Greg Scheinman | Ep. 18 - The Cult of Recreationalism

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You know, the first question I have isthere even a Terry?
Is Terry a real person?
Don't know.
I did, I will tell you, I don't know ifTerry's a real person and I don't know if
this was a plant in the location also, butthere was a guy in there that I will
remember for the rest of my life.
Okay.
He was, he was jacked.
He was probably in like his fifties and hehad the receding kind of ponytail a little

(00:24):
bit.
He looked so Venice beach, like muscle.
And he had a tank top on the string tanktop.
And it said body by.
String, yeah, like the old school likegold string, like you know what I'm
talking about Venice Beach, like those oldmuscle tanks where you're like, how did
these guys get that string so tiny that itdoesn't?
He's in there and Terry Black's lunchtime,people all around it.

(00:46):
And on the tank top, the tank top saysbody by beef ribs.
and he has a tray in front of him withnothing but these brontosaurus size giant
beef ribs.
I bought one of them, it had to be liketwo pounds, it was like 35 bucks, Sean.
This guy has about seven of them sittingin front of him.

(01:06):
All right.
That's fricking amazing.
and he's going to town on him.
And I will never forget this guy for aslong as I live.
And I have a regret to not saying hello tohim and finding out what his story is.
I want to go back.
I feel like he's there every day.
Well, one is a potential customer.
Like, you know, that's a client rightthere.

(01:26):
Like you gotta, you gotta shake this guyup a little bit.
Like, look at, you're either living yourbest life or, you know, we, we gotta know
more about this.
Like there's a full interview in there.
definitely one now.
He's maximizing some aspect of middle age.
I wasn't quite sure which side it was, butit was.
the side that tapped into being an 80schild.
I mean...

(01:48):
The man knows who he is.
At least I think he does.
Like he, I mean, that is some kind ofsecurity right there.
Well, I'm curious about all this.
So backstory on Terry blacks barbecue forme in 2018.
When we had just launched the bubs brand,a really good friend of the brand and an
old friend of mine named Danielle Gordonwas working for a trade show called paleo

(02:12):
FX.
And it was kind of this networking groupof like cutting edge nutrition biohackers.
And she said, Sean, I just moved toAustin, Texas.
And I'm working for paleo FX.
You need to bring the brand here or getyou a scream and deal on a booth.
Come on back and launch the brand at thePalmer event center in downtown Austin,

(02:35):
Texas.
And like I knew about Austin, Texas for myyears when I was working with Converse
shoes, because I used to go there forSouth by Southwest.
And we put on a bunch of events on Eastsix Avenue.
And it was always a blast, but I neverreally got to know the city.
So we've, we drive out there.
I'm sorry.
We fly out there.
We've got, you know, the most makeshiftset up to like get us going and launch the

(02:58):
brand in there.
And we get done with setting up the boothand we're just exhausted.
And we just walk out of Palmer eventcenter and we're like, we got to get some
food.
And there it is like Terry Blacks.
It was like calling to us.
So we roll over there, TJ and myself, andwe start ordering food.
We've never been to a Texas barbecue spotever.
We don't know anything about this.

(03:19):
So I'm like, I don't know what's whatseems like a good idea, like beef ribs.
Well, how many ribs?
I don't know.
Two or three.
Not realizing that each rib is about apound.
So we ordered like so much goddamn foodthat we end up having to take it home and

(03:40):
it fed us we were there for three nights,it fed us all three nights, the same
initial order that we put in because we weovershot it but
Ever since then, Terry Blacks has beenthis is kind of legendary presence in the
Bubs history.
It's good, man.
And you can live in Texas for 20 plusyears like me and still make the overorder
mistake, because we absolutely did it.

(04:01):
We were there and it became brisket andeggs the next morning, sausage and eggs
the next morning.
It's a carryover, no doubt.
the good things.
Throw an egg over the top of it.
It's fine.
That's like a classic Thomas DeLauer.
He's like, well, I'm eating all thisnutritious food.
And I'm going to throw an egg on top.
Actually, I'm going to throw three eggs ontop of it.
Like that's good protein, man.
That makes sense.

(04:22):
All right.
I'm going to take a pause here and I'mgoing to give the official introduction to
the Cult of Recreationalism podcast.
But I just wanted to make sure that Nathangrabbed that snippet on Terry Blacks just
because it's Terry Blacks.
All right.
What's up everybody and welcome to theCult of Recreationalism podcast.

(04:43):
I'm your host Sean Lake and today on theshow we've got Greg Scheinman.
Welcome Greg.
Hey, good morning, Sean.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's great to see you.
Dude, like great to see you as always.
A few notes about Greg, folks.
Greg is a husband and a father.
He is the creator of the Midlife Mailnewsletter and an author of the Midlife

(05:07):
Mail, which is a no bullshit guide toliving better, longer, happier, healthier
and wealthier and having more fun in yourforties and fifties, which by the way,
caveat also includes having more sex.
And what guy does not want that?
So if that doesn't pique your attentionright now, go flush your head in the

(05:31):
toilet and come back to us because that'sabout the most important thing we could
possibly talk about.
Greg is an entrepreneur.
He's an investor and advisor.
He is an athlete.
Yet we have yet to go head to head inathletic stuff.
But I know that we would both beat theliving tar out of each other trying to
prove the fitness stuff when you're inyour 50s.
Coach, fitness enthusiastic and so muchmore.

(05:53):
And right now though, Greg is a guest onthe show.
Thank you for being here.
man, thank you for the intro.
You know, we went with the longest booktitle we could possibly come up with right
there.
So just to mess with that Amazonalgorithm.
it's the small print.
It's the small print.
I'm thinking you're going to trend forsex.
That's it.
Like no guy heard anything.

(06:14):
No one cared about the wealth healthmaybe.
But then they heard about having more sexand they're like, wait, wait, hold on.
What chapter is that?
I don't know, it might be a perfect segue.
I just spent the last two hours writingabout my wife in menopause and what that
does to your sex life in your 50s.
When I'm speeding up and my testosteroneis high and we're going, going, going and

(06:36):
she's like, I guess I can start here.
Why not?
And she's 54, going through menopause andthe shit hit the fan in Austin this
weekend.
When we're out one.
like, you're hot.
I love you, you're hot.
It was both, man.
I'll tell you, we're walking around, we'rewalking the lake in the morning, okay?
And I hope guys can relate to this.

(06:57):
And this is how my crazy mind works.
We're out there walking the dogs along thelake in the morning and it's this
beautiful cinematic Austin morning.
The sun is shining, I'm walking the dogs.
My wife is about five feet ahead of mebecause our young dog walks faster than
the old dog, you know?
And I'm kind of looking at her ass andshe's walking and it's a nice view.

(07:20):
And about five feet in front of my wifethough is, respectfully I can say, is
another hot blonde.
Okay, but there's like a probably likelate twenties blonde hair and she's all
aloed out, you know, in the outfit andeverything.
And she's, and I'm just thinking to myselflike, this is a great morning.

(07:40):
Like this is like a best of both worldsmorning.
Like I'm loving, I'm appreciative of mywife.
The view is good, but take a look at, likethey, I'm admiring the scenery, if you
will.
But what I did was I made the mistake shotof snapping a photo of that and then
posting the photo with the caption oflike, remind me again why I love Austin.
You know, and it's like, and every guy gotit.

(08:05):
It's all in the cropping.
It's all in the crop.
You could have cropped the photo a certainway and you know, like her shoulder blocks
the thing in front and it just, you know,just, Hey,
Needless to say, there was a conversationback at the apartment later, okay, about
that.
So that's where we are.

(08:25):
I was fighting it because I, when youstarted this, that entire sentence with,
you know, talking about sex, I just spentthe last two hours and I was about to be
like, my man.
Hey, that's not how midlife works.
Okay?
Let's cut to the no bullshit part of thetitle.
That's not, at least in my experience, howmidlife works.

(08:48):
Musket fire, you know, musket fire, bigimpact takes a while to reload.
Just saying.
It's a marathon game.
that's funny.
And yeah, I mean, that's, that's reallife.
And like, what she's going through issomething that's going to have a lot of

(09:10):
ups downs, lefts, rights.
And, you know, being in tune with that andbeing able to navigate that and be an
awesome supportive partner.
is key like that's, that's key.
And there's books to read and all that.
But I mean, until you're in the trenchesand you're in it, you know, that can help
you kind of frame it, but, it's kind oflike the old Mike Tyson.

(09:31):
You know, everyone's got a great planuntil you get punched in the face.
Absolutely, and I think that's what, getinto this, that's what this is all about.
It really is about learning, embracingcuriosity, valuing relationships, kind of
growing together, rekindling certainthings, what energizes you, what drains

(09:55):
you, all of these things as we turn thecorner on the next phase.
Hang on for one second.
That's also, by the way, that's also reallife.
That's housekeeping at the door.
Asking to come clean my room.
So I apologize for that.
Today I'm in Dallas.

(10:15):
you're not actually home.
You're you're now you're in Dallas.
All right.
moving targets, but we got to get this in.
But where I was going with that, it'slike, you know, we're turning the corner
here in our 50s.
And I think, you know, this next phase oflife can, should, and will be ultimately
the best phase of life.
I think certainly this period between 50sand 70s, but there are a ton of changes.

(10:39):
There are a ton of changes.
There's so much going on.
We're, you know, past 20 plus years ofmarriage, kids are getting older.
health, body, lifestyle, finances, what wedefine as fun, what we put in our bodies.
Like so many things are different and it'show you grow together, you know, and also

(11:01):
what we do separately, you know, now inall of these different areas.
It's just a really, it's a reallyinteresting time of life.
And I just feel really, I'm gonna sayoptimistic about it, really hopeful about
it, really possible about all of thesethings.
And it's like,
How do we play around and figure out whatsuccess really looks like right now?

(11:22):
how do you help a whole lot of people thatare maybe struggling with that mindset?
Cause everything you just said, thatcuriosity, that embracing of this next
time, there's a whole nother set of folks.
And I, I get it.
that have fear that are dreading what'shappening.
They're looking in the past more thanliving in the now.

(11:44):
or when they look in the future, theydon't like what they see.
And you're offering just a complete.
shift in mindset to address, Hey guys,like you're getting older clock.
You're not stopping father time, but howdo you get the most out of it along the
way?
so, so that's kind of my segue into askingabout the midlife mail.

(12:04):
I mean, it's a newsletter, it's a book,it's, it's a podcast, it's a coaching
group.
give us some insights on that.
Cause you really embraced this to thepoint where you're literally like the pied
piper for aging.
Awesome.
Not even gracefully.
That's not the right word.
It's just.
literally like kicking ass along the way.
Well, thank you.

(12:25):
I think that, I think there's a little bitof grace in it.
And you know, like I said, you know, somegrace and gratitude and some latitude, you
know, in there.
But there's also a lot of aggression in ittoo.
Like being proactive and operating with alittle bit of chip on your shoulder, you
know, and getting after it and saying, youknow what, enough with the conformity, the

(12:46):
complacency, the redundancy, you know, thebelief that our best days are behind us.
Like, what does it look like to pour alittle rocket fuel?
on this.
And that's really how all this gotstarted.
Cause what you were describing, you know,the, the negative mindset, you know, the
closed mindset, the mediocrity that I callit, the feeling where everything from the

(13:10):
outside looking in looks pretty good, butyou don't feel that way.
Like that was me for a really, really longtime, Sean.
And, and we've talked about this a littlebit, but you know, my dad was 47 when he
passed away.
until this time.
And my tipping point really was 47.
You know, 47, it's my 10 year anniversarywith my firm.

(13:34):
I'm married, I've got kids, I've got areserved parking spot in the office
building.
I've got a multi -million dollar book ofbusiness.
I've got all these, and I'm an unhappyguy, if you will.
I'm drinking a little too much.
I'm letting myself go.
I'm hanging with some of the wrong people.
I'm just kind of doing all the stuff, youknow, like, like you're supposed to, you

(13:58):
know, there.
And I'm feeling very unfulfilled.
And I'm chasing whoever the proverbialJoneses are.
And I'm doing the salary and title thing.
And I got equity in this thing and allthat.
And you're like, how do I get off of this?
Can I get off of this?
Can I get off?
And how do I do that responsibly, by theway?

(14:18):
Cause we're balancing that.

(14:41):
Yeah.
cliches and expressions.
And they're all accurate.
but you're slaying dragons, but somewherein your 40s, there's that, I don't call it
the legacy play, but it's certainly amoment to be like, well, what does this
all mean?
And what am I leaving behind?
And what's the example I'm setting?
Like there's a series of questions thatstart to creep in to the right mindset.

(15:02):
I think it became about really two things,living my legacy, thinking about that, but
living my legacy while I'm still here.
And to that effect, living my message.
And I wasn't loving the mess, like if yougo back, my message wasn't so great.
I wasn't on that.
drinking a little too much.
And that's, that's like, everyone's gottheir own versions of what that means.

(15:24):
But like, it's an indicator, like, and youknow, you're, I mean, we know a lot more
now, maybe than you did it at 47 even, butyou sure as shit knew it wasn't serving
you like, you weren't like gaining PRs inlife by, you know, knocking back tequilas.
If you asked me if I'm living my messageand this is the message I wanted to live
back then, my answer would have been no.
And if my answer would, and if you said,hey, you really live in your legacy or

(15:45):
would you leave the legacy you want if youdied tomorrow?
The answer would have been no.
So those are not acceptable answers.
And when you peel it back and like yousaid, I took a really good long hard look
in the mirror and I said, you know, whatkind of guy do I really want to be?
Because I am now one day older.
than my father was when he passed away.

(16:06):
So I can either squander theseopportunities or I can make some changes
and live a much happier, healthier,wealthier, longer, stronger life.
And again, have more fun, which ultimatelybecame the book.
I wanted to just show up better, Sean, asa better husband, as a better father, as a
better provider, as a better man.
And the answer to that is how you do thatis it starts with you.

(16:31):
In my case, it was like I had to just owneverything.
And I had to figure out how I was going todo this, which was where, to answer your
question, where midlife male came from.
It came from me not having the answer tothese questions.
I knew all the why, why I wanted thesethings, but I didn't know the how.
So I created kind of a persona, kind of abrand of like, what is the quintessential

(16:56):
midlife male kind of look like, act like?
What's important?
Family, fitness, finance, food, fashion,fun.
I'm like, ooh, I like all those things.
That sounds like success.
That became my six F's.
So who are guys that are really crushingthose areas that I could go out and talk
to, that I could learn from?

(17:17):
And was it a criteria that they were alsoin the same age bracket?
Yeah, I wanted them to be relatable,credible, and aspirational.
So okay, like in those areas.
And I strive to be that too, going, hey,look, I am vastly unremarkable.
If I can do this, anybody can.

(17:39):
Like I really, I genuinely believe that.
Can you be married?
Can you have a career?
There's a visual I want to get from folksof like 47 year old Greg, you know, versus
you're 51 now, right?
Okay.
Like that there's a four year gap thereand a lot of transformation has taken
place.

(18:00):
Did you look at 47 year old self and lookin the mirror and say, okay, I got to lose
weight.
I got to stop drinking like hard stopthings, or was it a gradual journey of
making change because remember you had theparking spot you your partner and owner
with with equity and it was anentertainment business i mean sorry i

(18:22):
don't know why i thought it wasentertainment
I did a lot of entertainment and nobodybelieved that I went into the risk
management insurance business after like20 years of entertainment too.
Get into that one.
Fair enough.
We'll unpack that one.
The journey of your career arc into whereyou are now, which I think is going to be
one of the keys to how effective you areat this is key.

(18:42):
But so, so there are some things you knewyou kind of created your own how stop
drinking immediately.
how was your fitness and like your weightand like your, your, your general look in
the mirror feel.
It was, so at 47, I was pretty healthy.
That's the thing, I was pretty healthy.

(19:03):
I was pretty successful.
I was making pretty good money.
I was doing all these things.
You know, I was a pretty good drinker.
I was a very good drinker, which meantthat I was having trouble.
So for me, it was more gradual in terms ofsaying, okay, this is just okay.

(19:23):
This is not great.
This is not horrible.
You know, I had been cross fitting.
I had gotten myself into pretty goodshape.
I was burning the candle at a lot ofdifferent ends, you know, trying to do all
these things.
And it was, it was too much.
You know, it was too much all over theplace.
So it was really about saying, I'moperating right now suboptimally because

(19:43):
there's really no method to this madness.
I'm trying to do all the right things.
I'm still doing a bunch of the wrongthings.
All of this combined is draining me.
You know, it's not filling my tank andenergizing me.
It's depleting me overall.
I'm trying to be one thing in thecorporate world and everything by day and
hang on to this.
I'm trying to be another thing in thehealth world or the home world.
There's gotta be a way to change thisagain.

(20:06):
So your question is so great because Ithink that's where a lot of guys get
stuck.
They get stuck in these extremes thinkingthat I gotta go from nothing.
You know, a sedentary lifestyle or I'munhappy in all these areas or I'm drinking
too much to...
I gotta stop immediately or I see a guywho's jacked and is in amazing shape and I
can't put the pieces together on how toget there.

(20:28):
And I think it's back to stop for asecond.
Like what I did was I stopped, I took abeat, I really thought about the answers
to the questions that I wanted to ask,which ones I didn't have the answers to.
And then I said, okay, can I reverseengineer back to what I think success is
gonna look like?
And I started with a couple.

(20:50):
One, knowing what's important is what'smost important.
This is rule number one that I created.
Sit back and take some time and figure outwhat's really important to you.
You know, if you say family, fitness, youknow, we default to a lot of these, you
know, easy words, family and money andthis and that, but what does it really
mean?
Like in terms of what my priorities areand how I want to live and know that.

(21:13):
The second was, if you don't know whereyou're going, you're never going to get
there.
I had no real plan.
I had no real map.
I was just doing.
Shit was just always on my calendar.
A lot of it was reactive, just doing.
Where do I really wanna go?
What do I really, I wanna make X amount ofdollars.
I defined it.

(21:34):
What a credit score of this.
I wanna have X amount of life insurance.
I wanna be able to have my kids' collegesfunded.
I can't afford to quit this job right nowand throw all this away.
I wanna be 175 pounds.
around 10 % body fat, not be injured, lookpretty good naked.
What is it gonna take?
So I found I was over training quitefrankly.

(21:55):
I'm not.
thing when you, when you like, you getinto a mindset around training that it's
gotta be more and more and more and more.
And all of a sudden you like the epiphanalmoment is like, no, no, you can be
absolutely lethal for a one hour fitnesssession.
And in like, you can get an amazing blockof work done and then allow your body the
time it needs to recover.

(22:16):
Cause that's going to be different thanmaybe when you were in your thirties and
twenties and then actually like attainbetter results over time.
But you're actually putting in.
the intensity of the effort and thequality of the effort is there, but it
doesn't necessarily mean two hour plus gymsessions, like where you're just beating
yourself down.
this came down to setting standards andhaving a plan.
What I call my midlife action plan, whichis an acronym for map.

(22:39):
That became my roadmap in every one ofthese areas.
And now I had a destination for what I wasgonna put on my body, what I was gonna put
in my body, how I was gonna go to work, doall these things.
And now like a golden retriever, I couldfollow, like I'm good like that.
Throw the thing and I'll bring it back.
I had a plan and I could follow it.
And that got down to number, rule numberthree.

(23:00):
Aggregate, curate, and eliminate.
So much noise out there.
How do I take from all the noise, curateit down to what works for me and eliminate
what doesn't?
And that was a huge breakthrough.
Sensory overload, buying too many books,listening to too many podcasts, hiring too
many people for all kinds of things inthere.

(23:22):
doing it.
Yeah, you're doing this at this amazingtime in our nation's history and like the
technology development where like you'rebombarded.
Your social media posts, you type in onehashtag on, you know, wellness and or
fitness or you pick a rabbit hole or anytopic.
That's it, man.
You got a month's worth of contentspitting in your face.
Get simple, get clear, get simple,aggregate, curate, eliminate.

(23:45):
Then it was four, hey, show me yourcalendar, I'll show you your priorities.
My calendar was a mess, man, for years.
It was just perpetual motion.
And when I followed step one, step two,step three, guess what?
Then I started putting things on thecalendar.
All of a sudden, time opened up.
I had plenty of time, I realized, becauseI stopped giving it all away to shit that

(24:09):
didn't matter and it wasn't important andwasn't moving the needle.
I started making better choices, theactions you take and the choices you make.
And now when I look at my calendar, I'mexcited.
I publish literally photos of my calendar.
We did it today with Here I Am and You'reOn It.
And I'm charged up about that.
Literally, literally, you look at your,your calendar, and you can, you can do it

(24:33):
on any given week, like who got whograbbed time on my calendar?
Because you let it happen.
And you go like, All right, well, guesswhat this one thing, like, not the right
thing, don't need to be a part of thatdon't need to be doing that.
Like, there's always examples of that.
So I couldn't agree more on that.
last one we touched on it is just grace,gratitude and latitude because we're just

(24:53):
way too hard on ourselves all the time.
And this is not overnight success.
This was a course of several years,several years of testing and retesting,
several years of implementation, severalyears of discipline, which then created
the right kind of consistency.
Consistency is a misnomer also.

(25:16):
I don't have your consistency or we shouldbe all or we should be consistent and
consistent.
It's like, fuck that.
We're all consistent.
Most of us are just consistently makingpoor choices.
The only difference here, just consist,start consistently making better choices
and the majority of your life will getbetter.
That was the big difference.
I was consistent.
I was consistently making really poorchoices and I was stacking those up week

(25:41):
after week, month after month, quarterafter quarter.
And if you would have looked at my lifelike a business plan,
You would have objectively said, you arehaving underperforming quarter after
quarter and we will never accept this inbusiness.
So why are we accepting this in our -
Fair.
And the funny thing is your business canbe growing and moving up and to the right,
which kind of takes you to believe thateverything you're doing is working out

(26:02):
just fine because the data.
go back, look at the margins, you know,look at the total, look at all the, wait a
minute, we're one degree off course everyweek, every month, every quarter.
Well, after a year, you're way off course.
One degree made a big difference.
And now you do that five years, 10 yearsin a row, you wake up, you're 47 years
old, you're 50 or whatever, and you areway off course.

(26:23):
And you have not course correct, becauseyou haven't course corrected along the
way, that one degree difference has addedup to a lot.
Yeah.
Are you living your values?
Do you know what your values are?
I think everyone does, but asking yourselfthat question and like getting ingrained
in that is, you know, those are heavy,heady moments to like really dig in and be

(26:45):
like, what do I stand for?
I agree with you.
I think it's easy to know again, back tothe why, like I know why you want to be a
better father.
I know why you want to be a successfulentrepreneur.
I know why you want to make more money,why you want to be this and be that.
Now how?
Are you willing to do what it takes?
Do you know how?
Are you willing to learn how for what youdon't know?

(27:06):
And then are you willing to actually do itfor the time period that it's going to
take in order for you to be successful?
But I'll say this.
The day you start, I'm saying like, todayis the day, people are like, when do you
start?
When do you start?
Like, today is the day you start.
Like, it's always today.
The day that you just start changing thatmindset, you swap the first soda for

(27:29):
water, you have one less drink, you go forthe walk instead of actually sitting on
the couch.
You know, the day you start, that's theday the switch flips.
Well, there's a statement about 21 days ofperforming a new, whatever your new thing
is, establishes a habit.

(27:49):
And then I think it's like 90 days andthen it establishes a lifestyle.
Like if you can do something for 21 days,you've kind of broken a chain of that
opportunity to derail it and get yourselfoff track.
No doubt, but it's gotta be sustainable.
It's gotta be, you know, a longevity.
It's gotta be something that works foryou, which is why I like this testing and
retesting.

(28:10):
It's like, I don't really care what youdo.
You know, maybe you're a CrossFit guy.
Maybe you're a yoga person.
Maybe you like just being outside doingbody weight stuff.
Whatever you enjoy most, again, find whatworks for you and stick with it.
There are a gazillion ways to besuccessful.
There's really only one way to fail.
So your chances are great.

(28:30):
You know, find things that work.
There's so many proven ways to get, to doall of these things, to dress well, to
make money, to eat well, to do, it's allout there.
And quite frankly, it's all free.
What we struggle with is we struggle withthe discipline, we struggle with the
accountability, we struggle with patience,you know, and all, and then ultimately the

(28:51):
consistency and to your point, you know,we're all going to break the streak.
I'm going to have days where, fuck it, I'mnot getting out of bed today.
I'm not doing what I said I was gonna do.
Like, I'm gonna break the streak.
And then, you just start over again.
Yeah.
Literally pick it right back up.
Like, you know, it's funny.
So I love this for a lot of reasons.

(29:14):
I like the idea.
And if there's an advice column and all ofthis, aside from everything that's already
been said, it's, are you willing to learnhow I think that's one of the really,
really most important barriers to menspecifically having a stubbornness or a
lack of willingness to expose themselvesbecause
Are you willing to learn how to makechanges?

(29:36):
And I remember in my forties, likeincrementally adding in different habits
over the course of my morning.
It was all about the morning.
What do you do when you wake up?
How do you stack a couple of wins so thatas you go into your day, you're just, you
just got a couple of wins.
You just, you, you, you've checked off acouple of things.

(29:57):
You've, you've done the most remedialthings.
And I've talked about this before, butlike, first thing you do when you wake up,
meditate.
Right?
Like I learned about meditation seven anda half years ago, and it's been absolute
godsend.
We're not talking about long stretcheshere.
Just, just quick, make your bed warm lemonwater with a sprinkle of salt in there for
that kind of like electrolyte, you know,fusion of purge of, you know, whatever

(30:20):
toxins are in your body from the nightbefore digesting, like kind of woo woo,
but Hey man, it's not that hard to do.
just a little thing, get your exercisedone.
Like if you can get it done in themorning,
And you got to know your dad and you got abusy day and you've got afternoon, you
know, kids activities, wife, like whateveryour thing is between six and seven in the
morning, chances are those kids are stillsleeping or they're not going to be up

(30:41):
your butt.
You can probably knock off a little bit ofsomething, figure out those wins.
And then they all happen over time.
But after a couple of months, all of asudden, like you're just in the zone and
you've got it covered.
And, you know, like that's something youdo religiously.
It's funny because this morning.
I made a point, I was like, well, I'mtalking to Greg today.

(31:03):
Meditate first thing in the morning, getmy warm lemon water into the garage for a
good 40 plus minute fitness session intothe ice bath to get that little cool down
and let's go.
Let's let it rip, live it.
Cause you know, I'm going to talk to a guywho's going to call me out if I don't.
I think there's a positive, I think oneaccountability is a great thing.

(31:23):
I think finding people also that are outthere, whether you know them personally or
you can look at me, social media gets abad rap for a lot of things, but I'll tell
you some of the greatest influencespositively on my life are people that I
don't really know personally that I seethat are out there, you know, living their
lives, living their messages, and I cancount on them to inspire me and make me

(31:46):
better.
Now, my circle and network has expanded.
to know people like yourself right now.
You know, I mean, California, when I'dcall you the second I land, it'd be like,
okay, where are we going?
Like, what are we doing?
Let's hang out.
And I've got buddies now all across thecountry.
For example, I'm in Dallas right now andwhat did I do on Sunday?
I text my buddy John and I said, I'm infor one day tomorrow morning.

(32:10):
I'm like, first of all, it's like, wheredo I stay?
Where do I stay?
Do you wanna meet for a workout?
have breakfast after, you know, and getthe day started right.
And he gets back to me, and that'ssomebody I know super, super well.
It's like, but I feel like I do, you know,because we see what each other are doing
and there's that kind of like -mindedinspiration.

(32:30):
Like I know he's doing it, I know he'sdoing it.
He's in Dallas, he's in Houston, ironsharpens iron.
And he texts me, he's like, okay, you stayat the Crescent Court Hotel, they have an
amazing gym, they have a sauna, they havea cold plunge, I'll meet you at 7 a and
boom, like.
And that was it.
And that's what we knocked out.
You know, from seven to eight, you know,we knocked that stuff out, shower change,

(32:53):
had a quick breakfast.
He's at his office by nine.
I'm ready to go.
And you're like, wow, like that's, that'sinspiring.
And, and I'll just circle back to yourmorning routines and all of these things.
Here's the, create again, what works foryou back to the principles and the rules
that, that, that, that I created.

(33:14):
You may not.
need a 17 point, you know, morningroutine.
You may have a short routine.
I have a very simple, like, hydrate,caffeinate, urinate morning routine.
You know, like, okay, keep it simple.
And again, to what degree success lookslike.
Some of the stuff you do in the mornings,like I put in the afternoons or the

(33:36):
evenings, we're all different.
And you mentioned kids.
My kids are 20 and 17 right now, my twoboys.
So one is overseas, you know, right nowall summer long.
And my other one has his own car, hisgirlfriend and his life and everything's
going on.
So what I can do at different times now isvery different than what I used to do.
So don't look at somebody's life.

(33:56):
that is not relatable again to where youare and think you gotta keep up or you
gotta do that.
When my kids were younger and I'm coachinglittle league and I'm going again to the
office, you know, and I have to be thereat a certain time and come home at certain
times, everything was very, very differentback then.
And you've gotta be adaptable.
You know, I used to be a four or five o'clock in the afternoon workout guy.

(34:17):
And then there were periods where it hadto be, you know, five and 6 a And I really
didn't really like that.
And then there were periods where it justfell off because there was a period of
years where just wasn't really consistentwith it.
Cause the emphasis was, Hey, let's faceit, call what it is.
The emphasis was building a business,private schools, big house, expensive
family, all these other things.
And here I was in my thirties, primeearning years, late thirties, turning the

(34:42):
corner on 40.
And you can fall into those, you know,over indexing traps and everything else,
but it really is back to, Hey,
How do you correct that stuff?
How do you adapt?
How do you pivot?
How do you put a plan in place?
And how are you actually kind to yourselfthroughout?
But at the same time, accountable,measurable, quantifiable.

(35:05):
You call me out, I call you out.
You know, let's not fall for our ownbullshit.
Let's not be around people that bring usdown and we just accept all this stuff.
Let's really think about how we wanna doit and then go out and do it.
Yeah.
And then yeah, exactly.
And get out there and actually do it.
And everything you just said, like, ittakes a while to build up that mindset, if
it's not in you naturally, because like, alot of us are sitting there, there are a

(35:27):
lot of comparisons out there in the world,like,
I'm looking at guys, I think comparison isthe thief of joy.
I think there's a difference betweencomparing yourself and always feeling like
you're coming up short and that everybodyelse has got it figured out and everybody
else has got it right.
And they've all got it dialed in and lookat how great Bubs is doing and look at
what's going on with Greg and look at,there's always something you're not
seeing.

(35:49):
You know, always.
trust me, like, you want to look behindthe curtain and see some of the stuff
you'll be like, yeah, well, guess it's notall chopped up to be I guess that you
know, there are some hardships, justeverything looks great.
Social media can curate that amazingly.
It also does.
trying to do to your poll, what we'retrying to do at Midlife Mail is really
peel this back.
You know, is show the vulnerabilities,show what goes wrong, show the perfectly

(36:13):
imperfect situations and scenarios andcircumstances in life that can defeat you
or they can define you.
Talk about the arguments with your wife.
Talk about the menopause.
Talk about, you know, the hairtransplants, the Botox, the TRT, you know,
the misconceptions, the game changers thataren't really game changers, the

(36:34):
conversations we have in our head that wedon't often have out loud.
And share those experiences, not to begiving advice, but to share experiences
and let guys make decisions and thinkabout things for themselves.
Yeah.
and build their own operating systems andtheir old plans by seeing this kind of

(36:55):
collaborative of insight and access andnetwork and experiences that you're just
like, okay, I'm gravitating towards that.
These are flawed individuals.
These are normal individuals.
Like these are real, real guys again.
You're removing taboo.
You're removing like everything you justhad TRT like, what testosterone?

(37:16):
Like, no, my testosterone has got to beperfect.
The other guys are perfect.
Like, you know, it's gotta be great.
Right.
Or, you know, I have a thinning hairline.
What do I want to do about that?
Like that, you know, right here, like,Hey, do I want to live with it?
Am I shaving my head?
Like, you know, what are the options andwhat am I doing about it?
One way or the other?
Like, you know, what are the actionsyou're going to take?

(37:37):
Cause you're either going to live with it.
Hey man, then you live with it.
Like, that's fine.
Like that's a solution.
you need like is your sense of vanity orsense of self somewhere you need to take
action?
Do you truly have low testosterone andhave to have that addressed?
Well, that's worth knowing.
You know, it's kind of like turn 50 and goto the doc and you get your prostate

(37:58):
checked.
Like these are just things you do.
And if you don't like what you see, therecan be a course of action to address it.
And if you have a like minded communitythat are already breaking into those
semi taboo subjects that you just don'ttalk about with your boys.
Man, what a safe environment to open upand dig in.
this, the middle is messy, but it's alsothe sweet spot, you know, and that's what

(38:23):
I wanna keep talking about and kind ofreinforce is that it's never not gonna be
messy.
That's real life, but it's how do we sortas much out as we possibly can?
How do we make the most out of theseexperiences?
How do we genuinely live what we...
feel are our best lives.

(38:44):
And that's not rainbows and unicorns andeverything looking, you know, perfect and
all these things.
But that's like, what does a good day looklike?
A real good day.
How do I string as many of those togetheras possible?
How do I, you know, how do I make enoughmoney to do what I want, when I want, with
who I want for as long as I want?
Like, what's like...
What is the real basis in any of this?

(39:06):
Does collagen work?
MCT like, of course it does.
Let me tell you about the one I take andlet me tell you why I'm talking to Sean.
We just have all kinds of questions andhere's the other thing, Sean, I'll just
end on this.
It's all connected and it all matters.
I'll write the deepest shit, like aboutsomething I'll be like crying and spilling
around like, this is gonna...
do like you absolutely do.

(39:26):
I mean, I mean, literally, if you followyour Instagram and go into it, the amount
of time that you take to dive intosubjects, small, big, whatever is so
thorough.
you know, most people look at the photoand scroll along, like it and move on.
But if you stop, like your captions aregold mines for nuggets of information and,

(39:46):
or if nothing else, inspire some folks tolike, take a pause and like,
looking to some relatable topics.
Well, listen, I appreciate that very much.
And where I'm going is like, you'llsometimes you'll write some like really
deep shit and you'll be vulnerable andeverything else.
And you know what also matters?
Somebody will wanna know like, well, whomakes your shirt?
Like, you'll be like, wait a minute.

(40:07):
That was 2 ,200 words about like, aboutcancer, you know, and bankruptcy and
getting off the floor and all this.
And the takeaway is like, where'd you getthat shirt?
And here's the thing, I've come to us, itall...
man, everybody's looking for somethingdifferent at a different moment.

(40:28):
Yeah, 100 % 100 % like literally, you aregoing to get people that are going to
respond to when this whole thing gets puttogether and goes out on Instagram, we
start promoting it and be really like,well, is there really a Terry blacks?
That's a great hat, man.
Where'd you get that?
I am happy to report that because I havegreat people in my network that live in
Austin, Texas that are ready to textmessage me back in an instant to close the

(40:53):
loop.
Terry Black's a real man.
Terry Black.
founded Terry blacks barbecue and handedover the reins to his sons.
So there are two sons that actually run iton the daily but but the company's named
after their pops Terry black.
And my buddy bought one of his smokersfrom him.
So he kind of relayed that whole storybehind it.

(41:14):
So you can actually buy a custom smokerfrom the Terry black crew.
They make them to order like I guess so.
So it's a it's a little custom niche.
you, and part of the mid -life malelifestyle, if you wanna go, I hear that,
and I, you know, that sounds like a lot ofwork.
Like smoking my own, smoking meats anddoing all that.
And I go, the way I view things as thesimpleton now, my operating system says,

(41:38):
continue to go to Terry's.
Go to Austin, go to Terry's.
Because somebody can do it better, okay?
Better than all this, and that is workingright now.
So.
When I'm there, I will continue to go, Iwill continue to buy their merch and it'll
keep working.
I like that.
All right.
So, so I want to, I kind of did this inreverse order, but I would be remiss not

(42:01):
to help people understand your trajectoryup to 47.
And I'm going to, I'm going to pause rightthere and say, this is relatable to some
people that are going to listen to thisand not to others.
my dad died when he was 50 years old, yourdad died at 47.
So in other words, I lost my dad, youknow, when I was what 22, 23 years old

(42:21):
and, and you lost your dad at a young ageand
when you hit that landmark of when yourdad died, there is a look in the mirror
moment.
I mean, unless you're completely numb towhat's going on around you, like, how do
you not?
And, like, that's a shift, like there's,it's an opportunity for a shift.

(42:41):
I can't say it will be a shift, but it'scertainly an opportunity for a shift.
Go back in time to like getting out ofschool, getting into the entertainment
space.
having an exit, going to the next thing,having an exit and like you were on a path
of like an insatiable appetite for grow,grow, grow, take, take, take, build the
empire, build the empire, slay thedragons.

(43:02):
Before there was that shift, help peopleunderstand that because I think you having
that drive helps paint the picture for howyou just realigned it and reapplied it to,
to this new archetype.
I was on a few paths simultaneously.
So I'll tell you, I was born and raised onLong Island in New York in a very upscale

(43:23):
community where there felt like there wasnowhere to go but down.
I was looking back on it.
And did not experience any adversity atall growing up.
It was my mom, my dad, my two youngerbrothers, me.
And then my dad got sick when I was 15.

(43:43):
gave him six months and he made it almosttwo years from cancer and passed away.
And I remember I was a freshman atUniversity of Michigan and I got the call
in my dorm room that it was time to gohome.
My dad was insistent at the time that I gooff to college.
I really didn't want to go off to collegeand I wanted to stay with him, but he was

(44:06):
insistent that I go off to school.
And I remember getting the call from mymom that it was time to come home.
And I just made it in time.
And the shorter version is, you know, raceto the Detroit airport, you know, in a
cab.
There's no Ubers back then.
There's no anything.
You know, I mean, grabbing, you know, noteven a jacket.
It's zero degrees.
Get to the Detroit airport, fly to NewYork, get in a cab, go to the hospital.

(44:29):
And I made it to be in his room when hepassed away.
And you're absolutely right.
Everything changes from that moment.
I wasn't ready.
I wasn't ready to be a father figure, youknow, to my younger brothers.
I wasn't ready to be a man.
I wasn't ready to accept any of thisresponsibility.

(44:53):
And the first path I went on was a veryreckless path, which was this, you know,
live fast, die young, leave a good lookingcorpse kind of, kind of attitude.
And I had nobody really watching over me.
I went back to school in Michigan, neverreally dealt with.
the loss, the trauma, you know, neverreally came together even as a family.

(45:16):
I just went back and just kind of startedliving.
And there was no family business to gointo anymore.
I mean, I thought in a perfect world, Iwould grow up, go to college, come back
home, work for my dad, with my dad, whichI wanted to do.
And that didn't exist.
So what sounded sexy?
What sounded like living fast?

(45:36):
What sounded like being reckless?
Well, entertainment did.
I'll go make movies, you know?
That sounds, you know, cool.
And that's where I went after, aftergraduation, went back to New York and I
actually got my first job was as HarveyWeinstein's executive assistant at Miramax
Films.

(45:56):
And I ran his office for two years rightout of college, 30 years before the Me Too
era.
And...
the comments fly on that nugget rightthere.
No kidding, two years as executiveassistant in that office.
years and I have the distinction ofeffectively telling him to F off 30 years

(46:17):
before the rest of the world did.
But I wanted to make movies and I wantedto dedicate one to my dad and see his name
on screen and say that I did that.
And I was fortunate enough to be able todo it.
It didn't occur to me that quitting my jobat Miramax and telling Arvind that I
couldn't still be in the film industry.

(46:37):
Like maybe that was narcissism or ego orall this.
I never believed that like any one personcan stop you from doing anything or two.
And I just went off and raised some moneyand found a script and did it and made a
few moderately successful independentfilms and put my dad's.
them off right now.
I mean, this is going to be where folksare going to be like, how do I find these?

(46:58):
And we want to give them a watch.
on like Netflix or Amazon Prime orwhatever, the good one, the one to watch
is called Two Ninas.
And it's about a guy dating two women withthe same name at the same time.
And it's a great little independent filmwritten and directed by my good friend,
Neil Terrence.
We're still friends today.
And it stars Ron Livingston, who is inOffice Space and Swingers and Amanda Peet.

(47:23):
from the whole nine yards and Cara Bonowho was most recently on Mad Men.
We had this great cast.
We had Fred Norris did a cameo, Fred fromthe Howard Stern show, Jill Hennessey from
Law and Order did a cameo.
And we made this on a shoestring in NewYork when we were all like in our 20s.
And the funny story is like at Miramax wehad bought swingers, like Miramax we

(47:46):
bought swingers, which was Vince Vaughn,Jon Favreau.
And then the third guy, yeah, third guywas Ron.
in the credits.
So Swingers comes out, Swingers breaks andit's like, can't get Favreau, can't get
Vince Vaughn.
And lo and behold, Ron Livingston was coolenough to do it.
And then he really broke after OfficeSpace.

(48:07):
So the movie kind of got more popularlater on as the cast started to break out.
And the other one was a hip hop moviecalled Boricua's Bond.
which I'll just tell you, it's kind ofunwatchable.
So it's got Naughty by Nature and the Wu-Tang Clan and Big Punisher, Big Pun

(48:27):
before he passed away, Rest in Peace andMethod Man and Red Man and it had all
these, another cameo.
The soundtrack was pretty good and it gotpicked up, but it was kind of a
interesting, interesting productionexperience on that one.
So.
imagine when you just laid out thatcolorful cast that there was maybe a

(48:49):
couple time hacks missed along the way.
Just maybe.
Little bit, yes.
There were some interesting parking lottransactions that took place during that
film.
there were no Nest cams back then, butlet's just say that got a little spicy in
the parking lot.
Yes, it did.
But that was a be careful what you wishfor.
You know, I realized that at a certain,that that was the lifestyle.

(49:10):
It wasn't a lifestyle that I reallywanted.
And I ended up meeting my wife, my nowwife, Kate, at the Skybar of the Mondrian
Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles,California.
When I was out there trying to sell one ofthese movies, because back then, like you
actually had to go screen it and likesell, you know, and I was out there for a

(49:33):
while.
And I thought I just met a really hotblonde at the bar and it was gonna be a
good weekend.
And if you would have told me, Sean, I'dbe married with kids living in Houston,
Texas, 20 -something years later, wouldhave said, bet the under.
But we started dating long distance.
Ultimately, I'll shorten the version foryou.
We moved to Houston where there's notexactly the hotbed of the entertainment

(49:55):
industry at all.
did Houston come out?
Like was that?
There you go.
and raised there.
We didn't want to live in New York.
I was finished with that.
It didn't have the greatest memories.
As I said, the lifestyle wasn't reallywhere I wanted to, really want it to be.
And this was an opportunity for me to beanonymous, to start over, to live a
different kind of life.
And that's what I felt I needed.

(50:16):
And she had a great infrastructure inHouston, where she was from, and we moved
down there.
And I had about six to eight months worthof runway.
before the shit really hit the fan.
Didn't know anybody.
Didn't know, have an idea of what businessI was gonna go into or anything.
But you walked from entertainment.
I mean, that was it.
Like you kind of like you hit it.
You made the two movies, you sold themoff.

(50:38):
So you like your, you, you, you've hadthat taste of success.
You've got some runway to the future.
You've got a wife.
Walked.
Just said, I'm done.
And I'm not gonna do this anymore.
And here's what got interesting.
So we sit down in Houston.
I got six to eight months worth of runway.
We buy a house we can't afford.
You know, like at no job.

(50:58):
Yeah, of course, you know?
And I don't know anybody.
I don't even know where to even look for ajob based on what I've done in the past.
And I'm watching baby Einstein.
on TV, these DVDs for my young son on mylap.
And back then we had picture in pictureand I put ESPN in the corner so I could
watch some sports highlights.

(51:19):
And I look at the TV and I'm watching theTV day after day, bored out of my mind,
watching these puppets and the sports andI go, I can do that.
I can reverse this.
There gotta be guys that wanna watchsports highlights and those things more
than these puppets in the classical music.
And I formed a company called Team BabyEntertainment.

(51:40):
And I was like, we are gonna be the babyEinstein of the sports world.
And that's what we did.
I called all the sports leagues and said,I want your footage and I'm gonna put it
in children's videos.
And they're like, take it for free.
It even made me do licensing agreements.
They're like, nobody has had a dumber ideathan this guy.
And they said, just take it, use all thefootage and do this.

(52:02):
And then I went to all the team stores andsaid, send me pom poms and uniforms and
all this stuff.
I dressed up all my son's playgroupfriends, started filming all this stuff
and started making these sports themedDVDs to raise the next generation of fan.
And I'm selling these things out of thetrunk of my car on weekends outside of
University of Texas stadium and A andother places.

(52:25):
And we got a little article written aboutus in the LA Times.
And I was kind of self -funded and raiseda little bit of money, but blowing through
it, everything we sold went right backinto PR and you know the drill, you know,
this is the entrepreneurial lifestyle.
You're just chasing your tail, man, on allthis.
And apparently Michael Eisner, who was theformer CEO of Disney, read that article

(52:48):
and called me up and wanted to meet.
He had bought Baby Einstein when he was atDisney.
And ultimately,
his kids, mind you, he bought BabyEinstein, the company.
Yeah, for clarity for everyone out there.
clarity out there and wanted to meet.
And I think this is why it actually kindof went well.

(53:09):
I could not meet with him when he wantedto meet.
Cause I spent the last 10 grand I had on a10 by 10 booth at a trade show.
And I'm like, I have to go.
So.
I said, sorry, I can't meet you.
Thank you very much.
Can we reschedule?
Can we do this?
And it was like, click.
And I'm like, I just blew it.

(53:31):
Like, I just blew it.
I'll never hear from them again.
And like two weeks later, I get a call andthey said, we're flying east.
Can we stop in Houston?
And now I'm like, holy shit, okay.
Like I say, yeah, yeah, absolutely you canstop in Houston.
And now I go home and I tell my wife, Igo, Kate, they want to meet, this is

(53:54):
worse.
They want to meet with me in Houston.
I am working Sean out of an MRI facility.
I have one room in an MRI facility that afriend gave us.
It has two computers in it.
They're both held up on a conference tablewith like milk crates.
And every time they use the MRI machines,the power flips on and off.

(54:14):
This is, this is a little pre -we work foranyone out there who's like curious about
how to get started with some office space.

(54:48):
And I'm like, okay, I guess that's whatI'm gonna do.
And that's what we did.
And I listened to her and he shows up atthe door or his assistant shows up at the
door the day of the meeting.
I opened the door and he goes, hi, I'mAndy.
And I go, Greg.
I'm like, he's like, am I in the rightplace?

(55:08):
I'm like, you're in the right place.
He goes, okay, I'm gonna go.
MRI, but I'm here.
Yup.
He's like, I'm gonna go get Michael nowand I'm convinced he's gonna go tell
Michael we're out of here.
Get back on the plane, we're gone.
You know, like this guy, this isridiculous.
But he comes in, sits down, cracks a Dr.
Browns, you know, opens the deli platterand we talked for like three hours.

(55:34):
Summer camp, wives, kids, nothing aboutbusiness.
Like maybe 10 minutes about what does thatcomputer do?
What does this do?
How I did everything.
And...
They land in New York like three hourslater and I get a term sheet for a $2
million investment in the company.
And that started a seven plus yearpartnership.
Wow.

(55:54):
Now, how often were you interacting withhim at the highest level or at that point
was it more of a handoff to, you know,some of the people around?
At the time we did it, we were the firstacquisition he made post Disney, so a lot.
wow.
Yeah, he wants to make sure this reallydrives and it's, you know, it's $2 million
investment for Disney might be pennies,but, you know, in the venture capital

(56:14):
world or the, you know, private equityworld, like that's still a substantial
tranche in a startup to help them to takethose next steps.
at the highest of highs, I mean, this is asmall monetary investment, but overall, we
really were the puppy that was getting allthe petting, all the attention.
There really wasn't anything else.
There was no Disney engine behind it.
It was actually, you know, a couple ofpeople in his private mind.

(56:36):
And I was grateful for the mentorship andfor the experience.
And I made a ton of mistakes and all that.
And we took it up.
for like seven and a half years, we putall these celebrities on the DVDs.
I mean, the access that he had, it wasamazing.
And then as quickly as it went up, itreally came down.
Doctors started saying, pediatricians weresaying, don't put your kids in front of

(56:58):
the TVs anymore.
A lot of the stores that we were doingbusiness with were going away.
Circuit City, KB Toys, Toys R Us, Barnesand Noble.
DVDs were phasing out.
As quickly as we went up, we came down andultimately really kind of crashed and
burned and I got taken out.

(57:19):
And they merged it with the Topps baseballcard company.
And you know, you get a call one day oflike, hey man, good run, but we failed.
Or actually like, you failed.
Like you failed.
And here's where we go from here.
And I was back again.
Like it's square zero.

(57:40):
That's a tough one.
I mean, it's a great ride while it'sgreat, but then the technology shifted,
right?
Like the world shifted and
it.
But what really is, it's like, you learnlike, like my identity was very much
associated with him, you know, in thisbusiness and everything else.
And how do you reestablish your identity?
And what are you gonna do next?
Now we had two children.

(58:01):
Now I still, I was back to like, hey, Istill have runway, but I don't have a lot
of runway again.
Everyone thought everything was this.
Nobody sees this.
And I had to reinvent myself again andstart over.
You know, I went from risk taker to riskmanager.
I got into this business that I neverthought I would get into and invested in
this firm and became a shareholder andtried to do what I was supposed to do to

(58:26):
cover the expenses and to cover the overand to build a new business.
I didn't have a new multimillion dollaridea.
The economy was shit.
You know, the world is in a, it was in adifferent place.
And it became, you know, it wasn'tpersonally.
satisfying for me.
It was a real, real hard transition andhard shift.

(58:49):
Professionally, it was very successful.
Monetarily, it became the most successfulthing I'd ever done.
I got to give credit to my partners andthe guys that really built up the firm and
the opportunity they had when I went overthere.
And yeah, I added to it.
But, you know, that was middle age, man.
That was like, that was a hard reality gutcheck, you know, in my 40s.

(59:11):
Yeah.
Well, on one level, gut check when theride ends with team baby.
And then you, you, you kind of recalibrateto be really risk averse and risk
management insurance.
And that ends up carrying it through.
And all of a sudden you're, you're, you'reliving a completely different element of a

(59:32):
Y going like, all right, man, I'm yeah,we're successful and I'm building this
thing and, and, and it's worth a lot ofmoney now and we're making good money, but
who
Like that high flying, I'm going to make amovie and like parking lot with method man
to team baby entertainment.
And I'm going to be hanging with MichaelEisner and like these heavy, heavy players
too.

(59:53):
All right.
Let's talk about insurance.
Yeah, I'm just a guy.
I'm just a producer, partner in this firm.
Now I'm wearing a suit, okay?
And like, yeah, look at me now, okay?
Those were hard mirrors to look in for abunch of years.
Yeah, I wonder if that's around the timewhen you like towards the end of that,

(01:00:14):
when you realize that there's a mirror youwant to look in and be fired up about and
that doesn't matter what you do as long asyou do it well.
And like it's really comes from arecalibration.
It's not what you do, it's how you do it.
And it was that.
It's like, it wasn't the firm, it wasn'tmy partners, it wasn't the industry, it
wasn't the job, it was me.

(01:00:34):
It was me, it was the mindset around allof it.
And I got to that intersection of likewhere you try to combine personal passion
with professional expertise.
And I was like, wait a minute, I'm justlooking at this all wrong.
I'm just doing this all wrong.
I can actually ensure anything.

(01:00:56):
So why am I not going after entertainmentthat I know?
Why am I not going after hospitality thatI know?
Why am I not ensuring bubs that I takeevery day?
You know, like all of the, and when Istarted shifting that, like, you know
what?
Fuck this, I'm going on offense.
Okay?
I'm going on offense.
Here's what I like.
Here's what I'm interested in.
Here's what I'm passionate.

(01:01:17):
I'm going to go good after thosecompanies.
I'm going to not stay out late drinkingand entertaining oil and gas and energy
people or whatever.
I'm gonna get up early and go work out andI'm gonna go and show Rogue, you know, or
Bubs, like, whatever, like I went afterthe shit that I liked and I'm gonna dress
that way and I'm gonna talk to thesepeople that way and you know what?
Their premiums are just as big as theseother ass clowns over here and all this

(01:01:39):
other stuff that I don't like.
by the way, if I get 10, you might need 10of them to stack up to two of the other
clients.
But guess what?
You have a lot more fun with those 10.
So here's what happened.
It was that shift you talk about, it goes,I'm not gonna quit my job, I'm just gonna
do my job better.
I'm gonna reframe this, okay?
I'm gonna go after what, and I lost someclients and I lost some money for a while.

(01:02:01):
And I had a lot of butt head moments, youknow, with the partners and all that.
But here's what also started to happen.
When you chase authenticity whereauthenticity doesn't exist, it's
exhausting.
When you go after what you like and youenjoy and you're passionate about it, it's
energizing.
So those clients started to shift.
I started to have a lot more success withthe clients that I wanted because we were

(01:02:26):
the same, we were like -minded.
We actually like, yeah, I'd love to meetyou for a workout in the morning.
I'd love to do this.
you know this about our product, I was thebetter choice.
The guys that they were working with tomanage their risk were not.
Consumers of their products didn't knowabout their brands, were not successful
entrepreneurs in their life.

(01:02:47):
I actually brought a lot more to thetable.
Yeah, there's a relatability to that thatjust you get more excited about like,
look, I buy in I bought I've had threedifferent insurance companies since we
started bubs.
And we started with one because it waswhat I knew from actually when I was doing
entertainment stuff with quick withQuicksilver and then with DC shoes, I only
knew one company and I'm like, Hey, I'llgo with them.
They seem to know.

(01:03:08):
Then we got into trouble.
Groud policy that didn't do its job.
I'm like, well, I'm paying for this thing.
It's not doing its job.
Go to the next one.
Next one.
Same thing happens.
Same incident.
supposed to be an expert, they weren't.
Now I'm on my third one.
And as soon as I met these folks, I waslike, God, where you been all my life?
And they're like, Hey, we come from foodand beverage.
We come from nutrition space.

(01:03:30):
Also, we want to hang and they're in NorthCounty and they're relatable and they're
fun.
I'm like, you know what?
Like I don't care if you're funnecessarily, but that helps.
I don't care.
I just want to get the job done to adegree, but man, I'm going to like this a
lot more if I like you.
Well, there it is back to again, listen, Iwanna like you, you have a passion for
this, passion for what I do, and you alsohave an expertise.

(01:03:53):
Okay, well now you're deadly.
Like that's a real, like that's a wedgethat some other guy, like you're hard to
wedge out.
You're hard, in order for me to get hired,somebody else had to get fired.
That's just the nature of the business.
So, you know, that was energizing to me tobe competitive, to go back in it where I
was coming out of this was,

(01:04:15):
Look, it's hard being a guy.
It's hard, you know, like you start losingyour confidence, you start getting kicked
in the dick if you don't like all thesethings.
It's hard.
And I was lacking some confidence and Iwas lacking conviction and I was lacking
the courage, you know, to position myselfin a certain way and do it authentically.
And I had to rally out of that.
And that took its toll at home.

(01:04:36):
Again, it took its toll in the firm.
It took its toll on my health in a lot ofareas.
But when you start taking back thatcontrol and go, okay, now, now things get
interesting.
Now you can create some positive momentum.
Now you're really firing on all cylinders.

(01:04:57):
You're doing the things you really enjoydoing within your life.
You're surrounding yourself with greatpeople who are doing other good things.
You really wanna take care of them.
You really wanna protect them.
That also starts with you taking care ofyourself.
becoming a better expert, becoming morevaluable, like all of these things.
And now all of a sudden that doestranslate, that hits your wallet.

(01:05:20):
My book got bigger.
to jay curve it you got to dip down andthen come back out of it.
Seth Godin wrote a great book, it's calledThe Dip, if anybody out there wants to
read it.
And it's a very short book, because I'mnot a long reader.
But it's called The Dip.
And it's when you get into these dips andyou have to decide whether you're going to
lean into the dip and it's worth it and gocome out better the other side, or when

(01:05:40):
the right decision sometimes is to stopand go back, not do it.
And it's a great book for guys to get intothat tipping point, those moments where we
really have a decision to make.
And I came to that spot where I had todecide, am I gonna lean into the dip and
come out better the other side?
Or am I gonna stop this or quit this andyou know what, lose the equity, lose the

(01:06:04):
opportunity, lose all of this, cause Ijust can't do it anymore.
Or am I gonna lean into it and do itdifferently and come out better the other
side?
And what does that look like?
it sounds like you did a little of both,right?
Like you did come out the other side andthen you chose to exit.
So fortunately I didn't choose to exit.
I was like, I wouldn't wish a globalpandemic on anyone, but COVID was really

(01:06:26):
one of the better things that happened inmy life or to my family.
I was really, I was doing better, but Iwas still struggling there.
I didn't know where the end was going tobe.
In this thing, you get on this journey andit's hard to get off.
And really like,

(01:06:48):
For me to get off, it meant we had to havesome form of an exit.
Privately held company with equity in it,you know, like, it ain't worth anything
until it's worth something.
You know, really.
a set of partners that agree with you.
Yes, so I had two things.
One, I had to try to hold on and continueto perform and not ruffle more of the
feathers with my partners and get firedand end up with nothing, okay?

(01:07:09):
Because that would have made 14 years notworth anything.
Or ride this out for whatever that lookslike.
And we were not intending to sell and itwas not my decision at all.
Like I had no control over that.
I was a minority guy.
I was a minority partner in there.
And I got a call one day and they said,come to the office.
And I was like.
Why am I coming to the office?

(01:07:30):
I'm literally, I thought I was gettingfired, Sean.
I was getting fired because I, I'm like,this is great.
I'm like, I don't have to come to theoffice anymore.
Like everything I was fighting against,you know, like now I can stay home.
I can work out.
I can dress how I want.
Everybody's on a level playing field.
This is amazing.
Talk to my clients.
And now I'm getting called into theoffice.

(01:07:51):
And I literally asked him, I'm like.
What are we gonna talk about?
I wanna know before I agree to come in.
Do I need an attorney?
Like, I'm like, this is like how, theseare the questions like that I had.
Yeah.
And he was like, come to the office,you're gonna be happy.
Like, okay.
And I got to the office and they sharedwith me that they had made a deal to sell

(01:08:12):
the company.
And we were gonna get acquired and this iswhat it looked like and sign here, this
NDA, so that they could disclose what wasgoing on.
And that's what happened.
It fortunately ended up being a relativelyquick transaction.
And we exited, had to hold, you know,stock and stuff for a couple of years and

(01:08:33):
we all had to sign to stay on for like ayear.
you know, his partners in there.
And I made it six months before theyinfected to say to me like, hey, you need
to get out of here now.
You'd really, yeah, you don't wanna behere and we don't really want you here.
So like time to go.
And they did me a huge favor.

(01:08:53):
It was like, I still, and I think a lot ofguys get there too.
Like I was on the side of the, I knew Ineeded to leave.
Hindsight being 2020, I should have doneit at the time.
We shouldn't have negotiated somethingelse.
I didn't have the courage.
I didn't want to rock the boat.
If the deal didn't go through, then Ireally, they would have known exactly
where I stood, you know, on this.

(01:09:15):
So I was like on the side of the bridgeand they did me a favor by pushing me.
Cause I didn't have the courage, you know,to jump myself into something else or to
walk in there.
Yeah, I mean, you hadn't necessarilyformulated what midlife male was going to
be in that next step, you are still in thegathering information and like, you know,
really rediscovering yourself.
I was doing some writing.

(01:09:36):
I was like a tree falling in the woods.
I was just starting on this midlife malething.
I had to be really careful about what Icould say because I was still part of this
company and what I could write.
I had documents that were signed.
I had a whole, couldn't even, it was anexit, but I couldn't sell monetarily.
I couldn't sell stock for certain periodsof time.

(01:09:56):
If we're really being transparent on this,it was a really hard couple of years.
Cause you're out in a way, but you'restill kind of handcuffed, you know?
And it's like...
but you're not really out and in anyfeelings that you have about the industry
overall or the architecture of the work,you can't really talk about it openly.
You just kind of got to ride it out untilyou're you're through it all.

(01:10:18):
I mean, it's no.
Yeah, I mean.
year period that was a draining period oflike, where's the line, you know, for me
in terms of, and fortunately now, now I'mable to do what I get to do every day.
And people say, what do I do for fun?

(01:10:38):
It's like, this is what I do for fun.
I talk to you and I work with guys aroundthe country and I write about things that
are hopefully, you know,
interesting to others that are interestingto me.
And I interview people and I getinterviewed and I speak and we're working
on new books and experiences andplatforms.
And the response to it has been incrediblygratifying and awesome.

(01:11:03):
And I feel like there's this untappedmovement, you know, this midlife male
movement to redefine what middle age lookslike and to reframe our mindsets and to
live.
to live better and to do all this stufftogether.
And it's really, it's really kind of cool,man.
I like it.
I like that a lot, man.
That's awesome.
And I mean, I'm lucky to have you in mylife.

(01:11:24):
I mean, obviously we're very similar inage.
We've gone through a lot of experiencestogether.
My path was different, you know, atsnowboarder into the action sports
industry.
I've always been able to work in spacesthat I've loved, but you know, like when
you're aging out of the action sportsspace, you know, like, all right, man, I'm
in my forties.
I don't know if I can still be like theaction sports guy.

(01:11:45):
I still love the culture, love the space,want to be involved in it on a personal
level, but professionally I was like,yeah, you know, hit that wall, discover
fitness really invigorates.
There's an industry, an entire worldthere.
And then, you know, bubs, which suddenlylights a fire and like, you know, we, I
think professionally everyone has a fewkey moments in their professional life

(01:12:06):
where they're absolutely lit up.
And I mean, lit up, like you are on firewith an idea or a concept or a charge.
And I remember having that.
when I worked at DC shoes, when we werelaunching the snowboard program and like I
was all in like I would I do for fun?
I did that job and I loved every minute ofit and we were changing snowboarding.

(01:12:27):
We were we were affecting the sport in areally positive way that I could really
get behind.
and bubs like right now, like doing thingsand positively changing lives.
You're doing that.
Like you're living your why and it's,it's, it's fricking great to see.
And maybe the movies component and beingable to celebrate your dad could be one of
those
moments but right now it's got to beanother one.

(01:12:47):
Look, all of these experiences, I wouldn'tchange any of them.
I mean, would I trade everything to havemy dad back?
Of course I would, you know, there.
But in retrospect, all of the situationsand circumstances and experiences that
I've had have helped me get here.
They all happen for a reason.

(01:13:10):
And just like the admiration that I haveand the inspiration that I get from you,
it's like you found your purpose.
I mean, even through tragedy, and losing afriend, but being able to dedicate your
life and your purpose to creatingsomething that means something, that has
value personally and professionally andgive back.
We're lucky if we get that once in ourlife.

(01:13:31):
There's so much noise around even quittingyour job and following your passion and
all these other, and the other truth islike, most people don't even know what
their passion is, really.
And if they know what their passion is,sometimes their passion isn't gonna pay
for the life that they want or that theyneed to live, especially in middle age.

(01:13:54):
So I just think there's also somethinginteresting about that navigational
process of thinking about how.
What that is, you know, does your careerand job, can it fund your passions?
Can you make your passion even finding outwhat your passion may be by trying
different things?
Like we talked about curiosity before thatit's never too late and you're never too

(01:14:16):
old to try and to test and to retestbecause you don't know when it's just
gonna.
be the thing, or it's gonna be this thingthat got you to this thing that led you to
this thing.
And who cares if you're 50 or 60, or whocares if you have to stay in the career or
the job that you're in longer, but changethe way you see it, do the job better so

(01:14:38):
that it funds and allows you to do theother things that you wanna do.
So much of this is up here in our head,and we create situations that are...
not good for ourselves.
We see things negatively and instead oflooking at it as a positive, hey, I wrote
for years that this career pays me a lotof money to write a newsletter and host a

(01:14:59):
podcast.
rather than I can't wait to get out ofthis career so I can write a newsletter
and host a podcast and make zero, by theway.
And if you think you're unhappy, okay,like at a job that's paying you really
well and you're unhappy, wait till you goto a job that you love that pays you zero.
Now let me tell you, you're gonna be evenmore unhappy.

(01:15:20):
That thing that you love, you're gonna,it's really gonna, you're not gonna love
it that long when the bills are stackingup and the stress and the anxiety and
everything else.
So there is a responsible aspect to all ofthis.
that comes into play, that comes into thisdesign of maximizing midlife, that comes
into this, you know, I say mediocrityhappens by default, maximization happens

(01:15:43):
by design.
Like you gotta be a realist about this.
Doesn't mean to not have big dreams,doesn't mean to not have great goals,
doesn't mean to not set high standards,but we've gotta be realistic about what
our plan really is, what we do, how we doit, why we do it, all of those things.
Yeah, gold, absolute gold.
And it's funny because like, not funny,but it's awesome.

(01:16:05):
My brother in law, Tad, he's like theliving example of someone going through a
lot of this right now.
And I love it because I love theexploration of finding out like what
you're really in and like, he doesn't lovethe industry that he's in.
But I always talk to him about like, well,is it a tool that allows you to go and do
the things you love to do?

(01:16:27):
Like, you know, if you're not ready tomake that jump,
can you can you put it in the right areaso that you can kind of make that job your
bitch and like just own it so that whenyou're not in it, you've used that fuel to
get into all the other things and so hehits me up the other day and he goes, Hey,

(01:16:48):
so I'm longboarding right now.
You know, dude just turned 50.
And or he's about to turn 5049 whateverpoint is
He's grabbing a skateboard at 49 and he'srolling around.
He's talking to me about how to stop.
Like, how do you power slide?
I'm like, yeah, you gotta start, you gottastart power sliding, man.
Like leather gloves, power slide, handsdown.
Like I'm, I'm talking about this.

(01:17:10):
Like I'm a teenager all over again.
Then I find myself right from the YouTubevideos on how to execute a good power
slide to help him do this.
I'm like, dude, the fact that you'repicking up a skateboard after 30 some odd
years and getting back into something thatis infusing you with joy.
is absolutely awesome.
You're making that job your bitch so youcan go out and grab your skateboard and

(01:17:31):
just like create a level of fun andenjoyment and which is one of the buckets.
It's a huge point.
Say, look, you may not be the CEO of yourcompany or your firm, but you are the CEO
of your own life.
And that's exactly what a lot of the workthat I'm fortunate enough to get to do
with guys is right now.
It's about that reframing, thatrepositioning and the saying, hey, guess

(01:17:53):
what?
Maybe you don't.
have to be the first one in and the lastone to leave.
You know, maybe, but here's, here are thethings you need to do.
You do need to max out your vacation days.
You do need to, you know, take advantageof every opportunity the company is giving
you.
You do need to absolutely perform and notshirk your responsibilities, but you need
to cultivate a mindset and a lifestyle anda way of operating around this that allows

(01:18:16):
you to get on that long board.
That still gets you to the gym.
That gets you to your kids' games 80 % ofthe time.
You know that a lot and you got to startseeing what you do as a privilege, you
know, that provides you with theopportunity to do these other things.
And then if you want to again transitionout, let's be...

(01:18:38):
be realistic.
Let's map that out.
Let's reverse engineer back to how this isgoing to happen.
Give you a quick example.
It's like I got a buddy.
He's a very successful, you know, likepharmaceutical rep.
He doesn't love particularly what he does.
He's been doing it a long time.
He's got Northeast territories.
It's a busy city.
He's gone to go and everything.
You know, all of that makes really greatmoney.
Has three kids, has an apartment in thecity and has a house in the Hamptons.

(01:19:01):
And he's got a workshop in this garage inthe Hamptons.
All woodwork.
You know, he's a craftsman.
You know, he's become a, he's become acraftsman.
amazing.
All he wanted to do was quit his job andthen like go become a woodworking, like
become a craftsman.
And it's like, listen buddy, look around,okay?

(01:19:21):
Look around.
This ain't gonna, like, this all goes awayif you become a craftsman.
If you decide tomorrow to become acraftsman full time, all of this goes
away.

(01:19:44):
So...
rock the boat.
Do not let your boss...
You're not bigger than the system.
Do not let them see you being miserableand complain and all this other...
No.
We can make a plan, but like, it's likekeep your friends close, keep your enemies
closer.
It's like, by the way, I work with theguys.
I don't work with the company.
I work with the individual guy.
Yep.
work a lot with companies to work withthem about how you should help your sales

(01:20:09):
teams or how you actually make culturesthat mean something or what are we really
talking about when we're not talking toyou, okay?
On here, because here's what you're notseeing guys, cause I sat in that seat in
those sales meetings.
You know, us versus them, who's unhappy.
Like now we can talk about that, but Iwork on the side of the guy, the advocate

(01:20:30):
for the guy.
to design the life that's worth living forhim and how he does that within the pieces
that he has.
So it's like, you may be world workingfull time in five years, okay?
But you might be unemployed with two homeson the market in two years, I give you
quit.
go for the five year stretch.

(01:20:51):
And then you might actually find you don'tlove what you do, but you're getting
enough time doing the things that you loveto do to make it all work.
And like, how do you like, how do youcreate that flow?
You may learn to love it a lot morebecause you appreciate it a lot more and
because you're operating differently init.
Again, how you eat, how you train, whenyou do your woodworking, how you approach

(01:21:12):
the business.
Maybe you're again, over indexing too manyhours, too many this.
Maybe you've been the number one guy forfive years and that's a lot of, and what
you realized is, hey, I'm not gonna benumber 10.
Okay, but I don't need to be one or two,you know, for 20 years in a row.
Now I'm like 50 or whatever.
I'm okay, like I can be three or four.

(01:21:34):
Success looks a little different in there,but I still wanna go on the sales trip
every year.
I need to make sure I'm always in the top.
All of those things, there's always a wayto look at it.
Totally agree.
Totally agree.
It's actually I mean, for anyone listeningto that, who's not at that, like, I own my
business, like, that's very few folks arein that position.

(01:21:55):
How do you get the most out of it to allowthose other buckets to remain full?
Like, how do you how do you leverage thatfor family for finance for food, fashion,
fun, fitness, I would argue faith issomewhere floating around on the outside
of there.
Although that can be a hot topic forfolks.
But you know, like, how do you
to those buckets and it's like if you canreally get your head in the game for what

(01:22:18):
you do and bring your a game and bringlike that, just put it in the right space.
Man, it feeds so many other areas of yourlife.
So it's just, it's a powerful tool set.
I love that.
I love faith.
I mean, faith comes up all the time, butjust like I'll say about hope, like hope
is not a strategy.
You know, faith alone is not a strategy.

(01:22:38):
Have it, believe in it, yes, but alsohope, faith, luck.
I genuinely believe all of those thingsget better when we're also doing the work,
working our plan, all of those things.
We create a reason for those things to goour way by the actions again that, that.
that we take.

(01:22:59):
So I just wouldn't hang necessarily my haton hope or just like, hey, pure faith in
there.
It's like, well, you got to show me someactions.
Be a faithful person.
Absolutely love it.
Be hopeful, be optimistic, be all of thesethings.
Pray whoever, whatever you're into.
Absolutely.
But we also got to put it down into somemeasurable quantifiables.
And here's how we're going to improve andincrease our odds.

(01:23:21):
And the last thing I'll say is you'reright.
The vast majority of people are notentrepreneurs.
male, female, middle -aged or otherwise,and there's absolutely nothing wrong for
working for companies and working for themyour entire lives and your entire careers.
Find the right ones also.
Figure out how you work with thosecompanies, navigate them.

(01:23:42):
There's never been a greater time, Ithink, in the world than right now to move
also.
Like, there are companies that companiesare desperate for incredibly capable
individuals.
and they're incredibly desk.
Also, they are looking for capable,experienced middle -aged guys.

(01:24:03):
Really quite frankly, because we know howto work.
We wanna work.
Okay, all of these, set aside the enablingand the entitling and a lot of the other
shit that's going on.
It's like, bring me a motivated, inspiredmiddle -aged guy who knew where he was
unhappy and now I'm putting him in a placewhere he can be happy.
Man, that guy is gonna deliver for you.

(01:24:25):
Yes.
Yeah.
absolutely going to deliver for you.
So the lateral move, which is really anupward move, you could be moving for the
same money, but if your quality of life istenfold, like these things are huge.
Don't ignore those opportunities andpossibilities.
Perfect.
I love that.
And I mean, absolutely.
I mean, I know what I'm looking for folks,you know, like, I just want the right

(01:24:50):
qualities of someone who kind of knowswhere they are.
And they come in and they're fired up andthey're ready to go.
And it's that that's no different than anyindustry.
Like, are you willing to put it in?
day.
I could always talk to you all day, butthere's like so much meat on that bone
too.
It's like, go ask, you know, tell, youknow, go ask for your gym membership, you
know, maybe to be paid for, or you'retrying to get a little healthier.

(01:25:11):
You're trying to do things like go talkabout this stuff.
Let's put a wellness program together orlet's do things that change again, the
attitude and the mindset of where you are.
the table when you're when you're feelinggood.
Like you bring great energy like andthat's infectious.
And people feed off of that no one wantsto come into the Eeyore and be miserable.

(01:25:32):
You want to come in and feel fired up onthat.
Alright, so I'm going to I'm going tobreak and segue into the very fun and kind
of closing part of the show here calledrapid fire questions.
Quick, quick answers.
Don't overthink it.
but I got about six of these here and I'mgonna start firing them off.

(01:25:53):
So, first question, Greg, what was yourvery first job?
the handbag gallery in Great Neck, LongIsland, I sold handbags, purses.
I didn't see that coming.
next as a resident of Texas, I love askingthis question to you.

(01:26:16):
Rank these from best to worst salsa, quesoor guacamole.
Best to worst, guacamole, salsa, thenqueso.
I'm not really a dairy guy.
No, I can't hold that against you.

(01:26:36):
Do you play any instruments and if yes,which ones?
play guitar and we have a band namedWheelhouse and we play a couple of times a
year and we got back into this also in ourmid -40s.
I love that I'm waiting for the YouTubevideo slash Insta post of one of your

(01:26:59):
songs, ripping through.
So I'm just going to stand by and wait.
You just let me know.
send you a link and we'll put somethingup.
It's been a minute, but yeah.
Alright, I like that.
Next up, what is your stripper name?
Now this is a combination of your firstpet's name and the name of the street that
you grew up on.
For example, my stripper name is BenderCopley.

(01:27:22):
My dog's name was Bender and I grew up onCopley Street.
Okay, my stripper name would be AlexOrchard.
Alex Orchardt.
Okay.
All right.
was my first dog.
Rest in peace.
And Orchard Lane was the street I grew upon.
There we go.
Alex orchard it is a single mantra orpiece of advice given to you that stuck

(01:27:48):
with you over the years.
It's kind of like just this always beenanchored with you.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Yeah, man, I like that.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
That that rings so true after thisconversation that absolutely sinks in and

(01:28:09):
last question on rapid fire.
The favorite place you have ever visited.
going back a ways.
Okay, first thing that pops into my mindmost meaningful thing, 1980 Nassau
Coliseum with my dad, New York Islanderswhen their very first Stanley Cup, Bobby

(01:28:35):
Nystrom backhanded overtime goal past PeleLindbergh.
Absolute coolest experience of my life.
I was waiting for you to say, NASA saw theBahamas, but that's pretty darn cool.
Yep.
I'm tracking on that one.
That's a solid one.
And I am still looking to this day for, Iwant a photograph of that moment,

(01:29:00):
autographed by Bobby Nystrom.
I want that for my house.
And I haven't gotten it yet, but I will.
That's pretty epic.
I remember meeting Bobby or another Bobbyfrom the Boston Bruins because my dad did
some business around him in like the lateseventies and early eighties.
I remember just being like six years oldmeeting Bobby or and just knowing that

(01:29:22):
he's the guy from the poster fullyoutstretched, you know, like with a hockey
stick out in his hand.
And I was like, that's the guy.
And so I hear you.
I got luckier.
I got I get that photo.
It's all over the internet.
Yours?
A little bit tricky, but we're going tohelp you find that.
gotta find, I'm sure it's out there.

(01:29:42):
And it's like the memory is like soembedded in my head, even though I was
eight, you know, like almost nine yearsold or something at the time, that it's
almost like I haven't had to go find theactual photo, because it's like here in my
head, it's always been there.
So we'll get it though.
I'm tracking.
All right, man.
This has been absolutely amazing.

(01:30:03):
Thank you for joining us today.
And if people want to learn more about youand where to find you and the things that
you're up to, where do they go looking?
Thank you.
Go to midlifemail .com.
You can subscribe to the newsletter, thepodcast, get everything there.
We're real close to doing a new rebrandrelaunch.
So super, super excited about all thecontent that's going up there.

(01:30:25):
Articles, writers, podcast episodes,everything.
You're home for all things midlife mail.
And on Instagram, it's at Greg Scheinman.
Not hard to find at all.
No, that's awesome.
And we'll put all that, of course, in theshow notes.
and to everyone out there, thank you forlistening, for watching.
you can find the cult of recreationalismon all podcasting services.

(01:30:48):
And don't forget to check us out onYouTube or social media at Bob's naturals.
just look us up.
You'll find us.
And of course leave a thumbs up if youlike a five star, whatever platform you're
on.
Hey, leave a one star.
If we suck, let us know we suck.
We'll get, we'll make it better.
but every positive review does help.
Greg, this has been an absolute pleasure.
Thank you for joining us.

(01:31:09):
Thank you.
Appreciate it.

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Greg Scheinman | Ep. 18

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Greg Scheinman | Ep. 18