Transcript of E533 Mark Cuban

We've got some new merch. Check out the be good to yourself tees now in new fall colors like Bay green, peach, granite and black. That and much more@theovonstore.com. and we thank you so much for your support. We also have some new tour dates coming up, and they are Oklahoma City, North Little Rock, Springfield, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri Sioux Falls, South Dakota La Crosse and Green Bay, Wisconsin Moline, Illinois Colorado Springs, Colorado Casper, Wyoming Billings, Missoula Bloomington, Indiana Columbus, Ohio Champaign, Illinois Grand Rapids Lafayette, Louisiana and Beaumont, Texas. Get all your tickets@theovon.com. slash tour. And thank you so much for the support. Today's guest is a business mogul. He's an entrepreneur. He's launched some of the biggest companies in the world and owned the Dallas Mavericks along the way, help leading them to great success. He just retired from his stint on shark tank, and I'm very grateful to get to spend time with him. Today's guest is Mister Mark Cuban.

I'll sit and tell you my story shine on me and I will find a song.

Good to see you today, Mark.

Thanks for having me, theo.

It's a pleasure, man. Thank you so much. Really, really an honor.

No, the honor's mine, man. You've been crushing it.

Oh, thanks. Yeah, yeah. We've been really fortunate. We've been working really hard over the past two years. Been working really hard. And, and I think luck has kind of met us along the way, you know?

I'll take luck every time.

Will you?

Oh, hell, yeah. Right.

Has luck come in? Does that come up to play in your business, at your level, or do you still think there's a level of luck to it, or what do you, what do you kind of.

So luck is about scale, right? You know, as an entrepreneur, I think, okay, I can start a business. I can make some money. You know, I could. I can be okay, right? But if you want to have a be next to your name, you got to have a lot of motherfucking luck. Right? So, in my case, I started the first streaming company, right, which would have been cool, but it happened right at the time the Internet stock market was blowing up. If the Internet stock market wasn't blowing up at the same time, you'd have no idea who I am.

Oh, you mean because of. So there was a level of luck to it.

Oh, yeah.

So the first streaming company was.

It's called Audionet. We started in 1995 when nobody knew what streaming was. Right. We called it Internet broadcasting. And so we started out a second bedroom. My house just to set up just like this and bought myself a PC and connected it. Found a local radio station that I could connect everything to, went online, and I would go and just say, okay, if you want to listen to Dallas sports or news from anywhere in the world, come to this website, audionet.com. and it just blew up. And then we got video and changed the name to broadcast.com. comma went public in 1998. It was the biggest IPo in the history of the stock market market at the time.

So that's how you started. This is a loose term. I know you done other things, but. So that's how you started to make some money.

Yeah, no, that's what I got. That's when I crushed it when you.

Win, because that's when the dot coms, like. Yeah, if they was it, sandals.com sold for like 20 million.

Yeah. No, it's insane, right? It was insane. And so. But we were legit. We were YouTube before YouTube, right? And so we were the biggest by far. It wasn't even close. And so, um, you know, we were the first to do basketball, football, baseball, you name it. First ones to stream anything, right. And then went public. Great. And then we sold to Yahoo. And then Yahoo fucked it up. But that's another story.

Oh, Yahoo bought a lot of things that they fucked up. Can we say that?

Yeah, you can say that. Yeah.

They made some poor choices. I was working at Yahoo. I was working over there doing interviews with folks, and they bought. What was the website? They bought that for a crazy amount of money. It was blogs. People did blogs on it.

Yeah. I mean, they've bought in a bunch, right. And for whatever reason, they could not get it right for anything, man. They. I mean, they bought us. They bought all these different companies that at the time were huge. Yeah. Geocities. That's what it was. They bought that before us.

Geocities was one, but there was one that. What was the blog website that everybody used? It kind of had a basic template to it. Mash. Uh, no, tumblr.

Oh, tumblr. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, tumblr was hot. Then it went porn. Right?

Did it go porn? I'm glad I got out.

Yeah, porn for a little while. And then. Then this dude I know, Matt, bought it, right? And so now he's just trying to make it work.

Oh, trying to refen us it.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Because that was a crazy buy that they had. I remember we were working there, like, you're buying a blog. Like that just felt like you headed to the past kind of I don't.

You know, now then they were part of Verizon, then they got bought by Apollo. I don't know what they're doing now. I mean, I still use Yahoo finance. Right. It's not like people don't use it. Yeah, they just haven't been able to get ahead of the game.

Yeah, they had some stake in Alibaba to that company.

Yeah. And that's where they made some money.

Yeah, I think that that Kit really kept them kind of like in the vibe kind of. Or just yet. It obviously helped their coffers, but yeah, they made some poor choices, I think. I mean, hell, they were paying me, so obviously one smart move, right? Yeah.

When were you there?

Was there like maybe 2010 or something? 2000.

Yeah, cuz I took close 2000.

So you were there like 2014 or something? I was there.

Who was the CEO when you were there? Do you remember?

It was a female CEO. Oh, oh, they had just got her in, actually.

She was cute, actually, close up, look at her.

Oh, well, yeah, but yeah, I met her one time and I wish I'd met her more than one time. That's all I remember. Yeah, Marissa Meyer was great, but they had another lady too. That was work or that worked kind of over us in the video department. All this diddy stuff going on, man. What do you.

I'm sure glad that I didn't hang out with him. Right.

You never got in that you never were in his.

I met him. Right. But never went out. Right. And actually back in 2003, he reached out to me, to the mavs and wanted to design a uniform for us and I never met him. We did it all via email. And so he had some of his designers get in touch with me and they put together some and it was a cool looking uniform, right? Yeah, we used it for a couple years, but that was the extent of my connection to Diddy. I never hung out or did it and not. And, you know, I hung out enough in LA, but I never really heard stories about the parties or anything like that. My scene.

Yeah, that's kind of. Yeah, I would just hear stuff sometimes. Like, I would hear certain things, but it was never anything like, oh, this is exactly what's going on.

Right? I mean, you just heard somebody would say something. How do you keep that quiet for so long? You know, all those videos, it's not like people didn't like, I don't care if you take people's phones, right. Someone's sneaking in the phone.

Yeah.

Shit like that's happening.

Yeah, it's amazing. That if they say all the things are true, that he was able to just do that for so long, you know? What. What is a level. Like, is it scary when people get to a level of wealth that they can kind of have anything? Like, what is some of that.

See, I don't look at it that way. Right?

I'm not saying you do.

No, no.

I hear, yeah.

Like, what are the options? Right, right. Like, if you're rich as fuck, what can you do? And getting away with, right? I don't hang out with people like that. Right. I always looked at it that, like, my high school buddies are still my high school buddies, right? Like, the guys, you know, my rugby teammates in Indiana. My Indiana buddies. Those are my friends. The guys. I lived six guys in a three bedroom apartment when I moved to Dallas. Those are my friends, right? So it's not like, okay, I'm getting the butlers, I'm getting the chauffeur. Look at me, right? And I came by myself. I don't give a shit about this.

Yeah, no. You see me? Yeah, yeah. I was kind of wondering. I was like, how will he show up? Will a stork drop him off?

Yeah. Right?

Like, how's he.

Yeah, but. But that doesn't mean it hasn't crossed my mind. Right? It's just like, you have to be. In order to do shit like diddy or anybody like that, you have to be so paranoid, right? You have to try to think of every base to cover, right? And, you know, now part of me wishes I'd done it. Cause there's too many pictures of me out drunk with my friends and shit like that. Right. Yeah, but I just don't like to live paranoid, right? I just. I mean, I love having a lot of money. It's a whole lot better to be rich than it is to be broken. But I was happy when I was poor. I just was happier when I was rich. And so I don't get that whole thing of, you know, like, just be protective and, like, play the rich game, right? That's just not my stuff.

Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of it, I think. Play the rich game. Like. But do you, like. Do you see people, like. You ever. Like. Cause that's the thing. Like, people get so much money and then they get power, too. Or some of them get one or the other, maybe both. But then, like, how does that infect people? Do you see that? That could. That infects some people. You ever witnessed it?

Yeah. Oh, for sure. Right? So, like, people who think because they're rich, they're smarter, right. That they have more privilege. Right. They can get away with whatever they want. Yeah. Particularly in business, right. So if you talk to somebody that may be richer than me, right. Who will say, shit, that's just crazy, right. And think, okay, because I said it, that's what's up, right? That's. That's. It's. Right. Right. Or more likely, though, in my experiences, like, I'll get invited to these parties, right? That a really nice house and stuff, right? But there'll be, like 50 servants, right? Five people to answer the door, six people that just specialize in toast, right. Just ridiculous, right? And although I'm like, how do you live like this? You know? Because it's bad enough, like, I have too big a house, and so you have to have people there to clean it and stuff like that. And there's no privacy just with that. And there's people that will have, like, ten people in the house at all times, and I don't see how they live, right. So for some people, maybe it's like showing off to me, it's just like, why would you live that way, right?

I'm happy to have all this money because I can live the way I want as opposed to live the way somebody thinks I should. And I just get the sense to your point that some people get to that level. And it's like, okay, this is what I'm supposed to do, right? I'm supposed to have this type of car. I'm supposed to have this many people working for me at the house. I'm supposed to have this type of poor, you know, china or whatever.

Cold toilet.

Yeah, whatever that is. Right. But I am going to say one of the things I got, I got a heated toilet seat.

Yeah.

Best thing ever. Really? You never had one?

Dude, I remember when I first got a clean lady to come once a week. I helped her, like, the first month.

You got to get a heated toilet seat.

That's like, if my. Yeah, I don't want my butt to getting used to it. Too many fancy things.

I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you. Right?

That's the one.

Huh? I go from, you know, when you travel, right? You leave home and you're comfortable.

Yeah.

And I went where I'm staying now, right? No heated toilets. The first thing I know is you sit down in the morning and you're like, fuck.

You're like, this could be better.

Could be better, right? I'm paying all this for this room. My butt's cold.

Oh, dude. I remember first night I stayed in a hotel room and it was like $600 or something, and I was afraid to even go to sleep. I was like, if I sleep, I'm wasting like, $240, dude.

Oh, my goodness.

So I just kept staying up as much as I could. It's. I still spent a little money, wasted some of the money sleeping. But it was nice over there. Yeah, I just. I think it's interesting when people get to level. Like, you would see it sometimes with the Romans or something. I know you would see it, but you would hear about it with the Romans where, like, they got to levels of wealth and power that they started, that it veers in, like, a lot of sexual, like, I don't know. Proclivities is the word. Is that a word?

Yeah, like the. What was it that mean?

Proclivity?

Yeah, no, you got it. Right. So, like, Caligula, right? I saw the movie Caligula. Yeah, that was the movie where it was. Yeah. With all the sex and everything where they hadn't seen everybody was your concubine.

Right.

Male, women, doesn't matter.

Yeah.

Everybody was just fucking everything because I could.

Yeah, I think that's something.

My wife's not going for that shit.

Once you put a wife in there.

Things over. Yeah.

Proclivities, a tendency to choose or do something regularly. A tendency to choose or do something regularly. An inclination of predisposition towards a particular thing. So. Oh, so it might activate proclivities in you for something. For.

No, like, with the Romans. Yeah. Their proclivities were to fuck around and have fun.

Right. It would turn, I think. But a lot of people, they do so much, like, straight activity. Then it gets into gay or. You know what I'm saying? Like, no, I think that's something. I wonder. That's just what I'm asking, I guess. Do you, like, I wonder if that's something that happens when people get so much money and power that they're just their ban or their. What they just wanted. They've already had as much of, like, regular sound. Wonder if it starts to build, like.

What can I do next? Right. What can I do to. What can I get?

Yes.

Right? What can I get?

What else is possible?

Like, not so much with sex. Right. Because you're gonna get fucked over by somebody at some point, right.

Well, can you imagine having to keep all of the, like, trying to just even. Even if you ever, like, sent us, like, I've been in a relationship. I've cheated in relationships. That's hard enough you know, just knowing.

Like, what's next, right? Yeah.

Or just knowing, like, I have to make sure we never go in this area. Or what if this girl, like, that one thing alone, I can't imagine the level of, like, paranoia.

Yeah, you just. I mean, is it worth it? But, I mean, look, I'm not gonna say that. Forget not sex necessarily, but just, like, going out and trying new things, right? Like, I bought a plane, right? I mean, because it's like, that, to me, was the coolest thing after toilet seats, right? Like, being able to just pop on a plane, right? Oh, that's mean. When I sold my first company, I bought a lifetime pass on American Airlines. So literally, I was 29, and I was like, I had this card where I could just go to any airport that had American Airlines just show up. Me and somebody else. And wherever they were flying, they had to put me on a plane.

Really?

It was insane. Yeah. So if that's, like, proclivities to go try different stuff, that's your version. Yeah, that's me. Right. Cause, look, I mean, I'm the luckiest motherfucker in the world, and I don't wanna let it pass. Right? You know, I wanna take advantage of the time I got. But more now it's more family, right? As I've gotten older, my kids have gotten older. It's more like my kids are 1518 and 21. And so it's like, let's spend more time with them because that's the most valuable thing to me. But when I was younger, before I got married, it was like, let's go, go, go, go travel party. Let's see. Who could throw the biggest parties, right? Who can buy the biggest bottle of champagne? You know, just rent a club. Who can run up the biggest bill, right? Yeah, I was doing that shit.

Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I think. I think that that's what I think some people, like, if you get so, like, some people get so powerful, or, like, there's a lot of gay folks out there, I think that they're. They only veer into that or change, get into different sexual, like, things that are outside of what would be normal for them. Maybe that, because they get so much power. You know, like the Romans did it. Like, you know, they say that they did it. Or there's people, like, financial gang gays, power gays. There's, like, oh, really?

No. Financial gaze and power.

They get so rich, they can afford to just be gay.

Yeah.

Or, like, blind gays. There's even. There's, um, bring that people that are blind. They don't care as much if some. If gay or straight leaves. Their eyes are one guy.

One guy walk up to me some time because I want to suck your dick. This is years ago. I know. He goes, look, let me just tell you something. I'm like, what? He goes, you close your eyes, it all feels the same.

This is just someone else.

This is an eighties thing, right?

Yeah, for sure. Oh, dude, I'm not gay, but I'll hold it in my mouth till a gay guy gets there. That's something that you would hear sometimes at church, but no, but I. I have friends that are blind, and they've told me that they lose their sense of, like, some of their sense of straightness dissolves.

No, I can see that. Right.

Not as important.

Yeah, because you can't see one way or the other.

And so I think there's a level of, which is kind of fascinating to me, that there's different things, that there's people that are gay and people that are bi and people that. That's their. That's who they are. But then there's some people that.

Well, I got a question for you.

Yeah.

I listened to your President Trump interview.

Yeah.

Why don't you talk about this shit with him? Well, I don't think.

I think it was hard.

Bernie Sanders, I could.

Yeah.

The Romans were gay, right?

I don't know. Well, I was just. Because I know I probably should have asked him, if people get so powerful, do they, then? Yeah. Just because at that point, anything's an option, you know? That's all I'm saying. I think there's things that lead people, like.

Like, if you want to push limits, right?

Pushing limits.

If you think money can buy you anything. Right, right. And you want to push the limits and think, okay, I got money that gives me power, so I can do whatever I want.

Right.

That's just gonna backfire so hard, because if you're not, like, real, the people that are, you know, you're messing with.

Right.

They ain't gonna be real either, and it's just gonna be a disaster.

Yeah. That's what I'm thinking about with the diddy thing. I think it's just, like, at a level of that you can have anything that you get this power. It's just kind of. I mean, it's sad and it's scary to see. You know, I think that's some of the crazy. Yeah.

You kind of wonder, like, when did it click? When did it, like, fall over the cliff? Right. When it went from, okay, let's hang and have some fun.

Have a good party to.

When it get weird. Yeah. Like, I'm taking videos of everybody and this and that.

Do you think there'll be others people that will come out about this? Or do you think a lot of that's like myth, like Internet mythology?

I have no idea.

Yeah.

I really don't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. It's just like something that's been on kind of the topic of news.

Yeah, for sure. No, it's an interesting subject. Right.

Yeah.

Cuz you wonder, like, and I wonder because, I mean, I've met the guy and I've seen.

I met him one time, too, but.

It'S just like, how does it get that far?

Yeah.

You know, and.

And that kind of stuff's addictive to the. Once you do one crazy thing, then that becomes.

Especially if you're trying to up yourself. Right. You know, cuz, I mean, I. You've gone out drinking. I've gone out drinking with buddies. Right. I'll have another shot. Right. Have another, have another, have another. And that's what guys do, right. But if it goes to the wrong direction, it could backfire and, like, it has.

And the paranoia of having to keep every. Oh, that would be a nightmare, man. I'm. I feel lucky I'm not living that way.

Yeah. But you know, to me, like, the telltale sign is he fucking hurt people. Right? He hit women. Right? He dragged that one lady down the hall.

Yes.

That tells you he was fucked up somewhere. Right? I mean, it's one thing to want to party, right. It's another thing like, okay, I'm throwing a big party, right, but it's a whole nother thing to physically abuse people. That's just like. Yeah, that shit.

Yeah. It's like, how do you not have your own awareness at that point? But then I think things get, you know, when you get power and you get that much ability, your own sense of self can probably get skewed pretty easy.

Yeah. Something's fucked up, obviously.

Yeah. What are some of the side effects of b. That people don't see of being a very wealthy, like, are there some negative things about it? I mean. Sorry, it's hard to even.

Yeah. Nothing that I can tell. Right.

You look so happy. It's hard for me to even know.

I mean, the side effects people sue you.

Okay?

You're the deep pockets.

That's a good point, man. I'm friends with Dom John Leotao. Jimmy John, he had the. Jimmy John's company and he said he one of the reasons that I. He sold the company was because he spent most of his time fending off lawsuits, and he wasn't even able to be like, yeah, you.

I mean, like, I've been sued five times my whole life. Right. And four of them were because someone's just trying to get money. Wow. That's it. You know, and they're like, name multiple people in the lawsuits and they'll let the other people off the hook. Right. They won't let me off the hook because I'm the deep pockets.

So that's kind of a bummer then. I bet you have to be a little bit more cautious about things then.

Yeah, for sure.

So that's one thing. So one thing people don't realize, you probably have to be extremely cautious, your kids, right.

Because it's not their life. Right. There's just, you know, they. They inherited us. Right. And, I mean, it's not necessarily bad, but it's not necessarily easy either, right. To, you know, have somebody who's, you know, well known as your dad to every. Have everybody know you may not be rich yet, but you're going to be. Right.

Right.

You know, and so I know that puts a lot of pressure on my kids, and so. Yeah, I. Yeah, but at least you're.

Able to communicate with them about that.

And have, you know, like I told all my kids, it's like, look, you fuck up, your friends fuck up, your friends just fucked up and their parents get mad. You fuck up. It's on the front page of the paper. Because you're my kid.

Yeah.

So you've got to be a little bit extra careful.

Is it hard to be us? Like, you know, you're a celebrity and, you know, and you may not think of yourself in that way, or maybe you do, I don't know. But no matter what, you're a recognizable person.

Yeah.

Was it ever weird with your kids where you felt like, my kids are never gonna feel like I'm theirs because I'm so. Because I'm also, in a way, belong to other people?

Yeah, all the time, man. That's all the time. Because there's times like my son told me the other day, I'm like, okay, I'll go out and get no, dad. When you're there, everything changes. I just wanted to be normal.

Yeah.

Right. Which breaks my heart. Right.

Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah.

But I understand, too, right? I understand. And it happens with all my kids, you know, where it's just like, there's a time for dad to be there and there's a time we don't want dad there. Not because we don't want dad there just because of the attention he's gonna pull.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's another side effect of some things that people don't see. Yeah. I'm just curious about it. We were trying to get this therapist who works mostly with really wealthy people on to learn more about that because, like, when I was growing up, I always looked at wealthy people like, fuck em, you know, let's bomb them. Okay, we didn't have any bombs, but, you know, we. Look, we were in this. We had to have a plan, okay? We had no strategy, but we just. We did. We keep playing video games, but.

Yeah, but in the back of your mind, you're playing GTA.

But we had, like. Yeah, but you. It almost gave you an enemy when. When you were growing up poor. It gave you this, like, not an enemy, but it gave you, like, a. Yeah.

Kind of relate. Right. It's not like my family had anything, right? My dad did upholstery on cars. Neither one went to college, et cetera. But no, I remember vividly, like, not knowing how I was going to be able to pay for school because I had to pay for my own school. And listening on the radio sounds so crazy. Listen on the radio about how these prisoners were going to get all the college education they needed, right. And I called into the radio station, I'm like, I'm 16. I don't have any idea how I'm going to pay for college. And they're paying for prisoners. That's just wrong.

Yeah. You're like, so now I got to commit a crime.

Yeah. Right. To go. Yeah. Put me in jail. Right. That's all. Not the conversation.

What is something that you admire about each one of your children?

Oh, there's so much. There's so much. Yeah. They're different, too. Right. But as they've gotten older and, you know, becoming real people now, and teenagers, they're. They're smart, they're caring, they're funny, they're ambitious in their own way for different things. You know, the hard part about raising three teenagers is that they do all they can to ignore us, you know?

Oh, it's a good point, huh?

Yeah. Just like, I mean, our family's no different. Different than, you know, any other parents raising three teenagers, basically. Right. Because those kids want to have their own identity. They want to become themselves and find out who they are. And, you know, we're trying not to be those hover parents, right. That are just like. And give them some freedom. I'm like. I'm like, I'll go out. No, your curfew is this, you know, told him what time he goes. He text me back. Let me breathe, dad. Let me. I'm dying, right? Oh, my God.

Like, he's George, you know?

No, not that bad, right? But just like. Yeah, kids talk, right?

Yeah, let me breathe that.

Yeah, because I always give him talk. You give him shit about, like, gen alpha. Like, talking vernacular, right.

Twin. Like, you don't even know what's going on.

Sigma, right. Sauce mid.

Yeah, they all. They sound like, uh. Like Peyton Manning trying to make, like, audibles at the.

Right. Right, right. Omaha, Omaha, right. Sigma.

It really is funny. I'll text my nephew and I don't even know what he's saying at the time.

Oh, it's funny to sell, man. And I'll start talking. Trying to talk that way. Just fuck with him, right? He's like, shut up, dad. Where? He just hangs up on me.

You try to lean into that. Is there anything that you had before you, um. We're wealthy. That you wish you could have back privacy. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. I got none. Yeah. I mean, you know now too, right?

Yeah. There's times like yesterday I was driving somewhere and I wanted to get out and walk. It's like a cool street in town. And I was like, man, I know if I get out and walk, it'll be fine, but I just know that I will meet a bunch of people and then it's like. It'll start to make me nervous or uncomfortable a little, cuz you don't know where it goes.

Yeah, yeah.

You just, like, by. So I think. Yeah, sometimes stuff like that, isn't it? I guess that's the biggest thing.

Yeah. Cause, like, I was walking in Nashville yesterday. Isn't that song, right?

Walking in Memphis.

Memphis.

Thank God. It's.

Yeah.

Yeah, Nashville's better.

I think so, too.

Is good.

But it's. It's all right. Nashville's better. But I was just walking down the street and I'm hearing it was dark. Right. And I'm cuban. Cuban. I just keep on walking. Right. It's just like no privacy whatsoever. Yeah, but, you know, it could be worse.

Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, no, there's. Yeah, I'm not complaining. I'm just curious if they're like, what? Like, what's one of the biggest things? Let me think about where we're at right now. So we've talked about somehow you got started.

I'm having fun this is not like any other interview I've done, so I'm loving it. No, man, because you're, like, all over shitty, whatever's, you know, stream of consciousness, which is cool, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And this is a conversation, too, and I think I like that about you. You make this feel like a conversation. How do you know, like a good business idea when you hear it now and has that refined over the years from what you used to think might have been a good.

Yeah. I mean, like, when you're just getting started, sometimes what you don't know is good, right. Because it doesn't hold you back. So now, because I've been doing. I've started so many businesses, invested in so many, like, I know what not to do, but that sometimes keeps me from investing in people who probably have the biggest upside, right. Because, you know, when I was getting started, I didn't know fuck. Right. So it was just like, you just got to run through walls type attitude, right, on founder mode. And now, like, investing, I kind of look for that, but I'm more conservative and how I invest, right. Because, you know, my next dollar isn't going to change my life. And so it's more like, okay, just competition. Can I get it right or can I help these people? Or can I help them grow this company? Like shark Tank. Right. It's just like, not all those companies are going to be big, but if I can help them turn, you know, reach their personal goals, that's a win.

Yeah. Yeah. When it comes to shark tank, are you gonna miss doing it?

Yeah, I'll miss it some, right. But again, goes back to my kids. Like, we shoot two weeks in June, 2 weeks in September. Just finished, right. My last run. And that's. Right when my kids are getting out of school. Right. And right when they're going back to school and their birthdays. Right? Yeah. It's like, I missed my son's birthday for, like, the last five years. Like, that's not cool.

Yeah.

You know, and so now, you know, and plus now, like, as teenagers, they set the schedule. We don't. Right. Used to be, my wife and I be like, okay, we're going here, here, here. When dad's done with shark tank. Like, no. Like, my daughter, you know, is a rower. She's going to rowing camp, right. My oldest daughter's going, you know, on an internship, right. My youngest son is going to basketball camp, right? And so, like, they're setting the schedule and I want to be. I have to be available. I can't make them be available.

Oh, it's a good point, huh? Yeah, because when you're there a little younger, you kind of get to set the stage.

You control everything, right. They're just little plebs, right?

Yeah. And now. Yeah, now they're the ones that you really get to choose what's going on? How would you rank, rate the sharks out there? Put those sharks in order for me.

Oh, you put me in a bad spot, huh? They're all tied for last, right? They're all tied for last. No, it's fun, right? I mean, all of them have their own thing. Like, Barbara's probably my favorite simply because she can tell what a person's about. Like, she'll just say to somebody, you're lying. Right. Or you're dishonest. I don't trust you. And she'll be right, you know, and she doesn't, can't do math. Like, Mark, what's eight times eight? And I'll have to tell her, right. But she has great people skills. You know, Kevin's Kevin. He's kind of the bad guy of the group. Robert, you know, is into pets and kids and stuff like that. Lori is into consumer products group. Damon is the people shark. Right. He's trying to help, you know, smaller businesses grow. And then me, right. And I just try to fuck with all of them and just have fun.

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Well, what made you decide to get into the podcasting role?

I went on Joe Rogan. Well, I done some podcasting and one day I went on Joe Rogan's show and hit and on his. We just talked more as a long talk. And I was like, oh, maybe I could just do it by myself. And so then I think I always wanted to have my own voice. And so then I just started in my kitchen, and I say that a lot, but I literally took my kitchen to my dinner table and just made it where the studio was, and that became the studio. So then I have to eat in the living room and stuff. But it was still like, that's cool. Yeah, it was cool. And then, yeah, I think having my own voice, like, I always felt like I didn't have a voice, I think, when I was a kid. And so.

Well, what? So, but then there's a business to it, right? So.

Oh, well, then the business.

How did you deal with it? Yeah, how do you deal with the business side? Right.

Well, one, one day, a guy who sold pizzas in Santa Monica, my friend Thomas, he he said, he emailed me out, he wasn't a friend at the time. Emailed me to, said, hey man, I want to start just a cold email. Yeah, I want to.

That's cool.

I want to give you like dollar 500 a month for advertisement and you need to get a studio. And I was like, well, I want to keep that $500. I don't have.

That's cool.

Yeah. But then he's like, no, you don't see it. He said, if you can do this next step and use that $500 to get your studio, then you're. It's gonna do better. And that was something that's really been a blessing cuz I don't. My mindset was just different, you know, I had a more scarcity mindset and.

Right, right, because you needed the $500. Right. As opposed to growing.

I'd rather have it in my bank account.

Yeah. Then use it as an investment.

Yes, an investment. And then once we did the first studio and then that kind of evolved from there and you just kept on.

Growing it on your own or did you bring in people to do the sales or.

Yeah, we had an advertising company that, that stole from us for two years. That was horrible. Yeah, we lost, like, I mean, we probably had over two year. I don't even know, it was at least 400 grand that got taken.

But you learn a fucking lesson that way, don't you?

Yeah, I learned.

So, you know we're similar. Right? So here too. How did the dude, pizza dude get your email?

I'm not sure. Oh. Because we would put it, we would put a contact number in case somebody wanted to reach out about something from the show.

Oh, you did? And because, like, I've done bunch of deals from people just cold emailing me.

Yeah.

Like, I did. I gave this company, this dudes out of Dallas, Tim Ellis and his buddies. They said they wanted to start a space company. I'm like, I don't know shit about space, but I'll get you started and see what happens. Right now it's called relativity space. I still never met them. Right. It was all email and never met him. Now I've invested a few million. They're worth $4 billion.

No way.

Yeah. Relativity space and their space, these guys yet stem. Right.

I'm an ex blue origin intern. Got a $500 check from our cuban to build a major SpaceX rival. Wow.

Yeah. Coming for you, Elon.

I know.

So what their deal is they build the rockets out of three using 3d printers. So you just.

No way.

Yeah, it's really cool. Right. And they've to their credit, right? It's not like I helped them get there, right? Guys were just insanely smart and good. Right. I got lucky, you know?

But, like, helping them have some.

Yeah, I just got him started. Right. Like. Like Tim the pizza guy did for you. Right. Or Tom the pizza guy.

Right. Thomas.

Yeah. And so, like, sometimes just making yourself available opens a lot of doors.

Yeah.

Right. And it's helped me a ton.

Yeah. Who are your mentors? And then how do you differentiate between listening to mentors and trusting your instincts? Kind of.

I never had a mentor.

Really?

Not a mentor guy at all. I always wanted to try to figure out myself. I've always been, like, super curious, like, just somebody who loves to learn.

Yeah.

And so, I mean, you know, when I was getting into computers, I was reading the stupid computer manuals, right? Software manuals. Hardware. I would sit there and read that shit. Right. And then I would try it and try it and learn and learn and learn.

Yeah.

And then once you get started, you realize whether it's business, software, whatever. Once you get that base, just. It's like learning the podcasting business. Right. Once you get that base of the basics you're supposed to do, coming up with new shit, isn't that hard, right. It's just about your creativity.

Yeah.

And so I was always just, I'm gonna learn it myself. Learn it myself. Never had a mentor. And then people are like, will you be my mentor? I'm like, I'm still going, right? I don't have time to be someone else's mentor. Maybe that's not fair, but.

No, but not if you're still going. You know? I mean, right now, you're mentoring your family. You've already said that you've choosing to take that.

That's more important.

It is. Especially now, if I can get them to listen. Yeah. It's crazy, dude. How your own kids. Wow, Mark, you've been in the kitchen.

It's insane.

And they're like, let me breathe, Mark.

I'd be like, you want me to help you with this business idea, or, you know, your project at school? No, no, my. One of my daughter. I'm not gonna say which one. Just, like, rips on me, too. You don't know anything about business, dad. I'm like, okay, it's crazy that no.

Matter who you are, you're still just dad.

You're just dad, which, you know the best word entire english language? Dad. Yeah. Right? When your kids just say, hey, dad, I, like, makes me melt.

Does it really.

Oh, my God, it's the best thing ever, ever, ever, ever. The best. One of the best parts about having kids, right. Just through yours, right?

Yeah. Was your. You and your dad had a pretty good relationship.

Yeah, we did. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's funny because my dad was like, I don't know what the fuck you're doing, but keep on doing it. And I remember the time I, um, told him that I had $100,000 in the bank and he never made more than 40 grand in his life. And he just started crying.

Wow.

And just taking them places and then telling him and my mom they can just go wherever they want, whenever they want and do whatever.

Cool, huh?

Yeah. That mean. Yeah.

Made you feel good?

Oh, yeah. Fuck yeah. Right? I mean, all they did with my dad up 06:00 every morning at work at 07:00 a.m. come home. Oh, fuck. You lost an eye in an accident. So, like, if you had him.

One eyed worker. Worker.

One eyed worker. Right. So already behind the eight ball. Right?

Yeah.

Like you do upholstery and cars.

Eyeball.

Right? Yeah. I was so gross. Right? So he was like, when the first.

My dad lost a finger. Dude.

Did he really?

I just remember that.

You just remember?

Yeah. Did it made us scared?

Oh, my God, yes. My dad.

And is this when he had both eyes or one eye?

Well, no, he had one eye. Right. This is when he had one eye. He lost it when I was like eleven. And you can see they're not quite the same. Right. And so he had a glass eye and he used to freak out my friends. He'd take out the glass eye and it would be like, literally look like apricot jelly behind there. It was so disgusting.

That's wicked, bro. Dude, that's so cool. Yeah. My dad. Yeah, I don't know. What? He was missing a thing. Oh. Somebody slammed the door on it, I guess, when he was a child.

Oh, that's fucking.

So how'd your dad lose in any way? Cool.

No, it wasn't cool at all. He, um. They did upholstery on car seats and cars and he was putting a staple gun right where you staple down the upholstery and the staple broken. And he didn't have glasses on. Hit him in the eye. Yeah. It was not.

Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. And it was tough. Yeah. But he was. He's a fighter.

That's wild. Is your father still alive?

No, both my parents died a few years ago.

Oh, I'm sorry. Was it. Was it tough to have so much control and power. Like, you know, you have ability to affect a lot of things. Was that a tough thing to manage, like when your parents passed away?

Yeah, for sure.

And I'm sure it is for anybody.

Yeah. I mean, my dad was 92 and my mom was 85, so I had good runs.

Right.

But yeah, it's still tough, right? And, you know, you expect it because my dad had struggled for a while. My mom got cancer and my mom's so insane. Right? Like, we'll get you treatment, right? We'll do this, we'll do that, right? She goes, I just want some pot gummies. That's all she wanted. She wants, you know, just give me the gummies. All I care about is the gummies. And my brother Jeff would have to go find gummies in Pittsburgh, right? It was hysterical. Come on, mom, we can help you. I don't care.

Oh, you can find some over in Sheddley.

Parker, right? How do you know Pittsburgh?

Oh, dude, I got pink eye over there. The first time ever had pink eye. I got it in Pittsburgh.

You pick eye a lot?

No, only had it probably three times.

That's a lot, bro.

But somebody goes, somebody in Pittsburgh said, I'll never forget this. Oh, you got some downtown. And you're up downtown, right?

Yeah, you go downtown, hit, hang out the south side.

They said, you got some downtown in your pittsburgh.

Accents are the worst.

Oh, they're the worst and the best. You see like some lady, like wearing a frickin Jerry Olshansky jersey or something just like, it just the best is.

When you see some really hot. So, like, I obviously don't have a Pittsburgh accent, right? And you see a really, really hot girl in Pittsburgh and she'd be like, yeah, you going downtown, hang out in the south side. I'm like, wish the car. Yeah. Oh, Pittsburgh. I love it. Right? It's got a lot better from when I was a kid.

One of the best places. There's that movie on. What's that movie was there's a big wedding in the beginning of it. Is that Deer Hunter knows.

Yeah. Deer Hunter was filmed in Pittsburgh.

Yeah. And it's all film right there. Pittsburgh, if it didn't. And with the. The landscape, it's one of the more beautiful cities. Credit because the winters are pretty harsh, I think.

Brutal. But you go to Mount Washington and you go to Lamont restaurant.

Yeah.

And you see it like, just, you know, driving through the tunnels and you see, you see Point park and you see the three rivers. It's beautiful. And they've cleaned it up a lot since I was a kid. It is really a vibrant town.

I love it there.

Tech town.

Yeah. My friend used to work at Jack's bar on the south side. Another friend of mine was a mascot over there.

A mascot?

Yeah. I think he was a Pittsburgh pirate for a while.

That's cool.

That's cool, that's cool.

I used to work as a bartender.

DVE is at the station there. No, what is it?

Wdve?

Yeah.

Yeah, that's funny as hell. Yeah.

Yeah, man, I really have a. I love that place. It's good people. You worked where they said?

Yeah, I worked at a bar called chances are and in Oakland. And that was my summer job when I was in college.

And Oakland is the kind of the downtown area.

No, Oakland is where the University of Pittsburgh is.

Okay. Bet they're playing pretty good this year. They had a good win the other day. You mentioned Elon a little bit ago. I know. You guys have. You guys have, like, a fit to feud. What is it you think? It almost seems romantic. A little.

Yeah. I just like to fuck with him.

Yeah.

Right? I mean, because it's like he loves.

Being on Twitter, too.

Oh, it's his playing, right?

Yeah, 40 something big.

Yeah. Better hang out. It's like, why do I go to the Mavs games, right? You know? But, yeah, I don't. I don't dislike Elon, but he says some stupid shit, and it's just like, I have no problem calling him out.

Yeah.

And he's thin skinned, right? And so, like, I'll tell you my one little Elon story, right? So I got. I didn't get to know him, but I was. Helped him with something or tried to help him. And so I had his number and I texted him a couple times, like, he had a kid. And I'm like, congrats on your 97th kid. And he text me back, Mars. Mars needs kids, right? Mars needs people. And I'm like, that's funny, right? And so one day I had a Tesla, and I said something about it, and he just sends me a text with the article saying, fuck you. That's it. Just, fuck you. And I was like, okay. I mean, it was the truth, right? Fuck you. I'm like, okay, so that's a text.

With the article that what?

That I said something that wasn't completely, totally positive about Tesla.

Oh, I see. We're saying, okay, so that's what. That's what the article was about, right?

So he was just like, fuck you. I'm like, okay. And then it was nothing. You know, no big deal. I don't care one way or the other. And then we buys Twitter, right. And then he starts getting real political. Right?

Yeah.

So not a lot of people are going to stand up to him. And I'm like, fuck it, I don't care. Right. So he's called me racist. He's called me, you know, poop emoji multiple times. He calls me all these names. And so, like, that, to me, that just gives me license to fuck with him even more. Right. I don't care if he calls me names. I don't give a shit what he thinks. Right. But it's still fun, right. You know, just to hit him with the lols or whatever.

Yeah. Because at that point, you're just kind of having a good time. And Twitter is a strange place where you can just kind of say, whatever. I. It kind of exists. It kind of doesn't. The news, like, Twitter's a. It's just such a bizarre place, really is. I wish they would take a lot of the pornography off of there.

Hardcore. Right. How they get away with all that shit. Because you only have to be 13 to go on there. Right. Yo, you talked about some of shit we were talking earlier. That's where the shit just shows up in your face all the time.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. That. That kind of stuff isn't. I think. Yeah, I wish it. That we didn't have that and, yeah, and I think. Yeah, and he's. Yeah, he's always on there, but, yeah, I think he. And he might still be high off the fact that he bought it, you know, that he owns it.

Look, you gotta give him tons of credit, right?

Yeah.

SpaceX, you know, Starlink, Tesla. Shit. Dudes like the entrepreneur of our generation, right? There's, like, nobody close.

Yeah.

You know, at least in the two thousands. Right. And so I have total respect for him as an entrepreneur, but his skin is so, so thin. How can you not fuck with him?

Yeah. Right, yeah, I think. Well, yeah, I mean, it's. I think it's. I mean, Twitter is definitely a place where. Is it real? Is it not real? You know, I don't know. It's always been interesting. I feel. I kind of. I was happy that he bought it, though. I mean, I was like. He kind of rescued it, because I feel like a lot of. A lot of, like, the mainstream media and, like, the social media platforms, they seem all pretty left leaning, right?

Used to be, for sure. Right. But now, like, the biggest platforms are Fox news, daily, wire, the big names, like, name the big left leaning anchors or whatever. Who are the, who are the most left leaning big celebrities in media today?

Well, I guess you probably have, like, don Lemon. I guess he got fired. He did.

Yeah. He got fired from CNN. He's gone, right? He ain't got shit going on.

Oh, damn. When life gives you, Don Lemon, let him go.

But you get the point, right?

I don't know. There's no big name, I think. But seeing it, I think a lot of the mainstream media has been notoriously kind of left leaning. I think his words, like, they're anti. I mean, especially, like, during the first time that Trump was running, like, the only people that even the late night host would make fun of were basically like, kind of poor whites.

It seemed like for sure that was wrong.

It got like, if you were, like, conservative or christian, I feel like those people get the brunt of shit a lot of times.

Yeah, I'm not going to argue with that. Right. But I guess my point is, in 2016, it was different, right? Tv was still up here, right? Getting 910 million viewers a night for a tv show was okay, right? And so whoever was on the news then, or CNN, they were getting millions of people. Now, the only platforms getting a lot of viewers are like, Fox News is the biggest. MSNBC gets some, like a Rachel maddow, you could say. But for every Rachel Maddow, you know, there's Sean Hannity, there's Laura Ingraham, there's all the hosts, and then you got Ben Shapiro's, you've got all these right wing, you know, the Tucker Carlson's. And so the bigger stars now, and the bigger media presence is on the right. And so I think what's happened on Twitter now since Elon has pushed it to the right, I think it's kind of flip flopped. Right? In 2016, if you went on and, and talked about Trump positively, you would get shit on.

Oh, you couldn't say anything. If you were even a conservative, you couldn't even ask a question.

You would get shit on, right?

Very scary.

Right? So it was left leading, but now it's exact opposite. Right? If when I say stuff about Harris, you can just look at my, my ref, my mentions, my replies, and I'm just getting destroyed. I'm a communist. You're a fucking jew. Go back to hell. This is, this.

These aren't from hell.

Well, no, but that's what they know.

It's all crazy history, you know, I'm saying, like, you know, look at a.

Map saying the anti semitism on that place, maybe it's just pointed at me. Right. But I know Ben Shapiro. I looked in his replies. I'm just curious. Right. So point being that, um, I think it's flip flopped.

You do?

Yeah. And I think now, I mean, look, you had President Trump on here, coming on here saying his piece, right?

And we would have kamala on.

Yeah, I'm sure I'll put in a good word for you, too.

Yeah.

You know? Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. I think it would just be interesting to talk to her.

No, she's smart, she's fun, she's easy going. Right. Laughs a lot. But, you know, she's. She's chill. But I think the whole thing is just flip flopped. And I think it's harder on Twitter in particular, it's harder to be in support of Harris. Like, I'm not a liberal, right? I mean, socially, I probably am. Physically, I'm conservative, and I'm an independent. I don't belong to either party. I don't give a shit about either party, you know, but I'm a Harris fan because I'm not a, you know, I like her policies. I've had some influence in her policies, and I'm not a Trump fan at all. Yeah, used to be, but they kind of grew out of it.

Have you? Um. Yeah. What do you think made you grow? Like, that's interesting term, like grew out of it.

You know, I would once I came out saying I was for him, right?

Oh, you. You had come out.

Yeah, I said it was the best thing to happen to politics because he wasn't a typical candidate. Now, I didn't think yet.

So I felt, yeah, cuz I would have elected a fucking doughnut in there.

Yeah.

If it wasn't a politician.

Exactly. Right. That's like one of my buddies in Texas. I'm like, why are you voting for Trump? Because, Mark, I've been voting for politicians my entire life. You know what they've done for me? Nothing. You know the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again. Right. So I'm like, okay, Dan, I get that. Right?

Yeah.

But as I would talk to him, and it's funny because in my memory, things that came up, right. Just this morning, I was looking at it and it was like he sent me a text. I'd done a CNN interview.

Donald?

Yeah. Donald said, well, what he would do is he would write it and then somebody would scan it and then they'd email it to me. And so he sent me what happened because he saw a CNN interview where I criticized him and I literally, I told him, I'm like, you got to start learning the issues, right? You can't just talk, you know, at some point, all these things are important. And if you're going to be president and that you've got a chance to win, then you've got to learn this stuff. And I just never felt he made an effort to learn anything. Not just that, but anything. Right? And so whenever you try to get into a conversation about details, it never worked. Now, all that said, even though I don't think he'd make a good president, I don't think he was a good president before. When he did become president, when he asked me to come help on during COVID right. When he asked me to help about healthcare, I showed up, right, because country over party, right. And I would do it again if he wins, but I hope he doesn't.

Yeah. Have you donated to the Harris campaign?

No, I haven't given money to any candidate pack anything politics related to either party since 2001. And that was like, I don't even know, to Zoe Lofgren. I don't remember why I gave her money, right. That's when I had broadcast.com. so I kind of make a point not to give money. So that either you, if I talk to you, either you like my ideas or you don't. And it's not about me buying, you know, your interest.

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Like George. No, Gerald. For. I don't know. It just seems like we've, like we've just become this America to me, feels like this kind of shell company, right? For bigger.

Bigger. See, I think there's some, and I.

Mean, in a negative way, still believe in, like, the beliefs of our country.

Yeah, me too.

But it just feels like the lobbyists control so much. It's like, does the president even matter anymore, you know?

Well, it's a great point because some of the issues are so complicated, they can't learn all of them. Right.

Of course. Yeah.

Like, whatever it is. Right. But at the same time, I think. I think what a lot of people are missing is that everybody, all politicians, learned from Donald Trump and how he won because.

Oh, they did. You think?

Yeah. Oh, for sure. Right. I see it in the Harris campaign. I see it in Kamala Harris. Right. You know, Donald Trump took over the Republican Party. It was no longer the Republican Party.

Great point. I never thought about that.

He took over. Right. It's like, whatever he wants, he didn't want to debate in the republican primary, so be it. Right. They let him not debate. Right. You know, who knows what would happen against Vivek or Nikki Haley or whatever it might have been.

That's right. They didn't have to debate this year, huh?

No, they wanted to. The other ones did. He just didn't participate. And so he just didn't step up and say, okay, I'm going to kick your ass. I'm happy to debate anybody. He said, no, I'm not going to debate his choice. But the point being he controls the Republican Party. I think that's what's happening with.

Yeah, that wasn't super democratic, probably.

Yeah, no, it was. But it's his choice. Right. The Republican Party is a private entity. He gets to do the way and he runs it. Right.

And shouldn't there overall body that would say that you guys have to have this?

Nobody. The Republicans get to pick their candidate the way they want to and the Democrats get to pick their candidate the way they want to. So all this shit about, well, you know, Nikki Hale, I mean, Nikki Kamala Harris didn't get a single vote. Right? Don't matter. Right? And tell you what kind of dweeb I am, right? And nerd like, I literally looked up the bylaws of the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention and they both say we basically, in a nutshell, we get to pick the candidates the way we want to pick the candidates, period. End of story.

Wow. So either. So. Cause kind of on both sides, it seems like the. That Kamala and Donald have just been put in, right? So neither one of them kind of practiced, like, but it don't matter.

Right. What do they care about power. To your point earlier, right. What's the Democratic Party want? Power. What's the Republican Party want? Power. Now, who's in charge of those. Each of those businesses? The parties. Donald's in charge. And the thing I was saying about learning from Donald now, Kama is like, I'm taking over the Democratic Party.

Right, I see what you're saying.

Right. So it used to be like in 2016, people thought, well, you know, all the traditional Republicans, the Mitt Romney's or whoever, they're really going to run the show. And Don was like, fuck that. Right? I'm doing it my own way. Right? And so Nikki Kamala has learned all that stuff now, and she's doing it the same way. So she's not like, okay, this is what Bernie wants. She doesn't give a fuck what Bernie wants. You know, this is what Elizabeth Warren wants. She doesn't give a fuck what Elizabeth Warren wants. She wants to know what's best for the country. And so then are people like, well, why was she not this way in California? Because running California, being a senator in California, is a completely different job than trying to be the president. You know, just like running real estate is a completely different job than trying to be the president. So I think she's trying to come to center because, and she's trying to be the exact opposite of Trump, but she has captured the Democratic Party. Like, when I talk to them, it's not like, okay, this is what the Democrats want.

It's like, okay, what's best for the country and how do we implement that and how do we convey that so she can win? Now, some people might argue Bernie Sanders really is pulling strings, but he ain't. Right.

Just, he didn't seem like that when I spoke with him. He seemed like I didn't even know how vested he was in her being the candidate.

No, he's not, right. That's the whole point.

Right.

Whatever, right. Because she's in the center.

So you're saying you believe that she's doing her own thing.

She's definitely doing her own thing. Like she says, here's my core values, right? I want taxes to be fair. I want to lower taxes for the middle class, right. I want to bring people up and make sure that they have opportunities. Right. I want to try to do what I can to continue to reduce inflation and costs. And I don't want to be negative, whereas Donald is negative a lot. Right. And so you hear talking about joyous and uplifting and all that stuff.

Oh, I see.

I see. Because that's, and I agree with this. That's what's going to bring people together. You can't say I hate Taylor Swift, right. And say I'm bringing people together, right. You can't say all the Haitians are bad, right? Legal or illegal, right. And throw all the legal immigrants under the bus like, he's done. And she's, you haven't heard her criticize, like, like Hillary Clinton fucked up, right. Because you nailed it, right? She was talking shit, the deplorables and all that they're stupid for. That's not Kamala at all. She's like, all right, we're gonna bring people together. I'm gonna be joyous. I'm gonna be uplifting.

Right. Now, I understand a little bit more of her campaign then. But do you think it's weird that she doesn't do a lot of interviews and stuff that she doesn't get out?

That's a great question. Okay, so when she came in. Right. And got nominated because you kind of.

Don'T know who she is. That's like you hear, you see. So then you start to just believe clips because it seems like you don't get a breath.

So let's, so now that comes down this great question, right? So because I asked the same question and here's what they said to me, they go, mark, there's probably 1% of the electric of the electorate is high information.

So electorate say what it is.

Yeah. So 1% of the electorate, people who are voting.

Okay, so 1% of people who are.

Voting are high information.

So people are gonna go really look.

In debt like you and I might. Right. 99%. They don't really know her. Right. And so if you look, when she came in, she had horrible approval ratings. She had horrible favorability ratings. People didn't know who she is. And so what she's doing, she's taking a page from the Trump playbook. What did Trump do in 2016? He did all those rallies all the time in front of 1015 20. That's exactly what she's doing. Right? She's going everywhere and doing rally because that's how you get the maximum number of people without having anybody interpret it for her, like media might do. But the reason she keeps on doing it, it's working, right? She went from having really bad favor abilities no one knew to the exact opposite. She went from being further behind than biden because people didn't know actually potentially at least break even if not leading in some cases. It's working. So why doesn't he just turn around? And she's done some friendly interviews like Oprah and the National association of Black Journalists, and she'll continue to do some stuff. But you do what works, right?

Yeah, I guess. I mean, I think, yeah, I mean, I just wish, it feels like you'd want to get to know her a little bit better, you know, just to learn a little bit more about.

What do you want to know about.

Her question, I guess for me, I always want to know what somebody's really like.

Yeah.

You know, and at least get it like so just to try to get an idea of that. And then also you like, I think I can understand why a lot of people vote for Trump, you know, because, you know, he's had a history of being involved in a lot of shady business. Right.

That's why they vote for him.

Well, because America has become what it feels like it to a regular person. It feels like I am a, I am a part, I am just a peon in a bigger shady business. It feels like.

That's interesting. That's really, really interesting.

Yeah. So, so then it feels like, like, yeah, our water's dirty. There's our kids, you know, parents are boiling their own water now at homes because they feel like that water's not safe and it's causing a. And kids to have autism are, you know, our drugs. People have to spend all their money on drugs.

Like, well, I'm fixing that, so I'll get to that.

But, like, yeah. One of the largest causes of bankruptcy is medical debt in this country. There's a huge shell game insurance scam going on.

Horrible. It's worse than you.

Hospitals and no idea how insurance providers and big business. It's just.

But just look at that. Right? Those shady things you mentioned, I. And he tried to fix. Like, I literally went to the White House to talk about healthcare and the shit I'm doing and he wanted to talk about how we saved $35 billion on Boeing, Boeing aircrafts.

Right.

Couldn't have a conversation about it at all.

Yeah. And maybe some of that stuff is evolving with him. I don't know. You know? I don't. But I think my point was that it's gotten to the point where you. Everything seems like such a shady business that I want somebody who is shady. No, I want somebody in there who can do shady business.

Well, that is the guy who does shady business.

Well. But that's. But I think that's how a lot of people think. Like, really? This whole thing is fucking me so much that at least he's my criminal. Let me. Is a criminal.

He's my criminal.

Criminal. He's my criminal. Right.

Yeah.

Or, but, yeah. Because they feel like this other thing is such a. It's so mobster that you need a mobster. That's what I'm saying.

I mean, that's the best description or reason I've heard of anybody wanting to vote for Donald Trump. Literally the best. Right. Because you're right. If everything is that shady, then. And he certainly, I mean, he's ripped off. I can't even tell you how many people. Right. People I know. Right. That he's ripped off.

I mean, there's been a lot of alleged issues with Congress.

No, I'm telling you about. Yeah, I'm telling you. People I know, right. He, like, Barbara Corcoran, she said something about this from shark tank. Right. She. He hired her or asked her to sell a bunch of condos in a new building that he put up. And she did. Sold everything. She asked. He offered her $4 million. He wouldn't pay her. She had to sue him just to get her money.

But how does somebody benefit by behaving like that? Like as a.

When that's the only way, you know? I mean, he was born rich, right? He's never had to find his, you know, Damon Johnson.

Yeah, he's always had good hair. Dude, rich people always have clean hair.

I don't know about that, but just call me Becky. Yeah, there you go. Well, she likes him as a salesperson, but down in there, it talks about how he ripped her off. How do you know? Trump University, Trump Foundation, Trump soho. Just example after example where he ripped off hard working Americans again and again and again. And to think, all of a sudden he just changed who he is, just not the case. Like, look what he's doing fucking now, right? A mint silver coin. If you're okay, if you're a billionaire, right? All of a sudden you just made a billion dollars to, you took your company public, you put a billion dollars in the bank. Are you going to be selling silver medallion coins?

What do they look like?

Does it matter?

I don't know. I haven't seen it.

You know what I'm talking.

Is it like. So you mean, like, commemorative coins, right.

That you see on the late night.

Commemorative everything, don't they?

Yeah, but this is mostly guy running for president, right? And so he's selling commemorative coins.

Wild.

He's selling sneakers.

Gangster, bro.

But why, if you're rich, selling sneakers, right.

Donald also has a, you know, he has a very.

Look at this shit.

Those, those are hype as fuck, dude. And I wish. They're pretty tough to me. They're ridiculous, but they're tough. But I think he's got a, you know, he loves being Donald Trump.

Yes, he does.

Undeniable.

And I don't blame him for that. More power to him. Right? Love your life. Right? Enjoy every minute. I hope he enjoys every minute of his life. Right? I got nothing against, like, I like the guy. If he was here and we were just talking shit, I get along great with him.

Right.

But that's different than wanting him to be president of the United states again, right? Totally different. And I think you need somebody you can trust. Now, is Kamala perfect? No. Right. Do I agree with everything she's going to do or says? No. Right. But I think you can trust her. Right. And that's the difference. And if you want her, if. I don't think we need to keep things in gangster mode. And I know that's why she's talking to me, right? I mean, that sounds stupid, right? But, like, fixing healthcare, right? She's not saying, okay, this lobbyist or that lobby, she's like, how do we fix it, right? What do we do to make it to save people money? You know, that's the difference, right. And I understand completely if you think everything's gangster, the deep state and all this shit, but. But, like, to me, that's just playing the victim, you know?

You mean by believing that sort of mentality?

No, that when he does it right, when he says they're out, you know, it's a deep state. He was fucking the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, and what did he do to stop the deep state? Now? He just stopped talking about. He doesn't talk about the deep state anymore. That's supposedly the ultimate gangster shit.

Right?

I mean, you know, if it's gangster and fucked up the way you say, and maybe it is, right. Maybe I just miss it.

It feels like it.

No. And I'm not saying it's not right. Maybe I just don't see it right. Maybe I've got it too good and I don't see the shit, right. But, I mean, it ain't gonna get un gangster. It's not gonna get better.

Right.

Put in a gangster. Right. And if you put somebody who's a gangster and Tony Soprano style, that only worries about loyalty. If you have an idea, he ain't listening. He's doing it his way. Where I think with her, she'll listen.

One interesting thing that he did well, I wonder how much would be different from the first time that he had the experience to be president to. Cause sometimes you do something and you learn.

Right. The question is, does he become more gangster or more legit?

Right.

What do you think?

I don't know. It's a good question. I think it would. That's the thing. I wish I knew a little bit more about how he. Thanks. And is, you know, and that's the toughest thing is being a regular voter. It's so hard to get to know how some.

That's exact same thing you said about Kamala. Right.

Really is, you know.

Right. Because when he look again, I don't hate him. I really don't hate anybody.

Yeah.

Right. I respect them. Right. I just don't agree with them. And I don't think he'd be a good president. But when he came on here, right. I listened to the interview. He talked pretty other than your talk about his brother and what happened there, which was really cool. Right. You know, you deserve a lot of credit. He deserves a lot of credit.

But, yeah, I wish he would have talked a little more about it. You know, I think it's hard to get into some of his, like, an emotional side with him.

Some, yeah.

You know, and I wish that it was maybe a little more possible. But, you know, he's also an old, you know, he's, he's a, you know, he's an older guy, senior citizen.

It's hard. Yeah, it's harder for that.

And I don't know him, you know.

But, but, you know, what I was going to say is he didn't really get into any details about anything other than the personal stuff with his brother. Right. You know, in your stuff. Right.

Yeah. Well, I think he wants to, you know, he wants, I think there's just things people want to feel. They want to feel safe. Right. So you want to, you want different things that are, that are happening at the border. Like we had a couple border patrol agents on and they were saying that, that a lot of the problems, it's not, they used to use like usual, like mexican migration that comes up to help with farming and stuff like that. And then it's just gotten out of control. And then now it's gotten really out of control. So I think his, like him saying that we want to close out or make it be like, appropriate ways that, that affects people's safety.

No, I agree. Right. Everybody wants safety. Right. And I think Biden fucked up. No question about it. He waited too long to do anything about it. Now, if you look at what's going on now, they're at the same, border crossings are at the same level they were under Trump. Right. So they've, they've come way down. And she has already said she wants to sign the border bill that the Republicans put out there. Right. Not build a wall, but shut it down even further, which I think.

Even further than a wall.

Yeah, further than it is now because they've already got it down to where it was when they built the wall as much as they got built. Right. It's the same numbers is at the end of the pre Covid stuff for Trump, 400,000 a day, whatever it is. Right. And she wants to take it even further. She's not Joe Biden. Right. So I agree with that, that it's a big deal. But he also said he just wanted to deport everybody. How the fuck do you do that?

Yeah.

You're just going to walk into somebody's house. Hey, I know there might be somebody who may or may not be illegal. Get the local cops and just pull them out of their house. You know, what's that going to do to cities? You know, I mean, you go through La, yeah, there's a bunch of illegals. Right. But they're not all have, not all their families are illegal.

Yeah, yeah.

And so if your family's getting dragged out the front door, what are you doing? Right, right. And he gets the national Guard or the local cops just start dragging people out, putting them in a bus and sent them, how do you think their community is going to respond?

Well, I guess it depends. Yeah, I think I agree. It's tough. It's like, how do you get into the minutiae of some of those things?

You got to follow the law. Right. But he's saying he's just going to drag them out their doors. Right. He hasn't given any real details how he would do it. And what I'm saying is if it's, let's just say he decided it's against jewish people.

Yeah.

Just pull it out of left field. I'm not saying he is. He's not going to. Right. Fucking, that's happened to us before. Right. And in the country where there's this many guns, people are pulling out their guns. Right. And I'm, I don't know, but I'm thinking if I'm hispanic and I have a brother in law or, you know, somebody, my father, whatever, who's illegal, and they're just coming to my front door, I'm not just letting them take them and just say, thank you very much, give me another right. Unless you do it the right way. There's way. Look, they called Obama the deporter in chief. He deported more people than Trump ever did. But he followed the law to do it. As long as you follow the law, that's great. But when Donald goes around saying, we're just gonna fucking kick him out, right, I'm gonna, you know, do whatever, right.

That just sounds like more, it sounds like a boast and not like, what is the actual practice, right.

More gangster. Right.

But I think the fact that so many people have been let in and it's like there's Venezuelans in Brooklyn that are running like prostitution rings out of parks over there, you know? Yeah. And I don't, there's, yeah.

And there's Americans doing the same shit too. Right, right.

It's a good point, but I'm not.

Trying to make excuses for him.

Right.

Get the motherfuckers out, but follow the law to do it. Tell us how you're going to do it.

Right. That's a good point. Yeah. He doesn't. Donald does that doesn't have much of a. He's not very finesse when it comes to the emotional comfort of how something's sound.

Respectous law. Otherwise shit could hit the fan in a bad way.

Yeah. But the fact that people have come in lawlessly, it feels like fucked up.

No one's changed. No, no one's saying he didn't.

Yeah.

Right. He led too many people in that. That could have been the Bernie Sanders side of him. Right. I'm not saying, you know, he did the right thing.

Yeah.

Right. But you are where you are. Right. So the only question is how do you fix it?

Right.

And just.

You are where you are.

You are where you are. The situation is the situation. When that company cast or whatever it was fucked you up. You were where you were.

Yeah.

And you just had to deal with it.

Yeah.

Right. You could sue. You could do whatever, you could follow law. You did it what you had to do. Right. It's the same with this. Right. You are where you are. And if he's going to get people out, which you should, he's not saying I'll follow the Obama model, but instead of 3 million people deported, it's going to be 11 million.

Right. Let's hear the practice more. Right.

When you have 300 million, 400 million guns in a fucking country, people aren't just gonna say, take my brother. Thank you very much.

Right. Yeah. You know, it's a great point. I think. Yeah. I think that you have to have more of an idea of. Yeah. How are things gonna be, you guys.

Tell us how you're gonna do it. Right. You can't just say, I'm gonna deport because to your point, right. It gets people mad and they want to vote because they feel threatened. Right. They don't feel safe. You know, and I don't blame them for not feeling, for being mad and not feeling safe. That's legit. Right. But how are you going to fix it, right. Comma, saying, okay, here's the program, right. That we got from James Lankford, whoever, the guy from Oklahoma, I think it is, who, for this republican bill, I'll sign it. Right. Because this is a problem. She hasn't said how she's going to deal with deportations. That's something that she should be asked. I don't know the answer. I don't know where her head is on that. But I do know that if you go more gangster on this, that it.

Could escalate and get worse. You think?

Yeah. Wouldn't you?

I don't know. I don't know. I hadn't thought about it like that, exactly. You know, I hadn't thought about that. What are the actual practices of it? You know, dude hires.

Dude hires people. Illegals in Mar a Lago.

Yeah.

Right.

Well, that's an interesting thing about our whole country, is it's like people say, well, we don't want illegals here, but then people hire illegals to also do that.

They're do the job right, and they're not doing, like. They're not doing these jobs right. They're doing, you know, the shitty jobs.

But most of the people that are coming over now, it's. It's gotten so much more out of, like, people just coming over to work and send money back home. It's gotten, like, most of the people aren't even mexican people that are coming over now. It's all other types. Which doesn't make those people any better or any worse.

No, I hear you, but it's still.

Like, if it's like, it just makes me, like, I can't walk. I'm scared to let my kid walk the block to school now or just because. I don't know. And if you feel like these people don't have a Social Security number, then there's no way to even prosecute them or have them be contributing members.

Well, no, that's not true. Right. So even if they don't have a Social Security number, if they break the law, they'll deport them. Right. Or they'll throw them in jail, whatever it may be. They're not saying because you don't have a Social Security number, you can't be prosecuted.

Oh, I see.

Right. Yeah. That's not the way it works.

Yeah. I mean, yeah. A lot of people that. The executive branch, one of the border Patrol guys said that the executive branch, they're not doing the processing well enough. So a lot of times they get the same people over and over again.

Yeah. They send them back. They come right back over. They send them back. That's fucked up. Right.

So we obviously. We have to do better.

Yeah.

And there used to be a program where families got to sponsor somebody that was coming over back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know where that is or what's going on.

I would just be cool because then you, as a person that's already. That lives here or is a city isn't here. You feel like you have a connection to that. You know, it's like, that's how my.

Grandparents got in the country.

Yeah.

They came over from the Ukraine and all over the fucking place. Right. It was either either be killed where they were or get your ass over here. Right, right.

I just think we're in a tough space in this country where it's like people are struggling with addiction, people are struggling with home ownership. We're dealing with, you know, less marriages than ever. Like, the family unit is broken, people are scared. You know, a person can't care about their kids because they have to fucking work all day, or they can, but it's just hard to manage and.

Well, how do you think you fix that?

I don't know. And I think it's a lot to think that one person could be the person that does it. And I don't even know how you, as a. As a leader, say you need the help from the people because they're already stressed to do. Right.

Right. That's the whole job. Right. That's why I turned on Trump, because he didn't pay attention to those details. It wasn't like he had a team. That was like, I got this guy to do this, I got this guy to do that. And even now. Who else?

Well, he has. At least he. I do like that he brought in Bobby Kennedy Junior, you know?

Yeah. I'm not a big Bobby Kennedy.

You're not?

No, not at all.

Yeah.

Yeah. Because of the healthcare shit. I like his stuff on unprocessed foods. Right. I think that's legit. In fact, one of my buddies, Todd Wagner, one of my partners, this whole thing is getting rid of unprocessed foods. He helped sign a law in California to get all these dyes and shit out. So I'm in agreement there.

Yeah. That's one thing I love about him. And clean water. Just trying to clean up the environment.

You know, with that. Yeah.

Those are the things that I love. Those are the things that I only really know that he does.

Yeah. I got no problem with that side of him. Right. The whole vaccine thing, I think that's. He's misguided on that, but that's. That's what makes a market. Right. That's okay. People can disagree.

And you need somebody to say, this is. You needed a. You needed. Because half of America was like, this feels like we should just let it. It's not that dangerous. We should let it figure itself out. And nobody was even allowed to say that. It felt like, say what? That this feels like a. That during COVID this just feels like something that we need to let it run its course through people instead of, like, going this in this such a. Like a. Kind of almost felt like a communist route of, like, locking everything down.

Yeah.

I mean, we're not to go into that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was responsible for 20,000 people coming into a Mavs game. And if somebody would have died because I didn't want them to be vaccine and you, none of that, I would have felt like shit for the rest of my life.

Yeah.

Right. So just different. Yeah. So everybody can have different perspectives on vaccines. Yeah, yeah.

I don't know what I was vax on it. I don't know. I mean, I guess. I guess I was probably anti. I don't know if I was anti vaxx. I just felt like. Like they suddenly shut down all the AA rooms and shit and that killed so many people because they couldn't go get meetings and you're like, can't do everything.

Yeah.

Right. Like, I'm gonna die because I'm an addict and I don't.

My brother's 17 years sober, so I went through all that shit.

Yeah. So, yeah, not having some of that, I. So I just think that the way that it was all handled felt like, look, with everything. Look, it's easy to look it back.

Yeah. Right. You can look at everything differently. Right. Because in hindsight, everything's 2020. Right. But when you're in the middle of it and people are fucking dying, it's got a scary spot. Yeah. And. But that's the difference between leadership, like, going back to leadership. I mean, you nailed it. Nailed it. You need leaders. Right. And leaders may not be able to do everything themselves personally, but you got to have people around you that can do it. And that's where I think Trump is fucked up.

Yeah. You don't hear a lot about who he's going to get to help him with each thing.

And a lot of it's because the people who he used before all turned on him. Right. All his cabinet members, 40 out of his 44 cabinet members said, we ain't voting for him. Right. We don't think he's qualified to do this job. And, you know, so, healthcare, you hear Vance mention some things, but what else, right? Deportations, you hear Donald say he's going to do it.

It.

But how, right. Can you name one thing that Donald said? How he's going to do it.

Yeah. Yeah, I think. Well, I think that's another thing that even on on the Kamala side, it's like, I wish there were more. Some specifics about the policies. It's almost like they could both use a tune up in some of that area.

Sure. Now, you know, we got 45 days or whatever it is to find out from Kamala what she's going to do. I'm pushing them to get as much detail out, right. I talk to their team three, four times a week.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. Via text. Right. And I give them shit when they deserve shit. Right. And I'll say what I think. And they listen, though, right. They may not agree all the time, but they'll listen.

Yeah.

And so I know, like, when I talk to our team, they're like, okay, we got to talk to the policy director of this or that, right? Healthcare. We're going to talk about, you know, independent pharmacies going up. Okay. We have a group that's looking at healthcare in general. Let us get your feedback and go. Like, I was talking to them the other day on Amazon. Did you sell anything on Amazon by chance?

I never. I bought stuff on there, yeah.

But never. Okay, so, like, little cup, like shark. I found this on Shark Tank, right? So little companies that make headphones, right? They get knocked off a lot. A lot, right? So you come up with an idea to do something. Blood sets, wet and tears, you put it on Amazon. Some fuckers in China are like, I make that shit, right? I'm going to go on there and just knock it off, right, and sell it there. And as a little company, it's hard. It's not impossible, but it's hard to get Amazon to take it down, particularly on a timely basis. And so they lose, you know, they can lose half, 75%, all of their sales to these knockoffs, right? And so I said to them, you know, hey, here's what I learned from these companies, right? Amazon isn't the good partner they used to be for these little companies. Can we do something together? Can I put something together? Like, yeah, put something together for us. Because you're right. We need to do it. It's not right that China's knocking off some of our smallest entrepreneurs, even big entrepreneurs, right, and stealing their business. So it's not about tariffs, it's about.

Okay, so I propose to them, can we get these chinese companies to register before they're allowed to sell on Amazon? Get them to put up like a 25k bond in case they rip off people. There's some money there, right, for every product they sell, you're gonna sell headphones, right? Post it up just like, like a patent. You have to post your patent before it gets approved.

Right. What you're rating in the restaurant window or whatever.

Yeah. Right. Same type of thing. Right. So post whatever it is you're going to sell and put up five grand for it. Right. Again, in case you violate IP. That's revenue for the country that protects our small independent businesses. Right. And it protects us against China, who, you know, they don't care about IP all the time. Right. And they were like, great idea. We have a policy team to look at that stuff for us. Right. That's the big difference. Right. So we don't have all the details yet, and I think that's not as good as it should be. But hopefully we'll get all those out in policy papers and everything and get some details. I haven't even seen who Trump is going to turn to for details.

So you feel like with the Democratic Party, that with Kamala's group, that there's more organization, a lot more, and a.

Lot more detail else paid attention to.

Got it.

Right. And I think that's important. Maybe there's people that Donald has put together and we just don't see it.

But you don't think there is. Who do you think's gonna, um. Well, thanks, man. Yeah, I like talking about that stuff. Sometimes I get kind of scared to talk about it, I guess, because some, some things I don't know and everybody doesn't. Nobody knows everything.

Nobody knows shit, you know, big picture. Right?

Do you think, who do you think will win?

I have no idea.

I know that. Fucking crazy.

Crazy.

Do you think we still have a fair election process in this country?

Absolutely.

You do?

Yeah, absolutely.

That's my biggest fear, is just that we don't have one. And then that I think. And when you start to, that's one thing. It gets really weird because you start to think that since other things seem kind of like lobbyists are involved in everything and there's, you know, Bernie Sanders was saying we have more lobbyists than we have.

Yeah.

Reps and senators, that I believe.

Right.

He said there's three lobbyists for everyone. It's like within what, what's the, what's the real government almost feels like the lobbies becomes real government. So, like, then you start to. Just, so I'll finish, mark. Just, but then you start to, um. You start to think that if, that all that feels so compromised is the voting compromise.

Yeah. I mean, you don't think it is? No. As a geek.

Yeah.

And having looked at a lot of this stuff. I mean, I'm not the ultimate geek in all this this, but I'm pretty confident. And plus, they've been sued a thousand times. All the, all the states that Trump questioned were audited and had recounts and notice he didn't question the states he won.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Right. So it's not like he didn't trust it. Right? He just, and I remember going, I got invited by Clinton to one of the early debates in 2016, and he was talking then about how the election wasn't going to be fair. So one of the coolest books I ever read was about a guy named Roy Cohen. Right. And I don't know if you ever heard of the McCarthy trials in the fifties where they were calling everybody a communist.

Yeah, I remember. Yeah.

And so I did a movie, actually executive produced a movie called Goodnight and Good Luck. Got nominated for six academy.

Oh, yeah. With George Clooney.

With George Clooney. Right. It was all about that. Well, Roy Cohen was Donald Trump's mentor. And Roy Cohen, who was the guy who was defending the people saying, you're a communist, you're a communist. And his, his approach was deny, deny, deny, deny. And it's your fault, it's your fault, it's your fault. And they're out to get me. Everything Donald is doing is Roy Cohn part two.

So you feel like that's a lot of his motivate. That's a lot of his template.

Yeah, that's template. Great. Yeah, that's the right word. Template.

Yeah. I think a lot of people feel like the, the, it's also against them that they'll fucking throw a wrench into the.

Just to fuck it up further. Right?

Well, no, just because it's like, let's wish fire anything at, you know, it's like, I think there's a lot of that mentality is that he's not a politician, so you're going after him. So it's better than having a politician there because the politics, because the political landscape has gotten so.

I would agree. Look, like when Biden was running, I feel differently about Kamala, but when Biden was running, if you had a non MAGA Republican running, I would probably vote for the them. Right? I'm, you know, I just. And you nailed it, right?

Socially liberal, fiscally conservative.

Yeah. The whole, the whole gangster thing. I think that's just wrong.

Yeah.

Like, when I was a little kid, I used to go with my buddy Jay and his dad was a numbers collector, you know, and so we would go really? Yeah.

When he had just plus three, dude.

Yeah. Take number seven. Right, right.

With horses.

No, no, no, just literally numbers. So back in the day, the mafia basically, right, in Pittsburgh and everywhere, they would allow you to pick a number. I don't know, out of how many you think, one to 20, you pick a number and you bet. Right. And each number had different odds. And if your number came up, you got paid. It's more like roulette. That was it. Yeah, that was more like. We call the numbers. Right.

It was like roulette, but somebody came and told you what, the number one?

Yeah. They just posted the number and that was it. Right. And they knew what you would bet. And if you didn't pay up.

Wow.

Right. Not that they would him, but they were just my. My buddy's dad used to sit there with a little. No, little souvenir baseball bass. They give a games. A little tiny one. Pap pat. It was cool as shit sitting in his, you know, 1968 Buick Riviera. I thought it was badass as hell.

At the time, collecting numbers. Yeah, that's cool.

But the gangster shit, right?

Yeah.

Once a gangster, always a gangster. And when it comes time to dealing with stuff, it's self preservation first. That's the number one rule of being a gangster, isn't it? You know, stay out of jail, keep your shit going. That's not putting the country first.

Well, yeah, the problem is it feels like the country hasn't been first for a long time, and so people want a gangster. So that's why I understand.

I understand, too. Right? You explained it better than anybody. Right. The way you said it to me was the only thing that I've been told. Okay, I get that. Right. You know, or like my buddy who said, I'm tired of voting for politicians. I get that. But I don't know, that's who Donald Trump is these days.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's interesting. That's why it's, you know, it's fun to talk about this one.

Yeah. No, just to have a good conversation.

Yeah.

No screaming.

And I totally respect your thoughts, and I respect a lot of your insights, you know? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And I would love to be able to have her on. They reached out, like, last week about it.

Oh, cool.

And so we've been. Who reached out to, you know, I'm not sure. I'll. To check with my buddy Zach, you know, but.

Or just email me who reached out and I'll find out, but I'll put in a good word for you.

Yeah, it'd be interesting, you know, just to, I think, because the toughest thing, as, like, a regular person who just can go vote, it's like you've just even more these days, you want to try and figure out who is this person. You know, you obviously have a lot of, like, thoughts and creativity, and you've had success. Do you feel like running for office? Have you thought about it?

I've thought about it, yeah. Even looked into it. Yeah. But it's not gonna happen. Right? All the shit that they're going through. Right.

Like, you just even mean on a human basis.

Yeah, on a human basis. Like, why would I put my family through that? Right, right. And with cosplayers, I can have an impact. Right. And I just think I can do more outside than inside. And I'm just not good at, you know, all the formalities and all that shit, you know? You're not. I mean, showing up at a state dinner and jeans and a t shirt isn't gonna work.

I don't know. I think people would love it.

That would me.

Oh, I just think people would love that. Yeah. Um.

My wife would kill me.

What? Did you ever ask what you thought?

Yeah. My family voted no. No.

You sat them down four to one yes.

Adam done they for no one. Yes.

Oh, man. Did you even try to lobby one of them to even help you a little?

Well, my son got into it a little bit, but he was only, like, 13 at the time, so it was.

Damn. Yeah, I guess. What, what moments or what, what? What is it? The part of you that makes you feel like you would want to do or could do it?

Because I just want to do the right thing. If there's a deep state, I don't need anything from anybody. You can't buy me. I try to be smart about things. I'm curious and I like to learn. I want to listen and be open minded. I think I've got approaches that have worked for me in the past, also are getting results now. You know, like the cost plus drug stuff. I know how to change industries. Whether it was the streaming industry, hdtv, you know, movies, whatever it is, any industry I've gotten into, I've managed to kind of bubble to the top and, you know, and I also know, you know, to trust smart people, to partner with people who know shit that I don't know how to, you know, how to complement my skill sets. I mean, I. Maybe I'd be too honest about the whole thing, but I think I could do a good job. But there's just no way I'm putting my family through that.

Just so that's why maybe if you had an extra 15 years in your life, you would think about it.

Um, yeah, but there's still my family. Right. And it's like. Like a lot. Yeah. I mean, with. When Clinton was president, the worst he did was try to smoke dope.

Yeah.

Right. You know, and Obama got that Hummer, too. Yeah, right. Well, yeah, but that was after the fact he was already in. Right. Yeah, but, yeah, I mean, and was.

I mean, who knows? Look, I think if you're the president. But he was married, though.

Yeah.

That was why.

Whatever it was, right?

Yeah.

You know, to get elected, all you had to do is say, I didn't inhale. Right. Now. Shit's totally different now.

Yeah. Shit's way different.

You know, you got pictures. Yeah. Your kids were here. You were there doing this, doing that.

It would put your family through.

Brutal. Yeah, brutal.

So that's a big reason. Really. Do you think that keeps a lot of people out of it?

Yeah, for sure.

Wow.

For sure. It is.

It's a scrutiny. It's that media scrutiny that they look at.

Kamala, right? She was 30 years old. Fucking a dude. Older, right. Or young. She's in her twenties.

Montel Jordan or so whatever, right.

Just having fun. If it was me and you, we'd be like, let's go party with Kamala. Montel. Right. Let's go. Go. Let's go. Right? And now, you know, all the shit she goes through, and that's not bad. Right? But imagine that, you know, she doesn't, you know, and even, like, her stepdaughter, the one who was a little bit, you know, that has all the tattoos and shit that they were giving shit to.

I haven't seen her.

Yeah.

Only wait, I did see her. Yeah. They gave her shit because.

Yeah.

Like, how she looks.

Yeah. Tats and everything and all that and whatever, right? I don't remember all the detail.

Yeah. Remember the Baron Trump stories came out. He has autism. He has whatever. You're like, what are you talking?

But I will tell you this. When I went to the White House to visit Donald, you know, he was rambling around.

He talks when he was in office.

Yeah. Unless, like, 2019. He was like, da da da da da da da. And we were talking, trying to talk about healthcare, but he went off in a bunch of different stuff. He goes, are you still on that show, shark? Whatever. I'm like, yeah. He goes, Baron loves that show. I'm like, tell Baron. And he goes, that's his favorite show. I'm like, tell Baron thanks. And then I'm walking out, he goes, wait. I'm like, what? He goes, that suit looks really good on you. That's who he is, right? He's gonna give compliments like that and shit like that.

Yeah. Um, what was I going to. Oh, let's, I want to talk about your, your, the drug companies.

Hospicedrugs.com dot.

Okay. Because, yeah, one of the toughest things is that people pay more. Well, first you, you tell me what's the best order for this, because we talked about, like, the insurance, the scam that goes on between hospitals and insurers and regular people. And then can you explain that to me? And then tell me how your drug.

How the company helps, where we fit in all that.

Okay.

Okay. So there's insured. Well, it's the best way to explain it. There's drugs that you take, and then there's what they call providers, the hospitals you go to. Right.

Okay, so the hospitals you go to is the provider.

Provider, right. And then there's the payers, which are the insurance companies. And the insurance companies try to do deals with the providers, but they're not always up and up. It's not the providers. It's just the insurance companies have all the leverage because they have the money, and hospitals are just trying to get all the business that they can get. There's all these games and arbitrages that are played over and over and over again. But what I think people don't realize is almost everybody with health care, like, where do you get your health care? Or do you just self pay or do you have insurance?

I have health insurance through. Do you know, I'm not sure, but it costs $400 a month.

Okay, so it's probably the ACA, right, the Obamacare. Right. But you have a deductible. Right. And let's just say for the shits and giggles, that's $2,000 deductible for the hospital. Even though this insurance company is going to pay anything above 2000, you're responsible for that $2,000. Right. And the hospital, like, is already not going to get paid on 50% of deductibles. And so that's why you get a lot of this bad debt. The insurance companies don't pay for the whole thing, and they plan everything so they don't have to pay for the whole thing. And that creates a lot of medical debt. And so there's a lot of medical.

Debt that the hospitals owe that no.

That the individuals with the deductibles.

I see what you're saying.

Right. Because they can't afford to pay their deductible.

Got it.

Right. And so, you know, you have some disease and you can't afford your deductible, which is 2000, it doesn't matter that it covers above 2000. Right. Because you can't pay the first 2000. Right. So that puts, that puts people in a lot of fucked up situations and even hospitals, the providers, in bad situations, because a big part of their revenue isn't getting paid. Right. And here's the insurance company not giving a fuck. Right. They're just saying, that's your problem, not mine. Right, right. I'll pay you what I think I owe you, maybe. Right. And so all that, the insurance companies put pressure on the hospitals, the providers, the doctors, and the doctors then put pressure on the patients. That's where it's all fucked up. Right. And so what we're pushing for with the Harris campaign and in general is a lot of that happens because there's no transparency. Nobody knows what the contract is with, between the insurance company and the hospitals. Nobody knows what the contract is between the insurance company and your employer. And so as a result, the biggest companies have the most leverage and can fuck with everybody.

Yeah.

And that's where things go bad. So what I'm saying is if you make every insurance contract and provider contract public, then all of a sudden people can understand just the power to the patients.

You familiar with them?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's a group out there called power to the, that lobbies for price that you have to know how much an MRI costs when you go to get it.

Right.

So that, that way if the hospital says the MRI costs $700 and the one down the streets gonna have to say it cost 650 or gonna have to start compete.

Right.

And they're gonna have to start to compete.

Right.

And there's an executive order that says they have to do that.

Right.

And that was a good thing that Trump did, but it wasn't enforced by the Biden administration.

Well, because the penalty is only like, a day.

So you'd rather pay the penalty.

Right, right. And so, like, I funded a study that had people call the hospitals to see if they can get those cash prices.

Yeah.

Right. And a lot of them didn't even know. A third of them didn't even know what the cash prices were. Right.

Wow. So they're not being instructed.

It's not. Yeah, they just don't know. Right. Because that's not they don't care. That's not a big part of their business, right? They want to get all the money from the insurance companies. So anyways, circling around to what we do, right? So I got a cold email just like Thomas, the pizza guy. I got a cold email from a guy named Doctor Alex Oshmayansky. And he said that there are a lot of generic drugs that were in short supply and kids can't get their medicine and this and that. And I'm like, well, what can we do about that? And he's like, well, I want to do this thing called a compounding pharmacy where we can make those drugs, right? And so he's like, you wanted to.

Start a compounding pharmacy so you guys.

Can make those drugs that are in short supply? I'm like, that's a cool. But it's not thinking big enough. So I'm like, let me look at the pharmaceutical industry and the drug industry and see why so many people can't afford them and what's going on. So I looked at it and it was really obvious really fast that there's no transparency, right? Because nobody, you know, just like you don't know when you go in, you know, for your MRI, like doctor says, theo, you need this medication. You have no clue what the price is going to be. The next question always, what pharmacy are you using? Right? They're not saying can you afford it or anything, right? So we decided to create this company called costplusdrugs.com. and if you go to costplusdrugs.com and put in the name of a medication, we don't have them all. We have about 2500. We'll show you our cost, our actual cost that we actually pay for it. And then we mark it up 15%. And then there's $5 shipping and handling to send it to, and then $5 for our pharmacy, or if you pick it up locally, it's $12.

So the pharmacist makes money. And because of that, because that transparency and only marking up 15%, our prices are dramatically lower. And when the insurance companies are trying to rip people off, like there's a drug called imatinib, and if you don't come to us or some of the better pharmacies, smaller pharmacies, you might get charged $2,000 a month. For us, it might be $21 a month. I had a buddy who takes his drug droxodopa, and I didn't know what the fuck it was, right? A friend of ours emailed me and said, landon can't get this because. Yeah, I don't know what. It sounds like a drug, right?

Sounds like a free safety problem.

And so he was like, he can't, you know, he lost his insurance and they're gonna charge him $10,000 every three months. I'm like, that's crazy. Crazy. So I'm like, let me see what we can get it for. And go ahead and go to cosplostrugs.com and put in Droxodopa and $64 for the three months. Yeah, you don't need to show that part. Yeah, yeah. So go to see all medications and then droxy, dopa. Now it's dollar 14.

Put some nicorette on there, dude, you sell the lights out of it, it drops it up as now it's $14. So you guys, because you're able to make the drugs yourself?

No, we. We're able to buy them in volume and because we only mark them up 15%.

Well, why doesn't our own government do that to help us?

Well, they're starting to now. But see, the problem was we publish our prices and we put out a price list before we came along. Nobody else did.

So you're creating the fact that other people are now going to have to do that, right?

So now people see our prices and they're like, okay, millions of people are just going to costplusdrugs.com, right? And the doctors are like, fuck, drugs are dope. For $14 instead of this other place wanted 3000 plus a month, we're going to cost drug.

Are all your drugs cheaper?

I'd say 99% of them are, yeah. Every now and then there's one where we're not cheaper, but every time we get, as our volumes go up and our prices go down, we pass it on. So literally we've lowered our prices on every weekday since last August. I guess it's been over a year now. We've lowered our prices. We've had some drug that has come in that we've been able to lower the price on.

Wow.

So anybody out there? You, your mom, your dad, your aunt, your uncle, your grandparents? Right? Whatever drug you take, if you're paying, you know, more than $15 out of pocket, go to costplusdrugs.com, put in the name of it and see if we're cheaper. I mean, literally, it's crushing it, right?

That's all it does. That's all it takes to check it out. Just to go there and do it.

You just, you just do it. Right. Like, if you have a deductible, we might be cheaper than your deductible, and it's cheaper to pay cash with us.

Now, can people run into problems, say, if they're not supposed to get certain drugs, is it easier to get those drugs through you guys?

No, no, no. You still have to have a prescription work assets or. No, no, no. We don't do any controlled substances.

Okay.

Yeah.

Huh. Wow, man. But how does our government. How does the government allow you to be able to do that?

Well, they can't stop me. Right, because it's just free market stuff. There's.

They, like, glad that it's happening.

No, they like it. Right. So now I'm talking to the Harris campaign, and I'm saying, look, if we just do this transparency, you guys can buy the same way we do, right? And so there was a thing from the FTC who went after all these things, called these pharmacy benefit managers, and just threw them under the bus and sued them. But they used our prices, right.

Now, there's research in the lawsuit.

Yeah, yeah. There's research from, like, Vanderbilt and Harvard saying if the government of Medicare bought at our prices, they would save billions of dollars a year. Right. I mean, literally, immediately, if some. There's people out there that are struggling with their prices, what they pay, they switch to us, they're gonna save a fuck ton of money.

And they can just do that. But it's their own choice. They don't need their doctor's approval.

Well, they need to get a prescription.

To send you a prescription.

Right. You still need to.

But the doctor doesn't determine where. They just usually say what your local pharmacy.

Right. And you just tell. Right. And so you just say, you know, send it to cost plus drugs. Calm.

Yeah.

So in the system that the doctors use to create the prescription, it lists us there and they just click on it and it's easy.

Wow.

Yeah. No, it's insane. It's insane. Like, literally, we only started June. I mean, January 19 of 2022. So we've only been around a little bit more than two and a half years, and we're just changing everything.

Is it publicly traded or.

No, no, no. It's private. I funded the whole thing because I don't want to have to worry about making people money.

Yeah.

Right. Because we're losing money now. Not that much, actually now, but it's more important for me to fuck things up. Right. And.

Oh, so you like the fact that you're changing the industry. Yeah, I love that.

No, no, because to me, that's always the most fun, right? So you got all that. I mean, the healthcare industry, right? If you know, what's the one thing you want to go down in history for? I fucked up the healthcare industry, right? I made it so people could afford their, their health care, their medication. And so, you know, that's what we're doing with pharmaceuticals and medications. We're also working on cost plus wellness, which will deal with and kind of push out those insurance companies because most people like get their health care through their employer. And most employers, particularly the big ones, self insure, meaning they pay for all the costs out of pocket and they don't realize how the employers, the CEO's of those companies don't realize how badly they're getting ripped off. And so we're out there working on new programs now so that those employers will figure it out. We're starting with my companies and then we'll extend it out to other companies. Companies.

Yeah. It's just crazy that I feel like it just needs overhauls of things, you know, it's not that hard.

This is like, this is the easiest industry I've ever disrupted. Because all we had to do is publish our price list, right. Because everybody else was hiding everything. Right? You talked before about shit happening behind the scenes.

Yeah. Cuz you go into the doctor, you go into the hospital, you sign something that says, I'm gonna pay whatever you, whatever you want.

Yeah, for sure.

And you assume they're gonna charge you the amount that, the fairest amount because they are hospital, they're supposed to take care of you.

You would think so, right?

And then they don't. They charge they want.

Yeah, whatever they can.

But why do they do that?

Because they're getting fucked by the insurance companies.

Got it.

Right. And they know that if you complain about the price, they'll reduce it.

Right, so. But then you have to, you're already sick now you have to spend with all this 17 of your life, right.

Dealing with that shit, arguing with.

With someone who's been trained how to argue against you.

Exactly, exactly. Right.

That's another country. Most of the time it's here. A lot of medical billing is here.

Yeah.

But then you know if you're calling in.

Yeah. And it's over there. Yeah, for sure.

Then they feel whore. Then the person arguing against you, the person who the employee feels horrible because they know that they're.

They're fucking you over.

They're fucking you over. But they're just trying to make money.

Right. The hospital has to have way too many employees to deal with the insurance company. And the insurance company says, okay, we know this is what we're supposed to owe from when Theo took his kid in there, right, but we're not going to pay you the full amount. If you don't like that, sue us. And then they sue them. So now they have to have a shitload of doctors. Right. So what we're saying is we're going to these places and say we're going to do a contract, we're going to do just cash, right? So there's no fucking around with the insurance companies, and we're going to publish all the contracts so that everybody can compare notes and figure out the best way to do it.

Yeah, well, that was, I mean, there was an executive order that said that they have to do that, but it's not being enforced.

Well, they do a little bit, but like, like we said earlier, they, not.

At a level where it's helping, where people are like, they should have a commercial, the government should buy a commercial every week that runs a hundred times that says right now you have to foe. Trump administration announces historic price transparency requirements to increase competition and lower health care cost.

They said. So they said, I think for a hundred of the most.

Something not good that Trump did.

No, it's good. No, I'm not saying Trump did everything bad. Right, but this is one of the good things he did. But yeah, this is one of the things. I think the, back then it was a hundred of the top services. Now it's 500, I think, and it'll grow in. It's growing.

That has to do it.

Right.

But how do we enforce it that it's not being enforced?

Well, so it's not so much enforcing that. Right. Because if they put up shitty prices, it doesn't matter. If you show prices that are too expensive for everybody, you know, it doesn't matter. And so you want to be able to have the whole, the whole contract published so that everybody who's responsible for paying not only sees that price, but how it got to that price. And then people can create software and apps and this and that. That can truly help you. Because most people do have some kind of insurance, right? Like, only 11% of people don't. Or they have high deductible plans. And if you have a high deductible plan, you don't quite know what you're going to end up paying out of pocket anyways. Even if they tell you that it's only 750 for the MRI or 250 for the MRI. Right. So that's that's an important part of it, but it's that much of it.

Yeah. It's just interesting. It's just tough that you have to figure out how am I getting screwed all the time?

Brutal. It's brutal. But that's the opportunity for me. Right.

Because. Paul Rivera, pills. Will, a couple quick questions before you get out of here, man. Why did you sell the Mavs? Just so people know.

Kids. It was time. More time with my family. It was just, you know, and the fact that to compete, which probably was as important to family, in order for me to compete, you got to generate more revenues. And when it was technology and media, I knew that shit cold, but now it's like building casinos, building, you know, you see what happens with the Titan stadium and all the shit they put around it, right? That's not me. I'm not a real estate, and I don't want to have to learn. I don't want to have to put up $2 billion to figure out if I'm doing it right or not. And so I brought in a great partner, Patrick Dumont and the Adelson family, who are big Trump supporters, and so they're just better at it than I am. And so I thought that put the Mavs in a better position, and it didn't suck that I got all that money.

Oh, selling it, you mean? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's still on 27%, and I'm still involved, so.

Got it.

It's a win win.

Was there another team that you wanted to buy recently? What about a WNBA?

No, not really, because it was more about just spending more time.

So that's just another.

Yeah, because there's a lot of pressure. Right. Because if I want to do it, I want to win. Right. And I still, like I said, on 27% of the Mavs.

Right. That's fun.

Yeah, that's still big time.

That's enough fun.

Yeah.

How much did you pay in fines during your NBA time?

Three, four, 5 million. I have no idea.

What was your biggest fine?

Um. Fucked. I think it was $600,000. So I grew up, like I told. Grew up in Pittsburgh, and my biggest basketball crush was Julius Irving. Doctor J. Right. And so he had me. Oh, wait, was. Oh, that was. You know, that was bigger. Right. Okay. So we rested these guys.

750.

Yeah. So I forgot about this one. And so the end of two seasons ago, we weren't going to make the playoffs, and we rested our best play players, and even though every other team had been doing it, they fucked with me. And fined me for 750 grand.

Damn. Because why? Because fans are coming. The best players should be on the court.

No, not necessarily. I mean, because, like, when a team is bad, they will do what they can to get a better draft pick because that's how you're going to get good. So we weren't going to do it, and they said we waited too long. Right. Like, other teams might tank halfway through the season. They might tank three quarters the way. But because we did it with three games left, they thought that was wrong. I was pissed when I got that one duty.

I would have been. Jesus Christ. I'd have been pissed and sleeping outside because I won't. I would. Yeah. I would've been living outside then. Was there one player you always wanted to get that you couldn't get?

I mean, I was like, Shaq. My guy Shaq was like, come get me. Come get me. Yeah. I have a house in Dallas. Come get me. I tried Shaq.

Oh, that have been fascinating, having Shaq over there. I've heard you talk about crypto a lot. Do you think it's a big part of our future, or do you not.

Think it can be? I think we don't know for sure yet.

Okay.

I think on one hand, bitcoin is like the new gold, right. Because it's easy to own. It's easy to use apps to deal with it and everything. And I think that's a huge plus. As opposed to gold where you've got. It's just more difficult to deal with. And ain't nobody going to carry a brick of gold. Right. If shit hits the fan.

Yeah.

Right. What are you gonna do? Hey, this is my gold, you know, not gonna work.

So brothers might actually. Dude, I know one of my dogs.

Oh, really?

Oh, yeah. I know a couple dogs rolled around a brick maybe, but, yeah. But it's just gonna create controversy.

Different kind of brick. I'm talking about gold.

But, yeah, people would be trying to attack you for it.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. So. So I see bitcoin is having a good future, right? I think for all. There's a lot of good reasons. I think Ethereum and some of the other ones are dependent on the applications built around them. So, like, there's Defi, which is as a real place, so that people can easily trade, borrow, loan money and make some money or save, you know, borrow money. I think that's been around a while, and that works okay. But it's kind of a stable app. But we really haven't seen that app. That's like the Instagram app. Right. Like when. When iPhones first came out or the App store first came out. Right. There was no one app. Right. Then Instagram came along, Snapchat came along, and then the app store blew up. Right. There was apps, apps, apps, apps. We haven't seen that one app that everybody has to use.

Yeah. Not for. Yeah. For crypto. And when that happens, it'll make it a lot more common.

Right.

It's a great point. I really thought about that. What's something on the radars that nobody's seeing right now? People are talking about AI and ozempic prices and, you know, women selling illegal ozempic outside of vineyard vines and all kinds of stuff. Yeah. It's happening and people are talking about the border and politics and. But what's something that you think it's on your radar? That's like a big issue that nobody's talking to about.

I think it's more AI than people realize. Yeah, yeah. I think AI is gonna go a lot further. I mean, as processing speeds go like that and the capabilities of AI go like that, the context wins. All this other bullshit. Do you have. You have a kid?

I don't have any children.

No. I thought you.

I will have one one day, but I don't have it.

Yeah.

I gotta get a wife.

Yeah. First things first, right. Yeah. And so, like, if. If you just had a kid tomorrow, let's just say, right, and you start collecting all the videos and pictures and things, and over time it turns into emails and texts. You're gonna put that all in AI. And your little kid, when he's seven, eight years old, is gonna have, you know, an invisible friend. That's an AI. It's some crazy shit that's going to.

Oh, because it'll be all the information you'd want him to know.

Yeah, exactly. Right, right. And can talk to you when you're not there, instead of them just going on Instagram or whatever, Snapchat. It's gonna be like.

Like you could be. So, say, you could take like a. Say there was like an orb that went into your child's room. Like an actual thing you plugged in, like a thing, a fixture. And you could load in through AI, like, put in these 20 books. This orb should have this knowledge.

Yeah. It'll be somebody that looks like a somebody.

Oh, I see. We're saying. So a actual figure could be a hologram.

Yeah.

Of someone. And if my child has any questions, they can ask.

And now fast forward 40 years where you're taking all the stuff about the child. Right, right.

And so that information as well, so he'll know how to best relate to.

The child or things. He remembers all. Every memory.

I remember when we were at the park, right.

Or, you know, tell me, when was that time I went with dad to him, there he is, right? And then when he hits 80 and dies, or 100, let's say, and dies, right. You've got that. That fake Joe little Joey, right, who just died and lives forever. It's gonna be insane.

So you'd be able to literally, as you're laying in bed at night, you could turn your grandparents on, on the wall through some sort of projector machine.

And talk to them. Still there. Wow. Hologram. Yeah, it's gonna be insane.

Was there ever. I had an invention, dude, did you ever have an invention that you wanted to get done, but you never had the time?

Not really, cuz I'm not that creative.

Really.

Yeah, I'm creative business wise. But what's your, what's yours?

I used to think that they, like 15 years ago I started thinking, well, what if they had a. On your dashboard, you could put in something like a cd or something and under your dashboard, a hologram, the band would perform on your dashboard.

It'd be a little bit of a distraction, but it's actually be so different.

You can make it over by the passengers. But imagine if like that shit now.

You can do that shit.

I'm just want. That was one thing I thought. And then I thought that they had a dog collars that. Cuz there's a dog that kind of howls behind my house a lot. If you could synchronize them, you get the neighborhood regional, you get them all the same color. And that's a cool idea. They synchron. It makes them put that together.

Come on. Shark tank then.

But organized like, you know, you could. They would do it like, you know.

Where he's at by the. So that's cool, right? So if you have like that dog.

And another dog down the street, the collar would have them both how at the same time. So you would have almost like the.

Whole, like a little symphony of dog.

Symphony.

That's funny as fuck.

Yeah, you do that regionally. So you say you're on their porch, I relaxing with your wife, you're sitting there in the swing and you could just put program a little, you know, some Beethoven and all the hounds started, right. Heating up. Yeah. Oh, that was a thought that I had right before you go, what's. If there's a young guy who's out there. What's, what's the best advice you would look back and honestly give yourself? I know it's such a generic question, but we have a lot of young men on listen to our podcast who are curious about what something they can do to hedge their bets for the future and to best take care of themselves.

Like, you know, I think, like, I was the same way. Like, you always think, oh, this is not the job, right. You know, this is not where I want to be. And I got fired or quit or did a bunch of jobs, right. And I think if I were going to do that again, I would try to be a lot. I try to be really good at all those jobs, right. Because, a, when you get really good at something, that opens up doors for you, right. Even if you're flipping burgers, right. If you're, if you're the best at it, someone's gonna recognize it, right. And if it's not the boss you have right there, and then, like, dude fires you or whatever, you're gonna. You're still gonna be good for the next one, right?

100%.

And when you learn how to be good at something, then you can learn how to be good at other things, and then, because the hard part really, is finding something you'd love to do that you can be great at, right. Because you never thought you'd be doing podcasting, right?

No.

And you're great at it. But once you find it, right, that's when the shit happens.

Yeah. Yeah. It took me years to figure it out.

It takes all of us years to figure it out. Right. You know?

Right. And give yourself some grace that you're figuring it out.

Like, you don't have to figure out shit when you're 1819. 2021, 22. You don't know shit.

Just don't get somebody pregnant.

Right. Right. Don't get thrown in jail. Get some. Yeah. Don't do shit that's gonna, you know, hold you back. Right. But, you know, and then I'd add, be curious. Right. Because the more you learn, the more doors open up for you. Be agile. Right. Be able to, you know, Bob and weave when shit hits you. Right. Because it's going to, you know. And again, if you just can find something you can be really good at, no matter what it is, nobody quits anything.

They're really good at that great line.

Because that, that's when you get that satisfaction. I'm the best motherfucking whatever it is, right. And somebody's going to want to pay me because I'm the best yeah, yeah.

And somebody will in a lot of. Yeah. Like, because once you start having employees, you start looking for better employees in different spots. And then I bet it becomes a problem, people trying to poach your employees. Does that ever happen?

Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. Then you just got to, you know, try to connect with them better. And, I mean, look, I'm horrible at hiring people, and so I always try to get somebody who's good at it because I'm. I'm a softie. Right, Theo? Yeah. It's, you know, you. Theo sells me on why you want. You'll be great, Theo. And. Yeah, you know.

Yeah, I heard you say an interview one time. You said, get on the job, learn it for three months, do the. Be the best fucking person at it. And then at six months, if you are the killer at it, it might have been a sales job, but go into your boss and say, I need a percentage. Do this.

Fuck yeah. Right?

So you think it's a good strategy? It's good. It's just good to have that mindset. If you work hard, you can something, you can figure it out.

And if you can learn to sell, you always have a job selling so hard. It's not, though. Like, I was, like, I started selling when I was like twelve years old.

Oh, yeah, then you have it.

Yeah. And I always looked at it like, okay, I'm just trying to help somebody. Whatever, whatever I got. Like, I sold garbage bags door to door. I sold magazines and I remember, you know, theo, look, I'm selling you this, all these five magazines for $10 a month. You know, when you tell your wife you spend $10 a month on the education and enjoyment of your entire family, that puts them in. In a position to get better grades at school, you know she's going to thank you for it. Yeah, sign that shit up. Right. So if you just look at it as helping somebody.

That's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. If you don't think of it as I'm selling, if you believe in what you're selling to, probably that sure helps.

Right? But you can.

You should sell a full Alphabet up to people in Pittsburgh, dude, because they're only using half of it up. There's people up there only using half of it. Um, rumor you wanted to buy Fox News. Is that gonna.

No, that was all bullshit, right? Yeah. Somebody asked me, um. Um, if you could, would you buy x or, um. Or Fox News? I'm like, I can't afford it, but if I could, I would, but, yeah, I'm not trying. Now, that's bullshit.

There's. There's a rumor that you wanted to build an entire city in Dallas. Like a new city from scratch.

No, no, I bought a city. Oh, you bought a town called Mustang, Texas. If you got any ideas, they'll bring them on.

Really? You got a whole city over there?

I got a whole town. It's not a city's town. It's got, like, no people, right. But it's, like 75 sq. Mi or acres, rather. And I got it. A dude I played basketball with was dying of cancer and said that his only real asset was this town. It's the only personally owned town in the country. In the state, and one of the few in the country, and, like, old, old friend. And I'm like, okay, Marty, I'll buy it from you. So it was, like, $1.9 million. So now I own my own town. One of my other basketball buddies is, like, the mayor and goes down there and keeps it up to date and everything. So if you got any ideas, people live there.

It's him down.

It's pretty much empty.

It is?

Yeah. There used to be a strip club that burned down, and then we tore all that down. Wow.

Do you lease it out for movie sets right now?

I would, but I haven't really tried. Right.

You got to get it figured out.

Yeah.

Wow. Okay. I'm gonna keep that in mind. What would I do with a dang town? I don't know. It's your daughter's birthday coming up.

You coming up? Yeah. Yes.

How old is she gonna be?

21. No, 21 in Nashville. It's gonna be brutal.

Do you feel a responsibility to throw a big party for her?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's where I'm taking advantage of. You know what I can take advantage of. So it's a little bit spoiling her, but she deserves it.

Is she? Which something you really love about her.

She's just got a great spirit. She's feisty as hell. She's smart, she's loving, and she's got a sense. She's got a sarcastic sense of humor. So she's always giving me shit. Right.

Which is cool, that, yeah, somebody's got to give Mark Cuban shit. Somebody's got to give us all.

But that's what they say. That's what my kids always say. Someone's got to give you shit. So that's all they do, is give me shit.

Yeah, that's. That's a pretty generic first statement, too. Like, well, it doesn't have to be you, right?

Not my family. Oh, my God. Dad, you're the worst driver. Dad, you're the worst this. Dad, you're the worst that. Oh, my God.

Oh.

See, I gotta tell you, I enjoyed this. This is totally different than any other interview I've really done. Yeah.

Oh.

Really enjoyed it. Yeah.

Yeah. Well. Well, it's cool to hear that you like being a dad, Mark.

Yeah, I love it.

Yeah. I appreciate it. Mark Cuban. Thank you so much for your time.

Thanks, Theo. Really appreciate it. Cornerstone oh, but when I reach that ground I'll share this piece of my life out I can feel it in my bones but it's gonna take a little.