Brendan Schaub: From UFC Fighter To Comedian & Podcaster

Back to the point of you know getting t toss in the deep end, you know, I'm doing Stand up for about two years. I think I'm the fastest comic to ever get a a network special at Shotime. So I was like, No, f for the most part people like, Oh, this guy's no two years, this is good for him. No, man, when you do that, what happens is

It actually pushes you further away from them. We're live now. Brendan Shop, what's going on? I'm Sam. This is Sean. Um We just get right into things, but We uh Sean and I have been

huge fans of you for a long time. You were both huge UFC fans. We go to a a bunch of those shows. Been watching you on Fire the Kid for a while. Uh, then the show with the O Vaughn. That was awesome. So we've been fans forever. I think uh we each actually might have a thick boy shirt. I love it. I don't know the shirt, just the body, actually. So I'm a real fan. I went all the way. Think's in the heart, fellas. Think in the heart. I don't drink, otherwise I would have your your whiskey. Whiskey. Yeah. But you know, you do lots of stuff.

Uh like I'll I'll kinda give like what I know about you, but basically You were you're from Colorado, played uh a little bit uh in the NFL. I don't know if you actually made the cut entirely, but you were like very serious uh for the Broncos. Went to the UFC. You did awesome. You knocked out some great guys. Um And then uh you got into show business via podcast. So you originally were just on Joe Rogan a bunch.

eventually launched your own thing and now you have Fire and the Kid, but you also have like three or four other podcasts, right? That I don't know how how how big are they? I mean, I know that you get you have mil uh hundreds of thousands of subscribers and I each video gets like hundreds of thousands of views, but I actually don't know like how big the Empire is. Yeah, sure. So just going back to like the football. Yeah, so I played uh Uh at University of Colorado for the buff. Who they just got Deion Sanders, so I'm excited about that.

Um and then I had a A cup of coffee with the Buffalo Bills and I got there and they're like, We're all set on slow white guys. So that broke my heart. And then I uh and then I uh Yeah, then from there I was selling supplements door to door, uh like to happiness style. And then I started training in jujutsu and bossing and then Next thing you know, you know, I'm I'm fighting grown men in a steel cage of my underwear. And then uh two years after I started trading, I was uh in the UFC I made it through uh the ultimate fighter was a finalist there.

We can both slice, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was the biggest season with Shad Evans and Rampage. Uh, Jackson. So yeah, and then you know, shortly after that, you know, there's a common theme in my life. It's like I get put in the deep end, man. It goes zero to a hundred in every aspect of my life. It's just this common theme throughout my entire career, whether it's comedy, football, fighting, whatever it is, podcasting, I get thrown in the deep and I gotta figure it out. So

Uh, I was in the UFC and then Right, two years in the air. Next thing I'm ranked top ten in the world. You know, and it was terrifying. Um, but then slowly after that I um

I moved to LA because I grew up in uh Venice Beach in the summers at my uncle's house when I was a uh a young boy. My dad would always bring me out here for the summers. So I've always felt, you know, a weird connection to Los Angeles, so Once I can make the move, I made the move and then I started a podcast. This is Damn near Eleven years ago, twelve years ago, I started a podcast called The Fighter and the Kid with Brian Callan.

And yeah, that thing took off and then now fast forward to twenty twenty three, I own a uh a podcast network. So the Think Boy Network where we have uh You know, probably around seven shows. You know, so yeah, so between the fire and the kid. The shop show, food truck diaries. Uh Fight Companion, uh The Golden Hour.

You know, it's uh it's going well. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Yeah, your uh your output's pretty insane. And you know, the thing about You you said you you got thrown in the deep end and and you're kinda right, like transitioning from football to UFC was a really short transition. And then you're doing it at the kind of the high level. You're in the actual U of C it takes most guys like a long, long amateur journey, then they go to a small promotion, then they go to a bigger promotion.

You kind of fast track that. And then In comedy you did the same thing where you kind of went from I'm a UFC fighter. I'm a comedian, so I got a special on Showtime really fast. And I think there's

Probably I don't know, y I don't know y how you think about it now, but like there's good and bad with with that fast track. On one hand. You learn fast. On the other hand, you kinda get your ass kicked because you're pushing the boundary Further than maybe you were ready for or had and you're learning publicly. Yeah, there you go. Correct. So it's uh

You know, in hindsight looking at it E even when I was in the UFC and in comedy. I just I I wish I had people around me that went slow. Down man. Now I'm fighting

You don't really have that option once you're in the UFC. You know, it's the big league. So The you know, they call you with Merco Crowkop or Matt Mitrione or you know Brock Lesnar, you got to take the fight. So you really don't have control there. I could have been smarter about making decisions when I was young, you know, and had a lot of belief in myself and

You know, eventually that experience catches up with you. You know, I c I was a lot more athletic than a lot of those heavyweights. That's why I exceled so fast, but Again, that's a blessing and a curse because And you get to a level where your fight is that with forty, fifty fights and they've seen a

athletic dude, you know, with a good right hand and no good wrestling, but you know, eventually, you know, you're the cheat code and it catches up to you and you there's nothing replaces experience. So Um that was a Blessing and a curse, a blessing as far as I was able to transition, get out and build a fan base and go into something I've always wanted to do. Nothing comedy You know, really, you know, it's true. When I started comedy, you know, um

I have some great mentors, you know, and Joe Rogan's like a brother and Brian Callan and Dio Vaughn and Tom Segur and Bert Chris and Joey D SL I have just this Pleth of just amazing comic that was around and I I I was only You know, I'd go to dinner with them and

Do all you know, the podcast with them, make'em laugh and they all encourage me to do stand up, which I you know, always wanted to do since I was a child. So You know, everyone told me it's g it's gonna be ten years before you find your voice. I'm like, Yeah, that you know, I'm never scared of hard work. Let's do it. So The the issue with that is You know, I get catapulted. You know, I'm instead of doing open mics.

You know, one of my first uh things I did was uh you know, Chicago theater, you know, um The Vic theater. How did you even start? Because it it's a big jump from Oh, this dude's funny when we hang out? Cratch jokes, bust ball. Oh yeah, this guy this guy's good. He's he's a funny guy to You're on stage and you gotta do a set. That's like that's like a

It's it's like a different thing all together. And you know, me and Sam we try to like um We we try to be Uh funny in our little pond. It's like you don't know how to be that funny to be the funniest business podcast. So we're we're we're a dwarf among midgets is what we are. Yeah it's like it's like you won't have that funny uncle at the party, you know, and if you're You know, if your your brother's like Man, I think you're really funny. Th there's a big difference between

Your family and friends going, Oh, you're funny, man, you should try stand up and then Bert Chris, Joe Rogan, Joey Diaz, Brian Callen, Chris Delian, Theo Vaughn going, dude, you need to stand up. But what did you even do though to to develop that first set? Are you reading a book? Are you uh are you just going to Joe Rogan's house with a notepad and being like, Hey, how do I write this shit? Oh. No, it's like sink or swim, so

You know, I had my ten thousand rep reps on podcasts with c comedians keeping up with them, making them laugh, being you know, really quick at it. And then really It it's almost the perfect situation in in order to get started in stand up. Because the final kid got you know, so popular we do live find the kids. But remember Brian Cal has been doing comedy for thirty years. So

When they we got off to do a live fighting the kid, I told Brian, I'm like, You ever been to a live podcast? They suck. Two guys on the They do the worst, dude. And Brian goes, No man. No, no, I've been show business for thirty years. We're gonna do performance. So I go, Okay, what do you want to do? So we came up with this whole idea to make it a show.

And uh Brian at the time knew I want to do stand up, but he didn't want to I guess scare me,'cause it is scary, you know, the especially doing friendly sold out crowds when most people are doing open minds. fifteen other salty comets, you know? So for me You know, doing it in a sold out crowd. Brian go I hear'cause Brian was always late to the podcast.

You know, I'm I'm very professional. I'm I'm I'm not late. I'm never late in Whatever twelve years of podcasts I've never been late. It's not what I do. So Brian would be late and he used to drive me nuts. I used to roast him every time come in late. He was like So our first live show

Let's keep up with the theme. We're gonna pretend I'm late, I'm not there, and you gotta start the show by yourself. So you're gonna tell a story for ten minutes and I'll come in, you get all upset, we do the whole act. I'm like, All right, cool. I'm like I can handle that. So I tell a story'cause I was good telling stories. So that carries on for, you know, four or five shows and then again we're at I forget probably Portland or Seattle, some sold out theater.

And uh I'm back stage before the the crowd I'm pretty nervous. I tell Brian, I go, Man, I don't know what story I'm gonna tell and You know, Brian was like frantic. You s you know, again, he's looking for something, he goes, What? I I don't know what story meant until you was what are you talking about? Story? No, you're doing stand up, dumbass. I was like Oh sh and then it just clipped.

I'm like, oh so storytelling You just told me that's'cause you don't want to scare me, I was crap. You're doing stand up, dude. And I was like, Oh, that's what I'm doing. So Shortly after that, I come the realization like this is stand up. It's just your way of doing it. So then

Um we do a live fight of the kid at the comedy store, you know, the world famous comedy store, which as a kid was like, you know, the Mecca. It's like Madison Square Garden for basketball. So I uh we do the Tommy store. Goes great. And then six weeks or six days later I'm driving, I get a call from the Mads of the Comedy Store Emily and she calls me and she goes Hey, Brent, this is Emily at the comedy store. I go, how you doing? She was great show the other day. I'm like, Thank you. She goes

Hey, we're seeing if you'd like to do a set in the belly room. S give give you six minutes. I go, let me call Brian Cow and see if he's available. She goes, No dumbass. Just you. You had a great set the other night like me? You want me to do stand up and summon your store? She goes.

Yeah, it's a it's in the small room, the belly room, but if you want six minutes, it's yours. So I was like, say less. So I did that and then it was just You know, that was in two thousand Fourteen, two hundred fifteen ish, like early two hundred fifteen, probably right around end of two hundred fourteen. And then just you know, you get that bug and then

It's after the races, man. You know, I knew it was you know, it takes a takes a lot of work, but back to the point of you know, getting t toss the deep end, you know, I'm doing Stand up for about two years. I think I'm the fastest comic to ever get a a network special at Shotime. And You know, I I I just

In in my eyes, I thought at the time uh how that special don't get me wrong, I I challenge any comment just within two year two years to do a network special and have sixty minutes, you know? That was it. As good as Bill Burr's special? No. But in my head, I thought People would see that and go, Oh my God, for only do it two years, look at this guy. See how much better he's gonna get in four years, and five years, and ten years, and fi we're just gonna be out in fifteen years.

But a lot of people don't have that insight. They don't give a shit about that. They don't see it like that. And you know, I and again, you know, this is a while ago, so I was young and I've I always It it might be it could be an asset or it could be a huge gaping hole that I have, but I always see the best of people in society. Like I don't pay attention to hate. Everything's all good. You know, I just I you know, I gravitate towards positivity. So I was like, No, f for the most part, people like, Oh, this guy's no two years, this is good for him.

No, man. When you do that, what happens is It actually pushes you further away from them. I thought it would bring me closer to being legit and be like my peers. No, it pushes you farther away because A lot of those guys that I mentioned earlier on. And even outside of those guys, a lot of famous comedians, it took them fifteen

Twenty years to get network special. So there's a lot of It's not even jealousy it's just like you know, it just it rubs people the wrong way. And I didn't see that coming, I gotta be honest. And I don't think Really anybody did.

You know, but it is what it is. You know, you do that and then you move on. And you just keep grinding and you go to the next one, the next one. So Um yeah, it's been interesting, man. It's been really interesting. I learned on the fly, I also learned the hardest way. That's the only way I make changes. I learned the hard way. So Um

I mean, I wouldn't change anything. You know, things were pretty good. Are you the the CEO of the network now? I mean how you're having to be the talent and you're running the business? Yeah, heavy lies the crown, man. So I grew up in a a business minded family. My dad's a entrepreneur. Um, you know, he's always been business minded. I have a uh a double major from University of Colorado in sociology and business. So I was gravitated towards business.

And you know, I worked for Showtime for six years. I built their entire, you know, podcast branch, which is crushing it now. And shout out to Brian Daly and You know, at the end of six years, so this is December last year, twenty twenty two. Six months prior, they offered me another six year contract and I I was just looking around and Shoottime was great to me. You know, I was getting a salary and you know, they're reaping all the benefits. It was good for both sides. I thought, man, I

I feel like I could do this on my own. You know, I am an entrepreneur. I feel like I could I see what they build. And you know, and I've helped them out a lot. They've helped me out a lot. I feel like I can invest in myself and do this on my own. So I turned down the contract and was like, I'm gonna do it on my own start, Thick Boy Studios. Then I owned all the I Ps to the all the shows that I started with them, so I brought that over. And it's just you know, it in hindsight I I didn't

The You know, I didn't really know who to talk to. Nob nobody in my lane kinda has done this where you leave a major network in podcasting and bring it over On your own. And it's it's a different animal when you're

Not only are you talent, but you also running. Did you raise it did you raise money for that or did you just self fund it? What'd you do? Yeah, self funded it from all the other shows and stand up. I just put all my money into that. And then whenever I start a new thing, I'm like Yeah, people are like, Oh, congrats. And I'm like uh

Ask me in a year. Like we'll find out. We're what's gonna be fun to find out, like this is either a bad idea It's an all right idea or it's an amazing idea. We'll find out'cause it you know, I go into things relatively blind. Like I don't do a ton of research before I go into things, but I you know I got confidence I'll figure things out eventually. But the reality is that some some ideas are better than others. So a year in now Owning your own podcast network. Is this a bad idea, good, okay, good idea, or is it an amazing is it an amazing business?

I think it's still too early to tell me where you're in. Financially am I making more money? Yes. But you know, that can't just be the the main focus, you know,'cause my life's more complicated. You know, my life's more complicated. I've less free time. So what's that worth? You know, so there's like these pros and cons that think about'cause at Shotime.

I was the talent. I would create shows. They would make it happen. You know, and They would have the employees and the creative team and the producers and the editors and I was I would come up with ideas, they would execute it, I would sit down, knock it out.

Great, get paid for that and move on and Just not worry about You know, the next day or the next week. Now it's a little different. Now You know, um

I would say one of my biggest Kind of um Fault is Not like I'm I'm a control freak, so I need help.

And and I I'm getting there, but and I just you know You want somebody to care as much about your business as you do. That's impossible to find and You know with showtime. They're CBS. So they're doing all the right stuff as far as hiring and you know, and bring in the right people.

And I didn't take that into consideration. Like hiring you know hard is to find good employees and people that actually care and can get the job done, they mold with the team and gel with the team. So It's just those kind of dynamics I didn't think about Manaso When you had showtime, you know, for six years and we started with zero subscribers.

Then six years later at like Six hundred thousand, you know, a well known in the space. Right for awards. You're starting from s Dear dead zero again. So so that six years that you built for them, that doesn't come with you. I don't own that showtime page. That's their so

You should start from zero again. I think we're like a hundred and sixty, one hundred and seventy thousand now a year in, which Is it bad, but It's you know, it it takes time to keep chipping away, chipping away. So What about uh listener like Sean and I the metrics that we know is downloads

Which is when we describe downloads as like Spotify, YouTube. And also iTunes and all that shit. What are you what what's the size of your biggest show, I think, is Fire and the Kid. What what size are you guys at now for that? We we do we look at it per episode because otherwise you can get a lot of downloads if you just pump out more and more episodes. Like per episode is the real real deal for I think for for these shows. Well see so finally kid and the golden hour, which is formerly known as King of the Sting with the Ovon, so Finally King and King is staying, even though they're on the Thinkboy network. Those haven't changed those under my banner.

But those have those those weren't part of Showtime at all. Showtime was Uh Below the Belt, which is now the shop show, Food Truck Diaries. Um, and some other shows and then I wasn't doing fight to pay with them. That's all new. So

You know, I would say probably Cut my audience in half. You know, pry it half. Well and what but what's the fighter and the kid at? Finally Ken. I mean now we're now we're going down uh you know, you're going down a

a different road because there's factors there That Have You know Cause that showed like

You know, you when you're doing for twelve years, th it's like this. You know, it's like this. So You know, we've been as high as six hundred thousand episode, as low as a hundred thousand episode. So that that And it's

You know, there's been some outline factors. You know, that that caused those issues, so Yeah, and then with the changing of King of the Sting with Theo leaving, you're talking about a whole new show. So you start from basically from scratch again to start with Christalia. And here Griffin, it's completely different show, the Dead Eamics completely different. So you're reinducing that show to

Kind of a the although it there was an audience there, I think we're at five hundred thousand subscribers. Those five hundred thousand subscribers were there for Theovana Brenda Job. So when you go, All right, well here's Brandon and Crystal and Eric. Some people will know we like to dialogue with Theo and Brendan, so That's fairly new. You know, that's about six months old, so

You know, that one's probably around one hundred fifty, two hundred thousand just on YouTube. But um I think a lot of people in podcasting Because It's the thing in twenty twenty three is if you look at YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube.

Audio's cake. Most for the most part, people listen to podcasts on their way to work or when they're at the office. No we sit down watching a podcast for two hours or three hours, where h however long your podcast is. Audio is key.

So my main metric that I focus on is always audio. Now if audio start to go down, we got problems. Yeah, we're at like W we'll we'll have guests on every once in a while and They'll be like, Are you guys big? And more and they'll just look at the YouTube and like our YouTube only gets like thirty thousand, twenty thousand, all the way up to two hundred thousand per episode.

But then our audio it's like consistently a hundred, two hundred thousand ish or something like that. Like consistently every single time. Crush. And that and that's crushing it. And I'm like, No, it's Pretty big. It's just like you can't see those numbers. But our

Our audio, I mean, it's like that's like as true to subscription as you can get because it's just consistently a big Yeah, audio's king but this new generation of podcasters coming in, you know, see the Logan Pauls or the And you should to the world and You know, Rogan was massive on YouTube, but it's Again it and I don't know what Logan Paul's numbers are as far as audio. Logan Paul's a buddy I

Guess I could find out, but Because he's a YouTuber, his his numbers are massive on YouTube. I'd be curious to see what his audio's like,'cause again, audio is king in podcasting. So I never focus on YouTube too much. Now if there's a decline, you're like all right, we gotta figure this out. And we'll work to it. But if my audio's solid, I don't you know, I'm not

There's no red flags. What's your ambition level in terms of this business, like Are you are you are you thinking like I think we can get to ten million revenue? Or is it like I wanna exit for a hundred million, I think we can get to fifty million in revenue. Where do you w where's like your Not quite North Star, but like your two, three, five year goal. Yeah, that's a that's a great question. Um

Rob Derek's a good buddy and he's such a I don't know. Rob Derek would be great if we go to the w we've had we've had him on and he killed it. We we we were a I I think we were a little bit early in his like public business persona and we had him and he blew us away. He was amazing. Yeah, I I I've known Rob for years, so I always knew he was this like so violent when it comes to business. He makes so many great decisions and He came into the Thick Boy Studios here in Calabasas and I was probably I don't know.

Two or three months into it, you know, so you're still trying to figure it out and He's looking around and he's like, Man, this is cool. And he's asking all these questions. They kept going You know, what's your goal? What's your goal? What's your goal? And finally, I think he was even on there. I'm like, dude, chill, dude. I was like, um Let me get to cruising altitude and get to Wi Fi before I start figuring out goals. Like I this thing's just taken off. Once I get to cruising altitude, I'll let you know the goal. So

We're kinda getting to cruising altitude. I I no I don't know what the goal is. I think once I get to the network where I think it could be at that I would start. looking at other options, but The other thing I would say too when as far as business, whether it's whiskey, merge, whatever it is.

Even stand up podcasting. I've never done anything for money. Ever. I do it because I love to do it. And it's fun for me and it's what I wanna do. If it makes money, fantastic. Man, that's great. But if it doesn't, all good. It's something I wanna do.

So Hopefully this thing goes great and Makes a ton of money and I can Retire. When I say retire, do less shows, but with just More money in the bank, but

Um, I love doing it. That's why I started it. So so hopefully You know, when we do this show and you know, three years or five years I'm talking to you guys and we're celebrating some big Moment, but I couldn't tell you what that looks like. And that might be a problem. I mean you guys are the business guys. Is that a problem that I don't have Sort some sort of end goal here.

So I don't think you gotta have an uh and like what people want like a five year plan. And you're you're kinda taught this at a young age. Like you're eighteen years old, what you gonna major in? Uh I thought, dude, I don't know. I don't know shit about shit yet. Um so people are often pushing for that. It's great when you have it. So I always say that If you know the direction you want to go, you know the outcome, it's great when you have it.

But The reality is most people don't have it right off the jump and that's totally normal. You just got to get in motion, get momentum, because as you start going, you'll start navigating, you'll start you'll get a better vantage point. It's like you start climbing the mountain, you're higher up. You can see more. And that'll give you a little more but I do what I do think helps is

A vision for your life. So a vision for w like what kind of What do you want to do with your life, your talents or like so for example I might not know. Oh, I'm trying to hit this revenue target, or I'm trying to sell in X years or whatever. But I do usually know Man, it'd be fucking awesome if

Dude, what if my job was I literally get to sit down with my friend Sam and we just shoot the shit about business? And what if there were millions of people listening to that? Wouldn't that be cool? Yeah. All right. That's literally when I started this podcast. It was m I was walking around with a friend, we had just signed the paperwork to sell my my First company. And he was like, What do you want to do next?

And Th in Silicon Valley where I live, there's only one answer. I'm gonna start another company. It's gonna be bigger and badder than the one before that. There's only one socially acceptable answer in Silicon Valley. It's like in Hollywood. If you're not trying to make it, what are you doing here? And so But I gave him the honest answer. I go, You know what? I think what Tim Ferris does is awesome. It seems like that dude gets to wake up.

Just be curious about shit, run experiments, learn about things. And then he just Takes the coolest stuff he learns. He ta he just gets to talk about it? And a million people have'em in in their ears. And he gets to influence a million smart people by sharing little nuggets. I go, that would be awesome. I wanna be in a million people's earballs. And that's just what I kept saying, I wanna be in a million people's earballs. And he was like, dude, I never even heard that word, but like

I he go he goes that's a Like that's like a vision for like what would be an awesome life. So I I think that sometimes you don't have to m have the number. But it is cool to have a Man, that'd be awesome if my life was X, or if I was able to do that do X. I remember uh

I remember talking to you guys know Justin Kahn. Justin Kahn so Sean actually sold his company to Twitch. Justin Kahn's one of the guys who started Twitch. You know, they sold it for a billion dollars. I I I was talking to him backstage one time, like two years or three years after the sale. We're at uh an event I was hosting and he was like uh I was like, What are you gonna do next, Justin? And he goes Ten billion. I want to go after ten billion and uh it didn't work it didn't work out for him, by the way. It didn't work out and like he I I remember I read like this blog post where he was like

I was motivated to like outdo what I did before. Partially out of like It was like a it was like r rage, like out of rage and out of like a chip on my shoulder, which is actually I think great fuel. But like I was in it for the wrong motivations and and it didn't work out. But

Something Sean has said that I said it differently, but he said it better, which was A B Z, which is like I I like to do this all the time. I'm like all right, step one is A, step two is B I don't need to worry about anything else in between that, but step Z Is like one day, maybe

Maybe one day this becomes a billion dollar company, but let's just focus on getting to a million in revenue or let's just focus on like paying the rent. And then after that, maybe we could hire a handful of people and then I'll figure out the rest. But maybe one day it could become this. And that's like a fun way to like That's like a fun North Star to like help some decision making. It's also very motivational. You're like, I'm doing this for this reason. It's also less pressure where you know, I and you know Well, I think having that entrepreneur spirit that I was born with from my dad, um, you guys it seems like you guys have the same thing, too. You'd have to be the success you've reached.

Uh you know. I never stop and smell the roses ever. It's always what's next, what are we gonna do next? And What makes us successful and this next thing, the next thing and In my sports career and even in comedy I never just stopped and

You know, smell the roses. I'm constantly, constantly pushing, constantly pushing You know, I don't know if that leads to happier life. You know, I think sometimes you check and go It you're doing it's all good, man. If nothing changes.

Your life's pretty frickin' great, Matt. If you just stay here It's it's all good, but I j I wish I was more like that. You know I uh

I don't know what else I could get that would make me happy. I I guess if uh you know if I'd have to fly commercial my life would change. That'd be great, you know, but outside that, like things are good. Yeah, if I yeah, if I didn't have to fly commercial. I hate flying, but Well you hey, I I see you got the nice nine eleven's you got the cool Ferraris, I mean you got the toys. Yeah. Private night. A nice next step. Yeah, if you would have told ten year old Brendan, you know, some of the stuff he'd be doing, some of the stuff you'd have, you'd be like, Holy man, this is insane, dude. Good for you you made it, but I don't feel like we always talk about him in the pod. We say A lot of people ask like What advice would you give your twenty one year old self or your your your fifteen year old self?

And we asked the opposite question. It's like what would our fifteen year old self say to us now if it could look at our life now and be like Dude, you're unhappy? Look at your shit, man. Like are you joking? You got to marry her and you get to do this every day, like You better be smiling, bro. Like that's what I that's what my teenage self would be telling me right now. Uh, and that's almost a good reminder. It's like Like I always say dogs and kids got it figured out.

And uh I wanna be more like my I wanna learn more and be more like my dog and my kids because all day is play, everything is good, they're happy, they're grateful. Like We get we get things screwed up when we get older. And and do you guys have kids? I got two little ones. Yeah, I've a I've a seven and three year old and

I don't think I've ever been as happy in my life as my two boys were yesterday. I bought them two uh I bought'em three lizards. I was like, man, if I could just that level happiness one time. Bearded lizards, one time, my life is complete. Yeah, can't give you a different perspective on things, man. You know, I might be stressed out about work or so I might come home and That stuff goes out the window. You know, there's nothing better than being a dad. Uh, Tony Robbins, if if you've I don't know if you've ever been been to one of his events or or looked into his stuff, but like

Most people think, Oh, Tony Robinson I I I don't need motivation or that's like a cult thing or whatever. I've been to a bunch of them and I I find it really, really useful. It's it's a good I don't know, I'm not very religious, so it's a good operating philosophy for life. But one of the things he says is he's like You got on one hand the the the sorta the the science of success.

And that's ki I think what you've kind of done done well, which is Whether I'm going into f football Or fighting or comedy or podcasting or now the business side. There's the The science of success is basically like

There's an approach to set you know Figuring out a target, working hard every day, making progress, like taking it seriously, all that stuff. And then there's the art of fulfillment. And they're unrelated. And if you wanna have like the full the the complete life, you gotta figure out, Oh, just like I learned the skills

of how to be successful, I gotta learn the skills how to be fulfilled. And the magic happens when you sort of integrate the two. Can you Both Like create new projects and try to be successful. While being fulfilled. Because what most people do is They go for that success thing mostly from a point of view of like um

You know try to prove themselves or it's like a it's like some some insecurity a a lot of times that that will drive it. No, I love that. Yeah, I think uh Yeah, for me, I I do a pretty good job. I'm trying to stop and smell the roses a little bit. So I'm doing a better job. My kids help me get there. And then I think a lot of

mistakes that people make, whether it's business, entertainment, you know, stand up comedians is Especially with social media now. That's why I'm not a big social media guy. Is you can always compare yourself to somebody doing better. So For your friend that made a billion, next thing was ten billion'cause She saw a guy make ten billion. So if you're constantly chasing that comparing yourself to others

That's where the happiness never comes. So I try not to compare myself to the others, especially me,'cause my journey's so different than those guys. That I look up to. So You know, my journey's gonna be different, man. Whatever that looks like. And I just have to accept that, which I try to do.

I was reading something yesterday that reminded me of you, Brennan, which was uh I was reading a blog post. Sam put out this great tweet asking for what's the best blog post you ever read. And one of them was this thing called the the co uh The f what was it? The physics of passion. He basically goes uh there's this thing called the Kool-Aid point. He draws this graph. As you do shit. And people start to like your work or admire you or love you or become a fan of you.

You'll it kinda grows steady, steady, steady. And then there's this point. Uh he calls this the Kool-Aid point where it kinda takes off. He goes, then you're gonna have two groups of people. You're gonna have a bunch of people that love you and a few people that hate you. He goes, What happens is And he goes he's here's how you'll know you're there.

People accuse your fans of just drinking the Kool-Aid. They love everything you do, but sight unseen, and they're they're Kool-Aid drinkers. That's how you know if you have people that can be described as that, you've hit the Kool-Aid point. On the other side, you're gonna have people who wanna tear you down, uh the haters, you know, quote unquote. And um and and you know, at first they're they're they're always a small group, but they're kinda loud. And some people even support them and be like, Oh, you're you're speaking truth to power, you're you're calling it like it is, you're you're kind of exposing this person or this this brand or whatever it is. Yeah. And you got both. And it so I was reading that and when I knew we had this pod today and I was like oh dude he's he's liv he's lived that point because you know you have for people who don't know You got a big fan base. You got a big anti fan base. And uh the anti fan base, I think it's on and on Reddit. I go to this subreddit a bunch, but I'm not like like I it's weird. I like you, but I also find it funny. Like

They're so clever. These people are kind of done so funny. But they're also funny in the same way, like it's kind of this this double thing. I'm curious like For you Obviously that's like You know, it's probably funny for me'cause I'm outside of it. I'm not the person that's the butt of the joke in s in some of these cases, but

You know, me and Sam got maybe one one hundredth of the like kind of the the passion and hate that you that you have because you've been doing this a long time. You've you've made it pretty big. But when I read our YouTube comments And I see something like that. It's stings in the moment, but also There's a lot of times where I'm like, they're not wrong. Like

You know, the uh the there there is some truth to where they're they're being a dick about it. But there's some truth to w what they're saying. I I could see that. I'm curious for you, when you when you hear about the the sort of the stuff on the subreddit or you s check it out or whatever. Do you have any moments where you're like All right. They're kinda being mean about it or they're being a dick about it, but there's some truth to what they're saying.

I mean yeah, I'm sure you know I don't In all honesty, I'd I don't pay attention to it. I think you it's a it's a bad thing whether you pay attention to the negativity or the positivity. Yeah, I think you just gotta keep doing your thing. You know, my heroes growing up didn't live this world. You know, so it's it can't be healthy. I think we'll find over years How it affects the brain, how it affects creatives and businessmen with

who do pay pay attention to that stuff and read the comments and stuff like that. So I don't wanna be that sample size. I'm not gonna be able to get the digital CTE of comments every day. Yeah, I already have enough C T, man. I'm about to drive my Porsche up the PCH. But um I think it's a With the Reddit group, yeah.

You it it it's interesting because You know, the watch everything you do. And th there's there's some things that I'm on board with and then The own there's a small slight group on there who are just evil. So there's difference between hate, which I get.

I give you a lot to hate on. I do a lot of content. I make a lot of jokes. I fend a lot of people. I get that. You don't get to a certain level without giving a lot of haters. You just don't. If you look at Logan Paul, Drake. LeBron James name some

the massive celebrities that we have in this world. There and you go online, you read their comments, or my buddy Joe Rogan. Nobody no, I don't know anybody who gets more hate than that guy. Be it's more love. You know, I'm in the business of likability. So if you watch my podcast, you buy a ticket to my Stand up, you buy the merch, you buy the whiskey.

You're a fan. I make a living off likability. So I just don't I don't give the hate energy as far as the Reddit goes. I get it. Um Some of'em are really funny and I appreciate those guys, whether it's good or bad towards me.

It gets a little dicey when they they wanna I just I don't understand when they cross when they cross the line when it gets into my personal lines. Right. I'm not Tom Cruise, dude. Why the fuck you give us who cares about that stuff? You know, and thank God my wife She's been with me since I was in the UFC. So when you're fighting the UFC, you get a lot of love, you get a lot of hate. There's no in between if you're doing it right. So she's conditioned to that. She doesn't pay attention to it. She doesn't care, you know, at this point. So thank God for that.

But The only time I don't like is when they make it super personal. It's about the kids. It's about, you know, certain things, but You know, nobody's harder Uh on on on me than myself. You know, there's nothing they can say that I don't tell myself usually on a daily basis. And trust me, it's way worse whatever they're putting out. So

Although I you know, I get it, I appreciate it and you know, I just don't give it energy. I think one of the things that I have going for me is You know. I post and ghosts.

I don't pay attention to that stuff, but then I'm also you know, I'm on the road, whatever it is. thirty weekends a year. Uh you know, if I I get down this interview, I'm going to get coffee. I can't go down the street without somebody to love you, man. So To that's real. That's what I care about. Social media it's a factor for sure.

But It's not the end all be all. I think when people realize that that one in If you're walking down the street, one in ten people are on social media. Especially on Twitter, that you can't give all your self value, your self worth of what social media is, you're gonna live a much happier life. So That Reddit group, they're gonna do their thing.

You know, and that comes with the territory that I was built for. That's why God gave me big shoulders, but Um you know, I they're gonna click that. They're gonna love that one. Yeah, I I think I was built for it. And then also you look you know, if you look at me, I know You know, I probably look like the guy that bulled you in high school. They'll use some of that, you know, like oh, Brendan's a bully or whatever, and I know I look like the guy, but If they actually knew me, no, these people know me. They've never met me. You know, they're not buying tickets to a show, so I don't give it energy'cause If I did, I wouldn't have a business. I wouldn't have this house that I'm talking to you guys in right now. So

Um You know, I I think It it it get the lines get blurred where it's like, Oh, he's a big strong guy. He's fighting you, he can handle this. We there's no limits. Everything's On off limits. He he there's nothing off limits. We can go as hard as we want. It's like it actually hurts my feelings, man. It's actually not cool, you know, but

I jokes I'm all for. I'm all for man, I'm professional comic. We roast each other, we do our thing. So if it's funny, it's witty. Fire away. When you start going towards

Once once you start going towards the personal side. Well then you've cross the boundary, you know? Now Also, if you want to have this conversation in person, you wanna send me? We can do that.

I can do that. We can just see how it goes for you. That's never happened. As long as I've been in entertainment, I've never run into anybody that said something to my face. So I just I get what they're doing. If it's funny, it's witty and they're gonna do their thing. I actually appreciate it. But when he crossed the boundary.

Then you did you disrespect me a different way? You know, that that's where I have an issue with it. Why is the issue with it? It means it hurts my feelings. I'm not gonna do nothing, to you. I'm not gonna be the I'm not the bully you expect me to be. But also I think That

that subreddit has crossed the point. Not all of them. Some of them were actually just funny and they're fans and They just show it in a different way and I understand that at my age. But you know, a lot of them have crossed that boundary where You know, they hide behind the keyboard and they want to do evil things, which I just I don't understand. That's to me it's like, and for what?

For what? Because I do stand up. You don't have to buy a ticket. Because I do. Free podcast that triggers you? Right.

Yeah, so I just I'm just cut from a different cloth. I j I'm just a positive person. Now There's some podcasters that will lean into it and If there's beef between comics, the the lean into that and they like that.

that controversy and that drama all the time, like it's real Housewives of LA. And I would probably be much more famous much further along my career if I entertained that. I just can't do it. Sometimes I think. I should try that.

It's just not what I do. I don't like being negative. I'm a positive person. I enjoy helping people out. So you know, it's just Heavy lies to crown with that stuff, man. You were you were saying how when you moved out. No, it's good. Where there oh hold you know, someone's gonna clip that. Some hater will clip that. Hopefully but somehow, hopefully that hate pushes us forward somehow. But you were talking about moving to LA and how that was like a big change.

You basically like Sean and I both lived in San Francisco when we started internet companies and like having a crew, we were in each other's crew and we had a handful of others. where you like succeed together. That's like the greatest thing ever because like it's it's A, it's fun and B, it's actually useful. Like you g you piggyback off each other and you and you motivate one another and you actually like You invest in each other, whatever. It's like practical. You're in this cool world, it's like

You, Bobby Lee, Theo Vaughn, Crystalia, Andrew Santino. Uh Andrew Schultz is a little bit outside of that, but somewhat inside of that. Joe Rogan. Yeah, you got this like crew and like it doesn't like ten years ago You know, there was Rogan, but there weren't really like a lot of like comedy YouTube channels like or podcasts. But right now, like if I go on my

YouTube app. Like it's basically like a Theo Vaughn or Brendan Schab clip, like constantly, or like the the clip of Bobby Lee t telling the story about uh Uh the Down syndrome thing. Spiral clip in uh comedy podcast history. It's hilarious. It's so funny where he talks about getting molested by a Down syndrome guy. It's one of the funniest. I mean it it's so like I can't go on without seeing like a funniest bits from whatever, like and it's like someone in your crew. What's that like behind the scenes? Like are you guys uh is this like a um

Like Sean and I sometimes when we want to get like popular on X, Y, and Z, we're like, Hey, can you like this? Can you share this? Or hey, do you want to come on my thing? You come like it's like it's it's somewhat organized, somewhat Or or just sharing like sharing being like yo, I'm doing this and it's working. Like uh Yes. You know, um what's that like You know why? Yeah, like a group text when when you're like Hey Theo, like uh I've found that like this type of like'cause you guys uh and by the way, I don't know if we told you this. If you go and look at when we first started MFM, My First Million. We just bought the same fucking red sofa lounge chairs that you had because Oh I love it. Because I would see those on the I would see those on the thumbnail and I'm like

Like you make it makes you want to click it. And I noticed that you and Theo, particularly you, I bet you probably started it. You have these like pretty eye catching studios. They're they're not like particularly fancy, but they're just like They're just like an eye catching and you're changing them constantly. And I've noticed Theo does the same thing. He's constantly changing the the set. Same with Andrew Schultz.

Are you guys like sharing all these tactics like Uh when we're doing this, it's working or like here's how much we're paying for blank or like you guys let's pump each other aro around this thing. Yeah, you know, going back to kind of the the whole like kind of it's it was almost like a team, you know, and I you know, the team captain all this starts from Joe Rogan. So before I hit the comment But he doesn't give a shit about any of that, does he? He just does whatever the fuck he wants and it sometimes it works. He does whatever he wants and he's the leader of the pack, but He's also the reason why We embrace each other and you know

five, six years ago, seven years ago at the comedy store is the comedy rap hack. And we were the we were the rat pack and we were the guys and every show was sold out, our names on the marquee. And Rogan, there was a There was Kind of uh

No, their structure. Like we don't tear each other down, we support each other. Um, and I heard Isaiah Thomas say this when he went on uh my uh boys podcast, uh All the Smoke with Matt Barnes. Um and uh Isaiah Comment said this and it really resonated with me. He was on there.

He's talking about Michael Jordan. And he goes Clearly I'm not a black man. I don't know if you guys know this or not, but I'm not black, but it's actually not that clear, by the way. You could be. If you told me you had a little in you, it wouldn't be surprising. It's not that clear, actually. Earlier when you said uh Denver or Buffalo Bills didn't want slow white guys, I was like Yeah, so you're in. Yeah, so you made the team, right? Yeah. Tell me you're not Aaron Hernandez. No, but um Oh so uh where was that oh

So we're this comedy Rap Pack. No, you're saying Isaiah Thomas said something. Yeah, Isaiah Thomas. Yeah. So Isaiah Thomas said this in uh I saw a clip that Matt Barnes post and I love those guys. I started with them at Showtime and they're crushing it. But Isaiah Thomas, they brought up Michael Jordan and Isaiah Thomas has issues with Michael Jordan. And uh Matt Barnsville, we'd love to have him on. And uh Isaiah's like, It's a tough one. He does do interviews. Then I say it said.

As alumni from the MBA, as as alumni and you guys are alumni, we're this tight fraternity. And not only are we a type fraternity that we've reached certain levels of the MBA in this in the lane that we're in, but we're also black men. And it is our duty to support each other. It is our duty to come on the shows and make sure you guys get views, make sure people get your name out there. That that is something that

That's it. We it's our responsibility being in this small group in the small Wow. And back probably seven years ago You know, Rogan it was the same thing. It is your fu it is your

Duty. Could come on other shows. Mm. Broaden the audience. to bring everybody into these great talents.

You know, whether it's You know, back in the day you find the kid outside Joe Rogan, Fant was the launching pad. If you go through it, you look at Tim Dillon, the Andrew Schultz. Centino. Feel Vaughn, crystalliz.

You look at all the people that Came on there. And just explode it. Now Is it because it the Fighting Kid audience?

Maybe helped a little. It's'cause those guys are so goddamn talented. And once people saw who they were. They out succeeded firing the kid. They've gone on they've blown the roof off things now. But if you look back on Finally Kidd and I take so much pride and joy in that where we had these guys on before they're massive. And as Isaiah Thomas says, it is our duty to do that.

So that resonated with me. Now this is seven, eight years ago. Uh even Ten years ago when Fight Jill first started out, we'd have all these comics on stuff like that. And then

The pandemic hits. The the pandemic can't And the leader of the Rat Pack leaves, Joe Rogan leaves. And the comedy store shuts down, common LA shuts down. Then Tom Sager leaves. Then Joey Diaz leaves.

Then Tim Dillon leaves. The deal Vaughn. And then uh Brian goes through some Bullshit Me Too movement. And he has to leave.

A Crystalia goes some through some bullshit Me Too movie. Chris Blee has to leave. And I'm on this island by myself. Like, well, where is everybody? I thought let's

All right. The troops although we're not in LA. We gotta rally. Let's rally around each other. And it broke my heart, man. It broke my that

No. Those days are over, dude. You gotta figure it out on your own. Those days are over. The days of

You know, being in the in in the hallways at the comedy store and the improv and the ice house and laugh acting were you know podcast tomorrow. Yeah, podcast tomorrow. Those days are gone. Everyone's they've made it. Everyone's in their lane. You gotta figure it out on your own now. It's weird because Yeah, I've the comedy store last night.

And I always have this uh it takes me a while. I sit in the parking lot for a while'cause It just kinda reminds me when I pull up now that I used to pull up and Rogan pull up in his Porsche and we'd park next to each other and talk shop about the cars and what's next and then Santino would pull up and we talk to him and Chris Delia and then Brian would pull up and Bobby Lee and Theo and we'd be in there and college. It was the best.

It was it was the absolute best. And I wish I five, six, seven years ago, somebody would have tapped us on the show and be like, Hey fellas. In two years this is all God. Yeah, I didn't realize at the moment that that was

The golden age and what we were doing was so special we took it for granted. And I I didn't realize at the time how special it was in In my in my theater where my fish tank are and it like my man cave, I've I've four pictures from those days. I just put'em up. Right, you know, when they were done, five, six, seven years ago, I didn't realise that

In that picture, in that frozen m moment. That was the best time. Ever. For for me, as far as uh just being in that symbiotic like team with such a team, man. Yeah, there's a special moment. You know, now we're all everyone's doing well.

We still talk, we have our group chats, but as far as like You know seeing each other all the time, like those days are over, man. And it it's heartbreaking. Yeah it's It's important to have one of those like uh pay it forward cultures'cause it's like uh that I think Silicon Valley has that too, which which which is there's not really that much gatekeeping. You can go to the most successful, richest guy in Silicon Valley He'll give you time. It doesn't matter who you are.

Um and if you need a favor, they'll give you a favor with they'll they'll give you either advice or money or an intro. And there's no like pay it back, it's all pay it forward. Because they got helped by the person before them and th correctly that stayed Together now, uh like you said, with the pandemic, a bunch of people moved out of Silicon Valley, so who knows what will happen now. It takes a little longer in our world to To sort of see those effects.

But I remember when I was in San Francisco living in San Francisco, kind of on the come up, me and Sam met doing one of these like founder masterminds where we would Get dinner for hours and talk like okay, what are you doing? How's that going? What am I doing? How's that going? How can we help each other out? And it felt like um You know, in Toy Story when when they go to that arcade and those little the little minions are are in the machine, and it's like

The claw and the claw selects one and takes it away and that's like you you know, they made it. They they got the fame, the fortune, they got picked, but the other minions weren't pulling'em down. They were like pushing'em up like Congrats, brother. Go for it. You know, like you know, you you made it out. And 'Cause it's like that in Silicon Valley. You'll know somebody and they're broke for the four years you know'em. And then they're worth 150 million dollars overnight. And then you're like, Oh, the claw picked you and you won. Yeah, the cla God. Yeah, the claw which is Mark Zuckerberg buying your company happened. Uh and like it's the same thing in entertainment.

Someone hits a breakout point. And now they're famous. They're you know, they made it. And there's a question of like Does Do you just get left in the dust? Do you resent people when they're happening, or do you

you realize that the rising tide lifts all boats. And you really want to be in that rising tide. type of Yeah in in in just a side note in San Francisco now to pay it for it. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, worry about getting stabbed out there. Forget starm to now. Will your friend watch your back watch your back? Literally? Like you got you gotta actually watch each other's back physically. Just survive the day. You know? Yeah, it's insane. I was gonna ask the a a slightly different question, but You I saw a few interviews that were cool. One, it was uh Donald Cowboy Sarone and then Chail Sunnan.

And I think actually Michael Bisbang said the same thing where they were talking about like in the locker room before they fight. And they're like I think it was Chale, he's like people think that like we're tough guys and like maybe we c we kind of are. But like every single time before a fight

I think My last one should have been my last one. What am I doing? I hate this. And then like Michael Bisbing, who's like a cocky dude and like is very confident. He was like, This is the worst thing ever. And then I think Cowboy Sarone was like, I throw up before every fight. I'm so afraid. And then you had a really cool thing where you're like, I just beat up uh Crow Cop. So if you don't listen if you don't know anything about UFC, Crow Cop is like

one of the the the goats of MMA and he's scary as shit. Like he's like Croatian dude, but like you think he's like a scary Russian Robo Cop type of guy. And you knocked him out. And I remember like you said, you're like, I knocked him out and backstage I went and said like thank you or something or like, you know, like a good fight and he like had ice on his head and you're like What the fuck am I doing? I don't wanna like do this for my life. I don't wanna be forty or thirty eight or however old he was when you when you beat him up. But uh what's that like backstage?

The fifteen. thirty minutes before you're about to go fight to the death in your underwear in front of a million people. Yeah, I think I don't I don't know if I was the f I might have been the One of the first fighters to ever say that. You know, but a lot of guys

They wanna give up the persona that Oh, we're these warriors. It's like Gladiator. We we can't wait to get out there, but I'm telling you so and I won't mention names. I've seen dudes cry back stage. They don't want to go out there. I've seen their coaches slap'em. Like dude, you have to go out there. It's just I yeah, I just don't think it's natural. You know, I think it's a level of intelligence of your body and your mind going, Hey, you're about to get hurt. Do not go out there. So the anxiety's through the roof and Every fight I was like, What am I doing, man? I was like so disappointed in myself and then

Once I hit the cage. For most of my career I was okay. I knew it was time to get out when I would hit the cage and be, dude. Don't get hurt. Get out of here.

You got so much more to do in this life. You cannot you know suffer a concussion. We have got to figure this out. So You know, I think there's truth and honesty for most fighters where it's like It's terrifying. If to me it was the worst gig in the world. There's some The highs are the highest in the world, the the peaks are the best, the valleys are the lowest there can be in professional sports, or maybe in life. It's a tough gig, man, you know, so

I think the more fighters talk about like hey we're who human man. And and it is scary going out there. And I think the more fighters talk about it, the more people can relate to it. Most people have you ever If

Tonight or today after this podcast, you go to the coffee shops and you're getting your coffee and some guy goes You have some multi case and the guy goes, Hey man, tomorrow at one PM, you and I are fighting. You're like oh I guess we gotta fight. Imagine the anxiety you're gonna have that night. That morning walk in that coffee shop.

That's fighting Billy, you know, from in San Francisco. Who's gonna you know, and fight you over coffee. And he probably don't have skills. Now hype net times a thousand.

Not only. Do you know exactly when you're gonna get in a fist of cuff? If the guy happens to be, I don't know, top ten in the world at beating people up in your underwear and everybody's gonna see it. You know what I'm saying? It's human nature to be like this is not healthy. Dude, we've been we this dude this podcast and just our friends. It's been cool to like see some of our friends become worth hundreds of millions or even billion dollars.

And it's cool because we'll talk to them. Like just hanging out and they'll be like I have to fire this person and I'm so afraid to do it. Like I that I haven't done it in like eight months. Like I'm afraid of the confrontation. And what that does is it like normalizes fear and you're like, Oh, therefore I can do it.

And I remember like thinking about like Habib. And like dude, this guy is like Terminator. Like he doesn't show that much fear. And then I saw some of these other tough guys like say like, oh no, like it's it's miserable. I've always wanted like a Connor or a Habib, like some of the the the most outspoken, confident guys. I like I want to hear them say like I'm about to piss my pants because whenever I hear that I'm like That's fucking cold. I could do anything. If this guy's afraid, if this guy's afraid, which I know they are, even if they don't say it. I know they are. I think there are levels to like.

It does seem like there are some guys like a Habib or something like that where they're like They're more stoic than others, but there is like there's always self-doubt. And I think it's really cool when I see some of these killers like actually say that. It it gives me like It oddly gives me hope. Yeah, I think it makes them human. I you know, I think it would do athletes just So much more in the public eye if

You know, if before the Superbowl or even after the super ball, Tom Brady be like I'm scared shitless, man. That defense was good. You know, I'm I'm terrified to get hit and throw interceptions and fail. I just think more people would relate to it. 'Cause were there ever were there ever any athletes that you know of or hung out with, uh uh MA guys or boxers where they were built different, where they're like this person's looking forward to a fight, or do you think unilaterally it was

No, there there's there's people where, you know, ignorance is bliss, right? You know, it's like They're they're guys I trained with and I I'd be a two weeks out from the fight, you know, and the camp's tailoring down. I'd be like, Oh man, the fight's in two weeks, man, Saturday. The guys like I know, exciting, right? I'm like No, dude. This is terrible. But they'd just There's certain guys where they live for it. You know, there's guys like the the Diaz brothers, even though they've said

That they hate fighting. I think there's some guy like a Cain Velasquez. There's certain guys that just thrive in that just in Gagey who they just They just love the violence. They just there's nothing they were just born warriors, you know, and they're not thinking about businesses or you know, uh ten years down the road or fifteen years down the road. It's just They were meant to do this and God bless them. You need people like that. God bless them.

Even if you're not into UFC, if you're listening to this, go and look up Just engage the post fight. Michael Chandler on YouTube. He says this amazing thing. He goes I was born in the wrong era. I should have been a gladiator so I could kill this person in front of all of you because that's what I'm built to do and that's what I love. I'm here to fight to the death. And I heard that and I'm like

There's There's two different types of humans. I'm one and he's the other. Yeah. This is crazy. True. And I think You know, I I think for me it came to realization'cause I've known Justin Gachy since he was in college. I used to go up to University of Northern Colorado and wrestle to get ready for my US C fight. So I saw Justin at a young age. He's always been like that. And again, when I'd be in the locker rooms or we'd be in the training camps and those guys would talk like that.

You know, don't get me wrong, I'm built like a warrior. Like uh you would look at me, I think that's one of the reasons I get hate from these guys and think it's okay to treat me the way that I that they do, because you know, I look like a gladiator. I'm this big dude with tattoos and cauliflower hairs. But really push come to shove. I'm the guy behind going. T.

Like I don't want to be in the front fucking lines, man. That's not what I want to do. You know, so so I get the treatment of these warriors, but really I'm the guy in the back playing the trombone holding the flag, you know? Making sure I look good. One of our Sean and I talk about this after Rose Nama Unas this uh uh UFC fighter, she uh like

Before the fight you see her saying, I'm the best. I'm the best. I'm the best. And it doesn't matter if you like UFC or not. It makes you cry because you're just like There's so much like you have to talk yourself up to this. And it's just so like motivational, inspiring, cute. I don't know what you want to call it, but it's awesome. It's like one of my favorite moments is seeing her say that. And then afterwards, Joe goes, I saw you saying you're the best. What's up with that? And she goes,'Cause I am the best. And you're like, But you're convincing herself that she's the best. Like so good. So much self doubt.

It's just like no, you're the best. And'cause And it sh I'm assuming she worked with a mental coach, which I did too when I was fighting. You work with these high level mental coaches, they tell you that. You fight the negative thought in your head with a positive. You say it out loud. That's just true. Frickin' trying to keep the the

Demons at the door. Good, I'm the best. I'm the best. You know I love about this podcast. Is usually when people bring up fighting For me it's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. Like especially if I if I'm doing a

A show outside like Whether it's a a comedy central, if it's a T V show they talk fighting. Usually they have no clue about UFC, like Even you brought up Rose, you brought up Justin Gachy and The Michael Chandler stuff, like thank God you guys have

An insight into the UFC, like current UFC world. Some shows and be like So what you take on Chuck Liddell and f and take Abbott? They're not in it anymore. How is Conrad McGregor doing? No man, we're super fans. That's why uh that's why it's cool to hang out with you. We've had We've talked I've talked to Michael Bisbing, Ben Askren, we've had Ariel Hawani on. Which I know you guys had uh you guys had a spat. Uh we've had uh who else? Uh a bunch of people in that world. It it it's always fun to talk to you guys because like Even though like the intensity level that you're doing, it's like literally life and death. Starting a business is like a percentage of that, but it's like

I can't do this. I'm freaking out. I don't know how to do this. Like you constantly feel like inferior. Oh, there's similarities with all of it. With all of it, whether you're a UFC fighter or you're entrepreneur, there's similarities where you bake on yourself and it's on you. And the peaks and valleys are insane. Either way, so there's takeaways from both sides. You know, there's they definitely overlap. Yeah, you mentioned Air Hawaii, right? And I There's that and I think it's a a fan thing. You know, I've had spats with over the years, it's just gonna happen. I don't really entertain it.

But I have no animosity towards Ariel. You know, I'll do interviews whether whatever it is and oh so you and Dana don't like each other. No I have no anim I I I don't dislike anybody. You know, I I think that might be one of the reasons too why The haters.

They can't stand it because They they want that they want that drama. They want something to feed off of. They call feeding the trolls. I just don't entertain that. I think that is you know, upsets them. It's just not what I do. So when Air and I were having our thing, man, I I made a mistake. I was on the fight campaign. I said some things I shouldn't have said. He was rightfully so to get upset. So he'd want to show him did his thing. All good, man.

That's how it goes. You know, I take accountability there. That's on me, but the Earl's the best journalist we have. I listened to a show. You know I have no issues with Ariel. With Dana Man, I if anything, I probably should be giving Dana ten percent. Because when he made that deal with Reebok It you know.

At the time I was a young man, at the time I took it personal. I thought it was a hit of the against me. And it put a chip on my when I say chip out of entire Pringles. And what you're talking about is uh Before you could put any logo you want. Then he made a deal with Reebok and it's just they are the guys.

Yeah, I lost probably a hundred thousand dollars a fight. And you know, and I took it personal, but Being a business owner now Dana was at make when the reebok deal came and went, Man, how's this gonna affect Brendan Shaw? No, dude. I'm one of the you know, I'm one of the elephants in the circus. You gotta do what's great for all the elephants, not just me. So I was, you know. uh a bystander and a casualty of that deal just didn't work out in my favor, but that pushed me faster into what I was supposed to be doing. So Dana actually helped me out. I have zero issue, Dana. Huge fan.

Huge fan. But I think fans Some people for the reason. They can't get over that. It's like, well, no, he screwed you over and look, and you have to retire and you did this. I'm like, No, he did me a favor, guys. That was Twelve years ago.

It's all good. She's doing great. She wants more money than God. I'm doing pretty good. I'm zero if he called me today and was like, Okay man, we need you to do this. No doubt. I'll help you out. No problem.

Well, dude, you're the man. You um I said earlier that we had Rob on and he Like I knew Rob growing up as a skater. And then he came on and he like just surprised us so much. I think his view his video has uh hundreds of thousands of views that when we did with him, which is good for us. And uh

You're kinda in that category where you're where I'm like, I had good expectations. Uh, because I listen to you a lot, but you're a lot more insightful. than I thought and I thought you were pretty insightful and and you're You're just a good guess. Maybe next time you'll have a better uh setup. Instead of just being on your iPhone. Yeah, here's the th Yeah, so here's here here's the thing about that. So I don't own a computer. My company like Thinkboy Network has whatever twelve

Fifteen computers. Um I'm like that anti um I'm that anti kind of technology guy. I don't like it seems that seems good for a Internet company owner. I know, right? Mark. Yeah, can you tell them to fail by next year? We did the same with uh

Th the there's a guy Mark Lorie who bought the Timberwolves. He he he's a like famous entrepreneur, he's a billionaire. And he came on and he was doing the same thing. He's like, Is this good, guys? He put his iPhone on a chair on top of his dining table. And he stood up and he talked and we were like Do you can you use your computer? I don't I don't own a computer. And we were like It hits different when a billionaire says it. It's like

And you know if somebody else does it, you're just like, Man, what a schmuck. And then you hear him say, you're like, This guy knows what's this guy knows how to live. He's not talking about these fucking computer. You know, he's got people. You know what I'm saying? He's like I don't have computers, but I have humans. Yeah, no, I I know you guys next time we do this, I'll do it at Think Boys Studios. Usually every Wednesday I'm in Stad, but uh today Because um yesterday I did Three podcasts in a row, that a a two hour meeting for this new project I'm doing. So I start at seven thirty AM.

And then by the time I got done with that meeting, I was I was home around five, went and bought my kids lizards. Put fed them dinner, went put them to bed. Then rushed over to the comedy store and I got home at twelve thirty last night, so Today's my first off day and I don't know how long. And then tomorrow I'm on tour in Atlanta, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I'm in Atlanta doing shows. So usually I'm always in studio and I have the team set up so it looks professional. So I owe you guys. I owe you guys, but I I hate electric cars. I think they're a disaster. I don't like electric cars.

I don't like iPhones, I'm about to switch to a flip phone. I just I don't I just don't subscribe to it, man. I don't think it's healthy. Let's add a couple zeros to your net worth and then we'll call it cool. But until then we're gonna we're gonna call it a cool you're a fucking caveman. You're a caveman, but like maybe, maybe, maybe just let's add a few zeros and we'll call you a genius. But until then you're you're a Neanderthal. Yeah, yeah, until then I'm just this broke guy doing it on a iPhone step. Well, dude, thank you for doing this. You're amazing and we and we we appreciate it. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, besides my setup, this got sad fast at the end. Um all right, that's the episode.

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