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The Joe Rogan ExperienceThe Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan Experience #1480 - Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart is a comedian, actor and producer. His new audiobook "The Decision: Overcoming Today's BS for Tomorrow's Success" is available now on Audible.

Joe RoganhostKevin HartguestEddie Murphyguest
May 25, 20202h 1mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:04

    Hustle energy and why Kevin’s mindset inspires people

    1. JR

      You come in here moving and shaking, man. You come in here making deals. You're on the phone already.

    2. KH

      (inhales deeply) Gotta do it, y'all.

    3. JR

      You're always moving.

    4. KH

      I mean, is there anything else to do?

    5. JR

      (laughs)

    6. KH

      Is there anything else to do besides move?

    7. JR

      Not if you wanna get ahead.

    8. KH

      No, no. Especially not now, man. Hunters hunt-

    9. JR

      Yes.

    10. KH

      ... those that don't get ate.

    11. JR

      The last time you were here, man, that was one of the most inspirational podcasts I've ever done.

    12. KH

      It was a great time.

    13. JR

      I left that... I literally had a shift in the way I was looking at things. Like, you put an extra gear in my step that day. I was like, "Oh!" I love being around people like you.

    14. KH

      My guy.

    15. JR

      S- people around you, y- y- people like you, you're g- you're going for shit all the time and it's infectious. It's like a... You're, you- you give off energy. And when people are around you, they wanna g- they wanna get shit done too. They wanna hustle.

    16. KH

      It's contagious.

    17. JR

      Yes! Yes!

    18. KH

      It's contagious. It's not, it's not just me putting it out. I think that, uh, the last time I was here, our conversation was such a great conversation because there was, there was... We both had point of views, right? And when we shared the point of views, you elevated the other person's POV. Like, when we were talking and I was telling you why I live the way I live, why I am the way I am, you spring boarded and you said, "Yeah, because Kev, for me, I've been doing this." And, and we had this yin-

    19. JR

      Hmm.

    20. KH

      ... and yang thing going.

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. KH

      And it, and it drove the conversation. I told you, you know, before we jumped on, one of the, the best interviews that I've ever done and from a feedback perspective with people that just loved what the discussion was, uh, loved the tone of the interview, the things that were said, um, felt inspired, motivated after, um, it was just great all around for me. Checked all the boxes.

    23. JR

      It was for me too, and I got a bunch of great responses from my friends. From fr- that's when I know it's good, when I get friends and my friends are all like, pretty unanimous. They're like, "That is a motivational motherfucker."

    24. KH

      Wow.

    25. JR

      Like, "That dude gets shit done." When people hear th- stuff like you, like someone who's o- excited about life, excited about doing things, you know, there's something about that, that... It's fuel. It's fuel for p- we, we need that. Everyone needs that.

  2. 2:04 – 5:27

    “Information is selfish now”: sharing real lessons vs fake motivation

    1. KH

      You know, I don't even... This is, this is not a cheesy segue. All right? This just makes sense from what you just said. What you just said is the reason why I did the decision. You said, "People need that. (clicks tongue) It's fuel."

    2. JR

      Yes.

    3. KH

      Right? I feel that in today's time, what people are most selfish with is information.

    4. JR

      Hmm.

    5. KH

      Nobody wants to give information. You gotta ask for it. If you ask for it, then all right, maybe, maybe I'll tell you some stuff, but it's a search and find.

    6. JR

      You mean real good information?

    7. KH

      Real information, information about how to get to success. That's the, that's the want from everybody across the board on some level.

    8. JR

      Right.

    9. KH

      Okay? Everybody's success is different. This doesn't mean fame and, and stars. I'm not talking about that level of success for everything. I'm saying whatever your version of success is, to get to it, information from someone that's done it or that's partaken in it in some degree will only add to the value of your journey.

    10. JR

      Hmm.

    11. KH

      It's only going to make it easier. It's not to say that you gotta do what they said, but bi- with that information, you're able to process it. Maybe use it, maybe not.

    12. JR

      Right.

    13. KH

      But you got it.

    14. JR

      Right.

    15. KH

      That's what I wanted to do. I said, "Yo, I got, I got a fucking... I got a life. I got a hell of a life that I've lived full of ups, downs, potholes, cobblestone, speed bumps, flat road, U-turns, some smack brick walls that I've ran into."

    16. JR

      (laughs)

    17. KH

      Uh, you know, some revolving doors of back and forth. And through it all, my mental has only gotten better because I feel like I've been in, I've been in a mental gym. The mental fitness that, that coincides with life, you know, it should get better. It sh- you should get wiser. You should get smarter. You should be able to make better decisions. And all of my decisions came from the massive amount of fuck-ups and I can now share those fuck-ups. I can now share the rights and the wrongs and the way that I handle all of the things that I've done. And people can just take that information and go, "Wow, I never looked at it like that."

    18. JR

      Well, it gives them a better view of the landscape.

    19. KH

      Yeah!

    20. JR

      Especially when someone like you... You, you almost seem like an unattainable person. Like, "How, how, how does he do that? How is he doing that? How does this guy go from Philadelphia to be one of the biggest movie stars in the world? How does he become one of the biggest standup comedy stars ever? How the fuck do you do that?" Y- you almost seem like an alien-

    21. KH

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      ... you know, to people on the outside. But then when they hear you talk about your real life and t- talk about these fuck-ups and talk about these successes and talk about the lessons that you've learned, man, that's fuel for folks in a way that nothing else is because it's... Th- there's a lot of people that are bullshitting online. There's a lot of these motivational speakers that haven't done shit. And it's a, it's a weird thing. It's like they're, they're trying to give you motivation by, like, sort of reciting things that they think are gonna work or if they-

    23. KH

      That they think-

    24. JR

      Yeah.

    25. KH

      ... that they think you wanna hear.

    26. JR

      But they haven't done anything.

    27. KH

      (laughs) I ha-

    28. JR

      But someone who's done something, when you say it, people are gonna listen. They're gonna go, "Oh." And you're so honest about everything.

    29. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    30. JR

      Which is every-... That's everything to people because when you are pure, when you, your, your, your words are pure, people take them right in. They come right in. There's no, there's no like, "Oh, this guy's kind of fucking selling me something." "Oh, this guy's kinda full of shit."

  3. 5:27 – 9:37

    Financial literacy mission: Advancing Black Pathways with JPMorgan Chase

    1. KH

      I got, I got nothing to sell. I had a, uh, I had a talk with Chase, like, uh, Chase, JPMorgan Chase are partners of mine, and we were doing this... Well, not we were, we are. We're doing this thing called Advancing Black Pathways, right? Where we're trying to cure financial illiteracy in the black community. We've been... We're on like year number two right now, right? And there was a conversation where, you know, they wanted to have said bankers go and talk to the kids in the inner city. And I was like, "You can't, you can't send...... a white man that works for JPMorgan Chase to the inner city of said community, hood, whatever, to talk to these young black kids that has no idea about the life that the black kids are living. I said, "What you need is people that have actually come from these environments, they have made it out of the environments, and now understand how money works. Because now when I talk to you, I'm not talking to you with hypotheticals, and I'm not preaching to you about what you should do and what you gotta do." I said, "I'm telling you what I did that didn't work. I'm telling you how I fucked off money, and I'm telling you what I didn't know." Hey guys, here's a fact. There is no education that comes with money in the black communities. It doesn't. You can go search for it. There, there isn't one. It does not exist. There is no one that is outright teaching the kids in a black community how to operate financially, how to set up for your future. There is nobody talking to you about ownership, homes, mortgages, investments, stocks, bo- that doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. It's not until you get outta that environment, that you meet some people that are planning their life accordingly, that you start to ask questions. It's not till maybe college, and on the later side of it, that you're with people that are getting jobs in the future that you start to do it. There is no prep or education at a young age. I said, "So you need a, you need a fucking man that can go there and go, 'Hey man, lemme tell you all why y'all gotta stop taking these free credit cards. Lemme tell you why you gotta stop putting a cable in somebody else's name and continuing to fuck it up. Let me tell you why you gotta stop being okay with not having a bank account. Let me tell you why you gotta stop using the check cashing places.'" There's nobody giving that information.

    2. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    3. KH

      I said, "That's what I am. So if we're going to have a relationship, let's build it off of something authentic. Let's build it off of something that people can go, 'I get that.'" Since then, to go back to your point, my relationship has been based on me telling the truth. I told JPMorgan Chase, "I want to go to the inner city and I wanna have these discussions, but let me have 'em my way. I don't wanna have it in a JPMorgan Chase way." And I gotta credit them for backing me, because they aligned me with other people that shared the same stories, that have achieved certain levels of success, that speak to the same thing. So everything that I've done, everything that I'm trying to do, when I do talk about it, I come proven. I'm only talking about this because I really got knowledge about it. I don't got knowledge about it because i'm the smartest motherfucker in the world. That's not where the knowledge is coming from, Joe. My knowledge is coming from, "Hey man, yo, don't walk through door number one."

    4. JR

      (laughs)

    5. KH

      I walked through that door.

    6. JR

      There's a monster in there.

    7. KH

      Yeah, there's a bunch of shit in that door.

    8. JR

      (laughs)

    9. KH

      It wasn't till I came out-

    10. JR

      Yeah.

    11. KH

      ... that door that I saw those monsters that I knew the other monsters weren't as bad in door number two. But door number three is finally where you should go. I messed up, man. I went to the first two doors wrong. Why can't I give that to somebody that, that hasn't experienced those doors yet? Why can't I just give that information and possibly prevent them from walking into those doors?

    12. JR

      And that's what's really valuable for people listening.

    13. KH

      Yeah, man.

    14. JR

      That's what's really valuable.

    15. KH

      Yes.

    16. JR

      Someone who's actually done it and done it wrong and done it right. And like, "Hey listen, I fucked up. This is how I fucked up." That, that means so much to people. It really ... You're, you're advancing people's possibilities.

  4. 9:37 – 11:03

    Opening new doors: responsibility to set up the next generation

    1. KH

      It's, I think that's what life should be about.

    2. JR

      Yes.

    3. KH

      If, if as, as adults, as adults, we have a job to do, whether you wanna admit it or not. Your job is to set up the next generation. That's our job.

    4. JR

      Right.

    5. KH

      Whether you wanna fucking admit it or not. It, it's your kids, it's your friends, it's whomever. You're supposed to live a certain way, do certain things to set up for the next generation to come and to be able to do better. If you don't, then you're not doing your part. And if the world never fucking grows, you gotta raise your hand and be responsible.

    6. JR

      Hmm.

    7. KH

      'Cause you're a part of the lag.

    8. JR

      Yeah.

    9. KH

      You're a part of the delay. If we look up in 15, 20 years and we in the same spot, well, that means that our fucking groundbreakers that was doing all the shit during that 15, 20 years never shared the information so that these new people could come through and break new ground.

    10. JR

      Yeah.

    11. KH

      Somebody gotta do more than what the fuck I did. I don't care who it is.

    12. JR

      Right.

    13. KH

      But you gotta do more.

    14. JR

      Right.

    15. KH

      Somebody gotta fucking do more. Somebody gotta break these records and-

    16. JR

      You already blazed the trail.

    17. KH

      Yeah. That's, all I did-

    18. JR

      Keep going.

    19. KH

      All I did was show you, "Hey man, hey, they stopped here, but I kept going to the left and I started to haul ass and look what I found. Now that I'm over here, that means there's more."

  5. 11:03 – 18:31

    The career “takeoff” moment: Shaq’s All Star Comedy Jam and the Caroline’s explosion

    1. JR

      Did you have a time in your life where you realized that you were doing the right thing? Like a time in your life where you realized, like i- i- in your comedy career in particular, where you realize like, "Uh, I'm getting some fucking traction. Like, this is really rolling." Like in the beginning you probably, like all of us, were not sure what was gonna happen. You're trying, you know, you're doing open mics, you're trying to make it.

    2. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    3. JR

      But was there a time where you're like, "This approach is, this is happening. I've got traction."?

    4. KH

      It was when I think, I think the, the noticing of, oh shit, oh, something's happening right now. And it's, it's, this is ... I think this is success. I think, I think I'm, I think I'm in it.

    5. JR

      Was it around the time of your first special? Like when was it?

    6. KH

      It wasn't. It was when I did the Shaq All Star Comedy Jam.

    7. JR

      Ah.

    8. KH

      I was just, I just told somebody this story. I was talking to Gary Owens actually, a good friend of mine, comedian. And we were talking about the past and, you know, Gary was like, "Kev, there was a moment where you just fucking just, just ran past everyone." And he was like, "I don't remember exactly what it was that did it." He said, "I just remember looking up and you were gone."

    9. JR

      (laughs)

    10. KH

      And I remember it was the Shaq-... All Star Comedy Jam. The lineup was Cedric the Entertainer, he was hosting. It was DeRay Davis, Tommy Davidson, um, and myself.

    11. JR

      That's a hell of a lineup.

    12. KH

      It was DeRay Davidson, Tommy Davidson, myself. Cedric the Entertainer was the host. And i closed out this show, and I remember going to do the show, it was in Phoenix, it was in the round, and I had to do, this is when I was about to tape Seriously Funny, my next special after Growing a Little Man. So, Seriously Funny, I was taping it in like four months. It was already on the books. So this is th- this is supposed to be it. This is my big coming out party. This has to be it, man. You know, I feel like I'm ready, I've been working hard, my jokes are hitting, I'm raw, I'm edgy. This is it. This is the one. I'm fucking funny, seriously. That's why I titled that Seriously Funny. I was- I was- I was ready. I get the call from Jeff Flanagan, "Shaq's All Star Comedy Jam, we're taping it, Kev. Dude, it's like 15, 20 minutes. You know, can you do it for me?" And Jeff and I had a relationship, and I was like, "Jeff, I'm about to tape my special. I don't want to burn that material." He's like, "Kev, look, you can use some other stuff. 15, 20 minutes, we tape it, but, you know, these things get some good traction, good views. It's some good eye candy. You should just have it out there." "All right, whatever." I wasn't even taking it serious. This was not something that I was taking serious, and this is an example of sometimes you don't know what it's going to be. You don't know what the fuel in a rocket is going to be.

    13. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    14. KH

      You just gotta fucking buckle up and be prepared for the takeoff. Now, if it take off and you don't know where the seat belts are and you don't know where the lights and shit at, well, now you got a fucked up rocket ride.

    15. JR

      (laughs)

    16. KH

      You gonna, you gonna crash. It's over. It's over if you're not ready.

    17. JR

      Yeah.

    18. KH

      I do it, this thing airs, and I remember watching it, and at the end of the show, something so small seemed so fucking big. I say goodnight, I put up two fingers, and as I'm walking off the stage, they put it in slow motion. They put me in slow motion walking off the stage, and there was a separation from everything else that was on there. It was almost like, this guy's the- the guy. It was- it was a, it was a small tweak in editing. I had nothing to do with it. I just saw it. And the slow motion walk off, the crowd getting up, clapping, you see people's faces slow motion, pointing, screaming, and I'm walking off with like a bob, and it was almost like a- a- a- a coined, this is it, this is going to be the guy. I didn't do it. I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't know it was gonna happen. God bless the editors. God bless the Shaq All Star Comedy Jam. After that aired, I remember doing a show at Caroline's. Yo, this is a true fucking story. Shout out to Louis from Caroline's Comedy Club. I was just doing a weekend. Weekend, you're supposed to be doing, you know, three shows. We sold out 15 shows.

    19. JR

      (laughs)

    20. KH

      We sold out 15 fucking shows. (laughs)

    21. JR

      How the fuck could you do that?

    22. KH

      I was- we didn't know. Listen, how-

    23. JR

      Over how many days?

    24. KH

      ... what do you, we was there for like eight days.

    25. JR

      (laughs)

    26. KH

      (laughs) We were there for like eight days. You can, Louis can confirm this. Caroline's Comedy Club.

    27. JR

      That's crazy.

    28. KH

      Michael Berkowitz can confirm this. That's my public appearance agent. We just kept getting calls. It... "We're gone. We just put the tickets up for another show, they're gone." "What?" "Uh, what do you wanna do? We can add another. You wanna try to do a- a Wednesday night?" "Yeah, go ahead." "It's gone. Kevin, we added the Wednesday. It's gone." "What do you wanna do? You wanna see if we can add a- a late show Wednesday?" "Yeah, fuck it, I guess." "It's gone." Tuesday, it went Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. We was in that bitch 'til goddamn Wednesday.

    29. JR

      Holy shit.

    30. KH

      15 shows, Caroline's Comedy Club.

  6. 18:31 – 22:08

    Go-getter wiring, the “life is a game” philosophy, and curiosity as a superpower

    1. JR

      Is this something you always had, the go get?

    2. KH

      I got... I always had that. Always had that. I told you before, that's my mom. RIP Nancy Hart. Don't tell me I can't do something, 'cause now I'm pissed.

    3. JR

      (laughs)

    4. KH

      Now, now I'm gonna do it. Don't tell me that. And that's a gift and curse.

    5. JR

      Yes.

    6. KH

      That's a gift and a curse. Like, you saw in the, in the doc, I don't know if you saw, but in my documentary, I put it all out there, that's a curse. "Kev, don't put that video up. Don't do that." Don't tell me what the fuck not to do. I'm gonna do it. And sometimes it don't do what you think it was gonna do. You don't know everything.

    7. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    8. KH

      You don't know everything and you're not that great to think that you do know everything. And you can get bit in the ass by thinking that. But you gotta get bit to go, "Oh, let me get better at that."

    9. JR

      Yes.

    10. KH

      So, my go get comes from me just saying, w- what's my reason not to go after everything that I possibly can? I will stand on a fucking building to say this, man. It's a game. This, this thing is serious, but it's got a game-like quality to it, this thing called life.

    11. JR

      Mm.

    12. KH

      It's got a game-like quality to it and if you don't fucking see that, you better open your eyes. You better open your fucking eyes, because in this life, the moves that we're making allow you to do more, to, to get more, to see more, travel more, e- explore, experience. Or some people are dealt a different hand and it's tougher. It's a darker road and it's... Damn it, it's... Fuck, I'm, I wanna get out of this. I can't. I'm doing... Ah. How do I get out? Fuck, I made it. Oh. It looked like I wasn't supposed to get out, but I'm out. Everybody said, "You can't get out of this shit." I did. I'm out. I'm out. I'm one of the people that got out. It's, it's a fucking... It's got a real game-like quality to it. And that doesn't mean that you play with it. Understand what I'm saying here. It means that you can do what you put your mind to, and if you continue to put your mind to it, the game opens up new levels. Tell me I'm fucking saying something wrong.

    13. JR

      You're saying something right.

    14. KH

      You get a new level, and each new level that gets opened up, you're able to adapt a different mindset and a different approach. You can stop at that level or you can go, "I want more levels. I want more fucking levels." I don't like seeing shit that I have no idea how to obtain or gain access to. That frustrates me. That frustrates me when people do things and I don't know how they do it or did it. Whether I'm gonna do it or not, I wanna know. When, when, when you're around people that work in different atmospheres... "What do you do man?" "Oh man, I'm the guy that takes these labels right here, simple labels right here... I have a manufacturing comp- company where I do these, but I do 'em, uh, in bulk. So, we do 1,000 labels every 30 seconds and I built a manufacturing lab and this company here pays me X on the dollar and I got 35 companies doing the same thing. I've built a multimillion dollar business based off labels." People don't understand how important labels are. I did at a young age, so I started manufacturing labels. "You can manufacture fucking labels?" Now I'm, now I'm intrigued. Even if I didn't want to do that-

    15. JR

      Right.

    16. KH

      ... I'm intrigued that that's a thing. I'm intrigued.

    17. JR

      Yes.

  7. 22:08 – 25:50

    Pandemic lessons: investing basics and teaching kids how the economy works

    1. KH

      I'm intrigued that you found a way to do that. This table, is it handmade? Does a company do these? Is it fucking custom? Where's the wood from? If you really dig into everything, it comes from a thought. It comes from a broken down thought. So, you can be a person that's just around a bunch of brilliant thoughts and never ask questions, or you can soak some of that shit up. You know what this pandemic showed me, Joe? How our economy really fucking works. Once again, I'm coming from the perspective of a young Black man from the hood. I'm from the bottom. I don't know shit about stocks, I don't know nothing about investments. Never have. Right? But I know through this pandemic, now that I'm at a point where I'm actually into stocks and I'm investing and putting a portfolio together, well, I really looked at the way that the world moves. I really looked at how we move as people. How are we fucking still going? What are we using? What are we fucking using? This is what I said to my kids. I said, "What are you still using?" "What do you mean?" "On a day to day, what do we have to use? Tell me the things we have to use." Toothpaste. Who makes the toothpaste? They told me who made the toothpaste. Is that a company that you can invest in? Do you feel like everybody uses this toothpaste? If you do, that means that this is a company that's been successful and may be successful for a long time, 'cause this is a necessary need of everyone. That's an investment, kids. What else do we use? What else do we use every day? Where do you go, what do you like? In the mornings, Starbucks. Is that an investment? Do you feel like everybody drinks Starbucks? We drink it all the time. You feel like everybody else does too? I think so. That's an investment. That's what you put money in because you feel like it's going to last, it's going to grow. What stores do we go to? Where are we always at? Target. How many people are in Target when we go? A lot. Is that an investment? I guess. Why do you guess? At this point, you should know. We talk about it all the time. Why do you think it's an investment, Dad? Why do you think it's not? I'm talking to you about putting money in places where you feel like it's going to grow. Do you feel like Target's gonna shut down tomorrow or do you feel like they're gonna open more stores?How do you feel? This is a thing that i watch, and this is a thing that i also watch people ignore. (smacks lips) This is what's wrong with our world, because we don't talk to people enough like this. We don't give 'em the simplicity behind the way we fucking move and the way the world goes around. If we did get the simplicity, then we could have people taking $20 out their check and creating a portfolio. We could have people taking $40 to $50 out their check and putting it in said thing, said stock, said thing. Whatever it is, you can be doing it at a younger age. You don't have to have the most crazy amount of money. It can start off with the smallest amounts of money, but you can learn it that it can grow. I watch it. I pay attention. That's what gets me fucking going, Joe. I pay attention to everything. My question is, why don't most of us? Why are we comfortable with letting the world just go by?

    2. JR

      I think a lot of people don't have the framework. They don't know how to operate in that realm. They don't know how to get going. They don't know how-

    3. KH

      Information.

    4. JR

      ... to get started. Yeah. But i love what you said about it being there's a game-like quality to life. That's such a perfect way to look at it. It really is.

    5. KH

      You play the game.

    6. JR

      Yeah.

  8. 25:50 – 35:47

    Discipline, enthusiasm, and using “bad jobs” to build your foundation

    1. KH

      You play the game for how many years, Joe? How many years on your podcast?

    2. JR

      11.

    3. KH

      11 years, right? I'm gonna give you a very true story. And to my brothers, the Plastic Cup Boyz, we got our radio show, Straight From The Heart. I'm constantly preaching to us about it's not about now, it's about tomorrow. Our radio show is a good radio show and we have a following, but it's not about now. It's about tomorrow. You- we gotta put the work in today so that when tomorrow comes, we are well equipped for the conversation that may be. I said, "Joe had a fucking long ride of preparing for tomorrow. And when tomorrow hit, it had to hit correctly because Joe never not did the work on a day-to-day basis to prepare for tomorrow." I got everybody fired up just off of the fact that you continued to do your thing the way that you were regardless of conversations, regardless of other offers and possibilities. You felt something else was on the horizon for tomorrow, but you knew it would come based off of your energy and effort that you put into the thing that you have.

    4. JR

      Realistically, i don't look at it that way.

    5. KH

      How do you look at it?

    6. JR

      I- i don't- i never look at a destination or a thing or something happening.

    7. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    8. JR

      I just keep doing it. I'm- i'm one of those weird grinders.

    9. KH

      That's not weird.

    10. JR

      But i- but i trust-

    11. KH

      That's a- that's a way for you to go.

    12. JR

      But i trust the process, but i don't ever look at it like there's a destination, like a success moment, like a big thing, a big thing hits.

    13. KH

      Okay.

    14. JR

      I just keep doing it and those things sort of find their own way through management and agents. And i've, uh, put very little thinking into that.

    15. KH

      Right.

    16. JR

      I put almost all my thinking into just doing the thing the best way that i can do it.

    17. KH

      Metaphor for you then. You're an amazing fucking fighter. You are... I mean, i don't know how many black belts you fucking got. I just know i wouldn't fuck with you. Uh, you, but you got some shit with you, right? And if you are practicing a kick or a move, if you do it, let's say, 200,000 times to make sure you get it perfect, are you doing that and figuring that out for the unknown or is it for, "If i ever have to use it, i want it to be so fucking right that-"

    18. JR

      Yeah, that's always there. That's always there. But the thing is always the technique. The thing is always the process.

    19. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    20. JR

      And i think that's where i got this from podcasting and even from standup. It's just the grind-

    21. KH

      The process.

    22. JR

      ... com- comes from martial arts. The grind is like you gotta be there every day. If you're there three days a week, it's not as good as five.

    23. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    24. JR

      You gotta be there five days a week.

    25. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    26. JR

      And five might be better than seven, 'cause sometimes seven you burn out. You wanna keep enthusiasm 'cause that's a fuel.

    27. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    28. JR

      Enthusiasm, there's something about enthusiasm that, like, you gotta balance discipline and enthusiasm. Discipline's critical. You have to be able to show up, but you also have to enjoy the shit out of it. And so, enjoying the shit out of it with discipline is the key. But you gotta ride those babies out, you know? You don't wanna fuck every day. Take a couple days off.

    29. KH

      Take a couple days off. (laughs)

    30. JR

      Want it. Want it. You know? Like, people fuck every day, you don't even know what fucking feels like.

  9. 35:47 – 42:08

    Back injury deep dive: spinal fractures, surgery, and the recovery mindset

    1. JR

      Yeah. Well, tell me, when you got injured, what, what... You, you were explaining it to me before the podcast, but I didn't wanna talk too much about it 'cause I wanted to hear it now when, wh- so everybody could hear it. What, what exactly was the injury?

    2. KH

      I, I fractured... So I fractured my, my spine, right? And it's from my... It's either from my T10 to my L1 or from my L1 to my T10, whatever order that goes in. So I-

    3. JR

      So h- how many fractures is that?

    4. KH

      I mean, that's fucking... That's your, that's your spine. That's about-

    5. JR

      So you fractured basically everything.

    6. KH

      Every- I mean, you got like this much space in my back. So you gotta think, first of all, I'm already small, right? So this is practically my whole back if you look at this right here.

    7. JR

      (laughs)

    8. KH

      If you look at this, this is practically my whole back. So all of this fractured. And what, what happens is...... they had to fuse my spine.

    9. JR

      So, did they have to remove the discs in between...

    10. KH

      They basically had to fix... So- so, the bones where- where it's fractured, basically your spine is now outta whack.

    11. JR

      Right.

    12. KH

      The- the- the things that keep your spine connected and that allow you the flexibility-

    13. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    14. KH

      ... are outta whack. I got pieces of those bone fragments that are outta place, out. So- so, they gotta- they gotta fuse that shit back together. So, I got eight screws.

    15. JR

      Do they take the disc material out and compress it and then screw 'em all... So, is the bone all one piece now?

    16. KH

      I- I think I'm, I think I'm one. I don't, I don't know about the disc. I don't know. I don't have that answer. That's a, that's a little too technical for me and I should know that 'cause it was my body. But what I do know is that this thing that's my spine has eight screws and these eight screws now hold it together. So, through this time of healing, because I now have metal in my back, it was about getting your back to be comfortable with the metal, but also back to a normal level of flexibility. So, where people fuck up, when you get this type of energy and you stay still, you allow that metal to get stiff. You don't, you don't... You're not moving it.

    17. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    18. KH

      So- so now, your movements become robotic-

    19. JR

      Yeah.

    20. KH

      ... with it. So, because as soon as I got out the hospital, I started. I- I didn't have days off. As soon as I got out, I started physical therapy. I did not wait. I didn't... I got off medication. I said, "I'm not taking no meds." You know, my dad was on drugs. I was like, "I'm not fucking around with that." So, I dealt with the pain, but I said, "I gotta start now because every day that I wait makes it harder to go." So, because I was, you know, back and forth, side to side, doing all of those things, I got- I got my body to get accustomed to it and I got flexibility. So now, when you see me working out, it looks as if I'm back and, you know, I'm probably 98% back to myself right now. But the work that I put into my core and my upper body over the years are what saved me, outside of God, of course-

    21. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    22. KH

      ... in that situation because, you know, I wanna tell this, people, just for, just for you to know, this health and wellness shit is so much bigger than what you may think it is. Taking care of your body, you don't know when all of that stuff comes into play and adds up correctly. You know, the- the human body is amazing. Recovery, the ability to snap back and go back to what it once was, the body muscle memory, all of that stuff plays a major factor. So, my healing was a lot faster because of the years of work that I put into it-

    23. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    24. KH

      ... before. Now, if I hadn't have and I didn't have that core, well, I'd be paralyzed. I'd be fucking paralyzed. I mean, they said, um, you're literally talking about this much.

    25. JR

      Wow.

    26. KH

      Doctor looked me in the eyes, "You're lucky to be walking. You're this much. If your core wasn't in the shape that it was and if you didn't have the- the strength to take whatever that impact was and stay, you woulda been snapped and you would never be walking again." So, that instantly, thank God, I go, "You know what? Thank God for my trainer who jumped into my life at a certain time and changed my way of thinking." Boss, Ronald 'Boss' Everline. And you know, we've been rocking for seven years and- and the consistency of four years before of every day. Every day. So now, I'm like, "You- you're not wasting your time, ever." So, when those people say, "What are you working out for? What are you getting in shape for? Why you going every day?" You don't know when you're gonna need to fucking tap into all of the work that you've done. You don't know. You don't know if you'll ever need it. But to just know that you've taken care of yourself, to know that you've given yourself a chance to fucking not only survive, but perform. You've given yourself a chance to perform at a high level on a day-to-day by taking care of your engine. This is, this is my machine, so I'm taking care of the engine. Just like any car, oil changes, just like, you know, your fucking, your brakes, your- your- your tires, the rotors, all of that shit, you taking care of that so that it's a great ride every time, you gotta do the same with your body. Don't ignore that shit, people. You know, we- we dropping like flies right now.

    27. JR

      Hmm.

    28. KH

      Heart attacks, strokes-

    29. JR

      Yep.

    30. KH

      ... you know, uh, k- kidney failure. You got people with diabetes. You got people getting, uh, legs or arms cut off from bad eating, from- from bad eating over the course of years. Take that shit serious. Don't wait 'til the end. That's serious. That's not, that's not a joke. So, when I look at people dying around me, we have no control over when the day is gonna come, but I'm going to try to help amplify my time here as much as I can.

  10. 42:08 – 54:26

    Health habits, aging well, and diet debates (plant-based, Beyond Meat, variability)

    1. KH

      Why do you not... Why... I wanna be careful the way I say this because I don't wanna seem like I'm coming down on anybody that's not, but why don't you wanna take care of yourself?

    2. JR

      I think they do. I think it's just habits are very hard to break. There's a lot of comfort in just the same thing every day.

    3. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    4. JR

      Open up the cabinet. Twinkies. Fuck it.

    5. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    6. JR

      I'll start tomorrow. Fuck it, I feel like eating those chips.

    7. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    8. JR

      And you just settle into it and then y- there's this disappointment that comes from settling in. And it's comfort and it's disappointment at the same time. You're like, you're really, well, I guess that's me, and you accept it. And I think sometimes people are scared of improvement because they're scared of failure. So, if they can just kinda slide into the same bullshit every day-

    9. KH

      Mm-hmm.

    10. JR

      ... it- it makes them feel less- l- less uneasy.

    11. KH

      You know what? I-What I say and, and what I will say goes back to the decision, goes back to information. It's not bad if you want those things. I don't, I don't think that people are supposed to live a robotic life and, and, you know, "I don't eat this ever and I don't do this and never-"

    12. JR

      Well, I always point to the Rock and his fucking cheat days.

    13. KH

      I mean, his fucking cheat-

    14. JR

      Jesus Christ. (laughs)

    15. KH

      First of all, he eats for a village. That son of a bitch doesn't-

    16. JR

      Well, he is a village.

    17. KH

      It's unreal what he puts down when he puts down.

    18. JR

      Yeah.

    19. KH

      And that's why I'm saying, like, you should enjoy-

    20. JR

      Yeah.

    21. KH

      ... your, your, yourself and enjoy your life. But I think that there should be a give and take. Like, all right, I'm gonna eat the way i want to eat. I'm not compromising that because I love food. But let me put a half hour in a day of walking. Let me-

    22. JR

      Yeah.

    23. KH

      ... let me do something so where I'm active, so there's at least a give and take. That's what I would say, um, to people out there. I'm not saying in no way, shape, or form, "Don't do this ever and that's wrong and you're living, you're, you're gonna destroy yourself." That's, no, um, that's unrealistic. That's unrealistic.

    24. JR

      Yeah.

    25. KH

      I, I think you should definitely be happy, you should definitely do the things that you enjoy, because like I said, in my mind, this is a game. You're playing the game.

    26. JR

      Yeah.

    27. KH

      Be happy while you're playing it.

    28. JR

      Well, one-

    29. KH

      Don't be miserable.

    30. JR

      One way to play the game is to challenge yourself, like give yourself a month.

  11. 54:26 – 1:15:38

    Near-death clarity, family support during recovery, and priorities after the accident

    1. KH

      It's that light.

    2. JR

      For him, that's, that's the way to go.

    3. KH

      No, I'm talking about that light.

    4. JR

      Yeah.

    5. KH

      I saw that light.

    6. JR

      Oh, yes. Yes, yes.

    7. KH

      When you, when you come close to that light-

    8. JR

      Yeah.

    9. KH

      ... and it's... And that light that I'm talking about is death.

    10. JR

      Yes.

    11. KH

      If you come close to that light, when you do and if you are fortunate enough to come back from that light, you value life differently.

    12. JR

      Yeah.

    13. KH

      You, you can't... There, there, there are no bad days for me. There are no bad days for me.I, my, my biggest cry in life came from the first day that i came home from the hospital. Because I never, I never had to see that house again. Like, there was, there was an option-

    14. JR

      Right.

    15. KH

      ... of me never seeing that home again.

    16. JR

      Right.

    17. KH

      There was an option of me never walking on that driveway again. There was an option of me never seeing my wife and my kids again. Like, the biggest... And i mean, it wasn't, it wasn't like a, like a build-up cry. It was pull up, get out, feet touch the ground. "What the fuck just came over me? Boo-hoo."

    18. JR

      (laughs) Yeah.

    19. KH

      Like, "What the fuck?"

    20. JR

      (laughs)

    21. KH

      "What just happened?"

    22. JR

      Boo-hoo.

    23. KH

      And, by the way, a painful cry because my back, my back was fucked up.

    24. JR

      Right.

    25. KH

      So, I'm crying hard and I'm in pain, but the realization of none of this has to be. You're not in control.

    26. JR

      Right.

    27. KH

      "Hey, Kevin. You're not in control, buddy. You thought you were. You moved for a minute, like, 'Nah, I got this, I'm gonna do that. Don't worry about it, I got it. We'll be good, I'm gonna make sure it happens.' As if you were in control." That's what it is.

    28. JR

      (snaps fingers)

    29. KH

      It's literally that.

    30. JR

      Yeah.

  12. 1:15:38 – 1:31:31

    The Decision (Audible): accountability, social media negativity, and asking for information

    1. JR

      Tell me about this Audible thing.

    2. KH

      Audible is an amazing partner of mine now. Um, my first book, I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons, was a New York Times number one bestseller, and I got bit, I got bit by the bug. Wow. As an author, I wanted to write a book, I did it, look at the success that it had. The opportunity came up for me to voice that book on Audible, and the Audible success was just as good if not greater than my hard cover. And people loved the fact that the stories were real, but hearing my voice and hearing me be personable while being real was a bonus from other things than they've ever had the privilege of listening to. So, I said, "I wanna do another one, man, but I'm big on this motivation, self-help inspiration thing." I'm, I'm, I'm really big on trying to do my part. So, as I was telling you earlier, I said, in my life, man, I got so, so many stories of all of my twists and turns and right moves and wrong moves and decision-making that enhanced those moves or that devalued them and made them incorrect. Ultimately, if I were to give information, it's just to open up people eyes, it's to open up your eyes to, to the reality of you competing with you. I want people to understand that we lose because we are okay with ignoring our faults, right? It's not until you can accept your faults, your bullshit, that you can grow and do better. We point the finger a lot. By we, myself included. I'm an example of it. "Yo, I didn't do that because nobody told me. I didn't get up. I didn't hear the alarm. Why didn't you call me and get me up? Yo, I didn't know we was gonna go eat. Didn't nobody tell me we was gonna go eat. I would've came to eat, but if y'all ain't tell me. I ain't know we had a test today. Who, why didn't you tell me we had a test today? I didn't study 'cause ain't nobody reach out and tell me." There's so many things that we place the blame on others for that are truly our responsibility, and it becomes a habit. It's, of course, a habit. So, it's not until you break that habit that you can do bigger and better shit. So, this Audible original of mine called The Decision is about making you look at shit differently, making you realize the tone of today, and making you understand how much you're a part of it. I got a big thing on social media in there where I'm like, social media has mind-fucked people into people now thinking that it's what the world thinks. Social media has mind-fucked people into thinking that the comments below a post are what the world must be feeling and thinking about you. The insecurity levels have raised to an all-time high, because my belief is now, "I posted something, people are saying these things underneath, I don't wanna go outside because this is how they feel."

    3. JR

      Hmm.

    4. KH

      "So, I've now put this shit in my head that as soon as I walk outside, if you look at me, you talking about my post, ain't you?" "I don't... What post? Fuck is you talking about?"

Episode duration: 2:01:08

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