{"id":4543,"date":"2022-12-13T10:56:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T10:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/?p=4543"},"modified":"2022-12-13T10:56:05","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T10:56:05","slug":"how-rob-fits-family-real-estate-and-100m-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/13\/how-rob-fits-family-real-estate-and-100m-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rob Fits Family, Real Estate, and $100M Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek<\/strong> is one of the most well-known pro skaters<\/strong>, entrepreneurs, and media figures of all time. He essentially owned the MTV lineup for years with hit shows such as Rob & Big<\/em><\/strong>, Rob Dyrdek\u2019s <\/em>Fantasy Factory<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>and Ridiculousness<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em> At first glance, Rob may look like a phenomenal skater who turned his passion into something profitable. But behind the half pipes is an almost unbelievable amount of discipline, <\/strong>wisdom<\/strong><\/a>, and time optimization<\/strong> that only a select few know about.<\/p>\n

Rob, like many entrepreneurs, ditched school early o<\/strong>n when he realized that his talents were best used elsewhere. He left high school at sixteen<\/strong>, went on to compete in the highest level of skateboarding, and started his first company at seventeen. He was bringing in millions of dollars a year <\/strong>at an age where money is almost incomprehensible. Rob was fueled by creation, starting dozens of businesses that were doing millions in revenue but weren\u2019t making a financial difference in his life. So, he took a high-level view of what was worth keeping and cut out everything but that.<\/p>\n

From then on Rob began investing down two major avenues\u2014businesses and real estate<\/strong>. Most people who follow Rob know about the former, but very few know about the latter. Now, Rob\u2019s on the show to help us celebrate the 700th episode of the <\/strong>BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast<\/em><\/strong><\/a> and show us how we too can make millions of dollars by tracking every minute of our day<\/strong> as intelligently as possible.<\/p>\n

\n

David:
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast show 700.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
The first thing that I did is I began to look at my life as this ongoing daily, weekly, monthly and yearly rhythm and I began to design my time, right? It eventually scaled to the point today where I track every bit of my time and tag it and it pumps into a dashboard so I could tell you exactly where I spend every single hour of my life over the last three years.<\/p>\n

David:
What\u2019s going on everyone? This is David Greene, your host of The BiggerPockets Podcast here today with a special edition, our 700th podcast here today with my lovely co-host Rob Abasolo. Rob, how are you today?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Wow, man, I can\u2019t believe, you and I, we\u2019ve sat behind this microphone 700 times. It\u2019s just crazy, man. It feels like I\u2019ve only been doing this for a year.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah, but with you, a year flies by so fast it\u2019s like it\u2019s only been 11 months.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

David:
Well, the cat\u2019s out of the bag. There\u2019s no shock who our guest is today unless you\u2019ve been living under a rock you\u2019ve seen. We have Rob Dyrdek of MTV\u2019s Ridiculousness, Rob & Big, top skateboarder in the world, business entrepreneur venture, owner of Outstanding Foods, a whole bunch of other stuff that we would use the whole episode if we talked about all of Rob\u2019s accomplishments. And he is here today to talk with us about real estate, wealth building and more importantly, tracking your quality of life. Today\u2019s show is nothing less than stellar epic really. You definitely want to listen all the way to the end because Rob\u2019s last little, I don\u2019t know what you want to call that, his grand finale is an absolute mic dropper.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
His magnum opus.<\/p>\n

David:
The magnum opus, that\u2019s exactly what it was. He left us speechless. And I\u2019m just humbled that Rob was here to share so much of what\u2019s going on in his personal life, his philosophy for how he attacks life. He really pulls back the curtain and shares things that most people wouldn\u2019t do. It\u2019s very easy to let yourself just be seen as an incredibly successful person who never struggles with anything. And Rob is very, very humble and transparent and it was a joy to be able to interview. What were some of your favorite parts, Rob?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Man, just a master, honestly. It\u2019s cool because a lot of people think when you\u2019re super successful and wealthy and you\u2019re crushing it, that you\u2019re just good at this stuff. You\u2019re just naturally born this way. And he actually talks about how when he first started, he knew nothing and he failed. He actually started a bunch of companies. They were making money then not breaking even, then he shut them down. And through all that, he kind of became this master business man, but it didn\u2019t always start out that way. And that\u2019s what I really like about this, is that it\u2019s just honest. It\u2019s a honest look at a true genius.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah, he\u2019s one of those people that doesn\u2019t stumble through life just hoping he figures it out. If life has passed him anything, he\u2019s dissected it, analyzed it, understood it, and then tweaked it and replicated it to a huge level, which is why he\u2019s been able to have so much success with his business ventures, the Dyrdek Machine, all of his production endeavors that he\u2019s put out there, as well as the system he\u2019s come up with that he shares today.<\/p>\n

David:
Before we bring Rob in, we have a brief quick tip for you. I just want to ask you a question. What are you tracking? I talked a little bit in this episode about an epiphany I recently had with tracking and the work I\u2019m putting together for BiggerPockets to help you be more successful by utilizing this incredibly powerful force. And Rob expands on that and really hammers it home. So as you listen to the show, you\u2019re going to get exposed to this concept of tracking. And you\u2019re also going to hear Rob Abasolo talk about why he doesn\u2019t do it, which I bet many of you, including he, can relate to. So make sure you ask yourself that question, \u201cWhat am I tracking and what matters to me?\u201d as you\u2019re listening to today\u2019s show. All right, let\u2019s get to Rob.<\/p>\n

David:
Rob Dyrdek, welcome to the BiggerPockets Podcast. It\u2019s great to finally have you here. You\u2019ve been on my wishlist and you came in just in time for Christmas, so thank you for that.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
No, hey, thank you for having me and making me feel honored and feel like a gift. Thank you for making me feel like a gift.<\/p>\n

David:
Well, thank you for being the gift that you are for anybody who\u2019s had insomnia, wasn\u2019t able to sleep, maybe ate too much food and was struggling with some acid reflux, Ridiculous has been there for all of us. And I don\u2019t know how you\u2019ve taken America\u2019s Funniest Home Videos, rebranded it, made it cool and kept it fresh and exciting for as long as you have. So first off, just props for being able to take a show that\u2019s pretty simple and just keeping it cool all the time.<\/p>\n

David:
But we\u2019re not here to talk about Ridiculousness. You\u2019ve done so much more than almost every human being on the planet has any idea you\u2019ve accomplished. And that\u2019s what I really want to get into today, is what\u2019s going on in that head of yours, what are you doing, what are some of the things you\u2019ve learned, because I know that\u2019s going to benefit all of us. So let\u2019s start with your journey if you don\u2019t mind sharing us. What was your early days of your entrepreneurial journey like? How did you get into business making money and kind of taking charge of your own life?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
I like to say I was raised by entrepreneur wolves, right? Because the first move I made at 11 years old is I called the local skate shop that had a ramp in the back that you had to pay to skate. They were having a contest and I said, \u201cIf I got 10 people to pay and skate, would you let me skate for free because I didn\u2019t have any money.\u201d And they were like, \u201cWhat? This is ridiculous. Just come down here, we\u2019ll let you skate.\u201d And so when I skated that ramp, I was able to skate that ramp so good at such an early age that they were telling me I had so much potential and I didn\u2019t even know what the word meant. They sponsored me based off of that very first time when I was 11 years old and went to the skate shop.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Now, the person who owned that skate shop was a guy by the name of Jimmy George who was a 19 year old serial entrepreneur. And so not only did I watch him run that skate shop, but then he built a distribution company. Then I started watching him build clothing companies and other retail stuff and then the other influential skaters in Dayton started to build companies. So for me, I just looked at building a company was part of my natural path and that\u2019s what I would do also on top of being a professional skateboarder. So I quit high school, turned pro at 16, moved to California and then started my first company when I was 17. So that\u2019s sort of like what sort raised my mind, if you will, in sort the entrepreneurial mindset in the early nineties when it really wasn\u2019t something that was more broad as it is today.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah, I believe that you talked your parents into letting you drop out of school so you could go become a professional skateboarder as well, right?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah, no. And to this day she\u2019s still mad about it. Look, I\u2019m 48 years old, worth hundreds of millions of dollars and she is still angry, still angry that I was able to talk her into convincing the counselors and my father to let me quit high school. You know what I mean? She\u2019s still mad about it.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Can you tell us a little bit about how that conversation actually came to life? Did you sit them down at the dinner table? Had they seen the writing on the walls previous to that? Tell us about that day.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah, and look, we have two different memories or two different versions of it, me and my mother. The truth is I\u2019ve done a lot and a lot has faded in including the details of that exact process. But really I was building a case of like, hey, I was giving the value of long term, I can always go to college. I will take night classes and get my diploma, have enough credits to graduate because I was only a few credits away. And then it really came down to convincing both this counselor, the principal and my parents that this was going to be the better thing for my future. And at the end of the day, it was pure salesmanship that convinced all of them that, \u201cWell, we might as well let him give it a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And I left. That was my last year of school. And then I immediately went to Europe for the world championships and got fourth place in the world championships in Germany. And it kind of validated it for everybody, \u201cOh look, he was almost a world champion.\u201d So it was an unusual form of salesmanship at a early age.<\/p>\n

David:
Now this is just part of the crazy life that you\u2019ve lived up to this point. You went and became one of the best skateboarders in the entire world. This was really at a time where\u2026 I was never a skateboarder so don\u2019t let me say anything incorrectly here, but I don\u2019t remember there being a whole lot of opportunity to learn skating at a high level, right? At one point, basketball was a new sport and there wasn\u2019t really anyone to learn from. Now you\u2019ve got so much basketball, you could be in camps from the time you\u2019re five years old learning how to play the game. So you almost had to go out there and figure out, \u201cHow do I get better at skateboarding?\u201d without a ton of examples. At least there wasn\u2019t YouTube videos you\u2019re watching every day like you can right now. Did something happen in your mind that you think led to the entrepreneurial journey as you had to learn how to do something as creative as skateboarding without a whole lot of direction that you could follow? Or do you think this was just something that was in you already?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Well, I mean, you got to think about what it is as a sport, right? It\u2019s really about failing over and over and over and continuing to make adjustments until you finally get it. Then it turns from this constant failure and adjusting to actually find success. Then it\u2019s about mastery, right? And it goes a step further. So if you can imagine that process, if I began to apply that to a lot of different areas of my life on top of the fact that now you are in this space where you\u2019re thinking entrepreneurial, you\u2019re always thinking about different angles and different ways for things to, whether that be deals for when I was first developing a designing shoes or even the first company that I created, I always put a lens of creativity into the way that I looked at business and deal making that I think for sure is from sort of the creative outlet and the expression side of what skateboarding gave to me at an early age.<\/p>\n

David:
I mean, you were very unique in the sense that you didn\u2019t just focus on your craft of skateboarding. You then said, \u201cNow I want to get into business,\u201d and this is all at a super young age. What were some of those initial early business ventures like for you? And then where did you go? How many businesses did you actually have at one time before you realized it gotten out of hand?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Oh, I mean, in that era there was a lot of moving parts in that evolution, but it started at below zero. You\u2019re talking about a guy that didn\u2019t understand money in any way, shape or form. He just left high school, was bad in math. I had no even concept of anything other than if you work really hard and have big ideas and they become successful, then the money will come. That\u2019s really the energy I took into everything. The problem with that is that led to making a lot and losing a lot of money because you were never totally sure what was making something successful, right?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
So some things you would create with a group or partner or start yourself and they would find success or not work and finding what those through lines were was the thing that was most difficult for me I\u2019d say in my 20s into my 30s because I had record labels and skate shops and I had signature products that were super successful and I had skateboard accessories that I would start. I was doing all of these different companies and some were working and some were not and I was confused by it because I never ever thought of myself of like, \u201cHey, there\u2019s so much you need to learn.\u201d Instead I just thought you could will your way to being super successful that it really wasn\u2019t about this is this incredible process of learning and what you want to do is guide your evolution to building a skill set of building and creating businesses so that long term you get better and better at it. I didn\u2019t discover that even as a concept until I got into my late 30s.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Man, yeah, I totally get it, man. When you\u2019re in the trenches of a bunch of different companies, it\u2019s sort of like you see what works, you see what doesn\u2019t, and it\u2019s really hard to just prioritize because you\u2019re just trying to get through the mud. But was there ever a moment in the beginning of all of this, like an aha moment or a light bulb moment where you\u2019re like, \u201cThis is working.\u201d? Like, this company right here is working where you really wanted to focus on a specific one?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Well, it happened in more of a nuanced way, right? So when I was offered to have a Signature Shoes, a signature pro model, so your own signature shoe, Michael Jordan style, when I was 22 years old from my clothing sponsor, Drawers Clothing was going to create this new company DC shoes. And so they offered me a signature shoe. That signature shoe gave me the opportunity now to make a lot more money that I can invest in a lot of different things. But watching the journey of that shoe company be built from an idea stage to being sold for $100 million was probably the bigger aha moment to me of like, \u201cWow, there\u2019s actually a cycle here where these guys that were just my friends all just made $30 million.\u201d You know what I mean? Like, \u201cI want to be in the business of building assets that are acquirable\u201d is sort of what my mind began to see when I watched that entire process happened.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
I actually have always wondered this. So you got a shoe, your first shoe, right? Did you ask for 20 pairs of that shoe that you could wear for the rest of your life? Do you still have that first model that ever came out?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Look, there is nothing as incredible as having a signature shoe. It is the most incredible. And look, I went on to have 36. I have one of every single pair and almost every single color saved to this day. You know what I mean? It never got old. It\u2019s something that I became quite obsessed with, like just the shoe design process. And even in my journey with DC where I made millions of dollars in my 20s and being entrepreneurial, is I did a deal with DC that like, \u201cHey, if I design shoes and present them to the sales team and they get chosen, can I get a 2% royalty on that one instead of a 5% royalty that I got on my signature shoes?\u201d And so they said, \u201cSure, no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And at one point I had a-third of the entire line and 30 different shoes that I was getting paid off of, right? That\u2019s one of the first places that I made a ton of money. But yeah, when you get into the world of creating something on paper that ends up on someone\u2019s foot that you see walking around, it\u2019s really special and you want to make sure you have some keepsakes of your signature shoes.<\/p>\n

David:
Now I understand, Rob, you didn\u2019t just have a business, you had several businesses. In fact, it seems like once you realized, \u201cOh, I know how to make money through business,\u201d it sort of became a whole bunch of new skater tricks that you had thrown into your arsal and you\u2019re just like starting businesses all over the place. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s an accurate reflection of what it was like, but tell me, did you catch a bug and just started like, \u201cI\u2019m going to do this and I\u2019m going to do that\u201d? Was there a greed component? Was there a fear of missing out component? Was it just so much fun that you just wanted to keep doing it? What was motivating you? And then how many businesses did you have at one time?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Well, look, I like to say that I was fueled by the joy of creation, right? I\u2019m a creator and I loved creating all these different things. What I was blind to is creating business requires seeing business multi-dimensionally. And it\u2019s beyond the product and the brand and it\u2019s the operations and the financial side and the leadership side and market side, market timing. There\u2019s all these different aspects that I didn\u2019t fully understand. And I didn\u2019t think I needed to know. I just thought I would keep making cool stuff. That trailed into a lot of different areas, right?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
As I continued to create, then I created Rob & Big and now had this platform and then I started ROGUE STATUS, a clothing company and had all these multiple signature products. The bigger I created my television platform and saw the impact of that, I began to do partnership deals with all these different brands and Monsters and Red Bulls and Chevys. And then I\u2019ve said, \u201cWell, look at this. I should just create a show that\u2019s just about promoting brands that I create and doing brand partnerships.\u201d And then I wrote the concept Fantasy Factory owned my integration rights. So now not only am I building two or three companies a season and promoting them through the platform, I\u2019m doing multiple brand partnerships with the Chevys and the Monsters and Microsoft and all these different companies and I\u2019m getting paid as talent on the platform.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
So I really began to see what the potential was of being a multi-platform brand as yourself. And then I launched Street League and Wild Grinders on Nickelodeon. I had just done so many different things that it was almost like I was pulling myself tight where I was doing so many different things in so many different directions, but I was basically breaking even with the cost structure of how the entire integrated universe work together. So I\u2019d be making a ton of money on this thing and losing a ton on this thing. And it really just ended up where I got 12, 15 different companies and two different shows and a professional skateboarding league and a cartoon on Nickelodeon and all these brand deals, but I\u2019m basically breaking even.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
I think that was really more of the epiphany of like, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to put structure to why you\u2019re doing all of this. What is the unified theme in all this? And then what are you learning and growing into on a long term basis?\u201d is what I grew into eventually having as sort of my aha moment in my mid 30s.<\/p>\n

David:
One of the issues real estate investors have that I\u2019ve noticed is we tend to focus on metrics like the return on investment, which we usually only look at the cash-on-cash return when we talk about ROI. And because we\u2019re only looking at that number, we forget about all the rest of the investment we\u2019re putting into the opportunity.<\/p>\n

David:
So for instance, you can say I bought this property and it makes me an 18% return and all the other investors get jealous because they\u2019re only getting a 6% on theirs. But what isn\u2019t talked about is this is a short-term rental that you\u2019re managing yourself and it\u2019s basically become a full-time job and there\u2019s an energy component where you\u2019re dealing with frustrated people and now you\u2019re in a bad mood and you\u2019re taking it out on your relationship or your kids. You\u2019re not focused on what you\u2019re doing because you\u2019re thinking about what could go wrong. Yeah, your return is higher, but there\u2019s time, there\u2019s energy, there\u2019s emotion, there\u2019s other resources that are going into that deal that because we don\u2019t measure, you don\u2019t factor in to the actual thing and it makes it look like you\u2019re doing much better than you are.<\/p>\n

David:
I would imagine in a scenario you just described where there\u2019s this much creativity flowing out of you, time, energy, you\u2019ve created an empire and you\u2019re breaking even and that much mental calories are being expended to do it, that that had to be an aha for you, that like, \u201cWhat I\u2019m tracking isn\u2019t right because I\u2019ve ended up in this wolf\u2026 I got the wolf by the ears sort of scenario here.\u201d That had to have an impact on just the way that you structured your life where you valued things. Am I way off with that or was there a moment that you realized, \u201cI\u2019ve been going about this all wrong\u201d?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah, and look, I think it\u2019s a great analogy because I think it is the\u2026 I preach like try to build a real estate portfolio where your cash pays for your living expenses, right? It\u2019s this beautiful model to live a very peaceful life and be able to hold your property through cycles and never be over leveraged and these sort of fundamentals of real estate investment. Yet that is the optimism, tip of the spear happy version of saying it because it\u2019s like, \u201cOh of course, I would love to have passive income and live my whole life just chilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And so real estate is a perfect example of like, then they go and buy a building, then the pipe breaks, then the renter stops paying rent. It is utter and complete mayhem that sucks the soul out of you that then you get caught in the wrong end of a market cycle, then basically you can\u2019t afford to take the loss anymore and now you got to get out of it and lose your equity that you\u2019ve spent your whole life saving up to get into it. That is when you don\u2019t understand all of the different layers, if you will, what I like to refer to as everything is multi-dimensional and you\u2019ve got to look at everything in your life as an ROI on energy and time.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
But to your point, what happened to me in that era is I realized above all I just wasn\u2019t happy. I just wasn\u2019t happy. And it\u2019s like I didn\u2019t know what I was doing all of this for. I had accomplished so much, but what was the end game and what did I even want money for in the first place?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
I ended up finding a book called Start at the End. It was a business book that essentially said if you want to create a company, you should decide what you want out of that company from the very beginning. If you want to build a company and sell it for 25 million, then you need to know how much revenue you got to create and what it trades at and who\u2019s going to buy it. If you want to create a business that does a million and kicks off 200,000 in profit that you live off of, then you got to build the plan backwards from there. That changed my entire view of not only business but then I turned that back on, \u201cI\u2019m going to treat my life like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And so then I decided, \u201cWhat is happiness to me? What is money to me? What do I want money for? What am I doing all these companies and all these shows for in the first place?\u201d And ultimately I realized it was I love to create and I love to take risks, but I want the sustainability and security that comes along with living this lifestyle that I see for myself. And that\u2019s really when I discovered multifamily real estate as sort of, \u201cHey, this is the perfect balance for me,\u201d is I need real estate that can create this tax efficient cash flow that I don\u2019t operate by doing it with a group and having great operators.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And then my goal is to get that grow that takes no time and energy. Then focus on keeping my expenses low as I grow that portfolio and then taking risks in my own ventures and things that are related more to the Start at the End mentality that I\u2019m going to build to sell. Which in turn took me from breaking even to building a company and selling it for 190 million, having two of the companies that I invested in early stage selling for 200 million, it\u2019s like where it\u2019s just in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
This wasn\u2019t like some like, \u201cHey you did this over 20 years.\u201d I had made a few hundred million dollars from being broken even in less than five years. You know what I mean? That\u2019s the significance of the amount that you can accomplish when you design an entire vision for your whole life and then create pathways and plans to achieve the ideal version of your existence and then go chase it with that energy instead of chasing all these things and not knowing what you\u2019re doing them for.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Yeah. So there was a moment. Because you had a lot going on, you\u2019re breaking even. Obviously, that ends up catapulting you into a lot more success, but there was a moment there where you had to walk away from a few of these companies, right?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Oh, look, literally, in that era, I think I had 13 operating companies at the time and I got rid of all of them. I got rid of all anything that I had. I put all my money to cash and then the only thing that I kept was my professional skateboarding league and then the label that was Superjacket Productions where we hadn\u2019t even built the company yet. You\u2019ll see a lot of times where celebrities have a production company and they have a producing title on their show and it\u2019s just for show. You know what I mean? And that\u2019s what ours was. Superjacket Productions. We produced it, but we didn\u2019t. It was just the name of what me and my partner named the company as executive producers.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And then what did I do? I looked at, \u201cOkay with the Start at the End mentality, where\u2019s the opportunity here?\u201d Well it\u2019s actually to build and sell a production company because I have the unfair advantage of having a television show on air, right? So what did I do? I looked at the trade value of a production company. It\u2019s six times EBITDA. \u201cOkay, how do you create EBITDA?\u201d You\u2019ve got to own the production, you\u2019ve got to get margin from the producing the show, finishing the show, editing the show and the music in the show. And then if you have three years at EBITDA, someone will buy you for six times EBITDA. And that literally is the plan that we built. And of course, our goal was to sell that business for 50 million. And now that we had that clarity, we were able to focus how we grew that business and ended up selling it for 190 million.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Okay, so you have 13 companies that actually they\u2019re sustainable, right? They\u2019re just breaking even and then you\u2019re like, out with the old, in with the new. And so then you go on to create this company. Where\u2019s the real estate aspect landing at this point? Are you doing the real estate stuff concurrently with the production company? When did you actually get into that first deal?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah, so 2014 would\u2019ve been the first deal, right? So if 2013 was sort of the discovery and the development of the beginning of the end and then the first deals started happening there, then now I\u2019ve wrangled in my core spending and was continuing to grow my ordinary income and then I was literally just investing in new ventures that had that Start at the End structure and real estate, multi-family syndicated real estate only. I didn\u2019t put one diamond in public equities or anything, like strictly chasing that depreciated cash is where I started back then.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Oh okay. Cool. And so the syndications, that was sort of appealing to you because it was very passive. So you could still, I imagine, focus on the production company but you still of reap a lot of those tax benefits, right?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Well yeah. I mean for me, when you look at it, depending on the operator, you can 1031 exchange them, right? In this era over the last seven years, eight years, there have been significant returns, right? We\u2019re talking 42, 43, 35, big IRRs for this sort of wave that multi-family\u2019s been on. But I\u2019ve always been focused on the cash and driving up the cash. But then along the way I really learned what\u2019s a quality operator, right? How do you leverage? How much do you have in each one of the deals yourself? Are you vertically integrated with your management or do you outsource it in your property management?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
All these things that lead back to the quality of the actual operator. Have you ever lost a product through the cycle? Have you owned through the cycle of 2008? All these things that I began to see. But the appeal of that is I don\u2019t mind giving up management fees in 20% of the carry because I don\u2019t have to\u2026 There\u2019s zero effort in energy. That was what was really the most appealing to me because I had had rental properties when I was younger and it just sucked the soul out of me. Sucked the soul out of me.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Man, I remember I\u2019m getting a call that the basement had flooded. We were trying to figure out the basement flooding and then there\u2019s floating to the surface, it\u2019s like eight dead rats. It\u2019s like, \u201cWhat? Now we\u2019re in the rat game?\u201d It\u2019s that type of energy had always kind of turned me off of real estate. And it was only after I had met somebody as I was laying out, \u201cThis is the vision that I have for my life. Where do you see me investing in order to support this vision?\u201d And this individual suggested specifically, \u201cYou need to do multifamily and you need to do it in syndication and you need these type of operators.\u201d He guided me there in a pretty significant manner that proved to be the anchor of my core philosophy to this day.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Sure. sure. So obviously you\u2019ve got some pretty specific viewpoints here on your operators. Are there any nonstarters for you for someone running this indication? Is there something that operators kind of offer to their different LPs that you\u2019re like, \u201cUgh, I don\u2019t want to be a part of this\u201d or, \u201cThis isn\u2019t the deal for me\u201d?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah. I mean, look, for me, if you don\u2019t own the management, you\u2019re not vertically integrated with management, that\u2019s where the arbitrage is and the quality of keeping those buildings healthy in my mind. I would never do a deal with somebody that over loan the value beyond 65. You know what I mean? Somebody that would get their initial loan and then try to pull cash out by refinance and now being over leveraged, I would never do anything like that. I would never do a deal with somebody above a 20% carry. A lot of these guys that syndicate now have much higher fees than some of the more experienced operators. So for me that\u2019s sort of how I look at it.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
But I\u2019ve really found when you are regionalized and then you are vertically integrated from a management perspective, that\u2019s when you can optimize for excellence and you really understand how to keep that building occupied and maximize the rent growth and any value add that can be done on an ongoing basis. To drive that rent growth I think is what\u2019s been more clear to me than anything. What I would never do is somebody that has a deal\u2026 I have so many people that approach me that are just early in the game because of riding this new wave that\u2019s been hot for the last decade and will be like, \u201cI got this building. We\u2019re going to build it and sell it and it\u2019s going to do a 27% IRR.\u201d Because in this game everybody\u2019s selling you the IRR all day long because they\u2019re like, \u201cIt\u2019s never going to go down.\u201d They\u2019re not even thinking about what would happen if you get clipped in the cycle.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And it\u2019s really cool. You know what was beautiful about the pandemic as it relates to this sort of world, is it stress test all the operators that I have buildings with, right? Because in that first couple months when the national average was 30% delinquencies and all the buildings that I were in were at like 5%, that gave you a real clear indication of the quality of those operators and the quality of the product if you will versus some of the other people that were holding on for dear life in that first four or five months of the pandemic there before obviously the stimulus kicked in and everything sort of gave us a double bubble, really a triple bubble, gave us a triple bubble kind of where we\u2019re sitting at right now.<\/p>\n

David:
I was going to ask you about what you\u2019re tracking and we\u2019ll get to that, but I\u2019m fascinated by what you just mentioned. It\u2019s so odd to me that the economy is this huge, incredibly important thing. The way that the Fed handles money, it just never gets talked about, right? It\u2019s like we\u2019re ignoring the huge macroeconomic forces and we\u2019re just zoomed in on these little tiny details of a deal. And so I always ask this question. Most people aren\u2019t very comfortable answering it, but if you don\u2019t mind, I\u2019d love to get your opinion on how do you look at the way the government intervened with the quantitative easing and the printing of the money when we were\u2026 We basically shut our country down for almost a year and minimally were affected for the significance of what we should have been feeling from the impact of what we did. We actually had an incredible run up where everyone felt wealthier, especially if you owned assets, you were raking it in, right? And now we\u2019re getting the first hint of, \u201cOh, this might not have been that good,\u201d but the decisions are made three years ago.<\/p>\n

David:
It\u2019s hard to kind of tie it together so could you share your perspective as someone who is responsible for managing assets and protecting wealth and creating wealth for other people, how you see what happened with the economy, where we are and where we\u2019re going?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah. And look, I\u2019m not an economist. I\u2019m a generalist. But when you look at it bigger and what that stimulus did and that double bubble, it needed to be done, in my opinion, right? Sure, there\u2019s a lot of different ways. The same way that putting pressure on everybody and driving up in the rates to put pressure on everybody to fight off inflation. These are all extraordinary circumstances that are already in an already stressed cycle, right? Because you got to think, all the recessions that we\u2019ve lived through, they didn\u2019t talk about the recession for two years coming in like a giant cloud and this continual recession talk. They came out of nowhere. The bubbles popped and now we are in deep dark waters.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And to me, I believe what has been happening on the core fear, if you will, of everybody who\u2019s in all of these different asset classes. We are talking even in the venture space, we\u2019re talking in the art world, we\u2019re talking in luxury goods. All of every single asset class inflated to such an unrealistic level that then everybody\u2019s talking the economy tight. Nobody\u2019s talking about their revenue being down, they\u2019re talking about preemptively striking by laying people off now and preparing for just in case revenue is reduced, right? It\u2019s this super unusual way which to me is actually taking pressure off of the bubble that we\u2019re in and the overall sort of inflated asset class on all aspects. We\u2019re naturally sort of easing everything and it\u2019s going to take something extraordinary like a Chinese invasion of Taiwan or Russia with a nuclear weapon. It\u2019s something that shocks the world that then hammers it down into recession in my opinion, not as an eco economist, but through the lens of a broader way of seeing how the previous cycles that I have lived through have gone through.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And again, I don\u2019t build my life through the lens of worrying about whether or not a recession is coming or a cycle\u2019s coming. What am I doing? Some of the buildings I\u2019m in now, I did it like 50% leverage. You know what I mean? These are 10, 12 year holds that are going to be through the cycle no matter when it is. And then I keep a substantial amount of cash at all times. I don\u2019t own any public equities.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
I have all of my buildings, my personal real estate, I still have a lot of capital draining personal real estate to be fancy and then my core venture business. And then I keep a ton of cash always. I have that in whether it\u2019s California tax free munis or other cash efficient ways that kick off cash.But I built my own personal financial system that\u2019s built around weathering any cycle because I believe in the United States\u2019 resiliency in the long term and the economy long term even though if you read Ray Dalio\u2019s latest book, the Principles for the Changing New World Order, you\u2019ll be sad and freaked out. But it\u2019s still the idea that you can control your money, your universe with a lot more probability based off of what you choose to invest and how you choose to deploy that capital that may not be smartest to your traditional money manager or the way that someone would suggest to you, but you\u2019ve got to create it in a way that makes you most comfortable. And to me that is keeping a ton of cash at all times.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah, there\u2019s a dance that you\u2019re describing where you have to have a lot of cash at all times and at the same time you have to recognize inflation\u2019s going to keep coming, America\u2019s resilient. We\u2019ll probably do what we did last time. Again, we\u2019ll probably print more money. It\u2019ll create assets going up. So you also have to invest. And I frequently said this is the challenge of today\u2019s market, is it\u2019s not as simple as do nothing or go all in. You almost have to, in a weird way, be able to do both.<\/p>\n

David:
And so what I\u2019ve said is you have to continue earning money. You can\u2019t just stop. This is not the world where you, \u201cI worked for 10 years. I worked for 20 years. I sold my company. I\u2019m just going to ride off into the sunset and do nothing all the time\u201d because things change so fast. So I agree with you. I think Ray Dalio\u2019s video about the Changing World Order is scary. But other countries are still putting their money into American real estate. They\u2019re putting into American businesses. It\u2019s coming here, right? We still are the cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry, so to speak.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Hey, but even to that point, think about we\u2019re the only culture in the world where it\u2019s being ambitious and driven and entrepreneurial is part of our DNA.<\/p>\n

David:
[inaudible 00:39:13].<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
No, it\u2019s our part of our DNA. The rest of the world is they take siestas and whatever. We\u2019re like, \u201cWe could build it bigger, better.\u201d We are that. And our economy is still so much\u2026 It\u2019s still by far the biggest economy in the world. And again, I\u2019m not an economist. I\u2019m an economist of the Rob Dyrdek family office and the Rob Dyrdek personal energy. I still look at the way that I invest capital as, \u201cWhat\u2019s it going to provide me from a mental capacity and mental health perspective?\u201d and owning public equities doesn\u2019t matter if I miss out on the growth of a market. It doesn\u2019t matter to me because I like the stability and comfort of the cash that comes along with the equity growth depending on the cycle and the real estate side, right?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And for me, I was investing in buildings that were getting 7, 8, 9% cash. I haven\u2019t even seen any for a long time now since we\u2019re in this deep crunch. But even the last few that I did, we\u2019re talking, they\u2019re 4.5%, 4%, much smaller but I\u2019m still deploying millions of dollars into it as long as it\u2019s not over leveraged and it can still create a, call it 11, 12% IRR over a 10, 12 year period, right? Because at the end of the day, I know that that\u2019s my strategy. And then the other buildings that I\u2019ve had since 2014, \u201915, some of those are doing 12% cash right now. So I look at it as each year and every building that I buy or invest in is like a wine, and it\u2019s almost like you see all these vintages of the different eras and those vintages are tied to rates and cap rates and leverage. It\u2019s so fascinating when you look at them from that lens.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And then for me, especially when you began to see some of the compounding in the 1031 exchange from your basis standpoint, you really begin to see the snowball effect that can begin to happen if you play this game for 30 or 40 years versus trying to use it as like, \u201cHow can I make money off of this and build my wealth quickly in this space?\u201d I think that\u2019s the problem with the real estate flipping market and then even value add rental properties. There\u2019s this dance with like, \u201cI can do this quickly and build up a big basis to get rich off of\u201d rather than looking at it more from this long term sort of compounding lens that a lot of the younger real estate investors today wouldn\u2019t look at it from that lens.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Yeah, I couldn\u2019t agree more. I mean, definitely it\u2019s never an ideal time to just print cash out the wazoo, right? But to your point, Rob, we didn\u2019t want to the world to collapse during the pandemic, right? Absolutely we\u2019ve had so much time to prepare. We\u2019ve been talking about the recession and the crash and the great crash of 2022 literally for a year and a half now. And so I think that it\u2019s all about going into something. The people that are going all in and trying to get rich quick versus build wealth slowly, I think they\u2019re the ones that are going to get burned, right? Those are the people that are like, as much as I advocate for building your life through real estate, trying to take the quick approach can quickly turn the opposite once those housing correction numbers come in. Because I know a lot of flippers right now that are into a six month flip right now where their ARVs and their comps were based on six months ago and they\u2019re kind of hurting right now. You know what I mean?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
And so I tend to advocate for really trying to never use your cash flow. I mean, when I got started I wanted to subsidize my life with my cash flow just like you talked about. But now I\u2019m just like, \u201cWell, I like the cash flow to just go back into that machine.\u201d And then the equity, that\u2019s really what\u2019s going to matter in 30 years, just like you said, compounding over and over and over again.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
It\u2019s slow. It takes a lot of discipline. A lot of times I do like to\u2026 I wish I could use my cash a little bit more, but I\u2019ve been preparing also keeping a lot of cash on hand. I keep a 20 in my wallet every day now.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
[inaudible 00:43:51].<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
I\u2019m just kidding. But yeah, I\u2019ve been really keeping the cards close on my chest for this moment actually, because now sellers are getting kind of nervous. I\u2019ve made several offers that were 300, 400K under in the last two weeks and it hasn\u2019t been a \u201chell, no\u201d from all the sellers. Whereas a year ago they would effectively not even respond to my realtors. So because I\u2019ve been keeping a lot of that cash, I\u2019m ready.I\u2019m ready to jump in. I\u2019m really excited for it.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah. And look, I think for me, I still make a lot of ordinary income, right? And then I make a lot of long term capital gains from these acquisitions and these big sort plays on the venture side and how much money I make from shooting TV from the ordinary side. So when I look at peace of mind, I look at the cash and my living expenses like, I\u2019ll make over a hundred million, but I\u2019ll still keep my personal lifestyle expenses in the 2 million range, right? So then I will pay my blended tax rate that\u2019s long term capital gains, fully depreciated and ordinary income and then deploy that capital into buildings and into cash reserves to just keep cash and\/or my venture projects, right? Because I\u2019ll invest, call it between a million and 10 million in each of my venture deals, right?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
So it\u2019s this sort of piece of mind for me in the system that I\u2019ve created that is always about being able to capitalize on the opportunity but have a system and a principled way of operating that is recession-proof and cycle-proof and pandemic-proof is really what I try to implore in people and as they\u2019re trying to find essentially financial harmony. You know what I mean? You\u2019re really trying to find what is the balance of where money does not disrupt you or stress you out, but actually fuels your balance and the harmony in your life. And that takes you to design a way that you understand and manage it fundamentally in a way that if you do get scared and save extra cash knowing there\u2019s going to be opportunity because you\u2019re an expert in the market, it\u2019s like those are the type of things you got to look at.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And for me, I remodeled and sold a house in my neighborhood. I own a ton of houses in this neighborhood and land and I\u2019m building a house. I bought this house for 6.9 and sold it for 9.6 in two years. I got multiple offers and sold that thing in one day and broke a price per square foot in this neighborhood, right? 1,429 square foot for this particular neighborhood. It felt like it was four years ago. You know what I mean? This was last month. You know what I mean? It was like the market had already turned, the rates are through the sky and I\u2019m like, \u201cAll right, let me just throw this thing on the market.\u201d Multiple offers above asking and I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat year is this?\u201d You know what I mean?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And in the sense of knowing that the winds has changed, the market had shifted, but back to this idea that the right product and the right area is always going to trade at a premium and at a pace that is different, it\u2019s that fringe product that people get killed on because it\u2019s cheap in and cheap out and gets murdered in a cycle. And that\u2019s the thing in real estate that people just don\u2019t\u2026 They know the word location, location, location, but they don\u2019t understand really how important that means in the sense of the quality of the real estate product that you\u2019re even looking at.<\/p>\n

David:
I\u2019m so glad to hear what you\u2019re saying. It just goes to show if you understand overall wealth management success in life, that these principles that we talk about in real estate, show up even if you\u2019re not a real estate expert, you\u2019ve mentioned taking the long term view, I could not agree with that more like the vintage of a wine. The best deals that I have are the ones I bought the longest to go. It just works that way. The best returns come on as the oldest stuff you have. And that takes delayed gratification and the avoidance of relying on real estate to create your income, right? It\u2019s like how you sort create icing on the cake, but you still got to work hard. You still have to create, you still have to do hard things for the money that you want right now.<\/p>\n

David:
And then the other thing you just mentioned, which is avoid that, the siren song of that $50,000 house and a D class neighborhood, but on a spreadsheet it looks like the ROI would be so great. It\u2019s like that flea market thing that you\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, I know I\u2019m not supposed to buy from a flea market, but that one might be the one thing. That CD might not be scratched\u201d or whatever the case would be, right? And then you always end up regretting it.<\/p>\n

David:
I love your point because when you\u2019re in the right location, the people buying your house did not care what interest rates were. Straight up. It just doesn\u2019t matter to them, right? Money is a different thing to them than it is to other people. You have something to say about that?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah. And look, it\u2019s a gated community in Beverly Hills that has a hundred homes. You know what I mean? So to get into one that\u2019s been done really nice and is nearly impossible, right? So you got to fight for it when it pops up. But another thing that I think real estate investors have to be thoughtful of is the way that real estate values spread, right? It goes from the high value areas, the great neighborhoods are where that initial acceleration of value starts. And then it slowly makes it way out to the smaller cities and around the bigger cities. And then it\u2019s like, \u201cOh, there\u2019s where the value is.\u201d But make no mistake, it seems cheaper because the market\u2019s cheaper, but it\u2019s going to take a bigger hit and have a lot longer road to making it back when you start investing in B class, C class regions that at the top of a cycle that feel cheaper. You know what I mean? I think you can see that happening all the time and then it\u2019s like it\u2019s the first place that takes the biggest hit.<\/p>\n

David:
That\u2019s exactly right. Yeah, I\u2019m glad to hear you saying that because especially for the newbie, man, they\u2019re just always tempted by that. \u201cNo, it\u2019s safer. It only costs $35,000\u201d and I\u2019m like, \u201cI bet if you look at the title history of that freaking thing, it\u2019s changed hands every 18 months because nobody wants it after they buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
That\u2019s it, man. And that world, that\u2019s the world that I think this bigger sort of wave of like, \u201cReal estate. Real estate. Real estate. All great fortunes have been made in real estate.\u201d They haven\u2019t been made flipping $80,000 houses. You know what I mean? It\u2019s been compounded and build wealth over time is how they did it. You know what I mean? I\u2019ve seen so many people go through it.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Even when you think about the 2008 cycle, right? What was happening in 2008? It was the kid making 40,000 a year had a\u2026 Well, at least out in California. The kid making 40,000 a year got an all interest loan and had to put down like 5% for a house for 300,000. He sold it for 450,000 and then bought a $600,000 house. I watched people that had no business owning $800,000, $900,000 houses out here flipping their way into the house and then losing all of it. You know what I mean? Thinking like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m going to keep doing this over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
I watched a friend become worth millions. This particular person was a personal trainer. I watched them begin to get in and over leverage all the assets to keep buying more, be worth millions, and then lost all of them to zero because of not understanding how dangerous that leverage could be. And in that era, everybody was a mortgage broker, right? Everybody was selling mortgages. Everybody had a big house with a ton of equity in it before that thing imploded. The same way now, the big wave for this cycle has been everybody\u2019s a real estate agent. You know what I mean? That\u2019s sort the other arbitrage of the money that\u2019s been being exchanged in sort of the flipping world, if you will.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah, we saw similar patterns happen in the NFT space and the cryptocurrency space. Bitcoin caught on and then there was a whole bunch of other like\u2026 I mean I\u2019m not a crypto expert, but there was a bunch of people just made a coin, like, \u201cLet\u2019s just make up a coin and let\u2019s just say it\u2019s worth this.\u201d FTX is in the news right now. That was a huge scandal. When you look at how that thing fell down, it\u2019s almost laughable. This guy made his own coin and then leveraged against the coin that he created that he gave his own value to go borrow money to buy. How on earth did that get this far? His company paid to have the naming rights to I think the Miami Heat or to some stadium. Wild, wild professional things that was just based on a complete sham. And I love the point you\u2019re saying, these fundamentals of building wealth don\u2019t change. You don\u2019t get around it. You can\u2019t cheat your way through this.<\/p>\n

David:
Now another thing that you\u2019re very, very big on that I think is incredibly valuable to share, just like what we talked about, is rather than just making sure you invest your money into scarce resources that are not easily replicable, like a coin you could just create on your own, is the understanding that your other scarce resources are your time and your energy. You cannot just create more energy or more time. You have what you have. They have a huge impact on the quality of life you\u2019re living. You\u2019ve mentioned that several times. \u201cHow do I optimize my quality of life?\u201d Can you tell us what your system is for making sure that you get the most out of the other resources you have other than just money?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
I mean, look, I kind of look at my entire life as one big integrated system, right? That system is basically exchanging time and energy for everything. And so the first thing that I did is I began to look at my life as this ongoing daily, weekly, monthly and yearly rhythm and I began to design my time. It eventually scaled to the point today where I track every bit of my time and tag it and it pumps into a dashboard so I could tell you exactly where I spend every single hour of my life over the last three years, right?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And what that does is when you get to that level of designing time and then continually optimizing time, time slows down for you and now you understand the value of your time in a very clear and deep manner that it makes it so much easier to say yes and no to things because you\u2019re looking at it through the lens of first, second, third order consequences for committing to something beyond just committing to just going, \u201cI\u2019m going to go to this movie tonight\u201d versus, \u201cI\u2019m going to start this new company. Okay, what is the time long term that this is going to take from me?\u201d But if I design my time, track it all and understand it, that is then calibrated through qualitative and quantitative data.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
So every single day I track how I feel zero to 10 about my life, my work and my health. And by putting a number to how I feel about my life, my work and health, this now gives me over the long term insight to what things would pull and take energy from the quality of my life through the lens of what\u2019s happening in my work, how I\u2019m taking care of myself and what\u2019s going on in my life. And if you can imagine, I\u2019ve done that since 2014. My numbers used to be so low and I would see these same things that were constantly bringing me down and I just slowly began to get rid of them and optimize my time against my energy and then became a more evolved, happier human being. And then along that way I began to see like, \u201cOh man, if I stay committed to my health, the results are a much more organized, efficient use of my time and higher qualitative numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
So I began to track in my every single day, \u201cDid I get up at 5:00? Did I brain train? Did I meditate? Did I get in the gym? Did I eat clean? Did I take my supplements and did I not drink?\u201d And by tracking that every day, you can imagine when I look at my life, I look at a percentage of how disciplined I was, so quantified discipline. I look at how happy I was through a qualitative numbers. And then I can look at exactly where I spent my time over the time of those triangulated numbers to drive home how truly happy I am when I stay disciplined and focused on an ongoing basis. Way more complex than you expected, but that\u2019s just how far it goes. You know what I mean?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Okay. So you track things like mental things, you track obviously how long do you spend watching Robuilt YouTube videos, you track your fitness, all that kind of stuff. How do you actually do it? Is there a system? Is it a spreadsheet? Is it a mobile app? How does one get started tracking?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah. So for me, I just basically used everything in my Google Calendar. So I tracked all my time. And then in my calendar daily schedule, then I say how long I slept and then I have an aura ring that tells me the quality of that sleep, I have a number. Then it has a readiness score that I track. Then I put in like, \u201cDid I do my core six?\u201d I just say yes or no. And then I ask my wife to give a rating every day so I have insight on her. And then I weigh myself every day so I have body composition to tie against all of that. But I had a programmer come in and write a script over top of my Google Calendar that pulls all of that data and then puts it into a Google Sheet so I have it all in dashboards on an ongoing basis that I just did for myself.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And so again, I know how effective this deeply intentional way of living and really using qualitative and quantitative data for motivation and insight to live a better future present experience. And so one of the big projects I\u2019m on now is building a software that anybody can build their version of it and begin to create that discipline by design and be able to create more of a harmonious high quality existence through their own framework, but having the support of a software, because the way that I do it is pretty complex.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Okay, I have to ask. Do you track how much time you spend time tracking?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
No. And again, I should because then it\u2019s like, \u201cOh my God, I just wasted my whole life tracking tracking.\u201d But again, it takes no time, right? It\u2019s about five minutes in the morning when I get up because it\u2019s all fully automated. It seems hard to you because you\u2019re like, \u201cOh my God, think of what are all those things you just said? How could you even do that?\u201d But it\u2019s effortless, yeah, because it\u2019s systematized and automated. And then just all of these, my entire life, I refer to it as the machine mindset. How can I either design, automate and optimize every single aspect? It\u2019s either create a system or hire a body to get back more time and energy, right? And I just do that over and over in every single aspect of my life.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
I shoot 252 episodes of television a year. It is 4% of my time. And to give you an idea of how much 4% of your time is on your scale, that would be if you just did one thing a day for an hour, that\u2019s 4% of your time. And for me, I have optimized the way that show is created, ran, shot and delivered to where it takes this very minimal amount of energy and effort. And then I tie that back to the ROI of what I get per hour from an ordinary income standpoint, which I can tell you I will never make that much money per minute in anything I do anywhere in my life for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
But if you look at those two together, if I shoot 252 episodes a day for 42 times a year, basically four times a month and for five hours a day, and you then divide that into the amount of income that I make from that, then you look at my real estate income and the amount of time and energy I put into that, those are two extraordinary ROIs on time and energy as it relates to earning money. You know what I mean?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And when you think about life through that lens and you think about the energy it takes and time it takes to earn money, it really, really shifts your perspective on where you should be dedicating your time and energy to earning income and how you can continually look for ways to do it in a more efficient, more optimized way regardless of what you do. You know what I mean?<\/p>\n

David:
I recently had an epiphany on what you\u2019re talking about, not nearly to the level you are. This is very good and humbling for me, is like every time I start to think I\u2019m doing something good, you see the black belt at this thing. So it helps keep you in perspective, which is also awesome you\u2019re sharing this for all of us because it gives us something to work towards. But it was just on the importance of tracking.<\/p>\n

David:
So I\u2019m writing a book for BiggerPockets right now that\u2019s just about how a basic blue collar way anybody can build wealth if they want to, how you can develop the discipline to save money and delay gratification, how you come up with a plan for paying off debt, putting money aside than how you get good at making money. There\u2019s actually a skill and a pattern that you can pick up like what you were describing. You came up with a plan to build this production company. That wasn\u2019t an accident that you came up with working backwards, all right? They sell for six times EBITDA. How do you build EBITDA, right? That\u2019s a great question to ask. Most people don\u2019t put a plan and work backwards. They just keep stepping forward hoping that they step into the right opportunity and it happens for them not knowing where they\u2019re going.<\/p>\n

David:
And then you invest the difference. You don\u2019t just like, \u201cUgh, should I pay $12,000 for this late night infomercial on how to flip $80,000 house program? Because I don\u2019t want to have to learn how to earn money and save money to invest it. I just want to be able to do it without that.\u201d One of the epiphanies I had was how important tracking is, especially if you\u2019re not disciplined naturally in that area. So for me, I make enough money that I don\u2019t really have to track where I spend that money. And I never really thought enough about how important tracking was because it wasn\u2019t a struggle for me. I don\u2019t like spending money. Like you said, you make a hundred million, you live off 2 million. If you stop tracking your money, you wouldn\u2019t go broke. The habits you have would sustain you. But other people are just not naturally good at money or no one\u2019s taught them how money works. This is a huge struggle. They don\u2019t know where their money\u2019s going.<\/p>\n

David:
I recently realized that I have struggles in other areas where I do need to track what I\u2019m eating. There\u2019s certain people that just don\u2019t struggle with food. All they ever want to eat is kale and celery and they don\u2019t need to track how much kale they eat that day because that\u2019s all they eat. But if you\u2019re someone who\u2019s struggling in that area, tracking is incredibly important. In fact, I\u2019ll never be in good shape or fit if I\u2019m not tracking what I\u2019m eating, when I\u2019m working out. That\u2019s the thing I have to do.<\/p>\n

David:
And Rob, something clicked where I was like, \u201cOh, if I could get people who are bad with money to track their money, they would see the results that I get when I\u2019m tracking what I\u2019m eating or I\u2019m tracking like\u2026 Whatever your struggle is. You don\u2019t spend enough time in your relationship, you got to put more time into it. What you\u2019re describing is you\u2019re tracking everything. You\u2019re like, \u201cIf it\u2019s important to me, I freak and track it. I don\u2019t leave it up to fate. I don\u2019t want to wake up having a bad week and I lost seven days of my life and I don\u2019t know why. And I can\u2019t fix it because I don\u2019t know what went wrong.\u201d You\u2019re actually tracking the things that would lead to a better life.<\/p>\n

David:
I don\u2019t know. This book I\u2019m hoping will help a lot of people because it\u2019s just focusing on, \u201cWhere\u2019s your money going? Do you know what you\u2019re spending money on? Do you look at your credit card statement and know how much of it went to rent, how much of it went to food? How much of it went to dumb (beep) that you didn\u2019t need and didn\u2019t even make you happy anyways? You traded eight hours of your life to get the money that you spent on that pair of shoes that you don\u2019t even think about anymore, whereas that could have been going towards paying off debt or something else.<\/p>\n

David:
Is there anything you can share with the audience just on how important tracking has been in the quality of life that you feel you\u2019re leading?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Let me say a couple things to this. You see it in the power of tracking and this thing that you need to see it, you need to be motivated by you checking off the box and looking at it. It motivates you, it keeps you honest, it drives you for something that\u2019s more difficult to stay consistent and disciplined at, right? And then your goal through that process is to go from trying to be disciplined to it being a habit, to it being intuitive, right? That is the process we\u2019re trying to drive all aspects of our existence. But you cannot change one part of your life without changing all of it. You are a fully integrated, multi-dimensional being. And having measurement and tracking in all aspects of your existence is the only way that you can grow into the ideal version of yourself that only you can design, define and then build the measurement to get there. That\u2019s the holistic side.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Now, from the financial side, it was my Achilles heel. Why I was so lost in breaking even is I never even looked at the money. Money was too hard for me. I just gave all my money to people to invest it for me. I had no idea if there was a rate of return. I knew nothing. I had no plan. I was the person you are writing the book for. And then the moment I learned money, I began to understand my expenses, I began to track it. In my case, I basically hired a CFO consultant to build a personal financial model and began to treat myself like a business and began to build strategies and plans for the money I would earn and then what I would do with it and what it looked like post tax and where was I going to spend it.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Once I finally had that clarity, then I finally understood why I was keeping my expenses low and what the purpose of investing this money was and how I expected it to grow to eventually keep me in this place that gave me financial freedom, right? Because at the end of the day, if you can have the hope and the energy that you\u2019re leading to a place of financial freedom, that is what you\u2019re seeking as opposed to earning income till you retire. And you need to design that, track that and measure that because the universe will conspire. When you begin to have that organized thought and begin to put that type of energy and organization into how you\u2019re measuring where you want to get to, man, the universe conspires to bring more opportunity and more income and different things and different investments that come along that help accelerate you towards that end goal that is ultimately financial freedom.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
And if you can track and know that like, \u201cOkay, it\u2019s 20 years from now\u201d and then you have two good years and now that 20 years just went down to 12 years, guess what\u2019s going to happen? You\u2019re going to be even more motivated to spend less and invest more and get there even faster. And then you\u2019re like, \u201cOh my goodness, I\u2019m five years away,\u201d right? And then when you get to five years, you have reached financial freedom which gives you financial harmony, personal security, self-worth, belief in the ability to create your own reality and you\u2019re just getting started. You\u2019re not just going to stop right there. You have learned so much into that point about money and about wealth that you are going to continually see where like, \u201cNo, I can grow it to here and then I can eventually do this and all these things you never thought possible.\u201d That\u2019s what happens when you build a framework of growth, letting measurement be your guide especially on the financial side and then you grow into it over time.<\/p>\n

David:
Wow. I feel like Papa Doc at the end of 8 Mile right now. You just save the best rap for the end. That was really, really good. I\u2019m actually going to spend some time thinking about that. Thank you, Rob. I know you attract every single minute of every single day, so we\u2019re going to be respectful of your time. We\u2019re hoping we can have you back some time. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing so much of what\u2019s actually happening in your personal life. This isn\u2019t the stuff people get to hear if they just watch you on MTV or anywhere else that you\u2019re on TV. So we appreciate the transparency and what you\u2019re sharing here. Robbie Abasolo, do you have any last words for we let Mr. Dyrdek go?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
I don\u2019t, man. I\u2019m inspired. I\u2019m horribly bad at tracking because I\u2019m scared of the results, but because of this episode, I\u2019m going to do it. Because every time I track something, I would realize how bad I am at the efficiency side.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Hey, but that\u2019s where it is. You also get to begin to see where the growth is. Then you get motivated by getting more and more consistent and seeing your numbers grow. That\u2019s where the motivation is born and grown rather than being afraid where you just let life happen. Live it with intentional, track it, measure it, and grow into it. And you will be extraordinarily disciplined.<\/p>\n

David:
Rob Dyrdek for president, everybody.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Thank you, guys. [inaudible 01:10:22] it here. Appreciate it.<\/p>\n

David:
All right, thank you Rob. Last question. Where can people find out more about you if somehow they\u2019ve been living under a rock?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
It\u2019s just robdyrdek everything. Dotcom, Twitter, Instagram. It\u2019s just robdyrdek living life in a harmonious high quality way.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Oh wait, also you have a podcast, Rob, right? What\u2019s the name of your podcast for everyone at home?<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Yeah, my podcast is Build With Rob. Essentially, it is basically everything that we\u2019ve talked about today. I even recently did a podcast on financial harmony and what it means, but it\u2019s really about living with that machine mindset and learning how to systematically fuse art, science, and magic to manufacture an amazing existence. A little short 25 minute episodes of just sort of my philosophy on an ongoing basis.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Well, that\u2019s amazing. Well, just don\u2019t ever come for Robuilt that name is taken.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
I see it. I see it.<\/p>\n

David:
All right. Thank you Rob.<\/p>\n

Rob Dyrdek:
Appreciate you guys, man.<\/p>\n

David:
And that was our show with Rob Dyrdek. Rob Abasolo, the other Rob, what are you thinking?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Hmm, mine melted several times. I feel like I was watching the podcast out of my body. That\u2019s always when we have a really good guest on the podcast, I always feel like I\u2019m not really here. I\u2019m like floating above my body, watching myself just transform into the next level of Rob. So I\u2019m excited. I\u2019m excited to transform into Rob Dyrdek.<\/p>\n

David:
What does your cloth look like from an angle looking straight down at it?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Honestly, lots of volume, but that\u2019s just mostly because of my conditioning routine.<\/p>\n

David:
Yeah. We need to see a YouTube video on that in the future by the way. That\u2019s whatever everybody asks, the one question. By the way, do you make videos where you start off by saying, \u201cEverybody asked me\u201d and then answering the question that no one actually asked but you wanted to make the video at? Have you ever done that before?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
All the time. Are you kidding me? It\u2019s the greatest hook ever. Look, I\u2019d say the most common question that I\u2019m asked is\u2026 Blank. And then it\u2019s like\u2026 Yeah, I mean it\u2019s probably true. I don\u2019t track it. If I tracked it, it could be true.<\/p>\n

David:
I think for some reason I don\u2019t mind the most commonly question I\u2019m asked as, but everyone always asks me, it always gets under my skin. Because it\u2019s always like everyone asks me, \u201cHow do you get amazing abs like this?\u201d Everyone always says, \u201cHow are you so incredibly better than every other human being?\u201d And you know, \u201cThe truth is\u2026\u201d And then they sell you on whatever their course is.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Yeah. Okay, well now I know. Now I know [inaudible 01:12:32].<\/p>\n

David:
But you know who did not do that was Rob Dyrdek. He didn\u2019t have to tell us anything about himself because his actions speak for themselves, the level of success the guy has, the lessons he\u2019s learned. I think a lot of people probably for their first time were being exposed to, he\u2019s not just the funny guy on Rob & Big, right? He\u2019s incredibly smart, brilliant level business acumen.<\/p>\n

David:
What\u2019s cool is someone who\u2019s so good at the thing, then doesn\u2019t value it. You never hear Rob talked about how much money he makes as a way of saying, \u201cThis is where I get my value from.\u201d He\u2019s almost saying, \u201cYeah, I have to have financial harmony. Now that I have all this money, it cannot actually affect me negatively.\u201d He\u2019s tracking, \u201cHow do I feel about the money that I\u2019m making?\u201d And he\u2019s putting more of his emphasis on did he work out, did he train his brain, did he eat his supplements, did he get enough sleep, did he drink any alcohol that day. It\u2019s not that it has nothing to do with making money, which would be very tempting because he\u2019s so good at making money to always focus on it.<\/p>\n

David:
Was there anything that you took away from this that you\u2019re going to implement in your own life moving forward?<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
You know what? There\u2019s a couple times in the last year where I looked at my bank account and it was the same and I was like, \u201cWait, I thought I made money this month.\u201d They were break even months for me. I mean, I don\u2019t want to get into it, but basically it was just like I was investing a lot, I was deploying funds, I was just really trying to grow my businesses and just carelessly doing that. I didn\u2019t realize that I was breaking even. And so that actually kind of lit a fire under my butt to track. And I\u2019ve been more carefully tracking.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
And then now I\u2019ve recently fired a bookkeeper. I just hired Matt Bontrager, we just had him on the pod a couple weeks ago. I just hired him. He\u2019s going to be officially doing\u2026 Not him specifically, but his company\u2019s going to be doing my books.I\u2019m actually more wanting to get super in the weeds of financial tracking with real estate a lot more than I have been because it gets a lot harder in the future if you don\u2019t start a lot sooner. So yeah, it\u2019s inspiring to see that there is merit to actually tracking everything else in life too. So yeah, I\u2019m into it.<\/p>\n

David:
Awesome, man. Well you did a great job today. Rob gave a fantastic interview. This was just a great time. So hopefully we can have him back and hopefully we can get more great guests like that.<\/p>\n

David:
If you enjoyed today\u2019s show, please do us a favor. Leave us a rating or a review. If you can log in to wherever you listen to podcasts, whether it\u2019s Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, whatever it is, and leave us a five star review, that\u2019s all that we would ask for. We bring you the content for free and it really, really helps us get guests like Rob, because he\u2019s not going to come on here if we\u2019re not ranked at the top of our genre, and that\u2019s what we got to do to stay there.<\/p>\n

David:
Thank you listeners for always being here and spending your time getting your education from us. Rob, if you\u2019re listening to this, thank you for being on the show. And Rob Abasolo, thank you for being such a vibrant thing.<\/p>\n

Rob Abasolo:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.<\/p>\n

David:
All right. This is David Greene for Rob, the other Rob, Abasolo, signing off.<\/p>\n

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Rob Dyrdek is one of the most well-known pro skaters, entrepreneurs, and media figures of all time. He essentially owned the MTV lineup for years with hit shows such as Rob & Big, Rob Dyrdek\u2019s Fantasy Factory, and Ridiculousness. At first glance, Rob may look like a phenomenal skater who turned his passion into something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/REP_700_WEB.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4545,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4543\/revisions\/4545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}