0:00:10 You just close your eyes and just imagine two states of the world, one is which the entire world runs an American open source LLM, and the other is where the entire world, including the U.S., runs on all Chinese software.
0:00:12 And I, you know, I don’t know, for me, that’s, you know, very straightforward.
0:00:25 In this episode of the A16Z podcast, we’re sharing Mark Andreessen’s recent appearance on TVPN, recorded live at A16Z’s 2025 LP conference in Las Vegas.
0:00:35 Mark joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation on everything from the AI boom and open source models to the evolution of venture capital and the future of American dynamism.
0:00:45 Along the way, he reveals the thinking behind A16Z’s new branding, how startups are scaling faster than ever, and what it’ll take to build enduring companies in today’s market.
0:00:47 Let’s get into it.
0:00:55 As a reminder, the content here is for informational purposes only.
0:01:05 It should not be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund.
0:01:11 Please note that A16Z and its affiliates may also maintain investments in the companies discussed in this podcast.
0:01:18 For more details, including a link to our investments, please see A16Z.com forward slash disclosures.
0:01:23 Welcome.
0:01:24 How are you doing, Mark?
0:01:25 Hey, guys.
0:01:26 What’s happening?
0:01:27 What’s happening?
0:01:28 It’s been a great day.
0:01:29 I’m going to hit this real quick.
0:01:31 We have a sound effect board.
0:01:33 Thanks so much for joining us.
0:01:35 And thanks for wearing a suit.
0:01:35 Yeah.
0:01:36 It’s hot.
0:01:36 Yeah.
0:01:37 Exactly.
0:01:37 Yeah.
0:01:37 You look fantastic.
0:01:38 Special occasion.
0:01:38 Yeah.
0:01:39 Special occasion.
0:01:40 This podcast.
0:01:40 Yeah.
0:01:42 Congratulations on the podcast.
0:01:44 I just want to start out by saying I’ve been watching.
0:01:45 It’s just, it’s tremendous.
0:01:46 Thank you so much.
0:01:47 Well, you know, I have a funny story.
0:01:51 We, uh, the, the moment that I realized that you were maybe paying a little bit of attention
0:01:55 to what we were doing and it gave me some conviction that we were on the right track as we, we did
0:01:58 a reply guy of the week to this guy, Baldo.
0:02:00 And it was like this inside joke.
0:02:02 And I was like, holy shit.
0:02:03 Mark just followed Baldo.
0:02:07 Very talented guy, but, um, but yeah, so it’s, it’s, thank you for, uh, for following along.
0:02:10 And it’s been awesome talking to your whole team today.
0:02:10 Yeah.
0:02:11 Fantastic.
0:02:13 Um, so let’s go through some hot topics.
0:02:16 Uh, I want to start with, we’re in the AI era.
0:02:18 Uh, you obviously lived through the dot-com era.
0:02:19 There’s some comparisons.
0:02:24 What have you learned and what, uh, how is this time different?
0:02:25 Uh, companies are making more money.
0:02:28 Valuations are high, but, uh, how are you thinking about, uh,
0:02:33 about, uh, teaching the next generation what they should learn or what they should ignore
0:02:36 from the people that might say, this is the dot-com boom 2.0?
0:02:37 Yeah.
0:02:40 So look, I guess I’d say, I think it was Mark Twain who once said, history doesn’t repeat,
0:02:41 but it rhymes.
0:02:44 And so, you know, I think people looking for like a direct compare or contrast, sometimes
0:02:47 you see people like drawing charts or the stock market’s going to do the same thing or whatever.
0:02:51 Like, I don’t think that stuff ever quite happens that way, but you know, it does rhyme.
0:02:55 Um, and you know, the, the line that John Doerr had in 1995, I remember was that the internet
0:02:57 is a cream that you rub on investors to get them all excited.
0:03:04 John Doerr said that?
0:03:04 That’s hilarious.
0:03:05 Yes, yes.
0:03:08 No, I have many, many, many, many John Doerr lines like that.
0:03:08 Please, keep it going.
0:03:10 Oh yeah, exactly.
0:03:11 So good.
0:03:16 But, um, uh, you know, so, you know, I ask like that now, um, you know, look, the AI,
0:03:19 sorry, the internet went through, you know, went through phases.
0:03:21 People actually forget, but there was like, you know, there, there were like these, even
0:03:26 the phases like on the way up from, you know, 95 to 2000, um, you know, there were these
0:03:27 phases of like skepticism and panic.
0:03:30 Um, you know, it looked like the whole thing was going to fall apart in 98.
0:03:35 And then, you know, in 2001, you know, after the dot-com crash, you know, like all the big
0:03:37 companies just like completely wrote the internet off and they just said, you know, thank God
0:03:38 that’s over.
0:03:41 Um, and then, and then the internet itself just kept growing.
0:03:41 Right.
0:03:44 And then, you know, by 2005, it was back to, you know, kind of, you know, back to, back to
0:03:47 where it had been before and we, you know, the, the rest was, was history.
0:03:51 And so, you know, you know, people kind of go, people are kind of bipolar on these things.
0:03:52 They kind of get overly excited.
0:03:53 They get overly depressed.
0:03:57 I, you know, I just always thought then, and I think now the substance matters, you know,
0:03:59 the substance, substance overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly matters.
0:04:03 And so, you know, is, is, is, is, is, is the technology great?
0:04:04 Like, are, are the products great?
0:04:05 Are people using them?
0:04:08 And, you know, AI is like off to the races so far.
0:04:11 It’s just like unprecedented rate of growth of actual use.
0:04:11 Yeah.
0:04:11 Right.
0:04:15 Um, and you see that in, in, in, in all the numbers and then, um, you know, look, the
0:04:18 businesses, I, I, you know, I just, I talked to another conversation yesterday with like,
0:04:20 you know, a company that’s raised, raised seed money.
0:04:23 They’re already over 10 million ARR with this incredible, you know, like it’s just, and
0:04:26 you know, there’s like a, there’s a lot of those, like that, you know, they’re, they’re
0:04:26 all over the place.
0:04:30 And so, you know, the, the, the, the things that are working, the products are fantastic.
0:04:33 Um, you know, the users are getting tremendous value out of them and, and the, and as
0:04:35 you know, the base technology is moving really fast.
0:04:36 So I feel really good about it.
0:04:37 Yeah.
0:04:40 I mean, it can move faster because we have the internet, like the, these apps can get
0:04:44 to hundreds of millions of daily active users because there’s hundreds of millions of people.
0:04:45 There’s billions of people on the internet.
0:04:47 Uh, very interesting.
0:04:53 Uh, not to linger on the.com stuff too much, but I’d love to know, uh, a little bit of
0:04:56 a history lesson around the way the browser wars played out.
0:05:00 And are, is there anything you can learn from that that applies to the open source versus
0:05:02 closed sourced AI debate?
0:05:04 You’ve been very opinionated on that.
0:05:08 I’d love to know kind of if, is there, are there any previous eras of tech that you’re
0:05:11 mapping to when you think about open source AI?
0:05:12 Yeah.
0:05:15 So, you know, look, you know, a lot of the browser wars, you know, there was kind of
0:05:17 a big company, little company, kind of big company thing.
0:05:18 And, you know, I think that’s repeating itself.
0:05:21 And, you know, I think one, one of the ways to think about what’s happening right now is
0:05:25 open AI is kind of growing up to become Google and Google’s kind of, you know, reinventing
0:05:26 itself to be open AI.
0:05:29 And so, you know, there’s like a similar thing there and, you know, then you look Microsoft
0:05:33 and Apple and Google control the operating systems, you know, for, for end user devices
0:05:36 and they all have, you know, AI strategies, um, and Amazon as well.
0:05:39 So, you know, a lot, a lot of those issues are going to, are going to come back
0:05:42 up, you know, two of these big companies are actually on federal trial right now, you
0:05:46 know, in big FTC cases in, in, uh, in Washington, DC, actually in the same courtroom.
0:05:50 Um, and so, you know, that many of those issues will, will, will repeat or, you know, will be
0:05:50 intense.
0:05:53 Um, you know, the open source thing in tech has always been the wild card.
0:05:56 Um, I, I think it’s always been an incredibly positive wild card.
0:05:59 I, you know, I’ve always been in a, you know, enthusiastic supporter of it.
0:06:00 My original work was all open source.
0:06:05 Um, and so, you know, the real thing that happened with open source is in operating systems,
0:06:09 you know, basically Unix won and then, and then, you know, specifically Linux won, you
0:06:10 know, for everything on, on, on the backend.
0:06:15 And I, you know, like, you know, I remember like in the 1990s, there was like a furious operating
0:06:17 system war and there were these companies that were making huge amounts of money on server
0:06:20 operating systems, you know, companies like Sun and many others.
0:06:23 And then, you know, Linux just like commoditized that entire thing.
0:06:24 Yeah.
0:06:28 You know, I think it’s plausible, you know, we’ll see, but it, look, it’s plausible that open
0:06:29 source say, I may just be the standard.
0:06:33 Like it, you know, and whether, whether that derives out of, you know, DeepSeeker, Lama
0:06:35 or, you know, any of the other new things that are coming out, you know, we’ll see.
0:06:37 But like, I think that’s entirely feasible.
0:06:40 And, you know, I think that would be obviously, you know, there are companies that would have
0:06:44 to adjust to that if it happens, but the other side is if, if kind of the world had AI for
0:06:46 free, um, I think that would be a pretty magical result also.
0:06:47 Yeah, totally.
0:06:53 I mean, shifting to the geopolit, the geopolitics of all this, is it important not just that there’s
0:06:57 an open source champion, but that there’s an American open source champion or a Western
0:06:59 open source LLM?
0:07:01 Yeah, I believe so.
0:07:03 Um, and I believe so for two reasons.
0:07:08 One is just actually cultural reasons, um, which is just, you know, the, you know, open
0:07:10 weights is great, but like the open weights, like they’re baked, right?
0:07:14 Like the, the, the, the training is in the weights and you can’t really undo that.
0:07:19 Um, and so, and, and, and so are you being trained by, you know, a company or an organization
0:07:21 or a set of people with American or Western values?
0:07:24 Are you being trained, you know, by, by, by, you know, company with, with Chinese values?
0:07:27 Um, and, and look, you know, there’s issues on both sides, you know, they, they, you know,
0:07:29 the American trained models have their, have their issues.
0:07:32 They have their weirdnesses, you know, but the Chinese trained models, you know, look,
0:07:33 they, they like score really well.
0:07:36 And, you know, they literally, in the Chinese benchmarks, they literally have like line items
0:07:37 for like Marxism.
0:07:38 Right.
0:07:39 Right.
0:07:42 And, you know, deep seek, like, it’s like a hundred out of a hundred on Marxism.
0:07:43 And so.
0:07:43 It’s here for deep seek.
0:07:45 It’s really knocked it out of the park with that one.
0:07:46 Congratulations.
0:07:47 Yeah, exactly.
0:07:47 It’s fantastic.
0:07:48 Right.
0:07:50 And so, well, it’s like, all right, so these are going to be, you know, this is going to
0:07:54 be the technology that’s going to intermediate your, the legal system, right.
0:07:59 The courts, the education system, the medical system, like, you know, how, you know, you
0:08:02 want your, you know, if you guys have kids, like, do you want your kids to, you
0:08:04 know, your, your kids are going to be learning from these things their whole lives.
0:08:07 Um, and, you know, do, do they have, you know, do they fundamentally have Western
0:08:11 values or do they, or do they have, you know, sort of, you know, CCP values, I think is really
0:08:12 critical.
0:08:15 And then the other thing, just, I would say, just close your eyes and just imagine two
0:08:16 states of the world.
0:08:19 One is which the entire world runs an American open source LLM.
0:08:23 And the other is where the entire world, including the U S runs on all Chinese software.
0:08:25 And I, you know, I don’t know, for me, that’s a, you know, very straightforward.
0:08:28 It’s a very important topic and a very straightforward answer.
0:08:28 Yeah.
0:08:35 I mean, in, in the American dynamism context, is it kind of mission accomplished there or are
0:08:40 there new territories that you’re looking to expand into with the broader American dynamism
0:08:40 thesis?
0:08:47 Uh, we talked to DU about energy and whatnot, but what is exciting about you outside of artificial
0:08:51 intelligence on the national interest investing side?
0:08:52 Yeah.
0:08:54 So, I mean, look, we’ve made tremendous progress.
0:08:55 I’m super proud of that team.
0:08:58 And then, you know, this, this, this, in this new political environment, the new administration
0:09:02 has embraced it, but also a lot of Democrats are actually quite excited about it also.
0:09:04 And our, you know, our, you know, our event that we hold has, has lots of people from both
0:09:05 parties.
0:09:08 So I think there’s a, you know, there’s this unified view now, I think in the American, at
0:09:11 least in the, in the political world of like, all right, it’s, it’s time, you know, it’s
0:09:12 time for the U S to step up on a lot of these things.
0:09:15 It’s time for the U S to build more.
0:09:17 It’s time for the U S to, you know, reinvent energy.
0:09:18 It’s, it’s time for nuclear.
0:09:22 You know, it’s, it’s time for, you know, infrastructure, you know, housing, like all
0:09:22 these things.
0:09:25 And so, you know, I think there’s a lot of momentum.
0:09:27 I think we’re at the very beginning of it.
0:09:31 You know, like one of the ways to think about what we’re doing American dynamism is we’re
0:09:35 going after all the sectors of GDP that are like really big and not yet basically affected
0:09:36 by tech.
0:09:42 And so education, healthcare, housing, uh, defense law, you know, just to pick five,
0:09:46 um, you know, those are giant, important slices of the economy that largely have not been transformed
0:09:48 by technology in the last 50 years.
0:09:52 You know, the U S defense department spends, you know, so you’re coming up on a trillion
0:09:52 dollars.
0:09:56 Very little of that money is going to technologies and companies that have been invented, frankly,
0:10:00 in the last 20 years, you know, most military hardware in the department of defense is, you
0:10:03 know, the F 16 is from the 1970s, uh, right?
0:10:07 Like the, the U S, uh, plane that does a high altitude photography, the high, high altitude
0:10:12 spy plane, it’s still the U two, which is, it’s just like literally a 70 year old plane.
0:10:17 So like, there’s just like enormous changes, um, you know, that, that really have to happen.
0:10:20 And I think everybody kind of in the system knows that, but it’s hard to get there.
0:10:23 And I think, you know, a big part of that is, you know, these new companies, you know, that
0:10:26 we’re, you know, that we, that we try to support, you know, they, they need to show up
0:10:28 and make their case, but, um, you know, the, the entrepreneurs are fantastic.
0:10:32 And then, you know, we, we, we see more receptivity coming from the system than we ever have.
0:10:37 Talk about the, uh, kind of position, the position that the firm is in today.
0:10:43 In many ways, it feels like you and Ben and the team had somewhat of a crystal ball to see
0:10:48 how the private markets were evolving, companies staying private longer, AI being this massive
0:10:52 platform shift, that’s going to upend, you know, every industry.
0:10:57 And then now the sort of political environment that enables industries to kind of get a, a
0:10:59 second or third life.
0:11:02 Uh, did you just get lucky or, or did you see a lot of this coming?
0:11:05 I mean, I think we got a few things right.
0:11:06 I mean, we got a bunch of stuff wrong.
0:11:09 Um, you know, we, we buried those ideas up back behind the shed.
0:11:13 Uh, so, you know, we made a bunch of mistakes along the way or changed, changed a bunch of
0:11:16 things, but, um, you know, we got, we got a few big things, right.
0:11:19 You know, I, I think the things I think we got right, you know, one is like the venture
0:11:23 ecosystem is you guys know has just evolved enormously, um, in a very positive way.
0:11:27 And the kind of old model of having a sort of a bunch of kind of midsize firms, they
0:11:30 kind of sit on sandhill road and wait for the founders to, you know, to come in like
0:11:33 that, that, that, you know, those days are kind of over you, you have the rise of the high
0:11:37 scale, you know, firms like, like us, but you also have the rise of all these seed and angel
0:11:40 investors, um, you know, that are, that are really, you know, first money in and then
0:11:42 really working closely with founders from the very beginning.
0:11:45 And I think that, that ecosystem is healthier than ever and doing really well.
0:11:47 And so that, you know, that’s been a big change.
0:11:51 Um, you know, and the ITOs, like, I don’t know, I would say we have changed on that, which is
0:11:53 I used to, I used to complain a lot.
0:11:57 Like I used to give these interviews years ago and, you know, like early 2010s and just
0:12:00 complain about like the, that it was basically becoming impossible for companies to go public
0:12:03 and, you know, the things that had, had caused that to happen and what needed to change.
0:12:06 And then, you know, of course nothing happened.
0:12:10 Like there were no reforms, you know, there, there were no improvements.
0:12:11 It’s, if anything, everything got worse.
0:12:16 Um, and so, you know, we and others adapted to that by, you know, by basically putting,
0:12:18 you know, putting ourselves in a position to fund companies, you know, later in their
0:12:22 life cycle at higher, higher, you know, bigger, larger amounts of money, you know, later growth
0:12:23 stages.
0:12:28 Um, and, you know, it’s now much more common for companies, tenders and these kinds of
0:12:31 private, you know, private sales, even for their employees, you know, so that’s been a
0:12:31 big change.
0:12:35 Um, you know, but look, maybe the best directional bet was just technology was going to keep
0:12:36 becoming more important.
0:12:40 It’s just like in every area of our life, the, the, the, that, you know, in, in sector
0:12:42 X tech is going to be more important.
0:12:43 There are going to be big tech companies built.
0:12:44 They’re going to really matter.
0:12:47 Um, that, that, that I think is, that I think that’s a very good bet.
0:12:50 I think, frankly, I like, I don’t, I, it’s hard for me to ever see that ending.
0:12:51 Yeah.
0:12:56 What are you, uh, you know, you guys are, are with your LPs today, tomorrow.
0:12:59 Uh, what are you hoping they, they take away from the event?
0:13:04 Oh, so, um, I, this is not a John Doerr quote, but I’ll give you another quote, uh, uh, for
0:13:08 when we were raising money originally, we were going around, we were going to raise, we raised
0:13:12 our first fund in 2009 and, you know, the world had, you know, completely collapsed after the
0:13:12 financial crisis.
0:13:17 And, um, we, you know, went around and we sort of briefed all the, all the, um, uh, all the,
0:13:20 all the, you know, all the VCs we respected, uh, to just give them a heads up what we’re
0:13:20 doing.
0:13:24 Um, and, um, one of the GPs took us to the side of the end and said, you know, you guys
0:13:27 have been dealing with like these, you know, very smart public market investors.
0:13:30 Uh, he said, you know, you’re going to, the part of the job you’re going to hate the most
0:13:31 is, is working with these LPs.
0:13:32 You know, they’re just terrible.
0:13:35 Um, and he said, the key is you need to treat them like mushrooms.
0:13:40 Um, you, uh, put the, you put them in a cardboard box, you put the lid on the cardboard box and
0:13:42 you put the box under the bed and you don’t open it for two years.
0:13:46 That makes a ton of sense.
0:13:48 They’re like, well, what’s, what’s the markup today?
0:13:50 That was somebody else.
0:13:50 That was not John.
0:13:54 Um, and so, uh, you know, look, the, the view Ben and I always had was the exact opposite
0:13:58 of that, you know, which is our investors are our partners, you know, and, you know, look,
0:14:00 that’s how we want to be treated by the companies we invest in.
0:14:04 Um, you know, that’s how we always, you know, viewed it when we were running public companies.
0:14:07 Um, our investors are our partners, you know, they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re,
0:14:08 they’re in it with us together.
0:14:11 You know, we’re, they’re, they’re, they’re making a big bet on us and trusting us.
0:14:14 And then, you know, look, correspondingly, the promise that we made to them is like, look, we’re
0:14:17 going to try to like deliver, you know, excellent returns, but in this business, it’s
0:14:18 just going to take a long time.
0:14:22 And, you know, the, the, you know, you guys know this for, for any company that really
0:14:26 succeeds, it takes, you know, 10, 20, 30 years, you know, to, to really have it succeed.
0:14:30 And like, and along the ways, along the way, like a lot of things happen, you know, everything
0:14:34 from negative headlines to, you know, lawsuits, disasters, chaos, you know, all kinds of crazy,
0:14:36 you know, twists and turns changes happen along the way.
0:14:40 And so I just think it’s like really important for us as a firm, like we really always need
0:14:42 to make sure that we’re treating our LPs as full partners.
0:14:46 And so we, what we’re trying to do is be as, just really like open the kimono all the way,
0:14:49 show them everything, kind of expose them to everything that we’re doing, make sure they
0:14:53 really understand it, go as, as deep as they want to go on the, on the technology and on the
0:14:53 companies.
0:14:55 And I, you know, this is like year 15 of this for us.
0:14:58 And so far that, I think they would say that that’s gone well.
0:14:59 That’s great.
0:15:03 Last question for me, just general advice for the next generation of entrepreneurs.
0:15:07 Are you hoping more college, less college, more coding, less coding?
0:15:09 Like there’s a ton of technological change right now.
0:15:12 How can the next generation of entrepreneurs set themselves up for success?
0:15:13 Yeah.
0:15:16 So there’s an old Steve Martin, Steve Martin line.
0:15:20 You wrote this great book on, on how to be a successful standup comedian.
0:15:22 And it was just, you know, short, short little book, really well written.
0:15:25 And, you know, every inspired comedian in the world, open it up.
0:15:28 And it says, Steve Martin’s, you know, advice for being a great standup comedian.
0:15:29 And it was, be so good.
0:15:30 They can’t ignore you.
0:15:31 Right.
0:15:33 It’s like, okay, thank you, Mr. Martin.
0:15:36 You know, I’ll get right on that.
0:15:40 But like that, that remains the best advice, I think, which is just like quality, like we
0:15:42 said, like quality bears out, like quality shows.
0:15:48 And so, you know, a, you know, really excellent thinking coupled with a high degree of, you
0:15:52 know, energy and courage to, you know, team building a great team and then a great
0:15:54 product, you know, and a real, you know, insight into a market with
0:15:58 customers figuring out how to design, you know, not just design a product, but also
0:15:58 design a business.
0:16:03 Like that’s basically like my view, my view of that as an entrepreneur always was like,
0:16:04 that’s my job as an entrepreneur.
0:16:08 And like, if I, you know, if I put a lot of time and effort into that, I’m very serious
0:16:08 about it.
0:16:10 I can hopefully do a good job.
0:16:14 And I think time spent improving the quality of the thing, the product and the business is
0:16:19 almost always better than time spent trying to, you know, I don’t know, networking or,
0:16:23 you know, publishing a presentation or, you know, trying to get positive press coverage
0:16:24 or kind of all the external stuff.
0:16:26 And so it’s really, it’s really the quality of the thing.
0:16:29 And then, you know, again, you know, my hope would be that like we as a firm and others
0:16:32 like us, like that we really, you know, that we really recognize that and see it, you know,
0:16:34 see it, you know, kind of see it when it shows up.
0:16:35 And I think that’s the thing.
0:16:38 And then I think the other thing would be, look, like AI is superpowers, right?
0:16:43 And like, if you as a founder have access to, you know, just to pick, you know, to say
0:16:47 chat, GPT, deep research, it’s just like, oh, you know, it’s just like, oh my God, like
0:16:50 I have a, you know, like I have a PhD level.
0:16:53 It used to be so hard to get information, right?
0:16:57 And then it’s been so hard, you know, even still to figure out what to do with it.
0:17:01 And so to now have this tool, you know, these tools for thinking through everything and,
0:17:05 you know, increasingly being able to do things like write code, you know, we ought to see
0:17:09 a generation of founders here that are just like incredibly capable, you know, relative
0:17:11 to, you know, to what, to what we used to be like.
0:17:14 And, you know, we’re starting to see those, we’re starting to see, you know, say a handful
0:17:18 of those, you know, that said, I’m still waiting for like the real conceptual breakthroughs.
0:17:22 Like I’m, I’m still waiting for the, you know, the, you know, the company where it’s like,
0:17:25 you know, it’s got a thousand employees, 999 or bots, like, you know, I haven’t seen
0:17:25 that yet.
0:17:31 And, you know, some, somebody is going to really figure out how to use this technology to really
0:17:34 not, not just bring a product to market, but like fundamentally change how companies operate.
0:17:37 And I think that’s probably, that’s probably the next big unlock.
0:17:43 How do you think about an individual’s edge around their own proprietary knowledge?
0:17:47 There’d been talk of with Warren Buffett, you know, retiring, he read something like a hundred
0:17:50 thousand plus earnings transcripts.
0:17:51 He had this incredible recall.
0:17:57 You’re often credited with having this incredible recall and it certainly gives, can give you an
0:18:01 edge in thinking through, you know, net new opportunities and decisions.
0:18:07 Do you, do you think that edge remains in a world where all human knowledge is accessible
0:18:11 in a single query or, or what’s your kind of mental model there?
0:18:12 Yeah.
0:18:16 So I think it’s going to be, I mean, look, I think there’s basically like two ways to really
0:18:18 have a differentiated edge, like in general, right.
0:18:20 There’s sort of, you know, there’s kind of go deeper, go broad.
0:18:24 You know, go deep has kind of become a more and more specialized expert over time.
0:18:26 And, and, you know, look, there are domains in which that like really matters, you know,
0:18:30 biotech and, and, and things like, or, you know, by the way, designing, you know, AI, you
0:18:33 know, working on AI foundation models, like that, that stuff really matters.
0:18:34 The deeper you are, the better.
0:18:36 So there’s, you know, certain fields where that really matters.
0:18:42 I think for most fields though, now with these new tools, I would probably bet more on basically
0:18:47 people who are able to be broad, which is to say, basically, can you know something about
0:18:51 a lot of different, you know, kind of aspects of life and how the world works?
0:18:55 And then you can use the tool, you can use the AI to go deep whenever you need to, but
0:18:59 then your job as the human is to basically then, you know, basically cross the domains,
0:19:00 uh, cross the disciplines.
0:19:03 And, and, and look, you see this, if you talk to any of like the great CEOs, you see, you
0:19:08 know, you kind of see this, which is like the really great, great tech CEOs, the great product
0:19:10 people and they’re great salespeople and they’re great marketing people and they’re, you know,
0:19:13 and they’re great legal thinkers and they’re great finance people and they’re great with
0:19:15 investors and they’re great with the press, right.
0:19:18 So it’s, it’s this, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s this sort of multidisciplinary, you
0:19:21 know, kind of approach, uh, and being able to cross domain.
0:19:23 And I, you know, I don’t know, we’ll see, we’ll see how good, you know, we’ll see how
0:19:24 good the AI gets at that.
0:19:25 Hopefully it gets good at that also.
0:19:29 But, um, you know, that’s, that in a lot of ways, you know, the entrepreneur has always
0:19:32 kind of had the burden, um, uh, you know, for somebody who wants to do something serious,
0:19:34 like they have to be like that, at least to some extent.
0:19:39 Um, and you know, the, the, the best entrepreneurs in the future, I think will probably be like quite
0:19:42 skilled at like six or eight things and then able to kind of cross and combine them.
0:19:49 How do you think about the responsibility of the venture industry broadly to try to influence,
0:19:52 uh, you know, world, you know, outcomes in the world?
0:19:58 Uh, I was sort of laughing, uh, you know, uh, less than a month ago, uh, a lot of investors
0:20:03 were clearly shifting capital out of the U S and just, you know, YOLOing into French bonds
0:20:04 and things like that.
0:20:07 Uh, venture capitalists obviously didn’t do that.
0:20:07 Right.
0:20:12 But at the same time, there was a high profile story of a venture capital firm, you know,
0:20:15 investing in, in a, in a Chinese AI company that, that we won’t mention here.
0:20:20 Um, and it, and it got me thinking around there, you know, if you’re operating a hedge fund, you
0:20:24 can go invest wherever you want without a ton of scrutiny, right?
0:20:28 People don’t look at that as, you know, finding, if you, if you, you know, move assets, uh,
0:20:33 into some, you know, Chinese market, it’s less of a, um, yeah, it doesn’t, it doesn’t feel
0:20:36 like you’re, you’re betting against your own team in the same way.
0:20:43 So I’m curious how you think of the, the generalized kind of responsibility of, of venture capitalists,
0:20:47 uh, even, uh, especially as a, as the sort of AUM has scaled dramatically.
0:20:50 Yeah, it’s like actually been the, the arrow of progress.
0:20:51 Yeah.
0:20:51 Yeah.
0:20:52 Yeah.
0:20:56 Look, I, the big thing I think I would say is like, we always, we always thought and
0:21:00 aspired that we were building things that matter and that we’re going to have an impact on the
0:21:00 world.
0:21:03 And for a long time, you know, we were trying to convince people that we were doing that and
0:21:06 they never quite took us seriously because it’s like, you know, it’s like, all
0:21:07 right.
0:21:09 Databases, routers, like, okay, nice, you know, nice guys.
0:21:10 I don’t even know what those things are.
0:21:15 Um, you know, even personal computers, like a thing on my desk, I write letters on it, you
0:21:18 know, whatever, like they, they just like tech was never like relevant to politics, really.
0:21:22 Um, you know, and call this, I’m talking about like between the modern era, 1950s, call it
0:21:23 through like the two thousands.
0:21:28 Um, and so, you know, and look, you know, generally speaking, like our press coverage was, you know,
0:21:30 generally people were like, wow, startups are exciting.
0:21:31 And, you know, when companies succeed, it’s great.
0:21:36 And then, you know, in the last 10 or 15 years, you know, like if questions
0:21:38 like yours, you know, have started to come up and then, you know, correspondingly just
0:21:42 as you know, like just enormous amounts of kind of criticism attacks, you know, kind of
0:21:45 indictments of, of, uh, you know, people with all kinds of points of view on, on, on the
0:21:45 industry.
0:21:49 And I would say, you know, in the beginning that kind of irritated me because I had gotten
0:21:51 used to the environment where either nobody cared about us or people just said nice things
0:21:52 about us.
0:21:55 What I came to realize is we’re the dog that caught the bus.
0:21:57 Like we actually now are building things that matter.
0:21:58 Right.
0:22:02 And so, you know, tech now interfaces direct, you know, when, when Elon goes into the car
0:22:06 market, like he just, you know, it’s the repercussions of that, you know, to your point, like on many
0:22:06 countries are just gigantic.
0:22:09 And there’s, you know, a thousand examples like that, that we could give and, you know,
0:22:11 AI probably being the biggest, biggest of all.
0:22:15 Um, and so, you know, look, we, it worked like the, the, the stuff that we do now, the companies
0:22:17 that we fund, they really matter.
0:22:21 They really have, you know, really big implications for society and for, for, for policy and politics
0:22:21 and geopolitics.
0:22:27 Um, and so mainly I think the responsibility is on, is on us as a firm, as well as, you
0:22:29 know, our companies, like we need to go explain ourselves.
0:22:33 Um, you know, we, we need to go be present in the policy debates as you know, like we have
0:22:36 a, you know, we have a huge push now into policy and politics that I never imagined we would
0:22:38 have, but by the way, it’s something I got wrong.
0:22:39 I never thought we would have that.
0:22:42 And then it became very clear that we need that, you know, kind of for this reason.
0:22:46 So, so like, I just think that’s part and parcel of like, of, of it working, like we’re
0:22:47 going to have to do that.
0:22:50 And then the geopolitics, you know, the China thing I think is probably the most intense
0:22:51 version of that.
0:22:53 Um, you know, I don’t, maybe that’s when we got right.
0:22:55 We just never really did anything in China for a bunch of reasons.
0:22:59 Um, you know, and, you know, look, and by the way, we’ll see, you know, this is a fluid
0:23:02 situation and you guys, it’s been publicly reported that there are, you know, talks underway with
0:23:03 China.
0:23:06 So the relationship with China could be better or worse, you know, in six months.
0:23:07 I think that’s what everyone wants.
0:23:07 Yeah.
0:23:08 Yeah.
0:23:10 I mean, everyone wants like cooperation in general.
0:23:11 Yeah.
0:23:12 Like, look, it’s possible.
0:23:15 Look, I mean, I’ll get, I’ll give you my favorite, here’s my favorite story.
0:23:22 So, um, uh, uh, in 20, I think it was like 2011, um, the, at the time the Obama administration
0:23:26 was trying to, uh, reestablish, was trying to, uh, uh, reestablish a relationship with
0:23:27 Russia.
0:23:30 Um, and there was a famous moment where the secretary of state, who was this, this, uh,
0:23:34 this, this woman named Hillary Clinton, I don’t know whatever happened to her.
0:23:37 I hear rumors that she then went on to, I don’t know, did something in politics, but, um, uh,
0:23:41 she was the secretary of state and there’s this famous photo where she was on stage with
0:23:43 Sergei Lavrov, who was the foreign minister of Russia, her counterpart.
0:23:47 And she brought like a big plastic red button, which was the reset button, right.
0:23:49 To reset, you know, warm relations with Russia.
0:23:53 And then, and then what happened was Medvedev, who was the showman, showman, the reset, the
0:23:54 reset air horn.
0:23:54 Yeah.
0:23:55 Exactly.
0:23:58 And then Medvedev, who was the Russian, he was Putin’s number two, actually came to
0:24:04 Silicon Valley and the, the, the secretary of state’s office called all around to Silicon
0:24:06 Valley saying, please, you guys roll out the red carpet to Russia.
0:24:09 There are new friends, like do everything with them, do whatever they want.
0:24:11 You know, please go invest in Russian companies.
0:24:14 Russia’s building this new Silicon Valley, see what you can do to support them.
0:24:17 And, and so it was like, you know, like it was just like a love fest.
0:24:20 And then, you know, fast forward four years later and, you know, Putin became, you know,
0:24:22 bootler as they say.
0:24:25 And, you know, just, you know, and then, you know, Russiagate, like everything,
0:24:25 everything that followed.
0:24:29 And so, look, I would just say part of being citizens, I think is, you know, we’re just
0:24:32 going to have to navigate through shifting geopolitics.
0:24:35 Our view, and I’m quite honestly, like our view is just, we’re going to put ourselves
0:24:36 squarely on the side of the United States.
0:24:40 We should say our foreign policy is a firm as the United States foreign policy.
0:24:43 If they, you know, if they don’t want us to do things in China, they don’t.
0:24:46 If, by the way, if they come to us and they say we should do more, like, you know, we’ll,
0:24:47 we’ll look at it at that point.
0:24:50 But, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re trying to be good citizens among everything
0:24:50 else.
0:24:51 Yeah.
0:24:51 It makes sense.
0:24:55 Talk about the evolution of the A16Z brand.
0:24:57 You guys came out with a new logo and a website.
0:24:58 Yeah.
0:25:03 And as always, you’re good at getting the attention of the internet.
0:25:04 I was a fan of this.
0:25:05 We talked about it on the show.
0:25:06 We, we liked it.
0:25:07 Yeah.
0:25:12 I think it’s something that’s different and, uh, and will age very well, but I wasn’t exactly
0:25:12 sure.
0:25:14 Like, what are you trying to say with it?
0:25:15 What are the references?
0:25:17 And even what was the process?
0:25:18 Like, did you pick the color?
0:25:18 I don’t know.
0:25:20 Are you in that conversation?
0:25:21 I want to know more about the brand.
0:25:22 Yeah.
0:25:25 So first of all, um, you know, I know we got some Twitter controversy on it and I just,
0:25:30 I just want to thank Kanye West, um, for drowning that outcome entirely.
0:25:34 Yeah, like I don’t think we’re talking about the conversation at the moment.
0:25:36 So yeah, so that, that worked out well.
0:25:44 Um, so anyway, um, so, um, yeah, look, so it’s our, we have this incredible designer,
0:25:44 Greg Truesdell.
0:25:45 He’s got, he’s got a team.
0:25:46 They did a fantastic job.
0:25:48 I worked, I did, I worked closely with him on it.
0:25:50 I have no design skills, but I provided a lot of input.
0:25:55 Um, you know, I think the big thing about it is what, what is intended to sort of reflect
0:25:59 is, is like an embrace of what I think is a broad, a broad set of cultural changes
0:26:00 that are happening right now.
0:26:05 You know, frankly, you guys are a part of as well, um, which is this, what I would describe
0:26:11 as an, I don’t know, 15 year era of, I don’t know, like cultural, almost shrinkage, everything
0:26:14 get, you know, you see in the design world, it’s like everything getting like ultra clean,
0:26:19 minimalistic and culturally everybody getting like very cautious and careful about what
0:26:19 they say.
0:26:22 And, you know, with all this kind of censorship and speech control.
0:26:25 And then, you know, this whole thing of everybody needs to feel bad about everything all the
0:26:25 time.
0:26:29 And everybody needs to feel bad about the country and bad about their, you know, ancestors and bad
0:26:31 about this and bad, you know, everybody’s just miserable all the time.
0:26:36 Um, like, I, I just think like that whole thing got kind of as, you know, I don’t know, you
0:26:38 may call it like pure, you know, neo-Puritanism or something.
0:26:38 Totally.
0:26:43 Um, like that thing kind of crested in, I don’t know, 2021 or 2022.
0:26:48 And, and, you know, basically in the last three years, I think there’s this like renewed sense
0:26:53 of energy, enthusiasm, ambition, um, you know, uh, achievements, um, dynamism.
0:26:57 Um, um, but like, you know, and, and again, it’s like literally, yeah, we should have nuclear
0:26:57 energy.
0:26:58 Yeah.
0:26:59 We should have rockets going to Mars, you know?
0:27:00 Yeah.
0:27:01 We should like, we should, we should have these things.
0:27:04 Um, and that, you know, that it’s good to succeed.
0:27:06 Um, it’s good to build businesses.
0:27:06 It’s good.
0:27:06 It’s good.
0:27:09 It’s good to, it’s good to make, make, make new things in the world, you know?
0:27:12 And yeah, we should have the thousand, you know, yard tall, you know, shining colossus
0:27:13 on, on Alcatraz Island.
0:27:14 Yeah.
0:27:14 Yeah.
0:27:17 I was going to, I was going to ask, my, my only request is to like, make it, make it real,
0:27:21 you know, like, like make it the Statue of Liberty of the West Coast.
0:27:22 Yeah.
0:27:27 I’m imagining a massive instantiation of that coin in the office and maybe physical versions.
0:27:29 Not the coin, like the, the, the actual figure.
0:27:29 True.
0:27:29 Yeah.
0:27:30 Yeah.
0:27:30 We need a monument.
0:27:31 You know, she has a name.
0:27:32 She has a name.
0:27:32 She has a name.
0:27:33 Well, no, what’s the name?
0:27:34 She has a name.
0:27:35 Technomedes.
0:27:36 Technomedes.
0:27:37 I love it.
0:27:38 That’s fantastic.
0:27:38 Amazing.
0:27:39 That’s great.
0:27:40 All right.
0:27:43 Well, Technomedes, buy a plot of land.
0:27:48 Somewhere Visible from the Golden Gate and just, you know, build it a mile high, please.
0:27:49 Mile high.
0:27:49 Make it happen.
0:27:50 Make it happen.
0:27:52 Thank you so much for joining.
0:27:53 This is fantastic.
0:27:53 Thank you for coming on.
0:27:54 Thank you guys.
0:27:55 Really enjoyed it.
0:27:56 Have fun with the, with the team and the LPs.
0:27:57 Cheers.
0:27:58 We’ll talk to you soon.
0:28:03 Thanks for listening to the A16Z podcast.
0:28:07 If you enjoyed the episode, let us know by leaving a review at ratethispodcast.com slash
0:28:08 A16Z.
0:28:11 We’ve got more great conversations coming your way.
0:28:12 See you next time.
0:28:19 We’ll see you next time.
0:28:20 We’ll see you next time.
0:28:21 We’ll see you next time.
0:28:21 We’ll see you next time.
0:28:21 Bye.
0:28:21 Bye.

0:00:02 Today’s episode is sponsored in part by Airbnb,
0:00:05 Open Phone, Shopify, Mercury, Built,
0:00:07 Indeed, and Microsoft Teams.
0:00:09 As always, you can find all of our incredible deals
0:00:12 in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com slash deals.
0:00:27 Hey, Young and Profiters, what’s on your bucket list?
0:00:28 Climbing Mount Everest,
0:00:30 writing a best-selling book,
0:00:32 maybe meeting your childhood hero.
0:00:34 Whatever it is, my guest today is here to show you
0:00:37 that your wildest dreams are more achievable than you think.
0:00:39 In this Yap Classic episode from 2022,
0:00:41 I spoke with Ben Nemtton,
0:00:43 the motivational speaker, best-selling author,
0:00:46 and star of MTV’s hit reality documentary,
0:00:48 The Buried Life.
0:00:50 Ben didn’t just dream big, he made it happen.
0:00:53 He crossed off incredible bucket list items
0:00:55 like playing basketball with President Obama,
0:00:58 throwing the first pitch at a major league baseball game,
0:01:00 and even sharing a beer with Prince Harry.
0:01:03 But what truly sets him apart is his mission
0:01:05 to help thousands of others turn their dreams
0:01:06 into a reality too.
0:01:08 In this conversation, Ben shared with me
0:01:11 how one small decision can completely change
0:01:12 the course of your life.
0:01:14 He also broke down the key steps
0:01:15 to crafting your own bucket list,
0:01:17 including what to add, what to leave out,
0:01:18 and most importantly,
0:01:20 how to actually make your dream goals happen.
0:01:22 If you’re ready to stop waiting and start doing,
0:01:24 this episode is for you,
0:01:25 so let’s get right into it.
0:01:31 Hey, Ben, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.
0:01:32 Thank you for having me.
0:01:33 I’m excited to be here.
0:01:35 I can’t wait for my listeners to hear
0:01:37 all of your bucket list advice
0:01:39 and all of your life-changing stories,
0:01:40 but before we get into it,
0:01:42 I did want to touch on your upbringing
0:01:45 and talk about mental health for a moment
0:01:46 because you are an expert on this topic.
0:01:48 You grew up in Canada,
0:01:49 and I read that when you were younger,
0:01:51 you were always traveling with your parents,
0:01:53 so let’s talk about your upbringing
0:01:55 and how that influenced your adventurous spirit
0:01:56 that you have today.
0:01:59 So my dad was actually a clown,
0:02:01 and he was like a theatrical clown,
0:02:02 so he played music,
0:02:03 and he wasn’t necessarily the clown
0:02:05 that does balloons and parties and stuff.
0:02:06 He would do theater shows,
0:02:08 so we would travel around
0:02:10 to different kids’ festivals
0:02:11 or different cities,
0:02:13 and he would do a show,
0:02:15 and it would either be
0:02:17 in some sort of exotic location
0:02:20 like in Africa or somewhere like Sweden,
0:02:22 or it would be on a ski mountain.
0:02:24 So we had this really interesting upbringing
0:02:26 where we would kind of travel with him
0:02:27 to these cool locations.
0:02:28 He played music,
0:02:30 so what he would also do
0:02:31 is like when my mom and my dad met,
0:02:32 they would travel Greece
0:02:35 and they would play music in the tavernas
0:02:37 for a free room upstairs.
0:02:39 So in Greece, you have the bar
0:02:40 and then you have a couple rooms above it.
0:02:42 So they would play music,
0:02:43 pass around the hat,
0:02:44 and their payment would be
0:02:45 free room and board.
0:02:48 And so my parents have been to Greece
0:02:49 15, 16 times.
0:02:50 It’s their favorite place to go.
0:02:51 So when I was two years old,
0:02:52 they brought me to Greece
0:02:53 for the first time,
0:02:55 and they still would do that thing
0:02:56 where they would play music
0:02:57 in the taverna
0:02:58 and travel around like that.
0:03:00 And so they would just bring me with them
0:03:02 and they would sit me on the bar
0:03:03 as a two-year-old,
0:03:05 and then they would leave
0:03:06 and play music in the corner
0:03:08 and they would just leave me on the bar
0:03:09 and I would hang out.
0:03:10 And then at the end of the night,
0:03:11 they’d kind of pick me up
0:03:12 and off we’d go
0:03:13 and they’d put me in between them
0:03:14 on their Vespa
0:03:15 with a little hockey helmet
0:03:17 and kind of travel around Greece.
0:03:19 So I think from them,
0:03:21 I learned that there really wasn’t
0:03:23 any rules around how you had
0:03:24 to live your life.
0:03:25 I think subconsciously,
0:03:27 we either absorb that,
0:03:29 there’s this expected route
0:03:30 that we have to go on
0:03:31 and we feel like that’s
0:03:32 what we should do.
0:03:33 It doesn’t need to be pressure
0:03:34 from our parents,
0:03:34 it’s sort of pressure
0:03:35 from society.
0:03:37 I think at an early age,
0:03:38 subconsciously,
0:03:39 I learned from then,
0:03:40 there really were no rules
0:03:41 and you could create
0:03:43 your own life
0:03:44 based on what made you happy.
0:03:45 And they never really made
0:03:46 very much money.
0:03:48 We didn’t have a lot of money
0:03:48 growing up.
0:03:51 It’s not like we were scraping by,
0:03:52 but he was a performer
0:03:54 and my mom was kind of
0:03:56 an independent business coach
0:03:56 for women
0:03:58 and then did this and that.
0:04:00 But their life was so rich
0:04:01 and they still to this day
0:04:02 live like that.
0:04:04 And we had a Westphalia van
0:04:05 where we travel around and camp.
0:04:06 And to this day,
0:04:06 they drive down to Mexico
0:04:07 every year in the van
0:04:09 and play music
0:04:10 and meet people
0:04:12 and they had this very rich life.
0:04:12 And so it’s,
0:04:14 yeah, that’s definitely
0:04:14 what I learned from them
0:04:15 growing up.
0:04:16 That’s so cute.
0:04:17 It’s such like a unique
0:04:18 little story.
0:04:20 And considering how much
0:04:21 you travel now,
0:04:22 now I understand
0:04:24 kind of where you get that from
0:04:25 because it’s a very
0:04:26 unique upbringing
0:04:27 that you had.
0:04:29 So you ended up
0:04:30 getting a scholarship
0:04:31 from my understanding
0:04:31 to college
0:04:33 and you had an opportunity
0:04:35 to play on the rugby team,
0:04:35 which in Canada
0:04:37 is a really big deal.
0:04:38 But you ended up
0:04:39 falling into depression
0:04:41 your first year of college.
0:04:42 So talk to us about that.
0:04:43 From an outside perspective,
0:04:44 seems like everything
0:04:45 was going great.
0:04:46 You had great parents.
0:04:47 You guys traveled.
0:04:48 You got a scholarship.
0:04:50 Why did you think
0:04:50 that you ended up
0:04:51 falling into depression?
0:04:52 What happened there?
0:04:54 I put so much pressure
0:04:54 on myself
0:04:56 to succeed
0:04:57 in school,
0:04:58 in athletics.
0:04:59 I really wanted people
0:05:00 to like me.
0:05:02 Like I just kind of,
0:05:02 for whatever reason,
0:05:03 I put,
0:05:04 I’ve always put
0:05:04 a lot of pressure
0:05:05 on myself.
0:05:05 I was on the
0:05:07 under-19 national rugby team
0:05:09 and we were training
0:05:10 for the World Cup
0:05:10 and I was worried
0:05:11 about missing a kick
0:05:12 because I played fly half.
0:05:13 So that’s like
0:05:14 a field goal kicker
0:05:15 and you’re the quarterback
0:05:15 kind of,
0:05:15 so there’s a lot
0:05:16 of pressure
0:05:16 on that position.
0:05:18 And so I started
0:05:18 worrying about,
0:05:19 oh crap,
0:05:20 what if I miss
0:05:20 an easy kick
0:05:21 at the World Cup?
0:05:22 And what if I blow
0:05:23 this opportunity?
0:05:24 And I had missed
0:05:25 a kick in the end
0:05:26 of our championship game
0:05:27 in high school.
0:05:28 And so I really didn’t
0:05:29 want that to happen again.
0:05:30 And you know,
0:05:30 at that age,
0:05:32 everything is so,
0:05:33 black and white
0:05:34 and so life or death,
0:05:35 you know,
0:05:35 whether you’re friends
0:05:36 like you or you don’t,
0:05:37 you’re living in this
0:05:39 little bubble of high school.
0:05:40 So you really don’t know
0:05:41 that there’s so much
0:05:42 more out there
0:05:43 and that there,
0:05:45 these things that you think
0:05:46 are such a big deal
0:05:46 when you’re younger
0:05:47 in your high school years
0:05:48 or early college years,
0:05:49 you realize,
0:05:49 well,
0:05:50 I’m not even going to remember
0:05:51 that this happened
0:05:52 on my deathbed.
0:05:52 Like,
0:05:53 there’s just no way
0:05:54 I’m going to remember
0:05:55 that this was something
0:05:55 that I worried about.
0:05:57 but at that point,
0:05:58 I was so worried
0:06:00 about doing well
0:06:00 on this team
0:06:01 and so I would worry
0:06:02 about it at night
0:06:04 and I felt this anxiety
0:06:04 and this anxiety
0:06:05 caused me to have
0:06:06 trouble sleeping
0:06:07 and so this lack of sleep,
0:06:08 this anxiety,
0:06:09 this constant pressure,
0:06:10 it all built up
0:06:10 and I started
0:06:12 to not be able
0:06:13 to go to school
0:06:14 and I started to not be able
0:06:15 to go to rugby practice
0:06:16 and then I couldn’t
0:06:17 leave the house
0:06:18 and so it just compounded.
0:06:19 I never experienced
0:06:20 anything like this
0:06:21 where all of a sudden
0:06:22 I was crippled
0:06:23 by this anxiety
0:06:24 and depression
0:06:26 and I was a very happy-go-lucky guy
0:06:27 and I was at a really,
0:06:28 I was A-type,
0:06:29 I had a lot of friends
0:06:31 that were also very supportive
0:06:31 and high energy
0:06:33 but I really wasn’t talking
0:06:35 about what was going on at all
0:06:36 so I was internalizing it
0:06:37 and I just went down
0:06:38 and down and down
0:06:40 and it got really,
0:06:41 really scary
0:06:43 and it ultimately,
0:06:44 my friends actually
0:06:45 kind of pulled me
0:06:46 out of the house
0:06:48 and convinced me
0:06:49 and rallied me
0:06:49 to come work with them
0:06:50 in a new town
0:06:51 for the summer
0:06:52 after I had dropped
0:06:52 out of school
0:06:54 and I was forced
0:06:54 to get a job,
0:06:56 I was forced to start
0:06:57 to kind of do things
0:06:57 on my own,
0:06:58 I started to build
0:06:59 a little bit of confidence,
0:07:00 I started talking
0:07:00 about what I was going through,
0:07:02 I started to find
0:07:03 different types of people
0:07:05 that were inspiring,
0:07:05 right?
0:07:06 Like as I said,
0:07:07 when you’re in high school
0:07:08 or even college,
0:07:10 you have this Petri dish
0:07:10 of friends
0:07:12 but you don’t realize
0:07:13 that if they’re not
0:07:13 your people,
0:07:14 there are your people
0:07:15 out there,
0:07:16 it just takes time
0:07:17 to find it
0:07:19 and so that was something
0:07:20 that took a bit of time
0:07:21 for me to realize
0:07:22 and I started finding
0:07:23 these people
0:07:24 that I realized
0:07:25 gave me energy,
0:07:26 these new groups
0:07:26 of friends,
0:07:27 they inspired me
0:07:28 and they were doing
0:07:29 all these cool things,
0:07:29 they had already traveled,
0:07:30 they had started businesses
0:07:33 and so I thought okay,
0:07:33 I’m going to try
0:07:34 and only surround myself
0:07:34 with people
0:07:35 that inspire me
0:07:37 almost by necessity
0:07:37 because I needed
0:07:38 that energy
0:07:40 and that single decision
0:07:41 completely changed my life
0:07:42 and it would lead me
0:07:43 down this path
0:07:44 that would ultimately
0:07:45 bring me here,
0:07:46 speaking to you,
0:07:47 I mean I wouldn’t
0:07:48 be doing the things
0:07:49 I am doing now
0:07:50 if I hadn’t consciously
0:07:51 decided to try
0:07:51 and only surround myself
0:07:52 with people
0:07:53 that inspire me.
0:07:54 Yeah, I think
0:07:55 it’s pretty crazy
0:07:57 how one decision
0:07:58 can change the trajectory
0:07:59 of your life,
0:08:00 I mean you’ve been
0:08:00 on this mission
0:08:01 for what it seems
0:08:03 to be like 15 years now.
0:08:04 Yeah and I think
0:08:04 that that’s a really
0:08:05 empowering idea
0:08:06 because it means
0:08:07 that you can change
0:08:08 your life at any time
0:08:09 and I think we all
0:08:09 can think back
0:08:10 to moments
0:08:12 where there was
0:08:13 this pivot
0:08:14 and it could be
0:08:15 something very small
0:08:15 like something
0:08:16 a teacher said to us
0:08:17 or the way a teacher
0:08:18 showed up to us
0:08:19 before us in high school
0:08:20 or some way
0:08:22 a friend supported us
0:08:23 or just happenstance
0:08:24 when you ran
0:08:25 into someone
0:08:25 and then that led
0:08:26 to your job
0:08:28 or there’s any number
0:08:28 of things
0:08:29 but these little moments
0:08:31 and I think
0:08:32 it’s a combination
0:08:34 of you have
0:08:34 to be aware
0:08:35 and it kind of
0:08:36 jump on those moments
0:08:37 sometimes
0:08:38 and it takes
0:08:38 a little bit
0:08:39 of awareness
0:08:40 and it takes
0:08:40 a little bit
0:08:42 of this being proactive
0:08:44 and you start
0:08:44 to go down
0:08:45 this path
0:08:46 that you don’t know
0:08:47 will ultimately
0:08:48 shift your whole life
0:08:49 so if you think
0:08:49 about it
0:08:50 if you anyway
0:08:51 as a golfer
0:08:52 you hit a golf ball
0:08:54 one or two degrees
0:08:54 off
0:08:55 it doesn’t seem
0:08:55 like much
0:08:57 but by the time
0:08:58 that it lands
0:09:00 could be 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
0:09:02 feet off center
0:09:03 and so this little
0:09:04 change
0:09:05 can be a big change
0:09:06 over time
0:09:07 and that’s how I look
0:09:08 at these small
0:09:09 little shifts
0:09:09 that you make
0:09:11 that you don’t see
0:09:11 them in the moment
0:09:12 but they can actually
0:09:14 create this huge impact
0:09:14 and I think it’s
0:09:16 an empowering idea
0:09:16 because it means
0:09:17 that you can also
0:09:18 make a huge impact
0:09:19 in someone else’s life
0:09:20 so just by
0:09:21 being there
0:09:21 for someone
0:09:22 in a moment
0:09:22 when they need it
0:09:26 or by small gesture
0:09:26 of kindness
0:09:27 or helping hand
0:09:29 or even a compliment
0:09:30 to a stranger
0:09:30 all these things
0:09:31 create ripple effects
0:09:33 that are hard to measure
0:09:34 but it’s very real
0:09:35 so it goes both ways
0:09:36 like everyone has
0:09:37 the power
0:09:38 to create this
0:09:40 immense change
0:09:41 through the ripple effect
0:09:42 through your daily
0:09:44 inner micro interactions
0:09:45 but then it also means
0:09:46 that you have the ability
0:09:48 to change your life
0:09:48 in any moment
0:09:49 because really
0:09:50 a small change
0:09:52 can lead to a huge change
0:09:53 and so I think
0:09:54 we get overwhelmed
0:09:55 sometimes by thinking
0:09:56 about oh I have
0:09:57 to make this huge
0:09:59 massive shift
0:10:01 to change my life
0:10:02 and I don’t think
0:10:02 that’s true
0:10:03 I think that you
0:10:04 can change your life
0:10:05 just by doing
0:10:06 a very small thing
0:10:07 that over time
0:10:08 will compound
0:10:10 and you’ll ultimately
0:10:11 make a huge shift
0:10:12 yeah
0:10:13 I think that’s
0:10:14 super powerful
0:10:15 so something Ben
0:10:16 I was curious about
0:10:17 was if you still
0:10:18 get depressed today
0:10:19 because you seem
0:10:20 so energetic
0:10:22 you always have a smile on
0:10:23 and you don’t seem
0:10:25 like the type of person
0:10:26 that gets depressed
0:10:28 so I’m curious to know
0:10:29 if you still suffer
0:10:29 from depression
0:10:31 and what you do
0:10:32 to manage your highs
0:10:33 and the lows
0:10:34 yeah well I’m happy
0:10:34 you said that
0:10:35 because I still do
0:10:36 get depressed
0:10:37 and I think that
0:10:38 that is something
0:10:39 that is like
0:10:40 really just
0:10:41 a great thing
0:10:41 to talk about
0:10:43 that the people
0:10:43 that you don’t think
0:10:45 struggle
0:10:45 struggle
0:10:45 you know
0:10:46 everybody struggles
0:10:47 every human
0:10:48 will go through
0:10:50 some mental health
0:10:52 crisis in their life
0:10:52 and that’s just
0:10:53 through the research
0:10:53 right it doesn’t need
0:10:54 to be from
0:10:55 a mental health
0:10:55 illness
0:10:56 a mental illness
0:10:56 it can be from
0:10:57 a divorce
0:10:58 stress from losing
0:10:59 a job
0:11:00 bereavement
0:11:00 from losing
0:11:01 someone that you love
0:11:03 you will go through
0:11:04 the crapper
0:11:04 like it’s going
0:11:05 to happen
0:11:06 and so
0:11:06 I think that
0:11:07 that’s almost
0:11:08 an empowering idea
0:11:09 because it means
0:11:10 that no one
0:11:10 is alone
0:11:11 in their struggle
0:11:12 if someone
0:11:12 is not struggling
0:11:13 they’ve been there
0:11:14 before they will
0:11:14 go through it
0:11:15 I really believe
0:11:17 when you speak
0:11:18 things they lose
0:11:18 their power
0:11:19 they’re much scarier
0:11:20 when they’re in your head
0:11:21 and so that’s what I found
0:11:22 is by talking about it
0:11:23 I’m able to also
0:11:24 process it
0:11:25 like I can talk about
0:11:26 I can break it down
0:11:27 when I’m talking
0:11:28 about it in therapy
0:11:28 or talking about it
0:11:29 with friends
0:11:30 so it’s so important
0:11:30 to talk about
0:11:31 so I would say
0:11:32 if you are struggling
0:11:32 right now
0:11:33 if you take anything
0:11:34 away from this podcast
0:11:36 it’s find someone
0:11:37 that you trust
0:11:38 to talk about
0:11:38 what is going on
0:11:40 ideally it’s a professional
0:11:40 and we can talk
0:11:41 about therapy
0:11:41 and we talk
0:11:43 about the challenges
0:11:44 with finding a good therapist
0:11:45 and the stigma
0:11:46 around therapy
0:11:46 because all that
0:11:47 is there
0:11:48 but just outside
0:11:49 of that
0:11:50 if you can find
0:11:50 someone to talk to
0:11:50 I think it’s
0:11:51 the most important thing
0:11:52 yeah
0:11:53 I have a therapist
0:11:55 I hope that stigma
0:11:56 is gone by now
0:11:56 Ben
0:11:57 because I feel like
0:11:58 so many people
0:11:59 have therapists
0:12:00 and therapy
0:12:01 is really important
0:12:01 it’s important
0:12:02 to talk out
0:12:02 your feelings
0:12:03 alright
0:12:03 so let’s take it
0:12:04 back to the summer
0:12:05 of 2006
0:12:06 you were 19 years old
0:12:08 and you had the idea
0:12:09 to gather up your friends
0:12:10 to make a movie
0:12:11 called The Buried Life
0:12:12 so talk to us about
0:12:13 how you got that idea
0:12:14 and what was the premise
0:12:15 of this movie
0:12:16 yeah
0:12:17 so I came back
0:12:18 from that summer away
0:12:18 you know
0:12:19 I was starting to feel
0:12:20 back to myself
0:12:20 you know
0:12:21 lifting out of this depression
0:12:22 I was like
0:12:22 okay
0:12:23 I met these cool kids
0:12:24 in this new town
0:12:25 I want to continue
0:12:26 to surround myself
0:12:28 with more people like that
0:12:29 so there’s one kid
0:12:29 that came to mind
0:12:30 and he was a filmmaker
0:12:31 from my neighborhood
0:12:32 and his name
0:12:33 was Johnny
0:12:34 and I secretly
0:12:35 had always wanted
0:12:36 to make a movie
0:12:36 so I called up Johnny
0:12:37 and I was like
0:12:38 let’s make a movie
0:12:38 if you
0:12:39 you know
0:12:40 I didn’t know him too well
0:12:40 I was sort of going out
0:12:41 on a limb
0:12:42 reaching out to him
0:12:43 and we gathered
0:12:44 two other friends
0:12:45 one of them was
0:12:46 Johnny’s older brother
0:12:46 Duncan
0:12:47 another friend Dave
0:12:49 and we started talking
0:12:50 about making this documentary
0:12:50 we didn’t know
0:12:51 what it was going to be about
0:12:51 though at this point
0:12:53 and then serendipitously
0:12:54 Johnny gets assigned
0:12:56 a poem in English class
0:12:58 at McGill University
0:12:58 in his first year English class
0:13:00 the poem is called
0:13:01 The Buried Life
0:13:02 so it’s an old poem
0:13:04 written in 1852
0:13:05 over 150 years ago
0:13:07 and this poem
0:13:07 strikes a chord
0:13:08 in Johnny
0:13:09 and he sends it back to us
0:13:10 he says guys
0:13:11 this poet
0:13:11 is talking about
0:13:12 the same thing
0:13:13 we’re talking about
0:13:13 right now
0:13:14 which basically
0:13:15 was this idea
0:13:16 that we felt
0:13:17 like we had all these dreams
0:13:18 but we never even
0:13:19 tried to go after them
0:13:21 because the day-to-day
0:13:21 buries them
0:13:22 like we knew
0:13:23 we had things
0:13:24 that we want to do
0:13:24 but why hadn’t
0:13:25 we ever done them
0:13:26 it’s because life
0:13:26 got in the way
0:13:28 and we have these moments
0:13:28 when we’re inspired
0:13:29 but then
0:13:30 we get less inspired
0:13:32 because the day-to-day
0:13:33 pushes them
0:13:33 so we thought
0:13:34 okay
0:13:34 we’re not the first people
0:13:35 to feel like this
0:13:36 if this guy wrote this poem
0:13:37 in 1852
0:13:38 let’s take this name
0:13:39 let’s call our film
0:13:39 The Buried Life
0:13:41 and our next task
0:13:42 was to uncover
0:13:43 these buried dreams
0:13:44 and the way we did that
0:13:45 was through this question
0:13:46 what do you want to do
0:13:46 before you die
0:13:47 because for us
0:13:48 thinking about death
0:13:49 actually made us
0:13:50 think about life
0:13:51 and I’m a huge fan
0:13:52 of thinking about death
0:13:54 I think the more
0:13:55 we can think about death
0:13:56 the better
0:13:57 and we can talk about that
0:13:58 but just
0:13:59 we stumbled into this
0:14:00 this was by accident
0:14:02 but we asked ourselves
0:14:03 this question
0:14:04 okay we realized
0:14:05 okay we’re going to die
0:14:05 one day
0:14:06 so if we’re going to die
0:14:07 which is probably
0:14:07 the only thing
0:14:08 we can count on
0:14:09 in life
0:14:10 what do we want to do
0:14:10 with the time left
0:14:12 and that’s where
0:14:13 the bucket list
0:14:13 came from
0:14:14 it was our answers
0:14:15 to the question
0:14:15 what do you want to do
0:14:16 before you die
0:14:17 and we pretended
0:14:17 we had all the money
0:14:18 in the world
0:14:19 we pretended that
0:14:20 we had the ability
0:14:21 to do anything
0:14:22 so our list was
0:14:23 ambitious
0:14:24 it was like
0:14:25 make a TV show
0:14:26 play basketball
0:14:26 with Obama
0:14:27 write a number one
0:14:28 New York Times bestseller
0:14:29 sit with Oprah
0:14:30 have a beer with Prince Harry
0:14:31 pay off our parents
0:14:31 mortgage
0:14:32 go to space
0:14:33 streak a field
0:14:34 and get away
0:14:35 ask out the girl
0:14:36 your dreams
0:14:36 you know
0:14:37 it was a
0:14:39 very audacious list
0:14:39 and then we thought
0:14:40 every time we cross
0:14:41 something off our list
0:14:42 let’s help someone else
0:14:43 do something on their list
0:14:44 and so
0:14:45 that was the mission
0:14:46 we board an RV
0:14:48 we bought a secondhand camera
0:14:49 and we planned a two-week road trip
0:14:51 in the summer of 2006
0:14:52 in Victoria BC
0:14:53 where we grew up in Canada
0:14:54 and we hit the road
0:14:56 and as soon as we hit the road
0:14:57 unexpectedly
0:14:59 people heard about
0:14:59 our road trip
0:15:01 and then they started to email us
0:15:02 and they looked at our list
0:15:02 and they said
0:15:04 hey I can help you cross off
0:15:04 ride a boat
0:15:06 I can help you cross off
0:15:07 get up in a hot air balloon
0:15:08 I can help you cross off
0:15:08 make a toast
0:15:09 at a stranger’s wedding
0:15:11 and then they would send us
0:15:12 their dreams
0:15:13 asking for our help
0:15:14 and so
0:15:16 we struck this nerve
0:15:17 and we just
0:15:17 thought
0:15:19 let’s keep doing this
0:15:20 and so this two-week road trip
0:15:21 ended up lasting
0:15:22 over 10 years
0:15:23 and then the list items
0:15:24 that we had written down
0:15:25 in the beginning
0:15:25 that we were convinced
0:15:27 were completely unattainable
0:15:28 over time
0:15:28 they ended up
0:15:29 falling off the list
0:15:30 and so
0:15:31 we also realized
0:15:32 that helping other people
0:15:33 achieve their dreams
0:15:34 meant even more
0:15:35 than doing the big things
0:15:35 on our list
0:15:36 and
0:15:38 then along the way
0:15:39 like built this passion
0:15:40 for like figuring out
0:15:42 why do some people
0:15:44 achieve their goals
0:15:45 and go after them
0:15:46 but most people don’t
0:15:47 like
0:15:48 why are 76%
0:15:49 of the people
0:15:50 on the planet
0:15:51 reaching their deathbed
0:15:52 and regretting the things
0:15:53 they didn’t do
0:15:54 not the things they did
0:15:55 and so
0:15:57 that’s why I started to speak
0:15:57 because I was like
0:15:58 okay we need to get
0:15:59 more people
0:16:00 in that minority
0:16:01 of the population
0:16:02 that actually
0:16:03 go after the things
0:16:04 and be true to yourself
0:16:06 and really a bucket list
0:16:06 is just a reflection
0:16:07 of your true self
0:16:08 that’s the way I look at it
0:16:09 it’s just a list
0:16:10 of all the things
0:16:10 that are going to bring you
0:16:11 joy and happiness
0:16:13 so it’s not just skydive
0:16:14 and go to Europe
0:16:16 that’s one of 10 categories
0:16:16 of your life
0:16:18 so you want to think about
0:16:19 your adventure travel goals
0:16:20 but you also want to think
0:16:21 about your mental health goals
0:16:22 your physical health goals
0:16:23 you want to think about
0:16:25 your how do you want to give back
0:16:26 your relationship goals
0:16:27 intellectual
0:16:28 what do you want to learn
0:16:29 financial
0:16:29 professional
0:16:31 and so that’s what a full
0:16:32 bucket list is
0:16:33 but
0:16:34 when we were on that road trip
0:16:34 we had
0:16:36 no idea of any of that
0:16:37 we were just going out
0:16:39 to tackle our dreams
0:16:39 and help other people
0:16:41 and it sparked this
0:16:43 lifelong learning journey
0:16:44 yeah
0:16:45 it’s so beautiful
0:16:46 and
0:16:47 one thing that I really
0:16:48 connected with
0:16:49 with your story
0:16:49 was this idea
0:16:50 that people went out
0:16:51 of their way
0:16:52 to help you
0:16:52 and that’s because
0:16:53 you guys had really
0:16:54 good intentions
0:16:55 and you were just
0:16:56 trying to be of service
0:16:57 to the world
0:16:57 you’re trying to make
0:16:58 the world a better place
0:16:59 and I can relate
0:17:00 because when I started
0:17:01 Young and Profiting Podcast
0:17:02 I had no intentions
0:17:03 to make money
0:17:04 all I was trying to do
0:17:05 is just help people
0:17:06 listen, learn, and profit
0:17:07 and by
0:17:09 month two
0:17:10 I had 10 volunteers
0:17:11 who were just working
0:17:12 for me for free
0:17:12 in a Slack channel
0:17:14 helping with the movement
0:17:15 and it’s just funny
0:17:16 how when you want
0:17:17 to do good
0:17:17 for the world
0:17:18 you just become magnetic
0:17:20 and people want to help
0:17:20 because there are
0:17:21 good people out there
0:17:22 so I’d love to hear
0:17:23 your thoughts on that
0:17:25 the only way
0:17:25 that we cross things
0:17:26 off our list
0:17:26 is through the help
0:17:27 of other people
0:17:27 I just want to be
0:17:28 very clear on that
0:17:28 you know
0:17:30 we had no business
0:17:31 or no ability
0:17:32 to achieve
0:17:33 any of the things
0:17:34 that we have achieved
0:17:35 but people
0:17:36 always stepped up
0:17:37 to help us
0:17:38 in unexpected ways
0:17:40 because we shared
0:17:41 our goals
0:17:42 and I think that
0:17:43 you had the idea
0:17:43 for this podcast
0:17:45 99% of people
0:17:46 will have the idea
0:17:47 they’ll want to do it
0:17:48 but they won’t take
0:17:48 that first step
0:17:49 because of fear
0:17:50 right?
0:17:51 They’re afraid of failure
0:17:52 they’re afraid
0:17:53 of what other people think
0:17:54 and that’s ultimately
0:17:55 what stops people
0:17:56 and that’s through research
0:17:57 and we can talk about
0:17:59 like where that comes from
0:18:00 but that’s the number one
0:18:01 barrier
0:18:02 when it comes to
0:18:03 stopping people
0:18:04 from achieving
0:18:05 their personal goals
0:18:07 but when you don’t
0:18:08 put it out there
0:18:09 no one can help you
0:18:10 you’re on your own
0:18:12 and if you think about it
0:18:13 when you hit a challenge
0:18:14 at work
0:18:14 typically
0:18:15 what do you do?
0:18:16 You go to your leader
0:18:17 you ask for help
0:18:17 go to a mentor
0:18:18 hey have you ever
0:18:19 been through this
0:18:19 I don’t know what to do
0:18:21 you ask a friend
0:18:23 but with these personal goals
0:18:24 we don’t ask for help
0:18:25 because of the fear
0:18:27 we’re afraid of failure
0:18:27 or afraid of what
0:18:28 other people think
0:18:29 and then we just have
0:18:31 a lower chances of succeeding
0:18:32 because we’re trying to do it
0:18:34 in our head on our own
0:18:35 so I always say
0:18:36 when you give someone
0:18:37 a chance to be a hero
0:18:38 they usually take it
0:18:40 and so you experienced this
0:18:41 when you started to put this
0:18:42 they said you took the leap
0:18:44 you moved through
0:18:45 that that discomfort
0:18:46 of like oh shit
0:18:47 like what are people
0:18:48 is this going to be good?
0:18:49 What if it’s bad
0:18:50 and it fails?
0:18:53 And then you started to see
0:18:54 that people were gravitating
0:18:55 towards it
0:18:56 because you were doing it
0:18:58 from your true
0:18:59 it came out of
0:19:02 what you truly wanted to do
0:19:03 this is your
0:19:04 a reflection of your true self
0:19:05 and I think
0:19:07 that at the end of the day
0:19:09 that is the big goal
0:19:10 is to be true to yourself
0:19:11 in a world that is so hard
0:19:12 to stay true to yourself
0:19:13 because everything pulls you away
0:19:14 from that
0:19:15 social media pulls you away
0:19:16 from that
0:19:17 you know being disconnected
0:19:18 pulls you away from that
0:19:19 the fear pulls you away
0:19:20 from that
0:19:22 but when you are true to yourself
0:19:22 you’re
0:19:23 I think you’re unstoppable
0:19:25 you are the only person
0:19:25 that can be you
0:19:27 and we spend most of our life
0:19:28 trying to be other people
0:19:30 and anything you could do
0:19:31 to remind yourself
0:19:32 of who you are
0:19:33 and that’s why I think
0:19:35 a list is a great device
0:19:35 to remind you
0:19:37 friends that keep you accountable
0:19:38 to these things
0:19:39 are great reminders
0:19:41 what you saw is that
0:19:42 when you were true to yourself
0:19:43 and then you started
0:19:43 to do this thing
0:19:44 it was like this
0:19:45 gravitational pull
0:19:46 yeah
0:19:47 and then you start to see
0:19:49 this thing happening
0:19:51 and then you follow
0:19:51 that momentum
0:19:53 and I think that sometimes
0:19:54 we feel like
0:19:55 we have this plan
0:19:56 we gotta stick to it
0:19:57 and I’ve done that a lot
0:19:58 but I’ve realized that
0:19:59 you need to follow the energy
0:20:00 and you need to follow
0:20:01 what’s easy
0:20:02 and what was easy
0:20:03 for you
0:20:04 not that it is easy
0:20:05 as in it didn’t take
0:20:06 a lot of work
0:20:07 easy as in you saw
0:20:09 there was momentum
0:20:10 and that’s what you followed
0:20:11 and so for me
0:20:12 that’s been speaking
0:20:13 I didn’t mean to be a speaker
0:20:15 but I did a TEDx talk
0:20:15 and then some people
0:20:16 asked me to speak
0:20:18 and I love doing it
0:20:19 and I feel like
0:20:20 it’s easy for me to do
0:20:21 and I work really hard
0:20:23 but I see that it’s working
0:20:24 and so I thought
0:20:25 okay I’m gonna leave the
0:20:26 I started a production company
0:20:27 with the three buddies
0:20:28 that we started
0:20:28 the buried life with
0:20:29 after the show
0:20:31 and I left that production company
0:20:32 which is very hard
0:20:33 to do speaking
0:20:34 because I could see
0:20:34 that it was
0:20:36 that was more true to me
0:20:36 yeah
0:20:38 following the flow
0:20:40 let’s hold that thought
0:20:41 and take a quick break
0:20:42 with our sponsors
0:20:45 this episode of
0:20:46 Young and Profiting Podcast
0:20:47 is brought to you by Mercury
0:20:49 the modern business banking experience
0:20:50 that brands like mine
0:20:52 use to manage their finances
0:20:54 I’ve got a confession to make
0:20:56 I used to dread logging
0:20:58 into my old business bank account
0:20:59 the interface looked like
0:21:00 it hadn’t been updated
0:21:02 since 2003
0:21:04 I tried to transfer funds
0:21:05 and somehow ended up
0:21:06 needing to call customer support
0:21:08 just to move money
0:21:09 between my accounts
0:21:10 that’s not ideal
0:21:10 when you’re running
0:21:12 a fast-paced business
0:21:13 and that’s why
0:21:15 I made the entire company
0:21:16 switch to Mercury
0:21:16 that’s right
0:21:17 all of our accounts
0:21:18 credit cards
0:21:20 it’s all on Mercury now
0:21:21 it’s our go-to banking product
0:21:23 and it’s also the go-to banking product
0:21:25 for over 200,000 startups
0:21:26 small businesses
0:21:28 and e-commerce brands
0:21:28 it’s designed
0:21:30 with a sleek interface
0:21:31 and transparent pricing
0:21:32 there’s no hidden fees
0:21:33 so it makes it simple
0:21:35 to manage your banking
0:21:35 capital
0:21:36 and credit
0:21:37 all in one place
0:21:38 with Mercury
0:21:39 you can accept payments
0:21:40 send invoices
0:21:41 and pay vendors
0:21:43 plus enjoy free
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0:21:45 USD wire transfers
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0:22:03 deposit $5,000
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0:22:14 learn more
0:22:15 at mercury.com
0:22:16 slash profiting
0:22:18 that’s mercury.com
0:22:19 slash profiting
0:22:21 Mercury is a financial
0:22:22 technology company
0:22:23 not an FDIC
0:22:23 insured bank
0:22:25 banking services
0:22:26 provided by Choice
0:22:26 Financial Group
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0:22:28 and Evolve Bank
0:22:28 and Trust
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0:22:34 this episode of
0:22:35 Young and Profiting
0:22:36 is brought to you
0:22:36 by Mercury
0:22:37 the modern business
0:22:38 banking experience
0:22:39 that brands like mine
0:22:40 used to manage
0:22:41 their finances
0:22:42 I remember when I used
0:22:43 to sit down to review
0:22:45 our company’s monthly budget
0:22:46 spreadsheets open
0:22:47 coffee in hand
0:22:49 and wasting 45 minutes
0:22:50 just trying to find
0:22:51 clear up-to-date numbers
0:22:52 from our bank accounts
0:22:53 I couldn’t get a clear
0:22:54 picture of our cash flow
0:22:55 without toggling
0:22:56 between tabs
0:22:57 and downloading
0:22:58 clunky PDFs
0:23:00 and that’s when I realized
0:23:01 we needed something smarter
0:23:02 that’s why we made
0:23:03 the switch to Mercury
0:23:05 Mercury is the go-to
0:23:06 banking product
0:23:08 for over 200,000 startups
0:23:09 small businesses
0:23:10 and e-commerce brands
0:23:11 it’s designed
0:23:12 with a sleek interface
0:23:14 and transparent pricing
0:23:15 no hidden fees
0:23:16 making it simple
0:23:17 to manage your banking
0:23:18 capital and credit
0:23:20 all in one place
0:23:21 with Mercury
0:23:22 you can accept payments
0:23:23 send invoices
0:23:24 and pay vendors
0:23:25 plus enjoy free
0:23:26 domestic and international
0:23:28 USD wire transfers
0:23:29 you also get instant
0:23:30 access to virtual
0:23:31 credit cards
0:23:32 that you can track
0:23:32 and lock
0:23:34 to specific merchants
0:23:34 earning you
0:23:36 1.5% cash back
0:23:38 on every purchase
0:23:39 Mercury streamlines
0:23:40 your banking
0:23:40 and finances
0:23:41 in one place
0:23:42 so you can focus
0:23:43 on growing
0:23:44 your online business
0:23:45 Mercury is a
0:23:46 technology company
0:23:46 not a bank
0:23:47 check show notes
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0:23:50 deposit $5,000
0:23:51 or spend $5,000
0:23:52 using your Mercury
0:23:53 credit card
0:23:54 within your first
0:23:54 90 days
0:23:56 to earn $250
0:23:57 or do both
0:23:58 for $500
0:23:59 in total rewards
0:24:00 learn more
0:24:02 at mercury.com
0:24:02 slash profiting
0:24:03 Mercury is a
0:24:04 financial technology
0:24:05 company
0:24:06 not an FDIC
0:24:06 insured bank
0:24:07 banking services
0:24:08 provided by
0:24:09 Choice Financial Group
0:24:10 column NA
0:24:10 and Evolve Bank
0:24:11 and Trust
0:24:12 members FDIC
0:24:13 the IO card
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0:24:19 loans provided
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0:24:20 Lending
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0:24:22 NMLS
0:24:22 ID
0:24:23 260
0:24:25 6284
0:24:26 yeah fam
0:24:26 I want the
0:24:27 attention of all
0:24:28 you renters out
0:24:28 there and I know
0:24:29 there’s a lot of
0:24:29 us
0:24:31 there is a
0:24:32 platform called
0:24:33 built where you
0:24:33 can pay your rent
0:24:34 through this platform
0:24:35 I’ve been using it
0:24:36 for over a year
0:24:37 and you can earn
0:24:37 your favorite
0:24:38 airline miles
0:24:39 and hotel points
0:24:40 just by paying
0:24:41 your rent on time
0:24:41 I of course
0:24:42 always pay my
0:24:43 rent on time
0:24:44 and as a result
0:24:45 I accumulated
0:24:45 a lot of points
0:24:46 so much so
0:24:46 that I’m going
0:24:47 on a trip
0:24:48 to Tulum
0:24:49 for my birthday
0:24:49 with my friends
0:24:50 and I was able
0:24:50 to pay for my
0:24:51 hotel and my
0:24:52 airline flight
0:24:52 by using
0:24:53 built
0:24:54 sounds too good
0:24:54 to be true
0:24:55 let me explain
0:24:56 there’s no cost
0:24:57 to join
0:24:57 and just by
0:24:58 paying your rent
0:24:59 you’ll unlock
0:24:59 flexible points
0:25:00 that can be
0:25:00 transferred to
0:25:01 your favorite
0:25:01 hotels or
0:25:02 airlines
0:25:02 it can even
0:25:03 be transferred
0:25:03 to a future
0:25:04 rent payment
0:25:05 your next
0:25:05 lift ride
0:25:06 and so much
0:25:06 more
0:25:07 when you pay
0:25:07 your rent
0:25:08 through built
0:25:08 you unlock
0:25:09 two powerful
0:25:10 benefits
0:25:11 number one
0:25:11 you earn
0:25:11 one of the
0:25:12 industry’s
0:25:12 most valuable
0:25:13 points on rent
0:25:14 every single
0:25:14 month
0:25:15 no matter where
0:25:15 you live
0:25:16 or who your
0:25:17 landlord is
0:25:17 it doesn’t
0:25:17 matter
0:25:18 your rent
0:25:18 now works
0:25:19 for you
0:25:19 second
0:25:20 you gain
0:25:21 access to
0:25:21 exclusive
0:25:21 neighborhood
0:25:22 benefits
0:25:22 in your
0:25:23 city
0:25:23 built
0:25:24 neighborhood
0:25:24 benefits
0:25:24 are
0:25:24 things
0:25:25 like
0:25:25 extra points
0:25:26 on dining
0:25:26 out
0:25:27 complimentary
0:25:28 post-workout
0:25:28 shakes
0:25:29 free mats
0:25:29 or towels
0:25:30 at your
0:25:30 favorite
0:25:30 fitness
0:25:31 studios
0:25:31 and unique
0:25:32 experiences
0:25:32 that only
0:25:33 built
0:25:33 members
0:25:33 can access
0:25:34 when you’re
0:25:35 ready to
0:25:35 travel
0:25:35 built
0:25:36 points
0:25:36 can be
0:25:36 converted
0:25:37 to your
0:25:37 favorite
0:25:37 miles
0:25:38 and hotel
0:25:38 points
0:25:38 around the
0:25:39 world
0:25:39 meaning
0:25:39 your rent
0:25:40 can literally
0:25:41 take you
0:25:41 places
0:25:42 get your
0:25:42 next vacation
0:25:43 for free
0:25:44 just by paying
0:25:44 your rent
0:25:45 so my
0:25:46 question is
0:25:46 what are you
0:25:47 waiting for
0:25:47 you’re already
0:25:48 paying your
0:25:48 rent
0:25:49 start using
0:25:49 built today
0:25:50 and take
0:25:50 advantage of
0:25:51 your neighborhood
0:25:51 benefits by
0:25:52 going to
0:25:53 joinbuilt.com
0:25:53 profiting
0:25:54 that’s
0:25:56 joinbuilt.com
0:25:57 profiting
0:25:59 again joinbuilt.com
0:25:59 profiting
0:26:00 and make sure
0:26:01 you use our
0:26:02 URL so they
0:26:03 know that we
0:26:03 sent you
0:26:03 that’s
0:26:04 joinbuilt.com
0:26:05 profiting to
0:26:06 sign up for
0:26:06 built today
0:26:11 so you
0:26:11 came up with
0:26:12 this bucket
0:26:12 list you
0:26:13 were 19
0:26:13 years old
0:26:14 you’re a
0:26:14 little naive
0:26:15 at the
0:26:15 time you
0:26:16 know you
0:26:16 didn’t have
0:26:16 that much
0:26:17 life experience
0:26:18 so I feel
0:26:18 like coming
0:26:19 up with big
0:26:19 audacious
0:26:20 goals when
0:26:21 you’re that
0:26:22 young doesn’t
0:26:23 seem as
0:26:24 frightening as
0:26:24 if you were in
0:26:25 your later
0:26:26 20s or 30s
0:26:27 or 40s I
0:26:27 feel like as
0:26:28 you get
0:26:29 older you
0:26:29 feel like it’s
0:26:30 too selfish
0:26:31 to accomplish
0:26:32 personal goals
0:26:32 like you feel
0:26:33 like you’ve
0:26:33 got all this
0:26:33 responsibility
0:26:34 and maybe you
0:26:35 can’t do
0:26:36 some of the
0:26:36 things that
0:26:37 you always
0:26:37 dreamed of
0:26:38 so I’d
0:26:38 love to hear
0:26:39 your thoughts
0:26:39 about why
0:26:40 it’s not
0:26:41 selfish to
0:26:41 have personal
0:26:42 goals and
0:26:43 also how we
0:26:44 can start to
0:26:44 think outside
0:26:45 the box when
0:26:46 it comes to
0:26:46 some of these
0:26:47 things on our
0:26:47 bucket list
0:26:48 yeah great
0:26:50 point so I
0:26:50 think that it’s
0:26:52 not selfish to
0:26:53 pursue your
0:26:54 personal goals
0:26:54 because you
0:26:55 can’t take care
0:26:55 of other people
0:26:56 if you can’t
0:26:56 if you don’t
0:26:57 take care of
0:26:57 yourself you
0:26:58 can’t do
0:26:59 your job if
0:26:59 you don’t
0:26:59 take care of
0:27:00 yourself you
0:27:02 can’t be who
0:27:02 you need to
0:27:03 be if you’re
0:27:03 not fueling
0:27:04 yourself and
0:27:04 one way you
0:27:06 fuel yourself is
0:27:06 by doing the
0:27:07 things that you
0:27:08 love so there’s
0:27:08 this big tie
0:27:09 between purpose
0:27:10 and your mental
0:27:11 health that I
0:27:11 think a lot of
0:27:12 people are missing
0:27:13 and when you are
0:27:13 following the
0:27:14 things that you
0:27:15 love that are
0:27:16 important to you
0:27:17 that means something
0:27:18 to you that gives
0:27:19 you a greater sense
0:27:20 of well-being that
0:27:21 contributes to your
0:27:22 mental health and
0:27:23 it energizes you
0:27:25 so I think that we
0:27:27 need to flip our
0:27:28 thinking around this
0:27:28 idea that it’s
0:27:29 selfish to do
0:27:31 these things and I
0:27:31 get it like I
0:27:32 used to think a
0:27:32 bucket list was
0:27:34 selfish considering all
0:27:34 my responsibilities
0:27:35 everything that I
0:27:35 had to do every
0:27:36 day but then I
0:27:37 started to notice
0:27:38 that people around
0:27:39 the world were
0:27:40 going after their
0:27:41 bucket list just
0:27:41 because we were
0:27:42 going after ours
0:27:43 thousands tens of
0:27:44 thousands of people
0:27:45 through the show
0:27:45 millions of people
0:27:46 and to this day they
0:27:47 come up and say oh
0:27:49 I saw the show I
0:27:50 was going to school
0:27:50 and I decided that I
0:27:51 wanted to travel I
0:27:52 met my husband when I
0:27:53 was traveling now we
0:27:54 have four kids and we
0:27:56 live in Italy or I
0:27:58 started a restaurant and
0:27:59 instead of being a
0:28:01 doctor because when
0:28:02 you do what you love
0:28:03 you inspire other
0:28:04 people to do what
0:28:05 they love just like
0:28:05 you starting this
0:28:07 podcast you probably
0:28:08 can’t even count the
0:28:08 number of people that
0:28:10 you have inspired so
0:28:11 it’s not selfish it’s
0:28:12 service because you are
0:28:13 giving other people
0:28:13 permission to do the
0:28:15 same and you also
0:28:17 fuel yourself so I
0:28:17 think it’s the same
0:28:19 idea around taking
0:28:20 vacation we sometimes
0:28:21 feel guilty when we
0:28:22 take vacation because
0:28:23 we’re taking time off
0:28:24 work well you’re not
0:28:25 taking time off work
0:28:26 you’re taking time off
0:28:28 for work so that you
0:28:29 can come back
0:28:29 recharged and you
0:28:31 also come back maybe
0:28:32 with a bigger idea
0:28:33 because you’ve taken
0:28:33 space you have
0:28:36 perspective so there
0:28:37 are so many reasons
0:28:39 why it’s important to
0:28:41 pursue these personal
0:28:42 passions and so the
0:28:42 first thing is give
0:28:44 yourself permission by
0:28:44 understanding that it’s
0:28:46 not selfish because
0:28:47 one you’re going to
0:28:48 inspire other people by
0:28:48 doing those things but
0:28:49 you’re also going to
0:28:51 fuel fuel yourself then
0:28:52 you look at like what
0:28:53 are these goals that are
0:28:54 important to you and
0:28:55 sometimes it’s hard to
0:28:56 think about you know you
0:28:57 look at a blank piece of
0:28:58 paper and like what’s
0:28:59 your list and it’s
0:29:00 overwhelming and that’s
0:29:00 why I think it’s
0:29:02 important to separate
0:29:03 your list into categories
0:29:05 and so I talked about
0:29:06 the 10 categories of
0:29:07 life that’s basically
0:29:09 what my new book is
0:29:09 based on the bucket
0:29:11 list journal it just
0:29:13 came out last week and
0:29:14 effectively you write
0:29:16 your list in those 10
0:29:17 categories mental health
0:29:18 goals physical health
0:29:20 goals relationship how
0:29:20 do you want to give
0:29:23 back intellectual financial
0:29:25 material goals and then
0:29:27 you start to move
0:29:28 through the barriers that
0:29:29 stop you from achieving
0:29:30 your goals so I
0:29:31 mentioned there was fear
0:29:32 that’s number one the
0:29:34 other big barrier is when
0:29:35 these personal goals you
0:29:36 think about them there’s
0:29:38 no deadlines and that’s a
0:29:39 huge problem that’s why
0:29:40 we push them so you need
0:29:41 to create accountability
0:29:42 around the personal goals
0:29:44 that’s why writing your
0:29:45 list is important that
0:29:46 creates a small bit of
0:29:47 accountability because you
0:29:47 take an idea that doesn’t
0:29:48 exist you make it real
0:29:50 that’s why we share our
0:29:51 goals you share your goals
0:29:52 so you can give other
0:29:53 people the opportunity to
0:29:54 help but you also share
0:29:56 them because then you feel
0:29:56 accountable to the people
0:29:58 you share them if I say
0:29:59 on this podcast this year
0:30:01 I’m writing a book that’s
0:30:02 my number one goal I’m
0:30:03 writing a book this year
0:30:04 and you say great and I
0:30:05 run into you six months
0:30:06 later and you say hey
0:30:07 how’s the book coming and
0:30:08 I think I better start
0:30:09 writing that book right
0:30:12 when you share your goals
0:30:13 you feel accountable when
0:30:14 you share them with your
0:30:15 community and then they
0:30:17 can they can help you and
0:30:19 then the third barrier and
0:30:20 I think we’ve all felt
0:30:22 this is that usually with
0:30:23 these personal goals you’re
0:30:24 waiting to feel inspired to
0:30:25 go after them or you’re
0:30:26 kind of waiting for the
0:30:27 perfect time and that
0:30:29 inspiration just just rarely
0:30:30 hits so you have to create
0:30:31 your own inspiration
0:30:32 through action like there
0:30:33 was never a perfect time
0:30:34 for you to start this
0:30:35 podcast you were never
0:30:36 going to have all your
0:30:38 ducks in a row you know
0:30:38 you were never going to
0:30:40 feel completely inspired to
0:30:42 do it because the fear
0:30:44 dampens that inspiration so
0:30:46 you have to just do it and
0:30:46 create your own
0:30:47 inspiration and as soon as
0:30:48 you started the podcast you
0:30:50 saw the reaction and then
0:30:51 you started to feel more and
0:30:52 more energy and more and
0:30:54 more inspiration so you’re
0:30:55 the architect of your own
0:30:57 inspiration through action
0:30:58 and sometimes we just plan
0:31:00 too much and we forget that
0:31:02 action is a plan you don’t
0:31:04 need to know the plan you’ll
0:31:05 figure out the plan after you
0:31:07 start you do the first step
0:31:07 you don’t need to know the
0:31:09 second step you’ll figure out
0:31:09 the second step after the
0:31:12 first it’s a momentum and so
0:31:14 the journal is designed to
0:31:15 create inspiration through
0:31:17 action to create
0:31:18 accountability and then to
0:31:20 identify real fear and and
0:31:22 imagine fear yeah I love
0:31:23 what you’re saying right
0:31:24 now it reminds me of
0:31:25 something that Jeff Hayden
0:31:26 talked to us about the
0:31:27 podcast called the
0:31:29 motivation feedback loop and
0:31:30 basically what it means is
0:31:31 that like you said you got
0:31:33 to take action and once you
0:31:34 get those little wins you
0:31:35 get that little bit of
0:31:37 motivation to take the next
0:31:37 step a little bit of
0:31:38 motivation to take the next
0:31:40 step but it all starts with
0:31:41 action you have to go out
0:31:42 and do something to your
0:31:43 point you can’t just sit
0:31:44 there and plan and think
0:31:46 you’ve got to take those
0:31:48 first steps absolutely that’s
0:31:49 what most people don’t
0:31:50 because the fear stops
0:31:51 you from that that first
0:31:53 step yeah okay I want to
0:31:54 get into some story time
0:31:55 because you’ve got some
0:31:56 really incredible stories
0:31:57 you’ve been doing this for
0:31:59 many many years you’ve
0:32:00 helped a lot of people so
0:32:02 one story that really stuck
0:32:03 out to me was about this
0:32:05 guy named Brent who told
0:32:06 you that he wanted to
0:32:07 deliver pizzas to a
0:32:09 homeless shelter I don’t
0:32:09 want to give away the
0:32:10 story so can you tell us
0:32:12 about that no it’s great
0:32:13 because you I met you at
0:32:15 a speaking engagement so
0:32:17 you were able to see the
0:32:19 talk and so some of the
0:32:20 you should know my story
0:32:22 which is cool so Brent was
0:32:23 the very first person that
0:32:25 we ever helped back in
0:32:28 2006 so take you back we’re
0:32:30 leaving Vancouver Island in
0:32:31 Canada we’re heading to the
0:32:32 mainland and we start to get
0:32:34 in this RV and travel now
0:32:35 there’s some news starting to
0:32:36 talk about we would just
0:32:37 camp out at radio stations
0:32:38 and we wouldn’t leave until
0:32:40 they put us on the air so
0:32:41 emails start coming and we
0:32:42 got this email from this guy
0:32:43 named Brent and Brent says
0:32:45 hey guys I’m 24 before I
0:32:46 die I want to bring pizzas
0:32:47 down to the homeless
0:32:49 shelter and so we’re
0:32:50 thinking finally someone we
0:32:51 can help like we don’t have
0:32:51 much money but we can buy
0:32:53 pizzas so let’s go interview
0:32:55 Brent and so we talk with
0:32:57 him and we find out the
0:32:58 reason why he wants to
0:32:59 bring pizzas down to the
0:33:00 homeless shelters because
0:33:01 he had lived in that
0:33:02 homeless shelter for a
0:33:03 couple years but he said
0:33:04 when people came in with
0:33:05 food to the homeless
0:33:07 shelter it felt like the
0:33:08 best day because it felt
0:33:09 like someone actually cared
0:33:10 about him in a world where
0:33:12 nobody really cared about
0:33:14 him and we found that he
0:33:15 actually pulled himself out
0:33:17 of this homeless shelter by
0:33:17 starting his own
0:33:19 landscaping business and
0:33:20 his landscaping business
0:33:21 relied on his truck and his
0:33:22 truck had recently broken
0:33:25 down and so the four of us
0:33:25 thought we got to figure out
0:33:26 a way to get this guy a
0:33:27 truck because when we asked
0:33:28 him is there anything we can
0:33:30 do to help he wouldn’t ask
0:33:31 for help around the truck he
0:33:33 would just ask for help to
0:33:34 get the pizzas so we
0:33:35 thought that’s pretty cool
0:33:36 that this guy’s in a tough
0:33:37 spot and he’s not even
0:33:38 asking for anything for
0:33:40 himself and we didn’t have
0:33:41 much money at the time
0:33:43 we had a $480 between the
0:33:45 four of us Canadian so it’s
0:33:46 less right so that’s like
0:33:49 not much cash so we went
0:33:51 to an RV no sorry a used
0:33:52 car salesman and we said
0:33:53 this is the story of this
0:33:54 guy in your community you
0:33:55 know what and and the
0:33:56 cheapest truck on the lot
0:33:58 was $2,100 and he sold
0:34:00 the truck to us for $480
0:34:02 and then he paid for the
0:34:04 insurance and out of his
0:34:05 own pocket like we’re
0:34:06 at the age we didn’t even
0:34:07 know that you needed
0:34:08 insurance or maybe we just
0:34:09 this is all our money and
0:34:10 so anyways he was so
0:34:12 this idea of you know we
0:34:13 gave him a chance to be a
0:34:14 hero and he took it like
0:34:15 they saw that so many
0:34:18 times drive up to Brent
0:34:20 throw him the keys and he
0:34:21 just sort of started to cry
0:34:23 and he bear hugged me and
0:34:24 didn’t let go for a long
0:34:26 time and we hung out with
0:34:27 him and his girlfriend that
0:34:29 day and we sort of all
0:34:32 felt like okay this is what
0:34:34 this is about and we have to
0:34:35 keep doing this and that was
0:34:37 the catalyst to continue to
0:34:39 do this again the next
0:34:40 summer you know this this
0:34:42 feeling that we had never
0:34:43 felt before which was
0:34:45 helping a stranger helping
0:34:46 someone we didn’t know and
0:34:48 we hadn’t done that before
0:34:49 in our lives we didn’t have
0:34:50 had volunteered in high
0:34:51 school or experienced that
0:34:54 and so yeah that was very
0:34:56 impactful and so you went
0:34:57 on to do a lot of bucket
0:34:59 list items that are really
0:35:00 impressive you started an
0:35:02 MTV show you escaped a
0:35:03 desert island you had a beer
0:35:05 with Prince Harry you even
0:35:07 got on Oprah and you also
0:35:08 played basketball with
0:35:10 President Obama which is
0:35:12 pretty damn impressive so
0:35:13 what was your favorite
0:35:14 story tell us like your
0:35:16 favorite story and like the
0:35:17 crazy things that you did to
0:35:18 accomplish your goals
0:35:20 there’s a lot of crazy
0:35:21 stories I’ll tell the
0:35:22 President Obama story
0:35:23 quickly and then there’s I’ll
0:35:24 tell another one after that
0:35:25 as well very quickly
0:35:27 President Obama we had no
0:35:28 connections to the White
0:35:30 House so we just drove
0:35:31 there and started asking
0:35:32 people on the street if
0:35:33 they knew anyone in the
0:35:34 White House which is not
0:35:35 didn’t get us very far
0:35:36 but we started to send
0:35:37 emails to people that we
0:35:39 found we just like
0:35:40 contacted politicians
0:35:41 offices basically and we
0:35:42 met with a couple lower
0:35:43 level officials and they
0:35:44 and then we were could
0:35:45 convince them to meet with
0:35:46 their boss and then we
0:35:47 met with their boss and we
0:35:48 got all the way up to
0:35:49 the Secretary of
0:35:51 Transportation and he put
0:35:51 in the call to the
0:35:52 White House and we were
0:35:54 stoked and then we got an
0:35:55 official rejection letter
0:35:56 from the White House and
0:35:57 then we were like okay well
0:36:00 that’s too bad I guess
0:36:01 we’re gonna have to change
0:36:02 our tact and so we
0:36:03 decided instead of going
0:36:04 after the president we’d
0:36:05 go after the president’s
0:36:06 personal aid because the
0:36:07 personal aid of the
0:36:08 president he set up the
0:36:09 basketball games with
0:36:10 with President Obama and
0:36:10 there was these secret
0:36:11 gap basketball games that
0:36:12 everyone was trying to
0:36:13 kind of figure out a way to
0:36:14 get involved with and so
0:36:15 we found what we thought
0:36:16 was the president’s
0:36:18 personal aid’s email and
0:36:18 we started sending him
0:36:20 emails every day with a
0:36:21 challenge to a basketball
0:36:23 game so we said you and
0:36:23 the president versus us
0:36:25 tonight 730 at the YMCA
0:36:26 be there and we show up at
0:36:28 the Y at 730 and no
0:36:29 president we did the next
0:36:30 day no president so we
0:36:32 did this for a week we
0:36:32 picked it outside the
0:36:34 White House with signs we
0:36:35 sent letters and at this
0:36:36 point like no one is
0:36:37 meeting with us anymore so
0:36:39 we just accept defeat and
0:36:40 we leave then I get a
0:36:42 block call a couple days
0:36:44 later and I pick it up and
0:36:45 it’s the personal aid of
0:36:46 the president and he’s
0:36:47 like what’s this I hear
0:36:47 about you wanting to play
0:36:48 basketball against the
0:36:49 president and I and I
0:36:50 explained what we’re doing
0:36:51 and he’s like you know
0:36:52 what I can make this
0:36:53 happen I feel good about
0:36:54 this give me two weeks I
0:36:55 just need to run it by the
0:36:55 press team they got to
0:36:57 sign off on everything I’ll
0:36:58 get back to you in two
0:36:59 weeks calls me in two
0:37:00 weeks he’s like it’s not
0:37:01 gonna happen and we’re
0:37:05 like oh Jesus okay so now
0:37:06 he’s like this and I’m
0:37:07 sorry I don’t know if
0:37:08 you’re back in DC let me
0:37:09 know maybe I can give a
0:37:09 tour of the White House
0:37:11 cut to three months later
0:37:12 we’re back in DC personal
0:37:13 later the president true to
0:37:14 his word gives us a
0:37:15 personal tour of the
0:37:16 White House walks us
0:37:17 through the West Wing shows
0:37:19 us his office next to the
0:37:20 Oval Office down the
0:37:21 back steps of the White
0:37:22 House by the way we
0:37:23 didn’t know what to wear
0:37:24 so we rented suits from a
0:37:25 prom rental store right so
0:37:27 we’re like on the White
0:37:28 House basketball courts
0:37:30 manicured hedges presidential
0:37:31 seal on each hoop one
0:37:33 presidential basketball we’re
0:37:36 shooting around and then all
0:37:37 of a sudden I hear my
0:37:38 friend go oh my god oh my
0:37:39 god it’s the president and
0:37:41 President Obama walked on
0:37:42 the court and he totally
0:37:45 surprised us and we were
0:37:47 totally awestruck and so we
0:37:48 met the president we shot
0:37:50 around with him for 15 20
0:37:51 minutes immediately forgot
0:37:52 he’s the president because
0:37:53 he’s the coolest man on
0:37:54 earth we were trying to hit
0:37:55 shots he wasn’t hitting we
0:37:57 were trash talking it was
0:37:59 really really incredible and
0:38:01 that was amazing because it
0:38:03 was what a great memory yeah
0:38:04 it was definitely the most
0:38:05 impossible thing I remember
0:38:07 writing down I remember when
0:38:08 we came up with that idea for
0:38:11 the list it was I laughed
0:38:12 because it was so impossible
0:38:14 right I was like this is this
0:38:15 is hilarious that this is so
0:38:16 impossible let’s put it on
0:38:18 the list it was definitely and
0:38:19 then to see him stroll on the
0:38:22 court I was like wow I guess I
0:38:23 have no choice but to believe
0:38:24 anything’s possible because I
0:38:26 just proved to myself that
0:38:28 this was possible and I
0:38:29 thought this was impossible
0:38:30 and now it happened and so
0:38:32 now I have no choice but to
0:38:33 believe that these things can
0:38:35 come to fruition and I think
0:38:37 that that’s a very common
0:38:40 feeling is that you don’t know
0:38:41 what’s possible until you’re
0:38:44 doing it and that’s really
0:38:45 important you don’t know what’s
0:38:47 possible until you’re actually
0:38:49 doing it you can’t even imagine
0:38:51 yourself achieving some of these
0:38:53 things until you’ve achieved it
0:38:55 and then you prove to yourself
0:38:57 and everyone has the ability to
0:38:58 prove to themselves that these
0:39:01 things are possible we’ll be
0:39:02 right back after a quick break
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0:40:38 hey app gang this podcast started as a
0:40:40 side hustle a late-night labor of love
0:40:42 fueled by a dream to share stories
0:40:44 lessons and real experiences with other
0:40:46 entrepreneurs back then it was just me
0:40:48 a mic and a mission taking your
0:40:50 business to the next level is a dream
0:40:52 that a lot of us share but too often it
0:40:54 just remains a dream we hold ourselves
0:40:56 back thinking what if I don’t have the
0:40:59 skills what if I can’t do it alone turn
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0:43:34 this point because I really really
0:43:36 resonate with it I always tell my
0:43:37 listeners and when I’m getting
0:43:39 interviewed on other podcasts people
0:43:41 like what is your secret to life how
0:43:42 did you become successful and I always
0:43:44 say like you have to believe that life
0:43:46 is limitless and I feel like once I
0:43:48 really believe that that’s when
0:43:50 everything started to happen once you
0:43:52 really believe that there’s no limits
0:43:54 to your life and so that’s really awesome
0:43:55 that you had that mindset shift and I’m
0:43:57 sure that’s helped you achieve more and
0:44:00 more of these goals so tell us another
0:44:02 one of your stories and then I want to
0:44:05 hear what’s still on your list what have
0:44:08 you not yet accomplished okay one quick
0:44:09 story is we tried to streak a field and
0:44:12 get away we didn’t get away we ended up
0:44:13 spending the night in jail but spend a
0:44:14 night in jail is on the list so that was
0:44:17 at least we crossed off one a double
0:44:19 whammy one of the things on the list
0:44:21 was ask out the girl your dreams at the
0:44:24 time the girl my dreams was Megan Fox
0:44:27 was back in the transformer movie days I
0:44:29 snuck onto the red carpet at the
0:44:31 premiere of the transformers film
0:44:35 pretending that I was working for us
0:44:37 weekly so I had a spot on the red
0:44:39 carpet I had a microphone and the cord
0:44:41 of the microphone was just going into my
0:44:43 pocket and I had a camera guy with me
0:44:45 because we were filming and I snuck onto
0:44:47 the red carpet in the law in the press
0:44:49 line Megan Fox coming up she comes up
0:44:51 right up to me I start interviewing her
0:44:53 with this microphone by the way is not
0:44:56 connected to anything and I’m like hey
0:44:57 how you doing my name is Ben and she’s
0:44:59 like oh my first boyfriend’s name is bed
0:45:02 and I’m like uh I start getting super
0:45:04 nervous and I start talking about
0:45:07 something and then her publicist pulled
0:45:09 her away and I completely blew it I
0:45:12 failed I didn’t ask her out and we did
0:45:14 that on the show by the way and it was a
0:45:17 complete it was an embarrassment so I
0:45:19 didn’t I didn’t ask her out but then
0:45:22 the next season Duncan was like I’m
0:45:25 gonna redeem you which didn’t is good I
0:45:26 guess because he was like I’m gonna ask
0:45:28 out Taylor Swift that was his girl of his
0:45:30 dreams at the time so we dressed up
0:45:32 Duncan like a fake country music star
0:45:34 named Boone McCaw because we knew that
0:45:36 she was gonna be at the CMT Awards
0:45:39 country music television awards so we
0:45:41 dressed him in all white handlebar
0:45:44 mustache cowboy hat Boone McCaw Dave was
0:45:46 his guitar playing partner named
0:45:49 Patagonia he had a big jacket with
0:45:52 tassels another mustache wig I was the
0:45:53 publicist so I was wearing like an
0:45:56 earpiece and I was like I was running
0:45:57 alongside them because then we rented a
0:45:58 big horse and chariot and we were gonna
0:46:01 just bum rush the music awards to try and
0:46:04 get in and we had at that point it was
0:46:06 season two and so we tweeted out and we
0:46:08 had probably like one or 200 fans come
0:46:11 out and we made fake country music I
0:46:12 forget what the magazine is but like
0:46:15 basically Duncan’s face on as Boone
0:46:17 McCaw on the cover of this magazine we
0:46:19 had I heart Boone t-shirts we had all
0:46:22 these so like country music television
0:46:24 awards that they’re happening all of a
0:46:27 sudden this white chariot in a horse
0:46:30 with horses starts to just run towards
0:46:32 the entrance of the awards there’s cops
0:46:33 everywhere and as soon as it happens
0:46:36 all the fans are around the entrance and
0:46:38 they start going crazy and I’m running
0:46:40 along with my earpiece on and my walkie
0:46:43 talkie and cops let us through we go to
0:46:45 the front of the red carpet publicists
0:46:47 everyone’s letting us through the
0:46:50 producers and then someone recognized us
0:46:53 and they’re like no way buried life you’re
0:46:57 out of here because CMT is the Viacom owns
0:47:02 MTV and this and the awards and so they they
0:47:04 knew about us and they were someone tipped
0:47:05 them off that we were coming or something
0:47:08 and that’s why we had to wear fake mustaches
0:47:10 and stuff like that anyways we didn’t give
0:47:12 up I snuck in the back by the way if you
0:47:14 ever want to sneak in anywhere just wear
0:47:16 all black and hold a walkie-talkie you
0:47:18 basically look like a roadie if you have a
0:47:20 clipboard that’s even better and you can
0:47:22 pretty much walk in everywhere so I walked
0:47:24 in the back and I ended up nagging and
0:47:26 nabbing two passes I said I was part of
0:47:29 Kid Rock’s crew I got two passes I came
0:47:30 out I gave one to Duncan he got in all
0:47:32 black he went in the back he walked
0:47:34 right up to Taylor Swift who was sitting
0:47:36 in her seat passed her a note the note
0:47:38 was asking her out and then he ended up
0:47:40 actually going out on a date with her so
0:47:45 that was a success oh wow what a great
0:47:47 story and I love your tip about just
0:47:49 wearing all black pretending to be like a
0:47:51 PR person get it anywhere that’s so funny
0:47:54 yeah so I know that you guys have like
0:47:56 other items on the list that are going
0:47:57 to be really hard to accomplish I think
0:47:59 you you want to go to space is that
0:48:01 right what other items have you not yet
0:48:05 achieved go to space make a movie right
0:48:07 I’d like to finish the buried life
0:48:09 documentary that we started been filming
0:48:11 for the all those years on the road
0:48:13 through the show and everything so it’s a
0:48:16 really cool story to tell there tell a
0:48:17 judge you want the truth you can’t
0:48:19 handle the truth but it has to be real
0:48:21 we’ve got invited to do it and to judges
0:48:23 but I think that you know we got to be in
0:48:26 a real courtroom and then I think host
0:48:27 saturday night live is the is the last
0:48:29 one which would be probably the hardest
0:48:31 yeah go to space is gonna be tough but I
0:48:33 think I’m gonna do that in 2024 I’m
0:48:34 talking with this company called
0:48:36 worldview which is sending these capsules
0:48:38 up to space and big air balloon and it’s
0:48:40 like eight people can go in it that’ll
0:48:43 be probably 2024 awesome well I can’t
0:48:45 wait to see you on SNL I think it’s
0:48:47 definitely gonna happen so Ben we’re
0:48:48 gonna wrap up the interview now I’m
0:48:50 gonna ask you a couple of questions that
0:48:52 we always ask our guests and then
0:48:54 we’ll talk about where everyone can
0:48:56 find the bucket list journal so my
0:48:58 question to you is what is one
0:49:00 actionable thing our listeners can do
0:49:02 today to become more profitable
0:49:04 tomorrow now write down your goals it
0:49:07 seems simple but it’s a very big step
0:49:08 to write down your goals it makes them
0:49:10 real they’re not ideas anymore then
0:49:12 they’re a reminder that they exist it
0:49:15 also forces you to slow down to think
0:49:17 about what’s important to you and in a
0:49:20 world where 76% of the population their
0:49:23 biggest regret on their deathbed is I
0:49:24 wish I would have lived for me not what
0:49:27 others expected of me or what I thought
0:49:30 I should do it’s important that we slow
0:49:31 down to think about what’s important to
0:49:33 us again it’s all coming back to being
0:49:36 true to yourself and that’s one step to
0:49:38 being true to yourself is reflecting to
0:49:40 understand what you really want and make
0:49:43 sure that you’re not subconsciously doing
0:49:45 things because you think it’s what’s
0:49:48 expected of you right so 76% of people on
0:49:50 their deathbed their number one regret in
0:49:52 their entire life this comes out of
0:49:53 research from Cornell their number one
0:49:55 regret I wish I would have lived my
0:49:58 ideal self the life I wanted not what
0:50:00 others wanted for me so no one should
0:50:01 have that regret on their deathbed and
0:50:03 basically the bucket list journal is
0:50:06 hopefully designed to solve that problem
0:50:08 for you so that you identify what your
0:50:10 goals are and then you start to build
0:50:11 accountability build inspiration
0:50:13 through action and move through the fear
0:50:15 so that you don’t end up on your deathbed
0:50:17 regretting the things that you didn’t do
0:50:19 yeah I love the journal I’ve been
0:50:21 starting to use it so thank you so much
0:50:23 for giving me an advanced copy and Ben
0:50:26 what is your secret to profiting in life
0:50:29 thinking about your death and it sounds
0:50:31 weird but if you think about what’s
0:50:33 important in your life you look at the
0:50:36 top five regrets of the dying okay and
0:50:39 they don’t have much to do with money the
0:50:41 top five regrets the dying are I wish I
0:50:44 would have lived for me I wish I would
0:50:46 have told people how I really felt I
0:50:48 wish I would have worked less I wish I
0:50:50 would have let myself be happier and I
0:50:52 wish I would have stayed in touch with my
0:50:53 friends okay so those are the top five
0:50:54 regrets that people have at the end of
0:50:58 their life so you need to remember that
0:51:00 your time is finite to put things in
0:51:02 perspective so yes you want to make
0:51:05 money yes you want to be successful but
0:51:08 when you do a eulogy for a friend you
0:51:09 don’t usually talk about how much money
0:51:11 they had you don’t usually talk about how
0:51:13 successful they are you talk about they
0:51:15 were a good friend they embodied these
0:51:18 values and so these types of things and if
0:51:21 you just look at the five regrets you want
0:51:24 to make sure that you can keep death close
0:51:27 to you so it reminds you that your time is
0:51:30 limited so that you live with intention and
0:51:31 you hear this all the time I had a near
0:51:34 death experience and everything changed my
0:51:36 dad died and everything changed why does it
0:51:40 take a traumatic experience to wake us up how
0:51:43 can you keep that perspective without going
0:51:45 through that trauma or without it being too
0:51:50 late and that is I think the big goal is to
0:51:53 remind yourself every day that this could be
0:51:55 your last I mean it sounds cliche but that’s
0:51:57 the truth like best case scenario you have
0:52:00 another 50 years but it’s just interesting
0:52:03 that like if you see a 90 year old person you
0:52:05 know with a cane hunched over shuffling down
0:52:08 the street you never think that that’s going
0:52:10 to be me you don’t even think about it well
0:52:12 the only thing you can count on is that will
0:52:15 be you best case scenario you might die in a
0:52:17 week and we just don’t think about we think we
0:52:20 have all this time you don’t have the time
0:52:22 because when you look at the research that’s
0:52:24 the biggest regret that people have in their
0:52:26 life is they they wish they would have done the
0:52:30 things they didn’t do so start now a year from
0:52:32 now you’ll wish you started today that’s the
0:52:35 truth yeah I love that message and so many
0:52:37 really successful people who have been on the
0:52:39 show have a similar thought Robert Green Matt
0:52:42 Higgins Donald Miller everybody that I’ve
0:52:45 talked to lately seems to always talk about how
0:52:47 you need to use death as a motivator and death
0:52:50 can be your life’s greatest motivator so I
0:52:53 really agree with that perspective Ben where
0:52:55 can everybody get the bucket list journal you
0:52:57 can get it on Amazon if you search the bucket list
0:52:59 journal should be the first thing that pops
0:53:02 up or you can go to my Instagram which is at
0:53:05 Ben Nemton and the link in the bio will send
0:53:09 you to the bucket list journal website awesome
0:53:11 well thank you so much for this eye-opening
0:53:14 conversation thank you so much for having me
0:53:16 you