Codie Sanchez 38:38 Are you-

Jesse Itzler 38:39 I have four... Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 38:39 I don't believe you're tired. You were just at a three-day Running Man event you put on with the world's biggest sauna.

Jesse Itzler 38:44 That's true. I'm tired, but, like, the energy to start a company-

Codie Sanchez 38:47 Brand new

Jesse Itzler 38:48 ... like, the energy, like, w- w- y- you know, what it takes to start a company, like the amount of s- your soul that you have to pour into it and the amount of caring, at this point in my life, would take away what I could give to my kids.

Codie Sanchez 39:05 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 39:05 Like, I don't have, I don't have that much caring in me. Y- you know? Like, it's capped. And, um, when I was single and young and in my 20s and 30s and even, like, young kids in my 40s, it was different. But in your 50s, you know... When you're 56, man, you look at thin- you look at time differently 'cause you're like, "Shit, in 14 years, I'm 70." That's fucking nuts.

Codie Sanchez 39:28 [laughs] That is kind of crazy.

Jesse Itzler 39:29 That's freaking me out.

Codie Sanchez 39:31 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 39:31 So then I'm like, all right, if I have 14 years to be 70-

Codie Sanchez 39:34 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 39:34 ... do I wanna start another company? For what? To have, like, a bigger plate of brown rice? Like, what... for what? Or do I wanna, like, take those 14 years and load 'em up with adventures with my friends and the people, like my kids, and have, like, an epic, you know, decade and a half of... Because I was just water-skiing with my kids this summer and, like, there were no 70-year-olds water-skiing on the lake.

Codie Sanchez 39:59 That's true.

Jesse Itzler 40:00 There were no 70-year-olds at Running Man. There were no 70-year-olds. It's like as, as you get harder, like, as you get older, the, you know, your, your window to do things-

Codie Sanchez 40:09 Closes

Jesse Itzler 40:10 ... it closes. It starts to close.

Codie Sanchez 40:11 Although, did you see Er- uh, Larry Ellison lately? 81. Have you seen this guy?

Jesse Itzler 40:16 Larry Ellison's on a whole nother level.

Codie Sanchez 40:18 [laughs] He looks incredible.

Jesse Itzler 40:19 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 40:19 He looks younger than us.

Jesse Itzler 40:21 But there's 8 billion people in the world. There's 8 billion people in the world. There's one Larry Ellison.

Codie Sanchez 40:23 We're not gonna be him.

Jesse Itzler 40:24 [laughs] We might, but I mean, you know, for the masses, it's hard.

Codie Sanchez 40:28 It's a good way to think about it. So what do you think it takes to actually start a really successful business?

Jesse Itzler 40:35 One is enthusiasm. I think you have to have a lot of enthusiasm around, um, not just the product that you're selling-

Codie Sanchez 40:43 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 40:43 ... but also, like, the process of being-

Codie Sanchez 40:45 Mm

Jesse Itzler 40:45 ... an entrepreneur. Y- you know, like, the, it, it's, um, that means a sacrifice. When your friend's at the bar for happy hour, you might have to go back to the office to do something. Like, the, you have to be willing to, to do all that. Um, you have to be customer-focused and really think about... and product-driven. The product has to be good. Um, I think it has to be fun. You know, you wanna make money, you wanna have fun, and you wanna have fun making money. Um, and you have to be different. You know, Sarah always says entrepreneurs do one of two things. Either they create something brand new-

Codie Sanchez 41:24 Mm

Jesse Itzler 41:24 ... or they make something that exists better.

Codie Sanchez 41:26 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 41:27 So w- what are you doing? Are you making something brand new, or are you taking something and ma- that's out there and just making it better? And I think it has to be authentic to you. I think how you stand out, everything is, all categories are so crowded right now. There's so many.

Codie Sanchez 41:42 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 41:42 'Cause it's so, the, the barrier to entry is so low right now.

Codie Sanchez 41:45 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 41:45 So you have to stand out.

Codie Sanchez 41:48 I read a fascinating statistic the other day that only 3% of Americans own a business, that of the 3% that own a business, only 10% will ever hit a million dollars, that of the, those that hit 10 million, that's .4%. So .4% of the 3% ever get to eight figures, and I thought that was pretty-

Jesse Itzler 42:08 Hold on. I gotta put that on a gra- I gotta, like, I, like, I gotta w-

Codie Sanchez 42:11 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 42:11 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 42:13 You need your big-ass calendar-

Jesse Itzler 42:14 Yeah, I need-

Codie Sanchez 42:14 ... but whiteboard edition.

Jesse Itzler 42:15 I need the big-ass calculator for that one.

Codie Sanchez 42:17 [laughs] Yeah, me too.

Jesse Itzler 42:17 So what's the net, the net-net is?

Codie Sanchez 42:19 The net-net is that, uh, most people underestimate how hard it is.

Jesse Itzler 42:26 Ugh.

Codie Sanchez 42:26 That not... And, and how do you define hard? 'Cause words mean things, and often we don't define things very well. So it's not just grit. It's actually just mathematically difficult. And so-

Jesse Itzler 42:36 But think about this. I th- now, I'm, my math might be wrong on this 'cause I, I haven't been getting a lot of sleep. I think there's 18 million millionaires-

Codie Sanchez 42:44 That sounds right

Jesse Itzler 42:44 ... in this country.

Codie Sanchez 42:45 That sounds right.

Jesse Itzler 42:46 So if you take, there's every year four million people born, so by the, so at tw- there's 80 million people under 20 years old, so that means that, um, there's about one, one

Jesse Itzler 43:02 in 11 people are a millionaire that are, like, over 20.

Codie Sanchez 43:06 Yeah, that's not, that's not bad.

Jesse Itzler 43:06 I'm close. The math is something like that.

Codie Sanchez 43:07 Okay. Check us on the internet. YouTube will tell us.

Jesse Itzler 43:09 Something like that.

Codie Sanchez 43:10 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 43:10 Something, some... But here's my point If like 1 in 11 or something like that peop- uh, people over 25 or 25 to se- whatever are millionaires-

Codie Sanchez 43:20 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 43:21 ... and you lined up, you know, 11 people in the room or 20 people, whatever the exact number is, I wanna get the math right on it, that's like doesn't make it sound like it's so hard.

Codie Sanchez 43:31 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 43:31 Do you know what I mean? Like, I would think like-

Codie Sanchez 43:33 A thousand percent

Jesse Itzler 43:33 ... I would think like, oh, 1 in 1,000 people are, are millionaires, but it's not. It's like 1 in... It's like 1 in 18 or so. Like, 1 in 11 or 1 in 18, something like, it's low-

Codie Sanchez 43:43 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 43:43 ... are milli- are, as adults, become millionaires. So it's like I remember, I remember, um, by the way, I might get cancel. I, I, that math might be way off. [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 43:53 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 43:54 No, but I remem- I remember the stati- the bottom line is, what I'm trying to say is it's not like a needle in a haystack.

Codie Sanchez 44:01 No.

Jesse Itzler 44:02 It's like th- there is a... To become a millionaire in this country, there's a path. I remember

Jesse Itzler 44:09 when, when I was 22 years old, Codie, I was playing basketball in this basket- with a bunch of guys in New York City, and, um, I met my first millionaire.

Codie Sanchez 44:20 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 44:21 I met my first millionaire. Now, there were millionaires in my town probably, but like I didn't know at that... I was a kid. But like the first person that I knew, like my age, like, like a conte- like someone was a millionaire, and I couldn't believe it. 'Cause I was making like 12 grand, you know, like-

Codie Sanchez 44:40 Totally

Jesse Itzler 44:41 ... I'm like, "I, I can't believe it." And then like three months later I went away for Thanksgiving with four guys. We went to Jamaica, and I was talking to my friend Rich, who worked for a hedge fund on Wall Street, and he was like 23 years old or something. And I'm like, "Rich, how's everything going?" He's like, "Oh, it's great. Just got my, my holiday bonus." I'm like, "Oh, what was it?" He goes, "$3 million."

Codie Sanchez 45:03 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 45:05 I was like, "You made $3 million?" Then, and then I was thinking to myself, I love Rich, but Rich couldn't tell me where the ocean is right now-

Codie Sanchez 45:14 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 45:14 ... and we're in it. Like, he made $3 million.

Codie Sanchez 45:18 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 45:18 I'm gonna make three million. Like, it, it made me realize, like, if fucking Rich can make $3 million, I can make $3 million. If so-and-so can run t- a marathon, I can run a marathon. If that guy can run 100 miles, why can't I run 100 miles? Like, once you see it, you know, the lim- we put so, so many limitations on ourselves.

Codie Sanchez 45:38 Well, I think you're right. Well, and on top of that, I mean, I bet most of those millionaires made their millions working with or for somebody else. I think also, I'm a big proponent for you should always try to get some equity, try to get ownership in things. I love people buying small businesses. That's sort of my shtick 'cause that's how I've made my money, so I- you always have like a bias. I'm like, "I did it that way. Anybody could do it that way." But another thing that I try to give a lot of credence to is, like, I bet you have minted so many millionaires. Not you on- they did it for themselves too, but through creating these big, huge companies.

Jesse Itzler 46:11 I ha- I, I have, I have. But more importantly, I've had an army of people that worked for me as interns, as, as employees, that have gone on to do insane things.

Codie Sanchez 46:24 That's interesting.

Jesse Itzler 46:24 You want the list?

Codie Sanchez 46:25 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 46:26 So, uh, Kenny Austin, who worked with me, he was one of my partners, but like at Marquis Jet, went on to create Tequila Avion. They-

Codie Sanchez 46:35 Whoa

Jesse Itzler 46:35 ... that sold. He created, uh, Proper Twelve with Conor McGregor. That sold for-

Codie Sanchez 46:40 Wow

Jesse Itzler 46:40 ... over, you know, for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.

Codie Sanchez 46:43 Yeah. I think it was like $600 million.

Jesse Itzler 46:44 He created and partnered with The Rock on The Rock's tequila.

Codie Sanchez 46:47 Whoa.

Jesse Itzler 46:47 It's worth over north of a billion dollars. I mean, just Jennifer Lope- it's hit after hit. Adam, um, Tishman, who was my intern, created Helix, this, um, mattresses.

Codie Sanchez 46:57 Oh, yeah.

Jesse Itzler 46:58 Sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. Farrah Lett, who was my, my intern, she now runs Klutch, the, one of the biggest sports agencies, if not the biggest in the world. LeBron, that, um, and probably the mo- one of the most powerful

Jesse Itzler 47:10 women in sports. So, you know, 50.

Codie Sanchez 47:13 Why do you think that is? Why-

Jesse Itzler 47:14 Because people are observant. You, you know, you... Coaches are important.

Codie Sanchez 47:18 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 47:19 I still have coaches. I just, um-

Codie Sanchez 47:21 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 47:21 I j- I have a swim coach. I have-

Codie Sanchez 47:23 You had an ABC of memory with you

Jesse Itzler 47:25 ... I had a memory coach. I had... 'Cause I wanted to get better at memorizing names. I wasn't great when I met people at remembering their names.

Codie Sanchez 47:31 Wow.

Jesse Itzler 47:31 So I brought a coach in to help me with that.

Codie Sanchez 47:33 Interesting.

Jesse Itzler 47:33 I've had sales coaches. I've had coaches in so many areas of my life because I'm not great at everything. I wanna go to people that are, that are amazing at what they do. I live with, um, Goggins. I lived on a monastery to get better at my spirituality. Like, investing in yourself to get better is so important. And so I think that, you know, for, for, if you're working at an organization, two things. One, I think you should make yourself irreplaceable. That's really important. Then you have the leverage, like, "You can't even fire me. I know everybody, every customer. I'm unfireable." Now you have some leverage, which I think, which I think is really important. And you should learn, network, and im- and, and sponge as much, absorb, especially when you're young-

Codie Sanchez 48:19 Mm

Jesse Itzler 48:20 ... as much as you can. Do everything. Learn everything. Gandhi said it best. He said, "Learn like you'll live forever. Live like you'll die tomorrow."

Codie Sanchez 48:29 Oof.

Jesse Itzler 48:29 So you wanna learn and keep getting better, you know, um, in as many things as you can.

Codie Sanchez 48:36 Did you, do you have a particular way that you lead people? It, it, what do you think it is? Is it either you select these people who are gonna be high performers, and so you have a selection bias? Or do you have a particular leadership style that you think enables other people to become something bigger?

Jesse Itzler 48:53 I think that you have to put confidence in pe- like, I'm, there are so many better... I, honestly, Codie, I'm, I'm like back of the pack entrepreneur. I, no, I really am. There's so many-

Codie Sanchez 49:05 Mm

Jesse Itzler 49:05 ... amazing entrepreneurs. Like, I don't even put myself, I'm not, that's not my strong suit. It's not.

Codie Sanchez 49:10 Interesting.

Jesse Itzler 49:11 It's not. I've had wins. I've had great partners. I've had good ideas. Right time, right place. Like, a lot of things happened. But there's so ma- I still go to so many entrepreneurs for advice. But I am good at, at, at giving people confidence and belief

Codie Sanchez 49:29 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 49:29 And

Jesse Itzler 49:30 that's really important because if ... You have to believe in the end of your story

Codie Sanchez 49:34 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 49:35 Like, you, if you're single, you have to believe he or she's out there. If you're going for a job interview, you have to believe like, "I'm the one that's gonna get this job." If you're applying to a college, you have to believe like, "Oh, the a- the, the acceptance rate is one in 80? I'm that one. I'm that one." You have to have, like, insane conviction, and I'm really good at bu- at breathing conviction into people.

Codie Sanchez 49:57 Oh, that's so good. Do you breathe it into yourself?

Jesse Itzler 50:00 Mm.

Codie Sanchez 50:00 And if so, how?

Jesse Itzler 50:01 Self-talk.

Codie Sanchez 50:02 Are you, like, in the mirror going,

Codie Sanchez 50:04 "Jesse"?

Jesse Itzler 50:04 No, no, but just like, "You got this," and, like, you know, I, I have really good self-talk. There's not a lot of, "I can't"-

Codie Sanchez 50:12 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 50:12 ... that comes out of my kids' mouths or my mouth or we're real- Sarah and I are really, um, particular about ho- how we s- our family speaks.

Codie Sanchez 50:22 What would that look like? Like, so if you're trying to raise children who believe in themselves like that, what does that look like? What are examples?

Jesse Itzler 50:29 Uh, well, first of all, you praise the effort-

Codie Sanchez 50:31 Mm

Jesse Itzler 50:31 ... not, not the result. You wanna praise the effort to get your kids to-

Codie Sanchez 50:35 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 50:35 ... to, you know, wanna put max effort in. Um, let them experience disappointment, and then, you know, um, correct them. "Oh, Dad, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't jump off this diving board." Like, "Well, if you say you can't, you're never gonna do it." So you have to reframe it, cha- you know, tweak it, but it's true of, it's true of, it's true of everything. You know, that, the words that you speak are really important.

Codie Sanchez 51:02 Yeah. Uh, my husband always says, "Words mean things," and he means that when we talk about stuff between each other. Like, it's really important that we both think about what we say, and then we understand what the word means to each other because oftentimes you don't even realize that.

Jesse Itzler 51:18 I would ... It's true. I was doing, like, a math problem with my daughter. We were going through her math homework, and, like, she got the first five. Then we got the math, the question six, and she's like, "Oh, Dad, this is, this is hard. Let's just, we'll skip that one. Let's go to the next one." And, like, I think most, I think, like, my, most of my childhood maybe, you know, my parents wanted to make things as good as, "Yeah, we'll skip it." We, we don't skip things. Like, you get a chance to, like, skip, oh, you know, coming up with the packaging for this widget company is really hard. Let's skip the packaging. Like, no. My daughter's name is Tepper. " Tep, let's sit here and figure this out before we go to question eight. Let's sit on, let's stay on seven. I know it's hard, but it's on the paper. It was assigned to us. It's in front of us, so we're gonna have to figure this out. We're not, we're not skipping it and going to eight." And I didn't say it in that tone, but that, but those kind of lessons where like, you, you know, are, I think are important.

Codie Sanchez 52:18 Do you talk like that between Sarah and yourself? Like, when it comes to partnership, do you help your partner speak that way to each other, and if so, how do you do that in a relationship? Or do you both come fully baked?

Jesse Itzler 52:31 Every partner's so different. So, you know, this, I'm a support system for my wife-

Codie Sanchez 52:36 Mm

Jesse Itzler 52:36 ... like, and she's a support system for me. But my needs are more ego-based.

Codie Sanchez 52:43 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 52:43 You know? Like, I need to be told, like, "You did a great job, Jesse. Like, you cleaned the dishes and, like ..." "Oh, I didn't, I didn't just clean the dishes."

Codie Sanchez 52:52 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 52:52 "The dishes are fucking spotless." Like, I need to be ... Can you say that, "Jesse, the dishes are spotless. You're the best dishwasher in the family"?

Codie Sanchez 53:03 [laughs] So you-

Jesse Itzler 53:04 I need that.

Codie Sanchez 53:05 Yours is words of affirmation.

Jesse Itzler 53:06 Right. So I need affirmation.

Codie Sanchez 53:07 Okay.

Jesse Itzler 53:07 And she's completely different. She-

Codie Sanchez 53:08 What does she need?

Jesse Itzler 53:10 She j- she, she needs more, um ... She needs to be heard.

Codie Sanchez 53:16 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 53:17 She needs to be heard.

Codie Sanchez 53:18 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 53:18 So I need to be a bit more of a listener.

Codie Sanchez 53:20 Interesting.

Jesse Itzler 53:20 And then, and then-

Codie Sanchez 53:21 Periods.

Jesse Itzler 53:22 Yeah, yeah.

Codie Sanchez 53:23 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 53:24 Yes.

Codie Sanchez 53:25 Okay.

Jesse Itzler 53:25 I need to shut up.

Codie Sanchez 53:26 Interesting.

Jesse Itzler 53:26 We've been married for 18 years, so now I know-

Codie Sanchez 53:28 Now you're, you've got it down.

Jesse Itzler 53:29 Mm-hmm.

Codie Sanchez 53:30 Interesting. So what was it like in the beginn- like, I know every relationship-

Jesse Itzler 53:35 Yesterday, Codie, yes- yesterday

Codie Sanchez 53:36 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 53:36 ... we were in, we were in the steam, I went in the steam room with my friends, and then Sarah went in there. And she couldn't figure out how to, how to shut the steam off.

Codie Sanchez 53:48 Uh-huh.

Jesse Itzler 53:48 So she left the door open, and all the steam flew, it was all over the h- like, it was like sh-

Codie Sanchez 53:55 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 53:56 It was like ... Our, and our steam room is like, it's like, it's like the m- it's like massively powerful. It's like whoosh. It's blowing steam the whole f- I'm like upstairs. I was like, "The fuck is steaming in here?"

Codie Sanchez 54:09 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 54:10 So I go down through the steam, and Sarah's in there like, la-di-da. And I'm like s- I'm like, "Sweetie, shut the door." And she's like, "I can't." She's like, "I don't know how to shut the fucking steam." Like, she was pissed.

Codie Sanchez 54:21 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 54:22 She's like, "And I'm trying to shut it off, and I can't shut it off, and its steam is going everywhere, and I'm here," and we're, like, arguing over it.

Codie Sanchez 54:27 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 54:28 And then, and like, she was, I was pissed at her and how she handled it, and she was yelling at me, and I'm yelling at her. And then, like, we went on our merry way, and then I called her. And I'm like, "I'm not mad at you. I'm not even mad at you. Are you mad at me?" She's like, "I was mad at you, but I'm not mad at you now."

Codie Sanchez 54:42 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 54:43 So, like, you know, you have to, in relationships, you, it's okay to get mad, but we're married. So I'm, I'm not gonna stay mad at her that she left the door open and the whole house has mold in it now.

Codie Sanchez 54:53 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 54:55 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 54:56 I'm not upset at all.

Jesse Itzler 54:57 I'm not mad at her.

Codie Sanchez 54:58 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 54:58 So I'm not even thinking about it a day later.

Codie Sanchez 55:00 [laughs] [paper rustles] Quick FYI, we've got just a few months before my first ever book is out in the world. If you wanna pre-order it for yourself or anyone you love, you can do that in the link in the show notes, or you can search it online. It's called Main Street Millionaire. You'll love it, I think it'll make you a lot of money, and I hope you guys pre-order it. [whoosh] Jess and I have been married for four years, together for seven, but we've known each other since we were 12. And I was married before, so I fucked it up once, and it's, like, very big on my list of do not fuck this up again. Uh, and

Codie Sanchez 55:30 I think one of the things that I love talking to people about have been married for a while and have kids is, like, the real of it. 'Cause, you know, we have a therapist. That was one of my things, like, with my first marriage. I tried to make that happen, and he wasn't really into it.

Jesse Itzler 55:41 I like the word coach. You have a coach.

Codie Sanchez 55:42 Uh, yeah. Yeah, exactly. We have a coach. Although our coach ... is doing this thing lately that I hate. I don't know if yours have ever done this. She's like, "Now I want you to stop and I want you to think about where do you feel it in your body?"

Jesse Itzler 55:57 That's a therapist.

Codie Sanchez 55:58 Oh, God.

Jesse Itzler 55:59 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 55:59 I about died last week. I'm like, and especially Chris, former Navy SEAL, you can only imagine what his face looks like. And then she says, I'm sorry, I won't say her name because she's great in many ways, but then she says, "Uh, I know you feel h- hot in your body. You feel heat. I want you to ask the heat what it wants to tell you." I was like, "I have to leave. I have to leave [laughs] this Zoom call." And that was not very helpful for me. And then-

Jesse Itzler 56:24 I'd have, I'd have a har- I'd have a hard time on, in that room.

Codie Sanchez 56:27 No.

Jesse Itzler 56:27 I'd have a hard time.

Codie Sanchez 56:28 So what kind of coach do you guys, have you ever used in your marriage? Have you ever?

Jesse Itzler 56:32 Um, we have ver- on very rare occasions-

Codie Sanchez 56:36 Interesting

Jesse Itzler 56:37 ... on, but on more specific topics.

Codie Sanchez 56:39 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 56:40 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 56:40 But it's almost like, "Hey, we're not communicating well here, so we wanna communicate better"?

Jesse Itzler 56:45 Yeah, like, or, or we have, we disagree on this.

Codie Sanchez 56:48 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 56:48 On, you know, um, on this particular thing, let's go to a specialist. So for us, just to be ca- it was like food. You know, like, I'm a, I was a vegan-

Codie Sanchez 56:58 Oh, man

Jesse Itzler 56:59 ... vegetarian.

Jesse Itzler 57:00 I eat super clean. Sarah has, eats a whole different lifestyle the way she eats, which is tot- doesn't bother me at all. It doesn't bother me one bit, but now we have four kids.

Codie Sanchez 57:09 Oh.

Jesse Itzler 57:09 So how do we wanna feed and raise our kids when it comes to food?

Codie Sanchez 57:12 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 57:12 And early on in the relationship, it was, I was all the way over here, and she was al- all the way over here, and that created a lot of, uh, you know, an uncomfortable environment. 'Cause guess what? You have to eat. And, and our, we're, we're eating three times a day, so we're having 1,000 meals and, you know, they're eating one way, or I want them to eat one way, and Sarah wants them to eat another. So we had to, we had to right size that. But you have to get in front of the problems. It's like crisis management 101-

Codie Sanchez 57:42 Mm

Jesse Itzler 57:42 ... is you get in front of the problems. You know, you can't let a small problem become a bigger problem. It doesn't magically disappear.

Codie Sanchez 57:50 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 57:51 So-

Codie Sanchez 57:51 What does that look like to get in front of a problem?

Jesse Itzler 57:54 You have to, you have to confront it-

Codie Sanchez 57:55 Mm

Jesse Itzler 57:55 ... and be like, and, and be solution driven rather than just ignore it. You know, humans, I'm non-confrontational, so for most things I'm like, "I just don't want to, I'll just, it's not a big deal. I don't wanna..." But it doesn't go away-

Codie Sanchez 58:08 Right

Jesse Itzler 58:09 ... unless you, unless you address it.

Codie Sanchez 58:10 Yeah, that's a good point. And you guys met later on in life, right?

Jesse Itzler 58:14 Yeah. We got married, I was 40. She was, Sarah was 37.

Codie Sanchez 58:17 And you, so what I find interesting, obviously young people today are getting married later than ever, um, to a lesser degree than ever before, and, uh, and I found when Chris and I came together that sometimes when two humans are so fully baked, there's hard parts about that. 'Cause I'm like, "No, no, no, I'm, like, a full adult human. I have operated like this for 31 years."

Jesse Itzler 58:38 Right.

Codie Sanchez 58:38 "I'm pretty good."

Jesse Itzler 58:39 Right.

Codie Sanchez 58:40 Were there ways that you came together to compromise that you think are, were

Codie Sanchez 58:45 helpful and necessary? 'Cause you, I imagine, are a strong personality, she, imagine, i- a strong, is a strong personality, and you're gonna have to figure out how to compromise somehow.

Jesse Itzler 58:53 Yeah. The one thing is we were very align- we're very different.

Codie Sanchez 58:56 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 58:56 Very different in certain regards. But the one thing that we, we're, we are very aligned on is values.

Codie Sanchez 59:04 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 59:04 And I think that's re- that's, like, super important. Before you get married, you don't talk about, like, food. Do you want your kids to be raised religious? Do you want your kids to go away to summer camp when they get older, if you can afford that? Do you want to... You know, there's a lot of things that we didn't discuss, like, ever. And then, like, you have, you have children and you're like, "Wow, we never even went over, like, our, how do you wanna discipline the kids? Do you wanna spank the kids, not spank the kids? Do you want to yell at them, not? What, what's our discipline protocol?"

Codie Sanchez 59:37 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 59:37 Like, we didn't go over any of that stuff. So we didn't have, you don't have a choice. You have to get aligned on that stuff. Um-

Codie Sanchez 59:45 What do you think is important for, like, a couple coming together?

Jesse Itzler 59:49 Values is really important. Like-

Codie Sanchez 59:50 And how do you define values? Is it your political party? Is it your religion?

Jesse Itzler 59:55 No, just like how you treat people and-

Codie Sanchez 59:58 Mm

Jesse Itzler 59:59 ... what, what matters, what doesn't matter. You know, values more, more like, or the hierarchy

Jesse Itzler 1:00:05 of what's important and what's not important. Um, values in family, in traditions, uh, in taking care of your parents. Like, just core values is really important.

Codie Sanchez 1:00:18 Yeah. You know, I read a study the other day that, um, increasingly young people, specifically women, which is interesting, but young people today don't want to marry or date somebody of the opposite political party, which I think is such a mistake. Because my parents were both, uh, you know, one of each, and, um, I do think in many ways we're forgetting this opposite attracts thing. You know, I was hanging out with, uh, a guy who I, I really admire a lot and have become buddies with, Sean Rad, who started Tinder. And it was interesting, he was saying that one of the byproducts of Tinder is this, is that increasingly in Tinder you can determine exactly what you want in a human.

Jesse Itzler 1:00:57 Right.

Codie Sanchez 1:00:58 And so because of that, you won't ever even get served what you might need. You only get served what you think you want, and a lot of us don't even know what we want.

Jesse Itzler 1:01:06 Right.

Codie Sanchez 1:01:06 And I thought that was really interesting because I find you and Sarah are really different, Chris and I are really different. I'm not sure we ever would've gotten matched on an app because we're like-

Jesse Itzler 1:01:15 Aren't there a lot of studies about, like, marriages that last long, longest are... I remember reading this. I could be wrong, but I, I remember reading that, that opposite more than, you know, similar last longer.

Codie Sanchez 1:01:27 That's what they say, yeah.

Jesse Itzler 1:01:28 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:01:28 It's more of two s- two, two parts fitting together.

Jesse Itzler 1:01:31 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:01:32 And you guys have some really cool stuff you seem to do as a family that I've just seen on social. Like, I remember seeing, um, a sign that you have for all the things you want on your birthday and all the things Sarah wants on her birthday. What's the deal with that?

Jesse Itzler 1:01:49 Uh, Father's Day and Mother's Day

Codie Sanchez 1:01:50 Oh, that's what it is

Jesse Itzler 1:01:51 ... Father's Day and Mother's Day.

Codie Sanchez 1:01:52 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 1:01:52 She gets to make a list of what she, how she wants her, her special day to be. And it was like, she wants to talk for an hour. It was all the Sarah things.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:00 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:02:01 And then mine was, like, all the Jesse things on Father's Day, like I wanna eat fruit, I wanna run, I wanna take a sauna. You know, I made a whole list. So our lists were so different. They were so different.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:13 But do you find some joy in coming together on the day, and you're like-

Jesse Itzler 1:02:15 Love it

Codie Sanchez 1:02:15 ... "I wanna listen."

Jesse Itzler 1:02:16 Of course.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:17 Ready, go.

Jesse Itzler 1:02:18 Of course. And, like, listen, I, I... The other thing about, about marriage is y- you have, we- I found that you have to let your partner be

Jesse Itzler 1:02:30 who they are.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:30 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 1:02:31 Y- you know? And, like, if Sarah loves to eat french fries and do that, do it. Like, I, if I, if I took that away from her, she would resent me.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:37 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 1:02:38 So she lets me do the things I love to do, and I let her do the things she loves to do, and we come together on the values and the stuff that we know that we do together.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:47 Yeah. You know what? That was one of the best things Chris brought-

Jesse Itzler 1:02:49 Sarah's super fun, by the way.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:50 I bet she is.

Jesse Itzler 1:02:51 Like, I'm married to someone like-

Codie Sanchez 1:02:52 She looks fun.

Jesse Itzler 1:02:53 It's not hard. I mean, i- it's, um... She's so fun. She's funny. You know, she, um, she's a great mom, she's a great business person. She gives great advice. She cares. Um, I've lost my dad, my sister, and my mom in the last two years, so having someone there-

Codie Sanchez 1:03:12 Oh, God

Jesse Itzler 1:03:12 ... you know, is really important, and she was super supportive. You know, and th- those are the things that, um, to me, are really important in a mar- in, for what I need in, in a marriage, you know? And, um, I like to have fun, you know? Like, you want your house to be a place of fun. And, um-

Codie Sanchez 1:03:30 I get that vibe from you

Jesse Itzler 1:03:31 ... so we, we check that, yeah, we check that box.

Codie Sanchez 1:03:33 Yeah. But I do like this idea of Chris always, um... Like, when we first started out, you know when you start dating somebody, and, uh, you know, they want you to hang out with all their friends and their family, and go do all these activities? In the beginning, I thought, yeah, like, that's what you're supposed to do. You have to come do all this stuff that my family wants to do, that I wanna do, because we're now in a relationship. And Chris actually taught me a lot about, do you? Like-

Jesse Itzler 1:03:55 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:03:56 Do we, is this a, what is need? Like, what is that word?

Jesse Itzler 1:03:59 Mm-hmm.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:00 And at first it bothered me. I was like, "Oh, I want them all to like you, and I want them to do whatever." And he's like, "Do I? I don't care, so, like, do you care? 'Cause then maybe we can do something."

Jesse Itzler 1:04:08 You know, I think every marriage i- listen, I'm not a marriage expert at all. I've only been married once.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:14 Next book. [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:04:14 I don't even know if

Jesse Itzler 1:04:15 I'm good at it. I really don't even know if I'm good at it. You'll have to interview Sarah. I don't even know.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:18 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:04:19 I'm doing the best that I can do, but I don't even know how good I am. I'm probably like just eight.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:22 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:04:23 Um, but every marriage is different. You know, couples have different needs, circumstances are different. I don't think there's, like, a one, a one size fits all at all. You do what works for you, you know, and for your family, and your, for your family unit, and that's based on years of family traditions. It's based on the personalities that are married. And don't worry about what everybody else is doing. Like, what works for you guys? Do you like watching Netflix every night? And that's fine. Do you like... You have to do what works for, for the unit.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:52 Yeah. I agree. I think sometimes, though, it's hard when you haven't had a role model. Like, your kids, I think, will probably be quite lucky to see the two of you and how you are in a marriage together, and get to take what they like and what they don't. And I think, uh, Chris's dad, uh, always said it best, or Chris always says it best to his mom and dad. He says, um, "Thanks for fucking me up enough to be a Navy SEAL, but not to be a stripper." [laughs] And-

Jesse Itzler 1:05:17 That's good

Codie Sanchez 1:05:17 ... I kinda like that, 'cause we're all gonna do that to our kids.

Jesse Itzler 1:05:20 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:05:20 And they're gonna resent something, I'm sure. Um, but I do think it's nice that you guys share some of this stuff, because when I was a kid, like, this is the class I wish we would've had. It's, my most precious thing is being married to Chris. Like, I feel very lucky about that, but I didn't really know what I was doing for a long time, and I think I was a nightmare sometimes. So I think it's cool that you share a bunch of this stuff on the internet.

Jesse Itzler 1:05:40 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:05:41 And you do it very much. You don't have a lot of, "I do this, so you should do that," in your vocabulary, that I've ever noticed.

Jesse Itzler 1:05:47 No. I mean, because I don't think I'm in a position to tell people that. I can tell people what works for me and show them what I do, and they can choose to, to do that or not. But I, yeah.

Jesse Itzler 1:06:00 You gotta be careful, man, like, when you give advice to people.

Codie Sanchez 1:06:03 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 1:06:03 You know? Like, you gotta, it comes with a, like I said, it comes with a lot of responsibility. Um, we're both in a space where, in personal development or whatever you wanna call it, and you gotta be careful.

Codie Sanchez 1:06:17 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 1:06:17 People are, like, listening, and, like, you gotta give them... So I try to just be like, "This is what I did, and this is what I'm doing," and show, don't tell. It's like, with my kids-

Codie Sanchez 1:06:28 Mm

Jesse Itzler 1:06:28 ... I'm, I'm not telling. I'm their dad, I'm not their coach, so I have to show them. You know, if I go outside and it's pouring rain out at 7:00 AM, and my kids say, and I come in, I'm like, "Oh, it, I don't care about the rain. I run every day. It doesn't matter. I don't even look at the weather. I'm going no matter what, so why would I look at the weather?" Then they're, they're now have that same thing. Like, you know, like, oh, it's freezing? My kids don't care.

Codie Sanchez 1:06:50 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 1:06:51 It, it, it does, it has no impact on them, because they see it from me all the time, cold plunging, sauna, running. Like, they, all, they see it.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:00 So one of my friends said, uh, entrepreneurship is a trauma response. [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:07:05 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:06 Do you think that's true?

Jesse Itzler 1:07:07 Um, it can be.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:09 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 1:07:10 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:10 Was it for you?

Jesse Itzler 1:07:13 I just started so ear... Like, I didn't have a choice.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:16 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 1:07:16 You know? Like, I didn't wanna work for anybody.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:19 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 1:07:19 I just always wanted to, like... I had three goals. I wanted to be able to, I said to myself, "If I could work, like, 50, 50 weeks a year on my own stuff but make enough money that I could take a two-week trip, it's worth it."

Codie Sanchez 1:07:31 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 1:07:31 I'm like, if I could take a two-week trip, are you kidding? So that was, like, one of the goals that I had. The second goal is I wanted to make enough money that I could have a swimming pool.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:41 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 1:07:41 I'm like, if I could have my... I don't have to go to a public swimming pool. I could go in my own pool, would be the coolest thing. And then I wanted be a, be able to grow my own fruit.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:51 Oh.

Jesse Itzler 1:07:51 Those were, like, my, those were my business goals. And then when I had those- I started, I crossed them off and I made new goals. And I've always been doing that.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:58 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 1:07:59 I've always been, like, kinda, after I hit the goals, making new goals and, and the bar kept going higher and higher.

Codie Sanchez 1:08:05 That's so interesting because I think a lot of times when people set goals, they set a really big first one.

Jesse Itzler 1:08:11 Which is fine. Which is fine. Mine weren't less about goals and more about, like, a wish list. Like-

Codie Sanchez 1:08:17 Hmm

Jesse Itzler 1:08:18 ... I think it's important that people have, like, like, if I gave you $10 million tomorrow, or anyone listening, are you crystal clear on what you would do with that money? Like, what would you do? You should. Like, what are you working for? Like, you should have, like, an idea of, like, well, what do you want? I had a friend of mine that was, like, going through a tough time, and I said to him, I was like, "Brian, man, if I wired you $10 million, what would you do?" He's like, "Oh, I would move to California tomorrow." And I'm like, "That's great. Why?" He's like, "Oh, I always wanted to live in California," and he's like in his mid-50s. I'm like, "Brian, no one's wiring you $10 million. If you wanna go to California, figure out a way to go, go move to California." I think, like, a lot of people, what you, like, a lot of the things that we wanna do, we could probably do now.

Codie Sanchez 1:09:04 Yep.

Jesse Itzler 1:09:04 You know?

Codie Sanchez 1:09:05 Yeah. Okay, um, I wanna close out with a few little rapid-fire questions, which are, um, what do you think the secret is to staying in love while running multiple businesses? These are questions people asked from the, from the group.

Jesse Itzler 1:09:22 Really?

Codie Sanchez 1:09:22 Yeah. What do you think the secret is to staying in love-

Jesse Itzler 1:09:24 I can, I assure you, that did not come from a man.

Codie Sanchez 1:09:27 [laughs] It was probably a woman. [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:09:29 So, uh, read it

Jesse Itzler 1:09:30 to me again.

Codie Sanchez 1:09:30 What is the secret to staying in love while running businesses?

Jesse Itzler 1:09:35 Um, just, like, my wife has a hashtag, just love him, just love her.

Codie Sanchez 1:09:40 Oh.

Jesse Itzler 1:09:40 You have to just let your partner be who they are, and, you know, um, do what they like to do. You can't... Otherwise, it creates resentment. But communication's really important. You know, like, not like just transactional communication like, "Hey Chris, did you take out the garbage?" But more like, "Chris, how you feeling today, man? Like, what's going on?" You know? I think is really important.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:03 What have you spent the most money on ever that made you the happiest?

Jesse Itzler 1:10:08 These are great questions. Um, I just bought a farm, and that... But up until that point, and that made me really happy because that, as the goals got bigger, the wish list, that was on my wish list. And I bought an RV. Those two things made me insanely happy because they're like in- great memory makers for my family.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:30 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 1:10:30 But up until then, I really didn't spend money on anything. I don't, I don't have a lot of wants. I like bikes, so I, like, collect bikes. I, I love buying bicycles and, um, and saunas. [laughs] I have a great bike and sauna collection. I don't have any fancy art, no fancy watches.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:47 Yeah, that's right.

Jesse Itzler 1:10:48 I don't really have a lot of, uh... I don't really ha- I like to... I'm pretty simple.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:52 Are you gonna put, like, some goats and horses and stuff on the-

Jesse Itzler 1:10:54 Yeah, we got goats, chickens.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:56 I love goats.

Jesse Itzler 1:10:56 Yeah, I love goats.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:58 Interesting. Are you gonna get the funny chickens with, like, the hair and the hairy feet?

Jesse Itzler 1:11:01 I'm getting all of it.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:01 Have you seen those? Goats, yes.

Jesse Itzler 1:11:03 Hairy, yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:03 Though a good friend of mine, Tim Kennedy, is, like, the hardest man ever. Do you know Tim?

Jesse Itzler 1:11:07 I think I do.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:09 Yeah, he's incredible. He's a former... Oh, no, no, no, current, uh, God, I always mess this up. Either an Army Ranger or Green Beret, but he wrote the, the book, um, Scars and Stripes.

Jesse Itzler 1:11:17 Okay.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:17 Anyway, he's based here. He's an incredible human. But, uh, he's, like, obsessed with chickens. He's, like, the most murdery man that is obsessed with protecting his little flock.

Jesse Itzler 1:11:26 Stop it.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:27 Yeah, it's the cutest thing ever.

Jesse Itzler 1:11:27 I love that.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:28 Yeah, so he sends me chicken videos all the time. Incredible thing. Um, ok- oh, this one was interesting. Uh, how do you give a speech to get a standing ovation, based on our conversation before?

Jesse Itzler 1:11:40 Uh, I think it's really important, the way I approach it is I wanna make people laugh, I wanna leave people inspired-

Codie Sanchez 1:11:50 Mm

Jesse Itzler 1:11:50 ... and give them actionable takeaways to make something better, and I wanna make them cry. When I say that, I mean, like, I wanna make them emotional-

Codie Sanchez 1:11:58 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 1:11:58 ... is a better way to say it, than make them cry. I'm not trying to make people cry. It's not, that's the wrong, uh, that came out the wrong way. Emotional. Like, there has to be an emotional... A good speech is a big emotional closing and-

Codie Sanchez 1:12:11 Mm

Jesse Itzler 1:12:11 ... um, gives people actionable ta- ble takeaways, and entertains

Jesse Itzler 1:12:15 them. Those are the three things that I think are the most important things.

Codie Sanchez 1:12:19 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 1:12:19 You wanna entertain, inspire, give them takeaways, and have a big emotional close.

Codie Sanchez 1:12:23 Do you have a good joke in it?

Jesse Itzler 1:12:25 Humor's really important, too, but I tell a lot of stories, and just by-

Codie Sanchez 1:12:29 That are funny

Jesse Itzler 1:12:30 ... my... Yeah, the stories are usually funny.

Codie Sanchez 1:12:31 Yeah. And you have a DJ that's with you-

Jesse Itzler 1:12:33 I do

Codie Sanchez 1:12:33 ... on stage.

Jesse Itzler 1:12:33 When I write a speech, I wanna make sure that there's enough humor throughout it because humor and stories are gonna keep the audience engaged.

Codie Sanchez 1:12:41 Yeah. I also read-

Jesse Itzler 1:12:42 But the-

Codie Sanchez 1:12:42 ... a study they make you remember things better.

Jesse Itzler 1:12:44 They do.

Codie Sanchez 1:12:44 Like, 30% better-

Jesse Itzler 1:12:45 100

Codie Sanchez 1:12:45 ... recollection.

Jesse Itzler 1:12:46 But Codie, the most important thing is to tell stories in a speech that only you can tell.

Codie Sanchez 1:12:52 Yeah.

Jesse Itzler 1:12:52 So, if I say, you know, "Hey, you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable," a million people can say that. But if I say, you know, "I rode my bike across the United States of America, and let me tell you what I learned about being uncomfortable from it," like, you know-

Codie Sanchez 1:13:09 Yeah

Jesse Itzler 1:13:09 ... it's, it's unique to me. It's a story that only I can tell. And that, that is really important in giving talks.

Codie Sanchez 1:13:17 Yeah. You seem like a story collector.

Jesse Itzler 1:13:19 Yeah. I am.

Codie Sanchez 1:13:20 You know? And your life is kind of a, a, a version of that. This one was interesting. Um, have you ever done Brazilian jujitsu?

Jesse Itzler 1:13:28 I would love to. I haven't. I took Krav Maga, but I never did Brazilian jujitsu.

Codie Sanchez 1:13:34 So, Krav Maga is, like, the Israeli martial art?

Jesse Itzler 1:13:36 Yeah, self-defense. You can-

Codie Sanchez 1:13:36 It's like you can-

Jesse Itzler 1:13:37 'Cause you can learn... What's good about Krav Maga is you can learn the basics and the foundations in, like, 30 hours.

Codie Sanchez 1:13:42 Whoa.

Jesse Itzler 1:13:43 As opposed to, um... But yeah, I would love to do that. I haven't done it yet.

Codie Sanchez 1:13:47 We have a big audience of people that are obsessed with BJJ-

Jesse Itzler 1:13:50 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 1:13:50 ... and they ask this question a lot, which I think is funny. And then I think the last one is, you know, if you were chatting with somebody who was young Jesse today, world's a lot different, but what would you leave them with?

Jesse Itzler 1:14:03 God, Codie. Jesus, these are like, this is, this is, these are really good questions. And you just, and the way you said it, you said, "What would you leave them with?"

Codie Sanchez 1:14:13 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:14:13 Like, you said it like I, like-

Codie Sanchez 1:14:15 Don't fuck it up-

Jesse Itzler 1:14:15 Um [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:14:16 ... is what I'm saying here.

Jesse Itzler 1:14:17 Exactly.

Codie Sanchez 1:14:17 You know? You get one shot.

Jesse Itzler 1:14:19 I just think, you know, this is an obvious answer, but we have one life. For me, I don't wanna, I don't want to be 85, 90 years old and look back on my journey and be like, "I was the 80% version of myself." You know? Like, I don't wanna be, no one wants to be the 80% version of themselves.

Codie Sanchez 1:14:38 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 1:14:39 So I think it's really important to, to live a life that prevents that. You know, that you're excited about, you're writing, you know, you're, you, you're the author of your story-

Codie Sanchez 1:14:50 Mm

Jesse Itzler 1:14:50 ... and that you're writing a really good story that you're proud of. I'll leave you, I'll leave you with this story.

Codie Sanchez 1:14:56 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 1:14:57 Um, when my, when... So my parents passed away.

Jesse Itzler 1:15:00 When, when your parents pass away, um, they lived, my parents lived in a hou- we lived, we lived, my brother, and my sister, and I decided to sell my parents' house, like, we weren't gonna keep it. So what happens is someone comes in, like, we sell the house, but now we have to get rid of all the 90 years of possessions that are in the house. The silverware, the mirror that's on the wall. You know, e- everything has to go so that the new owner comes into a, a house with nothing in it. So the estate people come and they start, you know, pricing out the cou- "We'll give you this for the couch. We'll put this in an auction. We'll give this. We'll donate this." They go through everything, and then the guy comes, and he goes through the pictures, and, "We'll g- we'll give you 500 for this. This goes here. We'll sell this." And then the book guy comes, and we have, like, my mom had, like, a thousand, like, so many books. And he's going through the book one by one-

Codie Sanchez 1:15:50 Wow

Jesse Itzler 1:15:50 ... writing how much they're worth, and this, what they're gonna do with the books. And then a couple of hours in, he hands my brother a book, and he says, "You need to see this." So my brother opens it up. It's not a book. It's a hollow carved out book with a safe in it, like out of a Mission Impossible, James Bond movie. So he opens it up. It's hollow. There's some old credit cards from 20 or 30 years ago that expired, and there's a note. And the note says, "If anything happens to me, here's a combination to the safe. Here's an address. You're the only one that has this combination." So my brother calls me up. He's like, "We have a situation." Like, he's like, "I don't, maybe mom left us Apple stock." I don't know what.

Codie Sanchez 1:16:30 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:16:30 Like, like, like, at $2, like w- And then I said, "What's the address on the note?" So he gives me the address. I'm like, "That's my house in Connec- I wrote that mo- note to mom 25 years ago when, when I bought this house, and I had some valuable stuff in the safe in case something happened to me." So that week happened to be, um, Labor Day weekend, so I, I was at the house in Connecticut. So I went down in the safe, I opened it up, and in the safe, this is a true story, in the safe was a book, and the book was an autobiography that my grandfather wrote in 1974. And so I read the book, 54 pages, and it, it's for, it's, we could do a whole other podcast episode on it, but it, he really left all these lessons through his autobiography for his kids, his grandkids, his, and, and generations. And my fa- you know, my parents are gone, my grandfather's gone, but the stories live on forever. And the, you know, the stories that we create, you just went through a whole hou- I don't even know how long we've been, we could've been here 15 minutes-

Codie Sanchez 1:17:41 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:17:41 ... or two, I have no idea.

Codie Sanchez 1:17:42 Three years.

Jesse Itzler 1:17:43 But all the stories that we went through, oh, the Marquis Jet, running in the costume, in the Zico costume, and, you know, the thing with Sarah, all these, all these little th- they're just stories that we've collected. They're, they're nothing more than... It, it's all gonna go away. Everything's going away, but your legacy-

Codie Sanchez 1:18:01 Mm

Jesse Itzler 1:18:01 ... is the stories that you create, that you pass down to your friends, family, kids, or the book that you leave in the safe. And that w- is what I would say, like, at the end of the day, y- y- you know, what, what is that book gonna look like for you in the safe?

Codie Sanchez 1:18:16 Mm.

Jesse Itzler 1:18:16 You know, like, what, what are the stories that are gonna be in there? And, and how do you, how do you write the best ones? And it's not gonna be the Zoom calls. It's not gonna be that. It's gonna be what's on your calendar in yellow that you're excited about, you know, that you look back and be like, "Yeah, Chris did Rim to Rim to Rim." If you ask him, "Chris, name 10 things you did in 2024," he probably couldn't. Like, "What'd you do in January?" "I have no fucking idea." But he'll never forget Rim to Rim to Rim.

Codie Sanchez 1:18:47 You're so right. So do y- are you gonna write a book like that for your kids?

Jesse Itzler 1:18:52 Uh, for sure, but I'm also, I, I am a story b- like, I am in, so deeply invested in spending my money on experiences.

Codie Sanchez 1:19:03 Mm-hmm.

Jesse Itzler 1:19:03 Like, I am so deeply invested. I'm going on a sauna tour of Finland with 10 friends in February. I rode my bike across 10, America with 10 friends last year. I, you know, I'm going on trips with my fa- like, I went, I got s- scuba certified with my son. I've been to Africa and Fiji, all with my family, over the last six months, and, uh, New Zealand. Like, it, because that's what I want.

Codie Sanchez 1:19:29 That's the book.

Jesse Itzler 1:19:29 Yeah, that's, that's everything.

Codie Sanchez 1:19:31 Wow.

Jesse Itzler 1:19:32 Now, easy for me to say, right? I have, I have the ability to do it, and I can afford to do it. But even when I was 21, sleeping on couches, I was going to Coney Island's Polar Plunge, which was free. I was going to free stuff in New York City. I was going to the rallies. I was going to this. I was out there. I wasn't sitting on my, on, on the couch watching the Kardashians.

Codie Sanchez 1:19:54 No, you were-

Jesse Itzler 1:19:55 I was out-

Codie Sanchez 1:19:55 ... 14-

Jesse Itzler 1:19:56 ... doing it, man

Codie Sanchez 1:19:57 ... you were in DC-

Jesse Itzler 1:19:58 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 1:19:58 ... breakdancing.

Jesse Itzler 1:19:59 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:19:59 Which actually made you-

Jesse Itzler 1:20:00 Nothing wrong with the Kardashians.

Codie Sanchez 1:20:01 [laughs]

Jesse Itzler 1:20:02 But I wasn't doing that.

Codie Sanchez 1:20:03 No, I think, I think you're right. I remember I threw my first protest when I was 15, and, uh-

Jesse Itzler 1:20:08 I wanna throw, went to a protest.

Codie Sanchez 1:20:10 Yeah. You haven't thrown a protest yet? Get it together.

Jesse Itzler 1:20:13 No.

Codie Sanchez 1:20:13 On the bucket list, 2025.

Jesse Itzler 1:20:16 Will you come?

Codie Sanchez 1:20:16 I'm in. I will hold a sign. I'll make the signs. I protested, uh, or I was on student government, and the dean of the school, or what, the principal, that's what you called it back then, the principal, uh, wanted to get rid of half of our... What's that called where you go in between classes, like, the time-

Jesse Itzler 1:20:34 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 1:20:34 ... not recess, but-

Jesse Itzler 1:20:34 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Codie Sanchez 1:20:35 ... whatever it is.

Jesse Itzler 1:20:36 Yeah, yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:20:36 And I said, "That's ridiculous. We need that time."

Jesse Itzler 1:20:39 Absolutely.

Codie Sanchez 1:20:39 "We sit in these chairs all day. I need to be connecting with people. We have things to do." And so we threw a protest and invited the news sources. But it, funny to look back in retrospect on these-

Jesse Itzler 1:20:48 I love it

Codie Sanchez 1:20:48 ... little signs. Yeah. But you know what? Cost me nothing. I'll remember it forever, and I think that's a beautiful thing for people to realize today. It's not just about the bank account that you have at some point, it's this story bank that you have.

Jesse Itzler 1:21:02 Right. It's true.

Codie Sanchez 1:21:04 Jesse-

Jesse Itzler 1:21:04 It's true

Codie Sanchez 1:21:04 ... you're the man. Thank you for being here.

Jesse Itzler 1:21:06 Codie, thanks for having me, man.

Codie Sanchez 1:21:07 Ah, it's so good, that story. Obviously more inspiration than, I don't know, I got in a four-year college degree. So if you also are getting inspired to do better, be better, hit that subscribe button, share this video, share the audio. Let's get more people into this wild world where, ah, we actually believe you can do things, as opposed to have to be told what to do every second of every day. I hope you guys liked this podcast. Let me know in the comments. On YouTube, we read every single one. I read every review you guys leave, so please comment or leave a review so I can hear what you liked about this podcast or not, and we keep making it better for you. [upbeat music]