Ryan Sheckler: I Could Have Done More with That Million | Forward Progress

Skateboarding and reality TV star Ryan Sheckler reflects on his evolving relationship with money, including earning his first $100K before he could drive and “wasting” more than $1M with material things like bottle service, penthouse suites and private jet flights. Sheckler also talks of current business interests, including Sandlot Times, Palm Springs Surf Club and a potential deal involving a chain of tattoo shops.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
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Ryan Sheckler. First time you're in six figures

(00:23):
you were held. First time I got a six figure.
Oh bro, it must have been early on.
First time I made 100 grand. I don't know 1415.
Did your parents stop being ableto claim you as a dependent when
you were like 9 I think? Yeah, yeah.

(00:47):
What do you think you'd learned about money, you going through
all that or, you know, having the resource at that early an
age? And now?
Reflecting. On it.
What I learned about money at a young age was that it was like,
it was pretty much kind of a freedom, freedom ticket for me,
you know, like if I wanted to go, you know, take my family out

(01:12):
to dinner, I like, I, I could, you know, and like a lot of the
times on trips, I felt really bad that my brother wasn't with
me and that Shane wasn't with me.
And so I would try to, I would try to make up for it with, with
gifts, you know, and, and he'd be stoked and it was cool.
But even thinking right now, bro, like money didn't really
have a grip on me until I was 18.

(01:35):
It wasn't important to me until I was getting ready to buy a
house, until I wanted to buy jewelry.
It was all material things, you know, I wanted to have a
Ferrari. So like the goal was to like get
that by the time I was 18, you know, and so got that.
That was a goal. Was I satisfied?
No, it wasn't like I kept thinking that all these things
that I was buying, we're going to give me this like sense of

(01:56):
joy. And they did for a little bit,
you know, but like it was empty.It was very empty.
And you know, I've wasted, I've wasted over $1,000,000 for a
bottle service and, you know, tables at clubs and penthouse
suites and, you know, flying private and whatever it may be,

(02:17):
all these like material things that I look back on now.
And it's like, man, kind of wishI would have saved that, you
know, $1,000,000, you know, because then I could have maybe
bought some real estate or like bought assets that like are
actually creating revenue and not just, you know, pretty much
burning, burning it. Or, you know, could have done

(02:40):
more with that million, could have really put the $1,000,000
just into the foundation and gone out and helped and, and
actually been able to do more than what we're doing.
Obviously I talk about going back, but I wouldn't change
anything that my life has been because it's set me right here,
right now, clear headed and motivated.
Before you made it big, what wasthe most creative way you went

(03:02):
about saving money to get something special for yourself
or someone else? We would say I would set a goal.
I would set a goal with my agentand with my mom and, you know,
if I wanted a new car or a new watch or something like that, it
would be I'm going to win this contest.
Or if I at the end of this year and the state championship or,

(03:24):
or win the championship of this,then I'm going to then I'm going
to splurge. And so for me, it's always been
goal setting. I've always been a goal setter.
So it wouldn't really be like walk outside and I'm going to go
get a car today. You know, even though on the
show it made it look like we just went out one day and bought
an Escalade. It was like, no, that that was
planned. You know, we plan to do that.

(03:46):
But Magic Television made it look like I just woke up and
decided to go spend 70 grand on a car.
Business Today. Sandlot Times.
Tell me about how that came about.
Sandlot Times is representative of my skate park.
My friends derived from The Sandlot the movie, which is like

(04:11):
one of them. I get the chills.
It's random. I love that movie because of the
the fellowship that these guys have, you know, they stick
together, they ride together, they all show up at the same
park and they just have fun. They lose track of time
completely and they're just hanging out and playing.
And as an adult, my skate park is The Sandlot.

(04:34):
That's pretty much the new, you know, life of Ryan, let's put it
that way. You know, our Sheckler sessions
that I used to do with Red Bull.But it's mine, you know, it's
mine. We own the content.
What's to? Say here about Palm Springs Wave
Company. Yeah, Palm Springs Surf Club, so
new standstill wave wave pool that's coming in and super

(04:59):
excited to be a partner in it. You know, it's, it's pretty
awesome to be able to go out to Palm Springs, golf around and
then show up at the wave pool and surf for four hours and just
get barreled. I got to, I luckily got to ride
the, the test wave, the sample wave and just from the sample

(05:20):
wave, the ride on it hooked me, dude.
And to think that it's going to be 3 times bigger, like wider
pool, longer rides, bigger wave left and right, maybe even a
split peak. There's an air section.
It's just like it's a playground.
It's actually a playground for surfing.
There might be the desire at some point on your end and

(05:42):
creating a chain of tattoo shops.
It would be cool for me. It's like, I think that music
and sports and tattoos kind of all go together these days, you
know? And a goal of mine, you know,

(06:02):
with with one of the companies that I'm a part owner and
Ethica, you know, that's kind ofa branch where we're going down
right now is the music side, youknow, and I think with the
studio that they've created and kind of the atmosphere that is
going on with the brand that a tattoo company or tattoo set up

(06:28):
goes right in with it. And that's funny, you know,
about that. It's interesting that you know
about that. That's in that's like really
right at now at the beginning ofeven conversations of doing it.
But yes, ideally I've spent a lot of time at the tattoo shop.

(06:48):
I hadn't noticed, yeah. A lot of time tattoo shop, I
love obviously getting tattoos. I have to slow down a little
bit. I don't have much room left.
So it's, you know, it's a fun world.
It's a painful world, but it's fun.
How much credit do you give to your agent Steve for the the
success you've had a lot of business in?
Steve asked the fan. Bro, it's like family.

(07:11):
He absolutely is family to me. I remember our first meeting, he
said. Ryan, if you promise me 10 years
of hard work, I will make you a millionaire and we'll get you to
a point where you never have to work again.
I promised him, said yeah, absolutely.
And that was like that was 13 to23.

(07:32):
And those were the some of the gnarliest, hardest working years
of my absolute life. That's it for now, but if you're
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