He Survived a Heart Attack While Running His Company | Bobby Mesmer | DSH #1851

I would love to have a conversation with Jesus, you know, just because he was so purposeful in his time. You know, like when you read about him in the Bible and this and that and, you know, just not because I want anything. I just want to hear what you have to say, you know, because if you can be as justanchalant as he was in life, yeah, I feel like there's, you know, like that's what we're all aiming for, right? That peace. all right guys the Adi Mazmer here a fellow from New Jersey awesome great to be here absolutely first time in Nashville right first time we're in Nashville right now well technically Brentwood right yeah so we were just talking catching up absolutely how are you liking it so far it's only in a couple hours I love it now the people I met have been great everyone seems to be community focused which I like and buddy yes sir there people indoors don't be getting used to in New Jersey no you're getting total healthy in Jersey you know you're a North Jersey boy and I'm a South Jersey boy. We don't get that in South Jersey either. Yeah. Not in the, uh, the garden statement, angel, garden friendly over there. That's for sure. Yeah. How long were you out in Jersey for? Uh, I was born and raised there. So yeah, born and raised in, uh, Seattle County, New Jersey. Um, uh, my, one of my main offices is in, uh, Austin County. It's a soul area. And, uh, so we just decided my family and I, uh, are, I guess about a year ago, um, we actually officially moved down here to the national area. we're loving it it's just you know the energy the vibe this everything you talk about no it just makes it makes it comfortable things happen to me yeah it's on your entrepreneur journey journey did that start in jersey it did yeah um my uh so i grew up my father owned his own business for like four years and so um i grew up in that family business put me to work when i was a kid worked summers and weekends and um so i started my my business back in 2000 so 24 years ago and it started there and just kind of expanded. And now we're, you know, what do we have? Four offices, a soul in Montana, a soul in New Jersey here in Franklin, Tennessee, and another one in Costa Rica. Wow. And you're approaching a billion dollars in the next two or three years? We are. Approaching a billion dollars with a $4.5 billion valuation. And, you know, going to continue to grow on that and look for a sale and continue to the entrepreneurial journey and helping people and consulting and, you know, buy businesses and see what else I can do, you know, whether or probably I can get into it. Yeah. No, I love that. So did your father do the same industry as you? Did he teach you the ropes to all this? He taught me the business side of it. He didn't really teach you this industry, right? My father, his company was a masonry construction company. And so a different business. I'm in the steel business. So different business, but it's still in the structural world. But I learned a lot from business from it. But old school business, right? Like, you know, you go back to, you know, to old timers that done this business, Everything was done with spitting your hand and a hand shipper. And that was your contract because your contract was your word. Nowadays, it's different. I still try to do business that way to a certain extent, understanding the concept that I still have to be in the contract world and understand that. But integrity is everything. Integrity is what I push on. And at the end of the day, when I say it, it's going to get done, it gets done. How tough was it to penetrate the steel business? Because that industry has been around for a while. So a lot of old timers, like you said, right? Yeah, a lot of old timers. Um, uh, believe it or not, the, the business segment that we work in is a very specialized segment. We work in the pre-engineered side. Um, and, uh, so what that is, is, is it's your dollar generals you see popping up everywhere. I'm sure you've seen that in all the standalones, famine dollars around the Oak Park school. We do the big airplane hangers, warehouses, um, very specialized business, not a lot of people. And, and we kind of fell into it. So I started this business as a very large general contractor doing federal municipal went out, tried to do an airplane hanger, couldn't find an erector to erect the building for me, put the other Ativa guys that I already had working for me. We go out there, put my boots on, my tool belt and erect it. When I got done, I stood back. I'm like, shit, that's it? Like, that was easy. And then we bit a second airplane hanger on the same military base. We didn't get the job. Another product contractor got it. And he couldn't find an erector. He comes to me, asked who erected that one. And I'm like, well, we did. He goes, can I hire you to erect it? Business. There it is. Why does this sound? So you found a gap in the market. Found a gap in the market. Monopolized the land, and now we're the largest in Europe. Nice. Right place, right time. Absolutely. Yeah. And right place, right time is always a good point because, you know, you missed a boat. You never know what's going to happen. How do I not be sitting here today? Because now it's quite more competitive, right? It is more competitive, but it's still a niche business. There's still not enough of us out there. And, you know, so we're always pushing. I know for myself, I'm always pushing for people to to really get into the business. You know, like I'm a big advocate of not forcing everybody to go to college. You know, I say, yeah, I'm not saying that college is bad, but college doesn't serve a purpose for everybody. Right. You know, you get a lot of people to go to college and they don't know what they want to do. The trades are a great place to go. You know, you can make a lot of money. My average employee, my average field employee, guys working on the field make about one hundred fifty thousand dollars a year. Holy crap. Yes. So they do really well. We pay them really well. They have benefits. They have 401ks. Like they have all the stuff. So you can do really well. And then if you're a business owner, it's unlimited to what you could do. So when you're hiring employees, what are you looking for if the college isn't an important thing to you, I guess? Good attitude. Willing to travel. Willing to learn to trade and take pride in the trade you're learning. And willing to understand that when we walk away from a building, we created something. And not everybody could say that. There's a lot of pride in that. So we're just looking for the right attitude to people. And it's a great, and being that we're a national company. I don't really chase trends anymore. I just want clothes that work, feel good, and last. I've stopped buying a lot of clothes and started buying better ones. Stuff that fits right, holds up, and I actually wear. That's why I've been going with Quince. They've got basics I actually use, organic cotton sweaters, clean polos, lightweight jackets, stuff that holds up to daily wear and still looks good. The quality's solid and everything's built to last. What makes Quince different is how they do it. They work directly with top factories, cut out the middleman, and you're not paying for brand markup, just quality clothing. And they only partner with factories that meet high standards for craftsmanship and ethical production. Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Go to quince.com slash dsh for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash dsh. Now available in Canada too. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash dsh. company we're a traveling company the you know you get to see the united states you're in a different city every couple months you know different area different territory sometimes not even in a big city you're out in the middle of the way you know i got guys working up in the middle of montana four hours away from civilization you know and it's but it's beautiful country and guys come back, they're like, this is amazing. Like, you know, I don't want to leave. Yeah. So it's just about attitude. I love it. There's a lot you can learn from traveling. There is a lot you can learn from traveling. And here's what's funny. Most people don't even travel this country that we live in and don't know the beauty that's here. Right. You know, United States is an amazing place. I mean, people have actually been to the Red Rocks out in Utah and, you know, Wyoming and seen the mountains and, you know, people don't do that and they really should. And so, you know, to be in a traveling company where you have that opportunity to see the country, you know, 90% of people in this country have never seen the entire country. Yeah. When it comes to leadership, was that something you were just naturally good at or did you have to get good? I think I had a knack for it. I think a lot of people are born with a certain knack for leadership. They're driven to lead people. I think there's leaders and followers. And so that's a belief of mine. But I think that you also learn through adversity and through your mistakes. and I got flannel art for so long. Do you think it's something that could be teachable being a leader? If you don't have the knack for it, no. No. Because again, being a leader, you can't be afraid of making decisions. You can't be afraid to take risks. And that's the difference. Too many people want to be a leader, but they don't want to take the risks. They want to be a decision maker. They think too much about decisions. And sometimes in a fast-paced world, you got to quit, right? And so I think that it's not something that if you don't inherently have that within you, then I don't think that you're going to be – you may be able to be a leader to some extent, but you're never going to be able to be a large capacity leader. Yeah. I think you can learn certain things, but I still think you're going to be lacking. Do you feel that way about entrepreneurs also, entrepreneurship in general? I do. I look at last year. Just go out and Google how many companies, startups went bankrupt in 2004. And these are companies, these are people that are entrepreneurs that had an idea that went out there and took hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital and that they had basically a good idea, but they're bankrupt now. Why? Why? Because you lost focus in the leadership. Just because you have a good idea doesn't mean you have the ability to implement and create the operations to implement the idea. Right. That VC bubble would nuts. It's crazy. I agree. It's crazy because everybody wants the big hit, right? And including all the VC companies. They want that big hit and they believe in it. But then you take companies like mine who are what they consider high risk. I ain't back groped. You know what I mean? But they're running around. They're like, oh, you want $300 billion? Here you go. and 12 months later, they're bankrupt. And I'm like, give me $300 billion and let me, give me $300 billion, I'll turn it into $10 billion, you know, like easily. But they won't. And so it is a crazy market. That's interesting. So it's still considered high risk because of the injury potential? Injury potential. Construction industry is high risk. Most banks don't want to play in the construction industry because of, you know, the ups and downs of the market. You know it people don pay the bills contractors don pay their bills GCs don pay us I consider the sub developers you know there all sorts of adversity around this Until you get to be really big and create a tremendous amount of cash flow and have a lot of cash on hand, then they want to deal with you. But at that point, in my opinion, it's too late. You could go pout and sand. I don't want to deal with you now because what do I need you for? I got millions of dollars in the bank. Interesting. I didn't know it was that type of an insert. It is. I had to bootstrap my entire company. Wow, no funding, no funding. Zero funding, zero credit line, zero private equity, zero venture capital, nothing from the start. And I got to where I am via bootstrapping. And it's taught me a lot. It's made me a better business person. It's made my company stronger. We're a zero debt company and we finance all of our own stuff. Do I have a relationship with a bank? Yes, I do. uh is it a is it a relationship where i have a 10 million dollar credit line no because i don't need it because i finance everything on my own and and it's a little bit of adversity on my side too because because i look at those banks and i remember all then turning me away when i really needed them when i needed to make payroll and i wasn't getting paid and they're turning me away now when they come to me i'm like you kiss my ass i like i like now i don't want shit you know or i'll roll into the ringer and i make them i get them up to a point i'm like you know i changed when I, they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, yeah, well, remember when you wasted my time? Yeah, yeah. How's it feel? So you hold some grudges? In that respect, yeah. Would it you? I would. I try not to, but it's tough. Yeah. I think sometimes it can perk you, you know what I mean? It can. I think if once you're in the FU position, which again, you're never really there, but in my mind, I feel like I'm kind of bigger there, yeah. I say like 50 million plus FU money. Probably. Yeah, because it's earning you two and a half million a year. Yeah, you know, an interest on a simple, on a simple, you know, investment 5%. So yeah, I would agree with that because now you can pretty much name what you're doing. Right. Shout out to today's sponsor, Quince. As the weather cools, I'm swapping in the pieces that actually gets the job done that are warm, durable, and built to last. Quince delivers every time with wardrobe staples that'll carry you through the season. They have fall staples that you'll actually want to wear like the 100% Mongolian cashmere for just $60. They also got classic fit denim and real leather and wool outerwear that looks sharp and holds up. By partnering directly with ethical factories and top artisans, Quince cuts out the middleman to deliver premium quality at half the cost of similar brands. They've really become a go-to across the board. You guys know how I love linen and how I've talked about it on previous episodes. I picked up some linen pants and they feel incredible. The quality is definitely noticeable compared to other brands. Layer up this fall with pieces that feel as good as they look. Go to quince.com slash DSH for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. They're also available in Canada too. Dave Ranty would love your business, mom and no dad. Oh yeah. He's a big advocate for that. His building's actually not far from here. He's up there. Yeah. He lives over in Franklin. His building is, I pass his building every day on my way home for work. And I look at his building and it's funny because I'm like, I want that building. You know, one day I'm going to buy that building. Is he old it? Or is he ready? I think he owns the whole complex. Yeah. And it's a nice building. Like it's like two, like six story buildings connected by like a breezeway in the middle. And then he just built some new entertainment or some kind of marketing building in the back. It's actually really pretty. Yeah. Isn't that what I don't agree with his philosophy? I study him. Damn. Because he's one of the best modern designers in the world. Yeah, he's pretty good. Why don't you agree with his philosophy? I think you could take on debt personally if you are smart with it. I think for most people, you can't, but there's certain people that have a really good plan and can make an R line taking on debt. Agreed. Agreed. I think it's based on the right type of debt though, and I think that's what people miss, right? So debt is good, but the right type of debt is good, and that's what I think the gap is there. Nobody's really teaching everybody what the right type of debt can be, I'm a big advocate of not having debt, but because I'm in construction. So for me and my accountants are always telling me, they're like, wow, you got to take all debt. And I'm like, yeah, but here's the thing. When I look at it, I look at it as sustainability. So when the economy goes down and there's not a lot of work out there, now I'm a national company, so I can always fill the void, but my gross revenue is still going to come down. It allows me to continue to operate without the stress. It allows me to not have to worry about all the truck payments, all the debt payments, the jet payment. None of that matters because it's all paid off. So I can weather the storm better than the next guy who's competing with me because he has all those payments and he can't weather the storm. And now also on top of that, I look after my employees. I don't want to have to lay off people. And that allows me not to lay off people because I can weatherstorm. I have money saved. I have no deck. The money doesn't have to go to the debt first instead of payroll. And so now I keep my people on board and they get paid and everybody still has a job. So when we come out of it, we're just a strong. I don't really chase trends anymore. I just want clothes that work, feel good and last. I've stopped buying a lot of clothes and started buying better ones. Stuff that fits right, holds up and I actually wear. That's why I've been going with Quince. They've got basics I actually use, organic cotton sweaters, clean polos, lightweight jackets stuff that holds up to daily wear and still looks good the quality's solid and everything's built to last what makes quince different is how they do it they work directly with top factories cut out the middleman and you're not paying for brand markup just quality clothing and they only partner with factories that meet high standards for craftsmanship and ethical production refresh your wardrobe with quince go to quince.com dsh for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash D-S-H. Now available in Canada too. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash D-S-H. I love it. No, that's cool when you put it that way. You probably grow a little slower, but it's more safe, right? It is very much more safe. It's sustainable. You work so hard as a company to build a team around you that does what they're supposed to do, that buys in, that understands company culture, that steps in. Everybody works together. People are willing to help from department to department. Nobody's stopping and saying, well, that's their department. You work so hard for that. And then when the economy becomes something where you have to lay off, you're almost starting over because you're never going to get the people back. That's the problem. So in this particular case, I don't have to worry about that because everybody's still there. Everybody's still working and you're not retraining people constantly, which was companies do. Look at the tech companies, 3,000 people here, 5,000 people there. But now you're never going to get those people back. If when they have to go rehire, what did Google just lay off 3,000 or 5,000 people? When they get to go have to pull those people back, they're not pulling the same people. So now there's a sense of retraining that has to happen, company culture. And I think it's more difficult. Yeah. No, the training takes time. My mom works at Amazon. It's over a year to get trained. So imagine doing that. It's just on repeat. Just constantly, right? I mean, that's why most of those companies have in-house head orders who are just constantly hiring, hiring, hiring, hiring. And I understand that concept. I understand that philosophy, but I don't know that I totally agree with you. I'd rather keep the people in place because it also breeds culture from the employee base that they know that there's security. You know, I believe that if you ask any of our employees or executives down to our field employees, if you asked any of them, are you secure in your job? Are you secure with the way the company operates? I almost guarantee that they would 100% of them say absolutely. Well, because they know that we're sustainable. They know that they're not getting laid off even if the shit hits the face. Yeah, shit comes the bones. Right. They know that this is truly, it's a family. Right. And that's the idea. But at the same time, you don't want them to be too comfortable where their work productivity isn't there. Correct. But that's a matter of finding the right people. Right. Because everybody's working to take the same greater good, right? So the way around that is to elevate the people from themselves. All right. So, and I think you're probably looking at me like, what the hell does that mean? Right? What that means is, is you elevate them via performance. So I say to you, if you were for me, I say to you, look, the bar is here. Okay. This is where I'm setting the bar. You're going to look at me. You're going to be like, I can't reach that. You're probably going to get upset. You're probably going to think you're not doing a good job. You're probably going to think you're letting everybody down. All of these things. But here's the thing. I believe in you. I believe in you. That's why I said it there. You hit the bar. I believe that you can do it. I wouldn't have said it at that height if I didn't believe that you can hit it. Believe in yourself. I'm here to support you. Hit that bar. And what happens is it creates you to want to get to that level, want to hit the bar. And when you do, the gratification that you have because you didn't believe in yourself in the first place, you're like, holy shit, I can do this. Now, when I raise the bar, now it's more of a challenge. You're like, oh, yeah. Like, I'll do it. And then what happens is you're the best that you could be for you. And that's what we go for. Look, I don't need you to be the best that you can be for the company or even for me. All right. I work for the company just like you do. I want you to be the best you can be for you because by default, you are the best for the company. Wow. You first, company second. I love that. Come in, be the best you can be. Company will by default do well. And that's what breeds that culture of people wanting to do well. And then now everybody, when they buy into that and they understand it, they work towards it and they're just like, this is, and everybody just kind of steps in, you know, and does what they're supposed to do. Yeah. That's powerful. You built a really good culture and you also use we instead of I all the time. What would tell you what's the rationale for that? Because it's not about me. It's, it's about, it's about us as a group. So why are we doing this? What do we think? We will I say it to customers you know I get customers to say to me what do you got pals in your pocket You know literally they Literally I like no because it us It me as a group So if I on the phone with you let us figure this out We will figure this out. And I think when the customers hear that, the vendors hear that, the employees hear that, again, it's about making them feel like they're part of what we're doing here. It's not individualizing everything. So it's a big push to do the way. Absolutely. Now, you've gone through some stuff on that. We got to talk about this. So 2016, $3.5 million loss. Yeah. So you're in debt. In debt. Yeah. My company has always been successful over the years, but with ups and downs, right? And a loss like that will put you to your knees no matter how much money you have. So it's also a reputation situation. So you have to, you got to pull from your reputation and you got to, it's integrity. You know, you don't want that to get out there that, hey, you're not paying your bills. You're not doing this, you're not doing that. And that's what that happens there. So you're pulling money out of your pocket now and out of reserves to make sure you're cleaning that up. So the debt load on that gets larger. The reputational damage. Yeah. Well, that, but also the money, the money damage too. So it just amplifies through. So took that. And that was also at the point where we re-evaluated the company. It was right at the milestone where we were transitioning from being a GC as steel erector to just a full-time steel erector. And that transition really helped it. That transition really put us into a position that hit was, I'm a religious guy, so I believe that God did that on purpose because this was the direction that he said I needed to go. And so I look at that, I reflect on that, and I understand why I did it. And what's funny is, is I can look back for the 15, 16 years prior to that in business, and I have a clear understanding. All the things that he lined up and all the things that he did were literally, I could see the path as clear as day that lined me up to get me to that point. Wow. And so to me, that was very profound. And so, and in my reflection, I used that, I internalized it, and I re-established the company. The company is still what it was. We We basically reorganized the company. We moved the corporate to Montana. And then we just, and then we continued to move forward. I got myself back out there, put my boots back on, went to work every day, traveled with my crews and just kept building it. And so from that point to now, you know, here we are. Incredible. So what actually caused that hit, the 3.5? So it was a customer who I was doing a lot of work for on the GC side, who basically I did like four projects for. and he was like, go pound Sam, I'll pay you this. Wow. So you guys don't get paid up front of the door? Oh, definitely not. It's out there? Yeah. So it's normally through the course of the work. So it's based on, they call it percentage of completion. So if I was to build this table, so like if I put the leg on the bottom, so say that it's 25%, 25%, 25%, and then the finish is 25. So now you got 100%. So if I do that leg and I make that leg, I can bill you for 25% because that's complete. And for say it's stalled, right? And so on and so forth. So as you do a project, you have all these components to it and you're building or you're billing for those percentages to that percentage of completion. There's never a deposit. There's never money up front. So you have to fund typically, typically you fund the first 60 days of the job. Because you can't bill when you start, you bill at the end of the month. So if I started in, say, the beginning of September, like any project I start right now, I can't bill until the end of September, but they're not paying me until the end of October. So the first 60 days of any project. I don't really chase trends anymore. I just want clothes that work, feel good and last. I've stopped buying a lot of clothes and started buying better ones. Stuff that fits right, holds up and I actually wear. That's why I've been going with Quince. They've got basics I actually use, organic cotton sweaters, clean polos, lightweight jackets, stuff that holds up to daily wear and still looks good. The quality's solid and everything's built to last. What makes Quince different is how they do it. They work directly with top factories, cut out the middleman, and you're not paying for brand markup, just quality clothing. And they only partner with factories that meet high standards for craftsmanship and ethical production. Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Go to quince.com slash dsh for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince.com slash dsh. Now available in Canada too. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash dsh. project i'm funding all that out of my pocket labor material all of it and so um so basically these projects i did them very fast they were large we did it quickly and it basically put us in a position where like i wasn't even i had my first bill in we were done by our second bill but the second bill wasn't, or the first bill wasn't even paid yet. And he had the power of the pen and he was like, you know, basically F you. Wow. I can see why banks don't like this industry. Yeah. And that's what happens. And it forces you to sue. It just, it just gets messy. And it's just, it's a, it's a nasty, it's a nasty business. You know, it's a nasty business. And it's different sectors of the, of the country that make it nasty, you know, if that makes sense. So, you know, so there's areas that we just won't work at. Like, like we don't do a lot of work in New Jersey, Does the L pass? Because everybody's this company. Damn, you know. Shout out to Jersey. Yeah, shout out to Jersey, man. You know what I mean? But that's what it is. It's the reality of it. Like, and you ask any subcontractor, like, it's impossible to get paid. You know, the contractors, they take the money. They run with it. They don't pay. They drag you out. They want to pay you 90 days. And so we don't do a lot of work there just because of that. You know? That's messed up, man. People don't value their reputation these days, huh? Nobody wants to go out and break legs anymore. If there was somebody out there busting kneecaps, there'd be a lot of people paying. Probably back in the day, it was a thing. That's why people pay their bills. Seriously, I would be bothered, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I think with the Casinos in Vegas, that used to be a thing out there. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, mob red. You know, that's, you're buried in the sea. You're cutting your best. Exactly. Good alley. And then another battle on your personal life in 2021 with the health stuff, right? Yeah, the health stuff is ongoing. Out of the blue, just kind of on shock. So, yeah, 21. So, 21 was actually a multitude of things. And so a tornado hit my house in literally September 1st. In Nashville? In New Jersey. Oh, what? Yeah, there's fairly a New Jersey. Never. A tornado came through, literally hit my house September 1st. And that was like a thing. We were like, holy crap. So now we're like homeless. Well, figured it out, got all that taken care of, but over time. And then in October, so apparently I had a, they call it an episode with my heart, but apparently it was a heart attack. Um, didn't know I have it. My heart went into AFib, but I didn't know I was an AFib. Wow. Lived in AFib for literally a week. What? And on top of that, I'll even surprise you more. I was in a race car racing in Watkins, when you're while in AFib. Okay. I was sick. I probably didn't help. No, I guess it didn't. Getting your heart made up. Yeah. I was surprised I didn't die. It was with you, but yeah. So the old pain or, well, yeah, I felt the chest tightness I felt, but I thought I had a chest cold. Like I just, it just felt like a chest cold that I had before. And, um, so I was on some medicine for it, like, you know, like over the counter stuff, just thinking I had a chest cold. And finally, you know, a week later we, uh, I wake up and it was a Sunday morning. I wake up and I'm like, something's not right. And my wife scoops me up, takes me to the hospital. I check into the hospital. Like my heart rate was like 187, just sold it in there. Like I'm fitting right now. And they're like, immediately the room fills up with doctors and they're like, and I'm like, wow this is a really good hospital a lot of doctors my wife's like my wife's like this is not good but more doctors doesn't mean it's good and i'm like oh i just thought it was you know i was special or something today and so uh yeah so um they put me on a on a drip to slow down my heart rate my heart recorrected itself pumped out blood clots and then i had a massive stroke um well lost the whole left side of my body oh stroke um they put me on the tpa the clot buster medicine has its own set of problems, but that helped me out. And, um, and then, uh, so I've been good since, since that episode of 21, I was good. Um, January of this year, I went back into aphid, you know, and so I had an ablation done in March. And then just this past April, I had a, uh, had another stroke on my yacht in my eye. So my left eye, I'm actually partial blind right now. They, um, in it because I have two blood clots, one on the artery side, one on the vein side in the eye so they're still working to figure out how that happened um and actually um i'm flying up to new jersey tonight as soon as i'm done here i'm gonna head to the airport go jump on the jet and uh fly to new jersey because uh tomorrow morning i'm actually have a surgery on my nose for confused blood uh bleeding that i have oh it's not up yeah they're gonna go in and cut the arteries so yeah i'm just a walk at nasa you know you do any of this is stress and juice no it's it's it's i'm having i got stuff going on and like so i had um i last year 23 i diagnosed with ra in the advanced form which is felties which felties basically attacks your bone marrow um stops you from producing white and red blood cells so i had that going on so i'm rituxin infusion so it's just a culmination of things um believe it or not my stress level is higher when i'm not doing anything really yeah yeah it's funny because uh my uh my wife picked up on this i was One of the last times I was in the hospital and I was on the blood pressure cuff. And I'm sitting there, I'm relaxing, and I'm just watching TV and my blood pressure's hot. My phone starts ringing. I get on the phone and my blood pressure calls. That's hilarious. And she's like, you are messed up. And I'm like, what? And I'm like, you know, I find relief in doing what I do. It's the same way. I can't sit through a movie, man. I'm not at all that itchy. I get anxious. When I'm working, that's my element. There you go. But that a testament of who you are as a person right That why you successful It why you do the things that you do because you want to be great You want to aspire Okay 150 episodes in a year and a half That amazing I'm actually going to hit up Guinness because I think that might be a record. Really? I mean, I don't know anyone doing close to that. Is this 851? It's somewhere on there. I'll try. Well, I'm glad to be a part of it if you are a part of Guinness. Congratulations, man. I checked out. Yeah, that's crazy though. Do you take your physical health really seriously? I do. I do. I mean, I try to stay in shape the best I can. You know, I don't work out as much as I used to, although I'm a pretty big guy. I say that's the Polish in me. Kind of keeps me big. But, you know, I try to eat as best as I can. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. Drinking, I basically quit. So even before that, I was like, I'd have a drink on Friday night at dinner or something like that. But nothing. So, yeah, I was always very conscious of that. And now with all of this, obviously, I need to be a little bit more conscious of what I'm doing and what's going on in my life because I'm a pretty sick person with everything I have going on. Human systems compress them. I had this another thing. I just had a CAT scan on. My two arteries to my brain are compressed. They're thinking I possibly have a saccular aneurysm at the base of my skull. So they're looking for that. So we're working through that situation. So, yeah, I got so much going on. But I'm like, and everybody's like, gosh, you need to stop. Even slow down. I'm like, for what? Why? For what? What are we going to do? Sit at home and ponder on what I got going on? No. You know, I say to everybody too, and take it for what it is, but I say to everybody, like, if I can't be good for myself, how can I be good for you? It's my favorite saying, right? No. You know, like, if I can't be good for me, how can I be good for you? And so, you know, I want to be the best I can from people that I'm around and for what I'm doing and, you know, and the people I need to help or I want to help at business and in my, you know, in my social media. And, you know, I want to help people. And I can't do that if I'm not out there doing it. And I hope that people take it as an inspiration too, right? You know, take it that, you know, you could bury your head in the sand or you could get up and do something about it. And, you know, so for me, I choose to do something about it and use myself as an example to be like, look, I'm still plugging away here. And so I can't. I don't really chase trends anymore. I just want clothes that work, feel good and last. I've stopped buying a lot of clothes and started buying better ones. Stuff that fits right, holds up, and I actually wear. That's why I've been going with Quince. They've got basics I actually use, organic cotton sweaters, clean polos, lightweight jackets, stuff that holds up to daily wear and still looks good. The quality's solid, and everything's built to last. What makes Quince different is how they do it. They work directly with top factories, cut out the middleman, and you're not paying for brand markup, just quality clothing. And they only partner with factories that meet high standards for craftsmanship and ethical production. Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Go to quince.com slash dsh for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince.com slash dsh. Now available in Canada too. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash dsh. can't i'm still doing what an interesting take because most people would have these health scares and just quit true but you're leaning into it i'm very much leaning into it i i until i have to you know like you know depending on what happens with the brain stuff um i don't know if that's it's an operable it's an operable thing um it could be you know it could be fixed without major, uh, downside. Um, so if that's the route we go, I'll be right back to, you know, you mark my words day, day two, after I'm done, I'll be on my phone. You know, I'll be calling you being like, yo, what's up? Let's go. What are we doing? It sounds like you're really touched with your purpose. Um, I, I think so. I, it's come a long way for me to find that. Right. You know, um, you know, like I, you know, I talked about where God wanted to put me in my journey. And I feel like this is where he wants me now too, because I'm happy to help. I like to help people. I like to give that back, to let people learn from my experiences, take something from it. And how can I educate you to reflect on what you're doing? How can I educate you to learn yourself to say, all right, how do I not do this? Or how do I do this. Learn from my mistakes. You know, all of the downfall that you're talking about, I love to talk about because I want people to know that it's okay to fail. It's a way to have missteps. It's okay to, you know, to do wrong because how do you create purpose for yourself without it, you know? And so, and if I can inspire one person to do better or to say, I want to do what he's doing or I want to be like him or somebody who's even going through something. I talked in Philadelphia earlier this year and there was a woman who had a stroke who was there listening in the audience and she came up to me and she was, and I remember her saying to me, she started a business training dogs, but she was, because of her stroke, she was ready to quit like the business. And she got off, and when I got off stage, she hunted me down and she found me and I talked to for a minute and it was inspiring and this is what i love about it because she was like i was ready to quit stop what i'm doing because you know like i've i'm i can't recover from my stroke like she's walking with a cane like she had very much stroke condition that she's living with and she said she goes i am so inspired by the fact that you're moving forward she goes so i'm staying in it and i'll move it forward wow and and and that's that's the purpose right if i can touch that one person like that, that's the purpose. Yeah. And that's when I could stop right there. Think about the snowball effect on that. Absolutely about like 100 people. They have kids, they have families, you know. Yeah, absolutely. A thousand percent. I love that, man. A thousand percent. Yeah. I'm still figuring it out online, but I think this podcast is really on me. I don't know, man. You've got a good purpose coming on here. Yeah, that's really long. You're giving an outlet for people like me to talk and to help inspire. And you're an inspiration yourself for what you're doing. i mean i i don't know man looks to me like you got a good purpose yeah it's crazy i had three near-death experiences myself oh you're really yeah probably yeah well first one so my dad was an alcoholic and a drug addict i walked in the house one day 10 years old guns pointed at me whoa he's hallucinating you think someone's breaking in the house so that was the first one second one um i was on xanax while i was in college had some mental health problems and they didn't tell me this but when you cut taking xanax you're supposed to lean off well i just stopped completely so i had a seizure wow so that was pretty crazy you recovered 100% from that yeah i was really high on marijuana while i was having this or i cut weed completely i was a big stoner at the pond i've been sober since good for you yeah i was a big one good for you and the third one happened recently i got locked in in my tesla my battery died i almost overdeeded in vegas real hiff you didn't try to like break the window right now i try i even called the cops and they wouldn't come get out of here i swear i gotta get in that car for it it was crazy That's unbelievable. Yeah, they wouldn't come. I was locked in a parking garage. A hundred times. I can't easily, they wouldn't come. You know, get yourself one of those little window breakers, man. I need to. I think that was scary, man. I bet it will. I didn't have my phone on me. I don't know what went. How did you get out? I had to look up on YouTube. I don't manually open a Tesla door. Holy crap. Yeah, YouTube saved me. Did you talk to Elon about that? No. He's a dream guest, though. Is he? Yeah. I bet you if you hit him up on Twitter and tell him that story, I guarantee. I might. It'll be like, yeah, we need to talk about that. Yeah. You could have anyone in the world dead or alive. Who would it be? Wow. That's a really loaded question that I'm not prepared for. Deep one. Yeah, that is a deep one, you know, because I think there's so many people, right? You know, I think, you know, wow. Geez. For me, it's Ewan. Is it? Yeah. He's so brilliant. So brilliant. I mean, he's just, and I love the way he talks because he talks with such brilliance, you know? Yeah. He's stayed social media in my opinion. I agree. with the truth. Yeah. Because all my stuff was getting censored. I just stopped banning on TikTok yesterday. Did you really? I interviewed Tulsi Gabbard and- And he banned you for it? For that one. Yeah. I just can't even believe they were doing it. Yeah. What do you think about the X-Ban in Brazil? Oh, Brazil, now France, the rest of the Telegram CEO, it's looking weird in Europe or not. It's going nuts. Yeah, I think, you know, like I would love to have a 30-minute conversation with Trump. Mm. You know, just because I, he's a smart guy. Yeah. You know, take it, take everything out of it. Everybody has an opinion. He's a smart guy. He really is. And so I think, I think there's that, you know, I would, I, you know, I go back to, to, it's probably cliche, but I would say, I would say I would love to have a conversation with Jesus, you know, just to, because he was so purposeful in his time, you know, like when you read about him in the Bible and this and that, and then, and, you know, just not because I want anything. I just want to hear what you have to say, you know, because if you can be as just onshalot as he was in life. Yeah. I feel like there's, you know, like that's what we're all aiming for. Right. That that piece. Right. You know. So, yeah, I think that would be two. I'd have to think about some more. No, those are two great answers, man. I would have both on the podcast. Here you go. Bobby, it's been fun. I got a really young audience. Any inspiration or closing messages you want to leave the crowd with? Yeah. listen believe in yourself believe that you can do what you set your mind out to and just go do it don't worry about everybody else's thinking don't worry about your friends don't worry about anybody else just do it and see where it goes and take the time to reflect on what you think is a mistake and put yourself around people that know and just listen too many young people want to talk too much and outward listen to the people put yourself in a room and listen to people who have done it, listen to what they're talking about and gain knowledge. That's what I would tell. Love it. Thanks so much for coming on, man. Thanks, man. Absolutely. Thanks for watching as always. See you next time. I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with the algorithm. Thank you.