- Speaker #0
Blake Wynn, welcome to Fargo Talks.
- Speaker #1
Thanks for having me.
- Speaker #0
It's my pleasure to have you here. I love people won't see this, but Blake has an entire cheering section that's come along of his family that it's sometime like we'll have to do a video thing of it and then we'll throw that in. I have never, and I'll be 56 next month.
- Speaker #1
Happy early birthday.
- Speaker #0
Thank you. Thank you. And in my 50, almost six years on this planet, aside from my now wife, I have never been drawn to somebody that I utterly adore quicker than you.
- Speaker #1
That's very nice of you to say, and the feeling's mutual. You know, it's interesting. I mean, you and I, one of the first times you spent extended time together was obviously one of the worst mornings of my life. I was with you at breakfast when I found out about Charlie Kirk being shot. and it's one of those things that you separate from that situation it's I've sort of asked myself why was I with you and you fit into a very small bucket of people that I have in my life where you know you it's so easy to look up to people and I've been very fortunate in my life to get to know a lot of my business heroes very well personally people like my uncle Steve people like my grandfather and then also people who have just become major successes or a lot of our clients and things like that. But then there's this... much more rare bucket. Erica Kirk fits into it, you fit into it, and a couple other people fit into it, which is that I look up to you guys as human beings. You guys are wonderful people, and it's really fun, the friendship we've developed in the last couple months. So it's fun to be here.
- Speaker #0
We live in such a disconnected electronic society now. And so when that happened, it was awful. Giving no disrespect to Charlie and what happened. If it was anyone close to you that, and you experienced something horrific like that, I just wanted to check on you as a friend.
- Speaker #1
And you did every day. And I appreciate you for doing so.
- Speaker #0
Just to say, and all I said was checking on my friend. And that was sincere because I was thinking about you. I know, and you still are processing some trauma and some stuff that happened there that you'll carry for the rest of your life. and we live in such a society now that things are so transparent, that you kind of see where people are coming from, whether it's shallow or deep. And I don't have a lot of deep friends. I just don't give them, I don't give a lot of people access to me that way, but you earned it fast. And so the best thing I could do was reciprocate. And I always will, you know, to you, that 24 seven, whatever you need, I'm here.
- Speaker #1
Likewise.
- Speaker #0
Thank you. So it's just something that, and I still will, you know, every once in a while, just send you a text. You don't have to reply back. It's just more of just, I was thinking about you and how are you doing? How is your mental health? Because we don't check on our friends and loved ones enough these days.
- Speaker #1
Well, we check on people in a way that I think it's turned a little bit unfortunate. We check on people by watching their Instagram stories, seeing what they post on Facebook, looking at their Snapchat, reading what they came into their mind that they sent into the void when they went on Twitter that morning. But we don't check on them by checking on them directly. We don't call them. We don't go have dinner. We don't go have lunch or breakfast like you and I did. And I think that that's what's missing. I think, you know, honestly, I think nowadays when people spend time on a screen, they ought to be listening to things like this, where you can maybe learn something. You can hear about people's human dynamics. Because the alternative is you see something on a screen that their goal is to get lots of likes on or engagements or what have you. And it stays very, very shallow. and the more shallow. We get as a society probably the worse off we are, but certainly the less happy we are. I mean, people talk about this rise in mental health issues, especially within the youth. But there's not a lot of conversation, I don't think, in how that correlates directly to the rise in social media and the rise of your daily usage and screen time on the phone. And so I just think it's so important to balance those two things out.
- Speaker #0
It's something that, as a dad, I am involved in my kids' lives like it's no one's business. And I started on this journey about three years ago, working for myself all of a sudden and make less money, but I'm okay. But I've never been happier and more fulfilled because I'm more connected to my kids now.
- Speaker #1
That's, and what is more important than being connected to your family?
- Speaker #0
Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. I mean, my stepdaughter is about to be 17. My daughter is 16. My son is nine. And I know what's going on in their lives with idiosyncratic detail. And I've earned the right for them to come to me. Especially my daughter comes to me about stuff she's going through, like at school or with relationships and what? She's coming to a bald, almost 56-year-old man with an oily T-zone. Are you kidding me? It's hilarious. And I sit back. We have these conversations. And I look at it and I go to myself, I never had these conversations with my parents. I'm Gen X. It was more like suck it up, buttercup. That's the 80s. Like you didn't talk about your feelings.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
That just didn't happen. And so I try to do that even paying it forward with my friends to say, hey, my phone's off. Like, let's talk. How? are you? How are things going? You know, what can I do for you? How can I serve you better as a friend? And I just try to lead by example.
- Speaker #1
And you know what, if someone ever comes to you and asks you how you're feeling and it makes you feel uncomfortable to even try and answer that question, it's probably a good sign that you needed to hear that question and you need to think about those things.
- Speaker #0
What do you think about people that don't give themselves the grace to actually share how they're feeling on a sincere level? Most people, if you say, how are you doing? They're going to say, I'm good. I'm well. And we're all waging wars and battles inside.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, I think, look, I think that you shouldn't be, I think social media makes you go too far on this in the sense that people share their feelings with complete strangers that they don't know. And the problem is when you do that, then you don't really care what their feedback is. And you get stuck in this loop where you're sharing your feelings with a void. The void doesn't really care about your feelings. So you feel like you are therefore not being cared for properly. And that actually deepens the mental health issues that a lot of people have. So I think what is important is finding your core group, friends like you and I are. And it doesn't have to be a lot of people. It could be your parents, it could be your sibling, it could be your children in your case even. It could be a couple of close friends, business partners, whatever it is. I think it's better to have a couple of really close people to you than to have lots of acquaintances or friends. because I think the other thing that you have to think about, I mean, it's one of the all-time... quotes of networking and character building, if you will, is you are oftentimes the sum of the five people closest to you. So what happens if you don't have five people close to you? Or what happens if those five people close to you don't see you the same way? I mean, again, all these things start to lead to issues, I think. And so for me, I'm always most comfortable sharing how I feel with those people, but also exclusively those people. I don't... feel the need to share things into the void of social media or otherwise. Because again, I know not to expect anything back.
- Speaker #0
That's the challenge is that people expect something back. They expect validation.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
Right? And where, I mean, Rogan said over 50% of the stuff you see in comments are bots.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
So it's not even real people. It's Russian, North Korean, Chinese fabricated bots that are intended to tear apart the social fabric of the United States. of the society that we have. And for a lot of cases, it's working because it preys upon the most uneducated, ill-informed, saddest, most depressed sector of society and doubles down on their feelings.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, it's a disadvantage of social media, but there's plenty of advantages too. You've made a career using social media and so have I, so I'm not trying to bash it, but you have to understand it for what it is. It is a tool to connect with people. It is a great networking tool. It is a great tool to put out content like you do where people can watch it and they can learn something. It's not the best tool to use to get one-to-one advice because you might be getting it from a North Korean bot. You might be getting it from a Russian bot. And again, it's one of those things where one of the reasons you want to have those people close to you is because you want to know that they have your best interests at heart. Does the person who's giving you random feedback on social media who you haven't met, who's maybe even cyberbullying you, you have to ask yourself, what kind of intentions do they have for you in their heart? Because if they're not good intentions, what do you care what they have to say anyways? You have enough people and God forbid, maybe even yourself doesn't know how to think about yourself in a way where you have your best intentions at the forefront of your mind. So you certainly don't need the noise of other people giving you that.
- Speaker #0
And no one's perfect. There's stuff I've said on here, I wish I could take back. We put our foot in our mouths often. I'm a Gen X ADHD guy. And I say what I say and I blurt stuff out sometimes. And sometimes I go, oh, I shouldn't have said that. But I own what I do and what I say. And I'm not going to let anybody, a real person or bot, affect my narrative moving forward. Only I can let people hurt my feelings. And there's not a lot of people I give access to that level. To do that to me, I preach that to my kids. My daughter has a best friend who's a guy. at the school she goes to. And I said this to her a couple of days ago, taking her back to her mom's house. And I said, hey, I want to take you and Hank out to lunch sometime. What's his favorite kind of food? Indian. I go, Indian food for a high school kid? God bless. Okay, let's do it. And she said, how come? And my best friend, his name is Sean Kutry. We've been friends for 40 years. He is my best friend. He's my brother. And I said, because you've talked about Hank a lot and he could be your Sean Coutry. And she went, oh, because she knows Sean. And her mind just went like, and I'm like, honey, I just want to meet him because I know you're not dating him, but I love you have a relationship with somebody that you can talk to and you talk to Hank a lot about stuff. And so I just want to get to know him. And I want to take you guys out to dinner sometime or lunch. She loved that. And so it's like, I've talked to you about. I can't wait for you to get married and have kids because there's so many people on this planet that are parents and should not be. And then there's people that should be. You should be breeding, and your family's here, but sorry, but you should be breeding ASAP as often as possible because we need more mini you in this world.
- Speaker #1
Well, part of a parent, I think, creating a mini you is having the time to invest in the child to be that way. And part of it also is the parent knowing themselves well enough. to be able to then translate that to their kids. You know, my mom had me when she was in her mid thirties and my dad is 11 years older. Uh, granted I'm not as close with him, but nonetheless, I mean, my parents had a lot of time to mature before I came around. And so I think the kind of person I exist as today, I don't, you know, I never put it this way. I never knew my mom at 24, not to say that she was irresponsible. She went to medical school, so she was probably just fine.
- Speaker #0
She's right off camera. I'm sure she was a perfect person that had a perfect life. She was. She's nodding yes. But seriously,
- Speaker #1
in all fairness, I mean, I put it this way. I thought I had everything A to Z figured out when I was 22. And in relation to other 22-year-olds, I think that that was probably true. But now when I look back on my life just in the last three years, I don't feel like the same human being at all. And so I want to know exactly who I am before I have a child. And I do want to have more than one. So you'll get the wish, but it'll just be a little later.
- Speaker #0
I can't wait. Talk to me about that arc of, you know, 22, 23 to where you are now. So... What type of things have humbled you? What type of things have... Everyone loves a comeback story. Everyone loves Rocky. That's why they made 17 Rockies. Because he always would come back from stuff. What's your comeback story?
- Speaker #1
I think I would sound like Gavin Newsom on a podcast if I was trying to create a comeback story because I don't think I've had to come back from very much. I think I've been really well-grounded my entire life. I think... Look, I started my first business when I was 11 years old. I was paying taxes since I was in middle school or freshman in high school. I started hiring people when I was a freshman in high school. And it's not to say that I haven't had business challenges, but to call them failures or to say that these were things that deeply rattled me and stuff, I would be trying to create a story that doesn't exist for you. I've always layered one thing on top of the other. When I was 11, I walked into an Adidas outlet with 40 bucks, bought two pairs of $20 shoes overnight, sold them both on eBay for $108 a piece. And what you see today of my business celebrity poker tour, our dabblings in politics, what we do to market other companies, all of that is quite literally those two pairs of shoes turned over and reimagined for 14 or 15 years now of business. But, you know, it's less a comeback story. And I think the part of my story that has really changed a lot from 22 to 25 is how I view business. you know you know When you're that age and you're supporting yourself and making sure that you can support your employees and things like that, you're really just hyper-focused on your business, your end product. What are you selling people? How are you selling it to them? How do you communicate it? What's the branding? You think about the core business principles, if you will, that you learn in school or that you learn through experience. Now, what I find myself thinking a lot more about, one of the reasons that... Charlie's death affected me the way that it did. One of the reasons why since January 1st, despite having a pretty large staff, I haven't fired anybody is now it's become a lot more about who I'm working with. It's less I work on creating the largest show that poker's ever seen and more about doing business with one of my best friends and two of my brothers and things like that. And so that's been a big transition for me. because you get to a point where, look, I mean, September will be eight years of this business, which like I said, really is just a transition of the business that existed in sneakers for seven years prior to that or six years prior. And so it's just a difference of perspective. I don't wake up every morning thinking about CPT. I kind of wake up every morning now thinking about Brock. And those subtleties I think have, in essence, probably resulted in a lot of the growth of the business because instead of thinking just about business, which... You're in your own echo chamber, especially when you're the guy who's coming up with the vision for it and your CEO, and there's no one that you can really look at in your organization and say, tell me what I need to be thinking about, right? But instead, if I'm looking at everybody in my organization and I'm thinking about what can I think about for you, and by the way, I'm not even trying to say this to sound selfless. It actually turns into a self-fulfilling thing because I'm thinking to myself, well, what does Brock need? What does Brock want? And those kinds of things have oftentimes helped me come up with the ideas that have changed our business a lot over the last three years.
- Speaker #0
It's running a business on feel. It's running a business on reverse engineering. Your, you know, your, your team, your staff, your employees to figure out how can I best serve them?
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
What's going to make them happy. And I think when you do that over and over and over, like refiners fire, man, you just keep doing it. The end result is a thing of beauty.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
You know, like look at, look at CPT. Like it's. You might not have kids yet, but that's your baby.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. Well, you know what the thing about CPT is? Is to me, it's one of the purest forms of humanity. And I know that sounds so intense for a poker business, but it's not a poker business. What it is, is it's a collection of a couple hundred people that get together 10 times a year who maybe didn't know each other before that. And everybody comes in with a smile. Everybody's excited to meet one another. Nobody even really knows how to play poker. And that's... I would say it's secondary, but it's not secondary. Secondary is the bar and the food, right? Tertiary is what are you going to get gifted? I mean, the poker is so far down the list, it doesn't exist. It's just an opportunity to have fun, to meet people. And one thing you'll notice when you go inside the celebrity poker tour, nobody has their phone out. We take care of that for you. We got 200 cameras. We got 65 people on staff that day that would cater to any need you can possibly come up with. And so you're able to be fully present for a few hours, which as we talked about in kind of the first part of this conversation is a virtue that doesn't exist enough anymore. And so that to me is the essence of CPT. It's why people come back despite that between one event to the next, they don't go home and learn poker. They're not motivated to win next time. They're motivated to come back next time to meet their next friend. And I've got to say, how do I know this is true? And I'm not just blowing smoke, right? Well, let me give you some examples. We've been around now 17 months. There are three couples of celebrities that have been created where they were sitting next to their table. Now they're dating. That's great. One of them is already engaged now. We have the amount of times that you've seen. There's a TV show that just came out on Netflix that the Sidemen put together with a cast of eight influencers that were competing to win a million dollars. They initially reached out to Zach Justice to put this group together, who's a dear friend. And he's one of three people who's played in every single Celebrity Poker Tour event. And they said, can you help us cast this? So who does he cast? Dwight Howard. How do you meet Dwight Howard at Celebrity Poker Tour? He cast Sketch. How does he meet Sketch, Celebrity Poker Tour? Six of the eight people that he casted are people that he told me, because I asked him, I said, what a great cast you got. This looks like CPT. Granted, it's obviously not competitive. He says, we couldn't have done it without you. So I'm watching this Netflix show, and I'm thinking the world may not look at it this way. And it doesn't do me anything good for my ego to look at it this way. But what a beautiful just thing that could have happened in the world. to say, now here's a show that people are going to be entertained by for lots of hours. And it probably wouldn't have existed if not for Celebrity Poker Tour. And so I think that is the business that we're in now. It's way more about the people and way less about the product than it's ever been for me before.
- Speaker #0
You were nice enough to invite Brandy Knight at the last one. And we went and it was a date night for us, which we'll take all the time. It was great. We loved it. And the biggest takeaway I had from it, because I watch people. It's all I do is checking everybody out. There was such an eclectic group of people there from across like beliefs and ages and values and morals and everything. And everyone's getting along. There was no drama. You know, there was nothing there that was negative. Like I had no negative takeaways from it whatsoever. And it wasn't like a polarizing thing where everybody there is this way. Everyone here is that way. No, you know, I... Again, you know more of the background of everyone that was there, but we're so divided these days. And you go to that event, that's not a dividing, polarizing event at all.
- Speaker #1
Because I don't think we're as divided as you realize or as you may feel. I think that there's an element of politics that divide us, Republican versus Democrat. And then there's elements of lots of other things that maybe aren't so toxic, if you will, like just men and women. whether it's your race, whether it's what you do for work or all of those kinds of things. But you'll notice at the Celebrity Poker Tour, I mean, we've quite literally had Sam Brown, who was 45,000 votes away from being a senator in the United States as a Republican, sitting next to a guy who literally has a Democratic talk show on YouTube and Ethan Klein. And you ask yourself, how does that exist? Because the one thing Celebrity Poker does is we get good people. These are all good human beings. So they don't vote the same way. Who gives a shit, right? What we don't have is any of the people that... creates this level of toxicity that I think you're referring to, which I don't think is Democrat versus Republican or any of those kinds of things. I truly believe it's good versus evil, and you have to keep evil people out. And so that's what we do a really good job of. And I don't think we look, we've never had a true jerk come, which is why when you came to me at the event and you said, is there anyone here that I should have in my podcast? I said, well, look around the room. Is there anyone you recognize? You just tell me who's a good person, who lives in Vegas, who can we get on the show? We walked around here, see a few people, interrupted them while they were playing poker. They don't care. They're happy to meet you. These are all good human beings. And you're very lucky if you can not only create an environment. where there's lots of good human beings, but I have to selfishly say we make a few dollars doing it. And so it's a unique thing to be able to wake up and do every day.
- Speaker #0
How cool is that, by the way? That it's at your age, you're really doing what you love.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
Right?
- Speaker #1
Absolutely.
- Speaker #0
How many people can say that? I mean, I can't stand when people, especially in their 20s, will say the grind, I'm grinding. I don't want to grind anything. I'll break a hip at my age if I grind something. Are you freaking kidding me? I don't grind anything. I want to work. I mean, especially when I was younger, you work with intent. You are going after stuff. You are focused. But to make it to the point where like, I'm going to work to exhaustion every day. Who wants to do that? That's nothing that's going to fulfill you. And again, in 100 years, we're all ashes and dust. It's about what is the legacy you leave on this planet to your family, to your loved ones once you leave? What are people saying about you? And... I love just with CPT, the atmosphere that is created with what you're doing. And it's some of the most famous people around are coming to this thing. And the cool part, you said it is poker isn't even the main focus.
- Speaker #1
No, not at all. Right? Yeah. And I think, look, I mean, I remember when we started this, I had everybody, you know, all of a sudden I got to become well acquainted with everybody in the poker industry. It's a small industry. It's, you know, in fact, I think one of the things that's played well for me. personally on an experience perspective is it's very similar to sneakers. It's not that big. And once you make a little bit of noise in it, you meet everybody, you understand the lay of the land and who the players are, and you figure out what you can do from there. But I had everybody from a very good place, by the way, so I'm not trying to knock anybody, but I had conversations with the Phil Hellmuths of the world, the Molly Blooms of the world, all these great people who are all friends, by the way. And I remember them not from the perspective of trying to belittle me, but I remember them explaining to me all of the various... pushing rope uphill sort of challenges I was going to have and how many celebrity poker shows had existed before and why they fundamentally broke down after a certain period of time, whether it was one season or two seasons, typically that was sort of the end of it. And without necessarily getting into debate with them, because I was in those situations, I wanted to be the listener. I was only 60 days, 90 days, 180 days into the poker business. So, all right, Molly Bloom, what do you know about poker? Go ahead and tell me, right? But the problem was, is they were all explaining to me the poker business. And in my head, I'm thinking to myself, but I'm not really in the poker business. So none of these things are really going to ultimately ever end up applying anyways. I'm sort of in the media business, but really I'm in the hospitality business. And I've gotten hospitality advice from the greatest hospitality entrepreneur of all time, probably, in Steve Wynn. So I listen to the poker advice, but I really listen to Steve's hospitality advice. And so when you go to CPT, you are walking into a hospitality business that's been created the same way. That the Wynn, the Mirage, the Bellagio, and all the other greatest hotels in the history of the world were created. And it's why we've become the biggest show that poker has ever seen.
- Speaker #0
What are some of the biggest bits of advice that Steve has given you that you've applied?
- Speaker #1
Well, one of my favorite stories is one of the first times I ever went to him and wanted to talk to him. to him about money. It was not to ask him or anything like that. It was, I had a dear friend who I could name because I actually was on the phone with him while I was driving here, incidentally. His name is Shane Victorino. He was a great baseball player for 13 or 14 years, the MLB. And when I was 20 or 21, he offered me half a million bucks to become a partner in the business. And he was offering me more than fair price. It was a real check, the whole thing. I said, well, I've never had a business partner before. I'm going to go see what Steve thinks. And I go to Steve and he's, well, how would you do this? And I'm like, well, Shane Victorino this. Well, you can hire him as a consultant. You don't need to do that. Well, but I've known him since I was a little kid, so I trust him. Well, you trust lots of people. You trust your mom. She's not your business partner. So he's sort of grilling me on all of it. And finally, the final sort of thing I'm throwing back at him is I say, well, you know what? If he invests, I get this half a million bucks. Because rather he was going to invest. He was actually going to buy it from me. So that money would have gone to me and I just would have had a partner. The business didn't need the capital. And I said, well, then I won't necessarily have all my eggs in one basket because I'll have an extra half a million bucks that I'll be able to invest or do whatever with. Just pauses like this. Well, that's the worst point you've made of all. What? You said. You know how many times I invested in something other than Wynn in my life before I sold out a Wynn in 2018? I said, what? He said, well, as a favor, maybe a couple times. But in terms of a serious investment, never. I said, well, fair enough. But you were running the most successful hotel company of all time. You weren't exactly running a marketing agency with your buddy from preschool. And he says to me, he says, well, you know, there's the great Mark Twain quote. You can have all your eggs in one basket. You just have to watch the damn basket. And that was one of those moments that I didn't end up taking Shane's money. And ever since then, I guess I've just had a different level of focus on watching the basket. I've never been someone who's lacked focus, but it was a different perspective shift on, you know what, he's right. I can have all my eggs in one basket. And quite frankly, whether you're investing in stocks or, you know, and again, I do suggest everybody invest in stocks. If you can afford it one day, you buy real estate, all those kinds of things. Sure, go ahead and do that. But if you can have full control of what's going to happen to you in a world where the world is trying to control you, you are putting yourself at an inherent advantage compared to anybody else who doesn't do that.
- Speaker #0
If you are the master of your own destiny, but also are open to constructive criticism and can humble yourself and can check your ego at the door, it's only a matter of time until you're successful. That's internally and also financially. So many people, I think ego is a killer. a killer, so they can't have all their eggs in one basket because they just won't. They'll become a self-fulfilling prophecy and implode. I've seen that several times. I've had friends that have gone under. They have a ton of money, a ton of successful stuff, but they were their own worst enemy.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
Right? And so the thing that struck me about you, this is just a gush fest about him. I love this so much, is that when we had a great phone call in which I was like, I like this guy. And I'm all about first impressions. That was a great first impression. So then we go to see PT and I see you because I knew you were from your photos and everything else. And we just say hi. And it was like this warm, charming, just personality that is you. And the thing I loved about you the most is you looked at me in the eye and you made eye contact with me the entire time we were talking.
- Speaker #1
Your eyes are blue like mine, so why not?
- Speaker #0
Game respects game.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
And the thing I, again, I'm a student of people and I read body language all the time. And I love it because for anyone that's been on the, you know, party, cocktail party, rubber chicken dinner circuit here in Vegas, which is exhausting. And if you have to get into it, get into it and get out as fast as possible. Yeah. Because it's maddening. But most people at an event like that with so many different personalities. You would have been looking all over for the next person that you need to talk to, or is everyone okay, or to put a fire out. You were locked in with me and or locked in with my wife the entire time. And I'll never forget that. And that was when I was like, I like this guy. This guy is special in a way that you give a shit about the person you're talking to the very minute you're with them. How did you get that type of, you know? inert trait? Was it something that you were born with? Was it something that you were trained, was trained into and you were taught?
- Speaker #1
Looking around the room would be caring about the poker. I was trying to explain to you in the last question that this is a hospitality business. I learned from the best. So what does Steve say about hospitality business? What do you think people come to the wind for? The chandeliers, the hand-woven carpets, 10%. 90% of the reason people like come to the wind is because of the way they're treated by people because only people can make people happy. It's the most strong and true part of human dynamics. That's what I'm there for. I'm there to be a host. I'm there to be hospitable. And at the same time, I was fascinated by you. I really enjoyed our first phone call. So finally meeting you in person, I was very excited to do that. But that's what it's about because I couldn't, you might say, wow, that was a pretty studio and you decorated it well. Jeff, what did the fourth wall panel have on it? The fourth panel, when you walk in and you look to the left, there's seven panels that go around the room like this. What was on the fourth one? Maybe you remember the colors, maybe. But tell me what's on the fourth panel. You can't. What was on the felt of the tables? I sat there for hours sitting there designing those felts. But at the same time, tell me one thing about those felts. You couldn't. You weren't a player. So fair enough that you didn't look at the felts. What about the screens? What about the production staff? Guess how many people were on it? You couldn't come up with that number. What do you remember about CPT? You remember the way that you were treated by me and hopefully other people there?
- Speaker #0
So now you want to come back. That is the core objective of the business, you know? And obviously there's a personal love for doing it. I mean, if that's my business is I just get to meet nice people like you and talk and hang out. All right, cool. Life could be a lot worse than that.
- Speaker #1
Oh my God. But it's also good people attract good people, you know? And how, like you said, there's no drama there.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
And you come in, you drink what you want. There's nice food. It's a wonderful location.
- Speaker #0
No rubber chicken at our place.
- Speaker #1
There's no rubber chicken. I was in real estate forever here. We just call it escrow chicken. You go to escrow chicken dinners. Fucking awful. I'd rather go to the dentist than go to those. Me too. Galas where it's real estate agents giving themselves awards. Please. Yeah. Please. Never again. I'm so glad I'm out of that. But it is something that it was very unique to me. I've been here for 15 years in Vegas and been to a lot of the escrow rubber chicken dinners. Uh, you know, and you walk out going, I just spent two hours of my life. I'm never gonna get back again. Where with yours, I'm walking out with my best friend, my wife, and we're like, oh God, that was awesome. How much fun was that? Like I walked out energized and happy. I wasn't exhausted. That's never happened before. It was, it was crazy. Like there was a thing. Are you going to the grand gift thing tonight?
- Speaker #0
I'm not tonight, but normally I would support it. My grandparents are here. That's right. Yeah, but Peter Krause runs that and he's a dear friend and it's going to be great. You're on the ground at Legion Stadium, right?
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
Good.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. So there's a PR company I work with here, Brand Bomb. Shout out to Lindsay. I love her. We're at her table. And I told my wife, who enjoys a cocktail, bless her heart, I said, honey, this is a work event. No more than three. That's all you get. No more than three. So she gave me a scowl about that. And she goes, but honey, it's champagne. I go, I don't care. That might be two. This is a work event and a lot of people can't speak Southern slur.
- Speaker #0
So,
- Speaker #1
you know, we're, we're there to like meet people and have fun. And I'm, I'm, I'm kidding, but it's, it's like, I'm sure tonight will be a great event. That's a higher, it's a higher level, nicer thing. I know other people that are going. Um, but for you to what you've tapped into with CPT is, is it something that I know you do that you do stuff in other places, right? What is your growth trajectory like? with the CPT brand? Is this something you're going to take global? Is this something that you still just want to keep it right here so you can manage it and it's kind of your baby here?
- Speaker #0
Well, we're actually in December on the 12th. We're taking it out of Las Vegas and we are going global. We're doing our first international event at the Atlantis in the Bahamas. We partnered with them. And so that's going to be fantastic. We've had to, and it's been an interesting exercise because we have to build a whole stage. You know, like I have fun with these kinds of things. You have to build a stage because you don't have the Aria's poker studio there, right? And you have to produce new tables. And we, in the process of producing new tables, I said, wait a second, there are things that a poker table in theory could do if you spent a bunch of money on tech and were creative that they've never done before. And so November 19th, you'll see it for the first time. You've never seen a poker table with screens on the table under the felt that register to the players. You're going to see that for the first time. We literally invented a poker table unlike has ever existed before. And so to me, the goal is, you know, look, we're in totally uncharted territory, which is what makes it the most fun. I can no longer, for maybe the first three, four months, I could look at the World Series or I could look at World Poker Tour or some of these other poker businesses and say, what do they do that works and doesn't work? And what do we want to pull from that or whatever it is? but we have we've And again, we're a different business than them. They are a poker business. They cater to a very different client and everything like that. So I would look at us as, nevermind that we're non-competitive. We partnered with the World Series of Poker to take our event to the Bahamas because we bring in a very different audience and have a very different approach to what we do. But it's fun, you know, because at the same time, there are also businesses that have now begun to start trying to copy us. But there's the, you know, there's a great quote. The guy who... have gotten more into recently, country music. And something I like to do too, like when I get into something, I like to listen to podcasts about it or read little articles about it. I do not read books. I do not like books. I don't have the time for it and just don't like it. But I like to listen when I'm in the car more than music. I like to listen to something that maybe teaches me. And I was listening to a story from Waylon Jennings was telling a story about how when he used to tour, he would have an opener that oftentimes sounded just like him. And he said a lot of time, he said, I remember one time there was a kid that was opening for me that came to me and asked if he liked what I did. Because instead of opening with some of my own music, I included some of his songs that he was about to then sing. And he said, no, I thought you were a great kid. He said, well, are you sure, Mr. Jennings? And he says, well. here's a problem, kid. If you're copying me, you're always one step behind. And I think that that is the territory we've reached with CPT, where because we're in such uncharted waters, whatever we do, even if someone else goes and does it, oh, that's the CPT gimmick, or that's the thing CPT did. And so I think we're actually, frankly, more than one step ahead, especially when it comes to media. I mean, our second event, we had a contortionist go all in with her feet. And it sounds simple, but that was the most watched poker clip. of 2024 was a girl going all in with her feet because no one's ever seen something like that. And fair enough. If another poker business wants to go get a fire dancer or get a different contortionist or the same one for that matter, Sophie can do whatever she wants. But that was CPT's thing. You know what I mean? And so that's the part that's honestly a lot of fun for how we're growing the business. And it's why I think our potential is completely uncapped.
- Speaker #1
Well, you're pushing boundaries and you're really creating your own, which is limitless. for what you're doing. Can we please, can I please get a video of you going down that massive water slide at Atlantis? Yeah. That would be fantastic. One of my favorite things to do. That would be, I've never been there. It's all I've ever seen. That's like a bucket list for me. If you guys want to go,
- Speaker #0
I'll set it up. You guys, it would be fun to have you come. You could shoot podcasts there.
- Speaker #1
We can have that conversation. Sure. If, and now again, if my wife was here right now, hell yes, she'd be screaming. She'd be screaming from the control room. She likes to sit there with Scott because I can hear her laughing through the wall sometimes. I always, I'm more measured. I'm the one that pays the bills for stuff. I'm like, honey, let's look and see with timing, with kids and all that. So we'll have that conversation. Yeah,
- Speaker #0
you can bring the kids. If there's a place to bring kids, Atlantis and the Bahamas is probably where you want to bring them.
- Speaker #1
That's hilarious. Because my wife is, yeah, we'll talk about that off camera because I have stories about her. I want to get into politics a little bit. Okay. And I want to start with your relationship with President Trump. I'm a New York guy. And so was born in Manhattan, was, but an upstate. I come from a real estate development family. My grandfather were from Canandaigua Lake and Canada, one of the nicest places in the world in upstate New York. I grew up, we owned an amusement park. My first girlfriend was Meg Marion in fifth grade. I broke up with her because she wouldn't make out with me in the spook house, in the haunted house, the golden nugget it was called, which was actually hilarious. But yeah, I dumped her because she wouldn't make out with me. And she said, that's okay, you swear too much. I was like, go take a shit for yourself. Goodbye. Off you go. But it was, I always watched Trump and was a fan of his because he came in and he wasn't the just status quo for politics. And still is to this day. You know, I think there's a lot he's learned from 45 to now to 47.
- Speaker #0
Absolutely.
- Speaker #1
Right? What are some things, because you know him, what are some things that people, if they were moderate left, that you could have a conversation with them to say, this is some stuff about the president that you don't know about his love for the country and how he really is when he treats, how he treats people.
- Speaker #0
If they are truly moderate left, they wouldn't ask me that because they're already a voter of his. He is moderate left incidentally. There's a reason why Tulsa Gabbard and Bobby Kennedy and other moderate left people have left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party because he represents them. There's a reason why he got more union vote than anybody in 100 years got. There's a reason why most unions either didn't endorse Kamala or some went as far as to endorse him. I mean, the moderate left comes from a place of a few things. It comes from a place of not wanting wars in terms of foreign policy. It comes from a place of wanting immigration, but legal? not just open borders for God knows who drug runners to just come here. It comes from a place of wanting working class people to be able to afford to build a family, support their kids, get married, send them to school, have a strong education. If you look at any policy that he's passed, especially in the big, beautiful bill and everything he's done since becoming the 47th president of the United States, you'd see that guy. You'd see that guy who's instilled those moderate left values. He has started no new wars. He's ended some. He's already passed the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. The problem is that what does the moderate left absorb in terms of content? There's two things that are fundamentally true about people. Number one, they're largely group thinkers, which is why there's two parties. Think of that for a second. There's 150 or 60 million voters, and there's 360 million people in this country. And we've decided as a country that there's two ideologies to pick from. That in itself fundamentally proves the point that groupthink is one of the things that very much so exists in human dynamics, number one. And so, number two. If you end up in a situation where you say, I'm moderate left because that's what my neighbor is, or because I don't like the rhetoric that comes out of his mouth, or because I watch a certain news station and they tell me X, Y, Z about him, I think there's a certain responsibility you have, if you want to be properly informed, to go do further research for yourself. You cannot trust social media to just get all your news from it. You cannot trust some news anchor on MSNBC any more than you can trust one on Fox. Sean Hannity is no less biased than the people on The View. He might, the thing Sean Hannity has, in my opinion, in which, again, I'm saying my opinion to be politically correct, but at the end of the day, fact is on Sean's side. Common sense is on the side of the Republican Party right now. You think there's one Republican in this country that doesn't wish that Democrats had a little more common sense? They'd love that. I'd love if we were a country of two parties where both sides were a feasible option. They had their differences. But, you know, it was like this last election. It wasn't, all right, who's going to win? Trump or Kamala? Let's just see what happens. It wasn't as simple as, you know, a Reagan versus Mondale. Granted, the country had a pretty strong mandate in that election. But nonetheless, it wasn't as simple as that where it's, well, here's a nice guy and here's a nice guy. And they got two different ideas. It was, here's a president that's going to do the things that Trump is actively doing. Promises made, promises kept, I think is a fair thing to say about him. There's very little he said on the campaign trail that he hasn't already in six months done. I mean, like I said, I don't like to read books. One of the few books I read in school, because if I didn't, I was really on the brink of not passing English, was 1984 by George Orwell. That is what you would have seen, a true dystopian turn for the worst in American society had she won. You think she would have ever had the sophistication in class to send two B-2s overnight to Iran to knock out their nuclear capabilities and send them back with nevermind a casualty, but no casualty, no retaliation or anything like that? Can you imagine? No chance in hell. People are saying, well, there's ceasefires that are being agreed to, but they're not all necessarily being upheld. She would have probably said, we don't even want to speak to them. She would have just sent more taxpayer money over there. She would have sent human troops lives over there so they could die for nothing. We have people who are running on values that I don't... And look, by the way, I don't think that they have literally evil intentions. And that'd be, that's like a stretch. I mean, at the end of the day, you're vice president of the United States. Do I think you truly want the worst for this country? No. Do I think you're smart enough to know how to get the best for this country? Absolutely not. You know? And so I think that, I think we would have been in a really dangerous zone of moving, again, farther left than left exists. There's not a lot to say to a democratic socialist, right? Like truthfully. in my perspective you don't necessarily have to though because they make up truly a minority. They're loud on social media because the idea is so ridiculous. They're a little more viral than maybe common sense might be because there's more common sense in the ethos than there is of that. So you just hear it when it gets said, but America doesn't go for that. America hasn't, we're celebrating our 250th birthday next July. We haven't gone for that one of the 249 years we've been going so far, and we're not going to start next year. That doesn't mean that a mayor in the most liberal city in the country might not fall through the cracks, but this is not, this. The United States is a center-right country. And if you are truly moderate left, you are probably currently identifying as center-right.
- Speaker #1
I'm going to rephrase my question to dig even deeper into your brain. Tell me something about President Trump's personality that people don't see that really shows how much he cares for— holding the position of president of the United States?
- Speaker #0
He is incredibly charismatic. And by the way, I've met plenty of Democratic politicians. So are they. You know, you think about the DNA of a politician. Trump is a unicorn in that he doesn't fit into the stereotype that I'm about to make, which is that most politicians, most, you and I can both pinpoint exceptions, fair enough. But most politicians, maybe they went to law school, but they were never smart enough to pass the bar. And if they were smart enough to pass the bar, they never would own their own practice. They might have gone to medical school, but they were never going to become a top surgeon. They might have started their own business, but they never made super real money. Politicians are largely people who have charisma, can speak well, enjoy the ability to network with one another, but frankly, kind of lack the talent to do something super meaningful on a professional level outside of sharing rhetoric and then voting along their party lines. I know that's sort of a brute take on the average politician. But the average politician is worthy of that take. And that's why many of them get phased out every two to four years when it's time to run for reelection. And the other thing about politics is no matter who you are, the night you win. You go, you have a glass of champagne, you dance in a tux, and the next morning you start campaigning for re-election, basically. Every way you vote, everything you say, every podcast you go on, all of it is in service to continuing your career. Trump is not that. Trump doesn't need this, right? Trump is incredibly charismatic. He's very personable. And I think something that you'll always notice when you meet smart people is that you put them in front of a camera and you start asking them questions. They dominate the conversation. They talk. No different than you and I are right now. But you and I have spent enough time in private. I spent enough time with the president in private to be able to say, this is a guy that asks questions. He's curious. He wants to learn. Because that's what will then influence him to sound smart or whatever it is when he goes and speaks on camera. So I think that you get a guy who's a lot more reserved. You get a guy who's eager to learn. You get a guy that you could not spend 15 seconds in a room with him without being like, this guy's really charismatic. There's a reason why You know, all these people who go on Twitter or go on CNN and they just rip into him. Then they go see him in the Oval Office and they have one of those shots that shows the live press conference. And they are just sitting there.
- Speaker #1
I was in the Oval Office with the president. Bill Maher. Yeah.
- Speaker #0
And they love it. Bill Maher is a perfect example of that. That is true to his character. And by the way, probably was true about Bill Clinton's, right? Like, I mean, it was true about anybody that's gotten to that level. There's one president of the United States for a reason. Not a simple place to get. But he cares about the people he's talking to. I mean, I'll give you a really soft example of this. Some Raiders players wanted to meet him, and he was in Las Vegas. So I helped set up Max Crosby and Alex Bachman and Gardner Minshew to go meet him at the Trump Tower. And Trump's about to walk in the room where they're all waiting in front of the American flags like, okay, here comes the president of the United States. They're all excited, and they're nervous. These guys that make $20 million a year slamming each other, they're nervous to meet a 78-year-old man. I mean, right, fundamentally, it's an interesting thing. And we're in the hallway and he says, tell me who's in there. Tell him the three names. Oh, I know Max Crosby. I've met him at UFC. He's a good player. Gardner Minshew, I'm not familiar. And I'm telling him about Gardner. And he says, well, is he good? I said, yeah, you know, this is going to be his first season starting for the Raiders. Didn't go so well, but fair enough. He didn't know that at the time. It was in the offseason. Where did he go to school? I'm telling him. Does he throw a long ball? He's an NFL quarterback. He like opens the door to the room, swings it open, Secret Service opens it for him. And he comes, does his classic thing, right? They're standing by the window. They got the American flags there. And he goes, now this is a guy with a big arm. I mean, first thing that comes out of his mouth is he wants to make you feel good. It sounds funny, but that's who he is, you know? And you talk about a guy who's doing that for 19 hours a day, whether it's from Washington, D.C. or on the campaign trail, on the plane, whatever it is. There's nobody that ever gets around him where he doesn't care about making him feel good. It's why when sometimes he starts speaking, have you ever noticed this? There will be times where he is giving a speech and then all of a sudden he sees someone in the crowd and he acknowledges them. Teleprompter basically may as well not exist any longer. And he starts naming off lots of people in the audience to make them feel good. He knows I'm the president of the United States. He's self-aware enough to realize that. And how cool is it if this president of the United States says something about you and you and you and you? You could say it's a little bit narcissistic. Screw that. What a gift it is to be acknowledged by the president of the United States. If you don't, and by the way, if you're the kind of person that says it's not a gift to be acknowledged by the president of the United States, feel free to expatriate. Feel, feel, I mean, you have options. No one's forcing you to stay here, but this is the greatest country in the world. He's the leader of it. There ought to be a level of respect for that.
- Speaker #1
It is amazing to me, the whole fascist thing, which no one's opened up a book. about Mussolini or Hitler if they're calling Trump a fascist?
- Speaker #0
Define fascist, right? I mean, that really should be the first question anybody's saying that. Define the word for me. Let's just get on an even playing field here. You call him a fascist, you call him a racist, you call him Hitler, right? Define these people for me, right? I mean, Charlie used to make the great analogy when people would say, Trump is Hitler. Why? Because he has a dog? Hitler had a dog. I mean, why? Because he's in charge of... I mean, okay. Why? Because he's male? He has the same chromosomes as him. I mean, right? So define what this even means, because people just throw these words around that I genuinely believe 99% don't know what it means. And the 1% that feel like they know what it means and throw it around and then try and justify it anyways, they've probably just had quite a liberal arts education. They've probably gone to a fancy school. And so they know what to say, but it's rooted. The problem with these arguments is it's rooted in a lie. It's the reason why Trump won. It's the reason why he won the popular vote and everything else. It was a situation, this last go around of truth versus dishonesty. 107 days of propaganda on one side and just a, do you guys want wars? Are you guys serious about letting 25 or 30 million people here illegally every four years? I mean, it's one thing to have immigration. I don't know why Republicans have gotten this impression from the left that they're against immigration. I mean, Republicans are the most pro-immigration. In terms of putting America first, they're the most pro-immigration party by far. Because if you let criminals in here who are bringing in drugs and killing our people and adding to homelessness and everything else, how is that helping a single citizen who voted for you? So no, I mean, I just think there's... There's elements of the argument that are flawed, right? I mean, and then you can make the same argument about what is a woman, you know? I mean, all these things, the fascist, the woman, the transgender, the this, the that. And the problem is, is that it's weird. It's like, I don't know how this happened. I truthfully don't. This is actually the thing I'm actively trying to learn about the last 30-ish years of, call it American politics or history. How did the Republicans, you know, you think if you're going to have two parties, you kind of want to divvy up good arguments for both sides. so that way there's a... reason to make a decision. I look at it and I almost say to myself, how the Republicans get to have all these stances? The Democrats have to actually counteract themselves to even have their stances. For example, what is woman? And then you get in the transgender thing. What about science? Isn't it just X, Y chromosome? Well, no, because it's how you feel. But then at the same time, they're the ones advocating about climate change. And you have to respect the science. You have to respect the science. Science doesn't count when it comes to gender. So they have to contradict themselves to such a level that intelligent people see through it. And it's nice to know that more than 51% of the country is intelligent.
- Speaker #1
What do you think is going to happen for the midterms with the direction that we're going right now?
- Speaker #0
It's going to be interesting. I think that, I mean, it's weird. You look at like polls and stuff, and it seems like the Democrats are going to have a strong showing in Maybe I'm stuck in the echo chamber. I can't figure out what that's predicated on. You know, Trump has the highest approval rating he's had in either term. Most people are making more money right now. Unemployment is down. Interest rates are coming down. The border crossings are down. Crime is down. Homelessness is down. I mean, what statistic would contribute to Democrats being able to show that they need to have a resurgence? Now, the one thing that gives them a little help is a lot of the seats that are actually up are their seats. But that being said, I think that I put it this way, whatever the polls say they're going to perform right now, you could quote this. I guarantee you they will massively underperform whatever it says is going to exist right now. Because the other thing you have to keep in mind, too, is Trump's approval has climbed and climbed and climbed since he got inaugurated on January 20th. That means there's another year and a half of climbing to happen. And that's what you're going to be fighting against. The other problem is, is. When you talk about congressional races, when you talk about the campaigning, congressional races, Senate races, these kinds of things, you need to be able to draw a crowd so these people can get name recognition. Whoever's going to win any of these races that are local-ish races are typically the people that have the most name recognition. It's almost, in any race that's not 70-30 and it's basically a done deal anyways, right? The actual close races, name recognition will usually get the job done. Well, so how do you do that? For the Republicans, Trump's going to go around and he's going to campaign. and he's going to be doing rallies. So 40,000 people are going to come here, these like, you know, these district three candidates giving speeches and stuff like that. Who is the crowd draw for the Democrats? Who's the leader of that party? They don't overly have one.
- Speaker #1
What's Bernie and AOC? Well, and I was right now,
- Speaker #0
and the ones that they do don't represent the majority of the Democratic Party. The majority of the Democratic Party is, you know what? I was born Democrat. I was raised a Democrat. My parents voted for Kennedy. I voted for Clinton. You know, I was okay with Obama, you know, or I really liked him, the whole thing. They're not down for this. You know, there's three or four states in this country that are down for this socialist stuff. And by the way, every single candidate running on the Republican side and probably some smart ones on the Democratic side are going to point at those candidates in those four states. They're going to point at how mismanaged these states are. They're going to point at how the crime rates are the highest. They're going to point at how immigration is still the worst. They're going to point at how taxes have gone up when every other place in the country has gone down. And they're going to say, if you vote for this, that's what you get. In exchange for what? In exchange for someone whose rhetoric sounds a little bit better to your heart. Why does it sound better to your heart? Is there any truth to what they're actually telling you? People forget. I mean, Roe v. Wade got overturned when the Supreme Court, House, Senate, and presidency was blue. So to vote for that issue, it's one of those things where, again, I'm, by the way. I'm pro-choice. So to me, that's not, look, I'm not Christian Catholic. I don't have the pro-life argument. Of course, you could sit there and debate the semesters and the whole thing. Not particularly an issue that I would do. But I think there's a couple of fundamental issues with that being the anchor point. The transgender argument that the Republicans had of the men and women's sports, that resonated as just the perfect example of stupidity to more than half this country. Are you kidding me? A biological male competing against women and changing in their locker rooms? Because you might say, well, their intention is they're really a woman. But what happens the one time one of those people's intentions to be a total pervert and you okayed it and condoned it? voted for it the way that you voted for it, that resonated with people. The abortion thing's harder because they say they don't want to lay up abortions. They're never going to have access to it. There are so many nonprofits in this country that if, God forbid, Roe v. Wade got over, as a result of Roe v. Wade being overturned, your state then also voted to ban abortion. You have to cross state lines to get an abortion. These Democrats talk about it in these really ambiguous, just fluff terms of Most people don't have access to cross state lines anymore and all these things. There are billions of dollars in nonprofits that would more than happily send. I mean, literally, there are nonprofits designed to make sure that every human being has access to abortion that wants one. It's also legal in basically every state in this country anyways. And so your argument is losing. And by the way, most people don't want abortions. There's a small part of, frankly, my age group that has decided that an abortion is the equivalent of a condom, basically. Um, and that I actually fundamentally disagree with. I think like, you know, Charlie used to say, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Um, and I, and I, and I do think that that's right. Right. Like, I don't think you should just be killing things because, well, what about my life? What about like, what about your, what about that? What about their life? Right. You can make that argument, but I'm not particularly interested in making those arguments, but that's the problem is neither is most of the country. So they vote right right now.
- Speaker #1
I think that, and this happened yesterday, over 10,000 people at Ole Miss. to see Erica Kirk and J.D. Vance speak. I was blown away that you have a sitting vice president riffing, taking questions. He's amazing. I mean, love him or hate him, he's got game. That man can think on his feet. He's well-spoken. He's passionate. Everything I've seen about him is just like, check, check, check, check, check, check, check. And then Erica, I mean, beforehand, Erica comes out and, I mean, forget it, please. I mean, that's just game over. And- I'm watching the long game of all this. I know nothing about TPUSA. I'm a fan. We've talked about, I'd love to get involved and help them out. But man, you long game that with that generation and you start replicating those type of events over and over and over and over again, the goddamn midterms will be done. I'll be a fait accompli. It's game over because you have people who are speaking. With facts and with Erica, who literally is channeling Charlie when she's talking, is unbelievable to pack rooms of kids who most of these kids are used to doing this. Yeah. And all of them go, I'm not going to be on my phone. I'm going to listen to you, Erica. I'm going to listen to you, JD. I want to ask you questions that I've been thinking about. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And that gives me hope in the future of this country.
- Speaker #0
It's the turning point.
- Speaker #1
Yes, that they are. I mean, again, I love the idea of how with tactical precision, they're going into colleges and just, I mean, I'd be replicating that at least once a month, at least.
- Speaker #0
And to get- They do it a lot more than once a month.
- Speaker #1
And to get like, you know, to get Tucker, to get A-level people to come speak who can think on their feet and go, you've got a question, come on up. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, your beliefs and all that. You'll be treated with respect. You won't get shouted down or yelled at. Look at Antifa. Give me a break, please. It is something that it gives me hope in the future of America, what TPUSA is doing. And do you think they're onto something?
- Speaker #0
Well, you said it gives you hope for the future of America. What TPUSA is doing is what America. is and has always been and will continue to be. It's a country of free speech and of dialogue and competing ideas that can be discussed peacefully and maybe a sway somebody, maybe you don't, but you get to express your opinion and then life goes on. So I think they are fulfilling the promise that our founding fathers made 250 years ago. And this is what it looks like in 2025 compared to what it looked like in 1776. I think that, you know, look, at the end of the day, Charlie used to go from campus to campus speaking in amphitheaters and quads to 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 kids. Now you've got the vice president speaking to 10,000 in an arena. Everybody, you know, said that if nothing else, this guy's a martyr and he didn't die for nothing. His death probably was the turning point. Granted, I think he was probably only a year or two away from filling those arenas up by himself anyways. I agree. But nonetheless. So it's other people that are filling him up. And right now, they may be doing so out of saying, we're doing this in honor of Charlie, and this is his legacy, and this is what we want to do. But it's more than that. This is America's legacy. Charlie was just a really good vocator of that. And now other people are taking his place. And they're not doing it by way of trying to replace him. They're their own people. J.D.'s his own person. So is Erica. So is Megyn Kelly. So is all these people that they're having do this. but the students are receptive to it because if nothing else, students on college campuses are there to be students. And what a better opportunity to learn. There's no better opportunity to learn, excuse me, than having these kinds of people come to your campus. I dropped out my freshman year because I had someone come to my college campus and speak about personal branding. They were a personal branding expert and they had 6,000 followers on Instagram. It was very lackluster. If I went to Ole Miss and I wanted to go listen to politics and they had the sitting vice president come there, I might've been a college graduate. I think it's an amazing, amazing thing that Turning Point is doing for young people.
- Speaker #1
It is giving a voice to people that I think were being neglected for a long time, to that generation.
- Speaker #0
Well, there's a reason they didn't vote. They didn't vote. They didn't feel like their voice counted. Happily. Yeah, they didn't really know what their vote would have been anyways. They didn't care to learn about it. It wasn't brought to them. They were discarded. And Charlie said the problem with discarding someone to 18 to 24. is they look like Zoran Mamdani at 33. And Turning Point is set up to prevent that from happening. I mean, I watched firsthand as I got the luxury of getting to see Charlie in action from time to time on campuses in person. I mean, these kids would get four years of liberal arts indoctrination slammed into their skulls and in an hour he unwound all of it. And, you know, I mean, 2020 to 2024. young men 18 to 24 moved 44 points. Just 18 to 24, just men, 44 points. And you could say that's because everybody became a fan of Charlie and fair enough, but he was the orator that was leading that charge in that ground game. But Turning Point is designed to allow that to continue. And you see it, it already is. I mean, you just had the vice president go to an open mic on a college campus. Show me that. Nevermind, show me that on Democratic Party. They'll never do it because it's not scripted enough. But show me that on the right. Show me that during, where was Mike Pence doing that in 17? You know, I mean, these weren't, this wasn't a way that politics worked. But now you have a youth population that is pretty well informed. And the ones that aren't have a real desire to get more informed. A more informed country, really good sign for the future of our electorate. You know, because, and here's the other thing too, everybody always says, well, Maybe you grew up Democrat, maybe you grew up Republican, whatever. By the time you own your house, pride and ownership move you to the right. By the time you're paying taxes and seeing that come out of your check, you'll move to the right and all these things. Well, as they make that move, they'll be doing so with real information because I do think naturally that will happen. I think one of the biggest reasons why you have so many young people that have been so left over the last few years is we've been trying to convince them to participate in a system that has stopped applying to them. you know, yes, America is a as a country of capitalism. But when you look at the last five years and the age group that bought the most homes in this country was 50 to 65, that is a fundamental problem. And of course, they're not going to vote to keep that system going, right? So how do you explain to them that, no, no, no, the system isn't failing you. The college degree that put you $250,000 in debt and then spit out no job is what's failing you and gave you all the ideas that actually it's capitalism that's failing you, right? These are things that have to be debunked and discussed and and debated. But that is why you have a lot of what you have going on in New York. I mean, New York is a city of renters. It's a city of people with massive piles of debt. And you're saying to them, don't vote for the guy who's trying to give you free buses. Tough sell. Really, really tough sell, especially when the other guy is the worst governor in the state's history. Very tough sell. And so you're going to have the 33-year-old who can't give you free buses get elected instead.
- Speaker #1
Do you think there's going to be a mass, regarding New York City, and I used to live there. Me too. I have great friends that are there, right? So you know. Do you think there's going to be just a mass exodus of high net worth and ultra high net worth folks out of? New York City?
- Speaker #0
Candidly, no. I think that that's the threat right now, but I don't actually believe that will happen. I think that is a very similar threat to saying if Kamala wins, people are going to expatriate. Still the greatest country in the world. New York's still one of the top cities. Now, you're going to get pickpocketed more, for sure. You're going to get punched on the subway, for sure. You are going to live in a less safe city, and you're going to pay more to do so. But are you really good? I mean, to change your entire housing is just not a thing that people do with real speed. And at the same time, Let's see this guy get reelected. I'd be shocked. Now, do I think New York's going to move right and elect a Republican as the next mayor? No. But do I think Mamdani's term lasts any longer than this first go around when basically none of his promises are fulfilled and everything gets worse in the city? Probably not. I also think that he's a guy that will spin that like Gavin into, well, maybe I wasn't successful in the city, but how about give me a state? And then maybe one day he'll say, well, I screwed up the city. Then I screwed up the state and then I'll run for president. And then he'll be like Gavin Jr. Um, but no, I, I, no, I don't think that many people are actually going to move. I think the really, really ultra wealthy already have second homes in Florida and pay taxes as a resident in Florida anyways. I mean, no, I, I do think that's a sort of a, uh, an empty-ish threat. Um, but I guess we'll see. I mean, Wall Street's where it is for a reason.
- Speaker #1
I wonder what Jamie Diamond's thinking right now because JP Morgan Chase just opened up their like giant new headquarters or that massive multi-billion dollar building. And it's like, oh, shit.
- Speaker #0
Businesses have ebbs and flows. Yeah. So he's going to open it and they're going to have a flow. That's all that's going to happen. J.B. Morgan Chase has been around plenty long. They'll survive Zoran Mamdani.
- Speaker #1
They'll be fine. But I just thought when I remember that came out a couple weeks ago. They had the ribbon cutting and there's Jamie Dimon. I'm like, how much does he wish that this was in Miami right now? with everything that's going on. Can we call the Avengers? Just pick the building up and bring it to fucking Miami and stick it there, please. Ron DeSantis would be like, come on. He'd love it. Come on. I want to ask you a little bit about, because you're friends with Erica Kirk and you posted some wonderful photos of when Charlie received the, not the Congressional Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And your pictures were so cool. And I caught you on, like you were on Fox. I'm like, is this you? I took a video of you. You were there at the back. I'm like, wait a minute. That was him next to the picture of the auto pen. And it was you, which was hilarious. Where do you see? Because I personally, like I've never lost a spouse. I lost my mom. And I still process that grief all the time. She raised me as a single mom. And so there isn't a day that goes by I don't think of her. I was there when she passed away. It's for her. I think Erica, my opinion, is still an immense amount of grief that she is coping with. And she's masking it by going and speaking and doing all this stuff, which is wonderful. I think it's therapeutic for her to do that. Where do you see her taking turning point, but also still managing the grief and coping with the grief of the loss of her husband?
- Speaker #0
I don't think there's masking on one hand and then... and then coping and grieving on the other. I think that if you knew Charlie Kirk, Charlie Kirk poured everything that he was, of course, into his faith and family first, fair enough, but into Turning Point. I mean, 16 hours a day was Turning Point. Granted, actually, Charlie was someone who liked to sleep a lot, but nonetheless, I mean, Erica's got the unique opportunity now of really immersing herself in her husband's brain. She's got all the journals where he wrote everything every single day of how to do things and what he was thinking. I mean, Her office has become his office at the Turning Point headquarters. She won't sit in his chair behind the desk. She only sits on his green couch on the right side of the room. But she has a unique opportunity where she can stay connected to him at all times because of what her now role is. I mean, you think about, I think about, you know, my relationship, I think about my mom or I think about my uncle or someone like you who's married. If, God forbid, something happens to your spouse, how do you ever... put yourself in their shoes and really connect with them so deep. It's part of why people grieve for the rest of their lives when they experience loss, because you really, you can never get that back and you can never experience those same moments. Erica can, has the luxury of, she can actually experience all those same moments now because of the role that he left for her. And I think that's probably why he left it for her above all else. She is brilliant. She's extremely conservative, extremely religious. She's all the things that he was, which is why they were such great partners. But it was also probably a gift to her to say, it's going to be okay and I'm still with you. I mean, we talk about it when she's unsure of what to do in the business, she goes to her roof and she talks to Charlie. Unique thing to be able to do. Most people that are grieving don't get to do that.
- Speaker #1
And there's something that, I don't mean to cut you off. I didn't take my Adderall today, so I've got to let it go or else I'll forget it. is I love that. Erica isn't the, oh, feel bad for me. I'm wearing all black and I'm in mourning and all that. It's, I have such a strong bond with my husband. I'm still talking to him.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, and she'll be with him again one day soon.
- Speaker #1
Exactly. And so that part, I get goosebumps. I love that, that this is something that she knows her role. She is doubling down on her relationship with her husband. She talks to him all day long, all the time, and she knows he's listening. And then she just listens and feels prompts back, I assume is what you would do. And that she knows what he's saying because she knows him so well, because he told her everything. And that's like, when I tell my friends, when they first get married, like my wife's my best friend. She knows everything. I have no secrets with my wife. You sleep easier that way. You stay married a lot longer when you do that. If not. This little thing festers and gets bigger and bigger and lying is exhausting. Hiding stuff is exhausting. I know for a fact. So the fact that she had such a bond with Charlie, like that it was like, here's my journals. You get everything. I'm telling you everything. And not only am I telling you everything, I'm leaving written word as evidence of what I was feeling and doing during certain moments of my life for you to take.
- Speaker #0
Oh, she's, she's very lucky. You know, I mean, I think something, something that I think anybody who knew Charlie for any period of time has said is, of course, this is just been horrific, but how lucky was anyone that got to spend five seconds with him that they got to how lucky was Erica that she got to be that person that he loved and that she got to love back and everything. And, you know, look, I mean, at the end of the day, she's 36 years old. She has you know, knock on wood, the rest of her life in front of her. And it's going to be, you know, it'll, it'll, it never goes away. I mean, it'd be silly to say that that kind of thing ever goes away, but she, you know, look, you talk about business, you talk about family type, all these things. What is the thing that ultimately drives you, right? That's got to be your motivator. What makes that way at the end of a long day, you're not exhausted. You're grateful. You know what I I mean, it's what you brought up earlier. She's got the greatest. Sense of motivation and focus that I could imagine being bestowed on a human being in the history of this country She recognizes that burden. She loves it. She doesn't get exhausted She sure grieves but also loves the opportunity. She has to continue Charlie's mission, right? I mean if something happened to you, god forbid Brandi probably isn't taking over Fargo talk. No,
- Speaker #1
she's a nurse
- Speaker #0
And that is the uniqueness that I think gives Erica the strength that the country has seen her demonstrate every single time she's spoken.
- Speaker #1
It's a wonderful testament to a solid marriage and a solid relationship that Charlie Kirk wasn't bulletproof, but his marriage was. And the fact that... His wife now can carry on with this. Like you talked about, I get hit by a bus tomorrow. This is all done. This is all, everything I put into it is done. My wife's a nurse. I wouldn't expect her to do this. The odds on having your spouse be, first of all, probably smarter than you, you know, and it's always the quiet ones that you got to be careful for. And erica kirk strikes me as like one of the quiet ones in the room That's always like watching people and watching things that are going on right and To have that like charlie hit the powerball mega million lottery of wives and it was a horrific thing that happened horrific However, it has just grown that you know to have 10 000 people seven weeks After he you know after he's assassinated to have 10 000 people in a you know college, you know, auditorium and she's speaking with the vice president of the United States and there's a line like they're to turn people away, I heard.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
Oh my God. Oh my God, Blake. And so it to me gives people, again, like I'm older and you think, well, you know, if I lost Brandy, heaven forbid, I'd be a mess for the rest of my life. And I know several people that have lost someone close to them and never are the same again. I'm not saying that Erica's ever going to be the same again. However, something has happened, I think, within Erica with Charlie's loss that is making her better. He is lifting her up even though he's not here.
- Speaker #0
Erica, the Turning Porn organization, every friend he ever had, they'll never be the same with him gone. But every last one of them is stronger. There's no question. They're stronger because of their respect. They want to pay to him posthumously. But even more than that, they feel a sense of responsibility. Charlie tried convincing everybody that ever listened to him about the responsibility of getting married, of having kids, of fighting for your country, of educating people, of having dialogue. all these different things that were the strongest virtues of humanity. I mean, Charlie was, you know, one of humanity's finest, you could say, in every way. And so everybody that's internalized that is now demonstrating that in themselves a little bit more. It's why there was a revival around churches all over this country. It's why the turnouts are the size that they are on universities in terms of the political side of the business. And I think it's why people like you and I have connected and just had long conversations about life and things that really matter as opposed to text messages or phone calls or Instagram story posts or what have you. That's a gift that Charlie left to tens of millions of people. And I think it's a really, really powerful thing. And Erica is the biggest receiver of that gift for sure.
- Speaker #1
It's fantastic. I, getting back to one of our favorite topics ever, us. I loved it when, and this was, I think it was last month, where you invited me over to your office, and to see your podcast studios and all that, which is, it's great. We spent two hours on your couch and just hung out and shot the shit. And I left there, and I go home, and Brandy says, and she knew I was going to see you. And she said, how was it? It was Blake Wynn. It was wonderful. For me, it's like, hanging out with you is like Disney World of the brain. It's wonderful. Like, it's just, I'm better. I'm smarter. I feel listened to when I talk to you. I feel like I've helped you become better. So it's this 50-50, but it's a symbiotic relationship. I am not a God guy. The Mormons fucked me up a long time ago from being with them for 13 years. So I'm not a God guy, but I do believe that there's a higher power that's there. I equate it more to like the cantina scene in Star Wars. I think that there's some table where there's like a quorum of people or things and they're depending on, What's going on? This is what's going to happen in this person's world and this planet and all that. I believe in that. Someone had to create all this stuff. But the fact that we were brought together in such an awful way, but how our friendship has grown. And again, we get so caught up in text messaging people where I'd rather just frequently check on you just really quick. But then also like every month or every other month, just come by and say hi. And it's wonderful that we're both at. parts of our lives where when I'm with you for two hours, my phone's on do not disturb. My wife knows where I am. If she needs me, she can come get me. She has one of those Life 360 trackers on me, which I think is hilarious. I love it. A lot of people get offended by it. I'm like, I have nothing to hide. She can see where I am at all times. I'm flattered by that, that she sees me. And the kids, she does it too. So I'm like, I'm there with her daughter. I love that. But I love that people need to do more. interpersonal, turn your phone off, go see a friend and just talk with no, there's no agenda. There's no agenda. We get together. It's more just like, let's just talk. How are you? How are you doing? What's going on in your life? You know, personally, professionally, we need to get back to more of that because it's so easy to doom scroll and look at, which a lot of times is manufactured content to get you to react to it in a, you know, in a, in a hurtful way. We need to get away from that stuff. And so I love just your style. I'm a fan of just, we've said this before, you are the oldest soul I've ever met in my life. Because you're what, 26, 25? 25, yeah. At 25, you're like in your 50s, man, in a good way. Because you're like this like bluesy jazz, like, you know, guitarist that you'd find in like New Orleans, who's in some dive place that's been there when he's like 90 years old. You just go in and go, God damn, this guy just fucking shreds. That's you intellectually. And so I love to see that. And I will, to my dying breath, try to encourage, help, and mentor you as much as I can. Because I just love the way that you attract good people. And everyone that you're working with are better from it. Like for you to have your business, you haven't fired anybody in the first of the year.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I want to talk to you about Tulsi.
- Speaker #0
Okay.
- Speaker #1
She, to me, is... I mean, her story is unbelievable. And she's one of the smartest people in the room. Do you think that a lot of times, why is it that with Tulsi Gabbard, she's playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers?
- Speaker #0
Well, she's the highest ranking security officer in the country. So you'd hope that she was doing something a little different than everybody else. She's so intelligent. She is the most pure. public service official that I've ever met. When you run for something, you're serving people. Most of them are serving themselves. And I'm not saying they're serving themselves by buying stocks and all that kind of stuff. Some of them actually do that too. But they're serving their egos, they're serving their families. It's their career. And by the way, I'm not saying it's also a bad thing to serve yourself. Most human beings need to do that. Why would you work a job and earn money and have kids if you weren't trying to serve yourself and your family, right? Of course, it's great to serve the... greater good as well on top of that, if you're so fortunate. Look, she has been deployed three times. She is still in the reserves right now as sitting DNI director of his country. She's in the reserves. And by the way, to the Mideast, she doesn't go to Guam and hang out. I mean, she's gone to the Mideast and she's been fully deployed. You see videos of her all the time on Instagram running around with staccatos. I mean, she's got a perfect shot, the whole thing. if she was told that the best... things she could do for this country was be the janitor for the Oval Office. She would do in a second. She's there to genuinely serve people. She ran for president as a Democrat and is now DNI on the Republican side. I mean, you talk about a person who's just, you know what, I'm ready. I'm here to help the country. She's not looking for a job. She doesn't need a job. She's got a wonderful husband. I mean, one of the things I would say about Tulsi is, you know, again, it's one of those things where you get a gist for a person when you see who's closest to them. Now she's got Secret Service, the whole thing. Prior to that, her head of security was her sister, who was a former deputy reserve, I forget what, but a fighter just like Tulsi. And her husband is a hell of a producer. In fact, what's it called? Chief of War, the new show on Apple TV that's been a total hit. I know it's in the top 10. I don't know what it's ranked. I think it was three or four or something. I just started the other night. He was the producer of the show, or one of the co-producers of the show. So he's an unbelievably talented videographer and everything like that. When she was on the campaign trail, he was her videographer. So who's Tulsi closest to? Her husband or her sister? And she's running around being one of the most important presidential surrogates in the country. That speaks volumes. And the time, she's one that is, I mean, I have no business relationship with Tulsi Gabbard. She is just a really amazing, amazing friend, no different than you. We have dinner and just enjoy each other's company. she's a real human being. You know, politicians, it's hard to have a three-hour dinner with a politician. It's boring. Even if you're fascinated by him, you can sit there and ask him about politics and pretend like you're Jesse Waters for a dinner, but it's not that fascinating. You sit there with Tulsi, and you're talking about what shows you're watching on Netflix when you have time to see TV. You're talking about the things that make you laugh, the things that you've learned. You know, I'm not talking about politics. I don't care what's going on in Virginia at that point. building, which I know is probably just a disgusting mess, even with her there. But she's playing chess because she's representing what the American people want to do. The American people look at the government and largely have a strong distrust for them. And she's saying, that is a problem. I am an American and I also distrust the government. I'm going to come in and I'm going to expose the deep state if the president affords me the opportunity. That's what the president did. And that's what she's doing. And every day, different. bombshells come out of the DNI's office. Granted, a lot of the mainstream media doesn't want to pick it up and share it, but enough of the country is hearing about it to know how important it is. And regardless of how much the country hears about it, that's not really her prerogative. She is one of those people. Charlie is one of those people. The president's one of those people. You're one of those people that is going to leave the world a better place than when you came into it. And that is... That is the legacy. That is the objective. That is everything that she, more than anybody else, I think really fights for.
- Speaker #1
She is an enigma to me. And I love it. Just watching her, her story is unbelievable. Like her story is going to be one hell of a movie one day.
- Speaker #0
Yeah. And her husband will produce it.
- Speaker #1
And her husband will produce it. And Apple will pay him gobs of money for it. Not that they want the money, but holy shit balls. It's just amazing when you look at her story. And for anyone that you talk about the DEI stuff, it doesn't matter that she's a woman, but the fact that being raised by a single mom, it's pretty goddamn cool what she's done and what she's just the tip of the iceberg. How old is she?
- Speaker #0
41 or 42. Yeah, she's a baby.
- Speaker #1
She's a baby. She's got a long time left of serving this country, but we are so much better for having her. in the position that she's in right now. And I think there's much greater things for her in the future. You know, but wow. Like we were texting before, like I love her brain. I love her brain of just the way she just navigates through stuff and is always looking like a lot like Trump, talking to other people about their opinions before she goes ahead and does something.
- Speaker #0
She's one of the finest human beings I know. You, Erica, Tulsi, a couple other people are in a bucket by yourselves in my mind. Not that I don't look up to you and certainly Tulsi, these kinds of people, for what they do professionally, but you look up to them for the content of their character.
- Speaker #1
That's how you judge everybody.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
You know, I have, the way I judge people is, especially if they have a family, is their relationship with their spouse, their relationship with their kids.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
How do they react if you're at a party and it's a kid-friendly party? If I'm talking with you and you have kids and we're talking and one of your kids comes up, do you ignore that kid? Do you shush that kid so we can keep talking? Or do you stop immediately and focus all your attention on your child? That's what you should do.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
Is talk to your child. That's the most important person. You have a front row seat to raising this child. It is your empirical duty to stop everything, to listen to them. Put the goddamn phone down, turn the TV off, whatever you're doing, if your child comes to you and you listen to them with your body language and everything should be focused at them.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
The whole thing. And when you raise good kids, that is the greatest feeling in the world. Next to having a good, you know, to be married and have a good woman is, oh my God, All right, last topic, Mackenzie Dern.
- Speaker #0
Oh, I love her.
- Speaker #1
So I didn't meet her, but when you were great at the last CPT, she was there. And I remember because you were taking me over to meet Frazier and she came up and you guys were talking for a second and moved on. And I was like, how do I know her? And I looked up, Mackenzie Dern. Okay, awesome. What she just did, oh my God, right?
- Speaker #0
I mean, to be 115 pounds and get an octagon and put that much damage on somebody. And by the way, she took a lot of damage as well. I mean, you'll see when you meet her at the CPT. I mean, she's going to have a big, big, big face going on. I mean, those two went at it. And she became UFC champion. I mean, she beyond deserves it. I mean, again, one of the nicest people you could ever meet. She, though, again, it's like, here she is. just, I mean, animalistic, vicious human being when she steps in the octagon. But she's basically a single mother. She's divorced from a guy that she's very open about being a bit of a deadbeat. She has to give him alimony. She hates, you know, doesn't really like him. She respects he's a father, but she's got, you know, full custody of the kid and is, you know, always with her daughter and is a wonderful mom. I mean, she comes out for a championship fight. I mean, her daughter's there. I mean, by the way, almost every UFC fighter, by the time they're fighting for the championship belt, They're usually, they're not old, but they're not 20. Most of them have kids. Colby Covington doesn't. But I mean, all the Brazilian guys pretty much do that. You see fighting, Dricius does. I mean, all these people have kids. Where are they in the walkout? Where are they at the press conference? I know where Mackenzie's daughter is. And she's that kind of person. That's why she comes to CPT all the time. She couldn't be, yeah, she couldn't be any sweeter. You know, it's so funny about Mackenzie. She is one that genuinely loves poker. That's why she comes all the time. I mean, we have a great... personal relationship. She loves poker. She'll say things to me. She's quiet. She's Brazilian. She's got that strong accent. She says, would you ever want Mark Zuckerberg to play? I was like, what? Would you ever want Mark Zuckerberg to play? Yeah, I'd want Mark Zuckerberg to play.
- Speaker #1
That's a yes.
- Speaker #0
She's like, well, I'm going to Hawaii with him and his wife next week. We're going to do some surfing. I'll bring it up and I'll call you. She doesn't end up calling me. She comes back to Vegas after UFC fight. She's at the Aria. She calls me. She's like, hey, Blake, are you at the Aria? I'm not right now. Why? Oh. me and Mark are playing poker. I just wanted to invite you to come hang. I'm like, I'll be right there. You know, unfortunately it wasn't a town, so I didn't come. But funny enough, I said, send me all the pictures. Like I want to like post it and leak it and everything. And then there's Mackenzie Dern and Mark Zuckerberg playing poker for 2550. But I tell you that story. Awesome. I tell you this story because you know what it takes to be a UFC fighter who's probably not stereotypically looked at as a brainiac. Probably not. definitely not stereotypically looked at as a nice person. You literally fight and try and get as close to killing someone as possible without killing them for a living as it gets. And she's got those kinds of friends. Mark Zuckerberg could be friends with anybody in the world he wants to be friends with. And he's friends with Mackenzie Dern. I just think that speaks a lot of volumes. I'm just trying to give you anecdotes to attest to the quality of her character, but that is a wonderful human being. I'm lucky to be friends with her and you'll be friends with her two in two, three weeks.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, I appreciate that. She just... I was like, oh my God, like she's just another one. And again, had me being a good mom, you know, her mom was at the event, you know, with her, you know, with her daughter. I was just like, oh my God. And it's just, and we'll finish up. I just think that take social media out of it. The world is still full of really good people. This country is definitely full of really good people. There's a lot of... Blake wins in this world that love their country. They're good people. And they're looking to bring everyone around them up. And the more we can stay off of social media, this is coming from a podcaster, coming off of social media and spend more time with interpersonal communication, with face-to-face. I think that we all should pick one or two people, at least that once or twice a month, get together with them. Buy them a cup of coffee. Stop by where they work or they come over to your office and just shoot the shit with no preconceived notions about anything. You want nothing from them. They want nothing from you. You just want to talk and share space together.
- Speaker #0
I mean, I got to say, I've never done this since, really, since I got my first phone. You know, I mean, since I got my first phone. Now, granted, I've never been someone who's like abusive of screen time. And the moments that I have been that way, it's because it's what I do for work and that's how I'm working. I'm not sitting there. just scrolling my life away on social media. It's not something that I've ever really enjoyed. But for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I said, you know what, in light of everything that happened with Charlie, which was very tough for me and everything else, I'm going to just put my phone away. I'm going to go somewhere where I can kind of spend a couple days in nature and I really have no interest in taking anybody's phone call or anybody's text. I put on the Do Not Disturb feature where I made it so 10 people could get through the Do Not Disturb feature. And even that, I left, I would leave the room. like leave my phone in the room and I'd check it once or twice a day. And that was it. I probably was on my phone for seven to 10 minutes a day for the three, four days that I went on this trip. I will never go another four or five months in a row without doing that kind of thing again for the rest of my life. Look, at the end of the day, you can't just disconnect yourself from the world if you're trying to run a business, but to have those little pockets are so important where you're just fully present. You can think without looking at a screen. You can... You can breathe while looking up at what nature, whatever it is, has to offer you. You can taste your meal where you're thinking about the food or what you're going to order or what's going on in the world. You don't have to write it down. You don't have to do any of that kind of nonsense that everybody feels like is important because it's really not at the end of the day. And I got to say, I mean, look, there's different kinds of happy moments in life. And by the way, this was in a moment where I was really grieving and I'm still really grieving. But it was one of the happiest couple days of my life for that reason. It just felt like the, it felt clean. You know, I've gotten to sit next to the president on election night when he found out he won. I've gotten to be in the Oval Office. I've gotten to be at CPT 10 times a year for the last two years. I've gotten to be at weddings of people that I care about. I've, you know, there's lots of moments in life that are really, really happy. But that was different. And everybody should do it. And by the way, There were moments during that time where I felt a little uncomfortable. I really wanted the phone or I wanted this, I wanted that. It felt like a true detox. It was like, I was like, right? It's so funny. I mean, people think that you need like rehab or something if you're an alcoholic or if you like some drug too much or something like that or anger management or what have you. I would say I would very confidently predict that at some point in the next decade, whether it's a business or an organization or whatever it is, not going to be me that does it, but I do think it'd be a profound cause. I think people need phone rehab, really. It's its own disease to spend nine hours a day on your phone if you are doing it to scroll and to just watch shit on YouTube or whatever it is. Everything in life needs balance. the problem is, is, I mean, look, you watch the transition the last 15 years, people would balance their screen time with their, when I was a kid, it was like, you go on your phone, but then you go outside, you jump on a trampoline or you go play football with your friends or basketball. Then you go swimming. Then you have dinner with your family. Then you go back on the phone. Maybe then you play Wii sports, you know, like, sure, you mix it in fine. But then it's become the way to live life is through the phone. Right? I mean, Meta and Zuckerberg, I mean, they're making glasses where literally they're trying to put that shit in your vision. And I just think, again, as a tool, use it. You should. It's great. The technology's on our side. We're all going to live longer as a result. Medical is going to do better. I mean, all these other things. But in terms of quality of life, you're going to be on your deathbed and you're not going to be thinking about the shit that you scrolled by when you were 32 years old. You're going to think about that trip you took to Hawaii. You're going to think about... That moment that you sat with the person and had lunch that was really interesting to you I will remember till I die that breakfast that you and I shared that morning Which I wish I frankly kind of didn't but I will But at the same time I don't know that I could tell you for certain what I looked at on my phone this morning You know and I and by the way have a really good memory, but I still don't think I could you know what I mean The impact is just missing and I think if you live a life where you lack impact You just start to go down a really slippery slope. Those are the people that end up drinking and doing marijuana or whatever else it is that they do that disassociate, that don't end up in relationships or end up in very toxic ones and all these kinds of things. And yeah, I don't know. I think living without the intent of being healthy is not a very good thing to do.
- Speaker #1
It's something that you need to practice it yourself. If you have kids, you need to teach them. My son is nine. He's in fourth grade. Half of the kids in his class have phones. He does not. his mom and I co-parent very well. We co-parent with it's, you know, the Roman Coliseum. We're both thumbs up or if it's one thumbs down, it's a no. And she's asked me, is it time to get him a phone? No. Nope.
- Speaker #0
Or get him a flip phone where you can call a number and there's no screen.
- Speaker #1
But then he'll get picked on even more. Like he would get, I did. I even looked on verizon.com and I looked and it's like, get him a burner phone for your nine year old. Get him a burner phone. But it's like, oh no. Cause I just, the kids, he would just get berated. So I'm like, no. And he's with me. Every other weekend, and then Wednesday, Thursdays, and Fridays, he's usually with us, and with my wife and I, and we have bikes. He gets on his bike and rides around the neighborhood. Yesterday, one of the greatest things ever, I get him from school, bring him, I had to work, I get him, I leave my car in the garage, gets his bike, and I thought he took off. My Brandy comes home, walks in, goes, where's Jack? He's on his bike. No, he's not. His bike's hanging up on the wall thing. What? I go out, I'm shitting my pants because I'm like, I've lost my son. I'll get hell for this. I look around the, I'm like, if I'm going to get in trouble, it's going to be for this. I look around the corner where the cul-de-sac is. He's playing soccer in the cul-de-sac with three other kids. Like, I'm like, this is good.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, that is great.
- Speaker #1
This is good. And I encourage him now to either, like he's reading all the Harry Potter books at nine. So I'm like, honey, get your book out. Read your book. Because he'll say, can I watch TV now? No, I want you to read for a little bit first. Or did you go for a bike ride yet? No, go. Will you come with me? No, you go. You don't need me. I want you to go. We're in a good neighborhood. You're fine. Go ahead. And he'll come back. He takes his helmet off. He's all sweaty, dirty. You want boys to be that way. You know, girls too. But when you're nine, I grew up that way. My bike was my, you know, that's main source of transportation. So, I just think that it starts from home. And I would say this without even her being here. And it's tough because my mom is gone. The fact that your mom is here right now and she has done an incredible job raising you. Unbelievable job. And I think that that is something that goes unnoticed a lot of times. I get emotional about it because I know that you cherish. every second you spend with her. You cherish every second that you get to spend time with your grandparents because there's going to be seconds in the future that are not going to be around. And that's the worst. And it's something that you appreciate. And that is something most people don't do. And for that, you have my eternal respect. And I cherish you for that.
- Speaker #0
Well, I think one of the great things that... My mom and I had an interesting dynamic because I had the opportunity, very much so, where... You made the point that you think I'm 50, even though I'm 25. She used to always say I was four going on 40. That was the age quote she would use. But she did something that I don't know how you come up with doing as a parent. It's a very clever thing, I guess I could say, because it seems to have worked out. But I look at some of my friends and I think maybe it wouldn't have worked out if their parents had done that. But she let me be 40, like how you're doing with your son. She let me go on bike rides by myself. And those bike rides by myself led to me starting my business. At the same time too, you made the point about the phone. I've got a counterpoint for you, which is that it's good to let your kid go through adversity and to be bullied a little bit while you're also still there to provide a piece of counterbalance. I had to more or less make a decision. Now, I wasn't nine. Your child's in fourth grade, right? You're nine or 10. I was older, so maybe nine's not the right age. So I'm not imposing any... You're fine. Judgment on the age thing. I don't know what I would do with a nine-year-old. Thank God. I'm 25. That means I would have started when I was the age that this came up. But when I was 16 and I started doing YouTube, all the first comments I got on videos were just as rude as people could type. I mean, if they came up with it, it went down on the screen. And by the way, there's only a couple comments, and they were all just really rude. And my mom wanted to have me shut my YouTube down because the comments were really rude. And I wouldn't have had the wherewithal at 16 to say this, but I genuinely didn't care. And I would say, I don't care. They're watching, they're leaving a comment. It'll change. If I become big, it'll change. You're not going to become famous with only people that hate you. You know what I mean? You're not going to end up building an audience like that. So that'll change over time. And I have to imagine as a mother, it's really, really hard to watch what you think is your gift to the world be just. absolutely slammed every opportunity the world gets. But she let that happen while I was still at home. And as a result, again, I wouldn't have said it back then. I realize it now, but it's like, but she wasn't slamming me. And like her opinion is the one that mattered to me. My grandparents weren't slamming me. Steve wasn't slamming me. My best friends in school weren't slamming me. Other people were, you know what I mean? And so You made the point about getting your kid the burner phone and getting bullied. You have an opportunity, maybe not at nine, and maybe you don't want them having a phone anyways. Fair enough. That's a silly example. But I do think it's advantageous to let your kids go through that when you're there because they will become the kind of person that says, whose opinions actually matter to me and whose don't. And that is the fundamental reason why social media causes so many mental issues for so many people is they haven't had those opportunities. It's the same reason why, you know, Yeah. I get this question all the time, which to me is like, it's a fair question, but it's kind of one that I scoff off because it's so silly, which is you post, you know, a picture of you and Trump and a picture of you and Erica Kirk and a picture of you and this person on social media. How do you deal with the hate? Do you not get tons of hate in your DMs? You're not get this, you're not get that. I'm like, I don't even know if I do or don't. And even if I read the comments, I mean, yeah. So a comment says that I'm a fascist and I'm supposed to be deeply hurt. My mom thinks it's really cool that I've met the president of the United States. My grandfather is quite proud of that fact. I leave it at that. That's the opinion that resonates, right? And so, you know, look, I just, you know, grew up where, again, I would never go as far as a call to comeback story. It's always been really good. but it's always been really good because I've always had my mom, because I've always had my grandparents, because I've always had those couple of really close friends who to this day, 22 years into my life, out of 25 or 26 years, are still my closest friends. That was enough to prevent you from feeling like you're at rock bottom at any given moment. I had a period of my life where I lived in a 15,000 square foot house with live-in support, which is like the most absurd way to grow up that you could probably ever dream up. And then I had parts where... Me and her lived in a hotel room side by side, like at the Red Rock Hotel, where you're in a, what's a room at the Red Rocks? Have 100, 800 square feet, if that. If. I was no less happy. I was not at rock bottom sitting at the Red Rock. I had a good mom. I was like going to the arcade with like my friend after school and like could go to get Panda Express at 4 p.m. Like we, whatever situations we ever had in life, we always just made them awesome. I mean, you know, it's funny. I've actually gotten in arguments with friends. And frankly, it's ended. personal romantic relationships of mine, I do not do well with people who have a glass is half empty outlook on life. I was raised with a glass is half. I was raised with a glass is just full. And if it's not full, then fucking go get the water pitcher and start dumping. Amen. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, no, you always have gratitude for those things. It's why you have gratitude for the moments you get to spend with them. It's why everybody should. But, you know, I've been aware enough to know that my whole life. I think most people who are in that position are too. I don't think that's a virtue of mine that I was aware that things have been good because of the people that I'm close to. People that have a strong support system recognize it. People that don't have a strong support system also recognize it. And they aspire to have it. They just maybe unfortunately don't know how to get it. And the number one thing that I can suggest as to how to get it is forget friends, forget networking, forget all those things. Go get five people. that you are down to just have as many dinners with, as many text conversations, work together on a side business, just whatever it is, get three, four, five people. Everybody can do it, and start there. And then change those people out as they deserve to be changed out, by the way. You can't be scared. If anybody's ever holding you back, you gotta be okay with keeping forward with putting one foot in front of the other.
- Speaker #1
Ever hear of the, there's a comic, Joey Diaz? He's great. good friends with rogan and he's a he's a jersey guy big guy with a gravelly voice and he's got i'll send you the clip but he has a a bit that he says you give me three hard-charging motherfuckers that are friends of mine we could take over a fucking country and it's there's truth to be told about that that if you have your ride or dies with you there's nothing yeah that can stop you and i agree with what you said i mean i'm because i'm always like i'll listen Right. Like regarding like my son with a phone and all that. I'll listen. I need to think about it because it's, the options are no phone, the Al-Qaeda burner phone, you know.
- Speaker #0
With an air tag taped on the back to give him life 360 by yourself.
- Speaker #1
With a Faraday bag, like, you know, he can't get tracked or he gets an iPhone where unfortunately with an iPhone, he can watch porn and beheading videos, you know, and he's smart enough to find that stuff.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
And so, That's just, as a dad, what's one of the things now I wrestle with. And instead of talking about phones with him, I double down on, go ride your bike, read a book, let's play chess. Yeah. You know, let's go for a walk together. Great thing to do. Right? Like, let's go for a walk together and talk to me. One of the best compliments, he said it to me twice. And him and I floss together whenever he's with me. We're accountability partners to floss. And he's like, dad, yeah, floss. And so, and I go, we floss together. And I was flossing with him last week. He said, dad, I go, yeah, honey. He goes, you're a really cool dad. I bawled, I bawled. And I'm a crier. When it comes to people I love, I'm a baller. And I just, it was like, cause I was having a bad day and he did that. And everything just went, I'm good. Everything else can go away. My son thinks I'm cool. End of line. That's all that matters to me. You know, my wife is my best friend. End of line. Nothing else matters to me. I have you as one of my dear, dear friends now. Nothing else matters. End of line. Thank you for coming in.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, thanks for having me.
- Speaker #1
It's been a lot of fun. You have an open seat here whenever you want to come in.
- Speaker #0
Anytime.
- Speaker #1
You know, whenever you've got something that you want to get off your chest. Let, you know, get your ass back in here.
- Speaker #0
Anytime. Hopefully this is good for people.
- Speaker #1
We'll see. If the 45 people that watch it.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, now you've got a great audience. I'm sure people will tune in.
- Speaker #1
Thank you, sir.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, thanks, Jeff.
