The Exchanges

Q Yeah. If you go back to thinking about some of those instances, what do you think of, like, what was the biggest failure you've had in business?

A I had a company called Sheets. They were these, like, oral dissolvable, so like a Listerine strip that you put on your tongue, but they were infused with caffeine. So they were, it was like, basically like drinking a Red Bull, but you put it on your tongue, and it just goes right into your bloodstream, and like, you get this burst of energy. And at the time that we launched it, Five Hour Energy was selling 10,000,002 and a half bottles of five hour energy a week. So the category was huge. And I'm like, we're gonna, we're gonna, they're at, we're gonna put them out of business. And I was so sure we'd just sold Zico to Coke, Marquee had just gotten sold. Like I was, it was a good, a lot of momentum for me. And I'm like, so we started this company called Sheets. I partnered with LeBron. I brought in a lot of celebrities, a lot of star power. I took in money from everybody I knew, because I'm like, give me 10 grand, and I wanted to be a hero. You're gonna get an island back. Like, your 10 grand's gonna turn into an island, and we're all gonna be neighbors because of this strip. And I had, I would back-to-back big wins, and I believed it. I was so sure. And we did a focus group. It didn't go well. And like, I just, anyway, um, it didn't work because at the end of the day, it was super bitter and, um, your product has to be good. It doesn't matter who's endorsing it, who's in the com…

AI assessment note: “I had a company called Sheets.”

Q You were a rapper, uh, sang jingles, and, uh, also seemed to have a penchant for, like, running up to famous people, getting them to do certain things, and I was just wondering, do you not care what other people think?

A You would be doing all the same stuff before, if the internet wasn't here. I didn't, I didn't have a choice. Like when I was, you know, making my way up in the business world, we had to do anything we could to get like attention without clicks. So it was just the marketing and the way we went about everything was totally different. So like, you know, you mentioned running a marathon in a coconut. I was in a coconut package, like a bottle of our package. And I had six friends. We were six back. And, um, Gatorade had paid, like, a bazillion dollars to be the title sponsor of the New York Marathon, and our company was doing, like, a million dollars, like, two million in sales. Like, it was nothing in beverage. And we're like, we gotta, you know, We ambushed the New York Marathon, basically. We ran as, but you had to do those things back then to, to stand out. So, yes.

AI assessment note: “you had to do those things back then to, to stand out. So, yes.”

Q And they're like, if you want to create incredible content, live an incredible life. And it doesn't have to be like a fancy one. I mean, half the time you have an event at your house that, where you just run up and down a hill, like three Bajillion times, and it's called Hell on a Hill, right?

A Yeah, I do. To your point, I was just at Running Man, I was talking to my friend's son, and, um, I asked him, he's, you know, in his mid-twenties now, maybe even a little older, and I said, uh, what are you doing now? And he goes, oh. He, like, lights up. He's like, oh, I have the dream job. And I'm thinking, like, Whoa. You know, I'm like, what do you do? He's like, I worked a chairlift at the local ski resort in Colorado. And I was like, oh. He was like, no, you don't understand, man. It's unbelievable. He's like, you know, I get to meet everybody there. You know, I get to ski an hour a day. We get together as a group after. So like, to him, he has the dream job. He runs the chairlift at the local ski resort, which is amazing. Like, people think you have to have these, be the CEO of a mega company, or climb Mount Everest to have these incredible lives. Like, No. You have to be around people you love, doing things you love to do, and feel accomplished. If you do those three things, you really checked all the boxes, you know, and, and he did, and he's doing that right now. It was really, really, like, kind of eye-opening for me, like, when he said, I was like, you know, you, you can learn something from everybody, man. Not, not, you don't have to be famous, you don't have to be an influencer. There's lessons everywhere. I, um, I'll give you an example. My dad died two years ago…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I do. To your point, I was just at Running Man”

Q Yeah, so he sends me chicken videos all the time. Incredible thing. Um, oh, this one was interesting. Uh, how do you give a speech to get a standing ovation based on our conversation before?

A Uh, I think it's really important. The way I approach it is I want to make people laugh. I want to leave people inspired, give them actionable takeaways to make something better, and I want to make them cry. When I say that, I mean, like, I want to make them emotional is a better way to say it than make them cry. I'm not trying to make people cry. It's not, that's not, that came out the wrong way. Emotional. Like, there has to be an emotional, a good speech has a big emotional closing and, um, gives people actionable takeaways and entertains them. Those are the three things that I think are the most important things. You want to entertain, inspire, give them takeaways, and have a big emotional close.

AI assessment note: “You want to entertain, inspire, give them takeaways, and have a big emotional close.”

Q Um, and so it seems like that's always been part of your life, inserting that. Is that true? Like, how do you live An exceptional life.

A Well, first of all, to your point, most people spend so much time, you know, scheduling their work days. You know, every Monday through Friday is, like, appointment, schedule, Zoom call, whatever, and very little time scheduling their personal life. Like, when are we taking trips? When's date night? What races am I doing? What concerts am I going to? So their calendar fills up with work stuff, and I think it's really important to prioritize yourself first. And when you have this, the big-ass calendar, like, that we have, You know, we're all visual, so you can see all 365 days of the year on one calendar. You can see where your time is going, and you can also track towards your goals. So I think a calendar is one of the, if not the most important planning tool people can have in business, in their personal life. As far as, what was the question, though, specifically?

AI assessment note: “As far as, what was the question, though, specifically?”

Q Don't the problems get bigger in some ways?

A It depends on how, what your relationship with money is. So a lot of people have, you know, when you think of relationships, you think of them in terms of, like, people. What's your relationship with your husband or your parents or whatever? But people don't think of their relationship with time and with money. So you have to have, like, and that's really important. So like Sarah always says, money's fun to make, money's fun to spend, and money's fun to give it away. And the best thing about it is you get to treat the people you love the most to the things that you love to do and do it with them. And that's really been the best gift about it. The other great thing is that it's opened up, it's given us an opportunity to meet so many cool people that we wouldn't have had.

AI assessment note: “It depends on how, what your relationship with money is.”