Welcome to the Impact Podcast.
Create opportunities where others have failed and push you to build empires where once there was empty space. Let's embark on this journey together and make a difference in this world. Hey guys, Eddie Wilson here with the Impact Podcast, we got a special guest today and an episode for you.
As always, the Impact Podcast is here to teach you something.
The reason I built the podcast was primarily to help all the people that were reaching out saying, "Hey, help me with my business, help with leadership, help with growth, help with exiting." And I don't have the time to do it, so we decided to build the podcast. So I bring great guests that can also help you teach. So our guest today is Justin Block. Justin, thanks so much for joining us in the podcast today.
Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Justin is local. He reached out to me on social a couple months ago or whenever it was. And Justin's family is a very well entrenched family in the Jacksonville market for sure because of some of the businesses you guys bought. And our built-in have sold.
“And so if you don't mind, just walk us back because I think that my audience primarily are budding entrepreneurs,”
people building businesses looking for like that tip, that trick, how do we get to the next level? And then all of them, they're all looking for purpose, right? Like that's where we're here on Earth, looking for is that purpose element. And so, you know, if you don't mind kind of step back, Rubik's foods founded by your grandfather, grandfather, but your great-grandfather was co-founder of ready-whip. And your great-grandfather was in Chicago building other food brands.
So you've had basically five generations of similar businesses.
You've had four businesses in that space, but five exits, right? And so kind of just give us the backstory. Yeah, so I just come from a family of entrepreneurs, all in the food and beverage space. And you know, most recently we sold our business last year, which was a B2B food and beverage manufacturer. And so, yeah, just basically my backstory is come from a long line of entrepreneurs, sort of new I want to be an entrepreneur.
And I was a six-year-old kid and sort of ended up here today, and I was working in the family business, right at a college. And I'm helped grow and scale it and exit it, and over the past year we've been not sort of chillin, but you know, just doing our own thing. And I'm probably gonna get back in here in the game soon, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Yeah, it's hard when you are a true operator, and like you guys have built these businesses to just chill and walk away for very long.
“Yeah, it's not as exciting and glamorous as you think, you know?”
Yeah. Well, very cool. So, I know that you sold, or your family sold Rubik's foods for a undisclosed amount, but you sold it twice, right? Like, you sold it to the private equity firm, stayed on board, stayed involved, and then you guys sold again. Can you just kind of walk us through what that look like?
Yeah, so the business was never really for sale.
Eventually, you just started getting some phone calls, and we were like, maybe we should take some meetings. Took some meetings, and basically narrowed it down, and you know, went to market. Got some good offers. Got we couldn't say no, too. You know, like you said, continue, continue, don't, because you still wanted to like, you know, work. Sure.
And a finding a partner did that, and then actually we ended up selling it back to them again last year.
“So that's how that happened. But yeah, man, that's just sort of how work.”
We never really like, the goal was never to sell the company, just happened. Yeah. I think honestly, that's the best type of company for those listening. It's like building companies to exit is smart, but it's like, but if that company can stand alone, oftentimes it's way more valuable to the potential buyer anyways. I don't know if you know. Well, very cool. Are you able to tell us how much you exit
of the business for? We don't do a little bit of that, but I can find the scenes. Yeah. So no podcasts, exclusive. You know, I'm going to like let it go on the podcast. Unfortunately, all right. Okay. Keep up, keep up, keep up. Work hard to keep that stuff private. I know. I get asked all the time. We disclose like a larger amount that I've sold all the businesses for, but it's like most of what most people understand is the
private equity firm really doesn't want oftentimes people to know. But even more than that, it's like if you're family selling this business, it's like the last thing you want to like the world to know is like how much capital you just got in. And it's like, but yeah, completely understandable. And so many times what people understand is that's usually to hidden behind NDAs and things like that. And so yeah, very cool. Well, kind of to jump in because I want to make this very practical and
kind of teach the audience something is, you know, when you exit the business, right? So, you know, whether it was the first exit, that the second exit, probably more the second exit, you know, what changed internally? Because often people will hyperfocus on the external, right? Like, okay. So you got a large sum of money or you know, longer have to work or you get to go take some crazy vacations or get to buy a supercar or whatever it is, right? And, you know,
When you go down that path, right?
there's a massive internal shift and internal change. So what changed internally for you when you
“guys exit in the business? Yeah. So sort of a funny story. So we knew we were selling the company, right?”
So I was actually on a phone call with a buddy of mine, probably about six months before we saw the business. And I was telling him, like, do everything's going so well, but I just don't feel that great. And we just got the talking and eventually he was like, do you have you ever thought about working with like a life coach or an executive coach? And I was just like, I don't need coaching. I've been reading the books and doing all the person development stuff. And I call him back
like 10 minutes later. I'm like, yo, can I talk to your guy? Yeah. And so basically what happened
for me was I hired a coach knowing like this was going to happen next. And he really helped me build out like my life blueprint and doing like, hey, my identity's going to shift a little bit, but it's not going to totally shift if I do this kind of internal work, right? And so I know a lot of people who have sold their businesses for hundreds of millions of billions of dollars and they're miserable dude, because they haven't done that work of like their identity is so wrapped up into
being an entrepreneur or they don't have the business. They just like don't know who they are. Right. And I've got friends who you spend that NFL and like a very similar thing happens when they get out of the league, they don't know who they are. So my story is a little bit different because I had a little bit of a push and like I've had some people help me along the way, but it was
knowing like, hey, like, once this comes, like, I'm not going to be the exact same person I am,
“but I'm still like, I can still identify with being an entrepreneur, but I think it's knowing like,”
hey, what story are you telling yourself, how do you see yourself and are you going to continue to sell that story? Even if you don't have the external business to really like attach yourself to anymore. So for me, a whole lot didn't change, but like just because I was doing that work beforehand, but I think a lot of people do struggle with that and I think it sort of like part of me is like, I get it and part of me is just like, why aren't we taught this kind of stuff? Because you know,
when you said people do see the external, I think it's all glitz and glamour and it's fun. It is to an extent. I think, I think it'd be great for everyone to go through a exit just to like, understand like, I think a lot of people, at least on entrepreneurs, they want to have the business, so they don't have to like deal with the solitude of like dealing with themselves. If they want that business, they want that pressure to know like, I'm a CEO, I'm an entrepreneur,
like I got people to rely on or that rely on me, which is important, but also like, do you know yourself for the end of the day? Which I think is the game of life, so. For me, it was a little bit of both. So, so good. It's what we deal with on the show a lot. That is, I went through a long period of kind of depression after this, the exits because I didn't do the work. And I was like, in this place of weight of my identity was tied to that story,
the business card, the people, but more importantly, I think what you hit on, which is, we need self-worth and oftentimes we find self-worth by being the person who can solve problems or be the guy or sell the thing or whatever it is. And all of a sudden, all these employees are gone, the products are gone, the clients are gone, and it's like, and then what's your worth? And so, you have my identity. Yeah, it's 2M. And that's hard because so much of, and I think that
you're nailed it. It's like these people that have businesses today, they are building an identity in this business. They're not, you know, they're not, they say they're trying to build freedom by building a small business, but oftentimes they're just, they're just masking which really going on inside, and it's a way to escape. You know, it's, I find, you know, often said that a small business is just as dangerous as a bottle of alcohol or bottle of pills,
because you can dive into that, and it's way more addictive, you know, than anything else in life.
“You know, success and finding success is so addicting. And then all of a sudden, without it,”
who am I? You know, it's the NFL player that walks away. Yeah, it's super good. At what point did you start thinking about, you know, giving, right? So I find that they're really are two things that happen on the exit. One is the identity shift, which you said you, you really dealt with ahead of time, which it's not taught, right? Like so many fundamental pieces of business are not taught at the collegiate level, or even really by anyone else other than maybe business
coaches or people who have gone through it. But the second thing is is kind of this like purpose piece.
You know, it's like we often have this mindset of like, well, once I get to success, then I will do this thing that, you know, is purposeful or helps make impact around the world. And so it what point did you start thinking about giving? And did that mindset shift once you exit it? No, so I grew up in a family who just have been given forever, honestly. So like I grew up with sort of the life philosophy of like, hey, you're, you're supposed to leave the world a little bit
of a better place than you found. And so grew up just doing a lot of philanthropic efforts, whether that been the local food bank or volunteering my time. So my whole philosophy too is like, if you're not going to give when you got nothing, you're not going to give when you got a lot. So for me, it was just part of, you know, my family how I grew up. And I think it's been a big piece of, you know, just my life. And so I just, that's all I know sort of a thing. But yeah, I think even if,
like I said, even if you do sell a company or you have some Instagram, I think if again, if you're
Not doing it before you have that, you're probably not going to do it.
show that he's ran for years called Money Is. And basically what he says on his podcast is like,
money is blank. And really whatever you say is in that blank, really is your identifier. And my answer to his show was money is a revealer because it's what you said. It's money doesn't define you money reveals what's inside. You know, it's like oftentimes on the exit, you just see what was already there before they had the money, right? It was already there. It just came out now. And so if you don't, if you're not already predisposed to give when you have nothing, when you have everything,
you know, it's like I was looking at the world's top billionaires. It's a crazy list of how much percentage of their wealth they give away. And it's my new, it's wild. I mean, Elon gives, I mean, compared to his vast wealth, it gives virtually nothing away. You know, Bill Gates, all these people like there, they're kind of touted as philanthropic. But by percentage, the average person who just gives 10% of their church or something like that is giving way more than they are. More in
Buffet was the one exception out of all the world's top billionaires. He was the one exception. And what it does is it shows that it, you know, it's the great revealer, you know. But anyways, that's a really, really great answer. And I think to any person today, it's like finding that purpose and finding something to give to long before you have it sets the right character traits that when you do have it. And I believe that, you know, I'm a person of faith. I believe that
God rewards people that have a level of faithfulness. So it's like when you give, it seems like it's given back to you, you know. Yeah, the more you give, the more you get. I mean, I learned that
from Tony Robbins with what I'm doing with 100 billion meals. But it's just like, yeah, I'm a big
believer in that myself. Whether it is philanthropically, you're just, you know, helping out your
“neighbor, your local community. I think it's, I think it's really important. You definitely get what you”
focus on. So there's a universal law to it. It's like, you know, whether you're a person of faith or, you know, it's like you just experiment with it. It's like the more you give, the more you end up receiving back, right? It's like the more that comes to you. Okay. So what did each exit teach you about what actually matters, right? So you've exited twice. And each time I'm sure it kind of taught you something like the first time you still were involved in the business. The second time, now you're
outside of the business. So what are some of the lessons that you learned in each exit? I would just say, I mean, number one is it's not easy. I like it can definitely take some years off your life. But I mean, talking about like what really matters what's important. I think for me, it's just, you know, being a part of something bigger than yourself, right? We're talking a little bit about how people struggle. So much when we're a struggle, if they don't have that
business to attach to from an identity perspective. But to me, it's really just people at the end of
“the day, man. Like, I think surrounding yourself with great people is important. But after the”
second sale, it definitely forces you to look at in the mirror and be like, okay, like, now whatever, I can pretty much do whatever I want, like what I want to do. And so for me, it's really just four things. It's, it's been healthy and being healthy to me is mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. It's, it's making money at something that fits your personality, I think. So many you actually care about and curious about. It's surrounding yourself with great people,
having good relationships and ultimately, it's fulfillment at the end of the day. So it's having those four things at a high level for me. And I think, you know, I'm certainly not there. I think that to me, that's just the goal. It's honestly rare for me to find someone who has one of those things at a high level, love a little on all four. So for me, it's like, how can I maximize those four categories of the highest level I can and just, you know, fit for me right because I have a different
destiny than you do. And so it's just knowing myself and putting the pieces in place and doing the actions to achieve that have a good time all in here. It's good. It's good. Your fourth one fulfillment.
“What do you think, you know, and how would you describe that you receive fulfillment like today?”
Like, how do you, what fills your cup? Like, how do you get that? Yeah, so I think fulfillment is really just living what you're made for. So you got to know yourself number one. But number two, it's just being able to continue to grow and learn and be able to contribute. So like, we're talking about impact here in this podcast, right? So like, when I met Tony Robbins and got to be
involved with the 100 billion meals, I was like, holy crap. Like, this is such a big, big impact.
And I was a worthy cause. Yeah. And so I was like, this is fun. So I got a lot of them from being able to help out people. But it's also just helping out, like I said, your neighbor or being able to come in this podcast is a good message. So for me, it's learning and growing every day, whether that's reading a book or like getting a good work out and just, you know, pushing myself a little bit and then being able to contribute to something bigger than myself.
Because I think that's honestly my whole thing is and how I think about things. Is that the end of the day? Like you said, we all want to purpose. And I think we all just want to feel good about ourselves like when we're by ourselves at the end of the day. And for me, it comes from helping other people and you know, helping my family and my friends. And this is how I do that. So for me, that's growing businesses, being able to employ people, helping out my friends, my family,
Being a part of, you know, awesome organizations, like 100 billion meals, jus...
Very cool. Let's go back and let's go through the four real quick. Because I want the listeners. This is a great teaching point. It is number one. It was health, right? And if you don't have
your health, you don't have anything, right? And it's like you could have a billion dollars in the
bank. But if you're laying in a hospital bed, it's your billions worth nothing, right? Health is everything. You know, we talked about Jesse. It's, I know you do stuff with Jesse. We do stuff with Jesse. It's one of the things that Jesse pushed me on was, you know, was health. It's like because most entrepreneurs, that's the thing they're willing to give up to achieve their dreams, right? Like they're willing to, you know, whether it's drinking yourself, medicating, but all the way down to not
eating properly, to not exercising, to sit in a room all day or no sleep. I mean, all those things you know, get crazy. Because like, the health that you are, the better decisions you're going to make them better decisions. They do a better business. But like, yeah, sacrificing your health for money is like a fool's game. It is a fool's air. And for sure, number two was wealth wealth. And so how would you describe wealth? And I want you guys to think internally about how you would describe
wealth or what does that mean to you? Yeah. So wealth for me is not, you don't got to be a billionaire,
“right? Like, I think you can live an awesome life. You can make 100k a year doing what you love.”
And so for me, it's finding a career that actually matches your personality. I'm a big believer in genetics as well. Like, I knew when I was young, like, I wanted to be a businessman. As a molder now, like, I come from a family of so I sort of knew that about myself. But do I've met so many people who, and I'll give you an example, I used to have this dentist way back in the day. And I was like, little, and I remember, he like, put me back in the chair and I look up and
you know, he looked up with the dentist. He had this amazing piece of art. And I was like, oh my gosh, like, who painted this and he's like, I did. And I was like, dude, why aren't you an artist? And he's like, oh, my parents told me to become a dentist so I could make some money. And to me, that's just sad, because I was like, if you would have become an artist, you probably would have had a better life. Like, because he really enjoyed the art. Yeah. And I didn't know the guy super super well because I was
young, obviously. But like, it's just stuff like that where if you can go all in on something
“you really care about, you're really curious about that you love and enjoy. I think you can have an”
awesome life. And from that, I think love and curiosity money will come. Yeah. So that's wealth to me. And obviously, you got, you got to build passive income and learn and continue to use the tools
and stuff like that. But to me, that's the real wealth. Yeah, I love it. The way I always describe wealth
is, is having enough to live and to do what I need to do today without diminishing what I need for tomorrow. Like, that's true wealth to me. But that is all dictated by our lifestyle, by our choices, you know, stuff like that. Like, I just don't think it's a monetary amount. You know, one conversation I have with my dad when I was in my 20s was he said, what if you could build enough passive income? You never actually need to make that you never actually have to create
money again. So everything you get to do is in this, like, complete creative space, while creating enough passive income, even if it's a small amount, just enough to live on, allows you to make all your decisions and choices so much differently. But yeah, you're so, so, right. So, and then number three relationships. Relationships. So what, what does that mean to you in relationships? Yeah, just surrounding yourself with great people. And obviously, you got to have a good relationship
with yourself. That's number one. For me, it's, you know, family friends, if you got a sitting up in other, that's great too. But I think who who are around is like, he become, you know, I think the environments are really important for me. It's like, I don't want to spend my time around energy vampires and any stuff like that. I want people who can push me and make me feel uncomfortable in a good way, like make me better. And I'm very lucky that I've curated this circle
for myself. But that I think, man, is like, at the end of the day, one of the most important
things, just like, like, all the stuff is great and stuff. But like, you don't want to, like, create a business, just stuff for yourself. You want to, like, share it with people. You want to have a bunch of cool experiences and share with people. So it's just doing that. Yeah. Absolutely. It's great. Yeah. This, this weekend, I'm flying to, I have two sons that I'm going to go spend some time with up in Boston. We're going to go race cars in New Hampshire up in Concord on the track.
Nice. And we're going to spend the weekend in Boston. Go check out a Bruins playoff game.
“Yeah. Because in the end, it's like the only thing you remember and take with you are those moments,”
those relational moments where you connect with people. And, um, but yeah, I 100% agree. I spent so much time in my early days chasing success while for going health, while for going relationships. And it's like, then you get to success. You turn around. There's no one there with you. And you're, you're ultimately paying back all of the debt you created in your health, right? So it's just like, it's really important to take these four things you've talked about and really put them
into practice, right? Like, these entrepreneurs that are out there. And so as you kind of give those four, I want each one of you to think about, give yourself a great, right? Like, where are you in your health? Where are you in your wealth? Where are you in your relationships? And where are you in fulfillment? Right? Like, your four things are huge. Um, and as an entrepreneur, I 100% endorse with Justin saying, um, and you should, you should grade it. And in the end, what you focus on,
You can change.
D, then get it to a C. You know, it's like, start making progress. If you're making money,
you got to raise the wealth bucket to, or if you're making money, you got to raise the health bucket to, well, I'm actually running a book on this right now, which is hopefully come out later this year. But yeah, I just think it's, it's the only real goal, man. Like, you don't want to look back into life and regret. We just stuff and like wish you were a little bit healthier 100%. You want to didn't go on that trip and didn't spend time or like, you know, I didn't end up doing what you
do at the end of the day. You got it. You got it. If someone's building their business right now, how should they think about generosity before the exit? You already talked about, um, you know, giving before you maybe have, um, but generosity, I think, is a little bit different than just giving, right? It's more the mindset of giving. And they can be generous in their life and with their employees, with their time, with a lot of things other than just money. How should they think,
you know, before they exit? A lot of these people, like, they're on my podcast because they know that exit is so many companies that they're all sitting here waiting for nuggets on how to exit. How should they think about generosity before they get there? Yeah. I mean, I would just say if you
“are a business owner, if you want to implement events or just, you know, little things you can do”
for like your employees, like we used to do a bunch of canned food drives, like we would just, you know, once a month, we would just say, hey, if you guys want to donate some food and we'll go into the local food bank or just events that you can do around town and go pack some meals or stuff like that. So it doesn't have to be anything crazy. I think generosity, like you said, is a mindset, so it's giving your employees time just to, like, if they want to vent to you, just like,
just let them talk, just ask how their day is going, like, just actually care about people. I think about, at the end of the day, I think that's just really important. But yeah, I know generosity is just, I think it's just wanting to give more than you get. Like we were talking about earlier than where you give them more, you get so it all come back around anyway. But I think it's just, you know, developing yourself. I think probably one of my favorite quotes, I think it's a gym
wrong quote at the end of the day is he was saying, you gotta work hard on yourself and you are business. So think if you do that, you're just automatically probably going to be a lot more generous and you would be if you just focus more on your business. So I'm just, I'm a big believer in personal development. If you haven't figured that out yet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's good. And it's so true. So many times I'll, you know, get calls from business owners and they want some advice and my advice
often times is that. It's like, are you personally advancing? Because if you're stagnant, your business is stagnant, right? Like if you're regressing your business is regressing. Like so much of your business is tied to who you are and your personal development, your personal growth.
“I think generosity is one of those things. You know, it's like generosity is oftentimes a mindset”
that we can live out long before we even have, because we have, we all have some resource, right? It can be time. It can be service. And, you know, generosity in that mindset changes everything. It's like generosity to others and gratitude for what you receive. Like if you're going to be generous and grateful, it's like, man, your whole entire life changes, you know? How old are you? I just turned 30. Just turned 30. Congrats. Very cool. So you've spent, uh, let's just say,
you outlive, you know, the average person. Let's say you make it, how old do you think you're going to live? Oh, man. I mean, I hope big guess. Hopefully, over 100, but like, it's not really about the years. For me, it's like, can I, like, because again, you can say, I want to be 120, but like, if you want to wheelchair, like, I don't want to do that. So let's say you're going to live to 100. And you're going to be healthy. Yeah. Okay. You know, dying or sleep at 100 years of age. Cool. I don't want, I don't want to put
that on you. I hope you live to 100. That's fine. Okay. So let's say you're 100 years old and, uh,
you're healthy. Okay. So you've essentially lived one third of your life. How would your friends
define you today for the first third? And how would you want that to change for the second two
“thirds? Oh, man. Um, so I think I've changed a lot already in the past six years. Ever since I really”
got heavy under the person's development stuff. So even my friends, you're like, need me going out, would probably say different story about me now. Yeah. Um, but for the rest of my life, I would say just because, and we both like to accomplish stuff. Right. But I think for me, just like the people in my life who help me get to our mat today, like, they just believed to me more than I believed in myself before I could believe in myself. So that's probably it for me. It's just like, how can I help people
believe in themselves a little bit more? So they can do the things to get what they want in their life. And so that's really what changed my life. And like, I really don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for guys like Tony Robbins or, you know, Ed Milatt Wayne Dyer, Jesse, like, all these guys who, like, put out that awesome message and has have help people. Um, you know, people in my family, it's just stuff like that where it's like, the achievement stuff is is cool. I think it just comes of as a
byproduct of, you know, just doing the work on yourself and enjoying life. And I want to tell people and enjoy a little more and believe in themselves a little bit more. Yeah. Ed Milatt and I had, he's obviously a local guy here part-time local. We were having dinner. I think it was me and Andrew and a few other people. And I said, um, you know, we were talking about that self development piece. And I said, it's interesting. I said, because I think in self development, I mean, I've been very
engaged since my first exits in 2019, right? So I'm on a seven year journey, too, right? And I said,
Really what self development is is I'm reaching ahead to somebody that's ahea...
the Tony Robbins. That's the Ed Milatt. You know, like, he obviously had his exit before I did. And it's like, but self development is there's something about it's not just about reaching ahead to somebody that's ahead of you. It's also like reaching back to somebody else who's behind you. And I love that it seems like, I've, you know, watched some of your stuff on social and
“seems like that's what you're doing. It's like, you know, you're reaching ahead to these guys,”
the Tony Robbins of the world and the 100 billion meals, saying, this is where I want to go,
but also, like, not leaving the person behind who was where you were, you know, five steps behind. There's something about self development that it has to be to, it's a two-way street. And it's like, and then you naturally get to this place. And that's where Ed and I were talking was like, then you get this place where there's really not a lot of people ahead of you. You know, it's like, and the conversation here and I were having was like, you sell a company for a billion. And now you're
looking for somebody ahead of you, like, wait a minute, like, there's nobody around that's sold a company for a billion, but, but they're ahead of you in relationships or they're ahead of you and health, they're ahead of you and, you know, kind of your four areas. And it's like, so, you know, what are you doing to reach back to the people that maybe are stepped? You know, obviously you're reaching forward saying self development. Here's where I'm headed. What are you doing, you know,
today to try to help the people that are a step behind? Yeah, I like the, I love you just said, like, how is it to issue? I look at it as like you're going up the elevator, you're just sending
it back down. But yeah, so it's stuff like with the 100 billion meals, just like trying to put
out a good message. I sort of switched up my, I'm a social media side of things. I want to do more, like, documentary style. I have a podcast that I do with my buddy as well, who used to put in that NFL. It's called Born to Be Great. So we do that once a week and we just talk about stuff like this business sports, person development. But I want to start documenting a lot of my life a little bit more showing people how to grow a business, but also the person development stuff. Because I don't
I don't love just picking up my phone and just creating. It's not really, but it's, it's really anyone who wants to help is writing my book. That's been a huge challenge, but it's been super fun at the same time. You think you have it in your head and then you put it on paper and you're like this, it's not good. So that's, that's been an avenue that I'm getting into as well. And then just, you know, living my day to day is, you know, it's just helping grow the companies, it's investing
it businesses, investing people who want to invest in themselves. At this point right now, like, I've sort of view myself as like, I'm not like a flint. I'm like a gasoline on the fire. Like if you
“want to like grow, like, I can really help you, I think. But if you're like, I don't, if you have no”
interest, like, I can't be the fire starter for you. And so I really love that quote, we're, and I'm going to butcher this again. But it's like, I can see further because I've stood on the shoulder of giants. That's literally like 98% of the reason why I'm sitting here with you right now, because those people have come before me and I'm just standing on their shoulders. And so if I can just be a little bit of that piece for someone else, like, I think I did my job. I'd love to talk
a little bit more about what we're doing here because, like, with, you know, being able to work with Tony, like, I've learned a million things from that man. And I think he's honestly, he's probably the number one person since he's been alive that changed the most lives on this planet in my opinion. So that's, it's just stuff like that where I'm like, I wouldn't even, I have no idea. If you told me, like, seven years ago, Justin, you'd be doing this right now,
that he, I think you're crazy and like, all the stuff I've done. But it's because I did that person development work I really believe that. That's great. Let's end the show by talking about 100 billion meals. To me, it's the most, one of the things in this planet that is the biggest travesty. You know, if you look at, obviously, you're in the food space. And I've heard that over, the equivalent around 30, uh, uh, 30% of all food and America's spoils today before it's ever used.
Right. If you just look at our waste, uh, we could solve the world's hunger problems, um, and one of the things that I saw Tony come out with a few years ago is a 100 billion meals. And, you know, I just, and that's something I do. We feed and educate 5,300 orphans every single day, you know, globally, and, um, and it's one of those things. It's, it's like human decency, just allowing somebody to have the basic needs of life, like the fact that they're still starving people in this
world is, is just incomprehensible, you know. So if you know what, talk, talk just a little about the 100 billion meals, what you're doing with that, and we'd love to hear more. Yeah. So 100 billion
meal challenge is basically over the next 10 years, we're trying to sort of 100 billion meals. The
cool thing is we've already done 62 billion plus meals in three years, which is wild. Um, yeah, like, like you were saying, the hunger issue is, it's really bad globally, and it's really bad here
“in the States as well. So I think Tony was telling me this the other day, uh, if hunger was a”
country, it'd be the third largest country in the world, wild, uh, every 10 seconds, a child dies of food insecurity of hunger. Um, so this is happening, you know, right now as we're speaking. And then even here in America, I think there was a study a few years ago by our partners at Paramount, they did a study where, is either one of every three children or five children is dealing with some sort of hunger issue. So unfortunately, since the pandemic, it's gotten a lot worse. We do have
an issue here, which is the way we consume food in the way it's wasted here. And so that's just really the mission. It's like, how can we make our food system a lot more stable? Because this isn't about just here's a meal. See, uh, this is about creating actual sustainable solutions. And so we partner with amazing organizations, because giving back to hunger relief, nothing new, like you've
Been doing it.
access, um, hatch for hunger feeding America. And we're just partnering with all these amazing
organizations and how can we help you amplify and get to where we need to go because the cool thing about 100 billion meals as well is like every dollar that gets given, it's going to stray to the resources. No one's getting paid for this. I'm not getting paid for this. Tony's not getting paid for
“this. Yeah. The team's not getting paid for it at all. And so every $10 I believe is serving about”
44 meals right now. So you're feeding someone for weeks, which is really cool. And we're doing a lot of cool stuff. So on May 28th, as World Hunger Day, so I think we're coming out with a subscription, where you can actually go to our website, 100 billion meals.org. And you can actually subscribe to give like 10 bucks a month. And you'll know you're feeding 44 people, 44 meals, which is really cool. And then we're also working on a lot of cool events behind the scenes, which I can't
announce right now with some major sports organizations, some other stuff that'll be coming later this year. So we're really just amplifying it. And then my, my involvement, um, started about three years ago, where I was actually at a meeting in New York, which I probably wasn't supposed to be yet. I just said yes to this invitation that I got. And I just happened to be sitting next to
“this gentleman at this table of 150 people. I was telling him my story, just like I told you,”
he's like, dude, I'll live your story. Like, have you ever heard of this gentleman by the name of Tony Robbins? And I was like, dude, if I heard a Tony Robbins. And so he connected me with someone on his team. Yeah. Um, my name was Joe Well, we got to talk and got close to her and she eventually ended up asking me to help out. And I said, yes, of course. And so my role has been, you know, getting organizations involved, strategic relationships. And funny enough, it's actually been harder to
get people involved with the 100 billion meals and is actually to sell them product these major
corporations, which is wild. We're still working on it. We got a lot of long ways to go, but it's going to happen. And so just connecting people here in the states and you know, making sure that, hey, like, you know, food is, it's on the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy needs, right? Um, you know, we're both into learning and growing a person development. But how can you do that if you can't even feed yourself your brain needs, calories and nutrition? So it's such a basic thing, man. And like,
it doesn't take, it isn't, like, you don't have to have a bunch of money to give to 100 billion meals, like I said in earlier, you can give $10. Um, you know, there's another quote I forget, who it's by as well. I'm about doing all these quotes today, but if it's, if it's every man with swoop in front ports, the whole world will be clean. I love that quote. So it's like, you can just, you can help out your local neighbor or help out your local community. That'll make a big impact. So
one person can make a huge difference here. We're not asking the world of anyone. So it's just, if anyone wants to get involved with what we're doing with what you're doing with what anyone's doing. I think that's just a huge piece of it. So yeah, it's just been cool to be a part of something and bigger than myself. Obviously, we do stuff here locally as well. But I think if everyone just got involved locally and just made their community a little bit better, it could help feed people a little
bit more. We'd be in such a better spot. But it is, it is a big issue. It's unfortunately getting worse. You know, with all the variables about inflation going on, the world like food is not cheap anymore. Right. Like I just went on to restaurant yesterday and it was like 30 bucks for some chicken parmals, like dude. I know how much this costs for me to make and stuff, but like the inflation everything's on crazy. So there's just a lot of variables there, but it's just important to know,
“like, hey, like, there are people like you're trying to help. And so if you, if you want to get involved,”
I think it would be awesome to go to our website reach out and shoot me a message. One more time,
what was the website? 100 billion meals.org. .org. Very cool. Yeah. I'll definitely make a contribution there.
And if you guys would, I'd love for you to go to the website as well. Let's all get involved in May. I love that. This podcast tomorrow, a week or two and it'll be plenty of time to get involved. So that's awesome. Very cool. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. I appreciate it. Appreciate you stopping by. It's kind of nice to have a local guy here. Yeah. I've got everybody else that's to fly in, but yeah. And then let me know when your book comes out. Love to promote it. Sounds like it's
going to be awesome. So thanks so much. Thank you for having me. Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks so much for being a part of the podcast for listening today. I'd love to connect with you further and you can connect with me on social media at any Wilson official on any of the social media channels.
