My First Million: Brendan Schaub: From Football Player & UFC Fighter To Comedian & Podcaster

Back to the point of, you know, getting tossed in the deep end, you know,

I'm doing stand-up for about two years.

I think I'm the fastest comic to ever get a network special at showtime.

So I was like, no, for the most part, people are like, oh, this guy's, you know,

two years, this is good for him.

No, man, when you do that, what happens is it actually pushes you further away from them.

We're live now, burning shop.

What's going on?

I'm Sam.

This is Sean.

We just get right into things, but we Sean and I have been huge fans of you for a long time.

You were both huge UFC fans.

We go to a bunch of those shows, been watching you and fire the kid for a while.

Then the show with Theo Vaughn.

Yeah, that was awesome.

So we've been fans forever.

I think we each actually might have a thick boy shirt.

I love it.

I don't have the shirt, just the body, actually.

So I'm a real fan.

I went all the way.

Thicks in the heart, fellas.

Thicks in the heart.

I don't drink otherwise.

I would have your your whiskey whiskey.

But, you know, you do lots of stuff.

Like, I'll kind of give like what I know about you, but basically you were you're from Colorado,

played a little bit in the NFL.

I don't know if you actually made the cut entirely, but you were like very serious for the Broncos.

Went into the UFC.

You did awesome.

You knocked out some great guys.

And then you got into show business via podcast.

So you originally were just on Joe Rogan a bunch.

Eventually launched your own thing.

And now you have Fighter and the Kid, but you also have like three or four other podcasts,

right? That I don't know how how big are they?

I mean, I know that you get you have hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

And each video gets like hundreds of thousands of views.

But I actually don't know like how big the empire is.

Yeah, sure.

So just going back to like the football.

Yes, I played at University of Colorado for the Buffs, who they just got Deon Sand or something

excited about that.

And then I had a cup of coffee with the Buffalo Bills.

And I got there and they're like, we're all set on slow white guys.

So that broke my heart.

And then I yeah, then from there, I'll sell and supplements door to door,

like pseudo happiness style.

And then I started training in jujitsu and boxing.

And then, you know, you know, I'm fighting grown men in a steel cage in my underwear.

And then two years after I started training, I was in the UFC.

I made it through the Ultimate Fighter, where I was a finalist there.

With Kimbo Slice, right?

Yeah, yeah, it was the biggest season with the shot evidence and rampage Jackson.

So yeah, then, you know, shortly after that, you know, there's a common theme in my life.

It's like I get put in the deep end, man.

It goes zero to 100 in every aspect of my life.

It's just this common theme throughout my entire career, whether it's comedy,

football, fighting, whatever it is, podcasting, I get thrown in the deep and I got to figure it out.

So I was in the UFC and then probably two years in the UFC.

I'm next, you know, I'm ranked top 10 in the world, you know, and it was terrifying.

But then slowly after that, I moved to LA because I grew up in Venice Beach in the summers at my

uncle's house when I was a young boy.

My dad would always bring me out here for the summers.

So I always felt, you know, a weird connection to Los Angeles.

So once I could make the move, I made the move.

And then I started a podcast.

This is damn near 11 years ago, 12 years ago.

I started a podcast called The Fighter and the Kid with Brian Callan.

And yeah, that thing took off.

And then now fast forward to 2023.

I own a podcast network.

So the Thick Boy Network where we have, you know, probably around seven shows, you know.

So yeah, so between The Fire and the Kid, The Shob Show, Food Truck Diaries, Fight Companion,

The Golden Hour, you know, it's going well.

It's a lot of work.

It's a lot of work.

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All right, back to the show.

Yeah, your output's pretty insane.

And the thing about, you said you got thrown in the deep end and you're kind of right,

like transitioning from football to UFC was a really short transition.

And then you're doing it at the kind of the high level.

You're in the actual UFC.

It takes most guys like a long, long amateur journey.

Then they go to a small promotion.

Then they go to a bigger promotion.

You kind of fast track that.

And then in comedy, you did the same thing where you kind of went from,

I'm a UFC fighter, I'm a comedian, so I got a special on Showtime really fast.

And I think there's probably, I don't know,

I don't know how you think about it now, but like there's good and bad with that fast track.

On one hand, you learn fast.

On the other hand, you kind of get your ass kicked because you're pushing the boundary

further than maybe you were ready for or had.

And you're learning publicly.

Yeah, there you go.

Correct.

So it's, you know, on hindsight looking at it, even when I was in the UFC,

many comedy, I just, I wish I had people around me that went slow down, man.

Now I'm fighting, you don't really have that option once you're in the UFC.

You know, it's the big league.

So then, you know, they call you as Mirko Krocop or Matt Matryon or, you know, Brock Lesnar,

you got to take the fight.

So you really don't have control there.

I could have been smarter about making decisions when I was young, you know,

and had a lot of belief in myself.

And, you know, eventually that experience catches up with you.

You know, I was a lot more athletic than a lot of those heavyweights.

That's why I sell so fast.

But again, that's a blessing and a curse because you get to a level where you're fighting vets

with 40, 50 fights and they've seen a athletic dude, you know, with a good right hand and,

you know, good wrestling.

But, you know, eventually, you know, you're this cheat code and it catches up to you.

There's nothing replaces experience.

So that was a blessing and a curse, a blessing as far as I was able to transition,

get out and build a fan base and go into something I've always wanted to do.

And then comedy, you know, really, you know, it's true.

When I started comedy, you know, I have some great mentors, you know,

and Joe Rogan's like a brother and Brian Callan and Theo Vaughn and Tom Seger and

Bert Kreischer and Joey Diaz.

So I have just this plethora of just amazing comics that I was around.

And I was only, you know, I'd go to dinner with them and do all, you know,

the podcast with them, make them laugh.

And they all encouraged me to stand up, which I, you know, always wanted to do

since I was a child.

So, you know, everyone told me it's going to be 10 years before you find your voice.

I'm like, yeah, that, you know, I'm never scared of hard work.

Let's do it.

So the issue with that is, you know, I get catapulted, you know,

instead of doing open mics, you know, one of my first things I did was, you know,

Chicago Theater, you know, the big theater.

But how did you even start?

Because it's a big jump from, oh, this dude's funny when we hang out,

cracks jokes, bust ball.

Oh yeah, this guy, this guy's a funny guy too.

You're on stage and you got to do a set.

That's like, that's like a, it's like a different thing altogether.

And, you know, me and Sam, we try to like, we try to be funny in our little pond.

It's like, you know, I don't be that funny to be the funniest business podcast.

So we're, we're adored among midgets is what we are.

Yeah.

It's like, it's like, you won't have that funny uncle at the party, you know,

and if you're, you know, if you're, your brother's like, man, I think you're really

funny, that there's a big difference between your family and friends going,

oh, you're funny, man.

You should try stand up.

And then Berkreicher, Joe Rogan, Joey Diaz, Brian Callan,

Crystal Lee and Theo Vaughn doing, dude, you need to stand up.

But what did you even do though, to develop that first set?

Are you reading a book?

Are you, are you just going to Joe Rogan's house with a notepad and being like,

hey, how do I write this shit?

Oh, no, it's like sink or swim.

So, you know, I had my 10,000 reps on podcasts with comedians,

keeping up with them, making them laugh, being, you know, really quick at it.

And then really, it's almost the perfect situation in order to get started,

stand up because the finally kid got, you know, so popular.

We do live find the kids.

But remember, Brian Kelly's been in comedy for 30 years.

So when they, we got offered to do a live fire in the kid, I told Brian,

I'm like, you've ever been to a live podcast?

They suck.

It's two guys on the line.

They do the worst, dude.

And Brian goes, no, man, no, I've been in show business with 30 years.

We're going to do performance.

So I go, okay, what do you want to do?

So we came up with this whole idea to make it a show.

And Brian at the time knew I wanted to stand up, but he didn't want to,

I guess scare me because it is scary.

You know, especially doing friendly sold out crowds,

when most people are doing open minds, it's 15 other salty comments, you know.

So for me, you know, doing it as sold out crowd,

Brian go, all right, here, because Brian was always late to the podcast.

You know, I'm very professional.

I'm not late.

I'm never late in whatever 12 years of podcasts.

I've never been late.

It's not what I do.

So Brian would be late and used to drive me nuts.

I used to roast him every time coming late.

He was like, so our first live show, let's keep up with the theme.

We're going to pretend I'm late.

I'm not there.

And you got to start the show by yourself.

So you're going to tell a story for 10 minutes and I'll come in.

You get all upset.

We do the whole act.

I'm like, all right, cool.

I'm like, I can handle that.

So I tell a story to us.

Get a tone stories.

So that carries on for, you know, four or five shows.

And then again, we're at, like, probably Portland or Seattle.

Some sold out theater and I'm back to stage before the crowd.

I'm pretty nervous.

I tell Brian, I don't know what story I'm going to tell him.

You know, Brian was like frantic.

He was, you know, again, he's looking for something.

He goes, what?

I don't know what story I'm going to tell you.

What are you talking about?

Story.

You know, you don't stand up dumbass.

I was like, oh, and then it just clicked.

I'm like, oh, so story telling.

You just told me that.

It's because you don't want to skim.

He goes, correct, you don't stand up, dude.

And I was like, oh, that's what I'm doing.

So shortly after that, I come to the realization like, this is stand up.

It's just your way of doing it.

So then we do a live fight with the kid at the comedy store, you know,

the world famous comedy store, which as a kid was like, you know, the Mecca.

It's like messing square garden for basketball.

So I, we do the comedy store.

It goes great.

And then six weeks or six days later, I'm driving.

I get a call from the manager of the comedy store, Emily, and she calls me and she goes,

hey, Brad, this is Emily at the comedy store.

I really, how you doing?

She was great show the other day.

I'm like, thank you.

She goes, hey, we're seeing if you'd like to do a set in the belly room.

Give you six minutes.

I go, let me call Brian Cowell and see if he's available.

She goes, no dumbass, just you.

You had a great set the other night.

I'm like, me?

You want me to do stand up in the comedy store?

She goes, yeah, so it's in the small room, the belly room.

But if you want six minutes, it's yours.

So I was like, say less.

So I did that.

And then there was just, I was in 2014, 2015-ish, early 2015, probably right around end of 2014.

And then you get that bug, and then it's off to the races, man.

I knew it takes a lot of work, but back to the point of getting tossed in the deep end.

I'm doing stand up for about two years.

I think I'm the fastest comic to ever get a network special at showtime.

And I just, in my eyes, I thought at the time, how do I special?

Don't get me wrong.

I challenge any comic just within two years to do a network special and have 60 minutes.

Now, is it as good as Bill Burr's special?

No.

But in my head, I thought people would see that and go, oh my God, for only two years?

Look at this guy.

Think how much better he's gonna get in four years and five years and 10 years.

We're just gonna be on 15 years.

But a lot of people don't have that insight.

They don't give a shit about that.

They don't see it like that.

And again, this is a while ago, so I was young.

And it could be an asset, or it could be a huge gap in hole that I have,

but I would see the best in people in society.

I don't pay attention to, hey, everything's all good.

I gravitate towards positivity.

So I was like, no, for the most part, people were like, oh, this guy's two years.

This is good for him.

No, man, when you do that, what happens is it actually pushes you further away from them.

I thought it'd bring me closer to being legit and be like my peers.

No, it pushes you farther away because a lot of those guys that I mentioned earlier on,

and even outside of those guys, a lot of famous comedians,

it took them 15, 20 years to get a network special.

So there's a lot of, it's not even jealousy.

It's just like, it just rubs people the wrong way.

And I didn't see that coming.

I gotta be honest.

I don't think really anybody did, but it is what it is.

You do that, and you move on, and you just keep grinding,

and you go to the next one, the next one.

So yeah, it's been interesting, man.

It's been really interesting.

I learned on the fly.

I also learned the hardest way.

That's the only way I make changes.

I learned the hard way.

So I wouldn't change anything.

Things are pretty good.

Are you the CEO of the network now?

I mean, how are you, so you're having to be the talent

and you're running the business?

Yeah, heavy lies and crown, man.

So I grew up in a business-minded family.

My dad's an entrepreneur.

He's always been business-minded.

I have a double major from University of Colorado

in sociology and business.

So I was gravitated towards business.

And I worked for Showtime for six years.

I built the entire podcast branch,

which is crushing it now, and shout out to Brian Daly.

And at the end of six years, so this is December last year, 2022,

six months prior, they offered me another six-year contract.

And I was just looking around and Showtime was great to me.

I was getting a salary and they were reaping the benefits.

It was good for both sides.

I stopped.

Man, I feel like I could do this on my own.

I am an entrepreneur.

I feel like I could, I see what they bill.

And I've helped them out a lot.

They've helped me out a lot.

I feel like I can invest in myself and do this on my own.

So I turned down the contract and was like,

I'm going to do it on my own, start Thickboy Studios.

And I owned all the IPs to all the shows that I started with them.

So I brought that over.

And it's just, you know, it's in hindsight, I didn't,

there's, you know, I didn't really know who to talk to.

Nobody in my lane kind of has done this where you leave a major

network and podcasting and bring it over on your own.

And it's a different animal when you're not only talent,

but you're also running the business side.

Did you raise money for that?

Or did you just self-fund it?

What'd you do?

Yeah, self-funded it from all the other shows and stand-up.

I just put all my money into that.

And then whenever I start a new thing, I'm like, you know,

people are like, oh, congrats.

And I'm like, ah, ask me in a year.

Like we'll find out what's going to be fun to find out.

Like this is either a bad idea, it's an all right idea,

or it's an amazing idea.

We'll find out because, you know, I go into things

relatively blind.

Like I don't do a ton of research before I go into things,

but I got confidence, I'll figure things out eventually.

But the reality is that some ideas are better than others.

So a year in now, owning your own podcast network,

is this a bad idea, good, okay, good idea,

or is it an amazing business?

I think it's still too early to tell,

oh, meaning we're a year in.

Financially, am I making more money?

Yes.

But, you know, that can't just be the main focus,

you know, because my life's more complicated.

You know, my life's more complicated, I have less free time.

So what's that worth?

You know, so it's like these pros and cons I didn't think about,

because at showtime, I was the talent, I would create shows,

they would make it happen, you know,

and they would have the employees and the creative team

and the producers and the editors,

and I would come up with ideas, they would execute it,

I would sit down, knock it out, great,

get paid for that and move on and just not worry about,

you know, the next day or the next week.

Now it's a little different.

Now, you know, I would say one of my biggest kind of faults is

not like I'm a control freak, so I need help.

And I'm getting there, and I just, you know,

you want somebody to care as much about your business as you do.

That's impossible to find and, you know, with showtime,

they're CBS, so they're doing all the right stuff

as far as hiring and, you know, and bringing in the right people.

Well, and I didn't take that into consideration,

like hiring, you know, artists, not find good employees

and people that actually care and can get the job done,

they mold with the team and gel with the team,

so it's just those kind of dynamics I didn't think about.

And then also, when you're at showtime, you know,

for six years and we started with zero subscribers,

and then six years later at like 600,000,

you know, well-known in the space, we're up for awards,

you're starting from dead zero again,

so that's six years that you built for them,

that doesn't come with you.

I don't own that showtime page, that's there,

so you just start from zero again.

I think we're at like 160, 170,000 now, a year in,

which isn't bad, but it's, you know,

it takes time to keep chipping away, chipping away, so.

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Well, what about a listener like Sean and I,

the metrics that we know is downloads,

which is we describe downloads as like Spotify, YouTube,

and also iTunes and all that shit.

What are you, what's the size of your biggest show?

I think it's Fire and the Kid.

What size are you guys at now for that?

We do, we look at it per episode,

because otherwise you can get a lot of downloads

if you just pump out more and more episodes.

Like per episode is the real deal,

if I think for these shows.

Well, see, so Fire and the Kid and the Golden Hour,

which is formerly known as King of the Sting with Theo Vaughn,

so Fire and the Kid and King of Sting,

even though they're on the Thinkboy Network,

those haven't changed just under my banner,

but those weren't part of Showtime at all.

Showtime was Below the Belt,

which is now the shop show, Food Truck Diaries,

and some other shows.

And then I wasn't doing Fight Campaign with them,

that's all new.

So, you know, I would say probably cut my audience in half,

you know, probably in half.

And what's the Fire and the Kid at?

Fire and the Kid, I mean, now we're going down,

you know, you're going down a different road,

because there's factors there that have, you know,

caused that show.

Like, you know, you've been doing it for 12 years,

it's like this, you know, it's like this.

So, you know, we've been as high as 600,000 episodes,

as low as 100,000 episodes.

So that, and it's, you know,

there's been some outlying factors, you know,

that caused those issues.

So each, and that with the changing of King of Sting

with Feel Leaving, you're talking about a whole new show.

So you start from, basically from scratch again,

to start with Crystal Leah and Eric Griffin.

It's a completely different show, the dynamic's completely different.

So you're re-inducing that show to kind of a,

although there was an audience there,

I think we're at 500,000 subscribers,

those 500,000 subscribers were there

for Theo Vada, Brendan Schaub.

So when you go, all right,

well here's Brendan and Crystal Leah and Eric,

some people will know we like the dynamic with Theo and Brendan.

So that's fairly new, you know, that's about six months old.

So, you know, that one's probably around 150, 200,000,

just on YouTube.

But I think a lot of people in podcasting,

because it's the thing in 2023 is they look at YouTube,

YouTube, YouTube, YouTube.

Dude, audio is king, for the most part,

people listen to podcasts on their way to work

or when they're at the office,

then we sit down and watch the podcast for two hours,

or three hours, or however long your podcast is.

Audio is king.

So my main metric that I focus on is always audio.

Now, if audio starts to go down, we got problems.

Yeah, we're at like, we'll have guests on every once in a while,

and they'll be like, are you guys big?

And they'll just look at the YouTube.

And like, our YouTube only gets like 30,000, 20,000

all the way up to 200,000 per episode.

But then our audio, it's like consistently 100, 200,000-ish

or something like that, like consistently every single time.

Yeah, you're crushing, crushing.

And that's crushing it.

And I'm like, no, it's pretty big.

It's just like, you can't see those numbers.

But our audio, I mean, it's like, that's like

as true to subscription as you can get,

because it's just consistently a big reach.

Audio is king, but this new generation of podcasters coming in,

you know, you see the Logan Pauls, the edge of show for the world.

And, you know, Rogan was massive on YouTube, but it's again,

and I don't know what Logan Paul's numbers are as far as audio.

Logan Paul's a buddy, I guess I could find out,

but because he's a YouTuber, his numbers are massive on YouTube.

I'd be curious to see what his audio is like,

because again, audio is king in podcasting.

So I never focus on YouTube too much.

Now, if there's a decline, you're like,

we got to figure this out and we'll work through it.

But if my audio's solid, I don't, you know, I'm not,

there's no red flags.

What's your ambition level in terms of this business?

Like, are you, are you thinking like,

I think we can get to 10 million revenue or is it like,

I want to exit for 100 million.

I think we can get to 50 million in revenue.

Where do you, where's like your, not quite North Star,

but like your two, three, five year goal?

Yeah, that's a, that's a great question. Rob Dyrdek's a good buddy.

And he's such a, I don't know, you got Rob Dyrdek would be great for you guys.

We've had, we've had him on and he killed it.

We, we, we were, I think we were a little bit early

in his like public business persona and we had him and he blew us away.

He was amazing.

Yeah, I've known Rob for a year.

So I always knew he was just like, so vault when it comes to business,

he makes so many great decisions.

And he came into the Thinkboy Studios here in Calabasas.

And I was probably, I don't know, he's two or three months into it.

You know, so you're still trying to figure it out.

And he's looking around and he's like, man, this is cool.

And he's asking all these questions.

They kept going, you know, what's your goal?

What's your goal?

What's your goal?

And finally, I think it was even on there.

I'm like, do you want to chill, dude?

I was like, let me get to cruising altitude and get to wifi before I started

figuring out goals.

Like, this thing's just taken off.

Once I get to cruising altitude, I'll let you know the goal.

So we're kind of getting to cruising altitude.

I don't know what the goal is.

I think once I get to the network where I think it could be at,

then I would start looking at other options.

But the other thing I would say too, as far as business,

whether it's whiskey and verge, whatever it is,

even stand up podcasting, I've never done anything for money ever.

I do it because I love to do it and it's fun for me and it's what I want to do.

And if it makes money, fantastic.

Man, that's great.

But if it does it all good, it's something I want to do.

So hopefully this thing goes great and makes a ton of money and I can retire.

When I say retire, do less shows, but with just more money in the bank.

But I love doing it.

That's why I started it.

So hopefully, when we do this show in three years or five years,

I'm talking to you guys and we're celebrating some big moment.

But I can tell you what that looks like and that might be a problem.

I mean, you guys are the business guys.

Is that a problem that I don't have some sort of end goal here?

What do you think, Sean?

So I don't think you got to have it.

And like what people want, like a five-year plan.

And you kind of taught this at a young age.

Like you're 18 years old, what's you going to major in?

Dude, I don't know.

I don't know shit about shit yet.

So people are often pushing for that.

It's great when you have it.

So I always say that if you know the direction you want to go, you know the outcome.

It's great when you have it.

But the reality is most people don't have it right off the jump and that's totally normal.

You just got to get in motion, get momentum.

Because as you start going, you'll start navigating.

You'll get a better vantage point.

It's like you start climbing the mountain, you're higher up.

You can see more and that'll give you a little more.

But what I do think helps is a vision for your life.

So a vision for like what kind of, what do you want to do with your life, your talents?

Or like, so for example, I might not know, I'm trying to hit this revenue target.

I'm trying to sell in X years or whatever.

But I do usually know, man, it'd be fucking awesome if, dude, what if my job was,

I literally get to sit down with my friend Sam and we just shoot the shit about business?

What if there were millions of people listening to that?

Wouldn't that be cool?

Yeah.

All right.

That's literally when I started this podcast.

It was, I was walking around with a friend.

We had just signed the paperwork to sell my first company and he was like, what do you want to do next?

And in Silicon Valley, where I live, there's only one answer.

I'm going to start another company.

It's going to be bigger and better than the one before that.

There's only one socially acceptable answer in Silicon Valley.

It's like in Hollywood.

If you're not trying to make it, what are you doing here?

And so, but I gave him the honest answer.

I go, you know what?

I think what Tim Ferriss does is awesome.

It seems like that dude gets to wake up, just be curious about shit, run experiments,

learn about things.

And then he just takes the coolest stuff he learns.

He just gets to talk about it and a million people have them in their ears.

And he gets to influence a million smart people by sharing little nuggets.

I go, that would be awesome.

I want to be in a million people's ear balls.

And that's just what I kept saying.

I want to be in a million people's ear balls.

And he was like, dude, I never heard that word.

But he goes, that's a vision for what would be an awesome life.

So I think that sometimes you don't have to have the number,

but it is cool to have a, man, that'd be awesome if my life was X,

or if I was able to do that, do X.

I remember talking to, you guys know Justin Kahn, Justin Kahn.

So Sean actually sold his company to Twitch.

Justin Kahn's one of the guys who started Twitch.

You know, they sold it for a billion dollars.

I was talking to him backstage one time,

like two years or three years after the sale.

We're at an event I was hosting and he was like,

I was like, what are you gonna do next, Justin?

And he goes, 10 billion.

I want to go after 10 billion.

And it didn't work out for him, by the way.

It didn't work out.

And like he, I remember I read like this blog post where he was like,

I was motivated to like out and do what I did before,

partially out of like, it was like, it was like rage,

like out of rage and out of like a chip on my shoulder,

which is actually, I think great fuel.

But like, I was in it for the wrong motivations

and it didn't work out.

But Shupin Sean has said that I said it differently,

but he said it better, which was A, B, Z,

which is like, I like to do this all the time.

I'm like, all right, step one is A, step two is B.

I don't need to worry about anything else in between that,

but step Z is like one day, maybe, maybe one day,

this becomes a billion dollar company.

But let's just focus on getting to a million in revenue

or let's just focus on like paying the rent.

And then after that, maybe we could hire a handful of people

and then I'll figure out the rest,

but maybe one day it could become this.

And that's like a fun way to like,

that's like a fun North Star to like help some decision making.

It's also very motivational.

You're like, I'm doing this for this reason.

Yes, it's also less pressure.

It's also less pressure where, you know, I, and, you know,

I think having that entrepreneur spirit

that I was born with from my dad,

you guys, it seems like you guys have the same thing too.

You'd have to be the success you've breached.

You know, I never stopped and smelled the roses ever.

It's always what's next, what are we going to do next?

And what makes this successful and this next thing,

the next thing in my sports career and even in comedy,

I've never just stopped and, you know, smelled the roses.

I'm constantly, constantly pushing, constantly pushing.

You know, I don't know if that leads to a happier life.

You know, I think sometimes you need to check and go,

if you're doing, it's all good, man.

If nothing changes, your life's pretty freaking great, man.

If you just stayed here, it's all good.

But I wish I was more like that.

You know, I, I don't know what else I could get

that would make me happy.

I guess if, you know, if I'd have to fly commercial,

my life would change.

That'd be great, you know, but outside that, like things are good.

If I fly private, you mean you-

Yeah, if I, yeah, if I didn't have to fly commercial,

I hate flying, but-

Well, you, hey, I see you got the nice 9-11s.

You got the cool Ferraris.

I mean, you got the toys, yeah.

Private tonight, a nice next step.

Yeah, if you had told 10-year-old Brendan,

you know, some of the stuff he'd be doing,

some of the stuff he'd have, you'd be like,

holy man, this is insane, dude.

Get free, you made it, but I don't feel like that.

We always talk about on the pod, we say,

a lot of people ask like,

what advice would you give your 21-year-old self

or your 15-year-old self?

And we ask the opposite questions,

like, what would our 15-year-old self say to us now?

If it could look at our life now, it'd be like,

dude, you're unhappy, look at your shit, man.

Like, are you joking?

You got to marry her and you get to do this every day.

Like, you better be smiling, bro.

Like, that's what my teenage self

would be telling me right now.

And that's almost a good reminder.

It's like, I always say dogs and kids got it figured out.

And I want to be more like,

I want to learn more and be more like my dog and my kids.

Oh, dude.

All day is play, everything is good.

They're happy, they're grateful.

Like, we get things screwed up when we get older.

And do you guys have kids?

I got two little ones.

Yeah, I'm a seven and three-year-old.

And I don't think I've ever been as happy in my life

as my two boys were yesterday.

I bought them two, I bought them three lizards.

I was like, man, if I could just, that level of happiness.

One time.

Bearded lizard, one time my life is complete.

Yeah, can't give you a different perspective

on things, man.

You know, I might be stressed out about work.

So I might come home and that stuff goes out the window.

You know, there's nothing better than being a dad.

Tony Robbins, if you've ever,

I don't know if you've been to one of his events

or looked into his stuff, but like, most people think,

oh, Tony Robbins, I don't need motivation

or that's like a cult thing or whatever.

I've been to a bunch of them and I found it really,

really useful.

It's a good, I don't know, I'm not very religious.

So it's a good operating philosophy for life.

But one of the things he says is he's like,

you got on one hand the sort of, the science of success.

And that's kind of, I think what you've kind of done well,

which is whether I'm going into football or fighting

or comedy or podcasting or now the business side,

there's the science of success is basically like,

there's an approach to set, you know,

figuring out a target, working hard every day,

making progress, like taking it seriously, all that stuff.

And then there's the art of fulfillment

and they're unrelated.

And if you want to have like the full, the complete life,

you got to figure out, oh, just like I learned the skills

of how to be successful,

I got to learn the skills of how to be fulfilled.

And the magic happens when you sort of integrate the two.

Can you both like create new projects

and try to be successful while being fulfilled?

Because what most people do is they go for that success thing,

mostly from a point of view of like, you know,

trying to prove themselves.

Or it's like some insecurity a lot of times that will drive it.

No, I love that.

Yeah, I think, yeah, for me, I do a pretty good job

when trying to stop and smell roses a little bit.

So I'm doing a better job.

My kids helped me get there.

And then I think a lot of mistakes that people make,

whether it's business, entertainment, you know,

stand-up comedians is, especially with social media now,

that's why I'm not a big social media guy,

is you can always compare yourself to somebody doing better.

So for your friend that made a billion,

next thing was 10 billion because he saw a guy make 10 billion.

So if you're constantly chasing that,

comparing yourself to others,

that's where the happiness never comes.

So I try not to compare myself to the others,

especially me, because my journey is so different

than those guys that I look up to.

So, you know, my journey is going to be different, man,

whatever that looks like.

And I just have to accept that, which I try to do.

I was reading something yesterday that reminded me of you,

Brendan, which was, I was reading a blog post.

Sam put out this great tweet asking for,

what's the best blog post you ever read?

And one of them was this thing called the physics of passion.

And he basically goes up,

there's this thing called the Kool-Aid point.

So he draws this graph.

He's like, as you do shit and people start to like your work

or admire you or love you or become a fan of you,

you'll, it kind of grows steady, steady, steady.

And then there's this point.

He calls this the Kool-Aid point where it kind of takes off.

It goes, then you're going to have two groups of people.

You're going to have a bunch of people that love you

and a few people that hate you.

And he goes, what happens is,

and he goes, here's how you'll know you're there.

People accuse your fans of just drinking the Kool-Aid.

They love everything you do, but sight unseen.

And they're Kool-Aid drinkers.

That's how you know.

If you have people that can be described,

is that you've hit the Kool-Aid point.

Yeah, I love that.

On the other side, you're going to have people

who want to tear you down.

The haters, quote unquote.

And at first, they're always a small group,

but they're kind of loud.

And some people even support them and be like,

oh, you're speaking truth to power.

You're calling it like it is.

You're kind of exposing this person

or this brand or whatever it is.

And you got both.

And so I was reading that,

and I knew we had this pod today.

And I was like, oh, dude, he's lived that point

because you have, for people who don't know,

you got a big fan base.

You got a big anti-fan base.

And the anti-fan base, I think it's on Reddit.

I go to this subreddit a bunch.

But I'm not like, it's weird.

I like you, but I also find it funny.

They're so clever and they are so funny.

But they're also funny in the same way.

It's kind of this double thing.

I'm curious, for you, obviously that's like,

it's probably funny for me because I'm outside of it.

I'm not the person that the butt of the joke

in some of these cases.

But me and Sam got maybe 1,100th of the passion

and hate that you have

because you've been doing this a long time.

You've made it pretty big.

But when I read our YouTube comments

and I see something like that, it stings in the moment.

But also, there's a lot of times where I'm like,

they're not wrong.

There is some truth to it.

They're being a dick about it,

but there's some truth to what they're saying.

I could see that.

I'm curious for you,

when you hear about the sort of the stuff on the subreddit

or you check it out or whatever,

do you have any moments where you're like,

all right, they're kind of being mean about it

or they're being a dick about it,

but there's some truth to what they're saying.

I mean, yeah, I'm sure.

You know, I don't, in all honesty, I don't pay attention to it.

I think it's a bad thing

whether you pay attention to the negativity

or the positivity.

Yeah, I think you just got to keep doing your thing.

My heroes growing up didn't live this world.

You know, so it can't be healthy.

I think we'll find over years how it affects the brain,

how it affects creatives and businessmen

with who do pay attention to that stuff

and read the comments and stuff like that.

So I don't want to be that sample size.

I'm not going to be trying to get that digital CTE

of reading comments every day.

Yeah, I already have enough CTE, man.

I'm about to write my Porsche off the PCH,

but I think with the Reddit group, yeah,

it's interesting because, you know,

they watch everything you do

and there's some things that I'm on board with

and then there's a small select group on there

who are just evil.

So there's difference between hate, which I get.

I give you a lot to hate on.

I do a lot of content.

I make a lot of jokes.

I offend a lot of people.

I get that.

You don't get to a certain level

without giving you a lot of haters.

You just don't.

If you look at Logan Paul, Drake, LeBron James,

name some of the massive celebrities

that we have in this world there.

And you go online, you read their comments

or my buddy Joe Rogan.

Nobody, you know, I don't know anybody

who gets more hate than that guy,

but he gets more in love.

You know, I'm in the business of likability.

So if you watch my podcast,

you buy a ticket to my standup.

You buy the merch.

You buy the whiskey.

You're a fan.

I make a living off likability.

So I don't give the hate energy.

As far as the Reddit goes, I get it.

And some of them are really funny

and I appreciate those guys,

whether it's good or bad towards me.

It gets a little dicey when they want to,

I just, I don't understand when they cross the line,

when it gets into my personal lives.

It's like, I'm not Tom Cruise, dude.

Why the fuck you give us,

who cares about that stuff?

You know, and thank God, my wife,

she's been with me since I was in the UFC.

So when you're fighting UFC, you get a lot of love.

You get a lot of hate.

There's no in between if you're doing it right.

So she's conditioned to that.

She doesn't pay attention to it.

She doesn't care, you know, at this point.

So thank God for that.

But the only time I don't like is

when they make it super personal.

It's about the kids.

It's about, you know, certain things.

But, you know, nobody's harder on me than myself.

You know, there's nothing they can say

that I don't tell myself,

usually on a daily basis.

And trust me, it's way worse,

whatever they're putting out.

So although I, you know, I get it.

I appreciate it.

And, you know, I just don't give it energy.

I think one of the things that I have going for me is,

you know, I post and ghost.

I don't pay attention to that stuff.

But then I'm also, you know, I'm on the road,

whatever it is, 30 weekends a year.

You know, if I get done this interview,

I go get coffee.

I can't go down the street without so many tins.

Hey, Brandon, I love you, man.

So that's real.

That's what I care about.

Social media, it's a factor for sure.

But it's not the end all be all.

I think when people realize that that one in,

if you're walking down the street,

one in 10 people on social media,

especially on Twitter, that you can't give your self value,

your self worth of what social media is.

You're going to live a much happier life.

So that Reddit group, they're going to do their thing,

you know, and that comes with the territory

that I was built for.

That's why God gave me big shoulders.

But, you know, I, they're going to clip that.

They're going to love that one.

Yeah, I think I was built for it.

And then also you look, you know, if you look at me,

I know, you know, I probably look like the guy

that bored you in high school.

And, you know, they'll use some of that, you know,

like, go, Britain's a bully or whatever.

And I know I look like the guy, but if they actually knew me,

you know, these people know me, they've never met me.

You know, they're not buying tickets to a show.

So I don't give it energy because if I did,

I wouldn't have the business.

I wouldn't have this house that I'm talking to you guys in right now.

So, you know, I think it gets, the lines get blurred

where it's like, oh, he's a big, strong guy.

He's fighting, you see, he can handle this week.

There's no limits.

Everything's on off limits.

There's nothing off limits.

We can go as hard as we want.

And it's like, it actually hurts my feelings, man.

It's actually not cool, you know, but I joke, I'm all four.

I'm all four, man, professional comic.

We roast each other, we do our thing.

So if it's funny, it's witty, fly her away.

But when you start going towards the,

once you start going towards the personal side,

well, then you've crossed the boundary, you know.

And now also, if you want to have this conversation in person,

you want to offend me, we can do that.

I can do that.

We can see how it goes for you.

That's never happened.

As long as I've been in entertainment,

I've never run into anybody that said something to my face.

So I just, I get what they're doing.

If it's funny, it's witty and they're gonna do the thing.

I actually appreciate it.

But when you cross the boundary

and you disrespect me a different way,

you know, that's where I have an issue with it.

Well, I say issue with it means it hurts my feelings.

I'm not gonna do nothing to you.

I'm not gonna be, I'm not the bully you expect me to be.

But also, I think that subreddit has crossed the point,

not all of them.

Some of them are actually just funny and they're fans

and they just show it in a different way

and I understand that at my age.

But, you know, a lot of them have crossed that boundary

where, you know, they hide behind this keyboard

and they want to do evil things, which I just,

I don't understand.

To me, it's like, and for what?

For what?

Because I do stand up.

You don't have to buy a ticket

because I do free podcasts that triggers you.

Right.

We don't have to watch.

You know, so I just, I'm just cut from a different cloth.

I'm just a positive person.

Now, there's some podcasters that will lean into it

and if there's beef between comics, they'll lean into that

and they like that, that controversy and that drama

all the time, like it's Real Housewives of LA.

And I would probably be much more famous

and much further along my career if I entertained that.

I just can't do it.

Sometimes I think, man, I should try that.

It's just not what I do.

I don't like being negative.

I'm a positive person.

I enjoy helping people out.

So, you know, it's just,

have you laced the crown with that stuff, man?

You were, you were saying how when you moved to LA-

That was a long rant.

I apologize.

No, it's good.

Where they're, you know, someone's got to clip that.

Some hater will clip that hopefully,

but somehow hopefully that hate pushes us forward somehow.

But you were talking about moving to LA

and how that was like a big change.

You basically, like Sean and I both lived in San Francisco

when we started internet companies.

And like having a crew, we were in each other's crew.

We had a handful of others where you like succeed together.

That's like the greatest thing ever because it's like,

it's, it's a, it's fun and B, it's actually useful.

Like you get, you piggyback off each other

and you, and you motivate one another

and you actually like, you invest in each other, whatever.

It's like practical.

You're in this cool world.

It's like you, Bobby Lee, Theo Vaughn,

Crystal Lea, Andrew Santino,

Andrew Schultz is a little bit outside of that,

but somewhat inside of that, Joe Rogan.

You got this like crew and like, it doesn't like,

10 years ago, you know, there was Rogan,

but there weren't really like a lot of like comedy

YouTube channels like, or podcasts.

But right now, like if I go on my YouTube app,

like it's basically like a Theo Vaughn or Bretton Shab clip,

like constantly or like the clip of Bobby Lee,

tell him the story about the Down syndrome thing.

That might be the most viral clip in comedy podcast history.

It's hilarious. It's so funny,

where he talks about getting molested by a Down syndrome guy.

It's one of the funniest.

I mean, it's like, I can't go on without seeing

like a funniest bits from whatever,

like, and it's like someone in your crew.

What's that like behind the scenes?

Like, are you guys, is this like a, like,

Sean and I sometimes when we want to get like popular

on X, Y and Z, we're like, hey, can you like this?

Can you share this?

Or, hey, do you want to come on my thing?

You come like, it's like, it's, it's somewhat organized,

somewhat not organized.

Or just sharing like, sharing be like, you know,

I'm doing this and it's working.

Like, yes, you know, what's that like?

You know what?

You have like a group text when you're like,

hey Theo, like I found that like this type of like,

because you guys, and then by the way,

I don't know if we told you this,

if you go and look at when we first started MFM,

my first million, we just bought the same

fucking red sofa lounge chairs that you had.

Oh, I love it.

Because I would see those on the,

I would see those in the thumbnail

and I'm like, all that red pops.

Like you make, it makes you want to click it.

And then you notice that you and Theo,

particularly you, I bet you probably started it.

You have these like pretty eye catching studios.

They're not like particularly fancy,

but they're just like, they're just like an eye catching

and you're changing them constantly.

And I've noticed Theo does the same thing.

He's constantly changing the set.

Same with Andrew Schultz.

Are you guys like sharing all these tactics?

Like what we're doing this, it's working

or like, here's how much we're paying for blank

or like you guys, let's pump each other around this thing.

Yeah, you know, going back to kind of the whole like, kind of,

it was almost like a team, you know, and now, you know,

the team captain, all this starts from Joe Rogan.

So before I hit the.

But he doesn't give a shit about any of that, does he?

He just does whatever the fuck he wants in it.

Sometimes it works.

He does whatever he wants and he's the leader of the pack,

but he's also the reason why we embrace each other.

And, you know, five, six years ago,

seven years ago at the comedy store,

is the comedy rap pack.

And we were the, we were the rap pack

and we were the guys and every show was sold out.

Our names on the marquee and Rogan,

there was a, there was kind of, you know, their structure.

Like we don't tear each other down, we support each other.

And I heard Isaiah Thomas say this

when he went on my boys podcast, All the Slope with Matt Barnes.

And Isaiah Thomas said this and it really resonated with me.

He was on there, you talk about Michael Jordan

and he goes, clearly I'm not a black man.

I don't know if you guys know this or not, but I'm not black.

It's actually not that clear, by the way.

You could be.

No one knows what I am, dude.

No one knows what I am.

If you told me you had a little India,

it wouldn't be surprising.

It's not that clear, actually.

Earlier when you said Denver or Buffalo Bills

didn't want slow white guys, I was like, yeah, so you're in.

Yes, so you made the team, right?

Yeah.

Wait, tell me you're not in, Hernandez?

No, but, um...

Oh, so we're with Psych.

Oh, so we're like, tell me rap pack.

No, no, you're saying Isaiah Thomas said something.

Yeah, Isaiah Thomas, yeah.

So Isaiah Thomas said this and I saw a clip

that Matt Barnes posted and I love those guys.

I started with them at Showtime and they're crushing it.

But Isaiah Thomas, they brought up Michael Jordan

and Isaiah Thomas has issues with Michael Jordan.

And Matt Barnes, we'd love to have him on.

And Isaiah's like, it's a tough one.

He does do interviews.

Then Isaiah said, as alumni from the NBA,

as alumni and you guys are alumni, we're this tight fraternity.

And not only are we a tight fraternity

that we've reached certain levels of the NBA

in this lane that we're in, but we're also black men.

And it is our duty to support each other.

It is our duty to come on the shows

and make sure you guys get views,

make sure people get your name out there.

That is something that, it's our responsibility

being in this small group and the small club.

And back in probably seven years ago,

Rogan, it was the same thing.

It is your duty to come on other shows,

to broaden the audience,

to bring everybody into these great talents.

Whether it's back in the day, find the kid outside Joe Rogan,

find the kid with the launching pad.

If he goes through it, you look at Tim Dillon,

Ed and Schultz, Centino, Theo Vaughn, Chris Dillett.

You look at all the people that came on there and just exploded.

Now, is it because of the finding the kid audience?

Maybe help the little, it's because those guys

are so goddamn talented.

And once people saw who they were,

they out succeeded finding the kid.

They've gone on, they've blown the roof off things now.

But if you look back on finding the kid,

and I take so much pride in enjoying that,

where we had these guys on before they were massive.

And as Isaiah Thomas says, it is our duty to do that.

So that resonated with me.

Now, this is seven, eight years ago, even 10 years ago,

when I get the first start out,

we'd have all these comments on stuff like that.

And then the pandemic hits, the pandemic hits,

and the leader of the rat pack leaves, Joe Rogan leaves,

and the comedy store shuts down, comedy LA shuts down,

then comes the girl leaves, then Joey Diaz leaves,

then Tim Dillon leaves, then Theo Vaughn leaves,

and then Brian goes through some bullshit Me Too movement,

and he has to leave.

And Krystalina goes through some bullshit Me Too movement.

And Krystalina has to leave.

And I'm on this island by myself.

I'm like, well, where is everybody?

I thought, let's, all right, the troops,

although we're not in LA, we gotta rally.

Let's rally around each other.

And it broke my heart, man.

It broke my, that no, those days are over, dude.

You gotta figure it out on your own.

Those days are over.

The days of being in the hallways at the comedy store,

and the improv, and the ice house, and the laugh factories,

podcast tomorrow, yeah, podcast tomorrow.

Those days are gone.

Everyone's, they've made it.

Everyone's in their lane.

You gotta figure it out on your own now.

It's weird because, you know, I was at the comedy store

last night, and I always have this, it takes me a while.

I sit in the parking lot for a while,

because it just kind of reminds me when I pull up now that,

I used to pull up and roguer and pull up in this Porsche,

and we'd park next to each other,

we'd talk shop about the cars and what's next,

and then Santino would pull up,

and we talked to him, and Chris D'Elia,

and then Brian would pull up, and Bobby Lee, and Theo,

and we'd be in there, and there was a sponge.

It was the best.

It was the best.

It was absolute best.

And I wish five, six, seven years ago,

somebody would have tapped us on the show,

and I'm like, hey, fellas, in two years, this is all gone.

I didn't realize at the moment that,

that was the golden age, and what we were doing

was so special, and we took it for granted.

And I didn't realize at the time how special it was,

and in my theater, where my fish tank are,

and my man cave, I have four pictures from those days.

And I just put them up, when they were done,

five, six, seven years ago, I didn't realize that,

in that picture, in that frozen moment,

that was the best time ever for me,

for me, as far as just being in that symbiotic team,

with such a team, man, there's a special moment.

You know, now we're all, everyone's doing well.

We still talk, we have our group chats,

but as far as like, you know, seeing each other all the time,

like those days are over, man, and it's heartbreaking.

Yeah, it's important to have one of those,

like, pay it forward cultures, because it's like,

I think Silicon Valley has that too,

which is, there's not really that much gatekeeping.

You can go to the most successful,

richest guy in Silicon Valley, he'll give you time,

it doesn't matter who you are, and if you need a favor,

they'll give you a favor, they'll give you either advice,

or money, or an intro, and there's no like, pay it back,

it's all pay it forward, because they got helped

by the person before them, and correctly,

that stayed together.

Now, like you said, with the pandemic,

a bunch of people moved out of Silicon Valley,

so who knows what will happen now?

It takes a little longer in our world

to sort of see those effects,

but I remember when I was in San Francisco,

living in San Francisco, kind of on the come up,

me and Sam met, doing one of these founder masterminds,

where we would get dinner for hours,

and talk like, okay, what are you doing,

how's that going, what am I doing, how's that going,

how can we help each other out?

And it felt like, you know, in Toy Story,

when they go to that arcade,

and those little minions are in the machine,

and it's like, the claw, and the claw selects one,

and takes it away, and that's like, you know, they made it,

they got the fame, the fortune, they got picked,

but the other minions weren't pulling them down,

they were like pushing them up, like congrats brother,

go for it, you know, like, you made it out,

and because it's like that in Silicon Valley,

you'll know somebody, and they're broke

for the four years you know them,

and then they're worth $150 million overnight,

and then you're like, oh, the claw picked you,

and you won, the claw, which is, Mark Zuckerberg,

buying your company happened, and like,

it's the same thing in entertainment,

someone hits a breakout point, and now they're famous,

they made it, and there's a question of like,

do you just get left in the dust,

do you resent people when they're happening,

or do you realize that the rising tide lifts all boats,

and you really want to be in that rising tide type of thing?

Yeah, and just a side note, in San Francisco,

now, paying for it, yeah, that's great,

you gotta worry about getting stabbed out there,

forget starting to nap, just survive.

Will your friend watch your back?

Watch your back, literally, like,

you gotta actually watch yourself back physically.

Just survive the day, you know,

paying for it is carrying a gun,

so your buddy didn't get stabbed in the neck.

Yeah, it's insane.

I was gonna ask a slightly different question,

but I saw a few interviews that were cool.

One, it was Donald Cowboy-Saroni, and then Chale Sonnen,

and I think actually Michael Bisbing said the same thing,

where they were talking about, like,

in the locker room before they fight,

and they're like, I think it was Chale, he was like,

people think that, like, we're tough guys,

and like, maybe we kind of are,

but like, every single time before a fight,

I think my last one should have been my last one.

What am I doing?

I hate this.

And then, like, Michael Bisbing, who's like a cocky dude,

and like, is very confident, he was like,

this is the worst thing ever,

and then I think Cowboy-Saroni was like,

I throw up before every fight, I'm so afraid.

And then you had a really cool thing,

where you're like, I just beat up Crocop,

so if you don't know anything about UFC,

Crocop is like one of the goats of MMA,

and he's scary as shit.

Like, he's like this Croatian dude,

but like, you think he's like a scary Russian Robocop

type of guy, and you knocked him out.

And I remember, like you said, you're like,

I knocked him out, and backstage,

I went and said, like, thank you or something,

or like, you know, like, good fight,

and he like, had ice on his head,

and you're like, what the fuck am I doing?

I don't want to like, do this for my life.

I don't want to be 40 or 38 or however old he was

when you beat him up,

but what's that like backstage, the 15, 30 minutes before

you're about to go fight to the death

in your underwear in front of a million people?

Yeah, I think, I don't know if I was the,

I might've been the one of the first fighters

to ever say that, you know, but a lot of guys,

they want to give off the persona that,

oh, we're these warriors, it's like gladiator,

we can't wait to get out there, but I'm telling you,

and I won't mention names.

I've seen dudes cry backstage, they don't want to go out there,

I've seen their coaches slap them,

like, you have to go out there.

It's just, I just don't think it's natural, you know,

I think it's a level of intelligence

of your body and your mind going,

hey, you're about to get hurt, do not go out there.

So the anxiety is through the roof, and every fight,

I was like, what am I doing, man?

I was like so disappointed in myself,

and then once I hit the cage for most of my career,

I was okay, I knew it was time to get out,

when I hit the cage and I'm like, dude, don't get hurt,

get out of here.

You got so much more to do in this life,

you cannot, you know, suffer a concussion,

we have got to figure this out.

So, you know, I think there's truth and honesty

for most fighters where it's like, it's terrifying.

It's, to me, it was the worst gig in the world.

There's some, the highs are the highest in the world,

the peaks are the best,

the valleys are the lowest there can be

in professional sports, or maybe in life,

it's a tough gig, man, you know?

So, I think the more fighters talk about like,

hey, we're human, man, and it is scary going out there.

And I think the more fighters talk about it,

the more people can relate to it.

Because most people, man, if tonight or today,

after this, the podcast, you go to the coffee shop

and you're getting your coffee and some guy goes,

you have some altercation and the guy goes,

hey, man, tomorrow at 1 p.m., you and I are fighting.

You're like, oh, I guess we got to fight.

Imagine the anxiety you're going to have that night,

that morning, walk in that coffee shop,

and that's fighting Billy, you know, from in San Francisco,

who's going to, you know, fight you over coffee.

And he probably doesn't have skills.

Now, height net times a thousand,

not only do you know exactly when you're going to get

a fisticuff, the guy happens to be, I don't know,

top 10 in the world at beating people up in your underwear,

and everybody's going to see it.

You know what I'm saying?

It's human nature to be like, this is not healthy.

Dude, we've been, let's do this, podcasting to our friends.

It's been cool to like see some of our friends

become worth hundreds of millions or even billion dollars.

And it's cool because we'll talk to them,

like just hanging out and they'll be like,

I have to fire this person and I'm so afraid to do it.

Like I, that I haven't done it in like eight months.

Like I'm afraid of the confrontation.

And what that does is it like normalizes fear.

And you're like, oh, therefore I can do it.

And I remember like thinking about like Habib

and like, dude, this guy is like Terminator.

Like he doesn't show that much fear.

And then I saw some of these other tough guys like say like,

oh no, like it's, it's miserable.

I've always wanted like a Connor or a Habib,

like some of the, the, the most outspoken confident guys.

I like, I want to hear them say like,

I'm about to piss my pants because whenever I hear that,

I'm like, that's fucking cold.

I could do anything if this guy's afraid.

If this guy's afraid, which I know they are,

even if they don't say it, I know they are.

I think there are levels to like,

it does seem like there are some guys like a Habib

or something like that where they're like,

they're more stoic than others,

but there is like, there's always self doubt.

And I think it's really cool when I see some of these killers

like actually say that it gives me like,

it oddly gives me hope.

Yeah, I think it makes them human.

I, you know, I think it would do athletes just so much more

in the public eye if, you know, before the Super Wall

or even after the Super Wall,

Tom Brady be like, I'm scared shitless, man.

That defense was good.

You know, I'm terrified to get hit

and throw interceptions and fail.

I just think more people would relate to it.

Because we can-

Were there ever any athletes that you know of

or hung out with MMA guys or boxers

where they were built different,

where they're like, this person's looking forward

to a fight?

Or do you think unilaterally it was-

No, there's people where, you know, ignorance is bliss, right?

You know, it's like, there's guys I trained with

and I'd be two weeks out from the fight,

you know, and the camp's tailoring down.

I'm like, oh man, the fight's in two weeks, man, Saturday.

And the guys are like, no, exciting, right?

I'm like, no, dude, this is terrible.

But they just, there's certain guys where they live for it.

You know, there's guys like the Diaz brothers,

even though they said that they hate fighting,

I think there's some guy like a Cain Vlasquez,

there's certain guys that just thrive in that,

just engage who they just, they just love the violence.

They just, there's nothing, they were just born warriors,

you know, and they're not thinking about businesses

or, you know, 10 years down the road

or 15 years down the road, it's just,

they were meant to do this.

And God bless them.

You need people like that.

God bless them.

Even if you're not into UFC, if you're listening to this,

go and look up Justin Gasey post-fight Michael Chandler

on YouTube.

He says this amazing thing.

He goes, I was born in the wrong era.

I should have been a gladiator

so I could kill this person in front of all of you,

because that's what I'm built to do and that's what I love.

I'm here to fight to the death.

And I heard that and I'm like,

there's two different types of humans.

I'm one and he's the other.

Yeah, this is crazy.

True.

And I think, you know, I think for me it came to realization

because I've known Justin Gasey since he was in college.

I used to go up to University of Northern Colorado

and wrestle to get ready for my UFC fight.

So I saw Justin at a young age, he's always been like that.

And again, when I would be in the locker rooms

or would be in the training camps and those guys would talk like that,

you know, don't get it wrong.

I'm built like a warrior.

Like you would look at me.

I think that's one of the reasons I get hate from these guys.

They think it's okay to treat me the way that they do

because, you know, I look like a gladiator.

I'm this big dude with tattoos and cauliflower ears,

but really push come to shove.

I'm the guy behind going.

Feel like I don't have to be in the front fucking lines, man.

That's not what I want to do.

You know, so I get the treatment of these warriors,

but really I'm the guy in the back playing the trombone holding the flag, you know,

making sure I look good.

One of our Sean and I talked about this

after Rose Naomiunus, this UFC fighter,

she like before the fight, you see her saying,

I'm the best.

I'm the best.

I'm the best.

And it doesn't matter if you like UFC or not.

It makes you cry because you're just like,

there's so much like you have to talk yourself up to this.

And it's just so like motivational, inspiring, cute.

I don't know what you want to call it, but it's awesome.

It's like one of my favorite moments of seeing her say that.

And then afterwards, Joe goes, I saw you saying you're the best.

What's up with that?

And she goes, because I am the best.

And you like convincing herself that she's the best.

Like so much self doubt.

And it's just like, no, you're the best.

And because I'm assuming she worked with a mental coach,

which I did too when I was fighting.

You work with these high level mental coaches.

They tell you that you fight the negative thought in your head with a positive.

You say it out loud.

So that's just sort of freaking trying to keep the demons at the door.

Go down the best.

I'm the best.

You know what I love about this podcast?

It's usually when people bring up fighting.

And for me, it's a nightmare.

It's a nightmare.

Like, especially if I'm doing a show outside,

like whether it's a Comedy Central,

if it's a TV show, they talk fighting.

Usually they have no clue about UFC.

Like even you brought up Rose,

you brought up Justin Gayche and the Michael Chandler stuff.

Like, thank God you guys have an insight into the UFC,

like current UFC world.

I'll do some shows and like,

so what's your take on Chuck Liddell and take Abbot?

You think that's still going to happen?

Like, dude, they have Alzheimer's, man.

They're not in it anymore.

How is Conrad McGregor doing?

No, man, we're super fans.

That's why that's why it's cool to hang out with you.

We've had, we've talked, I've talked to Michael Bisving, Ben Askren.

We've had Ariel Hoanion,

which I know you guys had a spat.

We've had, who else, a bunch of people in that world.

It's always fun to talk to you guys

because like, even though like the intensity level

that you're doing, it's like literally life and death,

starting a business is like a percentage of that.

But it's like, I can't do this.

I'm freaking out.

I don't know how to do this.

Like you constantly feel like inferior.

Oh, there's similarities with all of it.

With all of it, whether you're a UFC fighter or you're an entrepreneur,

there's similarities where you bake on yourself and it's on you.

And the peaks of valleys are insane.

Either way, so there's takeaways from both sides.

You know, there's, they definitely overlap.

You know, you mentioned Ariel Hoani, right?

And I, there's that, and I think it's a fan thing.

You know, I've had spats with over the years.

It's just going to happen.

I don't really entertain it.

But I have no animosity towards Ariel.

You know, I'll do interviews, whether whatever it is or not.

So you and Dana don't like each other.

No, I have no anim, I don't dislike anybody.

You know, I think that might be one of the reasons too,

why the haters, they can't stand it because they, they want that,

they want that drama.

They want some defeat off of, they call it feeding the trolls.

I just don't entertain that.

I think that is, you know, upsets them.

It's just not what I do.

So when Ariel and I were having our thing, man, I made a mistake.

I was on the fight campaign.

I said some things I shouldn't have said.

He was rightfully so to get upset.

So what I show and did his thing, all good, man.

That's how it goes.

You know, I take accountability there.

That's on me, but Ariel is the best journalist we have.

I listen to a show, you know, I have no issues with Ariel.

With Dana, man, if anything, I probably should be giving Dana 10%

because when he made that deal with Reebok, it, you know,

at the time I was a young man, at the time I took it personal.

I thought it was a hit against me and it put a chip on it.

When I say chip, out of the entire Pringles.

And what you're talking about is before you could put any logo you want,

then he made a deal with Reebok and it's just, they are the guys.

Yeah, I lost, you know, probably $100,000 a fight.

And, you know, and I took it personal, but being a business owner now,

Dana, was it made when the Reebok deal came in?

Man, how's this going to affect Brendan Shaw?

No, dude, I'm one of the, you know, I'm one of the elephants in the circus.

You got to do what's great for all the elephants, not just me.

So I was, you know, a bystander and the casualty of that deal.

Just didn't work out my favorites.

But that pushed me faster into what I was supposed to be doing.

So, Dana actually helped me out.

I have zero issues, Dana, huge fan, huge fan.

But I think fans, some people for the reason they can't get over that.

It's like, well, no, he screwed you over and look, and you have to retire and you did this.

I'm like, no, he did me a favor, guys.

That was 12 years ago.

It's all good.

He's doing great.

He's worth more money than God.

I'm doing pretty good.

I have zero, if he called me today and was like,

hey, man, we need you to do this.

No doubt.

I'll help you out.

No problem.

Well, dude, you're the man.

You, I said earlier that we had Rob on and he like, I knew Rob grown up as a skater.

And then he came on and he like, just surprised us so much.

I think his view, his video has hundreds of thousands of views that when we did with him,

which is good for us.

And you're kind of in that category where you're where I'm like, I had good expectations

because I listened to you a lot, but you're a lot more insightful than I thought.

And I thought you were pretty insightful.

And you're, you're just a good guest.

Maybe next time you'll have a better setup instead of just being on your iPhone.

Yeah.

So here's the thing about that.

So I don't own a computer.

My company like big boy network has whatever 12, 15 computers.

I'm, I'm like that anti, I'm that anti kind of technology guy.

I don't like that seems good for a internet company owner.

I know, right?

More hard.

Yeah.

Can you tell I'm going to fail by next year?

So we did the same with a, there's a guy, Mark Lowry, who bought the Timberwolves.

He's a like famous entrepreneur.

He's a billionaire and he came on.

He was doing the same thing.

He's like, is this good guys?

He put his iPhone on a chair on top of his dining table and he stood up and he talked.

And we were like, do you, can you use your computer?

Oh, I don't know.

I don't know the computer.

And we were like, it hits different when a billionaire says it.

It's like, you know, if somebody else says it, you're just like, man, what a schmuck.

And then you hear him say, you're like, this guy knows, this guy knows how to live.

He's not talking about these fucking computers.

He says it cause like, he's got a person, you know, he's got people, you know what I'm saying?

He's like, I don't have computers, but I have humans.

Yeah.

No, I, I owe you guys.

Next time we do this, I'll do it out.

Think boy studios usually every Wednesday I'm in studio.

But today, because yesterday I did three podcasts in a row that a two hour meeting

for this new project I'm doing.

So I started at seven 30am.

And then by the time I got done with that meeting, I was, I was home around five,

went about my kids lizards, put, fed them dinner, went, put them to bed,

then rushed over to the comedy store and I got home at 1230 last night.

So today's my first off day and I don't know how long and then tomorrow I'm on tour in Atlanta,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I'm in Atlanta doing shows.

So usually I'm always in studio and I have the team set up so it looks professional.

So I owe you guys, I owe you guys, but I hate electric cars.

I think they're a disaster.

I don't like electric cars.

I don't like iPhones.

I'm about to switch to a flip phone.

I just, I don't, I just don't subscribe to it, man.

I don't think it's healthy.

Let's add a couple zeros to your net worth and then we'll call it cool.

But until then, we're going to call it, you're a fucking caveman.

You're a caveman.

But like maybe, maybe, maybe just add a few zeros and we'll call you a genius.

But until then, you're Neanderthal.

Yeah, yeah, until then, I'm just this broke guy doing it on a iPhone set.

Well, dude, thank you for doing this.

You're amazing and we appreciate it.

Thanks for coming on.

Besides my setup, this got sad, fast at the end.

All right, that's the episode.

All right, everyone, that's the end of my first million.

However, I've got good news.

You see, if you liked this episode, we actually have another podcast.

The Hustle has another podcast.

It's called The Hustle Daily Show.

It's a daily podcast that has everything you need to know about business and tech

in only a few minutes.

It's awesome.

Our best writers like Zach Crockett are behind it.

It's incredibly fascinating.

I listen to it daily.

So check it out.

The Hustle Daily Show.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.