By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.
Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
85 min read · 16,821 words- 0:00 – 8:53
Intro
- SPSam Parr
So does that mean that, like, the vast majority of your real wealth creation has been in, like, the 10, last 10 years?
- RDRob Dyrdek
No, in the last, like, few years.
- SPSam Parr
But you weren't, you, you, you weren't broke.
- RDRob Dyrdek
I was, I would consider myself broke. I would say I started from zero-
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... almost in 2016 when I launched the Machine. I wouldn't say dead broke.
- SPSam Parr
I mean, you're a millionaire. You, you, would you, were you worth at least 10?
- RDRob Dyrdek
I would say I was probably worth, like, you know, 15 or 20 in that zone, so not broke. But to me, I was, like, broke.
- SPSam Parr
Dude-
- RDRob Dyrdek
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
To a future billionaire, a millionaire is broke.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yeah. [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs] [upbeat music] Shaan, say exactly what you just said to me when we finished our recording with Rob Dyrdek.
- SPSpeaker
I said I think that was the best episode of MFM we've ever done. Uh, [laughs] I, I don't know. I, I don't know if I'm just on a high right off of it, but I believe so. People can tell, t- ... In the YouTube comments they should tell us. I, to me, this was the best episode. We've done 400-something episodes. How many have we done, Jonathan? Something, something like 400 episodes. That was the number one, my favorite, the best episode we've ever done.
- SPSam Parr
The, from beginning to end, I'm shocked. So, like, you asked him, we, we started getting along really well, and you said, "Rob, what's your net worth?" And I was like, damn, is he gonna answer that?
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
And he gave the full answer. We're not gonna say it now, but y- it's somewhere in the middle somewhere. But he gave the entire answer where he broke it down. He talked about his... I, I'm just actually shocked that he said most of the things that he said, and it was amazing.
- SPSpeaker
In a great way.
- SPSam Parr
In a great way.
- SPSpeaker
He told stories of two companies that he's built, and the stories were phenomenal. Uh, we talked about net worth, what he does with his money, how he thinks about investing. We talked about, like, how he kind of went from beginner at business and making all the mistakes to now being really sophisticated, and how that all happened in a really short amount of time. We talked about his, his house, the Forever Estate, the dream that he's been building around and how he does... It was, we, we touched, it hit all the, the buttons. It had the inspirational, the tactical, the, uh, entertaining, the humorous. It had everything that I like in an episode, but in one. So I'm, I'm, I couldn't be happier right now.
- SPSam Parr
So if you use YouTube, whether you're listening on, on podcast or you're actually watching us right now, let us know in the comments what you think. Or if you're not a YouTuber, just tweet at Shaan and I. It's, uh, ShaanVP, like vice president, ShaanVP, and then theSamParr. And add Rob to it, and let us know, uh, in Twitter, on Twitter, or if you're a YouTuber, let us know there. I'm very curious what you guys think. And, uh, tag Rob if you can.
- SPSpeaker
Give us a wave of feedback. I'm gonna send it all to Rob after, after the pod to, to show him, uh, the, the love, because I know people are gonna love this. All right, without any further buildup, here's the episode with Rob Dyrdek. [upbeat music]
- SPSam Parr
Uh, all right. We're live. Rob, we ... Uh, Shaan, you missed it, 'cause you're late. You're always late, and that's ... R- Dyrdek, that's his whole thing is timeliness, and he was talking mad shit about you, 'cause you were using his face and his time template that he talked about in the last pod.
- SPSpeaker
I am human optimization was the big, the, the line from his last time he was on. That's been... I think it's, like, in our trailer now. And, uh, Rob, if you are human optimization, I am human un-optimization. [laughs] I am the opposite.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yeah, and hey, look, the beauty of, uh, you know, time mastery is you don't, you're also, it's time flexibility and, and understanding that life is this living experience. But nothing brings me greater joy than to know a man that was using my time data for customer acquisition-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... and knowing that how much I collect my data and how, how specific I am with mastering my time would be seven minutes, have me waiting for seven minutes-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... is what makes it even more, makes life more grand to me. To know that-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- 8:53 – 25:21
Momentous supplements
- RDRob Dyrdek
you know?
- SPSam Parr
Before you joined Shaan, we were talking about Andrew Huberman, and the reason why we were talking about him is because bo- uh, I, I like to skate. Rob is a skater, hardcore, obviously, professional skateboarder, and Huberman loves it, and we were talking about that. And I don't know if you know what Momentous is, Shaan, but it's like they're, they're one of the main advertisers on the Huberman pod, and they're, and it's, Andrew Huberman says, like, "This is the only protein that I like," so obviously I bought a ton. That's what I drink every day.
- SPSpeaker
Oh.
- SPSam Parr
And Rob was like... And I, is it Jeff? Is he the CEO? I, I'm supposed to talk to Jeff. Um-
- SPSpeaker
Jeff is the CEO, yeah. Yeah.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, I'm supposed to talk to Jeff 'cause Ken Rideout introduced us, who was also on the pod. And anyway, uh, Rob was like, "Yeah, yeah, you know, that's cool. It's amazing to see what, how fast that business grew because of Huberman's, uh, you know, promotion, you know? You know, I co-founded that company not too long ago, and it's just crazy how fast it's grown." And we were like, "Wait, what? Rob, you co-founded Momentous Protein?"
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yeah, and look, and, and, and here's the thing with Momentous Protein. I co-founded it with Matt Wan in 2016. Um, the, when they brought it to me, he had a vision for creating basically the most premium supplements that the market had ever seen, the Ferrari of supplements. It was called Project 1 at the time. And, um, Matt was foregoing his first year of Harvard to build this company. He was 18 years old. And his father, uh, M- Mark Wan, had an- been one of the big investors in my professional skateboarding league, so I had a, a relationship with him and said, you know, I would do this project with his son. First thing we had to do was rebrand it, right? And really, like, create a name and, and a soul into what is the absolute pinnacle of supplements, Momentous, right? And all the way down to where I even, you know, went through the whole process of even making that logo. You know, like, to me, that M is, like, this timeless, extraordinary logo. And-
- SPSpeaker
And Rob, that, that's you in Photoshop, or this is, like, a creative agency pitching you guys? How does that happen? You take, make a tagline for them?
- RDRob Dyrdek
No, this is me literally in Illustrator of the agency sent some logos, and me cutting up the agency's logo and being like, "No, get rid of..." There was a circle in the middle. I'm like, "No, this is like, look at this. It forms like an M and a mountain. Like, like, get rid..." Like, I literally cut and pasting in my Illustrator the Momentous logo.
- SPSpeaker
Love it.
- RDRob Dyrdek
And so we launched that company, and what happens? We don't sell a thing.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
We don't sell a thing. What do we got? We got the most overpriced-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... like, protein in the entire industry. It's like, it's like 35% above, like, every other protein. Like, it's, like, literally nobody buys it. Nobody buys it. Now you, what do you got? You got a 18-year-old CEO.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
This kid doesn't even... Every single day is another thing of like, "Oh, that's what happens in business?" You're, you're... If you wanna talk about the headwinds of no man's land and the pain of launching a business with an 18-year-old genius, right? 'Cause he's brilliant. But he was 18 and didn't even understand anything about a company, and you can't advise somebody into running a company. You know what I'm saying? You have to fight the fire, learn the battles to ever learn how to operate a company. Long story short, this, this business never got off the ground for years. And I finally... Now he's older, and like, I'm like, "Look, man, you've got to make a decision. Like, you've tried everything. You've done all different types of partnerships. You've made all different types of verticals of product. It is the Ferrari of supplements. It is absolutely the purest and best. You kept it real, but you just can't find a market for it. Like, you either have to sell it or you have to find somebody to merge with, but you gotta move on. Like, you can't, like, spend... You're, you're now 23. Like, you learned everything. Go fig- take this skill set that you learned and apply it to a business that has a m- a more, a relatively faster-growing opportunity."
- SPSam Parr
What were the sales? What, what, what were the annual sales when you, when you had that conversation?
- RDRob Dyrdek
Oh, I wanna say a few million. And just losing money year over year, and so-
- SPSam Parr
And how much did you put in? Yeah, how, how much did you put into it to start?
- RDRob Dyrdek
I put in, um, shoot, I wanna say not much. Like, 200,000 in the first, like s- like, at the beginning to get it off the ground, and another 100,000, 300,000 maybe.
- SPSam Parr
And do s- do you split equity when you do that? Like, a 50/50?
- RDRob Dyrdek
And I got 30% of the business.
- SPSam Parr
Okay.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Okay? So, so now, um, man, raised so much capital any which way but loose. You know, now I'm on the board, I'm in board meetings, like, and there's... I'll tell you what, nothing, nothing as painful as board meeting after board meeting when there's no revenue growth and you're just burning capital-
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... trying to figure out how you're gonna tell a story to raise more capital to keep the dream alive. Um, that went on for a significant amount of time. We got incredibly diluted, and then the... It, it was just like, "Hey, man, you've gotta make a decision here on, like, what you, what your life looks like. Forget about, forget about this company. Forget about this investment. Like, you now, like, are you... You forego going to Harvard to build this company, so you essentially, like, stepped away from, from this big education," which always, like, in the beginning, I was like, "This kid's too smart to go to school. Well, he should just go start a company. He doesn't need to go to school." Like, as I have kids and I'm older, you know what I mean? You know, like, seven, eight years later, I'm like, man, I, I was, like, the bad uncle by advising him-
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... to not go to Harvard, and I'll do this company with you. Gassed him up, right?
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- 25:21 – 33:49
How Rob plays the game of business
- RDRob Dyrdek
much.
- SPSpeaker
What, what are some other, uh, venture creation that you've been up to? So that was one amazing venture creation story. You got me hungry for another. Do you got any other s- interesting things you've been cooking?
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yeah, and, and how many have, h- how many have you even done? Have you done d- you've done dozens of these. Yeah, I've done a bunch. I've done a bunch, you know what I mean? And, and that's... And here's the beauty of it, too, is like I've made so much money, right? That I'm... You can play the game more honest, right? Which, and you're, you're not really... You're judging yourself off of your IRR, but you are not, like, once you get to a certain point, like, you're playing the game for the speed of the IRR and the scale of the IRR and its potential. Because when I started the game, I wanted to build 50 to 70 companies, uh, and make, you know, uh, own, uh, 25 to 35 and sell them for between, you know, 50 million and 150 million and make 20 to 30 each. But when, you know, you sell a company for 200 million and get, you know, 150 million, you, you're like, "Well, that's way more fun."
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
Like, how do I, how do I move this number from, like, making, you know, 15 to 30 million a deal to, like, you know, 50 to 200 million a deal, right? You just begin to change as you're sort of evolving.
- SPSpeaker
And what, do less deals?
- RDRob Dyrdek
You wanna do less deals, right? And then you, you wanna be much more focused on the opportunity and then, like, focused on all the lessons learned. Would I start a supplement brand with a 18-year-old ever again? I would not. You know what I mean?
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
Like, and, and so let me give you an example of a d- an opposite version, right? So, um, I was approached by a really, really, uh, seasoned CEO who had just built a company and sold it. It was a footwear brand called Greats, okay?
- SPSpeaker
Yeah.
- RDRob Dyrdek
So-
- SPSpeaker
I also owned a pair of those, man.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Right? So, so you understand him as a brand and h- him as a brand builder and as a CEO, like, you know, and he had an idea he wanted to share with us, and it was in the beauty space. And he essentially presented to us this concept of, um, filtered shower water is this overlooked cornerstone of creating your beauty routine. Like, your water is filled with all this garbage that dries out your hair and dries out your skin and does all this stuff, yet for some reason, there's no, no one's approached beauty in filtering the water, right? So we do all the... And, and again, so, okay, wow, this is super interesting. Then now you look at it from a business model, right? Then it's like, oh, wow, now it's reoccurring revenue, so it's a single bit of hardware that now the filters have to be replaced, so now you've got this reoccurring revenue. Now it's a super experienced CEO that has, has a depth of knowledge in, in DTC, so it's not like, you know, a lot of times you'll find a, a, a experienced CEO that came from retail who just, "Oh, it's, I wanna build an Amazon business," right? 'Cause retail's so hard. Like, anytime-
- SPSpeaker
Mm-hmm
- RDRob Dyrdek
... you find people trying to transition to what they think is an easier way to create sales, uh, is always a red flag. But a- but again, now he has the, the understanding, the knowledge, and now it's like, is this space valid? So we do the research. What do we do? We go and look at the entire space of all of the filtered shower heads. The entire market, it is tiny, tiny, tiny. Under a billion dollars, right? And he wants to charge $135 for the unit, $35 for the filters. You know, you can go to Home Depot and get a shower filter for, like, 19 bucks. You know, there's, like, one prem- premium one that's sold by a beauty company that's, you know, kinda chrome-y or whatever that's, uh, like $99, $100, but, like, no movement. And so when you look at that opportunity, you look at it like it, it's as clear as can be, where it's like, man, this is either pure white space and there is a real opportunity to, like, make this matter in beauty and make a massive business and... Or it will, like, literally just not work. It is, like, so pure. But then the, the tantalizing side is, well, boy, if it works, man, it's like, it- think of the friction it takes to get a shower head in. But man, think of how low the churn will be on the subscription because it'll be way more friction to, to take it completely out to stop your, uh, reoccurring, like, subscription every two months- Then it will... And put back your old shower head. Like, that made it this incredibly compelling concept
- SPSam Parr
And, and by the way, for the listener, this is basically your shower head.
- RDRob Dyrdek
That's it.
- SPSam Parr
So mo- I don't even, I don't even think most people know this, but the shower head, it's not that hard to remove. You can kinda do it yourself.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yep.
- SPSam Parr
And what you're... And, and it's Jolie. Is this Jolie? Is that how you say it?
- RDRob Dyrdek
Jolie, yep.
- SPSam Parr
Jolie. And you basically, they give you a r- 'Cause I've seen this company, they killed it in year one. I think they did 4 million in sales in the first year. You basically, they send you a thing, a new shower head. You- they send you a wrench, you put it on there, and then you put little, like, filters and packets and I think they smell nice or something like that. And they might have some type, they might have some type of, uh, other good stuff in there. But the, the premise is, is that, uh, for all the really hardcore health nerds, they're afraid of some of the chemicals and minerals that are in city water, and so they want this to be better. Um, and I have friends that have, like, um, what's that one, uh, like charcoal water filter that's made out of metal that I r- they, they do that for their home. Like, they do these really, like, $10,000 projects for their home. And what this product is, is that for a shower head. I- did I summarize that right?
- RDRob Dyrdek
And think of... That's correct. And it's the efficacy of it, right? And then how did they launch the company? How were they able to go to 4 million and now this year, you know, they'll do close to 40 million, is that they, um, they s- opened it up by, like, putting in your ad- your, your ZIP Code so you could see all the contaminants in your water.
- SPSam Parr
Ah, nice.
- RDRob Dyrdek
So how they did all their initial customer acquisition is they got all the data of what it... 'Cause the ci- the, the water departments have to report all the contaminants in the water. And so they scraped all that data. You put in your ZIP Code, and then you got, um, a complete report of all the stuff in your water. That's how they did customer acquisition for months before they even had the product out. You know what I mean? Then they did pre-orders before it launched, right? Then what were we all hanging on for? What's that first quarter of churn? The churn was at, like, you know, 1.2%, like, of the subscription. It's like everything about it. And then it was just growth month, over month, over month. Then, like, they just keep evolving. Like, they launched a- an Airwan in the grocery store. They have a giant display and you can buy them an Airwan, right? The... It's like the entire process of how they did it overnight, 'cause you gotta think, how do you value a business like that? That, that, that business is valued at, at 200 million-plus in a year and a half. Because how are you, how do you really look at that where it's like, yes, it's selling hardware month over month, but then it is stacking subscription dollars. Like, so it is, it is this extraordinary hardware subscription service that is incredibly rare that has made it so valuable overnight. He built the company with three people. We're the primary investor. It's profitable and never raised another dime ever again.
- SPSpeaker
Chef's kiss.
- SPSam Parr
What size check you do on that one?
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yeah. I did 800 in that one.
- SPSam Parr
So that's, I mean, that's, that's, that's substantial, right? For an early-stage startup.
- RDRob Dyrdek
I mean, you know, I, I will... I'll go, I go... I'm, I'm all over the place, but I'll go up to 10 million.
- 33:49 – 41:30
How Rob Sold His Media Company for $300M
- SPSpeaker
What's been the biggest bet? Like, where, where have you plowed in something like 10 million into? What, what type of bet was that?
- RDRob Dyrdek
I did, you know, when I, um, my professional skateboarding league, my production company, uh, merged in c- with Nitro Circus and created Thrill One Media. And then we sold Thrill One Media for 300 million, right? Of which, um, we got 200 million, right? And this was sort of like the, the layering in of my production deal. And then the group that bought Thrill One, I invested 10 million with them to buy me, um, as... and then did a separate deal as it relates to having a bigger stake in the production company, uh, that I sold, and my league, and the overall sports property. Um, because I knew, um, during that, that transaction, I knew I was gonna negotiate for a bigger television deal. So I basically leveraged, um, you know, my ability to go and get a lot of value for the company. So I got all this equity back. They just paid me, you know, close to 200 million. So I used 10 of it-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... and to invest in buying me so that I could, you know, turn around and hopefully make another, you know, you know, not, not nearly as much, but hopefully, like, another, like, 100 to 150 off of it a couple years down the line.
- SPSam Parr
And, and when you say we, is that, like, Dyrdek family office? Or is that, uh-
- RDRob Dyrdek
Right. Right
- SPSam Parr
... you don't have a fund, right? Yeah, it's just your family office.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Just my money. Yeah. Like, no, I-
- SPSam Parr
Sure
- RDRob Dyrdek
... this is all my money. So I... And I just run it like a family office. And I just look at that as where I would deploy venture capital, right? So if I just p- deploy capital into real estate and ventures that I have a much more control over, and/or I have a higher leverage or position. Uh, but it was amazing. Think about this. It, like, in the closing of the deal, I had to... No, I, it was the most money I made in one shot, right? And the most, like, I had invested at one shot in a venture. So with the, like, here on my, you know-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... closing that deal in the Zoom call, it was the most I made and the most I invested in, in one-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... uh, one, one here, here. With, you know, whatever, like, I, whatever my, like, final check off on was it. But again, what are the stakes of it? It's whatever. You know what I mean? I look at it as it's fun, and, like, I'm underwriting the business because I went and signed a massive television deal. So I'm underwriting that entire roll-up. Like, and it's amazing partners. It's Dana White and the, the Fertitta family who own the UFC. So it's like even being close to them and knowing them for so long, uh, just makes the joy of, of even partnering with them fun and exciting. And I dedicate very little time to it, right? Like, I s- I still, um... and help, help sort of adding the vision and how to continue to evolve it and grow it. But I, you know, continue to shoot television at an even much higher scale. Like, now I'm shooting 336 episodes a year up from 252. Um, that's still at 4% of my time. Um, that's-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... you know, essentially five hours a day twi- uh, four times a month for 10 months, right? Like, is essentially what it is. But it's underwritten the entire roll-up. It is, you know, a billion-dollar television deal over a seven-year period with the production and everything involved. I get all my talent money, but then I'm also leveraged into the roll-up and the production company again to sell it again. Um, and it's, it's, it's just squeezing water out of a rock. You know what I'm saying?
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
It's like you're looking at opportunities inside every deal. You know, there just isn't a world where I'm just looking at, like, where are the ways for me to add leverage, create opportunity in each one of the ways that I look at every one of these deals, um, each and every time.
- SPSpeaker
Who are some of your business, uh, advisors, mentors, friends that are helping you develop this muscle? 'Cause, you know, you go from... E- e- in anything you wanna do, you go from a white belt to blue belt. Eventually you're... you, you can become a black belt. And it sounds like, you know, when you started, you were more of a white belt like everybody. And now, you know, looking at structures, looking at ways to double-dip, looking at ways to, um, you know, measure, okay, I want IRR, but also I should be thinking about the gross dollar amounts and maybe fewer deals, but bigger deals. Who have you learned a ton from that, uh, that you, you, you respect either as a friend or a mentor, uh, on the business side?
- RDRob Dyrdek
Man, I, you know, I don't think anybody plays the game like this that I know that's in my circle. You know, I think it's a... it's that experience and it's that, like, continually looking at every deal multi-dimensionally, right? And I think, like, the gift that I actually had early on is I used to look at media and marketing multi-dimensionally, right? So, like, in the early days, I would, you know, be able to look at, like, a television show and how are all these ways that I can moni- moni- uh, monetize it, right? Like, how do I own the rights of media and then I could sell that to different people. Like, I always looked at opportunity multi-dimensionally, but I didn't understand how to build and create value in business. So I never looked at business multi-dimensionally. And I just think I'm... at once I taught myself really how to look at business holistically and how to create and build businesses to sell, creating value, that then I began to look at, you know, how can I see all of the opportunity in these different angles in order to, you know, create the most value for myself. And a lot of times underwrite risk. You know what I mean? Like, if I didn't know I was gonna go and sign that mega television deal, I wouldn't have put in the $10 million. But I-
- SPSpeaker
Right
- RDRob Dyrdek
... but then I said, "Well, what if I go and sign this deal? How much additional equity will you give me for my $10 million?" Right? Then they're like, "Oh, if you go and get that deal, then we'll give you 12 extra percent." You know what I mean? Like, then it's like, okay, now I'm, like, you know, I just made my, literally overnight, made my $10 million worth, like, $60 million and, and underwritten it off of a deal that I'm going and making hundreds of millions of dollars to just do. You know? So it's like you're... a- and at the end of it, and keep in mind through all of this, I work less now than I've ever worked.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
You know what I mean? Through optimizing my time and getting more and more efficient of how I use it, I work at, at, at about a 40-hour week to manage my family office, all of my venture portfolios, and shoot television and a podcast. You know what I'm saying? All of that is without a 40-hour week, you know?
- SPSpeaker
[upbeat music] This data is wrong every freaking time. Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform where everything is fully integrated. Whoa, I can see the client's whole history. Calls, support tickets, emails, and here's a task from three days ago I totally missed. HubSpot. Grow better.
- SPSpeaker
What do you think you're worth at this point? Um, so you have, you, you have liquid and you have obviously illiquid. Um,
- 41:30 – 50:36
Rob's net worth
- SPSpeaker
what do you, what do you think the, the kind of the old, the N word, the net worth i- is at? Um, and do you, do you have a goal with that?
- SPSam Parr
And last podcast you go, "I need to be a billionaire like I deserve." So like-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
... yeah, where are we at? Remember that line? It was a beautiful line.
- RDRob Dyrdek
No, no, I don't but that's really funny. It's like I'm, you know, I was doing... 'Cause you gotta think like, you know, I have this, I, I... you know, in between our last call I, I had this... I hired an amazing CEO that came from a family office structure. I needed somebody that understood business, but understood sort of the dynamics of a family office, but was also young and, and excited to go on like a, a journey to a billion dollars, right? And so I have modeling for just my cash flowing assets that take me to a billion, um, like forget about like a- any of your venture stuff and building out, uh, sort of your pathway through the business side. Um, like I have modeling out to the year 2050 Like that I have fully integrated on all asset classes that I'm even investing in. Now, where do you make the billion dollars? You make it either slowly over time at compounding, uh, or in big chunks, right? So if today I'm, my net worth of all of my assets is, uh, a little o- just under 350 million, right? That the, the pathway, uh, there's the slow long pathway to a billion that's easy through compounding, right? 'Cause, 'cause, uh, the majority of those-
- SPSam Parr
What do you assume, just like 7 or 8%?
- RDRob Dyrdek
Correct. Right? A- and with the, the, the buildings now. You gotta think about the way the buildings work and the real estate work is I'm getting 5 to 6% cash, like a tax-free cash, but I'm still getting 7 to 10%, uh, equity growth over the long term. Um, and, and some of those are, you know, so, you know, call it with the cash 15, 16% IRRs, but a lot of the buildings that I've, uh, sold I ended up with like 35 and, and 42% IRRs.
- SPSam Parr
Right.
- RDRob Dyrdek
And what do you do with that? You 1031 exchange it and, and you get new buildings on an ongoing basis. So like that real estate even side of it, um, is compounding in a unique way. And then with my cash, you know, money markets are giving you 5% right now, close to 5%. And then I keep, uh, a significant amount of liquid dollars in, in sort of Nuveen high yield funds that kick off around a blended 10% that aren't gonna grow, but you get cash for your cash. You're making so much cash off of your cash, then you're making so much cash, uh, tax-depreciated cash off of your, um, off of your real estate portfolio that you, you know, when you look at all of... I look at that, I call it the modern cash flow portfolio, where it's just that cash is underwriting the expense of my life and the family office, right?
- SPSam Parr
Hmm.
- RDRob Dyrdek
And so I don't even... Like, when I have these big exits and when, you know, all the money I get made from TV, I look at all of it through the lens of how much am I actually making post-tax per hour. So, okay, it seems like I'm making a lot shooting television so efficiently, but, um, and how much time I actually work on The Dyrdek Machine and the actual, uh, venture side of the business when you look at long-term capital gains versus ordinary income. But boy, when you look at the amount of time I spend on that cash flowing portfolio in real estate, it's a couple hours a year. And so when you look at-
- SPSpeaker
So what do you have as a, as a dollar per hour goal? Like what do you... What is good for you, what is bad for you, right? So like everybody, uh, has a, a, like, you know, if I do something that, that s- saves me $100, I go return a blender-
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yeah
- SPSpeaker
... to the store.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Like-
- SPSpeaker
That wasn't a saving of $100
- RDRob Dyrdek
... yeah.
- SPSpeaker
It was, it was a loss.
- RDRob Dyrdek
I'm looking at-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- RDRob Dyrdek
... a million an hour as the goal. You know what I mean?
- SPSpeaker
That's your goal.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Like-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- RDRob Dyrdek
... as it relates to energy and effort that's put into it.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
Right? And, and, you know, 'cause I, I... It's fascinating when you look at how much money I make from television and then what that ends up being like post-tax and fees, even though it seems like a limited amount of time because I... And it's only 4% of my time, but seeing all of them through that lens, it's a way more interesting way to view it all. You know what I mean? Because since it... And again, it goes back to time. It's like when you... Because what life do you wanna live, right? And, and where do you get time? Where can you buy time back? But ultimately, where are the places where you make the most money? And people don't believe in them. Like this idea of passive income. Uh, passive income is not buying a building that you've gotta operate and you're constantly dealing with like trying to keep it rented and things breaking and trying to make decisions. That's not passive income in real estate. Passive income is when you give money to an operator and they give you cash back for your money. That's when you're doing nothing. Now you're, you're, you, what you have to get good at is evaluating rules and, and, and creating principles for the type of operators you'd be willing to deploy capital with so that you know that they're world-class and that you, what they say they're gonna do, that they do, which in turn all you're doing is reading statements and putting a little money together, or putting a little bit of time to think through strategy, future strategy a few times a year. That's the, the difference on the way you choose to get into an asset class, you know?
- SPSam Parr
And based off of the last pod, you, you were saying how, like... I, I think you said y- I think you're 47 now, right? Um, you said on the last pod that basically, I think you said into your late 30s you'd screwed a whole bunch of shit up. I think when you were trying to raise money from, um, [smacks lips] I forget the, the, the VC or PE company, but you were raising money for something and you're like, "Dude, my business sucks. I'm losing money. Turns out I'm, I was wrong." So does that mean that like the vast majority of your real wealth creation has been in like the 10, last 10 years?
- RDRob Dyrdek
No, in the last like few years.
- SPSam Parr
But you weren't, y- you, you weren't broke.
- 50:36 – 59:30
Forever Estates
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yeah. Really, what I did, and this, look, this is gonna, like, this will, this, this will give you, this is, this will give you an ex- like, clarity on how much money I had and how dumb I was in 2015. Okay? I, like, had met, like, my wife. Like, all I wanted to find was a forever home. I had, like, realized in '14, like, I had began to develop, like, like, like, learning everything about business and everything. 'Cause you gotta think, in 2013, I was dumb as dirt. I was at the bottom. I didn't understand business, I didn't understand anything. I hired all the consultants and all the groups and began to formulate everything I needed to learn to speak the way I'm speaking today, and, and the strategies of what money is, where do I want to invest it. Never even heard of multifamily units in 2014, right? Like, all of this, I, I then took all of my money at the time I had, the, all the money I had to my name in 2015, it was $12 million in cash. Moved it all to cash, like, because I had money and all these different brokers that didn't know what it was. Here I am in 2015 with a vision for, like, how I'm gonna create a venture studio, the Dyrdek Machine, and the whole thing, and I'm looking for, you know, I'd just gotten married, and I'm looking for a, a forever home [laughs] or a place to buy. And I find the most heaven-sent piece of land that God has e- ever created in a gated community in Beverly Hills, that is a, like, this gated community to a private road to a four-acre promontory with unobstructed views of the entire LA basin, Hollywood sign, ev- the most extraordinary property I have ever stepped on in my life. And paid 10 million cash for it.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
And then took, launched this dream-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... with two million. You know?
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
Because I was like, "Oh, man, this is my destiny, to build a house and live on this land forever." I called it-
- SPSam Parr
So it was just land. It was just land
- RDRob Dyrdek
... just land. Call it Forever Estates. And I, I have since, and so in that neighborhood, like, where it is, I have bought multiple houses and remodeled them in the neighborhood while I continue to design, uh, Forever Estates, as it's called. And, and kept it all these years. Carried the cost, you know, 200 grand a year just to carry it. Spent a mil- like, built a whole, designed a whole house with the architecture team, fired 'em. Hired SEOTTA-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... the best architects in the world out of South Africa, and we have just been designing and designing and designing. It was part of the vision of, like, I'm going to spend the rest of my life in Forever Estates. Like, that's where I'm going to live. There is no better piece of land in the city of Los Angeles. It's the most extraordinary home. I rented a house for three and a half years, bought a house for 6.5, sold it for, like, 9.5 two years later after remodeling it. Bought another house for, for eight, put two million into it. This house that I'm in now is two doors down from the entrance to Forever Estates. So when I begin to build it, uh, at the, in the fall, that I can be there every step of the way. But what happened-
- SPSpeaker
Wait, wait, hold on. Begin to build it in the fall? What, how long are, of timeline are we talking? This has been eight years and we're, we're on-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, begin-
- SPSpeaker
... begin to build it?
- RDRob Dyrdek
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
This is the-
- SPSam Parr
Forever-
- SPSpeaker
... this is the take forever estates. [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Hey, and so-
- SPSpeaker
Yeah
- RDRob Dyrdek
... and what did the world say to me? They're like, "This is crazy." And I'm like, "Man, I'm going to live there forever." And when I build it, I don't even wanna think about the cost It's gonna cost me 20 million to build. I don't even wanna think about it. I needed to get to generational level wealth to even, like, I didn't want it to be a burden. That's why I kept buying houses and kept working on the design. And then now you've gotten to such a scale, what's the strategy now? Well, I'm putting it into a trust. I'm paying cash for the house to build it, and then I'm going to pay rent to the trust, and then it's going to build an endowment so that this home can be in my family forever, but run it, be self-operational, that is, so it doesn't have to be tied to the estate, that it will be ran and then there can be family meetings and forever estates for hundreds and hundreds of years into the future, right? And you can't even get to that way of thinking-
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... unless you have kids, unless you create generational wealth, un- unless you get to that time. But that all happened over a five-year period.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
You know what I mean? That is an extraordinary transition to go through.
- SPSam Parr
And it started, it started with a horrible decision. I mean, 10, 10-
- RDRob Dyrdek
It's terrible, terrible. You took... Look, I put... I could have put 10... Think, I'm gonna tell... You know how many build- how much money I had invested in buildings in 2015? N- 100,000. 100,000. I had invested 100,000 and was making, you know, seven Gs from that one.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
And, and, like, I p- instead of putting 10 million into a cash flow, which would, I would've been set for life. If I would've put that 10 million into the buildings that I put back in 2015 that got, like, 40% IRRs, like, and were kicking off, like, 9% cash, I would've been, like, set for life from the compounding and the cash flow of that one thing. Oh, no. Oh, no. I took 10-
- 59:30 – 1:20:00
Rob on longevity
- SPSam Parr
Is this new focus on longevity and focus on all this stuff, is that because you now are financially successful and have more time, or do you think that you always had this, this bug? And what are you doing now health-wise?
- RDRob Dyrdek
I have been doing it nonstop for as long, for, for 20 years. I got my first blood panel and started optimizing into my blood work in 2012. So for me, the, what, where a big transition was in 2015 around this same time, I had made the decision that, like, I was in the best shape of my life, but my body was always achy. And I had made this decision that I started having a doctor come to my house five days a week, and all I wanted to do was build a perfectly structured physical system, and there was no timeline to it. And, and really what it led to is triangulating a ton of different therapies, which in, but i- in the process allowed me to learn every muscle in my body, how the fascia system works, what are my neurological deficiencies, what are all of the things that I need to retrain in my overall system internally as it relates to leaky gut and, and blood-brain barrier, all of these sort of things that lead to inflammation, that lead to, to heart disease and all these different things that, that reduce your quality and length of life- I had been doing over a decade. So now, the way I approach it is so sophisticated because I know every single aspect of my entire function holistically of my body, my mind, my time, my energy. So it's a different level. So what happened when I got to this scale of success, I refer to it as peak top. It's the same psychological, uh, chaos that happens to a drug addict at rock bottom, where, like, you finally [laughs] make a shift in you, where, like, you don't, you can't be a drug addict anymore, and something shifts in you mentally. I finally got to... I'm, I... It happened to me on the other side, where, like, you started getting more and more disciplined and healthy that you all of a sudden were like, "Why would I ever not just be extraordinarily healthy for the rest of my life?" And what happened from that point? I have not missed a day of getting up at 5:00 AM. I have not missed a day in the gym. I have not missed one day meditating. I have not missed one day eating supplements, eating clean. I have not had a drink. I haven't had any sugar. I haven't had a snack, any of that-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... for, since I hit that, like, nine months ago. The data that I shared with you guys as it relates to the quality of my life numbers, how I feel about my life, work, and health, zero to ten, and then my discipline numbers, what percentage did I get up at 5:00, brain train, meditate, get in the gym, eat clean, and not drink, and take my supplements, it is 100% across this entire year. And then my qualitative numbers are at the highest they've ever been. So every single day I wake up feeling extraordinary, right? And I grew into that. And then the more success I had, it, I didn't have to then decide I wanna be healthy. I had been working when I, in 2016, when I designed my vision for my business and my financial success, I designed a vision for my life success and my health success. So what happened over the last seven years is I got better and better and better at all of it, which led to this euphoric state of where you have an incredible depth of knowledge of your entire reality and your current state and your future state, so you're just continuously predicting the future and creating higher probabilities of being healthier, happier, and wealthier in the future while living extraordinary in the present.
- SPSpeaker
What's been, like, the, the 80/20 of that? Like, the, the, the things that have made the biggest change on your health?
- RDRob Dyrdek
I mean, look, you, I, you... Not drinking, not eating sugar, and intermittent fasting, and eating a lean, uh, protein and vegetable meal to me is everything. Is everything. Because you're just, your body begins to clean itself. You feel better about yourself. You make sharper decisions. You go two layers deeper. Your emotions are more in check. Like, things happen inside the family, different things that are uncontrollable, you're able to, like, like, control all of those better. That, just pure diet alone in avoiding all of these, like, like, processed foods and, and alcohol, like, and being committed to that will absolutely change your life because it gives your mind more depth to, to be able to execute at a higher amount, at a higher level in the limited amount of time that you have to execute.
- SPSpeaker
So have you seen this guy Brian Johnson, what he's doing?
- RDRob Dyrdek
Look, I look at Brian Johnson as this guy's outrageous. It's too much. But I withhold-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... my judgment because I'm more... Like, if I would've told myself five years ago-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... "Hey, this is what you're gonna be doing," I'd be like, "That guy is crazy."
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
So I look at, like, man, I, I feel like Brian Johnson's crazy, but I'll probably turn into Brian Johnson in, like, seven or eight years.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
He's wild, man. He's wild.
- RDRob Dyrdek
Yeah. Brian Johnson just has that look, you know what I mean? He looks like a futuristic, like, amoeba. You know what I mean? Like-
- SPSpeaker
Dude, that's what I was thinking. I looked at him the other day. I go, "All he needed, all he needs to do is tan." If he tans, everybody will be like, "This guy is amazing."
- RDRob Dyrdek
Right.
- SPSpeaker
He doesn't tan, and they're like, "You're, you're a vampire, bro." [laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
No. He just, he looks like AI. All, like, the new AI versions-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... of people, like, coming out, he looks like a AI person.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
He might not even be real. He might not even be real.
- SPSpeaker
[laughs] He's a, he's a Midjourney. [laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
But I do look at, like, that aspect, 'cause you've gotta think about anything. Think about the way that I talk about business. It's knowledge and experience and an understanding, and then a continual evolution and growth of understanding the whole. Like, applying that to my relationship with my wife and family, applying that to my health, applying that to business, applying that to investment, applying that to building my, my family office. Like, all of that way of thinking, like, is, is based off of gaining knowledge to take something from not understanding it and it feeling difficult to then making it easier, then continually optimizing, right? You're just incrementally making it all better.
- SPSpeaker
What, what are... I love the way you think, and I love the kind of pursuit of greatness and pursuit of excellence for yourself and, and having a vision for yourself. Um, I also know that it's inspiring but also hard to relate to perfection. And so I'm curious, what are the current flaws or bugs in your software that you're still debugging? We all have some bugs in our software that's running, and we, we're, we're, we're hunting them down and we're trying to squash them one at a time. What are some that are still, still in your, your system? It might be in business, it might be in health, it might be in, you know... For me, I'll, you know, a nice bag of chips is still a b- a bug in my software. Uh, you know, maybe something, oh, sometimes when I'm with my wife, I'm not as present as I should be. I'm on my phone. But I know that's not really me and who I'm gonna be, but I'm, I'm still catching up to myself in that way. What are some of those for you?
- RDRob Dyrdek
I, you know, I, and this is gonna sound, like, extraordinarily, um-
- SPSam Parr
Don't say it
- 1:20:00 – 1:30:38
Economics of a production company
- SPSpeaker
in and you know very well, which is production companies. So I noticed, uh, I don't know anything about Hollywood or pr- TV production, but I, I... My, my ears perked up when, uh, I forgot who it was, they bought, um, Reese Witherspoon's production company for some hundreds of millions of dollars. Then, uh, I saw that Peter Chernin from, uh, The Chernin Group, he's doing a roll-up of production companies. He's putting a billion dollars to work rolling up production companies, and I thought, "Oh, that's interesting." I read some interviews, and he's talking about why he thinks there's a, you know, growing and sort of insatiable demand for content. And then, um, you know, I just look at people who create Netflix shows. I go look at, uh, you know, oh, Love Is Blind is num- ranked number one on Netflix. Who created this? Oh, it's a small production company. Like, is this like the startup game where you, you create the next hit show and you become a billionaire, or is it a, a ruthless business? Uh, w- could you desc- just describe what creating a show or creating a tel- a production company is like, and if that's a good business to be in or not? As someone who, um, sold their production company for 200 million and who, like, had an offer on the table, um, that fell apart for 400 million recently, um, it is the worst business that you could ever get in in your life. [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
It is like... And, and I'll explain to you why. It is a shoot what you kill game, and the distributors control all of the money. So, like, and you're, you have a hit show, and you have this flourishing production company, and then the show gets canceled and your company's worth zero.
- SPSam Parr
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
Right? It is... And then the problem with shows is, like, they don't pick them up for long periods of time. I have a five-year 1,680-episode order of television. It is unprecedented in all of production. It does not exist. But why is it hard for me to turn around and sell that? Because it's one single show, and now they look at the l- and it's so expensive because it's made the, the production company so profitable. But let's just say that didn't push you away. A production company is built like this, right? You, you've got to build the infrastructure that allows you to have your camera equipment, your finishing equipment, your licensing for your music. You've got to basically then go and, and give a budget to a network who's gonna give you 500 grand for an episode, and now you have got to figure out how to pull, uh, 20% to 30% of that in margin, right? So it gets in- incredibly difficult to do, and the only way that you can do that is look at all of the different ways that you can scrape margin out of that budget by owning vertically integrated. So a lot of times there'll be people that, that, you know, have, um, you know, television shows, and they just get paid an executive producer fee, right? So they will make a lot of money. Like Jeff Tremaine, uh, who is one of the executive producers on my show, you know, makes millions off of Ridiculousness and doesn't... just off his executive producer fee. Nothing. Where we rolled in our pr- executive producer fees, then built out the entire post and finishing and music division to push our margins up to be able to, to create a sellable asset. Then we had multiple shows, and then the, um, it, you know, the, call it the long-term sustainability of Ridiculousness created the value that allowed us to sell it, right?
- SPSam Parr
Yep.
- SPSpeaker
And so even if you, you launch an, a production company and you have Love Is Blind and it's a hit show, you're not making that much money off of that show. You are now hoping to stack shows and then end up pulling off of that margin that you get to split, right?
- SPSam Parr
Mm.
- SPSpeaker
And then, then you trade on EBITDA, right? So when you sell the business, you're trading at like, you know, six times EBITDA, five, six times EBITDA. And then a lot of times now, they won't even buy you outright. They will partner with you, incentivize your long-term earn-out because they don't wanna just, like, pay you, you know, five times, six times your EBITDA and then all of a sudden, like, the show goes away, right? They... And, and you were the creative force behind getting new shows, right? So it, it's a lot more, like, complex. And, and when you think about, like, the big dogs doing it, they're looking at it more from they're buying the creative minds that are making the new content all the time. So when you... If they believe long-term in content, they're just... And when you look at that aggregate, you can have a couple of them slip and have a couple heroes in there, and when you see all those together, you can bet that that thing's gonna generate a ton of cash because the industry itself is built around being incredibly lean and then, um, being, being profitable because they're only worth their profitability, and then they can accordion. You got a big show and all this staff, and the show goes away, boom, you bring it all the way back down because you, you put so many people under-
- RDRob Dyrdek
Under the show itself. So that's where the bigger vision is for them to look at. And is there an opportunity, um, for creatives and people in the space i- in this day? Yes, because Endeavor's doing it, Chernin's doing it, a lot of people are doing it, but it's extraordinarily difficult and, and the gatekeepers are the distributors, the Netflix, the Paramounts, the... You know, you can attempt to create your own platform and distribute it yourself, YouTube, digitally, whatever it is, but it's expensive and difficult to build audiences. And then you're really looking at those distributors as the gatekeepers to the quality of the asset that you're creating, and whether or not someone will make it to decide that you're worth the purchase. All of that, incredibly difficult in my opinion to, to make happen, you know?
- SPSpeaker
Perfect answer. Exactly what I was looking for. Rob, this has been amazing.
- SPSam Parr
Oh my gosh.
- SPSpeaker
Better than part one somehow. Uh, where should people follow up? Where do you want them? You want them on your pod, your Twitter, email list? How can people get more Rob?
- RDRob Dyrdek
You know, Rob's just at Rob Dyrdek across-
- SPSpeaker
Mm
- RDRob Dyrdek
... social, you know, on a .com, and just, you know, I got Build with Rob. But really I'm not out pitching nothing. I'm just out trying to figure it out, keep evolving. But one day I'ma come back on with my software when it's done. Well, first I'ma send it to you guys first, and, and then when the book and the philosophy are out and the software is out, then it's gonna be like, how do we convert the listeners into changing their lives from being erratic into harmonious high quality existences with-
- SPSpeaker
Right
- RDRob Dyrdek
... the Existence Operating System, you know? But that's off in the future. Now I'm just-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... glad to reconnect, 'cause I'm thankful for you guys, um, for kind of s- starting the spark of the whole thing. And, and really I'm even thankful for you posting all the data and using the customer acquisition from the stuff that I sent you. You know, I sent you-
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- RDRob Dyrdek
... all the new stuff to-
- SPSpeaker
So you know-
- RDRob Dyrdek
... use that
- SPSpeaker
... do you know what happened? Sam may not know. So basically he came on, he did the Rhythm of Existence, he sends us the, the Excel PDF, we post on Twitter. And it was kind of over. And then like a year later I was like, "All right. I'm gonna start building my email list." And I was like, um, how do I get fans of the show, the, the, the like-minded people? How do I get my type of people to subscribe? I don't just want any subscriber, I want the right type of person. I was like, what would the right type of person be into? And I was like, "Oh dude, the Rob D- the Rob Dyrdek, the, that, that Rhythm of Existence sheet, the time tracker, I think they would be nerding out about that. Like that's my type of nerd." And so we put it up as a lead magnet, which was like, "Hey, come, you know, put your email in and get the... Y- you, he'll share his, uh, thing with you." And, uh, we started [laughs] spending a bunch of money, and Rob emails me like, I don't know, six months ago. He's like, "Bro, you're blowing me up with this sheet. Uh, you know, it's all good, but you gotta update the photo. You're using the wrong photo from, from over here." [laughs] And so we updated the photo, and I was like, "Oh man, I feel bad." We take the whole ad down, we start put- putting something else up, but it was a, [laughs] it was a-
- RDRob Dyrdek
Hey
- SPSpeaker
... a moment of embarrassment
- RDRob Dyrdek
... but don't feel bad. Don't feel bad because it, it to me just perpetuates like, like for me it just continues to push the narrative of like level of discipline and commit and data-driven. So that's why-
- SPSam Parr
And Rob, you, you said-
- SPSpeaker
Well it was-
Episode duration: 1:30:43
In the uListen app, the transcript lights up word by word as you listen. Get uListen
Transcript of episode 3pAMJ2WHjp4
