How I Turned $5M Winnings Into a Mission | Jeffrey Allen DSH #1347

Speaker 1 Next up is a little song from CarMax about selling a car your way.

Speaker 1 Wanna take a sec to think about it. Or like a month.
Wanna keep tabs on that instant offer. With OfferWatch.
Wanna have CarMax pick it up from your driveway.

Speaker 1 So, wanna drive? CarMax. Pickups not available everywhere.
Restrictions and fee may

Speaker 1 It's okay not to be perfect with finances. Experian is your big financial friend and here to help.

Speaker 2 Did you know you can get matched with credit cards on the app?

Speaker 1 Some cards are labeled no ding decline, which means if you're not approved, they won't hurt your credit scores. Download the Experian app for free today.

Speaker 1 Applying for no ding decline cards won't hurt your credit scores if you aren't initially approved. Initial approval will result in a hard inquiry, which may impact your credit scores.
Experian.

Speaker 2 Jeremy, after that one, right? Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 It's crazy. Crazy.
And it's just, I mean, it's just, it's crazy how in episode before

Speaker 1 lauding him because he turned down a million dollars.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And there was, I mean, it could have gone up to 2 million, 3 million. Jeremy wouldn't have taken it.
Wow.

Speaker 1 Because he's just the kind of guy that if you put your trust in him and you ask him to do something, he's not going to screw you over.

Speaker 2 Okay, guys, Beast Games winner here today in Las Vegas. Jeffrey, about to be a fun week for you, man.
Thanks for coming.

Speaker 1 I know. Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 You got a lot of fun stuff planned. WrestleMania, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, a little bit of WrestleMania.

Speaker 1 Then David Blaine, and then heading down south to go to, or heading over west to go to Disney.

Speaker 2 How fast has your life been changing lately?

Speaker 1 Yeah, a lot, a lot different. I mean, sitting here with you is super cool.
A lot still the same. You know, still coaching my son's baseball team, taking the kids to school.

Speaker 1 But yeah, just I, every few days, I kind of have these sprints where a podcast recording, sitting down with the TV station, whatever it may be. But life is good, man.
I love it.

Speaker 2 Does it feel kind of unreal?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know. I was sitting last night with my son in the hotel and it's just like so much to be grateful for.

Speaker 1 I mean, it truly is almost a miracle that I won and that I actually, we get to do other things my wife and I wanted to do for our family. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And you got a great head on your shoulders because when you look at the stats on lottery winners, a lot of them end up broke again or they blow the money. But it sounds like you're still doing well.

Speaker 1 I'm not spending a thing.

Speaker 1 You know, it's, yeah, mean we we've we've spent a little bit you know um family vacation got my wife something nice for her birthday but other than that it's kind of going how do we make this work um to ultimately achieve our goals yeah and your goal your son is a big part of your goals right huge part yeah it's uh with with a rare disease it's that doesn't have a treatment doesn't have a cure um just trying to figure out ways and you know and part of me is like how do i

Speaker 1 how do i look at this fresh you know forever you want to throw money to academia to do academic research but i do think there's other ways to try to help get creatine to his brain and i think i got to get creative to do it yeah i'm sure a ton of different people reached out to you with their opinions was there anything interesting that caught your eye for that i mean yeah you get everything and again i'm i'm probably open to too much um but like everything from hey i'm an expert i've been studying plant medicine my whole life to um i am a prayer specialist who knows how to connect with people telepath telepathically um to a protein researcher at a prestigious academic institution who's like, hey, like, I think I can help implant certain cells into the brain to be able to accept creatine.

Speaker 1 So like,

Speaker 1 part of me is like, I need someone to help kind of make sense of

Speaker 1 what's reasonable and what's not.

Speaker 1 But either way, people want to help. And that's like the biggest, one of the biggest takeaways from Beast Games is I don't have a ton of people saying, hey, can I have some money? Can I do this?

Speaker 1 Of course, I get that in my DMs, but these are perfect strangers. I have more people saying, how can I help? Or I'd love to help or I'd love to pray or I'd love to support.
That's beautiful.

Speaker 2 I think Jimmy did a good job painting your story on the show.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's Jimmy, Mac, the entire team.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I couldn't be more satisfied with the edit. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Your character arc was brilliant, man.

Speaker 1 It worked out well.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because they waited about halfway to start telling your story. And then it really grew on people, I think.

Speaker 1 But, but, and that's probably by design, but also like, I didn't get to tell my story until you get deeper into the games.

Speaker 1 Cause that, that was my, my whole aim was I want to go on the show to tell Lucas's story. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But to do that, like I need to have a camera in my face and have these questions being asked, but it really didn't happen until

Speaker 1 we got to the island, episode five, six.

Speaker 1 And so like, I just, I'm like, I just got to keep going. I have to keep going through each challenge to actually make it far enough to share the story.

Speaker 2 How tempting was the island? Did you want to be one of the 10 on that one?

Speaker 1 Not at the time, but once like, once we saw the helicopter go by with the Navy SEALs and we were watching it on a big giant screen, like Hunger Game style. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm like, oh my gosh, I would love to be hiding from Navy SEALs. But in retrospect, obviously I wouldn't change a thing.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Statistically, it didn't seem like the right decision.

Speaker 1 It didn't.

Speaker 1 Especially when you look at the people who went for the island, like they were absolute studs.

Speaker 2 Athletes, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah. And like Mia, who won it, is just unbelievable.
Like she is so tough, so resilient.

Speaker 1 And just knows how to get stuff done. Yeah.
So like it was just wouldn't have been worth it for me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Shout out to her for winning that. I did not think she would when I first saw the 10 laid out.
She was the only girl, right?

Speaker 1 She was the only girl. And there were like, there's just some really amazing athletes.
And again, with Mr. Beast, you just don't know like what you're getting into.

Speaker 1 Like when I trained for Beast Games, like I was lifting weights, I was sprinting. Like I thought it was going to be super physical.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the only physical challenge in the Amazon Prime games was episode six, pulling the monster truck and doing the sprints, but you had to choose into it.

Speaker 1 Everything else was mental, chance, psychological, emotional. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 shout out to kimsta today's sponsor you know when we first started building our brand online i had to teach myself everything from marketing to monetization but one of the biggest pain points hosting it felt like i needed a computer science degree just to keep our site running smoothly that's why we switched to kimsta and honestly it's been a game changer Kimsta managed WordPress hosting takes all the stress off your plate you get blazing speed enterprise level security and a dashboard that's actually fun to use no outdated clutter just clean intuitive control and let me tell you when things go sideways, I don't want to deal with a chat bot or some copy-pasted script.

Speaker 2 With Kinsta, I get real, knowledgeable humans available 24-7 who actually solve problems fast. We've had sudden traffic spikes and zero downtime.

Speaker 2 Our SEO has improved with the speed boost, and it's a huge relief knowing our site's protected with the best security out there.

Speaker 2 If you're ready for hosting that works, visit kinsta.com/slash dsh to get your first month free. And yes, they'll migrate your site for free too.
That's k-in-st-a.com/slash dsh.

Speaker 2 I I had to pick, I would have, I think I would have picked the mental one. Yeah.
Because chance is to,

Speaker 2 I don't want to lose on chance. I want to lose on a skill-based game.

Speaker 1 But like going into that game, like you just, you, it's like a,

Speaker 1 you get sucked into these narratives that people plant. And people are planting, hey, I think chance is going to be like, we're going to get rewarded if we choose chance.

Speaker 1 And so people start buying into that.

Speaker 1 Granted, they could have. They spun that wheel and it could have been, hey, we're going to save 16 of you guys.

Speaker 1 But instead, I think 12 out of 16 had to go home i know that was rough super rough like i i would have i'm so glad i didn't choose chance and there was like a small part of me that was kind of like is this my time to let chance take me and i'm so glad it did yeah was there any part of the show where you thought you were gonna get out get out 100 um episode two when i mean we literally got eliminated for an hour um on the ball drive oh yeah i remember that yeah and so like i was processing what am i gonna do uh what is today i'll fly home tomorrow i'll hang out with the family for a day.

Speaker 1 Then I'll be back to the grind.

Speaker 1 Episode three and the cubes, I thought I was going to get out.

Speaker 1 After episode four and the helicopter, like I didn't realize how much of a

Speaker 1 kind of a ruckus Jeremy caused with his handing out the tickets. Right.

Speaker 1 So like I had to like earn trust back with people. Like, so I, there was like three episodes in a row or, you know, three challenges in a row where I go, oh my gosh, my back's up against the wall.

Speaker 1 After the monster truck, I felt like super confident and kind of, I don't want to say I sailed, but I was remarkably calm kind of after that.

Speaker 2 You saw that on the show, too, just with your demeanor.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it just, you kind of get into the zone and then you realize, gosh, like I looked around and I think part of it, part of the thing that helped me win was the people. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And there was just, you know, out of the people who were on the island, there was 60 of us. I'd say.

Speaker 1 90%

Speaker 1 were really good people who didn't want to screw people over.

Speaker 2 And that helped. Yeah.
I think that surprised Jimmy. I saw him talking about it on an interview.
He thought there'd be more backstabbing, right?

Speaker 1 And I think season two is going to have it. I mean, I think season two, I think people are going to know what kind of game they want to play.
Yeah. And I think season one,

Speaker 1 like, this was so brand new to everybody that it was like, I don't want it to end.

Speaker 1 And if you don't want it to end, guess what? Like, you don't step in the shit. Right.
Like, you don't backstab people.

Speaker 1 So I think, um, I think season two people will know what kind of game they want to play from the get. And I think it's going to get, gonna get nasty.

Speaker 2 I can see that. Yeah, because on season one, when someone backstabbed, they were a target for everyone else.
Like right away.

Speaker 1 Like the brothers. Yeah.
And even like the slightest backstab,

Speaker 1 like people would get really offended by. Yeah.
So it's,

Speaker 1 but I think going into season two, it's going to be cool. Yeah.

Speaker 2 How many of the final 10 contestants were you on good terms with?

Speaker 1 I'd say all of them. Really? Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, there was a couple I did, like going into the final 10, there was a few I didn't know very well, but I'd say eight out of 10.

Speaker 1 I was, there was four of us who were part of an alliance that that we were on good terms with. The other four I knew really, really well.
And the other two, I would say, I'm neutral with.

Speaker 1 So, like, for me, when I look at relationships, you're either negative, neutral, or positive. Right.
And I don't think I was negative with anybody in the top 10.

Speaker 1 And I don't think there was really anybody who was super negative with each other.

Speaker 2 That probably helped you in the phone game, right? Being on good terms with everyone. Totally.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And, you know, I think being interested in others, like truly interested in others and getting to know them, it's, you know, people want to help people they know.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And when you are interested in others, you know, they reciprocate and become interested in you and you kind of form this bond. And the phone game really, really helped me.

Speaker 2 I think that was my favorite game to watch because it was all mental, psychological game.

Speaker 1 And you have to, you eventually have to make a move,

Speaker 1 you know, and like I was,

Speaker 1 obviously I was there, but after I get out, like I have no clue what's going on with the phones. And so when I watched that and I saw Yesie 947 make her move, which was was awesome.

Speaker 1 So she planned to see it, I think, in round three to get voted in round four. Right.

Speaker 1 And then Gage made his move, I think, in round five. I'm like, oh, my gosh.
These are two people I knew pretty well who made moves that I did not expect them to make.

Speaker 2 Gage's move was, no one expected that one. The way they edited it, too.

Speaker 1 I mean, that edit was awesome. I have goosebumps thinking about it.
It was just brilliant. And Gage is like the sweetest guy, a really talented musician.

Speaker 1 And he wouldn't never harm a fly. And then he makes this move.
No one expected it. Oh.
And just him giving a throwaway vote for Mikey, 453. I'm like, that was brilliant.

Speaker 2 Yeah. That was an iconic move.
And it helped you win another 5 million.

Speaker 1 I know. I mean, again, like Gage,

Speaker 1 Gage will become a legend in the creatine transporter deficiency because he,

Speaker 1 you know, in essence, gifted me more money to invest into a cure. So like he's going.

Speaker 1 Our next conference we have, I'm going to make sure Gage is there to meet the kids. Oh, I love it.
Yeah, he's an absolute stud. I love, love the guy.

Speaker 2 So you have conferences for this?

Speaker 1 Yeah, so every couple of years we have conferences where we bring together families and scientists.

Speaker 1 Because it's one thing for a scientist to be in a lab, you know, working in petri dishes under a microscope, but when they can see the families and the kids that they're trying to help,

Speaker 1 it transforms everything because it actually puts a human being behind the science.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's so cool. How long has this disease been around? Is it a new thing?

Speaker 1 It's been around for

Speaker 1 probably forever.

Speaker 1 But like, it hasn't been discovered.

Speaker 1 It was discovered in the year 2000 at uh university cincinnati but um but we have people who are in their 60s who got diagnosed recently so meaning they had it in the 50s or 60s or 70s so um

Speaker 1 i i think it just it's it got misdiagnosed forever and it takes it took us with we put every ounce of energy into trying to find a diagnosis it took us almost two years whoa yeah yeah you probably went to tons of doctors and tons of specialists you know one doctor would say one thing, another doctor would say another.

Speaker 1 And usually they just say that, you know, he's developmentally behind. He's developmentally delayed.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like autism or something. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And eventually, like, I think a lot of people just kind of throw up their hands and kind of go, okay, it is what it is. But for us, we really wanted to see what it was so we could try to try to help.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then once we got diagnosed, it was kind of bittersweet, like, oh my gosh, we have a diagnosis. Quick Google search.
Oh, no, there's, there's no treatment. There's no cure.

Speaker 1 So, you know, fortunately, there's an association that funds a ton of research, but they also provide resources to families and just kind of support.

Speaker 1 And my wife and I are good balance. I'm like the eternal optimist.
She's so pragmatic. So like, I'm like, hey, everything's going to be okay.

Speaker 1 And she's kind of going, okay, this is what we need to do to make sure our family can move forward. I love that.

Speaker 2 It's a good duo, though, right? You need both. It is.

Speaker 1 And it's like, it's one of these things where like.

Speaker 1 You don't know why you find the partner you have.

Speaker 1 And, you know, clearly, you know, Jen and I, you know, have an awesome relationship together, but we were meant to be Lucas and Jack's parents together.

Speaker 2 Beautiful. Have you always been optimistic? Like, did you have that growing up? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, I, I grew up a great childhood.
And, you know, obviously most people say, you know, grew up with the best time, but a product of the 80s and 90s where I had an analog childhood.

Speaker 1 So you think about summer when you're 12 years old. Like I get on a bike, I go away with my friends and my mom has no clue where I'm at.
I come home for dinner. So they can't get a hold of me.

Speaker 1 There's no phones. There's no pagers.
There's nothing.

Speaker 1 And then once I get into high school, we start getting internet. You know, it's like, okay, now I can get online and have an email.
And then you get to college and obviously it's full blown.

Speaker 1 So it was just a neat way to

Speaker 1 have a childhood. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Last generation with growing up without tech, I feel like now.

Speaker 1 It's good. It's

Speaker 1 analog and digital. So I'm not too old or I'm like, how does this thing work?

Speaker 1 But I'm not too young to not experience what life was like without a phone. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And now you're having to step into the digital world more and more, right? It's weird.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's, you know, I used to post like twice a year for fundraisers.
And now I'm like, oh, I'm creating content. Okay, how's this work?

Speaker 1 And it is so much more challenging than I ever thought it would be.

Speaker 2 It's a lot of work.

Speaker 1 It's a lot of work. And it's like, you can, you can literally not turn it off.
And you have to like force yourself to turn it off or at least kind of set boundaries.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's definitely addicting. Yeah, it's crazy.
They call it TikTok right now. I don't know if you're addicted to TikTok, but just non-stop scrolling.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And it's like if something doesn't catch your attention literally in a second and a half, you move on.
Yeah, for real. Wow.
So have you always been interested in kind of social media and tech?

Speaker 1 So I grew up not similar to you.

Speaker 2 I didn't really care about it in high school and college. But then once I started making money off it, that shifted my perspective.

Speaker 1 When was that?

Speaker 2 That was probably right when I dropped out of college. So I went to,

Speaker 2 I grew up in Jersey. I I went to Rutgers.
Yeah. And then I figured out how to make some money off Instagram.

Speaker 1 Sweet.

Speaker 2 And that to me was like a switch. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's like, there's no turning back.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because then I felt like I wasn't wasting my time. I was being productive with it.

Speaker 1 And I'm sure you've shared this with people, but like, what is your advice for people who have this kind of entrepreneur spirit who are junior, senior, and high school?

Speaker 1 Like, how do you assess whether to go to college or not?

Speaker 2 Oh, that's tough. Yeah.
For me, it's, it's passion-based, you know? Like if they, if they really feel like college isn't the answer, like test some stuff out beforehand too.

Speaker 2 Don't just drop out or like not go with no plan. Exactly.
Like I, at least when I dropped out, I had some money that was coming in. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 I could show my mother, who was pissed, obviously, at the time, but I showed her I had like this amount of money coming in and I was really passionate about it. Let me take a break.

Speaker 1 What's your mother say now?

Speaker 2 She loves it. She watches every episode.
No way. Shout out to my mom.
Hey, mom.

Speaker 1 Yeah, she's still back in New Jersey.

Speaker 2 Yeah, she's in Pennsylvania now. Okay.
You've been out to Jersey ever?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I grew up in Ohio. Oh, nice.
Yeah, I grew up in Ohio. So

Speaker 1 just spent time all over. It's just nice.
I I mean, it's an hour, 15-minute flight from the city. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then I lived a little bit in Pennsylvania, too.

Speaker 2 Where was Beast Games filmed at?

Speaker 1 Originally, the episode zero was in Vegas. Oh.
Yeah, at Allegiant Stadium. So the one on YouTube.

Speaker 1 And that was a trip. That was a ton of fun.
That was 2,000 people or 4,000? 2,000? 2,000. And I had no clue.

Speaker 1 When I signed up, I thought this was Beast Games. Like, I'm going to be gone.
And then a video, Jimmy gives us a video like an hour before we turn our phones.

Speaker 1 Like, hey, by the way, this is 2,000 people.

Speaker 1 We're going to cut it down to a thousand and then you'll go to the amazon uh beast games i'm like apparently most people knew but i just wasn't in the loop yeah um and then the remainder was uh amazon prime show was on uh filmed in toronto aside from the island which was in panama wow that's cool i didn't know that yeah and we had all these ideas of oh because in the contract it shares a few countries that you might go to and just make sure that you have kind of proper credentials to do that transport yeah and it's like it said france and germany and italy So we're like, oh, we're going to leave here and then we're going to go to a chateau in Italy.

Speaker 1 And no, we were just in Toronto the whole time. I love it.

Speaker 2 The first few games were a lot of luck-based stuff, right? Chance.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, I think when you watch it, you think it's chance.
But, you know, there's this wild cascading effect to Beast Games where things that happen in this challenge impact the next challenge.

Speaker 1 So for example, like people ask me, like, oh, were you just randomly assigned number 831? No, that was the flag I got in the challenge number three in the YouTube episode.

Speaker 1 So if you look at challenge number three in the YouTube episode, we had to capture these flags and

Speaker 1 there was 1,100 flags and there was 1,400 contestants left. You can either try to go like a free-for-all.

Speaker 1 I'm going to go after my flag, you know, screw everybody else, or you can try to work together and kind of go, who's getting what flag? We help each other out. Right.

Speaker 1 I was kind of the part of the crew that was helping each other out. So

Speaker 1 the people who are kind of in the first couple hundred were like, hey, I need to go get this flag. I'm going to go get her.
I'm going going to get that number one flag.

Speaker 1 Those were the first two rows that got eliminated in

Speaker 1 the first challenge on these games. Oh, I didn't know that.
And guess what?

Speaker 1 Because you had to like, in that challenge, you have to, someone in your row, and the row is like 80 some deep, has to eliminate themselves in order for the rest of the row to move on. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And if you're thinking about how you're a type A charger, like, are you really going to eliminate yourself?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 So like the rows that were were safe were the ones at the end which were either the helpers or the more altruistic folks who needed help so it's like I think on paper it looks like chance but actually it's it's the makeup of those rows that is really cool that you chose into yeah

Speaker 4 the final two players were similar numbers crazy right we were right next to each other for two and a half days on the first episode that's nuts did you see her at the stadium too yeah she she was um she was kind of a prominent leader at the stadium the second half of the basketball season is here, and the race to the playoffs continues on Prize Picks, the best daily fantasy sports app to cash in on your favorite sports.

Speaker 4 The app is simple: pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to a thousand times your cash.

Speaker 4 Download the PrizePicks app today and use code FIELD and get $50 instantly when you play $5. That's code FIELD on PrizePicks.
They get $50 instantly when you play $5.

Speaker 4 Win or lose, you'll get $50 for just playing. Guaranteed.
Prize picks. Run your game.
Must be present in certain states. Visit PrizePicks.com for restrictions and details.

Speaker 1 Chronic spontaneous urticaria or chronic hives with no known cause. It's so unpredictable.
It's like playing pinball.

Speaker 1 Itchy red bumps start on my arm, then my back,

Speaker 1 sometimes my legs. Hives come out of nowhere

Speaker 1 and it comes and goes. But I just found out about a treatment option at treatmyhives.com.
Take that, chronic hives. Learn more at treatmyhives.com.

Speaker 1 Like for me, like at the stadium, I was like, what am I doing here? Like, I'm such an old man.

Speaker 1 And obviously, I'm not. But like, I was probably the, you know, the top 10% of age.

Speaker 2 Yeah, on the show, there's a lot of young people.

Speaker 1 A lot of young people.

Speaker 1 But, like, the cool thing is, like, age and everything else, age, color, sex, gender, all disappears. Like, you just connect with people if you want to.
Right.

Speaker 1 And so I became great friends with people who literally could be my daughter or son based on age.

Speaker 1 But yeah, in episode zero, she was, she was a leader. She was a force.

Speaker 2 It seemed like throughout the show, she sort of had a group she was leading, right?

Speaker 1 It's interesting. She didn't have like an alliance per se.
She didn't have a group. Just she led everybody.
Like if people called on her to lead, she would step up. She was,

Speaker 2 she's awesome.

Speaker 1 She's an absolute force. Like she's super talented, big heart, played hard.

Speaker 1 But that's, that's who I wanted to, like, I literally wanted to go against her at the end. Episode one, I told her, like, I want to to go against you at the end.
Yeah. It's crazy how it happened.

Speaker 2 Wow, you manifested it because she turned down a million too, right?

Speaker 1 A couple of times for other people. So she turned on a million for 60 people in episode two, episode three.
Yep.

Speaker 1 She turned on a million when she could have taken it in the money grab in episode eight.

Speaker 1 And nobody would have got eliminated. And then at the end, when it was three of us, me, Gage, 974, and Tawana, 830,

Speaker 1 she could have taken a million dollars to eliminate herself. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 And she got written down on that one too, surprisingly. Crazy.

Speaker 1 I was surprised. I was shocked.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I was shocked. Yeah.
I was, I was watching it with my fiancé and I told her, there's no way it's her. It's one of the other three.

Speaker 1 And I don't know.

Speaker 1 Cause like for me, I just figured everybody viewed her like me. Like

Speaker 1 I had a ton of respect for her. She always put herself behind others.

Speaker 1 Super

Speaker 1 integrous. So when I saw that, I was like,

Speaker 1 I was shocked. And obviously, I think that helped me too.
I think that kind of shook her a little bit.

Speaker 2 It definitely did.

Speaker 1 You know, and so like going into the final episode, I think her, like, her mindset might have been kind of a little shaken.

Speaker 2 You felt like you could have read her a little easier.

Speaker 1 Yeah, or I just feel like, I feel like she was not expecting that. And kind of like when you get news that you're not expecting, that is directly assigned to you.

Speaker 1 It's like you start questioning things. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Were there any decisions you regretted on the show?

Speaker 1 You know, I mean,

Speaker 1 I wouldn't, no, I'm not.

Speaker 2 Regret's a strong word. Maybe like felt bad about.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so because like, again, I, I don't like to have regrets. And obviously I was the winner.
So like I have to thank everything that happened.

Speaker 1 Um, episode four on the helicopter, um, I wish, like, I didn't, I didn't, I wasn't privy. I didn't realize how much of kind of a hubbub there was about Jeremy and taking girls.
Right.

Speaker 1 Like, I wish he would have whispered in my ear, like, hey, I.

Speaker 1 I really, I really hope he takes something. And I would have taken my friend Maddie, 852, who's just amazing.

Speaker 1 She ended up making it to the island anyway.

Speaker 1 But that was one of the, that was one of the instances where it's like, ah,

Speaker 1 maybe I would have done something different. But I picked my friend 930, Patrick, who made it to the top 10.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I mean, like, I don't have any regrets, but that's something that like, I don't say I lost sleep on it, but I thought about a lot.

Speaker 2 I could see the following. You never know with the way they edit it.
So was it really that bad with the girls? Like, they were pissed that.

Speaker 1 I didn't realize it. Like, again, this is, I was naive.

Speaker 1 So when people were going around kind of saying, hey, we give Jeremy Jeremy your coin, I was going around telling people the math and kind of going, like, it doesn't matter who you give the coin to, but it does you no good to keep your coin.

Speaker 1 Because if someone doesn't get 100 coins, this helicopter goes off empty. And our chances, your chances, my chances of getting to the island are less.
Right.

Speaker 1 It's just simple math.

Speaker 1 So like, I didn't hear all the, all the conversations until, I mean, I heard about it afterward, but when we got to the hotel while we were staging to go to Panama, like there was definitely some evil eye looking at me and Jeremy.

Speaker 1 Like, and I'm like, oh my gosh, like, what happened? Yeah. So it was, um, I didn't, I didn't realize how bad it was until after.

Speaker 2 There was a lot of people after Jeremy after that one, right? Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 1 It was crazy. Crazy.
And it's just, I mean, and it's just, it's crazy how an episode before lauding him because he turned down a million dollars. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And there was, I mean, it could have gone up to 2 million, 3 million, and Jeremy wouldn't have taken it. Wow.

Speaker 1 Because he's just the kind of guy that if you put your trust in him and you ask him to do something, he's not going to screw you over.

Speaker 2 How shocked were you when all four turned down the million?

Speaker 3 Um,

Speaker 1 I don't want to, because

Speaker 1 I knew, I knew Harrison 251. I sat next to him on a bus for four hours, awesome guy, like super talented content creator.
Um, Tawan, I got to know, um, and Jeremy I knew really, really well.

Speaker 1 Only person I didn't know was Dino380.

Speaker 1 And kind of once I asked around, I'm like, oh, wait, so no one's going to take this? This is crazy.

Speaker 1 Who was the most shocked was Mac and Jimmy. Like they were blown away.
And this is the crazy thing about Beast Games is if somebody took the money, I mean 60 people get eliminated.

Speaker 1 That changes every episode after that. Cause like now you have 25% less people.

Speaker 1 And it's just, it's, it's weird how they have to have all these plan A, plan B, plan C's. Yeah.
It's like they were shocked. Nothing happened.

Speaker 2 They probably planned for someone to take it, I'd imagine.

Speaker 1 Of course.

Speaker 1 But they also kind of went, okay, in the crazy event that no one takes it, what do we do? Yeah, that's smart.

Speaker 2 What did you, how did you feel about the hate on Dino? Because that was interesting to me.

Speaker 1 It was interesting.

Speaker 1 The experience in the game is very different when what people thought we were experiencing.

Speaker 1 So like in the game,

Speaker 1 you go through these challenges and you bond to people. So like, for example, The most bonding I had was the physical challenge.
So the monster truck, the sprint, and the dead dead hang.

Speaker 1 So we had eight of us on our team.

Speaker 1 It was me, Eric 990, Gage 974, Patrick 930, Dino 380, Mike 453, Monice 182, and Jazz 697.

Speaker 1 I didn't know Jazz or Monice until that. I got so close to them.
Like

Speaker 1 Jazz is one of my favorite players in the game. And so we have this strong bond that we just went through.
And then so for Dino to choose Jazz was just like, what are you doing?

Speaker 1 Like we just went through this and Jazz and Tawana weren't great friends. So like we knew that they weren't great friends.
And it wasn't like they didn't like each other, but it was just neutral.

Speaker 1 Yeah. We're like, man, like, I, so it, I, I think in retrospect, what popped Dino was his social game kind of, kind of got turned off on the island.
He kind of went dark.

Speaker 1 And so like, he didn't know who Tawana was close with. Like, he would have been better off choosing.
you know, me or Patrick 930, who were kind of close with Tawana.

Speaker 3 Wow.

Speaker 1 But at the end of the day, I don't think it mattered.

Speaker 1 Tawana was going to choose him. And no matter who he chose.
You think so? That was the, that was the, that was the track.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because the other choice was her best friend on the show.

Speaker 1 Well, the thing about Tawana is you don't know who, like, she kept her card so close to her chest. Like, you don't know who her best friends were.
Interesting.

Speaker 1 Because, you know, if that was her best friend, why didn't she choose her when she gave out the second key in

Speaker 1 episode eight? True. There's a lot of questions.
I mean, Tawana would be a great guest. Yeah.
Like, I think she has so much to share.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'd love to dive into her mindset. Yeah.
I'm also curious with the people that turn down the money, like, if they regret it, you know? I'm sure.

Speaker 2 A million dollars.

Speaker 1 A million dollars or even like you look at the first episode, like you literally could have pressed a button, eliminated six or seven people and taken home 100,000.

Speaker 2 Crazy.

Speaker 1 Like 100,000 is not jump change.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know, it's just it, but you get into this FOMO, like, oh my gosh.
In the first episode, your whole goal is I want to get to the city. Now you're in the city.
Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 1 I want to get get to the island.

Speaker 1 Once you get to the island, you're like, oh, I want to make it to the top 10. Yeah.
So you have these things that just kind of override money,

Speaker 1 which is,

Speaker 1 it's an, it's like an amazing psychological experiment. Like, I would, I would love to see what psychologists who analyze this say about it.

Speaker 2 They had one on set, right?

Speaker 1 They had a couple on sets. They had one on set 24-7.
So there's multiple psychologists. So if you ever needed to speak with someone, you could.

Speaker 2 Did you ever get to that point where you had to talk to someone?

Speaker 1 No. I mean, I talked to one at the end because I think when you get down to the final 10 or final 20, when you get eliminated,

Speaker 1 it's part of your kind of deprocessing or out processing. So I sat with one about a half an hour after I won.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
I bet when you're that late in the game, it's a lot of mental trauma if you don't make it.

Speaker 1 It is. And it's just even kind of orienting back at home.
Like, I remember my wife was like,

Speaker 1 I was just like, she was super kind, but like, I didn't know what to do. Like, you're so used to being told where to go.
You don't have any technology at all. Um, when to eat.

Speaker 1 Literally, you wear the same thing. Like, what you see on, um, on the episodes is what we wear in between the episodes.
So it's not like we're wearing street clothes during the day.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It was a month, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was about five weeks. Holy crap.

Speaker 2 And you're away from your family. Yeah.
Was that the longest you've been away from them?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. I mean, it's the longest I haven't talked to my wife since I've known her.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because you don't even have your phone or anything.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no phone. No internet.
You don't even know what day it is.

Speaker 1 A lot of times you don't even know what time it is.

Speaker 2 Wow. No clocks anywhere.

Speaker 1 I mean, people have them, but no one is wearing a watch. They're not on the walls.

Speaker 2 Crazy. So you had a lot of time to just reflect about your life, I bet.

Speaker 1 A lot of time to reflect, a lot of time to chat with others. I mean, it felt like you're in the 90s again, early 90s, where you go hang out versus you go hang out with your phone.

Speaker 2 I saw you on Bradley Martin's show say you applied to the Amazing Race.

Speaker 1 A few years ago, right? It was like, it was, I think it was before my wife and I were married. So it had to have been 2012 or so.
And we weren't fully committed.

Speaker 1 So I think we submitted a video and that was it. So like we never moved any more forward, but we would, we would crush it.

Speaker 2 That show was fun.

Speaker 1 It'd be so fun.

Speaker 2 I think you'd do well.

Speaker 1 It'd be a lot of fun. It'd be great to do with my wife.
It'd be great to do with my oldest sister, Stacey. I love it.
It'd be a ton of fun. Have you ever done a show like this?

Speaker 2 No, I want to get on one. Survivor interests me.

Speaker 2 There's one called The Traitors. Yeah.
Have you seen that one? Oh, yeah. That one's very interesting to me.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 that one would be a ton of fun. Yeah.
I mean, so what about season two?

Speaker 2 I might have to apply, but it might be closed by now, right? No. Oh, it's not?

Speaker 1 Not yet. Okay.
I'll apply, man. You should.
I'm telling you, it, it, even, obviously I'm biased because I won. Yeah.
But even if I didn't, like, it was, it was life-changing.

Speaker 1 It was, it was just good to step away for that long and connect with people. And obviously, you know, I'm a 44-year-old man.

Speaker 1 Like to do, it's like, to do these challenges to be competitive again was awesome.

Speaker 2 Yeah. What a term for you.
Cause I saw you say on Brad's show also that you, you recently got laid off, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah. So, um, you know, I, I've been kind of healthcare sales and sales leadership for my whole life.

Speaker 1 And last April, I got laid off from a sales leadership role. Um, and I was kind of like, oh, gosh, you know, what am I going to do? Right.

Speaker 1 So I was going to, I was exploring some kind of entrepreneurial stuff.

Speaker 3 Um,

Speaker 1 and God bless my wife for being patient with me. And I applied for this.
And it just kind of is a, it wasn't desperation. It was kind of like,

Speaker 1 I got the time. Why not?

Speaker 1 And here we are.

Speaker 2 It's crazy how cyclical life can be because that was probably one of your bottom moments. And then.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's, I mean, I think one of the things about Lucas is just give me a ton of perspective.

Speaker 1 You know, I think there's a handful of parents who might go, you have a child who's a rare disease, special needs, and kind of go, F this. I didn't sign up for this.
Why did you do this to me?

Speaker 1 Really looking at it, Lucas has helped me find the beauty and the bumps and seeing that, you know, things are either blessings blessings or curses and you can decide which one it is um and so for me i remember when i got laid off and like i literally was emailing um who i reported into emailed the ceo like hey thanks for the opportunity it was great however i can help you guys because i just realized it was business like they didn't have the funding i was an expensive kind of price tag you know they have to move on so it's not it's not like screw them but some people could say screw them yeah wow you're good at controlling your emotions that's impressive it's it's help i mean i lucas

Speaker 1 you know and this is one of the gifts like you like you have to even choose what you get upset about um

Speaker 1 and um i'd rather choose the things that really really matter yeah a lot of people their emotions control them you know see it all the time yeah i mean you seem pretty calm like what kind of work do you do uh

Speaker 2 just been through some stuff man yeah you know how to address it and

Speaker 2 Instead of like running away from the trauma, I actually addressed it. And then from there, that acknowledgement and that awareness is huge.

Speaker 1 And being a serial founder, it's like

Speaker 2 entrepreneurship will test you. Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh. Even now, like I'm going through some struggles, no matter what level you get to.

Speaker 1 But that's where, that's where the light is. I mean, that's where, that's where you,

Speaker 1 you know, get a bigger vessel to be able to do bigger things. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And it's a very lonely road at first.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, I mean, because you got people who, you know, you were hanging out with doing whatever before who kind of want to bring you down.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. People, people typically want to cheer you on when you've made it or when you have nothing.
But when you're actually doing it, people are kind of

Speaker 1 like 100%. Yeah, it's weird.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it is weird. Did you have a lot of long-lost friends hit you up once you won the money and family?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, in a good way. You know, I mean,

Speaker 1 I've been blessed to have amazing friends since I was a kid and just good colleagues. I mean, I've worked for some cool companies who have met some amazing people.

Speaker 1 So just, you know, and there's people who I'm texting with who their numbers aren't in there. I have no clue who it is.
But it's

Speaker 1 a lot of people send a ton of of well wishes. They know our story and they know that we'll do good with

Speaker 1 the prize and with the platform.

Speaker 2 That's beautiful. How tough was it not telling people when you won? Cause you had to wait months, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It wasn't as hard as you'd think. I mean, obviously, like, I wanted to tell my mom so bad.
Yeah. Like, just because like my mom, my mom and I talk multiple times a week.
And she's great.

Speaker 1 She's always been a huge supporter of mine. And like, I wanted to like,

Speaker 1 I wanted to watch the show with her too.

Speaker 1 She lives in Ohio and I'm living in California. So like that was the one who I wanted to tell the most.
But other than that, like I, like the power, like the concept of restriction.

Speaker 1 Like I used to drink. I don't drink anymore.
Nice. Used to gamble.
Really? I don't gamble anymore. And

Speaker 1 like restricting these kind of selfish desires.

Speaker 1 in order to kind of do something that's more sharing is something that like a concept that I believe in.

Speaker 1 And I've seen my life transform through it. So it's like always knowing that, hey, if I, if I restrict and don't tell anybody, there's going to be greater light that's shared through it.

Speaker 1 And if you see my family's reaction video, it's like, it's unbelievable because they had no clue. And I just told them, hey, it's the final episode.
There's six left.

Speaker 1 Like everybody's going to come out a winner in some way. I encourage you guys to watch it early.

Speaker 1 Like treat it like a football tailgate and like set up videos because you'll get to see how my journey ends.

Speaker 1 And the like the videos of them watching it are awesome. I love that.
That's so cool.

Speaker 2 When did you cut the gambling and the drinking? Was it recent?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was a long time ago. Um, last bet was here in the city, um,

Speaker 1 2014. Wow, 10 years.
Yeah, 11 years. Well done.
Yeah. It was cool.
No, and it was like, and for me, like, it's just wild how the world works.

Speaker 1 Like, literally, within a year of me not gambling, money just starts flowing.

Speaker 1 You know, so a company I was at had an exit. I got a nice distribution, was able to put that as a down payment on a home.

Speaker 1 And I quit drinking nine years ago. I just took a break and

Speaker 1 it was awesome. I kind of go, oh, gosh, you know, I don't need to drink to socialize.
And I feel so much better. And this is at the same time where I have my oldest son.

Speaker 1 And it's like, I want to be able to wake up and be able to roll around and play versus like try to struggle through a hangover. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 A lot of people drink to, they feel like they need to fit in.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 But it's, you really don't.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And once you, like, once you realize you don't, like, it's like, if we talk about regrets like i wish i would have kind of trimmed my drinking or quit drinking earlier like it would have been so fun to be in my 20s and actually go meet people versus just drink yeah um and hang out at bars were you a big partier back in the days yeah i'd say so yeah in cowie no i was living ohio oh ohio yeah yeah you don't know better right yeah and it just the rear when you grow up it's like hey like college football Saturday, you drink until you pass out.

Speaker 1 And don't be wrong. I mean, I had some great times.
I'm not, I was just one of those ones who I couldn't just have one drink. If I had one, I was going to have 12.

Speaker 2 Were you an angry drunk?

Speaker 1 No, I wasn't. I was just, I would smile and I typically fall asleep.

Speaker 2 Oh, you were the ones that shut down in the corner. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's me too.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I stopped talking.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's how I was.

Speaker 1 It's good that I wasn't angry or picked fights. But

Speaker 1 yeah, it was one of these I'd wake up in the morning and kind of go, wait, who did I talk to? Who did I lie to?

Speaker 1 Who did I maybe overshare with that i shouldn't have it was just one of those things my my physical hangovers weren't too bad it's the emotional and psychological that i was like hey i gotta be done with this yeah it's not worth it you still watching sports a little bit yeah nba um i'll watch the playoffs yeah same who's your team lakers okay you too um i'll root for them

Speaker 1 yeah oh i grew up being a cavs fan okay yeah and um so i mean i really don't you know and i live in the bay area so Golden State is the team.

Speaker 1 I really don't have a team, but typically in the NBA, I'll root for like an underdog. Whoever's not supposed to win is who I want to win.

Speaker 2 Well, this year, there's a good chance of that.

Speaker 2 Is Golden State still in? Yeah, they're the six or seven seed.

Speaker 1 They're looking good.

Speaker 2 Sweet. They got Jimmy Butler now.

Speaker 1 Well, and it's just like, you just can't count out Curry. Yeah.

Speaker 2 He's so good. How's it down there? I hear mixed things about living in San Francisco.

Speaker 1 It's getting better. That's good.
Yes, I mean, I don't live in the city, but

Speaker 1 I mean, it's so damn beautiful. It's like one of the prettiest cities in the world.
So I don't think it's ever going to go away. Like, you can't recreate that scenery.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I think some policies could change where it could encourage more business owners

Speaker 1 and kind of be a friendly environment on business and tourist. It's just, I think they've made some decisions that kind of have come back to bite them.

Speaker 1 And I think we've hit rock bottom and it's starting to bounce back up.

Speaker 2 That's exciting. Yeah, it is beautiful.
You can't knock that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but like, but a place like Vegas, it's like, I love Vegas. My wife grew up here.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it's just

Speaker 1 people out out here are hustling. People out here know how to like survive and get through stuff.
If you want to get something done, guess what? There's people around you who want to help you.

Speaker 1 I don't want to say the bay is not like that. The bay is just a little bit more kind of cerebral, a little bit more kind of head-focused.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's where all the ideas are coming from with social media and tech.

Speaker 1 But yeah,

Speaker 1 where I live, it's just a great community of,

Speaker 1 you know, head and heart. So I like where I'm at.
That's cool.

Speaker 2 It is hard to be Vegas, though.

Speaker 1 It's cool. I mean, it's like one of these things where growing up, you just think of Vegas as you go through your phases.
I'm going to go there to gamble. I'm going to go there to party.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm going to go there for girls, whatever it may be. And then, like, at my age, I'm like, you can go there for shows, for food, for hiking.

Speaker 1 I love it, man. For podcasts.
For podcasts, exactly. For conferences, too.
Two of the podcasts I've been on. Yeah.
But I saw you on Iced Coffee Hour. Yeah.
That was a great episode, too.

Speaker 1 Shout out to those guys.

Speaker 2 They were great. What's the next show you're on or next project?

Speaker 1 This is it for now. I,

Speaker 1 I have some kind of unique opportunities ahead from

Speaker 1 a branding perspective that I'm looking at, but like ultimately, I just want to share Lucas's story.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 the more I can kind of share his story, I just, I've had people reach out to me and I've made some amazing connections, facilitated some awesome meetings with researchers, philanthropists, and people who are doing some cool stuff and startups around tech because of these podcasts.

Speaker 1 And so for me, it's like, I never know who's going to listen to this, who's going to go, Hey, I want to help Jeff. I want to help Lucas.
I want to help their family. So

Speaker 1 I'm going to keep doing it as long as people have me.

Speaker 2 I love that, man. I know you're starting a foundation.
Yeah. Link that below

Speaker 2 if it's up yet. Cool.
And some conferences as well.

Speaker 1 Sweet.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Anything else you want to close off with?

Speaker 1 No, I think we're good. Anything we're missing?

Speaker 2 No, I think we covered it all, man. Thanks so much for inspiring, and I hope we find a cure one day for this thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and once we do, I'd love to come back and chat about it. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 Check them out, guys, in the links below. I'll see you next time.

Speaker 1 Ah, the sounds of an Etsy holiday.

Speaker 1 Now that's special. Want to hear it again? Get original and affordable gifts from small shops on Etsy.
For gifts that say, I get you, shop Etsy. Tap the banner to shop now.