107 How a Gang Kid Becomes a Multimillionaire Entrepreneur with Ryan Blair

"It's more important for you to learn what NOT to do than what TO do." - Ryan Blair If you enjoyed this episode, check out extras and show notes at www.lewishowes.com/107 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 107 with Ryan Blair.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  What is up everyone? Thank you so much for joining me today on the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest today. His name is Mr. Ryan Blair. We just had an awesome time going for a little hike here in the Hollywood Hills, Runyon Canyon, and had a great time to be able to connect with Ryan and kind of tap into his brain about how he's built such a massive company in a short amount of time. Now, for those that don't know who Ryan is, he is the CEO of Vaisalas, a number one New York Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur who came from nothing to lose and had everything to gain. And when he was 21 years old, Blair had already founded his first business, 247 Tech,

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  and has since created and sold numerous other companies for hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of his career. And he was named 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. Now, Ryan is an awesome guy. We had a great time today going over this interview. We really dive into about how he got to where he is, the importance of mentors, how to scale a business. Once you start making so much money, you know, you go from the million to $10 million range, then you go up to 100 million. How do you scale a business that big? And how do you think big enough so that you can not get overwhelmed? And all the other obstacles along the way. So I think you guys are really gonna love this episode.

• 1:54Lewis Howes?

  So make sure to stick around and listen to the entire thing. Now, without further ado, guys, let's go ahead and dive in. Make sure to circle back, go to the show notes at the very end of this episode, check out all the links about Ryan at the end. There's gonna be some great content all the way to the very end. So stick around to the end, share with your friends, and let's go ahead and dive into this week's lesson with the one and only Ryan Blair.

• 2:28Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back and welcome to the School of Greatness Podcast. I'm here with Ryan Blair. What's up, my man?

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Good to see you.

• 2:35Lewis Howes?

  I'm still like sniffling and like trying to catch my breath because we are at the top of Runyon Canyon.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:40Lewis Howes?

  Where you live up in the Hollywood Hills. We're looking out at one of the most beautiful views in the country, probably. Over all of LA in the hills and Brian just took me on this crazy trek, straight down and then straight back up. Runyon Canyon on a path that I'd never been on. So catching my breath, very excited to connect and thanks for sharing stories so far with me.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. It's good to get to know you. I'm a big fan of the podcast and I appreciate all your listeners.

• 3:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, appreciate it. So, you know, I found out about you a few years ago because every time I would go on a plane, I'd see your book.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:14Lewis Howes?

  Bright Orange in front of every bookstore in airports.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, the book's called Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain.

• 3:19Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  You can buy it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble.

• 3:22Lewis Howes?

  But it's everywhere you go and every bookstore and airports and I remember seeing Don Yeager, who helped you writing it as well, or wrote it with you. And I was like, man, this guy must be awesome because Don Yeager was a friend of mine and I was like.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's an eight time, seven times, I was his number eight New York Times bestselling book. He's written mostly books for professional athletes and I met him through, Coach John Wooden. So, you know, I believe everything happens for a reason. Meeting you, meeting Don, being on this podcast, you know, it's all connected.

• 3:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, he was on the podcast about a year ago as well and we had a great conversation. So.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Don's awesome, good friend.

• 3:56Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. Well, I'm excited and I'm even more excited. I want to talk about your book and I want to talk about you.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  I'm a little worried though, because you asked me earlier before the interview if anything was off limits. So I'm very, I'm curious about.

• 4:07Lewis Howes?

  Got a few questions on my sleeve.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, where's my publicity people? Go ahead, go ahead.

• 4:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I mean, you have a fascinating book. It's a great read. I actually told you before that I don't read much and I skimmed it and read some chapters. My assistant Sarah actually reads them all. She was like, this is a great read.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I rewrote the book. So Don taught me about the structure of writing a book. He taught me about how to, you know, how many words per chapter. But a lot of the art of the actual writing process was done by myself and it. Was because I lost my stepdad, who was my original mentor and my mother all about the same time. So I was going through a bit of an emotional period of time as my company was growing and I decided I'd write it, you know, from a very, you know, you know, hard on my sleeve kind of approach. So that's what you got there.

• 4:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's really cool, really inspiring. My assistant Sarah actually said that she cried.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:52Lewis Howes?

  A couple of times and she was really emotional for it.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, you know, when as an artist and, you know, I've, Don taught me how to be a writer and I'm working on my next book right now and writing is one of my, you know, passions. It always has been. The best you can ever hope is to invoke emotion in people, anger, hatred, you know, ambition, rage, whatever it is. So if you can do that through written form, it's the hardest. So, you know, it's something I've learned.

• 5:15Lewis Howes?

  Because people may not remember the specific things you say, but they remember the feelings that you created for them, right?

• 5:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, there's been a lot of studies on, in fact, one of which is you'll, you know, you can be listening to a great piece of music, but if it ends abruptly, you'll hate the music. You know, the music that you're listening to is wonderful. The ending is what you hated. You only remember the, your final experience with it. The last chapter of the book or of the epilogue is a lot about my mother and my relationship with my father, who, you know, who disappeared when I was 13. And so it was a bit of a, you know, an emotional leave off, I guess I would say. I got a lot of great feedback from it. It's been published. I think we're on 12 different countries, launches in new country every, every month, Bulgaria, Turkey, China, Russia, Germany.

• 5:51Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing. Yeah, it's a, it's awesome book. So I definitely recommend checking it out. And it talks about how you went from prison gang member to.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  I wasn't prison, I was in juvenile hall, but I, I was a gang member.

• 6:02Lewis Howes?

  For some reason I thought prison, but.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  You know, the, the translation in Korea, it says, what I learned in prison. A couple of times when I went there, people looked at me very odd. And, you know, because, you know, prison is taboo there. Where in the States, you know, a lot of our population is actually in prison right now. So it's not as taboo.

• 6:17Lewis Howes?

  My brother actually went to prison for four and a half years when he was 19, selling drugs and undercover cop.

• 6:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, my brother went, my brother did eight, my sister did six, my other brother did about five.

• 6:27Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 6:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:27Lewis Howes?

  So the only one that actually didn't go to prison?

• 6:29Speaker 01

  I didn't go to prison. I went to juvenile hall and I was facing prison. And that's when I learned I'd be a writer. I wrote a letter to the judge, which I actually published a copy of it in my book, begging for leniency. And the judge said that I should be writing in college, not in prison. I was facing four years for 211, which. Just strong armed robbery, at least that's what I was getting. Which, you know, I I used to steal a lot of stuff and get in fights and get in trouble and you know, that was it. And that's when I got the first male that ever believed in me. That wasn't, you know, one of our fellow gang members or an OG or one of these guys that, you know, takes young people under their wing and has them do their dirt, so to speak. So that was the first time I ever had, I know, an authority figure who was respected publicly, a judge, believe in me. And that's what start kind of started the process of me believing in myself.

• 7:12Lewis Howes?

  And how old were you then?

• 7:13Speaker 01

  Uh, I was fourteen. No, no, I was sixteen, sixteen. Yeah, I was sixteen years old. It was actually, it's amazing. A lot can happen in, you know, in a short period of time. When I was sixteen years old, I was facing four years in prison. By the time I was nineteen years old, I was starting my first company. So just three years later, three years.

• 7:29Lewis Howes?

  So much shifted.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, um, I I learned entrepreneurship on the streets. In fact, I wrote an article for the Financial Times of London and I talked about, you know, gangs and gang culture. And gang culture has permeated even into the suburbs, which, you know, I I wasn't from Compton. I wasn't from, you know, I I wasn't in a you know, a Compton gang or one of these gangs, but I was in a gang that was involved in murder, robbery, you know, all kinds of stuff, drug dealing. Uh, and it's in culture, the gang culture has permeated through suburbia. And so as a result of that, I got trapped up in it and and, you know, and and when you don't have male role models in your life, you find them. Unfortunately, the ones that you find aren't going to be good ones.

• 8:05Lewis Howes?

  The people that give you attention and that give you, uh, some education or training or inspiration. Yeah, belong in community, right?

• 8:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. And generally what, you know, uh, our academic society is largely for people that are athletes like yourself.

• 8:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Or academics. And if you're in between there.

• 8:21Lewis Howes?

  You're screwed.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  You know, and you're ambitious or, you know, you're you're not going to score A's in tests. You're not going to, you know, run a four, four forty. So where do you fall in in the mix of there? How do you find yourself as a man? And that, you know, as a as a young man anyways? And that was, you know, that was my struggle early on. I did a lot of things, uh, seeking attention or seeking to belong. And, you know, and but I look at it, it's funny, some, you know, people here that I lost my father when I was thirteen, he just upped and disappeared. He's still alive. Uh, he's written in recently and people say, oh, that's that's a tragedy. And I go, no, it's actually great. Because if that man had stuck around in my life, I probably wouldn't be the man I am today.

• 8:52Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  I'm actually fortunate. He disappeared at thirteen. I found my way by the time I was nineteen. If he'd just stuck with me, I might be, you know, in prison or a terrible person or a terrible father. I have a son that I'm, you know, very passionate about being a great father to him, unlike the one that I had. So I look at everything as a blessing, not as a curse.

• 9:08Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. So have you spoken with your father or seen him?

• 9:12Speaker 01

  I haven't. You know, it's an interesting question. I've forgiven him. I get a lot of people asking me, you know, what I want a relationship with him. And my answer is pretty simple. I don't want a relationship with anybody that I deem to be unintelligent. And the decisions that he made were not intelligent emotionally and intellectually. And so why would I want to spend time with person, family or not? Or, you know, or, you know, it's like, I don't suffer fools lightly. So if this person's a fool to me. Now, if he had come to me and said, look, what I did was incorrect. What I did was unintelligent. I've since learned, you know, I have a perspective. I'd like to talk to you about it. I'd be all open to it. But

• 9:43Lewis Howes?

  He hasn't done that.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  Uh, no, he wrote in and said he did all, he abandoned my family so that I could be the man that I am today. Basically, he took credit for it. And, you know, it's, a lot of people take credit for your success. When you're successful, that's fine. I let him have it. I said, you know what? There are some traits that you gave me. And, you know, but I'm sure this wasn't by your design here. You know, I came here.

• 10:01Lewis Howes?

  Right. You weren't like, I'm gonna abandon him and be an asshole so that my son can grow up and be

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, that'd be, you know, that'd be a success. Yeah, that's not the best approach. You know, but

• 10:11Lewis Howes?

  He should like send you off to like boarding school or something, right?

• 10:14Speaker 01

  Or, you know, or whatever. Yeah, he, he, he took credit for it. In fact, the email said, I told you so. He said, I told you you'd be a success. And he did. And I said, you know what? If you die tomorrow, I want you taking credit for this. I'd rather have him die knowing that he has a successful son and give him that, rather than me try to take that away from him. You know, like, but so he did give me some

• 10:33Lewis Howes?

  I mean, he laid a foundation in some way, for you to be driven.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  Genetically and otherwise. And, yeah. You know what he did is he taught me what not to do. And as an entrepreneur, I know this audience, a lot of entrepreneurs, it's more important for you to learn what not to do than what to do.

• 10:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, everybody knows what to do. It's what not to do. They don't know. So if you really focus on that as an entrepreneur, you'll be a lot more successful. And he taught me what not to do as a father, as a man, as a, you know,

• 10:56Lewis Howes?

  Through osmosis by being around it, right?

• 10:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, you know, he was, he was violently abusive. He was a terrible man to my mom. He was, uh, but he was a brilliant engineer. So I picked up a lot of that, a lot of my analytical ability and uh, some of the engineering things that I've done and projects I've done. I've got five patents on various software that I've, that I've written and a number of different things that I've created both uh, in Vysalis, the company I own and some of my other venture investments I've done. So that said, you know, some things he gave me that are good. Yeah. Yeah. And, and hopefully I pass down the positive traits to my son and he adopts none of my negative ones. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Now, what had happened is your dad left you and your mom, right? And your, your family and then, and then your mom got in a new relationship who became a mentor to you in real, in real estate, right? Yeah. So my mother started, worked at a deli and she started dating a rich man.

• 11:43Speaker 01

  And a lot of times I'll tell people, I did get blessed, you know, I, I basically had an opportunity uh, present itself to me. And I would argue most Americans every day have an opportunity to present themselves. They just don't. Don't take action, right? Yeah. They just don't see it. It's the acres of diamonds analogy, you know, where they'll, they'll parable where the farmer, you know, uh, sold his farm to go pursue acres of di- or pursue diamonds. And the farm he sold had acres of diamonds in his own backyard. He just didn't have the ability to spot diamonds in the rough. Um, so I, I, you know, I, I look around me every day and I see opportunity and I'm in real estate now. In fact, the view that you're looking at, you can see one of my houses directly across the mountain top there. You know, I own a number of homes up in these hills. So you can see what's available. You can go, that's available. I can buy that. I can renovate it. I can.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'd rather look at my money on, you know, in the form of real estate than, than in the bank. Uh, money is not pretty in a bank account. It's, it's pretty in real estate. Yeah. Or art. I have a lot of art, a lot of different toys. Very nice art here. Yeah. Thank you. I really like this place. Yeah. Um, so, so she started dating. Yeah. So she started dating, uh, his name is Robert Hunt. He was a, a notch above slumlord. So he had about a hundred homes. Uh, he would buy them, leverage them. He was a self-made real estate guy. I watched the guy hustle, uh, to make his money. And, and as a result of that, I saw that he applied the exact same things that we did in the streets, except for he didn't have to worry about getting shot, getting arrested. He did it legally. Legally. And, and he made, uh, you know, ethically and morally is interesting because I used to have to evict people. And according to the law, you know, you're supposed to wait

• 13:11Speaker 01

  90 days. And he would say, Ryan, go get those people out. And I didn't know any better. So I would get them out, you know, within a week. All right. And the way I would do that is I'd tell them, if you don't get the hell out of here, I'm moving in with you and you don't want me living here. Right? And, and you know, and so, uh, but you know, I, I guess I don't have, I didn't have an issue with it at the time. And how old were you when you were doing that? But yeah, but I was, you know, you know, I've got, I broke my hand five times. I was a fighter. I was an enforcer. I, you know, I still fight. I do Muay Thai. You had this, you had this ego like this. You know, you're, you're stealing from my family. You're stealing from my mentor. You're going to intimidate him. I want you out. I'm not going to let you, you know, run the course of the law here in the letter of the law. If, you know, if, if you'll leave voluntarily, you know, I'm not going to go to jail for it. But if you'll leave voluntarily, I want you out tomorrow. Right?

• 13:55Speaker 01

  I don't want you, you know, squatting in this house, taking the plumbing with you, the sinks with you. These people would do that stuff. Yeah. Brashing it. And they have no regard. And, you know, so, uh, you know, one of the, the value systems my stepfather gave me and that I've adopted and, and I'm a very spiritual person. So in my mindset, I don't like to, you know, I, I make deals with God all the time. And I, I pray every day and, you know, and, and I'm always basically saying, you know, my value system, may I honor it? May I, you know, do everything I possibly can to, you know, to operate ethically and honestly within my value system that I have. And, you know, and when people don't operate ethically and honestly, you know, I, I'll sue them. I'll throw them to the trash. I have no, you know, there's, I've no time for that type of stuff. There's a lot of bad people out there. Yeah.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, there really is. You gotta be careful as entrepreneurs. People are always trying to steal your milk.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  And that's the analogy I use in my book about, you know, when I was a, you know, a kid in, in juvenile hall, they'd come over and they'd steal your milk from you. And you know, as a grown kid, that milk's important. And then next thing you know, you learn to stand up for yourself. You don't let people steal your milk anymore. And, and then, you know, you grow up and that, that's the analogy I use in my book. Wow. Now, so you started your first company when you were 19? Yeah, I, um, I started a company called 247 Tech. I was just about to turn 20, I think. I may have been, I, I may have started it at 19 incorporated when I was 20 years old. And you weren't in college? I did go to college. I went to Moore Park Community College and I transferred to Calhuthon University. And this is another interesting story that doesn't get told often is I got to use, you know, one of my thesis or my theories on life or philosophies is that, you know, you take your disadvantages and you turn them into advantages.

• 15:27Speaker 01

  Because I was a ward of the court, uh, I was deemed, uh, you know, it's like being a foster kid. Uh, meaning that my custodial parents were not my parents. They were the government of, you know, the state of California. Because of that, I was able to use affirmative action to get it to get special financing and special access to schools. Because of that, I was able to go to a prestigious four-year university without great grades. But because I was, you know, I was able to apply it through affirmative action. And I took the the money that I got through the federal grants I was able to receive. And I basically bet it on the stock market and started my company with it. And by the time I was a senior in college at Cal Lutheran, my company was successful. I was making a, you know, fair amount of money. I was, you know, I had a company soon to be worth or be doing a million dollars a year in business.

• 16:10Speaker 01

  So I left school my senior year and pursued my entrepreneurial dream.

• 16:14Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. And that's another example of what you said about like finding the diamonds in your own backyard. Is like you found the the resources to find this school grants or whatever they were. Where other people may have not looked for it, but it was available to you.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, because I just you take advantage of everything you possibly can. And you leverage everything you possibly can. I bought my first house when I was about 21. And the way I did that was, you know, I my stepfather, who was a successful real estate agent. I contacted his mortgage brokers and I said, hey, at the time it was my mom's boyfriend, not even my stepfather. I said, my my mother's boyfriend would like you to meet with me. And so they gave me a mortgage that, you know, I got a real estate agent to help me get it. I, you know, I I wield and deal with a no money down type thing. I actually got money back on the transaction so I could invest in it. And I'm 21 years old, owning my own house, have not graduated from college, and I've started my own business. And I'm like, you know, the the fraud of our education system, these teachers said, I gotta go to school and I gotta go to college so one day I can own a home.

• 17:10Speaker 01

  Right? And some of the teachers that were prescribing this method didn't own their own homes. And I'm like, I own my own home. I'm making more money than my teachers ever did. I have my own business, you know, every every all the rules around you are made up by somebody generally knows smarter than you or even less smarter than you are. And so once you start observing these rules, you can change it.

• 17:29Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. What do you think our education system should be teaching? What are the things that they're not teaching that's actually the keys to us being financially secure, having the emotional stability we want? You know, feeling like we have freedom, relationship, what are the things that we should be teaching or learning?

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Well, you know, in college, they don't teach you about love and about money. And you know, and happiness. Um, I'm not going to teach anybody about love, although I have a genuine love for my son. I'm a single guy. But that said, I could teach you a lot about money and I'm, I'm pretty damn happy, you know, like obviously we all have our days, but you know, I, I, I'm fulfilled in the work that I do. I get the pleasure of seeing the stuff that I create turn into successes. I've had a few blockbuster successes, you know, my book was a number one bestseller. New York Times, blah, blah, blah. I've had, you know, some products. I've done a billion dollars and over a billion, probably close to two billion now. And the product sells for Vaisalas, products that I've created, one of which my shake product is, you know, had number one market share in all of the United States. I'm now.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  Expanding it across the world. I'm opening up multiple countries, six new countries this year, six a year right now. I'll do six a year, every year for probably the next 10 years or so until I'm covering the globe with my company. So I, you know, I get the fulfillment that I, that I dream of as an entrepreneur. I get to have fun with my son. I took him to Universal Studios the other day, just me and him. We went on the rides, you know, we had the time of our lives. This weekend I'm taking him to the aquarium. Uh, you know, it's, you know, I'm, I'm happy. I would like to find love, uh, but you know, until then, maybe there's some audience members out there that can contact me.

• 19:00Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think? Ryan Blair on Facebook.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, Ryan, Ryan Blair dot change.

• 19:06Lewis Howes?

  Now, what is it? Uh, why do you want love?

• 19:09Speaker 01

  Uh, why not?

• 19:10Lewis Howes?

  And why haven't you found it yet? What's held you back?

• 19:13Speaker 01

  It's one of those questions. It's no off limits, not off limits.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  You know, I, I guess what's held me back. I, I did have love, but you know, I have a son with autism, which makes it very complicated. My priority, first and foremost in my life is my business, because then that fuels, uh, my family. So my son is able to have the right education that he needs. He's able to get the right therapy, the right help as a result of me being entrepreneurial successful. I also have a handicapped mother. Who was in a coma for a year that I, you know, I'd support her to the tune of 1300 bucks a day for 727 days in the hospital. And, and now, you know, she has to have a full-time live-in nurse, full-time cook. And, you know, so I have some pretty big responsibilities that most people my age do not. Uh, I have thousands of people that work for me. So my first priority in life is my. Business because that then is able to help me take care of my family.

• 20:01Speaker 01

  My second priority in my life is my son and my family. And so a woman comes in third, the day she shows up and most women aren't.

• 20:08Lewis Howes?

  They want to be first.

• 20:08Speaker 01

  They want to be first.

• 20:09Lewis Howes?

  They want the attention.

• 20:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, I don't, you know, they either want attention and a woman has a right to be first. Unfortunately, I'm just a person that, you know, that, that, you know, has, uh, uh, you know, has a, a, a long past prior to me of, and, and, you know, a lot of responsibility. I've been an entrepreneur since I was nineteen, so that's eighteen years of, of building a business. And so I have a lot of responsibility that comes before everything else, even before my own personal happiness, you know? If there's something going on at, at work, I gotta be there, even if I don't want to be there.

• 20:37Lewis Howes?

  Being the CEO, yeah.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not easy.

• 20:40Lewis Howes?

  Is there a way to set yourself to win, to create a win-win so that you're making enough passive income?

• 20:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:46Lewis Howes?

  Your, your business is running itself more efficiently without you needing to be there.

• 20:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, there is. I see people doing it all the time.

• 20:53Lewis Howes?

  Having the relationship. And do you think you can run a multi hundred million dollar company, almost billion dollar company and have love and a marriage?

• 21:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know.

• 21:01Lewis Howes?

  At the same time.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  And maybe one day I'll, I'll, I'll grow to a place where I'm able to manage, uh, manage that or create that, or I'll want to create that. You know, I, I'm, I'm a little bit fashioned differently though, so I don't have a, like, I don't know, passive income. You know, I was one of the highest paid people in, in last year, I was the fifth highest paid corporate executive in a publicly traded company under forty years old. You know, and, and, uh, and that's just, you know, the salary that I made, you know, being a part of the public company.

• 21:30Lewis Howes?

  Not the, not the bonuses and side deals and.

• 21:32Speaker 01

  And all the other stuff, right? You know, so, you know, um, I don't know, I, I, I've never found a, a number, uh, an amount of money that's enough. I have.

• 21:40Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 21:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I haven't, you know?

• 21:42Lewis Howes?

  So.

• 21:42Speaker 01

  And I've made personally, I made hundreds of millions of dollars and I've never actually found an amount of money that's enough.

• 21:47Lewis Howes?

  Why, why isn't it enough?

• 21:48Speaker 01

  Because it's so much fun doing it, right? Why not, why not make more? It's like if, if you're, if you're playing basketball right now and, you know, and you could score another hundred points in a game, would you keep, would you keep playing or would you say? No, I'm, I'm happy not being the all time.

• 22:01Lewis Howes?

  But if it was at the expense of not having love. Couldn't you have 100 points and have love at the same time?

• 22:06Speaker 01

  Don't you love the game?

• 22:07Lewis Howes?

  But couldn't you also have a win-win?

• 22:09Speaker 01

  I don't know. You know what? I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not mastered that game yet. If there's any love gurus out there in your podcast, I'll buy your product.

• 22:18Lewis Howes?

  Well, I think it's a lot of, I think it's a lot of probably like desire that you wanted as well. It sounds like you want it, but maybe if you wanted it bad enough, you would go and create it probably, right?

• 22:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know.

• 22:25Lewis Howes?

  Maybe you haven't found the one who's like inspired you enough.

• 22:28Speaker 01

  It could be, it could be that. It could be a lot of things. You know, I believe I've probably found, I've met a lot of girls. I've done a lot of dating, you know, that's, that's definitely, the issue isn't the quality or the amount of people that I've been exposed to.

• 22:42Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 22:42Speaker 01

  The issue is me.

• 22:44Lewis Howes?

  Right. And wanting it bad enough and the sacrifice to give up the time a little.

• 22:48Speaker 01

  Or whatever, or just, just not being cooperative or, or what's, I'm, I'm, you know, uncompromising and I think that relationships have to have some compromising in them.

• 23:00Lewis Howes?

  A little, right? And you don't want to. You've got the company.

• 23:03Speaker 01

  I don't know. Well, let's, next topic.

• 23:06Lewis Howes?

  Cool. Well, you know, let's talk about this business that you sold.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  You sold it for, you were going to take it public.

• 23:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. So in 2012, so I'd sold the company in 2008 to a group called Blythe, which is an NYC publicly traded company, about $150 million market cap, a company ran by Bob Gergen, or was ran by Bob Gergen. He recently retired. Bob is one of the best entrepreneurs in the world. He endowed the school of Wharton, the school of entrepreneurship there. It's called the Gergen School. Bob's given away hundreds of millions of dollars to charity. He's, he's, he's a great mentor of mine, great human being. He bought my company in 2008. It was about to go bankrupt as a result of the recession. We were down to 600,000 in sales, 600,000 in the bank and 7 million in debt. So it was almost to the point, shut it down. We then launched the Body by Buy 90 Day Challenge, saw some traction there and the company blew up.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  And it went from 2009, we did six, we did 9 million in sales in 2009, something like that, if I recall. 2010, we did, I think it was 36 million, 2011, 231 million, 2012, 624 million, and then we sold it for.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  Seven hundred ninety two point four million in two thousand twelve. So I like them apples.

• 24:17Lewis Howes?

  It's pretty sweet. Like four years went from nine to.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  Nine to six hundred. Oh, no. Well, two thousand, at the end of two thou, the beginning of two thousand ten in January, my prior year sales were nine million bucks. At the beginning of two thousand thirteen, my prior year sales were six hundred twenty four million. So, so, you know, you're, you're, you're going from nine million to six hundred twenty four million or about thirty six.

• 24:40Lewis Howes?

  Now, I mean, for an entrepreneur to think about that, the growth is so big over a few years.

• 24:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:46Lewis Howes?

  And most of the people listening are making around six and seven figures in their business. They're kind of like the solo entrepreneurs that got a small team.

• 24:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:53Lewis Howes?

  Some of them have bigger, but most of them are kind of in that space.

• 24:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:55Lewis Howes?

  What is that you did to grow it so quickly? And what is like the key to building it from a few million to fifty million over a couple of years? Like, how?

• 25:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:04Lewis Howes?

  How do you even do that? How do you even think about that and scale that?

• 25:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not easy. One of my friends, the founder of Zappos, Tony Shay, he, you know, he said, growth covers a lot of mud. And, you know, as an entrepreneur, your dream is to hit a tipping point, to have something go viral, to, you know, to, you know, to make a billion dollars, right? You know, I opened up a bank account the other day. I was reflecting at Wells Fargo. And I remember when I couldn't even, you know, I had less than a thousand dollars in the bank account. And since then, you know, two billion dollars has traveled through that bank account.

• 25:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 25:37Speaker 01

  I haven't been able to keep it all. I've paid a lot of people. I've bought a lot of shit, you know, all that stuff. But two billion dollars has traveled through that bank account. And, you know, the balances have been to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

• 25:47Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  Um, and, you know, and so that's a neat thing, but it's not easy.

• 25:52Lewis Howes?

  How do you get there?

• 25:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:53Lewis Howes?

  From a thousand to.

• 25:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I'll give you, I'll give you some.

• 25:56Lewis Howes?

  Like, what are the components, at least?

• 25:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'll break it down. One, we, we basically retrofitted during the recession to a new consumer. So Vaisalas shifted to meal replacements. So we're, we're basically teaching people and selling people to, as opposed to pay five dollars for a meal, you know, buy a Vaisalas, a meal replacement, a shake for a dollar fifty. And the consumer was very much open to saving money at the time. Then secondly, we had an opportunity connected to our business. We still do. Promote the challenge. And so you could make anywhere from a couple hundred bucks a month to a couple thousand. And then there were some people that learned how to make hundreds of thousands a month. So at the very promoting the challenge and there's still people making hundreds of thousands a month promoting it all around the world.

• 26:37Speaker 01

  And so, but the consuming public and you know, with job instability, with the recession, with people seeking additional income. So I hit a couple veins at once. And you know, and lightning struck and the stars aligned and, and you know, and I got a lot of success from that.

• 26:51Lewis Howes?

  Crazy. How did you handle emotionally as it's growing so quickly? When you know, not ever having that type of growth or that much money come through. How did you?

• 27:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I do, I, you know, I'm a consummate student. I read all the time. I'm, I'm, you know, I'm an audible freak. So I'm an audible day and day. I listen to podcasts like yours. Surrounding myself with great people, you know, Tony Shay, John Maxwell's a personal mentor of mine. You know, I'm constantly interviewing other CEOs. I'm trying to learn, you know, I'm still trying to learn how to become more successful or, or, you know, to, to understand how to build a great company. And I guess the thing that keeps me humble is, you know, you look at a guy like Mark Zuckerberg.

• 27:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  He's done something. I ain't done shit compared to Mark Zuckerberg, right? You know, like, you know, I've, you know, I've generated two billion in sales. He does that a month, right? So, you know, or the Google founders or, you know, Bill Gates. And when I've, I've got to meet a few of these guys. And when you're in their presence, you realize, you know, you have a lot to accomplish still. And so I think the, you gotta keep yourself humble and you gotta look at other external standards. And then, you know, say to yourself, you ain't shit. You haven't done anything yet, right? You might be all proud of yourself because you made a million bucks. Big deal. I could find 20 guys that made a million dollars that are half as smart as you are, right? You know, and they're probably happier in some cases. So, you know, so I think you just gotta constantly look yourself in the mirror, be self-aware and keep yourself humble to the fact that you haven't done anything, although you might be proud of what you've done.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  You know, you've only reached 5% of your capacity at best.

• 28:18Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 28:18Speaker 01

  Right? Have you seen the movie Lucy yet?

• 28:20Lewis Howes?

  I have.

• 28:20Speaker 01

  It's an amazing movie. Right? So like that, yeah, you know, I wanna, I wanna get to like 90% capacity, right? Not at my brain capacity because that's probably physically impossible. But I'm not at 90% capacity of my entrepreneurial capacity. Of my writing capacity. So knowing that, you know, you're constantly seeking to sharpen your skills and add to your capacity.

• 28:39Lewis Howes?

  Wow, interesting. Now, a couple of things I want to talk about. One is mentors, but before we get into that, I want to know what is your, do you have daily rituals? Or do you have any like, things that you do at least every day? Do you meditate?

• 28:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So I'll, I'll, I'll tell you what I did before I had a ton of money because like if I tell you what my rituals are now, you're gonna go, oh, I wake up every day to a chef and massage and you know.

• 29:01Lewis Howes?

  Steam room.

• 29:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:02Lewis Howes?

  Hot tub.

• 29:03Speaker 01

  Steam room.

• 29:03Lewis Howes?

  Sandy beach on your back door.

• 29:05Speaker 01

  Sandy beach in my backyard, inspirational views. I live next to Runyon. You know, when I'm feeling bad, I jump in the Ferrari. When I'm feeling good, I jump in the 64 Lincoln. You know, if I'm really bad, I'll go shop. No, I'm kidding. That's not, that is the life I live. But what I did to obtain all that stuff, and I'm not as materialistic as I just came off on the, on the podcast here, but, but I, what I did to obtain all that stuff is real simple. I wake up really early. Alright, so I'm always up early because I feel like if I can get two, three hours of me time in, reading, working out, no one else, I'm not allowing the world to interrupt me, then I will walk to the, I'll come into the world when everyone else is waking up at 8 a.m. or 9.

• 29:43Lewis Howes?

  Ready to go.

• 29:44Speaker 01

  I'm five steps ahead of everybody.

• 29:45Lewis Howes?

  On fire.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  I've already thought of everything. Like, while you are, you know, complaining about your coffee, or you're in line for your coffee, or you're posting something silly on Instagram about how much you need coffee to be a nice person, I've already, you know, I've already done that. Like, I'm way ahead of you.

• 30:00Lewis Howes?

  Two hours ago, you did that.

• 30:01Speaker 01

  Four hours ago.

• 30:02Lewis Howes?

  And you're in the zone.

• 30:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. So, and it takes me, my ritual is I have to be up three hours before my first appointment. Meaning, I, you know, and if I'm giving a speech, no matter what, even if I went out till 6 a.m. the night before and I got a speech at 12, I have to be up two hours before, even if I have one hour of sleep, before I do anything, because it just takes, me personally, there's a certain amount of time that I have to get.

• 30:24Lewis Howes?

  Prepared.

• 30:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, to get prepared mentally, regardless of my sleep deprivation, which, you know, happens often, especially internationally speaking and traveling. So, three hours ahead of time, no matter what, is, you know, my sweet spot is four, but no matter what, I'm three, and then, you know, two hours. During that two hour period of time. I'm I'm reading, I'm catching up on on, you know, current events. I'm diving into a book that I've been, you know, I've been studying or I ever want to finish, you know, that feeling of accomplishment when you finish a book. And then I'm getting a workout in. From there, I'll start talking to my East Coast offices or my European offices. And then from there, I'll start talking to my Los Angeles office. And then I'll, you know, I'll I'll move into my Los Angeles office night. I move, we call moves, right, which is, you know, point A to point B.

• 31:10Speaker 01

  So I'll make my move into my LA office at about 10 a.m. or 10 a.m. in the morning. And then I'm there till somewhere five or six and I come back home. You know, have dinner with my son, spend time with him, and then I'm back at it, you know, talking to Asia. Sure, sure. Or, you know, in the evening. And you do a meditative practice too? Yeah, you know, I pray, which is a form of meditation for me. So it's the exact same thing. But I pray every single day, a number of times a day. And what I like to do is, for me, I'm able to shut down all the external noise in an environment where I'm generally sweating. So it's either swimming in my sauna, in my steam room, or in an exhilarating kind of run hike type thing where, you know, all I can do is have my earphones in.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  You know, I pick my playlist or my audiobook or whatever it is, and I zone out for a couple hours. And that helps, it's a healing thing. Wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's a, yeah, those are the most important rituals for me. And then, you know, a lot of people don't make time for health. And to me, you know, that's the foundation of who you are. You know, all of your vitality and energy comes from your source of, you know, your health. Yeah, so I'm always trying to focus on that, although, you know, I like to have fun. I beat myself up a fair amount, you know, I go out and have fun. You know, I, you know, I live life to its fullest. But what I'll do is I'll get on like my exercise bike. If I can't go to say running or something, I'll throw on Bloomberg and I'll catch up. Or I'll be reading a book on the exercise bikes or I'll be emailing people.

• 32:35Speaker 01

  So, you know, I'm getting, I'm doing base, I'm working while I'm working out. So a lot of times people don't make time to work out, but they don't realize you can do both work and workout at the same time.

• 32:44Lewis Howes?

  Now, you said prayer is a healing process for you.

• 32:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:47Lewis Howes?

  What are the things you're still working on healing?

• 32:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:50Lewis Howes?

  On a daily basis or?

• 32:51Speaker 01

  You know, my, my, my, my, that's a great question. My prayer is, you know, I've been blessed to have a lot of responsibility in my life. And I just pray that I'm able to get better, get stronger, make the right decisions, make them for the right reasons. And not do it for my own ego and my own glory, but you know, rather to give back and to add value to people. And you know, and not just to simply take value to add value, right? So a lot of people, you know, they become successful and then they think the whole world revolves around them. Uh, for me, it's kind of upside down where my whole world revolves around other people. And that's the reason for my success.

• 33:24Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, I like that.

• 33:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:26Lewis Howes?

  If you could, I like how you said you read a lot of books.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:28Lewis Howes?

  If you, uh, you know, you're on your deathbed.

• 33:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:32Lewis Howes?

  And you could only leave three books behind to your, your kids or your family, what would those three books be?

• 33:37Speaker 01

  Well, one would be mine. So, you know, obviously my kids and my family know who I am. You know, I guess what would the three books be? I'd probably leave mine and a couple of biographies, two other biographies of great people. Uh, people that have transformed our society. I would, I would leave one of Winston Churchill. Because although a very flawed man, he's probably the only single individual we can credit with our way of life in our society today. And that had he not stood up to Germany and had he not engaged the United States in the war, we would probably have a very terrible society overrun by Nazism. So I would probably leave his book behind. And then I'd probably leave a book about perhaps from, say, Abraham Lincoln or something like that.

• 34:17Speaker 01

  You know, the 16th president of the United States who, you know, fought up for the rights of others and, and, you know, changed the world as we know it. So I would leave those behind. Um, and then from those books, you'd learn about the man's spirituality, mine of course, and then you could dive deeper. But I wouldn't leave the Bible per se, because it requires interpretation, although I'm a Christian. Uh, I wouldn't leave, uh, you know, some deep philosophical stuff because it, you know, requires somebody to teach you. I'd leave biographies.

• 34:40Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. I like that. Some more story-based lessons from.

• 34:43Speaker 01

  About human beings, you know, and if you can, if you can learn something from another man, that's great. Even if you can learn not to adopt their flaws, uh, then, or a woman that's great for that matter, then you can become a success too.

• 34:53Lewis Howes?

  Who are your, uh, you know, we talk about mentors in the book and you've mentioned a bunch of mentors you have right now. I just had an episode on mentors. I'm a huge believer that everyone needs to have mentors and continue to develop new mentors. Uh, and cultivate those relationships constantly and add value to those mentors.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:09Lewis Howes?

  Why has having mentors been a powerful, uh?

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Reason for your success. Yeah, I saw the other day I sat down and I wrote down everyone who's influenced me in my life. Wow, that must have taken a long time, right? Yeah, I mean, I'll restate that. I wrote down the most influential people in my life. And I, there's about 10 to 15 people where I either had an encounter with them that I was taken back by. Like, I was like, wow, you know, this is the founder of Microsoft and he's in my house right now. This guy's worth, you know, $50 billion. Wow. And for some reason, I'm on this, I've come to a place where, you know, I'm shaking the hands of a person that's up there with the pharaohs in terms of their success, right? You know, in terms, when they, you know, one day when they look at our society, they will say those were the pharaohs of our times. Wow.

• 35:55Speaker 01

  And, you know, so I've had the privilege through networking and through constantly adding value. And then also focusing on just being great at what I do, you know, so I don't, I, I don't measure myself to, you know, when I've met certain people that are very successful, you know, I'm not competing with them, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm in awe of them, I'm in admiration and I respect and admire them. And good people that are self-confident and that have done good, you know, solid work, you know, they're in awe of other people as well. So like, they're like, wow, I couldn't imagine, you know, making a shake that sold a billion dollars. And I'm like, I couldn't imagine creating a piece of software that sold a trillion dollars, you know? You know, you know, so I, I think that, um, so I think it's my approach that number one has yielded me these great mentors.

• 36:36Speaker 01

  And then number two, it's, it's, I, what I expect of them is just simply give me some knowledge and it might be one minute, might be one hour. And if I'm, if I'm blessed, like for example, I get to go with Coach Dale Brown to his NCAA Hall of Fame induction in Kansas City next Sunday. And Shaquille O'Neal is also being inducted into the NCAA Hall of Fame and Coach Brown's mentor or mentee was Shaquille. And so I'm going to be in this moment with these guys that I met as a result of the value that I was creating value. I met these people and I'm going to get to experience one of their most, you know, profound moments of life. And, and the reason why I'm able to do that is not because I'm anything special, it's because I've simply ran a process and I've created a method of adding values, of networking, of keeping in touch, although I'm not a consummate.

• 37:19Speaker 01

  You know, you won't get texts and emails from me, you probably don't get replies from me. Not my style, right? But that doesn't mean that I've, I don't love you and don't think about you. It just means that I'm busy, you know, focused on other stuff.

• 37:31Lewis Howes?

  So when I text you and you don't get back to me, I won't get upset. I won't take it, I won't take it personally.

• 37:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's a hundred, there's a hundred ways to get ahold of me other than text messaging.

• 37:39Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 37:39Speaker 01

  Uh, the other thing is I don't, I don't like, if, if everybody's like, if, you know, if the rule of thumb is you're supposed to reply to text messages when you receive them. You know, I say, screw that. That's not my rule. Like, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't agree to that rule. I agree to the rule that, you know, that if I text you and you don't reply to me, I'm not gonna be mad. I'm gonna call you. That's my rule.

• 37:55Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 37:55Speaker 01

  And if I don't call you, that means I don't care enough about you to actually call. But I'm not gonna, yeah, that's, you know, so I write my own rules. I don't, I don't prescribe to others. And if I do agree to adapt your rule or join your rule, then I'll agree to adapt it and join it. And I reserve the right to change my mind on the subject.

• 38:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:10Speaker 01

  I mean, you know, a lot of times like people will be like, well, you said you're gonna do this. Well, I reserve the right to change my mind.

• 38:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right.

• 38:16Speaker 01

  You know, that's just it. I don't break my word or, or, you know, one of the chapters in my book is called honor your deals. You know, I honor my deals, but you know, that, that

• 38:23Lewis Howes?

  Cause you can't change them.

• 38:24Speaker 01

  Doesn't mean I can't change the deal and tell you why I changed it because, you know, frankly, you know, I changed my mind. Obviously, in business, you have to honor your contracts. I've been in a lot of lawsuits. The other day I woke up to a lawsuit for 240 million bucks. And I laughed because I was like, man, I never thought I'd be so successful that people try to sue me for 240 million bucks.

• 38:42Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  Right? You know, I mean, that's, that's a, that's a cool thing. Right? I'm not, I'm not gonna lose. I'm gonna have to spend millions of dollars suing them back and all that other stuff. But that, that said,

• 38:51Lewis Howes?

  The cost of doing business, I guess, right?

• 38:52Speaker 01

  Part of life, man. The more successful you are, the more they try to take it from you.

• 38:54Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Now, what's the best way to, you know, for people listening, what's the best way to find a mentor that they're really inspired by? Make sure that they can get in touch with them. What's the best way to get in touch with them?

• 39:05Speaker 01

  Add value, add value. So, one of the things that, that I learned early on is that the more successful you are, the more you're probably inspired by or connected to a cause. So if you wanted to get to me, find a cause I'm passionate about and connect to me at that level.

• 39:19Lewis Howes?

  Give a charity, then like, hey, I wanna support this.

• 39:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, or donate my time, or, you know, or I love your charity, inspires me. Here's an article that I read, or send me a book. And I'm not asking for people to send me gifts, but, you know, I had this kid that wanted my time. He had a painting commission. Had it sent to me and it represented both Detroit writing office in LA where I was, you know, raised and I also have an office and, and I saw this painting. I'm like, all right, this kid's trying to stand out from the crowd. I've got to take his, his meeting. So I told him, hey, I'll be in Detroit. He, he told me, actually, he found out I was in Detroit following me on Instagram, then sent me a message, hey, uh, you know, I'm close by. So I said, yeah, I'll take a meeting with you for 15 minutes. He drove 20 hours. Now you know it, but he drove 20 hours for a 15 minute meeting.

• 40:00Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 40:00Speaker 01

  Right. And, you know, so I gave him more than 15 minutes.

• 40:03Lewis Howes?

  You don't have to give him an hour or whatever.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  I gave him like 45 minutes.

• 40:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 40:06Speaker 01

  Cause I didn't have time that day, but I was like, you know what? This kid will always be in my life. If he calls me and he needs help, why? Because he stood up, you know, he stood above the crowd and, and that's all you have to do. It's really easy to gain access to a mentor if you're willing to do things that other people aren't willing to do to add value.

• 40:23Lewis Howes?

  So true. I mean, we get emails. I get emails a lot from people like, hey, I'd love to just take you out to coffee or have a meeting or whatever. But it's like, do something different, right? Like we get, you get tons of those. I'm assuming constantly.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  Yeah. Seven days a week. I have people, you know, I, I, you know, I'm privileged enough and it's a blessing that people actually stop me now because of, you know, the success of my book and its exposure, or because of some of the other, you know, activities I've done with regard to Vysalis or the media stuff, you know, asking me to coffee unless, you know, unless there's a real compelling reason.

• 40:52Lewis Howes?

  Just wanting 10 minutes. It's like, it's more than 10 minutes to get there, to show up. It's like.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, but you know, I'm, um, I'm more of an introverted person. So spending time with other people is me giving energy. I don't receive it as much by being around other people. I receive it internally. So to me, it's a real drain on my energy to spend time with people.

• 41:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  So that's probably the reason why, you know, I don't engage with a lot of people and I don't take people up on their opportunities to go to coffee or spend time together. Um, but you know, but I will if, if they figure out a way to replenish my energy by giving me value, uh, or by helping a cause or, you know, writing a review for my book is one way that people have, uh, engaged me in that, you know, that helps me when somebody gives an authentic review of my book. You know, that means that they actually took the time to read my book, that they actually cared enough to write about it.

• 41:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:39Speaker 01

  And, and they did a service for me. So, you know, I'll reply to those emails. I'll, I'll engage with the people on that.

• 41:43Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. Yeah. If someone sent you an email today and was like, hey, I just left you a review. Here's the link to it. Also, I bought this product of yours and you know, I donated to your charity. I just want to say I love what you're doing.

• 41:55Speaker 01

  I want 10 minutes of your time. Done. You know, like, I'm not going to say no to that unless you're creepy.

• 41:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:00Speaker 01

  Weird, a stalker. Yeah. Oh, I have a lot of those, man. I get, I get people that write me. There's people that, there's people that write every single day, 25, 30 times a day. And there's, yeah. And it's, it's an interesting thing out there. You have to be careful, you know, you always dream about having, being in a position where you have a lot of followers. And then, you know, sometimes you realize that, that there is some complications.

• 42:19Lewis Howes?

  And that's why you built a fence, you said, around your house, right?

• 42:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, to build a security fence. I have to have, I have to have, you know, cameras everywhere. I have to have full-time security people that monitor, you know, activity and stuff like that. I don't know if you saw this when we were at Runyon, there was a guy that, that swooped by just to make sure that, you know, there wasn't anything weird happening.

• 42:35Lewis Howes?

  Was that the guy?

• 42:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, the guy on the motorcycle.

• 42:37Lewis Howes?

  Shut up, really?

• 42:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, just to make sure, you know, just, just.

• 42:40Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 42:40Speaker 01

  Keep eyes on it.

• 42:41Lewis Howes?

  Because it happens like Runyon even?

• 42:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. Uh, yeah, you know, it's, I'm pretty public about my life.

• 42:46Lewis Howes?

  Cause you're up there, so people might wait for you or whatever.

• 42:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, they know I might be coming through.

• 42:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:51Lewis Howes?

  I mean, I reckon, I knew that. I, I thought it was like a friend of yours or something.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, they're supposed to be invisible.

• 42:55Lewis Howes?

  Checking an oscoping to make sure no one's stalking?

• 42:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, just to make sure. Well, cause there's a few people that we, you know, we have to have profiles on that actually, you know.

• 43:02Lewis Howes?

  If they show up, then you gotta watch out for them.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're just obsessed. They're just really obsessed. And you have to make sure. And it's not, gosh, I hate even saying it. I feel like I'm, I'm, uh, you know, being pretentious here. But, but you know, you just have to be careful. I have a son. I have, uh, you know, I have a lot of responsibility and I gotta make sure that I protect their interests.

• 43:20Lewis Howes?

  What's the vision now? I mean, you've done so much. You just bought your company back. You sold it for 700 something million.

• 43:25Speaker 01

  Bought it back for 143 million.

• 43:26Lewis Howes?

  143 million. Why'd you buy it back? And then what's the vision for the next five, 10 years for you?

• 43:30Speaker 01

  My vision now is if I don't, if I, I just, I just spent pretty much all my money buying my company back. So this lifestyle, you see the view, the cars, all that stuff is going to be for sale if I don't, uh, if I don't start building it. You know, I bought it back because I felt like I could affect, you know, this is my baby. Um, I'm working on acquisitions. I've got, you know, I'm looking at an energy drink company I'm about to buy. Hopefully I'll close a deal in the next couple of days. I like acquiring companies. I have a $20 million venture fund that I've made some pretty astute investments in. I got an investment in a company called Elite Daily, which is blowing up 60 million uniques. Uh, millennial focus. I got a investment in a company called Frag Mob. Uh, that's blowing up. Got investment in My Time blowing up. Um, you know, which is, you know, so I like investing.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  I like being around entrepreneurs, you know, I, I see myself as a pseudo angel that can add value to entrepreneurs. Giving them operational experience, you know, I know how to scale a business. I know how to raise money. I know how to take a company public. I know how to sell a company to a public company. You know, I know all that stuff. Um, so, you know, I'm 37 years old. I figure over the next 20 years, I'll just do what I've been doing more efficiently and with a lot more resources and a lot more scale. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. What is, uh, what's your perfect day look like? Uh, you know, a perfect day, I wake up, I work out, I read, I swim in my saltwater pool. I take a hike at Runyon. I go in my sauna. I hit my office and meet inspiring people. You know, I, I get some inspiration from those inspiring people.

• 44:55Speaker 01

  I work on some projects. One of my philosophies on projects is I'm highly engaged for the first 10% and the last 10% of the project. Uh, and I've got a great staff that does the other 80%. That's smart. I like that idea. So I'm all in on the first 10% to make sure the project is set up correctly. And then I'm, I'm there during the last 80%, but I'm only making 3% of the decisions during the 80 percentile. Meaning bring it to me if there's, you know, a change in strategy or there's a, you know, a big, uh, fundamental change in, in, in what we believe about the product. And then the last 10%, I'm there literally testing and then QA and, you know, and, and utilizing the product, whether it be a piece of software or, you know, like the cereal product that we created for Vice House Crunch, you know, I'm, I'm actually taste testing every, uh, uh, version and every variant.

• 45:39Speaker 01

  You know, maybe not every, but probably two, 300 taste tests that I, I expose myself to. Wow. Yeah. Yesterday I'm tasting products that are made of, you know, a new sweetener called Stevia and then another sweetener called Monk Fruit. Uh, and I'm literally going through and taste testing these products. Make sure it meets your standards and you like it. Yeah, I build products for myself. Um, and, and I know there's a hell of a lot of people out there like me that, you know, want stuff that tastes good. We want to be as healthy as we possibly can, but we're not going to compromise. Like I like pepperoni pizza with ranch dressing. I'm, I'll take that. Love pepperoni pizza. I'll take down a pepperoni pizza with ranch dressing and I'll just work it off the next day and supplement to, you know, to provide better nutrition. Now, I noticed you didn't have a woman in there, your perfect day. And what, uh, yeah, you know, uh,

• 46:23Speaker 01

  I do, you know, I would say my mother.

• 46:26Lewis Howes?

  Okay, interesting. We'll leave that away. That'll be another conversation.

• 46:28Speaker 01

  I would say my mother would be a part of that perfect day.

• 46:31Lewis Howes?

  Okay, interesting.

• 46:32Speaker 01

  No, um, there are women in my perfect day in that I have an amazing support structure, both in my office and my rep base, you know, my promoters and then my fan base. So I probably have more, I'm probably, you know, the truth is I have more people that help me build my business that are female than I do that are male. You know, that I lean on, that I connect with on a daily basis. I'm working with my assistant, Asena, who's amazing. I'm working with my chief administrative officer Tyler, who's one of the best in the world. And, you know, my promoter force out there, a lot of them are women because women make a lot of the health decisions in the household. You know, most women are the actual ones that are buying the supplements.

• 47:15Speaker 01

  They're buying the food, you know, that's their decision. So in fact, my fan page, you know, several hundred thousand fans, but then, you know, millions of reach skews like something like 80% female.

• 47:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's interesting.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  So, you know, I'm covered in that department to a degree.

• 47:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you get your energy from there.

• 47:31Speaker 01

  I do, yeah, I do. My perfect day would not be just hanging out with a bunch of dudes and playing, you know, watching football.

• 47:37Lewis Howes?

  And playing poker.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, not at all. I don't gamble at all. I'm a terrible gambler. I gamble in my entrepreneurial, that's my high risk endeavors.

• 47:45Lewis Howes?

  Exactly, yeah. Well, I want to wrap it up here in a second. So there's a couple of questions left, but I want to recommend everyone, make sure you go get this book. If you're in the airport, you'll see it somewhere. Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went From Gang Member to Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneur with Ryan Blair and Don Yeager. Updated with new chapter. Awesome book.

• 48:03Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 48:04Lewis Howes?

  Two final questions. One is, what are you most grateful for recently?

• 48:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. What am I most grateful for recently? You know, my son has autism and he's made a lot of strides. We're able to really engage at a high level. He's loving, you know, he'll tell me, he's like, Dad, I love you. And just to be able to hear that, especially with a kid who has autism and, you know, he doesn't have a very strong vocabulary and he doesn't articulate very well autism as a disease that affects communication. And expression. And so the fact that I have a six, five and a half years old, he'll tell you five and three quarters to that point is what I'm most grateful for.

• 48:41Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. I like that. I like that. That's cool. I don't, you know, I don't have kids, so I still don't know what that experience is like. But every time I talk to parents.

• 48:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. Everybody always told me it'll change you forever. And it has, he's my anchor win word. So, you know, I, I made a lot of progress with them. And I guess the tip I can give to people that are facing, you know, tragedy in their lives or difficulty with kids with special needs, or whatever it is, is you have to attack it like you would any problem. And you have to triage it, and you have to find the best solutions. And you have to really focus on the problem. And, and I wrote an article on, I have a blog on Forbes, and I wrote an article about compartmentalization, which is, you know, every day I have to compartmentalize my life, you know, in, in order for me to focus on the biggest problems at hand. And so I can't let my work problem take away from my focus on my son, but I can't let my focus on my son destroy my work. So I have to have equal compartments,

• 49:30Speaker 01

  or maybe not equal, but I have to have time slots and compartments of focus on each of those particular problems.

• 49:36Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. I like that. I've got one question left for you.

• 49:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. This is gonna be, this is gonna be the one that I've been worried about. He saved up the whole, we built, he built rapport for one hour to ask this question.

• 49:47Lewis Howes?

  Now, this question is what I ask everyone at the end. But before I do, I want to, I want to acknowledge you first.

• 49:52Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 49:52Lewis Howes?

  It's been a lot of fun connecting so far. And I've been following you for a while. I want to acknowledge you for

• 49:56Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 49:57Lewis Howes?

  the incredible gift you are to the world, because I know you have a big heart.

• 50:01Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 50:01Lewis Howes?

  After connecting with you and doing this hike and being here, I know how valuable the people that work for you are.

• 50:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:08Lewis Howes?

  And I know how much you actually care.

• 50:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, thank you.

• 50:10Lewis Howes?

  And it's, uh, it's awesome to see and connect and see how, you know, you actually really show up in the world. You show up powerful, you show up with energy, you show up with intention to add value to others. And you're making a huge difference.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  I appreciate that. You know, it's good to hear. I don't, it's a weird feeling when you get compliments and accolades and people like yourself there. You know, you're, you're one of the best in the world at what you do. So I really appreciate hearing that. And, you know, one of the other things, just you added value to me today. I, I got a, you know, a person to go on, I can, I asked a lot of questions about you. I asked about how you built such a successful podcast, about, you know, your prior success as an entrepreneur. If anything, I probably extracted more value out of you than you did on, on me on the hike today.

• 50:48Lewis Howes?

  Well, I appreciate it. Yeah.

• 50:51Lewis Howes?

  Final question is what, I'm actually going to videotape this because I'm going to put it on Instagram.

• 50:55Speaker 01

  Alright, cool.

• 50:55Lewis Howes?

  Or something. I'll throw it on Facebook.

• 50:57Speaker 01

  No, yeah, whatever you want.

• 50:59Lewis Howes?

  So, the final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 51:03Speaker 01

  What's my definition of greatness?

• 51:06Speaker 01

  To know that you put, you know, you put it all on the line and you've done your very best and to know that you held nothing back. And, and to know that you either failed and gave it your best try, or you've succeeded and you've won and it was the hardest thing you've ever done. So, I think, you know, overcoming great, great challenges is probably my definition of greatness. And the more you set yourself up to do that, the more, you know, exhilarating it is when you actually do win. Or you do lose, you know, you know, you tried your best. That's, that's my definition of greatness. I'm Ryan Blair and I endorse this message.

• 51:37Lewis Howes?

  Love it. Go to nothingto lose.com, also Ryan Blair everywhere online. We'll have everything linked up in the show notes. And Ryan, you are a champion and I appreciate you so much.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  Awesome, brother. I appreciate it. Good, good spend time with you and I appreciate it. I've learned a lot from this experience. Thank you.

• 51:53Lewis Howes?

  Thanks.

• 51:58Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Ryan. Had, again, had a fun time with Ryan, connecting today, interviewing him and diving into his interesting mind about how he overcomes challenges, how he grows his business and what's up for the future. So, very excited. I hope to bring him back on another time because I had a lot of fun with him. If you guys enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends over on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. And make sure to connect with Ryan everywhere online. He's got a great Facebook fan page. He's over on Instagram as well. All of the show notes are back at lewishouse.com/107. You can get all of his information. Make sure to check out his book, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain.

• 52:40Lewis Howes?

  It's a great read, lots of tips and useful information in there. And I appreciate you guys so much for being on here each and every week. Make sure to check out some previous episodes. If you are new to the show, go ahead and subscribe over at iTunes.com/SchoolofGreatness. Let me know what you think by leaving a review and we've got lots of great interviews to come. So, make sure to subscribe so you can stay up to date. Each week, we bring you an interesting guest. You're gonna love it. You guys know what time it is? It's time to go out there and do something great.

• 53:49Speaker 01

  Skits from the best show.