The “Fear-Forward” Way of Life — Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez

1. 0:00 – 0:33

   Start.

   1. RRRobert Rodriguez0:00

      Well, I wanna make something, but I just don't have the time. It's like, there's no time.

   2. TFTim Ferriss0:04

      Yeah.

   3. RRRobert Rodriguez0:04

      If you're waiting for time to have, it's not gonna have. All the time's gone.

   4. TFTim Ferriss0:06

      [laughs]

   5. RRRobert Rodriguez0:07

      There's no time. But we can make time.

   6. TFTim Ferriss0:10

      Yeah.

   7. RRRobert Rodriguez0:10

      We can make time for anything that we put our mind to, so don't give me that shit. That's like taking a hatchet and chopping off your left leg before the race.

   8. TFTim Ferriss0:18

      Yeah.

   9. RRRobert Rodriguez0:18

      You literally did this to yourself.

   10. TFTim Ferriss0:20

       Yeah.

   11. RRRobert Rodriguez0:21

       You just hobbled yourself [laughs] for no reason-

   12. TFTim Ferriss0:23

       [laughs]

   13. RRRobert Rodriguez0:23

       ... with these beliefs, and it's all you. You're your own worst enemy. You're, like, the one in the audience in your way.

   14. TFTim Ferriss0:29

       Mm.

   15. RRRobert Rodriguez0:29

       The pers- the biggest obstacle in your life is you, always.

2. 0:33 – 3:37

   Recounting what’s happened in the 10 years since Robert’s last appearance on the show.

   1. TFTim Ferriss0:33

      Dr. Rodriguez.

   2. RRRobert Rodriguez0:34

      [laughs]

   3. TFTim Ferriss0:35

      Here we are again.

   4. RRRobert Rodriguez0:37

      Yes.

   5. TFTim Ferriss0:38

      It has been almost 10 years.

   6. RRRobert Rodriguez0:39

      Can you believe it? 10 years.

   7. TFTim Ferriss0:40

      And [laughs] I can't believe it's been almost 10 years, number one. My decision to go bald early was helpful in making me look somewhat similar to the way I looked then.

   8. RRRobert Rodriguez0:49

      And I always wear a black shirt.

   9. TFTim Ferriss0:50

      And some people may not know also, when I first moved to Austin, which is coming up on eight years-

   10. RRRobert Rodriguez0:55

       Wow

   11. TFTim Ferriss0:55

       ... also nuts, I did not have any plates or silverware at my house.

   12. RRRobert Rodriguez1:00

       Yeah.

   13. TFTim Ferriss1:01

       And I invited you over for dinner, not even thinking of this, and you're s- [laughs] you were kind enough to bring over, I still have it, this red plate-

   14. RRRobert Rodriguez1:09

       [laughs] I still have my red plates

   15. TFTim Ferriss1:10

       ... [laughs] and a couple of your, like, dungeon forks and knives.

   16. RRRobert Rodriguez1:13

       Yeah.

   17. TFTim Ferriss1:13

       So thank you for that.

   18. RRRobert Rodriguez1:14

       Sure, absolutely.

   19. TFTim Ferriss1:15

       [laughs] And a lot has-

   20. RRRobert Rodriguez1:16

       Texas housewarming gift. Yeah.

   21. TFTim Ferriss1:17

       Yeah, a lot has happened in the last 10 years, and we've continued to hang out and talk, and you have a whole new bag of tricks. Our first conversation was a barn burner of an episode.

   22. RRRobert Rodriguez1:28

       Yeah.

   23. TFTim Ferriss1:29

       People were super excited by it. There's a lot of tactical advice. And you have explored a lot. You have found a lot. You've fine-tuned a lot in the last decade.

   24. RRRobert Rodriguez1:39

       You stumble upon new things.

   25. TFTim Ferriss1:40

       Yeah.

   26. RRRobert Rodriguez1:40

       You stumble upon them, literally, you know? So yeah, we adopt them, and I store them away so I can tell you about them.

   27. TFTim Ferriss1:46

       Look at this. All right.

   28. RRRobert Rodriguez1:47

       And I've stored 10 years' worth of stuff. [laughs]

   29. TFTim Ferriss1:50

       [laughs] So we opened the vault, and here we are. Let's just start with a very broad question. I mean, what are some of the things that come to mind that have happened since we last spoke?

   30. RRRobert Rodriguez2:00

       Well, what's wild is just, like, a month ago, I- we just put out an audiobook for the first time, for Rebel Without a Crew-
3. 3:37 – 6:22

   The freedom of limitations.

   1. TFTim Ferriss3:37

      What do you hear most from that book from readers? Because one that pops up a lot from our episode-

   2. RRRobert Rodriguez3:45

      Mm-hmm

   3. TFTim Ferriss3:45

      ... because we talked about it a bit, and also stuck with me in the book was, and I'm sure you have a better way to phrase this, but basically making a list of assets, right? Not focusing on what you don't have.

   4. RRRobert Rodriguez3:58

      Yeah, focus on what you do have.

   5. TFTim Ferriss3:59

      Right. So if you got a turtle-

   6. RRRobert Rodriguez4:00

      It's applies to everything

   7. TFTim Ferriss4:01

      ... and you have a pit bull-

   8. RRRobert Rodriguez4:01

      Yeah

   9. TFTim Ferriss4:01

      ... and you got a friend who's a school bus driver, it's like, all right, we're gonna figure out how to work that into the script.

   10. RRRobert Rodriguez4:07

       Yeah. And it's all point of view, right?

   11. TFTim Ferriss4:08

       Yeah.

   12. RRRobert Rodriguez4:08

       It's like you can really concentrate on what you don't have in life.

   13. TFTim Ferriss4:12

       Mm.

   14. RRRobert Rodriguez4:12

       And that becomes your focus, and then that becomes your life.

   15. TFTim Ferriss4:15

       Mm-hmm.

   16. RRRobert Rodriguez4:15

       All the things you don't have and you never get.

   17. TFTim Ferriss4:17

       Yeah.

   18. RRRobert Rodriguez4:17

       But when you leverage what you do have, it's all about leveraging what you do have. It's also a thing I call freedom of limitations.

   19. TFTim Ferriss4:24

       Mm-hmm.

   20. RRRobert Rodriguez4:24

       Like, if we had to make a movie right now with this room, that's it, it's kind of very freeing. It's like, okay, this is all we have to work with? You can come up with a million ideas.

   21. TFTim Ferriss4:33

       Right.

   22. RRRobert Rodriguez4:33

       When you can do anything, remember, we were trying to make a short film.

   23. TFTim Ferriss4:36

       Oh, I know.

   24. RRRobert Rodriguez4:37

       When you, when you've got unlimited, it's, it's harder.

   25. TFTim Ferriss4:39

       I-

   26. RRRobert Rodriguez4:40

       It's not. It's not

   27. TFTim Ferriss4:41

       ... I have to say, that is one of my-

   28. RRRobert Rodriguez4:43

       We'll get into this

   29. TFTim Ferriss4:43

       ... great embarrassments.

   30. RRRobert Rodriguez4:45

       No, it's-
4. 6:22 – 8:27

   Fruit-bearing “failures.”

   1. RRRobert Rodriguez6:22

      today.

   2. TFTim Ferriss6:22

      And in that example too, it makes me think of advice I got from a mentor of mine at one point, and he said, "Sometimes you need life to save you from what you want."

   3. RRRobert Rodriguez6:32

      Yes. Yes.

   4. TFTim Ferriss6:33

      Right? In that instance.

   5. RRRobert Rodriguez6:34

      That's what I, I really wanted that, and when something doesn't work out, we think we made a mistake. Like, that's one of my, you know, favorite stories. You know, the keys to your next success is in your failure because you followed your instinct. You gotta dig in deep and look.

   6. TFTim Ferriss6:47

      Mm-hmm.

   7. RRRobert Rodriguez6:47

      And I show you that I made a movie called Four Rooms.

   8. TFTim Ferriss6:50

      Mm-hmm.

   9. RRRobert Rodriguez6:50

      It bombed, but I took it on instinct-

   10. TFTim Ferriss6:52

       Yeah

   11. RRRobert Rodriguez6:52

       ... not s- 'cause I thought it would make money. If I, if I just be upset about it and be bummed about it, like, "Wow, I must have made a wrong choice," I haven't learned anything. But if I go sift through it, the ashes of that failure, I find-

   12. TFTim Ferriss7:04

       Yeah

   13. RRRobert Rodriguez7:04

       ... I got the idea for Spy Kids from that 'cause I saw Antonio and his Asian wife look like a cool international spy couple 'cause they're dressed in tuxedos. And I thought, "What if these two kids have to save the par-" There's five of those movies now.

   14. TFTim Ferriss7:14

       [laughs]

   15. RRRobert Rodriguez7:14

       And then also it's an anthology, and it didn't work, but I thought, "Instead of four stories, maybe three stories, one director, not multiple directors. I'm gonna try it again, even though anthologies never work." Why would I do that? 'Cause I just did it, and I saw what I could do better, and that was Sin City. Two of my biggest movies came directly from a movie that w- you would consider a failure. So you only know that by journaling-

   16. TFTim Ferriss7:37

       Yeah

   17. RRRobert Rodriguez7:37

       ... by keeping track of the things that you thought were a mistake, and you realize, oh, with time, that was the right instinct. But sometimes the only way across the river is to slip on the first two rocks. It's the only way to get there, and if you don't do it, you don't get there.

   18. TFTim Ferriss7:51

       Yeah, and w- I'm sure we'll talk about this more. When I talk to people and they say, "Yeah, I journal," right? I'm like, "You do, but you should see what Robert does."

   19. RRRobert Rodriguez8:01

       [laughs]

   20. TFTim Ferriss8:01

       And I'm sure we'll talk more about journaling because it makes me think of one of my friend's mothers, very sweet older lady. She was on a chairlift skiing.

   21. RRRobert Rodriguez8:10

       Mm-hmm.

   22. TFTim Ferriss8:10

       And she's still very active. She lives in Idaho, and she was chatting up the woman next to her on the ski lift, and she's like, "Oh, what do you do?" And the woman's like, "Oh, I'm a swimmer." And she goes, "Oh, me too. I'm a swimmer." And it was Dara Torres, the Olympian, right?

   23. RRRobert Rodriguez8:21

       Yeah.

   24. TFTim Ferriss8:21

       So it's kind of like [laughs] there's journaling and then there's capital J marquee lights journaling,

5. 8:27 – 11:01

   How Robert stumbled onto his own brand of counterintuitive parenting.

   1. TFTim Ferriss8:27

      which we'll get to. But I wanna ask you first because I just experienced this, was it yesterday? I'm time traveling because there's a whole warp with South by Southwest going on.

   2. RRRobert Rodriguez8:36

      Yes.

   3. TFTim Ferriss8:36

      But I got to see you on stage with your daughter, Rhiannon.

   4. RRRobert Rodriguez8:42

      Yes.

   5. TFTim Ferriss8:42

      And I thought to myself, "Holy shit, she's really good," right? Like, I was gonna clap anyway-

   6. RRRobert Rodriguez8:48

      Yeah

   7. TFTim Ferriss8:48

      ... like no matter what obviously, but I thought to myself, "Wow, she's really good. I wonder how many performances she's done." And the answer was?

   8. RRRobert Rodriguez8:59

      I know. I waited till the end 'cause I didn't wanna tell anybody.

   9. TFTim Ferriss9:01

      Yeah.

   10. RRRobert Rodriguez9:01

       I wanna make sure it went right. She never, ever performed before on stage-

   11. TFTim Ferriss9:06

       [laughs] Yeah

   12. RRRobert Rodriguez9:06

       ... or to a crowd.

   13. TFTim Ferriss9:07

       Yeah.

   14. RRRobert Rodriguez9:08

       But, uh, we'll get to this thing later 'cause I want everybody to hear this. It's so inspiring, and I've stumbled upon it. It's counterintuitive parenting. The kids step up.

   15. TFTim Ferriss9:19

       Mm-hmm.

   16. RRRobert Rodriguez9:19

       But we'll get to that 'cause it's a big thing that we-

   17. TFTim Ferriss9:21

       Okay. Yeah, I want, I-

   18. RRRobert Rodriguez9:21

       But yeah, but the thing with it-

   19. TFTim Ferriss9:22

       Because it comes back to, like, parenting and also-

   20. RRRobert Rodriguez9:25

       Creating a space

   21. TFTim Ferriss9:25

       ... modeling and coaching, right?

   22. RRRobert Rodriguez9:27

       And create, yeah.

   23. TFTim Ferriss9:28

       How do you-

   24. RRRobert Rodriguez9:28

       And creating the space for them to flourish

   25. TFTim Ferriss9:29

       ... how do you imbue that creative-

   26. RRRobert Rodriguez9:30

       Right

   27. TFTim Ferriss9:30

       ... not just capability, but confidence into other people. So-

   28. RRRobert Rodriguez9:34

       Yeah. I stumbled upon it.

   29. TFTim Ferriss9:36

       Okay. So-

   30. RRRobert Rodriguez9:36

       I'll tell you where it started. It started on Spy Kids.
6. 11:01 – 16:12

   How fan investing for Brass Knuckle Films works.

   1. RRRobert Rodriguez11:01

      something I told them."

   2. TFTim Ferriss11:02

      All right. All right.

   3. RRRobert Rodriguez11:02

      Yeah.

   4. TFTim Ferriss11:02

      So we're gonna get to that. Now, right next to Rhiannon, there was a huge, huge screen, and there were other things that were being launched/announced. So what else was happening?

   5. RRRobert Rodriguez11:15

      Oh, yeah. We had a... The reason we had a big party at my studio-

   6. TFTim Ferriss11:18

      Mm-hmm

   7. RRRobert Rodriguez11:18

      ... on the back lot of my studio, which still has the huge 90,000 square foot Alita set 'cause I'm resourceful enough to put it in a corner of my studio where I could keep it.

   8. TFTim Ferriss11:29

      [laughs]

   9. RRRobert Rodriguez11:29

      Since 2016, we built it with steel support beams, so we could have forever. It's the largest standing set in the country, if not the world.

   10. TFTim Ferriss11:35

       No kidding.

   11. RRRobert Rodriguez11:36

       Well, 'cause they mow them down after each movie 'cause the next movie's coming in.

   12. TFTim Ferriss11:38

       Yeah.

   13. RRRobert Rodriguez11:39

       But I put it in a corner of my big section of my studio so we could have it to film for Mexico, for other cities. You know-

   14. TFTim Ferriss11:46

       Mm-hmm

   15. RRRobert Rodriguez11:46

       ... we've used it on every movie since then. So we had our party back there to announce this new movie company-

   16. TFTim Ferriss11:51

       Mm-hmm

   17. RRRobert Rodriguez11:51

       ... that I'm doing because I realize I have so many resources there. You know, you've seen my studio.

   18. TFTim Ferriss11:55

       Yeah.

   19. RRRobert Rodriguez11:56

       I've got that huge set. I've got all the vehicles, every prop we've ever made, every costume, and usually that savings gets passed on to studios.

   20. TFTim Ferriss12:03

       Mm-hmm.

   21. RRRobert Rodriguez12:04

       But they just piss it away 'cause, you know, it's just like they got so much overhead. So I thought let's make a slate of action films. It's called Brass Knuckle Films.

   22. TFTim Ferriss12:12

       Mm-hmm.

   23. RRRobert Rodriguez12:12

       Just action 'cause action, there's an international appetite always.

   24. TFTim Ferriss12:15

       Yep.

   25. RRRobert Rodriguez12:15

       In fact, if you were to ask Netflix right now what they need, they would say, "Action, action, action. We don't have enough action." So let's make something that everyone needs and wants. A slate of four pictures, only that- Fans who are usually an afterthought, like right now people are showing their movies at South by Southwest to get the fans to get their friends to go spend money on their movies-

   26. TFTim Ferriss12:34

       Mm-hmm

   27. RRRobert Rodriguez12:34

       ... for the privilege of seeing the movies. What if they made money on those movies?

   28. TFTim Ferriss12:37

       Right.

   29. RRRobert Rodriguez12:37

       So you, for the cost of a badge, can invest into my Brass Knuckle Films for a slate of films.

   30. TFTim Ferriss12:43

       Mm-hmm.
7. 16:12 – 19:10

   How to effectively pitch a movie idea.

   1. TFTim Ferriss16:12

      All right, sweet. So before we get there, I am so curious because you've written, and I'm sure you've read a lot of scripts.

   2. RRRobert Rodriguez16:20

      Mm-hmm.

   3. TFTim Ferriss16:22

      If you get 100, 200, 400, 500, who knows?

   4. RRRobert Rodriguez16:26

      Pitches.

   5. TFTim Ferriss16:27

      Okay, pitches.

   6. RRRobert Rodriguez16:28

      The pitch.

   7. TFTim Ferriss16:28

      Right. So you're not getting a script.

   8. RRRobert Rodriguez16:29

      No. In fact, if you've written a script-

   9. TFTim Ferriss16:30

      So what, what form does the pi- what form does the pitch-

   10. RRRobert Rodriguez16:32

       We'll, we'll give a format. It's, it's short. It's like it should be less than five minutes, so maybe a two or three pages at the most.

   11. TFTim Ferriss16:38

       Yeah.

   12. RRRobert Rodriguez16:38

       Maybe one to three pages.

   13. TFTim Ferriss16:39

       Okay, got it.

   14. RRRobert Rodriguez16:39

       Something to tell your story.

   15. TFTim Ferriss16:40

       Mm-hmm.

   16. RRRobert Rodriguez16:41

       And if you've already written, I've had a lot of people come and say, "I have an action script for you. Can I..." I say, "Well, come be an investor, and you can pitch it." I tell you, I've sold more pitches from scripts I'd already half written or written because I know more about the story. I really know it.

   17. TFTim Ferriss16:55

       Yeah, yeah.

   18. RRRobert Rodriguez16:55

       So when I go to pitch it, it's very easy for me to tell you the story. You've got a much better chance than someone who's just making a pitch.

   19. TFTim Ferriss17:00

       Yeah.

   20. RRRobert Rodriguez17:00

       But we'll give you a format. We'll teach you. I wanna train people how to do it-

   21. TFTim Ferriss17:04

       Yeah

   22. RRRobert Rodriguez17:04

       ... so that they know. So it's kind of a s- film school too.

   23. TFTim Ferriss17:07

       Can you give us just a teaser of some of the ingredients of a good short pitch?

   24. RRRobert Rodriguez17:12

       A good pitch is anything, if you, if we could sit here right now-

   25. TFTim Ferriss17:15

       Yeah

   26. RRRobert Rodriguez17:15

       ... and I could tell you a story about, you know, there's a guitar player who comes into town.

   27. TFTim Ferriss17:20

       Mm-hmm.

   28. RRRobert Rodriguez17:21

       Music is his life.

   29. TFTim Ferriss17:22

       Mm-hmm.

   30. RRRobert Rodriguez17:23

       And that's all he thinks about. All he wants to do is find a place for somebody, you know, to hire him.
8. 19:10 – 23:55

   The time to start your art is now. Aim high.

   1. TFTim Ferriss19:10

      So you-

   2. RRRobert Rodriguez19:11

      So that's the idea

   3. TFTim Ferriss19:11

      ... you're very good at hooks.

   4. RRRobert Rodriguez19:14

      Mm-hmm.

   5. TFTim Ferriss19:15

      So before we started recording, when we were out on the sidewalk about to come into the building, you were like, "Yeah, there's this one line. There's this one line at the end that I figured out." What was the line?

   6. RRRobert Rodriguez19:24

      Oh, at the end, when they-

   7. TFTim Ferriss19:25

      Yeah [laughs]

   8. RRRobert Rodriguez19:25

      So when I told them all about this investment opportunity, at the end, I said, "So this is how you manifest," 'cause I had been talking about manifesting.

   9. TFTim Ferriss19:34

      Mm-hmm.

   10. RRRobert Rodriguez19:34

       'Cause they asked me the, the question, "Robert, you're very positive, but do you have any human doubts?"

   11. TFTim Ferriss19:38

       Yeah.

   12. RRRobert Rodriguez19:39

       And I said, "No," and I told them why, and it blew their... They were all clapping afterwards. So at the end I said, "Okay, one more thing on manifesting. This is how you do it. Next year, it's our goal to come back to South by Southwest with our first Brass Knuckle film."

   13. TFTim Ferriss19:52

       Mm-hmm.

   14. RRRobert Rodriguez19:53

       "Now, ask yourself this: If you have the opportunity to invest in being part of it and pitch an idea that might be that idea, wouldn't you rather be sitting up here with us than down there in the audience?"

   15. TFTim Ferriss20:02

       [laughs]

   16. RRRobert Rodriguez20:04

       That's how you manifest. And they all cheered. [laughs]

   17. TFTim Ferriss20:06

       Mic drop.

   18. RRRobert Rodriguez20:07

       Mic drop.

   19. TFTim Ferriss20:07

       Goodbye. [laughs]

   20. RRRobert Rodriguez20:09

       Yeah, it's true. You set a target. I, I was talking about my old trainer. I had an old trainer who'd be like, we'd be working out, and you can tell he was just making it up as he went. "200, 200 sit-up, 200, 200, uh, push-ups. 200 push-ups." And we'd just go, go, go, go.

   21. TFTim Ferriss20:21

       Yeah.

   22. RRRobert Rodriguez20:21

       You know, just, just picking a big number and then just hitting it.

   23. TFTim Ferriss20:24

       Yeah.

   24. RRRobert Rodriguez20:25

       That's kind of what you need to do, 'cause if you aim low, you'll hit low. But if you aim high, you might... It might go low, it might go there. And like Mariachi, when you read that book [laughs]

   25. TFTim Ferriss20:34

       Yeah.

   26. RRRobert Rodriguez20:34

       It went straight up.

   27. TFTim Ferriss20:35

       Yeah.

   28. RRRobert Rodriguez20:35

       I mean, it w- but if I hadn't taken the action-

   29. TFTim Ferriss20:38

       Yeah

   30. RRRobert Rodriguez20:38

       ... it would never have happened. So, so many people wait. That's the discussion we had-
9. 23:55 – 34:35

   The value of learning by doing.

   1. TFTim Ferriss23:56

      So thinking of the audiobook that you just produced-

   2. RRRobert Rodriguez24:01

      Mm-hmm

   3. TFTim Ferriss24:01

      ... and the book, we have spoken over the years about you writing another book.

   4. RRRobert Rodriguez24:10

      Yes.

   5. TFTim Ferriss24:10

      So what, what happened?

   6. RRRobert Rodriguez24:11

      What happened to that one?

   7. TFTim Ferriss24:12

      What happened to that one?

   8. RRRobert Rodriguez24:13

      You told me right after we had our talk, you says, "Did you finish that book?" 'Cause I sounded like I was almost ready. The idea was called The Creative Life because-

   9. TFTim Ferriss24:21

      Yeah

   10. RRRobert Rodriguez24:21

       ... you know, I w- I gave a talk once about Pro Max or something About creativity. They introduced me and they said, "Robert Rodriguez, cinematographer, editor, composer, screenwriter." You know, they went through all my credits. Yeah. And I got up there and I said, "I feel dizzy just hearing all that stuff." And there's this book out, I always see it in the, in the bookstores at the airport, it's called The One Thing- Mm-hmm ... about doing one thing. Yeah. And I was thinking, "Well, that doesn't apply to me," 'cause I obviously- [laughs] Gary Keller ... but then I thought, "Well, there, there actually is one thing that I do." Yeah. When I think about it, it's not those jobs. Mm-hmm. I live a creative life. Mm. I apply creativity to everything I do, and that's why anything that touches creativity is open to me. Yeah. So I can paint, I can draw, I can do anything because 90% of any one of those jobs is, is actually the creative part. The technical part about any one of those, whether it's music, say, 90% creative. Some of the best musicians don't know how to read or write music, that's the technical part. Yeah. So I realized that that is, as I did all those jobs, that was a thing. So, so I want to write a book called The Creative Life, where every chapter's about raising your kids, painting, drawing, filmmaking. You're gonna see the same lesson over and over because it all applies. Deadlines. So that was the idea. Mm-hmm. And you asked what happened to it. It's like I'm going through this whole new chapter that's so massive, I would feel dumb to put out the book now 'cause I know this is gonna change all my thinking. And it was when I turned 50- Mm-hmm ... I thought, "I wonder if there's some other job I could have where I don't have to be doing as hard a work as filmmaking." Mm-hmm. But the knowledge I have, there must be some. I don't even know what jobs are out there. This is the first job I ever got, was making movies. I was so young. Yeah. So I literally bought Jobs for Dummies- [laughs] ... and was looking through it. No joke, 'cause it had these little icons. Just to see what's even out there. Yeah, what's in there? I was like, "I don't want that. I don't want that." It got to filmmaker, and that little icon is a guy with his arms up like this. I said, "This is the best job." You get to be creative with your friends, make stuff, and then just sit back and let the money roll in. [laughs] It says, "But 99% of film students don't get this job, so forget that dream." Oh, clearly I got the best job. [laughs] But I used to think, "Well, I guess I could keep making movies. I guess that's been good to me. I guess I could just keep making more." But then I had to work with my kids- Mm-hmm ... for that Red 11 project, remember? I do. Where it was one where we had to do another Mariachi, another $7,000 movie, but with digital cameras, and show people how it's done today. We were gonna make one, and I, and I made all the other filmmakers that were in our group for this TV show I was doing called Rebel Without a Crew. You can only bring one person, just like I had Carlos Gallardo, the main actor from El Mariachi. Only one person. You gotta do everything. He can be your sound man or he can be your cameraman, but you gotta do everything. You gotta edit it, you gotta shoot it, you gotta write it. Yeah. And you got two weeks. Like I had only two weeks to do Mariachi. Hmm. And I saw the filmmakers, just like that thing I was saying about the kids pushing them, I saw them having... They'd only done short films. None of them had done a feature. This is your first feature, and we're gonna document it. It's like a documentary camera's gonna be on you, like, or you know, reality TV. I saw them turn superhuman between the first week and the second week. Once they started shooting, they had no idea how they were gonna do it. They were like, "Oh my God, this is just so hard." By the second week, I go to ask them how it's going, they're already talking about their next three films. They, they... Like suddenly their idea- [laughs] ... of what impossible was went from that to that. Yeah. And so I did that as well. I wanted to do that, but with my kid, with Racer. I picked one kid, my son Racer, who hadn't been working with me in film at all for a while. I brought him to be my co-writer, my co-lighter, my sound guy, and I didn't show him how to use the sound equipment. I, I waited till we were about to start filming, then I was like, "Okay, this is how it works. Go." And because we're documenting it. I wanted to show people- Mm ... that even without any experience, you can go make a movie in two weeks with no money. And we did, and that thing ended up going to festivals, even getting over to Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. People were flying us and paying us to go speak about our master class on how we made that movie, and show clips from the making of. We're making money from this little no-money movie. [laughs] The only reason that we had to stop doing a tour, we went to Colombia, we went to Sweden, we went to Paris. Mm-hmm. We were doing really well. My kids were like, "Dad, you're right. This is really [laughs] this is really working." I was like, "Yeah, better than I thought." We only had to stop because we're shooting We Can Be Heroes. Mm-hmm. But the reason I'm talking about this label, what blew my mind about it is my kids, I thought they were gonna- Labels you apply to yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Label to yourself, and to just a label like a company. Yeah. A fake company within your realm, like Brass Knuckle. Yeah. I would call that a label. I still do other things, but that has a very specific target, and I'm getting all kinds of ideas just popping in my head because I started that. Mm-hmm. It's just this phenomenon, like ideas I never would've thought of before, 'cause now it's got a place to go. Yeah. Just like with yourself, there's a label. I'll tell you about how I came about that with yourself that really transformed. But my kids, I thought, "They're gonna resent me again, I'm afraid. They might resent me for having to do this $7,000 movie for two weeks and see how much hard work it is." [laughs] 'Cause they had other, they had their own interests. Mm-hmm. They weren't wanting to make movies. But I said, "I need him to be in it, 'cause he'll be a good example." And I made my other son act in it because he made those knives. I was inspired to make one of the characters- Yeah, one of the circar knives ... a knife guy. Yeah, [laughs] in your k- in your kitchen. And I asked him to do the score, too, with me. Yeah. Write the score. And I thought, "They have their own interests. They're gonna work on this one day and hate it. I'm prepared for that." Instead, they came at the end of the day all excited, their eyes all bugging out of their head, and they were like, "Dad, the actor didn't show up. The script didn't match the location at all. And when we asked you in the morning what were we gonna do, you said, 'I don't know. We'll figure it out.'" And we thought- Flat tire ... "This finally, finally the, the, the movie that stumped my dad." Yeah. "But then by the end, we figured it out." They were all excited. I went, "Oh, they don't realize that's the creative process. That's every day on a movie." Yeah. But it's also every day in life. Yeah. It's the same. And I realized on the making of that movie, so little of what I was teaching them was filmmaking. Mm-hmm. It was all life lessons. How to take on this impossible challenge. Two-man crew making a feature- And then seeing it, I didn't know we were gonna go to Cannes. I didn't, I, I actually didn't predict any of that. I just wanted to finish for the project. But you get blessed because of that.

   11. TFTim Ferriss30:37

       Hmm.

   12. RRRobert Rodriguez30:37

       And the label we created is 'cause my son had come to me and said, "I wanted to draw comics, but I'm not, I wasn't born in the golden age of comics, but I am born in the golden age of technology." So I'm thinking maybe instead of doing storytelling through comics, give up the drawing thing and do it like with VR. Said, "Let's start a VR company. Let's start a company. I'll show you how this works." All these VR companies need people to buy their helmets. They need product. If I call them up and say I'm, I have a VR company, they'll give us money to go make them a short film.

   13. TFTim Ferriss31:07

       Mm-hmm.

   14. RRRobert Rodriguez31:07

       Sure enough, I just said, "Here, your names, we all have double R names, all the kids. Let's start a company called Double R." It's the label we made.

   15. TFTim Ferriss31:15

       Mm-hmm.

   16. RRRobert Rodriguez31:15

       So now we're gonna make T-shirts, we're gonna make notepads, and they loved them. They were looking at me go, "'Cause now any project any of you have, if Rhiannon has an album she wants to do or Rebel wants to put out a knife thing, we can do it through Double R."

   17. TFTim Ferriss31:26

       Mm-hmm.

   18. RRRobert Rodriguez31:27

       It's our company. Now, when you have a company, you have a label.

   19. TFTim Ferriss31:30

       Mm-hmm.

   20. RRRobert Rodriguez31:30

       It's now manifested. Now you gotta do stuff to fill, you have to do stuff to put into it, right?

   21. TFTim Ferriss31:36

       Yeah.

   22. RRRobert Rodriguez31:36

       You get all these ideas. Michelle Rodriguez and Norman Reedus are in this movie called The Limit. Remember that one?

   23. TFTim Ferriss31:41

       I do, yeah.

   24. RRRobert Rodriguez31:41

       They made us a logo, Double R logo, big logo. It went in front of our $7,000 movie also.

   25. TFTim Ferriss31:47

       Mm-hmm.

   26. RRRobert Rodriguez31:47

       It went around the world. That same year, three projects in one year, I went to Netflix to ask what, if they needed any movies, and they said, "We need family, Spy Kids type thing. Can you come up with something?"

   27. TFTim Ferriss32:00

       Mm-hmm.

   28. RRRobert Rodriguez32:00

       Kinda came up with it in the room. People are always ripping off Spy Kids. I should just rip off myself. Little kids have to save their parents, only what if they're superheroes and their parents are superheroes that get captured like the Avengers get captured? Little kids with superpowers, they don't know how to use them yet, and the little girl who has no powers has to wrangle them together to work together-

   29. TFTim Ferriss32:19

       Mm-hmm

   30. RRRobert Rodriguez32:19

       ... to go save the day. Simple pitch, right?
10. 34:35 – 39:02

    The power of labels to elevate or diminish our ambitions.

    1. RRRobert Rodriguez34:35

       up.

    2. TFTim Ferriss34:35

       Can you say more about labels?

    3. RRRobert Rodriguez34:37

       So label, I'm gonna give you my favorite label example.

    4. TFTim Ferriss34:40

       Mm-hmm.

    5. RRRobert Rodriguez34:40

       And it's a thing I've realized now when I did the audiobook that I already knew and had forgot. People would come up to me sometimes and tell me some quote from my book, and I would be like, "That was from my book?" [laughs] I was smart back then. What happened? [laughs]

    6. TFTim Ferriss34:54

       [laughs]

    7. RRRobert Rodriguez34:55

       But there was something I said in the book saying, "Stop aspiring."

    8. TFTim Ferriss35:00

       Huh.

    9. RRRobert Rodriguez35:01

       Stop saying you're an aspiring filmmaker. People come up to you, "I'm aspiring filmmaker." Uh, the words we use are really strong. You're always gonna be aspiring. You're never gonna get there if you call yourself somebody who's on the journey.

    10. TFTim Ferriss35:13

        Yeah.

    11. RRRobert Rodriguez35:14

        Say you're a filmmaker. Make a card. I said, "Make a business card that says, 'I did director, cinematographer, editor.'" Then what do you have to do? Just like the label, you have to conform to your identity. You have to go do that stuff now.

    12. TFTim Ferriss35:27

        Mm-hmm.

    13. RRRobert Rodriguez35:27

        And suddenly I have movies out. You go make movies 'cause that's what a filmmaker does. What does an aspiring filmmaker do? Aspire.

    14. TFTim Ferriss35:33

        Aspires.

    15. RRRobert Rodriguez35:34

        Yeah, you aspire.

    16. TFTim Ferriss35:35

        [laughs]

    17. RRRobert Rodriguez35:35

        I knew that back then, but I'd forgotten it, and the reason I remember it is you always remarked, "Hey, Robert, you're always in good shape." Did I ever tell you I, I hate sports. I hate working out. Did I ever tell you that?

    18. TFTim Ferriss35:45

        I'm not sure you told me.

    19. RRRobert Rodriguez35:46

        All through high school, they would want me to be on the team. Small school, I was so tall. "Please, come be on our team." I was like, "I don't even know-"

    20. TFTim Ferriss35:53

        Which, which sport? Football?

    21. RRRobert Rodriguez35:55

        Any of them.

    22. TFTim Ferriss35:56

        Basketball?

    23. RRRobert Rodriguez35:56

        Basketball, football. "We need players, and you're so big. Come be on the..." I was like, "I don't even know how these games are played. I've never followed sports. I'm a filmmaker. I'm an artist. I'm a musician." I, you should, and there's a line in The Faculty Elijah Wood says. That's my line I used to tell people. "I don't think you should run unless you're being chased."

    24. TFTim Ferriss36:11

        [laughs]

    25. RRRobert Rodriguez36:12

        I just did not love exercise at all. But then later when I was making movies, my back kept going out 'cause I was doing steady cam, because I was sitting drawing for long hours. My back every year would go out really bad-

    26. TFTim Ferriss36:21

        Yeah

    27. RRRobert Rodriguez36:21

        ... where I needed like a walker and, uh, cortisone shots, you know, cortisone shots in my back. I remember Ricardo Montalbán in his wheelchair at 84, and I had a walker in Spy Kids 2 with my back, and he goes, "Robert, I'm 84. What's your excuse?"

    28. TFTim Ferriss36:36

        [laughs]

    29. RRRobert Rodriguez36:37

        "You have, you have to work out." I was like, "I know, I know, but I don't know how. I hate sports. I hate working out." The next year I worked with Stallone-

    30. TFTim Ferriss36:44

        Yeah
11. 39:02 – 40:20

    Why lack of access is a myth.

    1. TFTim Ferriss39:02

       Besides the aspiring, which you mentioned, where people are handicapping themselves-

    2. RRRobert Rodriguez39:07

       Yeah

    3. TFTim Ferriss39:08

       ... by labeling, using that term, within, say, filmmaking, are there are other ways that you see people handicap themselves just in terms of how they view themselves or their situation or what they have or don't have? Are there, are there any other common-

    4. RRRobert Rodriguez39:24

       Well, common ones-

    5. TFTim Ferriss39:25

       ... patterns that, that come up?

    6. RRRobert Rodriguez39:26

       Common ones, I don't know. They just kinda seem to... Anything that kinda takes you out of the game early by, by a belief-

    7. TFTim Ferriss39:32

       Mm-hmm

    8. RRRobert Rodriguez39:32

       ... you have.

    9. TFTim Ferriss39:33

       Yeah.

    10. RRRobert Rodriguez39:34

        Like, "Oh, well, I don't, I don't have access," or which everyone has access to. You have a phone. You can make a- actually a story on a phone, or you can write or... I just say whenever I hear anyone use some kind of negative connotation-

    11. TFTim Ferriss39:45

        Yeah

    12. RRRobert Rodriguez39:45

        ... to something like-

    13. TFTim Ferriss39:46

        Mm-hmm

    14. RRRobert Rodriguez39:47

        ... "Well, I wanna make something, but I just don't have the time," it's like there's no time.

    15. TFTim Ferriss39:50

        Yeah.

    16. RRRobert Rodriguez39:51

        If you're waiting for time to have, it's not gonna happen. All the time's gone. There's no time. But we can make time.

    17. TFTim Ferriss39:56

        Yeah.

    18. RRRobert Rodriguez39:57

        We can make time for anything that we put our mind to, so don't give me that shit. That's like taking a hatchet and chopping off your left leg before the race.

    19. TFTim Ferriss40:05

        Yeah.

    20. RRRobert Rodriguez40:05

        You literally did this to yourself.

    21. TFTim Ferriss40:07

        Yeah.

    22. RRRobert Rodriguez40:08

        You just hobbled yourself [laughs] for no reason-

    23. TFTim Ferriss40:10

        [laughs]

    24. RRRobert Rodriguez40:10

        ... with these beliefs, and it's all you. You're your own worst enemy. You're like the one in the audience in your way.

    25. TFTim Ferriss40:16

        Mm.

    26. RRRobert Rodriguez40:16

        The pers- the biggest obstacle in your life is you, always.

12. 40:20 – 45:42

    No human doubts—when *not* knowing is half the battle.

    1. RRRobert Rodriguez40:20

       And today, the, I asked you this question outside 'cause I was curious what your answer was, but one of the questions that came up was, "So Robert, you're real positive. Do you have any human doubts?"

    2. TFTim Ferriss40:28

       I wanted to come back to that, yeah, and your answer was no.

    3. RRRobert Rodriguez40:31

       Yeah. We'll come back to it. I just didn't wanna forget. It seemed like I could work it in here.

    4. TFTim Ferriss40:34

       Yeah, yeah. No, no, get after it, because I'm sure p- a lot of people are like, "What? No doubts?"

    5. RRRobert Rodriguez40:38

       Yeah.

    6. TFTim Ferriss40:39

       Okay. So walk us through that.

    7. RRRobert Rodriguez40:42

       So they said, "Robert, you're real positive. Do you have any human doubts?"

    8. TFTim Ferriss40:47

       Yeah.

    9. RRRobert Rodriguez40:47

       And I said, "Just give me a chance to think," 'cause I had never heard it that way, human doubts. But-

    10. TFTim Ferriss40:51

        [laughs]

    11. RRRobert Rodriguez40:52

        ... I said, "What do you all think?" And then I see people going like, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes." 'Cause that's the, that's the real answer you would probably give.

    12. TFTim Ferriss41:00

        Yeah.

    13. RRRobert Rodriguez41:01

        But I like to do counterintuitive for everything. So I went, "Nope." Why? 'Cause that's a manifestation, isn't it?

    14. TFTim Ferriss41:07

        Yeah.

    15. RRRobert Rodriguez41:08

        I have no human doubts because I know the process too. You can't wait to be ready. You have to have the confidence to know that if you... You know, they say knowing is half the battle.

    16. TFTim Ferriss41:19

        Mm-hmm.

    17. RRRobert Rodriguez41:20

        What's the other half? Not knowing. I think that's more important, 'cause that's where the magic is. You don't know what the other half is.

    18. TFTim Ferriss41:25

        [laughs] Not knowing is half the battle.

    19. RRRobert Rodriguez41:26

        You're gonna figure... That's, yeah, not knowing is the major part of the battle.

    20. TFTim Ferriss41:29

        [laughs]

    21. RRRobert Rodriguez41:29

        I got there to the set. I didn't know I was gonna do any of it, but as soon as I saw how limited the options were, suddenly it became very clear there was only one way to do it. And if you have that confidence going into each day, you shouldn't have any doubt.

    22. TFTim Ferriss41:43

        Mm.

    23. RRRobert Rodriguez41:43

        You shouldn't have any fear of failure. My biggest successes came from my failures, so why would I fear that? What doubts? I couldn't think of any. Can you think of a doubt I should have? Like, give me an example of one I doubt.

    24. TFTim Ferriss41:54

        [laughs]

    25. RRRobert Rodriguez41:54

        You think... Or even you. What doubts would you have?

    26. TFTim Ferriss41:57

        I think I need to basically take the last four minutes and just listen to it every morning. I just need to replay that every morning.

    27. RRRobert Rodriguez42:03

        [laughs]

    28. TFTim Ferriss42:03

        I think it's a good reminder.

    29. RRRobert Rodriguez42:04

        Okay, but what doubts do you, do you have?

    30. TFTim Ferriss42:05

        Well, I, well, I'll tell you, I mean, and this is, you know, hopefully-
13. 45:42 – 50:17

    Fear forward past the confines of the comfort zone.

    1. TFTim Ferriss45:42

       it was better than I could've planned.

    2. RRRobert Rodriguez45:43

       So you can have a doubt, but you're not gonna live and breathe by that. You're gonna push past it really quickly.

    3. TFTim Ferriss45:47

       Yeah.

    4. RRRobert Rodriguez45:47

       Because you should have fear. You should have some fear going into something.

    5. TFTim Ferriss45:50

       Yeah.

    6. RRRobert Rodriguez45:51

       I call it fear forward.

    7. TFTim Ferriss45:52

       Fear forward.

    8. RRRobert Rodriguez45:53

       Yeah, fear forward.

    9. TFTim Ferriss45:54

       Yeah, I like that.

    10. RRRobert Rodriguez45:54

        Like, have the fear-

    11. TFTim Ferriss45:55

        Yeah

    12. RRRobert Rodriguez45:55

        ... but don't let it cripple you. Just go forward knowing you're doing something that's outside of your comfort zone and you're gonna reap great benefits.

    13. TFTim Ferriss46:01

        Yeah.

    14. RRRobert Rodriguez46:02

        You might slip on the first two rocks. It might be four rooms.

    15. TFTim Ferriss46:05

        Should be one of them.

    16. RRRobert Rodriguez46:06

        But if you don't look at it with a negative point of view, you turn it into Spy Kids and Sin City.

    17. TFTim Ferriss46:08

        I think that's an RR merch T-shirt opportunity.

    18. RRRobert Rodriguez46:10

        Yeah, that's another T-shirt. I told somebody that years ago and they went, "Fear forward, I like this."

    19. TFTim Ferriss46:13

        [laughs]

    20. RRRobert Rodriguez46:13

        I said, "I guess that's kind of catchy." But I tell you, I got to tell my kids this after we did this project together.

    21. TFTim Ferriss46:19

        Mm-hmm.

    22. RRRobert Rodriguez46:20

        I said, "Now you really know how it works." 'Cause like, you know, my, my son Racer said he was helping me with, with the film, right?

    23. TFTim Ferriss46:27

        Yeah.

    24. RRRobert Rodriguez46:27

        By the end of the two weeks, they interviewed him about it. He's waxing philosophical about the creative process like he's been doing it for a decade.

    25. TFTim Ferriss46:35

        Yeah.

    26. RRRobert Rodriguez46:36

        He said, "I never knew how my dad did El Mariachi. I mean, every day was, everything was just falling apart, but we'd figure it out. Every day was figure it out. But I never knew how he did that movie for no money, but now I do, 'cause we just did it."

    27. TFTim Ferriss46:48

        Yeah.

    28. RRRobert Rodriguez46:49

        He didn't know either.

    29. TFTim Ferriss46:50

        Yeah.

    30. RRRobert Rodriguez46:50

        He just started. Most people never start. He figured it out day by day.
14. 50:17 – 52:10

    Interactions with the enigmatic Rick Rubin.

    1. RRRobert Rodriguez50:17

       That's so funny.

    2. TFTim Ferriss50:17

       So Rick Rubin, his very first podcast, as far as I'm aware, was on this podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show-

    3. RRRobert Rodriguez50:24

       All right

    4. TFTim Ferriss50:24

       ... ages ago.

    5. RRRobert Rodriguez50:25

       Mm-hmm.

    6. TFTim Ferriss50:25

       It was in his sauna. He actually-

    7. RRRobert Rodriguez50:27

       [laughs]

    8. TFTim Ferriss50:28

       ... he actually didn't think I was gonna say yes because he had a barrel sauna at what was Shangri-La in Malibu. It ended up burning down. Sadly, this is quite a few years ago now, but he said, "Okay, okay. We'll do the podcast." At that time, he basically did next to no media, and he said, "We'll do the podcast, but it has to be in the sauna, and we're gonna do the sauna and then cold plunge and then sauna." I was like, all right.

    9. RRRobert Rodriguez50:50

       Just sweating it out in there? [laughs]

    10. TFTim Ferriss50:51

        So we did it in the sauna. Now, the one thing we neglected to consider was not the temperature of the recorder, because I could put that on the floor and it was fine.

    11. RRRobert Rodriguez50:58

        It's the mic.

    12. TFTim Ferriss50:59

        It was the mics.

    13. RRRobert Rodriguez51:00

        Yeah.

    14. TFTim Ferriss51:00

        So we had to wrap those in towels as we-

    15. RRRobert Rodriguez51:02

        [laughs]

    16. TFTim Ferriss51:02

        ... as we did the interview. But you got to meet Rick a handful of years ago.

    17. RRRobert Rodriguez51:08

        Yeah, 2018.

    18. TFTim Ferriss51:09

        What was that like? I don't wanna even speculate. I mean, I have my own guesses as to like how you guys might mesh or interact, but what was that like?

    19. RRRobert Rodriguez51:17

        Oh, it was wonderful. He showed up at my house.

    20. TFTim Ferriss51:20

        Okay. [laughs]

    21. RRRobert Rodriguez51:21

        You know, he was in town producing a band, and I heard he wanted to meet me, so I said, "Yeah, you can just come to the house." So he shows up at my house, so I figured, oh, he, he's probably heard some of my podcast stuff, very similar to, you know, his, his creativity. We all approach it differently, and we all have our own theories. Like, so he shows up and he goes, "I don't know who you are or what you do or anything about you, but I had a feeling I was supposed to come meet you."

    22. TFTim Ferriss51:46

        [laughs]

    23. RRRobert Rodriguez51:47

        So I said, "You came to the right place."

    24. TFTim Ferriss51:49

        [laughs]

    25. RRRobert Rodriguez51:50

        "I'm gonna show you my house. You know, you've seen my crazy house."

    26. TFTim Ferriss51:52

        Yeah.

    27. RRRobert Rodriguez51:52

        "I'm gonna talk about my house. I'm gonna talk about how I drew it first, envisioned it, built it. By the time I finish telling you about my house, you'll know who I am."

    28. TFTim Ferriss52:00

        Mm-hmm.

    29. RRRobert Rodriguez52:00

        So I go out and I give him the whole tour and, and he's like, "Okay, okay. Yeah. That's just like my house." It might've been the one in Malibu.

    30. TFTim Ferriss52:05

        Yeah.
15. 52:10 – 58:17

    Harnessing the creative spirit: action first, inspiration second.

    1. RRRobert Rodriguez52:10

       we go outside to where my waterfall is and my pool, and we sit, and he puts his feet up, and we just start talking. I just start... He just wants to hear about it, so I just start telling him what we're talking about.

    2. TFTim Ferriss52:18

       Yeah.

    3. RRRobert Rodriguez52:18

       All this creativity, my whole spiel on it, and he's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." We're going on and going on and going on and going on. I'm doing most of the talking, and then as we're leaving, he says, "I wanna give you my book. I'm about to put out a book."

    4. TFTim Ferriss52:34

       Uh-huh.

    5. RRRobert Rodriguez52:34

       His book wasn't out yet. So he ran to the car and came back out, and it was just like a galley version of the book.

    6. TFTim Ferriss52:40

       Yeah.

    7. RRRobert Rodriguez52:40

       I said, "What is this?" And he goes, "Actually, so pretty much everything we were just talking about is in there."

    8. TFTim Ferriss52:45

       [laughs]

    9. RRRobert Rodriguez52:45

       And I was like, "Really? Okay, I wanna give you my book." So I gave him my book. So the picture I have, I'll show you, is him with my book in front of my house.

    10. TFTim Ferriss52:51

        Oh, that's wonderful.

    11. RRRobert Rodriguez52:51

        And then he left, and then when he left, I'm reading, I'm like, oh my God. I read the book. It's so similar-

    12. TFTim Ferriss52:57

        Yeah, it is

    13. RRRobert Rodriguez52:57

        ... but different-

    14. TFTim Ferriss52:58

        Yeah

    15. RRRobert Rodriguez52:58

        ... to things that I... 'Cause we all come at it from a different-

    16. TFTim Ferriss53:01

        Yeah

    17. RRRobert Rodriguez53:01

        ... area, but his solutions were similar but different because it's from a different world than mine.

    18. TFTim Ferriss53:07

        Mm-hmm.

    19. RRRobert Rodriguez53:07

        Same questions, same kind of things. It's that hive brain. I don't know. And you said this before. You said, because you're a creative, I know other creatives like this, you have one foot in the magic realm.

    20. TFTim Ferriss53:18

        Yeah, yeah.

    21. RRRobert Rodriguez53:18

        And it, it's like when your foot's in there, you pick up the signal from the others.

    22. TFTim Ferriss53:22

        Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

    23. RRRobert Rodriguez53:22

        You all kind of get ideas from each other before you even met. It's why he knew to show up, and I've had people just show up knowing, drawn there-

    24. TFTim Ferriss53:28

        Yeah

    25. RRRobert Rodriguez53:28

        ... knowing they're supposed to be there, not knowing why. It's this kind of magical-

    26. TFTim Ferriss53:32

        Yeah

    27. RRRobert Rodriguez53:32

        ... thing that when you get into the creativity world, you really are tapping into the universe in a way-

    28. TFTim Ferriss53:37

        Yeah

    29. RRRobert Rodriguez53:37

        ... to get your ideas 'cause your, your brain's not smart enough. I'm not smart enough to come up with these ideas. They're out there, and everyone in every discipline has a different line for that. Like Keith Richards says, "I don't come up with these riffs. They're all floating around. I was just the first one to pull it down and use it."

    30. TFTim Ferriss53:50

        [laughs]
16. 58:17 – 1:07:06

    Living is reliving: why Robert wants *you* to start journaling.

    1. TFTim Ferriss58:17

       Yeah. What does your journaling look like these days? Or what insights have you had?

    2. RRRobert Rodriguez58:21

       Wow, I'm gonna, I hope I can inspire everybody to journal.

    3. TFTim Ferriss58:23

       Yeah.

    4. RRRobert Rodriguez58:24

       It's really weird. I go do a talk and I say, "How many people keep a diary or journal?" It could be like a group of 400 people. I'll see two hands.

    5. TFTim Ferriss58:32

       Yeah.

    6. RRRobert Rodriguez58:33

       Three hands. I'm like, oh, my God, if I can leave you with any impression. My big thing now, I tell people, "This is my theory. Living is reliving."

    7. TFTim Ferriss58:44

       Mm-hmm.

    8. RRRobert Rodriguez58:44

       Living is reliving.

    9. TFTim Ferriss58:47

       Mm-hmm.

    10. RRRobert Rodriguez58:48

        Because, you know, you go to like a concert and people have their video cameras up, and everybody says, "Put it away. Live in the moment."

    11. TFTim Ferriss58:55

        Yeah.

    12. RRRobert Rodriguez58:55

        Counterintuitive. I say, "The moment fleets."

    13. TFTim Ferriss58:59

        Yeah.

    14. RRRobert Rodriguez59:00

        You're not gonna even remember it tomorrow. Do you even remember who was standing next to you [laughs] yesterday? You know, like-

    15. TFTim Ferriss59:05

        Yeah

    16. RRRobert Rodriguez59:05

        ... from day to day, shit just goes by. 'Cause we see life at 96 frames per second-

    17. TFTim Ferriss59:11

        Mm-hmm

    18. RRRobert Rodriguez59:12

        ... 20K resolution, surround sound. Like right now I'm looking at you, but I can see there's a glass here. I can see in the peripheral there's someone over here operating this thing.

    19. TFTim Ferriss59:21

        Mm-hmm.

    20. RRRobert Rodriguez59:21

        A year from now, five, and then 10-

    21. TFTim Ferriss59:25

        Yeah

    22. RRRobert Rodriguez59:25

        ... all our three-pound meat computer can process-

    23. TFTim Ferriss59:28

        [laughs]

    24. RRRobert Rodriguez59:29

        ... it might have a file photo of you in a T-shirt and me in a T-shirt, 'cause we kinda remember each other that way.

    25. TFTim Ferriss59:33

        Yeah.

    26. RRRobert Rodriguez59:33

        But the metadata will be some kinda narrative that we spoke and had a good time.

    27. TFTim Ferriss59:38

        Yep.

    28. RRRobert Rodriguez59:38

        That's it. That's all you're gonna have.

    29. TFTim Ferriss59:40

        That's it.

    30. RRRobert Rodriguez59:40

        And when you journal, I'm shocked going back, 'cause I, I was trying to figure out when I had done my guitar, when I'd bought certain guitars. I couldn't remember. I knew some were gifted, but I couldn't remember.
17. 1:07:06 – 1:14:25

    “Don’t just parent; partner.”

    1. TFTim Ferriss1:07:06

       Do you have any other parenting hacks?

    2. RRRobert Rodriguez1:07:09

       The biggest life hacks is just working with your kids. Like I said, I stumbled upon it, but then when they... But when I saw Racer being so excited about what he learned about the creative process, and then I realized everything I was teaching them was life lessons-

    3. TFTim Ferriss1:07:26

       Mm-hmm

    4. RRRobert Rodriguez1:07:27

       ... I went from fearing that they were gonna resent me-

    5. TFTim Ferriss1:07:29

       Mm-hmm

    6. RRRobert Rodriguez1:07:29

       ... to realizing I'm gonna make all of them work on a film with me. That's just gonna be, this is what you gotta do.

    7. TFTim Ferriss1:07:36

       Part of the deal.

    8. RRRobert Rodriguez1:07:37

       It's part of the deal. Not so that you can become a filmmaker, because you're gonna learn more about life.

    9. TFTim Ferriss1:07:41

       Yeah.

    10. RRRobert Rodriguez1:07:41

        These are life lessons.

    11. TFTim Ferriss1:07:43

        Yeah.

    12. RRRobert Rodriguez1:07:43

        And it's the best way to do it. It's project-based- It's challenging. So my son, when we did We Can Be Heroes- Mm ... I thought, "Okay, he's done a few scores for me." 'Cause he, he'd been playing piano since he was four. They all play piano just to... and it was just to connect right to left side of the brain. Yeah. That's all we gave them that for. But he was our best piano player, and he... at the end, he did his last recital after high school was finished, and he was already doing knives, Japanese knives making, and he won Forged in Fire. Oh, my God, did I tell you he won Forged in Fire? No. My son got on, when he was 18, got on Forged in Fire- It was a TV show ... and won- Yeah ... that TV show, outdoing all these other blacksmiths. He... 'cause he'd been teaching himself Japanese knife making. [laughs] And I asked him, "How did you win? You won $10,000. How did you... What was your mindset? You were using tools you'd never even used before." Mm-hmm. "They were just throwing stuff at you and problem-solving, creative problem-solving." And he gives me this samurai answer that I, that I love. He said, "I convinced myself that I'd already won. Somehow I won. And so when I'd come up against a challenge, instead of thinking what I had to do to get past the challenge, I just needed to remember what I did to get there." [laughs] I was just like, "Whoa." [laughs] Some Mus- Musashi samurai stuff. So amazing. I was like, "Wow." Yeah. I was like, "Wow." [laughs] But again, you'll come up with innovations when you're thrown into the fire. Yeah. And so he was doing so good with the music. He composed a couple of scores for me, but they were just all synth-based- Mm ... for Red Eleven, for that sh- for that short film that was a VR film. We Can Be Heroes, though, that's my bag. I do orchestral stuff. We'll do the score for that together. That way I can teach him orchestral scoring- Mm ... 'cause that'll be the next stage. He writes the first piece, not even a picture. He saw what picture I was editing. He went and wrote it to me. It's like John Williams. It was huge. It was massive. And I was like, "Okay, yeah, sure. Let me check it out. I'll try it to picture." I didn't want him to see me try it to picture. I put it to picture. It matched. I doubled it, tripled it. It, it fit this whole five-minute sequence. I called him up 10 minutes later, "Come back up here [laughs] and watch. It hits everything perfectly. If you could do more of this there, more of that there." He was stunned. Huh. I said, "Good news and bad news. Good news is it's awesome. Bad news is I can't help you at all." [laughs] "I don't know how you did this. Where did you learn music theory? They don't teach you that in piano," 'cause I never learned theory, and I was always proud of that. Yeah. That's the 10% I thought you didn't need to know. Now I learned different. And you know how he can manipulate music because he knows theory. He goes, "Oh, I learned it on YouTube." [laughs] I was like, "Well, I'll tell you what. You're gonna have to write the whole score, but I'll help you. I'll be your assistant. I'll edit it." [laughs] "You, you won't have... I'll show you how you can repeat themes." And he sat there, and he did it, and he was just... I could just see he was just under the gauntlet. I said, "Dude, this is the only way to learn. Throw you in the deep end. If you get a lung full of water, we'll fish you out." [laughs] And his eyes were like this big. Yeah. But years later, he came back to me and said, "I'm so thankful you did that. My whole life changed because you put... I, I didn't know I could do it." Yeah. "But I had no choice." He knew I could not help him. Yeah. I wasn't doing it as some kind of weird teaching exercise. I had no... I said, "Let, let me see your charts. The thing you have going on in the baseline only, I would do a whole score with that. How'd you come up with all this other... I, I can't help you." Yeah. And I remember the conductor said, you know, we recorded in Vienna, stopped mid- I think you sent me a video ... of him conducting? Yes. I, he... I said, "Go learn on YouTube real quick how to conduct, 'cause I want you to conduct one of them, 'cause I want video of you with a James Bond orchestra- [laughs] ... conducting your own piece," 'cause I never got to do that. Yeah. And it's, you're so proud when your kids can take on a challe- and you see it just transforms their life. But he, the Vienna g- you know, conductor stopped the score and said, "This is a magnificent score. I can't believe you're 20." He was 20 at the time. [laughs] But again, you, you throw your kids in the deep end. I tell this to all the parents I can because it's counterintuitive, and a lot of parents would say, "I don't wanna push." But I tell you, if you, if you have the opportunity to work with your kids, do it- Mm ... because it enriches your life- Mm ... because you are mentoring them. They're mentoring you because they're, they're figuring out shit like that- Mm-hmm ... that you never would've thought of. You're doing a project-based thing together that's impossible, that you're all gonna overcome together. You know, how many parents do you know, like, try to give their kids advice on, on their job, and the kid's just like, "Dad, you don't f- you don't know. You're not in my shoes." You don't get it. You're in their shoes. Yeah. You're all trying to figure it out together. Mm-hmm. So you're actually useful. You're not just some Geppetto who's worried about their kid all the time. [laughs] I always say, "Don't just parent; partner." Mm. 'Cause after a certain age, as soon as they're teenagers, they replace you with their peers because you become useless to them. Yeah. If you want a relationship to last a long time, partner. Don't parent anymore. They, they're u- they don't need a parent anymore. They need a partner. They need a mentor. They need an Obi-Wan- Yeah ... 'cause that's what they look for in their life, mentors. Be their mentor, 'cause then their confidence grows when they're mentoring you back- Yeah ... and they're seeing that their confidence soars, and it's family time. Yeah. You're checking all the boxes. I don't even do anything anymore. I don't take any job, any assignment unless it's gonna involve my children- Mm-hmm ... because life is so good that way. You're checking all the boxes. You're preparing them for life. You're learning from them. They're learning from you. Mm-hmm. And it's family time. I was telling this to Stallone. Mm-hmm. I was having dinner with Stallone and his wife. It was pre-COVID, right after COVID, something. I'd just done We Can Be Heroes, this movie- Mm ... the biggest movie on Netflix, and I was telling him my son did the score. I wrote it with my kids and all this, and Jennifer was like, her eyes were just wide, like, "Whoa." She hits Stallone, and she goes, "You don't work with your daughters. You don't work with your daughters." And St- Stallone was like, "Ooh, ooh." [laughs] I was like, "Well, man, I don't wanna get anybody in trouble here." [laughs] You know, maybe I should reel it back a little bit. But sure enough, next year his daughters have a podcast. He would show up every once in a while to help, you know, boost some ratings and stuff. Mm. Now they have a TV show- Yeah ... The Family Stallone. [laughs] All of them together, working together. They living that dream. Mm. And they're just so happy. So I tell people, 'cause people can un-hear it when they hear it. They just need to know someone did it and that it worked- Mm ... to know, oh, I have a way to try that with my kids. Mm. 'Cause I didn't know my kids would've wanted to work with me. You know what happened was my teacher, my kids' teacher told me, "You know, your son Racer," when he was, like, 15, "he loves knights. We're studying knights, and we're talking about squires." And I asked, "Well, who would you want to apprentice under?" And he said, "My dad." Oh. I was like, "Really?" He's never told me that. Did he say that?" She goes, "Yeah, he said it at your desk." Like, wow.

    13. TFTim Ferriss1:14:11

        How'd that feel to hear?

    14. RRRobert Rodriguez1:14:12

        It was wild. See, kids have egos too.

    15. TFTim Ferriss1:14:15

        Yeah.

    16. RRRobert Rodriguez1:14:15

        They don't wanna go and just tell you that. They won't... They might tell someone else, but they're not gonna tell you. So don't assume. Don't assume they don't wanna be part of your life-

    17. TFTim Ferriss1:14:23

        Hmm

    18. RRRobert Rodriguez1:14:23

        ... or be part of your work.

18. 1:14:25 – 1:20:08

    In defense of what some call nepotism.

    1. RRRobert Rodriguez1:14:25

       So I've been working with my kids since they were very young. I didn't know it would keep going for 20 years, you know?

    2. TFTim Ferriss1:14:31

       Mm-hmm.

    3. RRRobert Rodriguez1:14:32

       And now it's just become the thing that we do, and they endlessly inspire me because they, they just have that confidence built in. But we're, we're building a go-kart together. I know some parents would dismiss it as an opportunity like that and call it entitlement, but wow, you're so wrong. So wrong, let me set you straight. [laughs]

    4. TFTim Ferriss1:14:50

       [laughs]

    5. RRRobert Rodriguez1:14:50

       Because this would be, you know, a curse on your life if you don't at least know this. I would say, and I'm curious if you agree or not-

    6. TFTim Ferriss1:14:58

       Yeah

    7. RRRobert Rodriguez1:14:58

       ... or if you have your own position on it. I would say that if you have an opportunity to work with your children, if you, if you're in that position, 'cause I know maybe not all jobs adapt to that, but take it.

    8. TFTim Ferriss1:15:07

       Mm-hmm.

    9. RRRobert Rodriguez1:15:07

       It's a tremendous gift to everyone involved and beyond. Because if you refuse to do so, 'cause you're afraid other people will call it nepotism, you are missing out the most important opportunity of your collective lives. Because, look, what happens as parents when we pass away? Don't we just give everything that we'd created to our children?

    10. TFTim Ferriss1:15:31

        Hmm.

    11. RRRobert Rodriguez1:15:32

        Is that not entitlement? They had no part in building. There was an opportunity to build this with them so that when they inherit it, they could go, "I made this with my dad." [laughs] Right?

    12. TFTim Ferriss1:15:45

        Yeah. Yeah.

    13. RRRobert Rodriguez1:15:46

        Right? So it's like, "Oh, thanks, Dad, for all this shit that I had no part of-

    14. TFTim Ferriss1:15:52

        Yeah

    15. RRRobert Rodriguez1:15:53

        ... that you went and made without me being involved at all." Getting that chance to have that mentorship go both ways-

    16. TFTim Ferriss1:15:59

        Yeah

    17. RRRobert Rodriguez1:15:59

        ... to build something together, to have that family time together because you were afraid someone would call you out-

    18. TFTim Ferriss1:16:08

        Yeah

    19. RRRobert Rodriguez1:16:08

        ... for nepotism.

    20. TFTim Ferriss1:16:11

        Yeah.

    21. RRRobert Rodriguez1:16:11

        Thanks.

    22. TFTim Ferriss1:16:12

        Mm-hmm.

    23. RRRobert Rodriguez1:16:13

        You know, I'm having a ball, and it's inspiring everyone who's a parent-

    24. TFTim Ferriss1:16:16

        Yeah

    25. RRRobert Rodriguez1:16:16

        ... to go partner instead of parent their child-

    26. TFTim Ferriss1:16:20

        Mm-hmm

    27. RRRobert Rodriguez1:16:20

        ... and have a relationship that lasts your whole life.

    28. TFTim Ferriss1:16:23

        I mean, what strikes me about it also, I mean, there's [laughs] you know, tr- trust fund kids or trustafarians have a, have a new term. Well, it's, it's not exactly the same, but it gets used similarly. Nepo babies, right?

    29. RRRobert Rodriguez1:16:35

        Mm-hmm.

    30. TFTim Ferriss1:16:36

        But the connotation of that word I don't think applies to you at all because at least, and this is not the Merriam-Webster definition, but when I think of nepotism, there's a sort of unearned giving-
19. 1:20:08 – 1:21:42

    Why the double R naming scheme in the Rodriguez household?

    1. TFTim Ferriss1:20:08

       Is there anything to the story of the double R's besides The fact that you have the double R's, is there more to it?

    2. RRRobert Rodriguez1:20:17

       Yeah, double R's was just, I'm from a family of 10 kids.

    3. TFTim Ferriss1:20:20

       Mm-hmm.

    4. RRRobert Rodriguez1:20:20

       My mom's name is Rebecca, and my sister's name is Rebecca. My- we're the only double R's, my mom, my sister, and me.

    5. TFTim Ferriss1:20:25

       Mm-hmm.

    6. RRRobert Rodriguez1:20:25

       And I always just loved the alliteration of that. You know, like, the double R's, it was really powerful. R, R, Rebecca Rodriguez. You know, Robert Rodriguez. So once you name the first kid with an R name, well, then the second one, and then the third one, and four. And I gave them regular middle names. They didn't have to be... You know, so, like, there's Rocket Valentin Rodriguez Avellan. He can be Valentin Avellan, or he can be Rocket Rodriguez-

    7. TFTim Ferriss1:20:49

       Yeah

    8. RRRobert Rodriguez1:20:49

       ... or Racer Rodriguez or Maximiliano Avellan. They can, if they wanna go into politics and not be pro wrestlers, they can change their name.

    9. TFTim Ferriss1:20:55

       [laughs]

    10. RRRobert Rodriguez1:20:56

        You know? But I didn't know they were gonna keep those names past child. I thought it was just fun kid names.

    11. TFTim Ferriss1:21:01

        Yeah, yeah.

    12. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:01

        Everybody has five names. One is Rogue Joaquin Cecilio Rodriguez. Everyone has five names.

    13. TFTim Ferriss1:21:05

        Yeah. [laughs]

    14. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:05

        So he can pick his identity.

    15. TFTim Ferriss1:21:07

        [laughs]

    16. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:07

        I wanted him to just use it as a little-

    17. TFTim Ferriss1:21:08

        Every time he has to fill out a government form-

    18. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:10

        Yeah, it's like-

    19. TFTim Ferriss1:21:10

        ... he's like, "Ah, God damn it." [laughs]

    20. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:11

        I'm not gonna use that. But they didn't wanna get rid of their first names. They loved their first names.

    21. TFTim Ferriss1:21:15

        Yeah.

    22. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:16

        So I thought, "If everyone's keeping their first name, let's own it. Double R's kind of a cool logo."

    23. TFTim Ferriss1:21:20

        Mm-hmm.

    24. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:20

        What's fun was that it just looks cool, double R. It means all of us.

    25. TFTim Ferriss1:21:24

        Yeah.

    26. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:25

        And it makes us like a tribe, and it makes us all... And it gave them a lot of pride. I was surprised how much pride they had in it, and they all started coming up with ideas. Rick Rubin comes over, and he saw them holding a picture up.

    27. TFTim Ferriss1:21:35

        Also RR.

    28. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:35

        And he goes, "One day, double R." He goes, "That was my artist name when he was a, you know, a DJ."

    29. TFTim Ferriss1:21:39

        [laughs]

    30. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:39

        He was double R. He was double R. I was like-
20. 1:21:42 – 1:25:15

    Tribe talk.

    1. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:42

       ... this is one of my other favorite things that when I've told parents-

    2. TFTim Ferriss1:21:45

       Mm-hmm

    3. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:45

       ... they go, "I wanna try that with my kids." It was something I stumbled upon. You know, where I was having some kind of family talk with the kids. We usually have these things we call tribe talks where you can talk about anything. It's like, like we're a tribe. Like, we help each other out.

    4. TFTim Ferriss1:21:56

       Mm-hmm.

    5. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:57

       They'd get so excited about a tribe talk.

    6. TFTim Ferriss1:21:58

       And a-

    7. RRRobert Rodriguez1:21:59

       Let's have a tribe talk

    8. TFTim Ferriss1:21:59

       ... and the tribe talk is, like-

    9. RRRobert Rodriguez1:22:00

       Just means like it's-

    10. TFTim Ferriss1:22:01

        ... asking one another for help?

    11. RRRobert Rodriguez1:22:02

        No, just a, if I have a new thing I'm gonna talk about that's gonna affect their lives later.

    12. TFTim Ferriss1:22:07

        Mm-hmm.

    13. RRRobert Rodriguez1:22:08

        Let's have a tribe talk about this. They're, like, so excited as they learn about something that I wanna share with them to prepare them for life, something that I might have just learned that I wish I could take a time machine, tell myself. You can't. The closest thing to it is telling your children.

    14. TFTim Ferriss1:22:20

        Yeah.

    15. RRRobert Rodriguez1:22:20

        'Cause I used to think any advice I give them I'm afraid might probably just go in one ear and out the other because it's not real to them yet. They probably have to live through it and find their own mistakes.

    16. TFTim Ferriss1:22:29

        Yeah.

    17. RRRobert Rodriguez1:22:30

        No, they would process it and give it back to me.

    18. TFTim Ferriss1:22:32

        [laughs]

    19. RRRobert Rodriguez1:22:33

        And I would be like, "Where'd you get that philosophy?" "You told me that." I didn't tell it to you like that. I said, I might've said, "The glass is half empty or half full." They go, "Oh, yeah. Well, we built upon it." [laughs] Well, they take what you tell them and build upon it, right?

    20. TFTim Ferriss1:22:44

        Yeah.

    21. RRRobert Rodriguez1:22:45

        So this one was, I thought, "I'm gonna be very honest with them and tell them all the major decisions I made in life. Walk them through," 'cause there's a funny scene. It came up because of a movie. We did another Spy Kids. There's a scene where the parents are talking about Operation Fireball with such memories about it, and the little girl asks, "What is that exactly?" "Oh, we beat up the bad guy. We blew up his lair and all this stuff." And she's just like, "You could've done it a better way. You could've gone to him nicely. You could've talked to him, seen his aesthetic," you know?

    22. TFTim Ferriss1:23:13

        Mm-hmm.

    23. RRRobert Rodriguez1:23:13

        And it plays it out, right? So I thought, "I wanna try that with my kids." I bet if I told them all the decisions I was faced with-

    24. TFTim Ferriss1:23:18

        Mm-hmm

    25. RRRobert Rodriguez1:23:19

        ... that a lot of times are lose-lose. There's no, there's no clear way to go.

    26. TFTim Ferriss1:23:23

        Yeah.

    27. RRRobert Rodriguez1:23:24

        And as you think 10 years later, you'll see what the real answer should've been. Nothing.

    28. TFTim Ferriss1:23:28

        Yeah.

    29. RRRobert Rodriguez1:23:29

        There's never clarity sometimes. I'm curious to see what they would've done-

    30. TFTim Ferriss1:23:33

        Mm-hmm
21. 1:25:15 – 1:28:09

    Robert’s favorite exercise-related life hack: the rock walk.

    1. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:15

       that." I'm curious to see what they say, 'cause you wanna see-

    2. TFTim Ferriss1:25:17

       Walk up to a decision

    3. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:17

       ... if they remix a better version of you.

    4. TFTim Ferriss1:25:19

       Yeah.

    5. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:20

       But you might be surprised. It's just as unfathomable to them to have an answer-

    6. TFTim Ferriss1:25:24

       Yeah

    7. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:24

       ... as you did. Okay, life hack. My favorite life hack.

    8. TFTim Ferriss1:25:27

       Life hack.

    9. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:27

       Have you seen, I showed you that little Spark AMP, right, that I can play guitar-

    10. TFTim Ferriss1:25:31

        You did.

    11. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:31

        Okay, okay.

    12. TFTim Ferriss1:25:32

        Yep, in your kitchen.

    13. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:33

        So, you know, no time. There's no time.

    14. TFTim Ferriss1:25:36

        Yeah.

    15. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:37

        Even when you try to make time, you can't make consistent time. You're supposed to walk 10,000 steps, you know, for your health, especially after 50 or whatever. I don't have time for that. It takes an hour, an hour and a half.

    16. TFTim Ferriss1:25:46

        Hmm.

    17. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:47

        I mean, I don't have enough things to listen to or phone calls to make to go do that. But then I love guitar.

    18. TFTim Ferriss1:25:52

        Mm-hmm.

    19. RRRobert Rodriguez1:25:53

        I can't be playing guitar for a freaking hour. You know, we listen to Tom Morello on this masterclass. "You wanna get better at guitar? Play for an hour a day."

    20. TFTim Ferriss1:26:00

        Mm-hmm.

    21. RRRobert Rodriguez1:26:01

        "If you wanna get better than that, more." So I started trying to do an hour a day. I couldn't do it consistently. So I'd be like, "God, I wanna play guitar. I don't have time. No, time to walk." So I put them together. The Spark AMPs, they have some that are really small, and now they just came out with the headphone ones that you just put it on. It's the amp is built in, and you plug in your guitar wireless.

    22. TFTim Ferriss1:26:17

        Mm-hmm.

    23. RRRobert Rodriguez1:26:17

        And I used to have just the one in my pocket, their older one. And I put a playlist on of backing tracks, drums and bass for song, my favorite songs that I play to, and I walk just around my house.

    24. TFTim Ferriss1:26:28

        [chuckles]

    25. RRRobert Rodriguez1:26:29

        And you forget you were even there. It's like the Angus Young workout, you know? He's always-

    26. TFTim Ferriss1:26:32

        Yeah. [laughs] Yeah

    27. RRRobert Rodriguez1:26:33

        ... he's always doing that, or Eddie Van Halen running around.

    28. TFTim Ferriss1:26:35

        Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    29. RRRobert Rodriguez1:26:36

        The music drives you. You f- don't even r- the room is gone. You're in a stadium.

    30. TFTim Ferriss1:26:40

        Mm-hmm.
22. 1:28:09 – 1:29:58

    Parting thoughts.

    1. TFTim Ferriss1:28:09

       we'll have to do this more than once a decade, but-

    2. RRRobert Rodriguez1:28:11

       Yeah. [laughs]

    3. TFTim Ferriss1:28:11

       ... thank you so much for all the stories, and-

    4. RRRobert Rodriguez1:28:13

       Sure

    5. TFTim Ferriss1:28:14

       ... I took a ton of notes. How can people learn more about Brass Knuckle Films? Where should they go? What should they check out?

    6. RRRobert Rodriguez1:28:21

       There's a Brass Knuckle Films, you know, website-

    7. TFTim Ferriss1:28:23

       Mm-hmm

    8. RRRobert Rodriguez1:28:24

       ... where you can learn all about it, get all the updates-

    9. TFTim Ferriss1:28:26

       Mm-hmm

    10. RRRobert Rodriguez1:28:26

        ... show you how you can invest, and you'll see all the perks and things for the different levels, and get a part of it. It's a, it's a community I think is really gonna appeal to anyone who's a fan of action movies, but also filmmakers, but just people who are interested in, in trying, you know, people who consume. Don't just be a consumer. Make the money back. I, I want you to make the money so that you're not just consuming and watching a movie. If you like movies, this is the best way. I tried to figure out ever since I was a kid, how can I get paid to watch movies? 'Cause I watch movies all the time.

    11. TFTim Ferriss1:28:59

        [laughs]

    12. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:00

        This is the closest thing.

    13. TFTim Ferriss1:29:01

        [laughs]

    14. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:03

        Yeah, Brass Knuckle Films.

    15. TFTim Ferriss1:29:04

        Beautiful.

    16. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:05

        [laughs]

    17. TFTim Ferriss1:29:05

        All right, folks. We're gonna link in the show notes to everything, tin.blog/podcast. Thank you, Robert.

    18. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:09

        Thank you for giving me a forum to tell people.

    19. TFTim Ferriss1:29:11

        Of course.

    20. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:11

        Didn't know people were here, 'cause everyone listens to your thing, 'cause-

    21. TFTim Ferriss1:29:14

        100%

    22. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:15

        ... I just, just like with my book, I always wanted... As soon as I made Mariachi, I wanted to share it with people because I knew I would've appreciated hearing that-

    23. TFTim Ferriss1:29:22

        Yeah

    24. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:22

        ... as a filmmaker who had no money from a family of 10, that it was possible, 'cause everyone made it sound like it was not.

    25. TFTim Ferriss1:29:28

        Yeah.

    26. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:28

        So I just wanted to shout it from the mountaintop, and I still feel that same way. As I discover things, I want, I wanna tell people 'cause it, the feedback loop is amazing, you know?

    27. TFTim Ferriss1:29:36

        Yeah.

    28. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:36

        When people come back and tell you how they worked it into their life in their own way-

    29. TFTim Ferriss1:29:39

        Oh, yeah

    30. RRRobert Rodriguez1:29:39

        ... it inspires you all over again.

Episode duration: 1:30:09