How Tracking Every Second Took Rob Dyrdek from 0 to $405M in Exits | My First Million #224

1. 0:00 – 5:50

   Ridiculousness Dominating MTV and Owning the Production

   1. RDRob Dyrdek0:00

      I'm, I am human optimization.

   2. SPSam Parr0:02

      [laughs]

   3. RDRob Dyrdek0:03

      And optimized to, to be what, though? To just be happy.

   4. SPSpeaker0:08

      Yeah. I feel like I could rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. Uh. I put my all in it like no days off. On the road less traveled never looking back.

   5. SPSam Parr0:20

      All right. Sorry we are late. We, uh, we're, we were recording another episode and, and-

   6. RDRob Dyrdek0:25

      Yeah, look, I got the context. I thought it was fascinating. I love the idea of, like, your digital media company being acquired and then you have to do a, a podcast with the guy who acquired it-

   7. SPSam Parr0:35

      [laughs]

   8. RDRob Dyrdek0:36

      ... is, who no longer works there, uh, or no longer the CEO. It's fascinating. So-

   9. SPSam Parr0:40

      [laughs]

   10. SPShaan Puri0:41

       Well, he told a story that was, I think, good, 'cause I think most people don't wanna hear necessarily from, "Oh, you're the CEO of some marketing company, some public company." It's not the, the sexiest story. But he, he just got in a crazy snowmobile accident and broke, like, every bone in his body, and, uh, was sort of, like, lying there on a mountain for an hour thinking, "I might die," or, you know, maybe hopefully a- his cellphone had, like, one bar, and he was able to call the police and get, get, get a firefighter to come save him. Um-

   11. RDRob Dyrdek1:07

       Wow

   12. SPShaan Puri1:07

       ... and so he told that story and I was like, "Okay, this is good. This is good content then. Every- then I'm happy with how this turned out."

   13. RDRob Dyrdek1:13

       Wow. That's, that is fascinating.

   14. SPShaan Puri1:16

       So Rob-

   15. RDRob Dyrdek1:16

       Man, how scary.

   16. SPSam Parr1:17

       Yeah, it was good. He was like... It, it was like a movie. We were like, "You know, Brian, this is like a movie." You know, like, billionaire tech guy almost dies, quits, and starts meditating and, uh-

   17. SPShaan Puri1:25

       Yeah, he became, like, a, a philanthropist afterward. He reevaluated his life while he was lying there, that sort of thing. Um, all right, Sam, you wanna do a quick intro and then-

   18. SPSam Parr1:34

       No, you do it. You do it. I like... I've, I've enjoyed you, uh, doing it lately.

   19. SPShaan Puri1:38

       Okay, I'll give the, um, [laughs] I'll give the, like, the brief context of this. Okay. So Rob, um, I don't know if you know this, but your, your show on MTV, there's a, there's a kind of a meme about it on Reddit. Uh, do you ever go to Reddit?

   20. RDRob Dyrdek1:52

       I do not.

   21. SPShaan Puri1:53

       Okay. So do you know of Reddit? It's like a-

   22. RDRob Dyrdek1:56

       Of course

   23. SPShaan Puri1:56

       ... popular kind of website or whatever.

   24. RDRob Dyrdek1:57

       Of course. Yeah.

   25. SPShaan Puri1:58

       So me and Sam both watch the, the show The Challenge on MTV. And, um-

   26. RDRob Dyrdek2:03

       Weird

   27. SPShaan Puri2:03

       ... and The Challenge has been around for, like, 15 years. It's kinda like our, our, you know, not even a guilty pleasure, frankly. I'm not guilty about it. I, I feel great about it.

   28. RDRob Dyrdek2:11

       No, this makes-

   29. SPShaan Puri2:11

       It's a great show

   30. RDRob Dyrdek2:12

       ... this is great. This is great.
2. 5:50 – 9:35

   Buying Alien Workshop and Giving It Back

   1. SPSam Parr5:50

      Yeah, and let me give a background here, and this is, what I'm about to say is with no research, it's just as a fan. So I don't, you don't know this, but I, I, I still skate. So I've been a fan of yours forever. And so here we, I, I have, here look. Here, here it is. Can you see that? There's my tre flip

   2. RDRob Dyrdek6:07

      Talking about a full tre flip right here, fully caught.

   3. SPSam Parr6:09

      Yeah.

   4. RDRob Dyrdek6:10

      Fully smooth.

   5. SPSam Parr6:10

      Totally.

   6. RDRob Dyrdek6:11

      That's a real tre flip.

   7. SPSam Parr6:12

      So look, I've, uh-

   8. RDRob Dyrdek6:12

      That's a real tre flip

   9. SPSam Parr6:13

      ... I, I could still, I still have it in me a little bit. Oh, my camera will come back in a second. But, so you, um, you, you started skating very young, and I think you were sponsored r- by Alien Workshop when you were like 13, 14, 15, something like that, right?

   10. RDRob Dyrdek6:26

       Well, to give you more context, like I got sponsored at, at, uh, 11 years old, but I, I connected with the group and, and when they c- founded the Alien Workshop and I turned pro for it when I was 16.

   11. SPSam Parr6:41

       And you, uh... But now I think you, you own Alien Workshop, right? Or you're, you're a part owner?

   12. RDRob Dyrdek6:46

       No, I, I acquired it for $4 million and then I gave it back to the original founders-

   13. SPSam Parr6:50

       That's crazy

   14. RDRob Dyrdek6:51

       ... free and clear, on top of buying a bunker in Ohio so they could run the company out of it, and gave that to them free and clear.

   15. SPSam Parr6:57

       Wait, wait, wait, wait.

   16. RDRob Dyrdek6:57

       And that was the worst mistake I've ever done in my life-

   17. SPSam Parr7:01

       Why, why would you do that? W- why would you do that?

   18. RDRob Dyrdek7:01

       ... was acquire a skateboarding business. Um, look, I, you know, I, I, I did it more f- they were acquired by Burton and I, I... Every advisor around me was like, "This company does not make money. It has terrible margins, like it burns cash. Like this is a terrible investment." I didn't care. I didn't understand business well enough. I just wanted it for the story. The hometown kid buys back, you know, the Alien Workshop that he sat in the room and helped choose the name and create the brand when he was 16 years old, and finds great success and comes back and acquires the business. And when I, I acquired it, I felt like I acquired a hornet's nest and I, I learned so much about the operational side of business and culture and, and the dynamics of, um, what I'd consider a, a, a toxic culture. And I just realized that, that my passion was to create, build and, and create an ROI and IRR for the stuff that I created, and that's, that doesn't align with skateboarding very much, right? Like, they're really like, "Misery loves company. Let's all be broke. Let's all barely survive."

   19. SPSam Parr8:10

       [laughs]

   20. RDRob Dyrdek8:10

       "Let's all like keep it real."

   21. SPSam Parr8:11

       Starving artist syndrome.

   22. RDRob Dyrdek8:12

       "Let's hate everything." Starving artist syndrome. And I, I literally like was on another call and was like, "Man, I don't even wanna be on an- I don't wanna put another bit of my energy in here." And I'm like, "You wanna know what the real hero story will be? I'm going to give back the original founders who built the company and sold it. I'm going to just give the entire thing back to them," and that's what I did.

   23. SPSam Parr8:34

       So we have to talk about that in a second. That's crazy to me. Uh, not in a bad way, but it's crazy. And so you're, you're, you're a skater. You know, I used to watch you in a lot of Transworld videos as a kid and a, and a bunch of other stuff. And then you were early-ish at, I think very early, at DC Shoes before DC Shoes was even named DC, right?

   24. RDRob Dyrdek8:53

       Mm.

   25. SPSam Parr8:53

       Um, that ended up becoming a pretty monster success. Um, and so you've seen a bunch of stuff. Then you started some of the early shows, which crushed it, and then now you're s- telling, you're sitting here talking about Ridiculousness and the way that you're describing things, I'm like, the, it just, the evolution's crazy, right? From skateboarder to like talking about how you own 60% of the programming on MTV.

   26. RDRob Dyrdek9:15

       [laughs]

   27. SPSam Parr9:15

       And so I wanted to give like context there because it's, it's amazing and it's inspirational, but at this point you've got your hands in everything it seems like. You've got, you do, you dabble, you do a bunch of stuff. If I remember correctly, years ago you had like a food truck. Is that right? Um, you-

   28. RDRob Dyrdek9:30

       I might have wrote an episode around a food truck, but it was probably fake-

   29. SPSam Parr9:33

       Well-

   30. RDRob Dyrdek9:33

       ... for Fantasy Factory. [laughs]

3. 9:35 – 11:00

   Racehorses and the Scariest Stunt

   1. SPSam Parr9:35

      You, you had like a bunch of different s- you, you, you know, you had a bunch of different stuff. You got your hands in everything. I think you even... Did I read that you were, you do, uh, horse racing? You own racehorses?

   2. RDRob Dyrdek9:45

      I did. I did. I, when I got into horse racing, I jockeyed a horse for, uh, a race at Hollywood Park and won the race. Um, went on to own 12 or 13 racehorses, including a horse that I, uh, that got third place in the Breeders' Cup that I sold for $2 million, that I paid 200 grand for.

   3. SPSam Parr10:05

      S- that's crazy to me. So I wanna-

   4. RDRob Dyrdek10:06

      Is, is, is owning a horse a good, good investment in general? Like that's a good-

   5. SPSam Parr10:09

      I mean, no-

   6. RDRob Dyrdek10:09

      Obviously that's a great flip, but

   7. SPSam Parr10:10

      ... I, it's, it's not, but I, for me, I got out unscathed. You know what I mean? Like, for a lot of people I know that are in it, it's just really for the enjoyment of it. It's a lot of fun to go watch a horse race. Um, you know, I had a lot of respect in the racing community 'cause they know I jockeyed a horse. They know how insane that is, right? So- Did you do that as a skit or did you take it seriously?

   8. RDRob Dyrdek10:29

      [laughs] Uh, no, I mean I did it as a skit. I mean, it's like the dum- it's the scariest thing I've ever done. You're talking to a guy who's broke the world record for jumping a car backwards. I barrel rolled a car. I've been attacked by a shark, a tiger. It's like I've done, you know, broken 25 world records on a skateboard, but the scariest thing I'd ever done in my life is jockey a horse at Hollywood Park. 'Cause it's just you on the back of this horse. You're, you got a hold of its mane. You break the gate, you're going 50 miles an hour on the back of this giant beast, you know?

   9. SPSam Parr10:58

      [laughs] How do you...

4. 11:00 – 14:39

   The Dyrdek Machine: A Hybrid Family Office and Venture Studio

   1. SPSam Parr11:00

      How is your current, your, your entities set up right now, as well as your focus? 'Cause if you have all... Well, I was gonna, the reason I'm listing all these crazy stuff, crazy things that you do and all these projects that you've got going on, which are very substantial, how are you balancing all of this and what's your current business structure? I mean, do you have like a Rob Dyrdek Media which only does the MTV stuff, and you get, uh, some type of fee from them, and then you have, you know, I, and I, and I, I would imagine you-

   2. RDRob Dyrdek11:26

      Yeah. Let me, let me, let me tell you-

   3. SPSam Parr11:27

      You have dozens of things

   4. RDRob Dyrdek11:27

      ... let me tell you. If we... Hey, hey, if you wanna talk structure, let's talk some structure.

   5. SPSam Parr11:31

      Yeah, I wanna hear it.

   6. RDRob Dyrdek11:31

      I basically operate as a very pro- like a hybrid entertainment family office, right, slash venture creation studio, right? So I have a single entity, the Dyrdek Machine LLC, that owns everything, including Rob Dyrdek Inc, which is the, the entertainment side of Rob Dyrdek's business. So all of that capital flows into this single LLC, and then I distribute that capital into, uh, real estate holdings, right? The cash flowing real estate holdings, or I distribute it into ventures that I co-found and create, right? So I co-found and create almost every single company that I build and I've, I do, I co-found it with common shares and then I do the initial funding- Uh, usually in the 800 to a million and a half... A, a million dollar, uh, sort of pre-money, and then I put two- 250 to 500 into every venture. I try to own between 25 and 70% of every single venture that I have at maturity. Um, I have built 17 companies, sold six for, and netted 450 million since I launched the company in 2016. One of those is the production company, but all of these entities sit under the umbrella of the venture side of the Dyrdek Machine business, including Rob Dyrdek, the television business. So my production company that was acquired, my earn-out goes into the LLC, um, that I own 100% of, right? And then, uh, my talent money lives in that same, same thing. Then I pay myself a salary that goes through that, and then I invest all of that in, in basically non-correlated cash flowing, uh, real estate investments.

   7. SPSam Parr13:16

      Sure.

   8. RDRob Dyrdek13:16

      Whether that's manufactured housing, multi-family units, storage units. Like, I've been investing in a lot of RV parks lately. Um-

   9. SPSam Parr13:23

      Dude, this is music to my ears.

   10. RDRob Dyrdek13:26

       Yeah, it's this very sophisticated... It's a very sophisticated, you know, hybrid family office that I built for, for myself, right? Now, and keep in mind, every venture that I create has a, has a time structure. We call it the unified theory. We... At the very beginning, we lay out the entire capital path and growth path and, and when we wanna sell it and how much we wanna sell it for, and that's our target. Uh, everything is built to sell from the very beginning, whether that's Pig Out Chips and Outstanding Foods or MindRight Bars or Luso, uh, Comfort Wear, or any of the build- builds that I've done over the last five years. But all of it is connected to this idea of, uh, the capital that you've earned, the tax efficiencies on how you earn it, and then ultimately the IRR on every dollar wherever it goes inside the system. And what do you do? Then you keep your expenses within the range of your dividends that come from your real estate, so you basically play the entire game for free. And then as you scale and have big exits and big, big, uh, liquidity events, you just pump more money into the overall system, and you basically live this extraordinary free life.

5. 14:39 – 17:55

   Tracking Time and Happiness with a Personal Dashboard

   1. RDRob Dyrdek14:39

      Now, to that point, I do all of this with 30% of my time, right? Because I, I manage... I've mastered time, energy, and capacity, right? So I live this extraordinarily balanced life by design where I only dedicate 30% of my time to podcasts and my shooting television and, uh, building my businesses. I spend 30% sleeping, 10% on my health, never compromised, and then 30% with my family, you know? So-

   2. SPSam Parr15:06

      How much is 30% for you? Like, how many hours? Are you looking at 30% of a 40-hour work week or 30% of your waking-

   3. SPShaan Puri15:12

      He's like, he's saying of the day

   4. RDRob Dyrdek15:13

      Of my entire life. All hours, right? So-

   5. SPShaan Puri15:16

      So eight hours basically, right?

   6. RDRob Dyrdek15:17

      No, all life. Of the 24 hours in a day, I s- I s- sleep 30%, so seven hours, right?

   7. SPSam Parr15:24

      Yeah.

   8. RDRob Dyrdek15:24

      Like, I work seven hours, I'm with my family seven hours, and, uh, I spend, uh, three hours on my health on average, right?

   9. SPSam Parr15:34

      Yeah.

   10. RDRob Dyrdek15:34

       When you look at the, the overall balance. And then I could show you this because I track it every day and it pumps all of it into this beautiful dashboard. Because what I've done over time... 'Cause to give you an idea, I shot 250 episodes of television this year. It's exactly 4% of my total time. That's how-

   11. SPSam Parr15:50

       Wow

   12. RDRob Dyrdek15:50

       ... highly optimized it's become, right? Because you basically have a certain level of human capacity, and in order to scale it, you either hire or automate it. So I live this deeply automated life, uh, that, that hires people in to add capacity. And at the end of the day, I just live super balanced and happy.

   13. SPSam Parr16:09

       [laughs]

   14. RDRob Dyrdek16:10

       That's it.

   15. SPShaan Puri16:11

       So gi- so give us that example. Gi- give-

   16. SPSam Parr16:12

       What, what, what, wait, what software are you using to track all that time?

   17. SPShaan Puri16:14

       Yeah.

   18. SPSam Parr16:14

       That dashboard.

   19. RDRob Dyrdek16:15

       I, I created, I, I created... I, I had a, I had a, a programmer write me a script that goes inside Google.

   20. SPSam Parr16:21

       It-

   21. RDRob Dyrdek16:21

       The Google Calendar.

   22. SPShaan Puri16:22

       It's an app on your phone or it's just on like a spreadsheet basically?

   23. RDRob Dyrdek16:24

       It's in, it's inside Google Calendar, and then it pops, it, uh, populates a, uh, Google spreadsheet, right? And then the beauty of it is, is I... Qualitative data and quantitative, uh, data is what I live my life off of, right? So every day for the last five years, I asked, I wrote down how I feel about my life, work, and health, zero to 10. And so I could show you by the qualitative numbers how I'm living a higher quality and happier life, and, and the result of that is based off the optimization that I've done on my quantitative stuff. My quantitative stuff is, did I get up before 5:00? Did I brain train? Did I get in the gym? Did I meditate? Did I have a clean diet? Did I not drink? I could show you by my quantitative numbers that I have done all of those almost every single day of this entire year. About 87% of those quantitative things that have just driven those qualitative numbers, how I feel about my life, my work, and my health higher and higher. So by the numbers, I could tell you what a high quality life that I'm living compared to just five years ago, you know?

   24. SPShaan Puri17:34

       So y- you're saying so many amazing things. I gotta-

   25. RDRob Dyrdek17:37

       Yeah. I don't-

   26. SPShaan Puri17:37

       ... dive in, dive into to each one. All right. So you just said something, "Did I brain train?" What's that mean?

   27. RDRob Dyrdek17:42

       I use the Luminosity app, right? Like, where it's just adding flexibility and just letting your mind do all of these things that are different than just getting in and reading your emails and doing, you know, just going through your rhythm is really what I, I do that for.

6. 17:55 – 21:15

   Rob's Daily Morning Routine and Weekly Rhythm

   1. SPShaan Puri17:55

      And w- you wake up at 5:00. What's the morning routine like? Sounds like you're pretty, pretty optimized.

   2. RDRob Dyrdek17:58

      Now, look, I, I'll get up... I, I, I get f- I, I have to get up before 5:00, but depending on what time I go to bed, I'll get up, um, at 4:00, 4:30 too, right? And then for me, uh, you know, always have that, that coffee pre-made so I can get up and get cooking. Um, and then I track all my numbers from the previous day, fill in all my time if I missed any time to make sure that all, that all my data's there. Um-

   3. SPSam Parr18:22

      On your phone or, or on your computer?

   4. RDRob Dyrdek18:24

      On the computer, right?

   5. SPShaan Puri18:25

      Okay.

   6. RDRob Dyrdek18:26

      And then, um, and then I try to just, like, organize and knock out sort of my more executional work before the kids get up and all that. Um, then at 6:00 I brain train, 6:30 I meditate. Uh, when I jump out of meditation, I send wr- actually at 5:15 I bring my wife a coffee and I send her an email of every single thing that I'm doing that day, what it means to me, and with a love quote on top, right?

   7. SPShaan Puri18:51

      Yeah.

   8. RDRob Dyrdek18:51

      Um, again, this is, this is-

   9. SPShaan Puri18:52

      What, what do you mean what it means to me? Like each thing you're doing that day?

   10. RDRob Dyrdek18:55

       Um, just like, you know-

   11. SPShaan Puri18:56

       Or just a-

   12. RDRob Dyrdek18:56

       Like, so-

   13. SPShaan Puri18:57

       Like why you're doing it

   14. RDRob Dyrdek18:57

       ... 'cause you know, yeah, in, in my, in my... One of the, one of the pulls of our relationship was, like, I do so much stuff that she would be, it'd be, I'd just be talking to someone, it'd be the first time she ever heard of it.

   15. SPShaan Puri19:07

       Right.

   16. RDRob Dyrdek19:07

       And so she would just like... I would do so much stuff in a day, she just would, would feel disconnected. So I just started giving her an email every day of, like, what I'm doing, what it means, with a nice love quote, right? And, and that then settled down the energy of feeling disconnected from everything that I'm doing. Um, bringing her a coffee at 5:15. God bless her, she started doing 5:30 calls for her business, um, which means she's gonna be tired earlier. That means we can go to bed by 9:30, right? Which is a- another sort of blessing. Um, but I-

   17. SPShaan Puri19:35

       And, and this is happening in LA, right? Your, this is your-

   18. RDRob Dyrdek19:38

       Yeah. Yeah.

   19. SPShaan Puri19:38

       Okay.

   20. RDRob Dyrdek19:39

       And then, you know, I, I pop out of meditation at 7:00, wake the kids up, uh, get them both down to breakfast. At 7:30 my trainer/doctor comes to the house. Uh, 7:30 to 8:30, um, training, and then take the kids to school at 8:30, right? Um, and then the day, depending on what the week is, you know, sometimes I go to breakfast dates with my wife. Sometimes it's, you know, on Mondays, you know, I basically run a flat organization, right? So I have, you know, 10 core divisions that are ran by a, an executive, and I just spend Monday fully organizing from when I get up, 4:00, into my chief of staff for an hour, into my president and COO for an hour, and then half hours for every single person that runs that, uh, division so that we can just be highly organized and then plan the rest of the week. Which of course is inside Thursday night date nights and Friday night sushi night with my wife and picking my kids up.

   21. SPShaan Puri20:34

       Right.

   22. RDRob Dyrdek20:34

       And all of... You know, I design balance, and then I only work within the structure of balance. And then depending on how I feel, depending on how my wife feels, then I'll even adjust that to lean in to making sure that my family is feeling priority above business always.

   23. SPShaan Puri20:51

       You, you-

   24. RDRob Dyrdek20:52

       I, I gotta ask you a question

   25. SPShaan Puri20:52

       ... you are like... Yeah. You're, you're, you're like, you know, the... Like, people make fun of Silicon Valley people 'cause they're like, "This is like, here's my calendar. I've got it adjusted like this, this, and this." But, uh, I'm sitting here looking at you. I think it looks like you're wearing a black blazer with a black sweater, and you got these slick AirPods in. You are more Silicon Valley techy in tune with this than, like, the stereotypes of it, and I, I love it. I think this is awesome.

7. 21:15 – 22:46

   Human Optimization and Living in the Present

   1. RDRob Dyrdek21:15

      Yeah. I mean, look, I'm, I am human optimization.

   2. SPShaan Puri21:18

      [laughs]

   3. RDRob Dyrdek21:19

      And optimized to, to be what, though? To just be happy. You know what I mean? Like, at the end of the day, that's why you're playing the game, and you gotta figure out yourself to understand what truly makes you happy. 'Cause your goal is to not be happy in pockets. Your goal is to be happy every single hour of every single day of your life, right? And, and that's really what I've accomplished. And I'll tell you something. If you think about how you live, right? You, you can live in two places that'll get you nowhere. It's dwelling and being negative, right? Or it's being hopeful and, like, wishing, right? Either of get you nowhere. But real- where life is lived is you're either problem-solving, you're either creating the future, or you're experiencing the present, right? And the truth is, whatever you're experiencing in the present is based off of the decisions you've made in the past, and it's your choice to create whatever you, your reality is that you're going to eventually experience. Or God forbid something hits you, rather than dwelling on it or hoping it didn't happen, if you problem solve and handle it, um, you're not going to... You can basically live a life with no negative thoughts if you learn to live in a state of either experiencing, creating, or problem-solving in your entire life, right? And but it's on you to understand what that is to be able to live in that state.

   4. SPShaan Puri22:33

      I'm flabbergasted, Shaan.

   5. RDRob Dyrdek22:35

      So-

   6. SPShaan Puri22:35

      Rob is, is just-

   7. RDRob Dyrdek22:37

      Here's what I'm wondering

   8. SPShaan Puri22:37

      ... has shocked me.

   9. RDRob Dyrdek22:38

      Here's what I'm wondering.

   10. SPShaan Puri22:39

       And we share a lot of philosophies, by the way. The, the things you're saying-

   11. RDRob Dyrdek22:42

       Yeah

   12. SPShaan Puri22:42

       ... these are a lot of philosophies I l- I live by, Sam lives by as well. But

8. 22:46 – 27:39

   Becoming Uninvestable and the 2013 Awakening

   1. SPShaan Puri22:46

      I'm wondering this. In my life, because I live by a similar philosophy, I've encountered a bunch of people, and what I've found, and maybe I'm wrong here with you, but what I've found is there's kind of two, two groups. There's the group of people who kind of were this way from day one. They were sort of like optimizers from day one. They really cared about... They sort of recognized the importance of time early on. They recognized the importance of h- their mood and how they're feeling early on. And they said, "Cool. I'm gonna design systems to make this work for me by default so I'm not swinging from highs to lows. Uh, I'm not pissing away time. I'm actually th- making it valuable." So some people get it early. I don't know if that's nature or nurture, but they, they were this way from day one. And then there's other people who sort of live life in the exact opposite way for a while, and then it comes sort of screeching to a halt and they say, "I gotta make a change. I gotta get some order and some organization. I gotta, like, I gotta actually, like, take control of this and not just have it be so loosey-goosey." And I'm looking at you and I'm thinking, is he a skater at early... How does the skater guy become human optimization embodied-

   2. RDRob Dyrdek23:51

      Yeah

   3. SPShaan Puri23:51

      ... the way you are? Were you always this way, or was this I lived a certain way and then I had a realization and a moment where I decided to kind of shift my path so that I could m- s- design my life a little bit differently?

   4. RDRob Dyrdek24:04

      Yeah. I was not this way. You're talking to a guy getting attacked by sharks, who's starting company after company, breaking world records, jumping cars, doing cartoons, television shows, doing, doing all these things as, as you related to in the beginning. Like, you, you were pulling into... I would say you were pulling energy from, like, who I used to be and what you know me of, as, right?

   5. SPShaan Puri24:24

      Just as, just as a fan.

   6. RDRob Dyrdek24:26

      Yeah. Right? So, so the way that you were viewing was in fact really how I was kinda living, where I was ba- I, I al- always refer to myself as going in so many directions at, at once, I was, I was, like, pulled tight. And so what happens, you swing from side to side in order t- for there to be s- some sort of give in whatever you were ultimately doing. And for me, I was... I had, had built my league, my professional skateboarding league, and took it to market to raise capital, and, and these groups were like, "Oh, we want a, we want a piece of everything that you do. Look at all that you do." They offered me a 360 deal. I thought, "This is it." You know, I've just fu- you know, done this whole thing by the seat of my pants, and, like, finally, like, these people are gonna recognize me and turn me into the billionaire I'm meant to be. And when they did the diligence on how I ran my finances, how I ran my life, all aspects of it, they were like, "You're, uh, not even investable. You're just like you spend all the money that you have. Like, you're not creating any value." Like, all this stuff. And it was this r- this deep awakening of, like, you're not who you think you are. Like, you, you've attached yourself... This, this identity that you've created for yourself is actually false, and the success that you've had by being so driven and so ambitious, like, as y- you know, despite all these other things you're doing that are failing, you're making up for it by other things working. Like, it- you aren't actually what you think you are. And, and I went on this journey to begin the discovery of, like, how can I begin to put a system around myself to bec- First it was like, "How do I learn business? I don't know business." And I hired a consultant to teach me how to build a company beginning to end, and, and in that process, I found this book called "Start at the End" that was a business book about decide what you want out of a business before you ever start it. And then it was, like, this sort of, like, like, you know, insane sort of moment that where I was like, "Man," like, "I need to start treating my life like that. What life do I want?"

   7. SPSam Parr26:25

      A- and how long ago was this?

   8. RDRob Dyrdek26:26

      And then now... [lips smack] That would've been in 2013. You know what I mean?

   9. SPSam Parr26:31

      Wow.

   10. RDRob Dyrdek26:31

       So it wasn't... You gotta understand, I... This, the evolution and the growth that I have gone through over the last six years is, is four or five lifetimes of growth. You know? You're, you're talking about from, from saying you're uninvestable to creating generational wealth in a five-year period, okay? More m- m- and, and, and now transitioning beyond, you know, self-preservation to generational preservation. What is my 500-year plan? How am I gonna f- affect Dyrdek's for the next 500 years? And I couldn't even... In 2013, you know, I was single, partying, and, like, part of, like, when I looked at, like, what's my ideal life, I wanna have balance and love and marriage and kids and these things. So I had to begin to change the way that I was living to ultimately create the energy to attract, um, m- m-l- the person, the people, the knowledge, everything that I would need to grow into the person that I, that I had designed for myself in 2014 and '15.

   11. SPSam Parr27:36

       And w- was the... Y- you said your production company

9. 27:39 – 30:32

   Selling the Production Company to the Same Firm

   1. SPSam Parr27:39

      was acquired. Um, was that the biggest win for you financially?

   2. RDRob Dyrdek27:45

      Um, you know, I mean, there's no doubt, you know what I mean? But you gotta understand, like, even, you know, it's, it's such a significant amount of capital, um, and I own 70% of it, right? So it's just a, it's a much, it's a he- it's a big acquisition. Um, you know, it, you know, the final numbers aren't... We're still in the middle of the earn-out. But it's, it's, oh, it'll, it could be close to, you know, you know, 125, 130 million for just me now, right? And so that, that unto itself is a really significant single transaction, um, that is, that very few people ever experience.

   3. SPSam Parr28:24

      Right.

   4. RDRob Dyrdek28:24

      You know what I mean? So again, it's a... And it, to me, it's the first company that I built that was in the built-to-sell structure, right? Of when I just d- taught myself business, completely built a system for how I would create businesses. It was the very first one that I built to sell, and built it and sold it in three years, right? And went first to the investment banker, said, "I'm gonna build a production and sell it" to people that only sell, uh, production companies. They're like, "Okay, here's how you gotta do it if you wanna-

   5. SPSam Parr28:52

      That's awesome

   6. RDRob Dyrdek28:52

      ... build it and sell it."

   7. SPSam Parr28:53

      Yeah.

   8. RDRob Dyrdek28:53

      Then I went and hired a person who just went through a build and acquisition who was the number two at the company to help me build it. Then I went out and began to build it. Now, what happened? A whole lot of magical shit happened, you know what I mean? Like, because, like, like, all of these different things, like, occurred that allowed me to go from zero revenue to 50 million in the first year, that allowed, like, the trajectory of the growth and the, the EBITDA and the company to scale based off of Ridiculousness having a second resurgence and me being able to negotiate the value of the company based off of now understanding the production and the unit economics of what the network would need. These unpredictable things that, that in the beginning, but I set it where I would build it and sell it in three years and then took it to market, went back to those bankers three years later, "Here's the numbers. Let's take it out and see if, uh, see who would be interested." Now, as fate would have it, the group that acquired it was the same group that offered me the 360 deal that said I had no value, um, in 2013. And when they acquired it, part of the acquisition, I made them also acquire my professional skateboarding league as part of the rollup that they created, right? So it was a very poetic justice and beautiful sort of 360 moment as it relates to they a- as the single sort of private equity group that drove me to, like, reevaluate and, and really, uh, push myself to, like, design my life, and then they come around and also provide the opportunity that sets me up for the future. Instead of owning half of me for the rest of my life, they acquired the only two assets I kept from that era.

   9. SPSam Parr30:31

      Yeah.

10. 30:32 – 33:19

    Starting at the End and Talking Openly About Money

    1. SPShaan Puri30:32

       And s- uh, you don't know this, Rob, but Sam is kind of a nut like you. Uh, he, I think at the age of... He showed me this spreadsheet and he's like, "I made this," I think he was 23, 24 maybe. And basically what he did was he said, "Okay, I wanna have..." I, I forgot what it was. "I wanna be a millionaire, a self-made millionaire by-"

    2. SPSam Parr30:48

       I said I wanted to make, I wanted to make $20 million by the age of 30

    3. SPShaan Puri30:51

       ... by the age of 30. "I want, I wanna have $20 million by the age of 30, liquid cash that I actually, uh, you know, I, I own. Liquid, liquid net worth." And so he then created a list of all the rich people he could find in tech, 'cause we're in the tech world, right? And he's like, "Okay, from Jack Dorsey who created Twitter and Square to, like, whoever." And he mapped out how many years did it take them to make their first, like, their first nut of, like, a million bucks.

    4. SPSam Parr31:13

       Yeah.

    5. SPShaan Puri31:13

       And then, like, how long, how long before they got their big win. He's like, he's like, "Okay, the median time of seven years."

    6. SPSam Parr31:19

       [laughs]

    7. SPShaan Puri31:19

       Um, the, the, uh, you know, the average person is getting this. Uh, I need to be on this trajectory or this... And so he's, like, mapping it all out.

    8. SPSam Parr31:26

       Well, so I was like, I n- I need my business to be at this revenue with this EBITDA inside four years because that means the growth rate is this.

    9. SPShaan Puri31:32

       Yes.

    10. SPSam Parr31:32

        And then if I own this percentage, that means I'm gonna make this after tax so long as I'm in this state. Yeah.

    11. SPShaan Puri31:37

        Yeah. He, he... Everything. And then it, you know, when Sam-

    12. SPSam Parr31:39

        Did you do it?

    13. SPShaan Puri31:40

        ... hit me.

    14. SPSam Parr31:40

        Yeah.

    15. SPShaan Puri31:41

        He did, he did it. He pulled it off. He just sold his company.

    16. SPSam Parr31:42

        At 31. I sold, I sold the company-

    17. SPShaan Puri31:44

        31

    18. SPSam Parr31:44

        ... when I was 31.

    19. SPShaan Puri31:45

        A year late.

    20. SPSam Parr31:46

        Yeah. Good for you, man.

    21. SPShaan Puri31:48

        And, and so-

    22. SPSam Parr31:48

        And you wanna know why you did it? Because you started at the end. And then you-

    23. SPShaan Puri31:52

        Right. Well, yeah. [laughs]

    24. SPSam Parr31:53

        ... and you know, you know, hey, hey, and you know, hey, like, it wasn't about how the path actually went. You could've never predicted. You're like, "Whoa, I would've-"

    25. SPShaan Puri32:01

        Right

    26. SPSam Parr32:01

        ... "never expected it to be in this form," whatever it may be, but your mentality was there on what it is, and you're very young. Because you gotta think, the way I'm talking, I didn't do this till I was 40. 10 years from now for you guys, you know what I'm saying? But go ahead. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. I just wanted to know the payoff.

    27. SPShaan Puri32:20

        No, you're good. Uh-

    28. SPSam Parr32:20

        You had, you, you know, you had a point for me on that or no, did I just, I just jammed you?

    29. SPShaan Puri32:24

        Yeah. No, no, you're good. Uh, the other things I was gonna say is that we, uh, you know, one of the first messages Sam ever sent me, I met the guy, you know, kind of in passing, and then, you know, two days later on Facebook, he's like, "So how much do you pay yourself out of your company?" And he started talking money in a way that most people don't.

    30. SPSam Parr32:41

        [laughs]
11. 33:19 – 36:51

    Tiger 21 Peer Group and Portfolio Defense

    1. SPSam Parr33:19

       No. Eh, but let me tell you what, uh, who I do have as a peer group that I think you'll find fascinating. Have you ever heard of Tiger 21?

    2. SPShaan Puri33:28

       Yes.

    3. SPSam Parr33:29

       Uh, yes. We've, we've broke down that business a ton. I actually think that you can build a new Tiger 21 because it's pretty old school. It's, like, all old rich guys, right?

    4. SPShaan Puri33:37

       So let me tell you what my Tiger-

    5. SPSam Parr33:39

       Like, it's not very young.

    6. SPShaan Puri33:39

       Yo, so I'll tell you what my Tiger 21 experience is, right? So, um, to me it's not about the business model of Tiger 21, it is about the peer group-

    7. SPSam Parr33:48

       Yeah

    8. SPShaan Puri33:48

       ... of Tiger 21. And so this is what you do in Tiger 21. So in my group, you know, they've really expanded it since they took on private equity and they're really trying to grow it, so it's probably a little bit different whenever, whenever you had looked at it. In my group there's 15 people of varying ages, right? Really young guys that have made hundreds of millions, really young guys that have a billion, couple billion dollars in net worth, right? Really interesting group of, of guys. Now, this is what you do in Tiger 21. You, each month, one person has to show all of their assets, and it's called portfolio defense, right? So each person has to, like, lay out this is every single thing that I'm doing. So what are we doing as a group? Not only do we understand each other's philosophies, what they're spending, their life philosophies, all these things, but understanding, seeing how they manage their wealth. Their wealth. Not, not, not making money, but managing wealth, right? All, all of the latest things through their own advisors that we share and all this stuff, but at, at the core of it, you're the realest of the real because you have to be very real in order to open up and show everybody what you actually have. And, and to me, when I first heard about it, I'm like, "Oh my God, this is the group for me." Like, this is what I need. Like, I know that only, like, the realest people would be willing to share all of their, their, their investment strategies and all of their assets. And so for me, I actually have been in it now for two years, and it was life-changing for me, right? Because part of that very first portfolio defense, it was like, "What was your 100-year plan?" And it was like in an instant, I've, I shifted from preser- self-preservation to generational preservation, right? But of course, I had created enough wealth to be in that mindset to that point, right? And now over these last couple years, it is just, it, it is a, a depth of knowledge of wealth building that I've, like, that's so personal that, that I've just never experienced on, that I could never experience through just people that were my friends, that weren't, like, open to this being part of the structure of a club, if you will. So, you know, look, I would even say for, for, for, you know, you guys to even consider it. You know what I mean? Just because it is a, an extraordinarily eye-opening, and you just learn and learn and learn. 'Cause at the end of the day, you're, you're, you grow like this, right? You, your, uh, your entire life as you grow and evolve, you, you, you expand, and what you wanna do is be expanding in one direction because that's where exponential growth and greatness and mastery and all these things lie, when you grow into a single direction. So, you know, I, I think that, that it's something like that as a peer group has been massive for me that I didn't have before that because I just don't, I don't have anybody that, that... Because I come from a sort of a different world, I just didn't have any relationships with people that-

    9. RDRob Dyrdek36:49

       ... that were thinking like that

12. 36:51 – 41:39

    Early Spending, Sloppy Capital and Not Knowing Business

    1. SPSam Parr36:51

       Were, were you doing... I know that you, I mean, you've been famous for forever it seems, and you've always been doing cool shit, but you mentioned earlier that when you were going through due diligence that the, the, the buyers were like, "Dude, you're running your... Like, you're spending s- too much money," or you're, maybe you're, you're buying things incorrectly and you're not, you know, you're mixing personal and work maybe. I, I don't know. But were you, were you s- making a significant income leading up to your big exit? And also w- I mean, judging just off, purely off TV, so who knows if it's real, were you... It seems like you spend a lot and you like to, and you, and you like to ball out and you like to do fun stuff. Were you spending a significant amount? And so, like, were you actually financially successful prior to the, the, the deal?

    2. RDRob Dyrdek37:37

       And you're saying when they offered me the 360 deal?

    3. SPSam Parr37:41

       Uh, up to your-

    4. RDRob Dyrdek37:41

       When they went into like-

    5. SPSam Parr37:42

       Like, like, like you, you sold your production company recently, although that's still kinda mid, mid... It's not entirely done, right? But prior to, like, your, what you said you read the book in 2013 or, or when-

    6. RDRob Dyrdek37:53

       Yeah

    7. SPSam Parr37:53

       ... whenever it was, were you actually doing well or was it like you're still getting by, but you're, you're, you're, you're making debt-

    8. RDRob Dyrdek38:00

       I was-

    9. SPSam Parr38:01

       ... but not crushing it?

    10. RDRob Dyrdek38:02

        I, I was making a significant amount of income, right? The, the problem was I was spending s- so much and not managing it properly. Not, not looking at what I was doing it. I would like, you know, I put $2 million, I s- 4 million cash to buy the distribution company. I put 2 million into-

    11. SPSam Parr38:20

        Whoa

    12. RDRob Dyrdek38:20

        ... building the first ever Street Dreams skateboard movie. I put 2 million into building my league. I was just making millions and investing and building anyth- any which way but loose on top of having, you know, a $5 million a year overhead in bodies in my, in running the Fantasy Factory, and then all the people that, that were underneath me as a, as part of the management team.

    13. SPSam Parr38:42

        So Fantasy Factory cost 5 million a year to maintain and, and run?

    14. RDRob Dyrdek38:46

        No, like, like having the building itself was-

    15. SPSam Parr38:50

        Yeah

    16. RDRob Dyrdek38:50

        ... like, you know, 750, right? And now you, you put all the bodies in there, you know what I'm saying? I had, you know, president, COO, like, like full-time, like general counsel, like CEOs. Like, I had like, you know, a 30-person team. I was, like, running like a, an agency almost the way that it was built in that era. You know what I mean. But al- but let me give-

    17. SPSam Parr39:11

        So were you-

    18. RDRob Dyrdek39:11

        Let me give you the-

    19. SPSam Parr39:12

        Were you making any profit at all or, or was it break even-

    20. RDRob Dyrdek39:15

        Uh, no

    21. SPSam Parr39:15

        ... and you're just spending it as you go?

    22. RDRob Dyrdek39:16

        No. I was like, I was, I was breaking even because, yeah, I was, I was making profit and paying taxes, but after taxes I wasn't saving any money. I kept rein- reinvesting in new project and bigger ideas because I thought that's how you do it. You know what I mean? You just keep taking shots. And my... Back then I used to say, uh, s- uh, like, "Our money's fearless. Scared money doesn't make money."

    23. SPSam Parr39:41

        [laughs]

    24. RDRob Dyrdek39:41

        And it's like, you wanna know, uh, dumb money doesn't make money. You know what I mean?

    25. SPSam Parr39:45

        [laughs]

    26. RDRob Dyrdek39:45

        Like, that's, like, the reality of how I was running. And again, it was because I was still... I revolutionized skateboarding and built Street League Skateboarding. I, I launched and built a cartoon on Nickelodeon. I had multiple shows on MTV. I, I owned my integration rights, so I was doing Chevy deals and Microsoft deals and making millions of dollars. So I was having extraordinary success only, like I wasn't... The way I was reinvesting in it, I was still, um, essentially make, rather than creating value, I was, I was really almost like a creative services agency.

    27. SPSam Parr40:23

        You're just kinda sloppy. Just you weren't tight.

    28. RDRob Dyrdek40:26

        Was not, not only not tight, but didn't, wasn't, wasn't creating value with intention. Wasn't looking at markets-

    29. SPSam Parr40:31

        Yeah

    30. RDRob Dyrdek40:31

        ... and market sizes and, and trends, and how could I create a business that could be acquired one day. I'd never even heard of a venture ca- I didn't know what an investment banker was in 2013. I thought it was someone that dealt with high net worth individuals. When I, when they told me my league was worth $30 million and we did 7 million in revenue, I said, "How?" They're like, "Oh, it trades at like, you know, four to five times revenue."
13. 41:39 – 46:29

    Too Early for YouTube, and the Stunt Era

    1. SPSam Parr41:39

       You, um, you've been, uh, you know, pretty phenomenally successful. I'm very impressed, by the way. Uh, but I almost feel like you were too early. I feel like if you were 12 years old now, w- because you didn't have, you know, TikTok and YouTube where you, you would've been the, you know, the Nelk b- in the, the Nelk Boys. You would've been bigger than the Paul brothers.

    2. RDRob Dyrdek42:02

       That's crazy.

    3. SPSam Parr42:03

       Right? Like, because you didn't have social media-

    4. RDRob Dyrdek42:05

       Yeah

    5. SPSam Parr42:05

       ... when you were doing all these stunts. You, you did it in TV.

    6. RDRob Dyrdek42:08

       Yeah.

    7. SPSam Parr42:08

       You, you know, y- you did it before TV and then it on TV. But it kinda helped him in a way, right?

    8. RDRob Dyrdek42:13

       But-

    9. SPSam Parr42:13

       Like, y- y- I bet, I bet, I bet- I think you would've gone viral like nobody's business. I think you would've been, you know- But I bet MTV, for the amount of views that they get-

    10. RDRob Dyrdek42:21

        Yeah

    11. SPSam Parr42:21

        ... I bet MTV pays more than a y- than YouTube.

    12. RDRob Dyrdek42:24

        Of course. Of course. Of course. It's... He monetizes well. But I think fame-wise, if you were a teen today with the tools they have and you had the same kinda gunslinger mentality of like doing stunts to attract attention, attract viewers, and challenge yourself-

    13. SPSam Parr42:38

        Yeah

    14. RDRob Dyrdek42:38

        ... and have fun and have a blast in public, that model works today with people who I feel like have done, like, a fraction of the level of stunts that you've done. Uh, do you think you're e- you're early?

    15. SPSam Parr42:49

        And look, look-

    16. RDRob Dyrdek42:50

        I don't know

    17. SPSam Parr42:50

        ... no, no. Look, I'll tell you what

    18. RDRob Dyrdek42:52

        It makes me tired just even-

    19. SPSam Parr42:53

        [laughs]

    20. RDRob Dyrdek42:54

        ... seeing, having you say that. It's just like, God, think about being on YouTube. You know what I'm saying?

    21. SPSam Parr42:58

        [laughs]

    22. RDRob Dyrdek42:59

        And, and, and like look, if, if I-- even when I look at the world, right? For-forget about sort of being early or whatever it is, like an extraordinary exist. I've lived an extraordinary life, a handful of lifetimes, but I've never been happier than I am today talking to you. Because at the end of the day, there was so much like, like angst and ambition and like I wanna do something so big, and I just kept trying and trying, and my will to execute and my ambition and drive kept just breaking me down. Highs and lows, highs and lows, highs and lows, where now I am just in this like perpetual stri- state of like high growth in a clear direction, right? And, and inside that is complete happiness, right? And not saying that I didn't enjoy what I, I went through, but it was too much highs and lows and chaos and for, for, for what it's worth, right? Like it's... and it's all experience and I really love my life way more at 47 than I did at 27 or 37, right? Uh, and that's really what your human mission is, right? At the end of the day, you wanna live this peaceful, happy, effortless, like fulfilling life. That's really what you're chasing, right? You want a f- uh, a, a life of infinite abundance and love, right? And, and the only way you can actually get to that is through learning mastery of self, and that is mastery of your energy and all the things that give and take from it, your time, and ultimately your capacity, right? And, and the only way you can master all of those is to really learn yourself at a high level and what you really love to do. And the difference is, is back then I was-- I had to do so many things that I didn't enjoy to feed that beast, right? And, and continue to find the next thing and constantly struggling with like, I gotta do another show and it's gotta be bigger. You know, it's like, it's like that sort of thing, where now everything's so much more controlled and done with purpose inside balance that you just enjoy every moment of the process, right? Um, but yeah, could, could I have done that on YouTube? No, because I also had, you know, an $800,000 budget that allowed me to like, you know, go and do a deal that could, you know, rent out, um, you know, Six Flags so that I could flip a car ramp to ramp over the world's biggest skateboard that I designed-

    23. SPSam Parr45:18

        Is that, is that how much that-

    24. RDRob Dyrdek45:19

        ... for a world record episode

    25. SPSam Parr45:20

        ... that's how much that stunt cost was 800?

    26. RDRob Dyrdek45:23

        Oh, no. Oh, shoot. I don't... That stunt probably cost like altogether all of those were a few million dollars. You know what I mean?

    27. SPSam Parr45:29

        That's crazy. [laughs]

    28. RDRob Dyrdek45:29

        That's like stunt teams and groups and like test cars and like, I mean, I was like, you know. Then, then the day comes and what do you gotta do? You gotta flip a car. And you wanna know what, you wanna know what happens on the day that you gotta flip a car? You're like, "This is the dumbest idea ever."

    29. SPSam Parr45:45

        [laughs]

    30. RDRob Dyrdek45:46

        "Why am I even here? I have so much going on in my life, like why would I even put myself in this position to like flip this car?" And then you flip the car and it actually works, and now it's a Super Bowl commercial and it's part of the, the, the season premiere of Season 5 of Fantasy Factory and this giant Chevy partnership, and you made millions of dollars and now you're a legend and, and you're gonna all this stuff. It was genius and the best idea.
14. 46:29 – 51:19

    Business Trends and Founder-Market Fit

    1. SPSam Parr46:29

       Earlier you said that you track trends now and you, and you start at the end and you work backwards. What trends interest you at the moment? What, uh, what business opportunities are, are intriguing to you? If you had a little bit more-- like even if you aren't going to do it, but you wish you had more time and it's just kinda on the side and you're like, "This is, this, this interests me. I think someone should pounce on this opportunity. Maybe I will, maybe I won't, but it, I'm, I'm interested."

    2. RDRob Dyrdek46:54

       Um, to, to... for clarity purposes here now, now I have a business that builds businesses, right?

    3. SPSam Parr46:59

       Okay.

    4. RDRob Dyrdek46:59

       So I, I build, uh, you know, pr- five to six businesses a year, right? And although I've, I've, you know, I've kind of like really pushed into all the builds I'm doing at the end of the year here are all in the beauty, beauty industry. Uh, adaptogenic, um, um, topicals, uh, water filter systems. Saw a real opportunity and, and sort of, um, in the beauty space of like how important like water is and how, how many chemicals there are and, and when you shower, but then you go and spend all this money on your hair and makeup and, uh, skincare, but you wash yourself in chlorine. Uh, so found a real opportunity to develop a, a real innovative sort of shower purification system and, and, and water filter system for beauty. Um, and, you know, e- really looking at superfoods and plant-based, um, sustainable beauty products. There's a big opportunity in, in, in that sort of space. You know, we launched a nootropic, um, uh, footwear or a nootropic, um, um, and, and adaptogen, uh, plant-based, um, bar and drink mix and coffee mix line this year that's been really successful. We looked at, you know, the, the $3 billion in market share between UGGs, uh, Crocs and Birkenstocks and created what we consider the more the, the sleeker ugly, ugly shoe c- the pretty ugly shoe.

    5. SPSam Parr48:27

       [laughs]

    6. RDRob Dyrdek48:27

       Uh, and Lusso Cloud that we launched this year that's, that-- or last year that, that really has ridden this wave of sort of, uh, comfort, this comfort wave and casual wave in the comfort footwear world that we think is gonna be, uh, on track to do really, be really big too for... 'Cause to me, at the end of the day, like what's happening in a market is important, um, and it's, it's going to be where you live and die, right? You're, you're too early or, you know, in the case of UltraCast, you know, I launched this company that was a, a, a live 360, um, uh- A live 360 and VR video platform, uh, that put 360 videos all over the world, and where you could jump on your phone and travel all over the world and be in, in different bars and b- and clubs and all these different things. Uh, like right on the convergence of live Instagram and, and live content and live streaming and sort of VR coming in together. And then what happened to VR? Like n- oh, just died.

    7. SPSam Parr49:27

       Nothing happened to it.

    8. RDRob Dyrdek49:28

       Right? And it's like, I was like r- I... And what did it end up being? Like the new 3D TV, right? And so 360 video became like the new, like the 3D TV, right? And so even though I built, I got it right on the wave and like it was super innovative with an o- amazing CEO who once the company went out of business, built and took a company public in like nine months. But I'm, um, that, that fails, right? So you're, you're trying to time markets and look at trends and all of that, but at the end of the day, like y- you gotta get a little bit lucky. So you wanna be in the right place. White space and an opportunity that's in- investable, um, there's so many nuance to a white space and where opportunity is. I can tell you, um, from someone that's built 17 companies in the last five years, that the, the greatest lesson I had in years two and three, uh, was founder market fit. You know what I mean? Like where-

    9. SPSam Parr50:22

       Yeah

    10. RDRob Dyrdek50:22

        ... i- it's like when the, the, the, the, the biggest red flag you will ever hear is when somebody comes from, uh, you know, one industry and wants to be in another because this one's so much easier, right? This one's... It's the margins over here. It's the shelf stability over here. It's the whole, there's not sizes. Like, they all have a position based off of how hard their particular industry's, uh, sort of structure is. And they're all hard. They're all hard. And you don't wanna invest i- build companies with people that have to learn the industry as they go, right? And I think that's, that's... I would get caught in seeing great opportunities and ideas and build with really relentless, well, uh, experienced founders, uh, who get crushed in the learning curve of trying to learn and understand a new industry. It's something that I've really... It's very hard for me to build a company with somebody, um, that's getting into a, an industry for the very first time.

15. 51:19 – 58:12

    The Rhythm of Existence and a Drake Equation for Business

    1. SPSam Parr51:19

       Rob, we've, we've had like billionaires on. We typically don't do, do guests. We ty- it's typically just Shaan and I. But we've had billionaires, we've had, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk was on recently. He was, he was really fascinating. We've had some famous people. We've had all types of people on here. You might be the most interesting that we've ever had. Um, you're definitely the most surprising, you know. And I, hopefully this isn't, you don't take this the wrong way, but I, I judged you based off of just as a skateboarding fan and what I knew about you on TV. Obviously, I knew you were this slick ass businessman and you always had some cool shit going on. But you are way more dialed in than I ever would've imagined, and you might be one of the most interesting people I've ever spoken to. And, uh, yeah, I, I, I think you're my new hero. You're, I, I...

    2. RDRob Dyrdek52:00

       [laughs]

    3. SPSam Parr52:00

       This, this has been amazing.

    4. RDRob Dyrdek52:02

       Look, I, I, I'm could tell by the questions you asked me, um, that, that it was coming from that sorta lens. And I thought to myself, "Man, let me, let me feed this guy kind of the, uh, the angle and the evolution of where I'm operating at," right?

    5. SPSam Parr52:16

       You've evolved-

    6. RDRob Dyrdek52:16

       'Cause it's also-

    7. SPSam Parr52:16

       ... like a motherfucker is what, right?

    8. RDRob Dyrdek52:18

       You know, and it's... And, and think about it too. It's extraordinarily concise and clear, right? Because it's like I constantly am seeking clarity, so I'm ov- always operating from a place of intention. And then I'm, I'm considering myself to have an evolutionary mindset, where it's like how, how do, how can I purposely keep evolving and evolving and evolving with purpose in a, in a singular direction? And one of those is like literally human optimization and being happy as could be. You know what I mean? At the end of the day. But no, I, I thank you and, and I appreciate it. 'Cause you guys also had me do work, right?

    9. SPSam Parr52:53

       [laughs]

    10. RDRob Dyrdek52:53

        You guys said, "Hey, can you write an agenda of what you wanna talk about on today's show?" I'm like, these guys are like having me write an agenda to be a guest on their show.

    11. SPSam Parr53:01

        [laughs]

    12. RDRob Dyrdek53:01

        And I wrote out an agenda, and we never even c- covered any of the subjects.

    13. SPSam Parr53:06

        Can you come back?

    14. RDRob Dyrdek53:06

        [laughs]

    15. SPSam Parr53:08

        We didn't cover it-

    16. RDRob Dyrdek53:09

        Yeah

    17. SPSam Parr53:09

        ... because look-

    18. SPShaan Puri53:10

        You blew our mind early on and there was just-

    19. SPSam Parr53:12

        You kind of, yeah

    20. SPShaan Puri53:13

        ... you, I could've took the first three things you said and said, "Okay, I, I have two hours here where all I need to do is just let you expand on that." 'Cause if I'm listening to this and somebody says something interesting, there's nothing more annoying in the world than the guest going back to their pre- preset agenda and not-

    21. RDRob Dyrdek53:29

        Yeah

    22. SPShaan Puri53:30

        ... asking about the really interesting thing the guy just said. And so-

    23. RDRob Dyrdek53:33

        Yeah

    24. SPShaan Puri53:33

        ... we had to do it, uh, you know?

    25. RDRob Dyrdek53:35

        And, and, and it's-

    26. SPSam Parr53:35

        And it's, and-

    27. RDRob Dyrdek53:36

        And, and look, it goes back to what you said about building towards the end. Yes, we had you planned, just like I planned my exit. But like what you said was you don't really know what's gonna happen in between.

    28. SPShaan Puri53:45

        Mm-hmm.

    29. RDRob Dyrdek53:45

        Yeah. Yeah, and look, even with all this, this, this planning and structure, I'm, I don't let it, I'm not controlled by that calendar. You know what I'm saying? Like I-

    30. SPShaan Puri53:55

        Yeah

Episode duration: 58:12