Ian Lopatin the Spiritual Gangster

Today's guest is Ian Lopatin, the Spiritual Gangster.

Announcer: [0:03] Live, it's the behind the resume podcast, with Y Scouts, Max Hansen, where you get to know the person behind the resume. The interesting stuff people never hear about just by looking at a profile here intimate conversations with leaders to learn their story, life hacks, life experiences, and any other interesting practices or learning experiences that have made them who they are today. You know, the interesting stuff. Now, if you're ready, let's go behind the resume. here's your host, Y Scouts admin max Hanson.

Max: [0:42] Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode One of behind the resume podcast with Max Hanson. We're purpose driven leaders dig deep to share insights on what got them to where they are today, even more importantly, where they're preparing themselves for better tomorrow. Today, our guest is Ian Lopatin who's currently the co founder of spiritual gangster, a hip yoga line. That's all about spreading good vibes, giving back and choosing kindness. Before creating spiritual gangster Ian was a lawyer turn Yogi, where he started ran and sold at one yoga to lifetime is a close friend and one of the positive most positive people I know. Ian, welcome to the show.

Ian: [1:14] Glad to be here, Max. Thanks for having me.

Max: [1:16] I have so many questions for you and so many things to talk about. So I can't wait to get going on this. This could probably last for like four days.

Ian: [1:22] I'm looking forward to it. All right, well, let's go. I ate before I came here. I don't know four days will work. But I didn't

Max: [1:27] Robin four days. Okay. So this is episode one. So no pressure. But we did have a built on podcasts before this. And there was 39 episodes with Brian Moore. So this is my first episode a little nervous. But let's get after it. First of all, frame it. This is behind the resume is the vision of this podcast is really to Front Load the business stuff and then go deep. So we'll get there. And then for all the listeners out there, Ian has not been given the questions, so he's not prepared. With that said, Ian, if you want to pass on a question. I have lots of good questions. Feel free to just say pass and we'll pass. So here we go. And then at the very end, then I'm going to go into a rapid fire section. We'll go through questions a little bit quicker. Good. Awesome. All right. So here we go. Tell me about your nickname, The eagle. I just discovered this at a current text conversation with him. I asked if he had any nicknames. And he said the eagle and I couldn't wait to hear where did it come from?

Ian: [2:19] So this is interesting. It comes back you know from we used to live in LA. And it's if we would always be wanting to deliver you something special. They say the Eagle has landed. And it really became from like, we're flying high. So we got the eagle.

Max: [2:35] All right. All right. I love it. The eagle makes a lot of sense. All right, what's the most interesting thing going on in your life right now?

Ian: [2:44] Well, one thing I'm really excited about spiritual gangster I've been a lifelong fan of the Grateful Dead. And in two weeks, we're launching a collaboration with spiritual gangster and the Grateful Dead. So it's an amazing way for me to share with everyone in spiritual gangster how much the Grateful Dead has been an influence on my life. And you know, we're we're bringing that ethos and vibrations and getting out to the spiritual gangster gang community. And to me, I'm super excited about that, because as a lifelong, Grateful Dead fan, and seen, you know, over 50 shows, and they've been a massive impact and how I see the world. And now I'm really excited to get to share what I love with you know, people that I love.

Max: [3:26] I love that i i know i know you so well and I didn't know this was going on. We also went to a Grateful Dead show right before COVID hit was dead

Ian: [3:34] Dead Company, which was amazing. And they're they're doing they're doing amazing. They're keeping on the vibrations of the grateful that you know, even one thing I was saying is God bless John Mayer, I love what he's doing. And I love how he's really, you know, made the Grateful Dead music relevant with younger generations now. So that's awesome, too.

Max: [3:51] Yeah, Brian Moore be so proud of this podcast, starting out with the Grateful Dead content here. But so spirit, speaking of spiritual gangster, it's a brand I love. How did it come to be? I know it's a big question. We'll dig a little deeper in there. But how did it come to be anything about spiritual gangster?

Ian: [4:07] So spiritual gangster, it's always been a movement to us. And you know what I used to teach yoga here and we had a chain of yoga studios and we would teach yoga really all over the world. But one of the things that I used to do is I used to teach yoga to hip hop rap music, and it would be anywhere from like Tupac to Biggie to Nelly back and a friend of mine after class one day she came up to me and she said, You're a gangster. You're like a spiritual gangster and we started selling t shirts that we sold in our yoga studio here. And once we ended up deciding to sell the yoga business at one yoga lifetime fitness, you know, we kept spiritual gangster because it really started as the house brand that we were selling in the yoga studio. And then you know turn from really a hobby to an expensive hobby and passion into you know, now a global movement.

Max: [4:53] Oh, I love it. I love it. Where When was that? When did you first No, it was a movement

Ian: [4:58] from the beginning. I mean, we you know intentionally what we realized is when we created the yoga studios, you know, we created almost I mean, like Howard Schultz, they were the third place where people would come in and be like a fitness thing, it would be a social element and also have a spiritual component. So they come and they could mix with community. And what I realized in the yoga business, it was extremely labor people dependent, and in order to scale that you just have to manage. And so what we wanted to figure out is how can we take the vibes? And really what what we learned from building the yoga community, and how do we share it with the world versus our local community here? So that was always our intention behind it.

Ian: [5:38] And now, it's really, you know, snowballing.

Max: [5:41] Yeah, I feel so good. When I wear my spiritual gangster stuff, man, and I've heard you talk about this, you've said this to me before, but you talk about how people represent brands. And then when you wear your spiritual gangster shirt, you are the brand.

Ian: [5:54] So I feel like it's superhero clothes. Sometimes for as adults, I mean, we get more letters from people who are, you know, whether they're dealing with a cancer treatment or something, then the the shirt makes them feel better about themselves. And I wear it every day, or they're going to, you know, give us big speech, and they put on a special shirt. But I think it allows people to feel better about themselves. And you know, a friend of mine who used to have an ESPN show, and he would travel all over, and he would wear our brand. And he wore a couple other brands. And he would say, hey, he and when I'm wearing these other brands, I feel like I'm repping the brand. When I'm wearing spiritual gangster, I feel like I am the brand. And that's what I think a lot of people, you know, there's a lot of spiritual gangsters out there. And people define it in different ways for themselves, but we want it to be empowering for people. And I think that, you know, you are the brand when you're wearing it.

Max: [6:40] Yeah, no, I definitely feel that way. So let's talk about Tell me about the at one yoga journey that led to spiritual gangster I just realized as I was kind of digging around preparing for this, that that was like a 13 year journey. Is that right?

Ian: [6:53] Exactly. So I went to law school in California. And in my first year law school, I was, you know, law schools are very competitive stress environment. And I was looking for ways to just, you know, de stress and I was learning to surf and I wasn't good. I was just getting pounded, and I go running. And my mom said, you know, go check out a yoga class and yoga. This is about 25 years ago, but yoga was starting to boom in LA. And I went to a class and it felt amazing. And then I had a like a lot of synchronicity and serendipity happened. But one of the greatest things that happened to me is I was flying back from I went to see my mom in Florida. I was flying back from Florida to LA. And she gave me a yoga book. So I got on the airplane, and there's an Indian guy sitting next to me in a satin jacket with a tiger on the back and his wife. And I take my yoga book, I'm like, he's like, Oh, you do yoga, I am Bikram I'm like you want to see my book, I've no idea who the guy is. At the time. He goes, I have my own book 2 million copies. So I landed I went to the border bookstore, borders Bookstore at the time when they existed in Westwood bought his book and he was literally 10 minutes from so I would go to Bikram once or twice a day. And I then I ended up taking a teacher training at yoga works. And this time when I first started going to yoga, there was like 10 or 15 people. And by the end of the year, there was like 80 to 100 people in the class, it was just like at a tipping point. But it was only happening in New York and LA. So I come out to Arizona on family vacations, and I look for the yoga studio. And it was, I mean worse than like the basement of the dirtiest motel six, and it just didn't exist here. So you know, one thing led to another but I took some business classes at UCLA business school and wrote a business plan. And I had some friends who sent me money. And while studying for the LA bar, I ended up opening the yoga studio in Arizona. And then for the first like six or eight months, I would be a yoga teacher on the weekends and fly back to LA be an entertainment lawyer and then like twice a month fly out here. And you know, what I realized, you know, pretty early on is that for our business really to work, I had to quit being my being a lawyer and move out here and really run it.

Max: [8:56] Yeah, how long were you an attorney for?

Ian: [8:58] So I was an attorney briefly. You know, I got the job my second year, and I worked there less than four months. I knew immediately like, I just, it wasn't for me. And was really, this is a funny story to like, I came back on vacation, I went to go quit my job like four days, five days in a row. And I kept going into the office to quit, but none of the partners are there because it was over over the holidays. And they had given me like a big like bonus to start, you know, and then they gave me another holiday bonus. And I offered the bonus back. And they're like No, thank you very much. But if you want to come back, you can come back. And then after that they changed the clause that if you quit being a lawyer within a year or two you to pay back the bonus. It was funny.

Max: [9:37] That's amazing. That shit only happens that Ian lopate and by the way, in fact, I'll jump in there now, because I think this is hilarious. There was one point when I first met Ian and a couple years ago that I ran into him like four times in a week. And so I hadn't really I didn't know him that well yet and I kept saying like what's crazy I keep running into you. And I will say that the better that I've got to know Ian There really is no coincidences, like, you just you open yourself up for what's going to happen and it just happened. So I mean, talk about that. I know there's this couple of things I want to touch on with that. But you kind of take that run with it. I know things just you just feel like they just happen if you set yourself up.

Ian: [10:15] And I'm a big believer, like interesting coincidence gets misinterpreted. Coincidence comes from the Latin terms when two angles coincide. And that means perfect alignment. So everything's coincidence. The idea is just to be open to it. So I, you know, I'm a big believer of like, showing up open and seeing what's here for me and you know, one of the things and I, I call it creating friends and Fred's are one of my teachers, Dr. Berry taught me this, but as friends in the energy, so everywhere I go, I create friends to be like, oh, they're like, you know, this is a great story. Just a simple one. The other day, I was flying back, I went to see my sister for and took my son. And we ended up flying back. So we we got to the airport. And, you know, I got there a little bit early, and I wanted to come home for my other son's birthday. And I saw Oh, there's another flight there. And it's, it's open. So I kind of do my energy exercises, tapping on the energy. And I walk up and say, Hey, can we get on this earlier? flight? They said, Well, we have policy. We can't you check bags. We can't put you on the earlier flight. Okay, thank you. But uh, let me see what you can do. Five minutes later, the ladies like check. So the supervisors come back to me, she goes, Oh, sir, we got you on the flight. No problem. You just gotta get your own bags. I'm like, No, she's then then I sit on the airplane and they tapped me when I get on the airplane when I'm supposed to be on. They said, Oh, sir, we want to go sit up in first class. I was like, perfect. And then my bags got there. And I didn't have to pay anything. But that kind of stuff happens me all the time. Like you find someone lets you in the door. There's Fred's available everywhere if you if you create them. So I'm always looking in the moment. Okay, how's this supposed to work out for me? You know, one of, you know, my favorite trips, like we talked about is like, you know, going to the, the NCAA, I mean, the NBA Finals game, I show up to the wrong airport at like two in the afternoon after the dead shows we were at together in LA. And I get to the airport and I go to the wrong airport, I go to Burbank instead LA. So I'm like, okay, tip office in three hours. There's no commercial flights. I ended up getting a ride from another friend of mine who owns the wires on their jet, we circle the arena, I walk in the arena, I get to hang out with Tony Robbins before tip off, and then fly home on another private jet all because I went to the wrong airport and missed the flight. So I just I'm a big believer in, you know, everything always works out. You just gotta stay open to it. I think that a lot of times the best plans happen once once the first part of the plan kind of goes awry.

Max: [12:34] yeah. No, that's awesome. I think you and I talked about you just feet you you can walk in as basketball Stadium, but he is very into basketball, run into it. In the front row. It's son's games. And he can walk into the stadium and end up in the front row. Even if he doesn't have tickets. Like, he's just how does that work?

Ian: [12:51] It just always works. I mean, I have to, you know, have to say last year, I think I was in seven different arenas and got to sit on the floor and all the different games and just not even having a plan. You know, Phoenix, we have courtside seats, but just sort of would happen one thing would lead to another and I think to that when you share what you love, then it comes back to you 10 acts. So I mean, one thing I love is basketball is sharing and VA and it comes back to me and I think that just planting the seeds for that flow to come back to you always. You know, just it just works if you stay open to it.

Max: [13:21] Yeah, yeah. Well, speaking of that, so everything kind of just happens for a reason. And things have worked out pretty well for you and, but he's also into a lot of personal development stuff. And I know this personally, because he was in we took a positive intelligence course and we're in the same pod. And I think he told me he took a happiness course at Yale. He's been the it's at least two or three Tony Robbins events that I know of. But tell me a little bit about why personal development such a priority to you and then let's talk about some of the personal development experiences that have been that you would rank the highest

Ian: [13:55] i think you know, one of the things from the positive intelligence class that I learned when we did together is my one of my number one drivers. I'm curious, I love to learn and I love to grow and I also realize I'm my own graves asset. So I'm always learning I'm always reading I'm spending it's just part of who I am and allowing myself to become you know, just you know, I like to get healthier wealthier, smarter, more intelligent everyday and continue to expand we live in expanding universe. So I love to keep feeding myself. You know and i think that i've you know, Robin Sharma has been a really good friend of mine You know, I've done a lot of stuff a Tony Robbins has been incredible. You know, someone I'm working with right now who's absolutely amazing. As Dr. Barry Margolin, he does energy for success. We've done landmark stuff together. So I'm always consuming different different types of stuff and beyond just intellectual stuff. We've done Wim Hof breathing, you know, we have a couple trainers we work with all the time. So you're we're working mentally and physically all the time to to have more energy to have more vitality and also just grow and learn and I'm a big believer of like, once you get the lesson, then you can move on. So how do I get the lessons quicker? How can I learn from others? So I don't have to make mistakes the hard way. And, you know, so that's a part of, you know, my life philosophy. And it's really allowed me, you know, to continue to build who I who I am.

Max: [15:19] yeah. Well, speaking of that, I have spent some time with you. And some of my favorite memories are showing up to his office, and he'd have a, you'd have a bathtub full of ice for us to do ice ball. And so let's talk about daily routines and rituals. I mean, I've done you know, some some stuff with you bio chargers, stuff like that. Let's talk about what you think works the best and in an ideal world, and then maybe talk about what you've been working on. I know you and Craig, we're working on some stuff, as far as you know, the kind of the biohacking side of things. But let's talk about first of all, your favorite daily routines and rituals. Let's talk about that first.

Ian: [15:53] So, you know, things that I do daily are I do a journaling, I actually keep three journals, I keep a five minute journal, which is how I started journaling. And my mother passed away about three years ago. And I've journaled every single day since she passed away. And the other two journals I keep, and this comes from the Dr. Barry Morgan's course, energy for success. I keep one journal, which has all my goals for the day. And then I keep the whole idea is that I'm building a platform to live my life on and this platform is not only am I building, I'm building it, so I can take it with me. So I write goals and all these different areas and relationships and expanding finances and creativity and intelligence, and health and vitality and serendipity. And so this, this platform continued, I feel it every day. And then there's a whole second journal that keeper only my wins. So when something great happens, coincidence, serendipity things drop into my lap, I keep journaling and writing those. So I'm, I'm keep investing energy. And it's like momentum, life works and momentum. So those are my momentum practices. I do breathing exercises every day. So a meditation slash breathing exercise, you know, we have a cold plunge in our house, I'm a huge, I did a cold punch before I came over here today. And then I I work out, you know, I have a trainer, I have multiple trainers who come to the house. And, you know, someone told me this is funny, because we're kind of recording this at the end of COVID. But these people said, you're going to come out at COVID three ways, a hunk a drunk or a chuck. So I think it's you know, you right now, you know, a lot of what I've always been working from home, you know, I've always been working from zoom, I've kind of like created this thing. And now a lot of things are the world's moving in that direction, where you can be casual, where you can get a lot of stuff done, you know, without having to have an office and go to a lot of people. And I think that, you know, what I'm finding is that I've been doubling and tripling down on all these practices over the last like three months. So instead of a trainer twice a week, I've had three different trainers twice a day. So really stepping up these practices. And you know, what I find personally is my coincidence, increases my synchronicities, my vitality, my energy, and also like my abundance and prosperity. I think everything's related. And I think that, you know, you have to raise the entire platform. Because if you're wealthy and even though healthy, have nothing if you're healthy, and you've no access to abundance, it's a much different life. And I think that you have to have relationships and creativity and all this stuff, his life is set up for us to succeed. And I think the whole key is fueling yourself to have enough energy and vitality and be open enough to take advantage of that and enjoy it.

Max: [18:30] Yeah, yeah. And I've heard you talk about how life is happening for you, not to you. So think about in thinking of how COVID How has COVID happened for you, and not to you?

Ian: [18:42] You know, I more blessings. I mean, our business has never been better, you know, we have a business that is gone now, even more and more direct to consumer online. So that's fantastic, we'd have a better relationship with our customers. You know, I've had more I used to have to travel a lot our office or in LA. Now I have way more quality time. You know, we both both have four kids, two younger boys. So I got to spend way more time with my kids and I ever had not been traveling and just also to building fitness and routines and getting the trainer's to come over and really working on a real platform and a home base. These have been all massive blessings, my relationship with Vanessa, like so many things have really blossomed and even like working on our house because we're all traveling. We never really did all this stuff. So for me, it's been building a great platform to really thrive off of and also getting in better shape physically and mentally. I think now more than ever, people are afraid. And that's what I think this thing is brought up and people it's brought up fear, money and health, which are like the two most root basic. And I think it's more important now than ever to take care of your own mental state and your physical state.

Max: [19:55] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I was lucky to I got to Idaho, and We are a 200 yards from the fitness center for the first two months of it. So

Ian: [20:03] when I mean I would love you to show me pictures of your, your red light deal. And I mean, it's, it's all these things and you realize when you're doing these things to take care of yourself, you feel so much better you have more time for your kids, you have more energy to do the things you love. And I just think that the number one biggest thing that people should be investing in is themselves and their own health and wellness.

Max: [20:23] Yeah, I agree. I was doing great. At the beginning of the summer, I was in really good, really good shape all of June. And I was eating a lower sugar diet. And I was up in Idaho. And this bartender that I had been to a few times I was drinking a little bit more often than I normally do because we're at the lake. And I told him, Hey, can I just do the vodka soda, the North 44 and soda, because I'm not really eating a lot of carbs. And he said to me, this is my kind of downturn where I started to gain the COVID-19. Now I'm starting to take it off again. But he said to me, he said, You know how much sugar is in that vodka? I'm like, Oh, shit. So So from that point, I, you know, kind of threw the diet out the window for a little bit. But I'm coming back. I'm coming back. So speaking of like, extreme body hacking treatments, I've done some pretty extreme stuff. I mean, I don't know, I used to plunges that extreme. But when you're jumping in a little ice bath with ice on it, that's, you know, pretty extreme. What would have been the most extreme, you know, kind of treatments or things that you've done? How would you rank it?

Ian: [21:25] So I think, you know, it all depends. I think the Wim Hof stuff can be very extreme. Because it's all mentally it's very way more mentally than it is physically challenged. And the idea to be able to get yourself to go in the ice bath and not freak out and regulate your breath. And also the breathing exercise. I've been really into breathing practices lately. There's a great book by Daniel Nestor called breathe, and I just finished another book called The oxygen advantage. I think that breathing is like the new meditation, you know, people are really becoming aware which in meditation was a new yoga, people are really becoming aware of how important conscious breathing is and to breathe through your nose. So there's a lot of different breathing exercises that I've been doing that can be extremely intense, long breath holds like four or five minute breath holds. So that and I think it's overwhelming more mentally than physically. Those are the things that I'm kind of playing with now that I seem that I feel, you know, I mean, we do a lot of fun stuff that people heliski we do a ton of heliskiing and things that I don't necessarily look at as being extreme. But it's, it's one of the happiest places on the planet for me out in the middle of nature skiing powder with no one around. And it's so that that I think that's a spiritual practice for me as much as anything.

Max: [22:43] In it, Ian will just disappear and he'll all sudden be surfing or heliskiing. Somewhere, it's just part of part of being Ian. So what is a model you live your life, I'm gonna change gears a little bit here. But what is the model you live your life by?

Ian: [22:55] Share what you love.

Max: [22:57] love it. Tell me about an experience that changed your life. You can pass

Ian: [23:01] almost, I almost failed out a law school. And then I studied and applied myself. Really, really, really. And I finished the top of my class like top five people in my class. And that really led me let me realize that I could do it my way versus having to do it the way everyone else was doing it.

Max: [23:19] And that was you graduate from UCLA. Right.

Ian: [23:21] I graduated from UCLA. So

Max: [23:22] it wasn't an easy school.

Ian: [23:24] And it was just it was a great experience of of trusting that I can get it done doing it the way that I wanted to do it versus kind of falling in the matrix or getting getting stuck where everyone else was going.

Max: [23:35] Yeah, going back to the foundation, because I think this is important. And I don't know if I've ever asked you about this. So I might as well learn some stuff and share it with everybody else that's listening. How did you first get into yoga to because I think that was kind of one of the foundational things if you talk about, you know, just the the positive nature and just you know, how you carry yourself, what was the building block, like when you're younger.

Ian: [23:56] So, you know, it's interesting, my mom was very spiritual. My dad was a lawyer, but my mom was very spiritual. And she had some health problems that, you know, open her up to a bunch of alternative healers. But one of the things we used to have, she would have this guy come from Swami satchidananda, his ashram, this guy, Bob Burns, and he would teach yoga, and I used to think it was like crazy, but we do like shoulder stands and headstands. And I got away from it. And then my first year of law school, I was, you know, I was going through an ending of my college relationship with my old girlfriend and just feeling stressed with law school. My mom's like, you should go to yoga, and I went into yoga, and it felt amazing. And I do think that yoga, you know, it's not like a magic bullet for things. But for me, what it's done is it's opened me up to this whole world of, I don't want to call it self help but self discovery, and going deeper and learning how to work with my own body and getting into it. And it really, you know, changed my path like I was extremely not flexible. I mean, I think I was not flexible mentally as well as physically and it's really really opened me up. And it's also allowed me to experience so many different things that came from that.

Max: [25:06] Gotcha. Ian, by the way, is one of the only guys that will walk up to me and fix my posture from behind him grab my shoulders and open me up. But I will say, I, since you've done that the first time, and he didn't just do a once every time you'd see me walk up, and it was like my mom, you know, grabbed me and put me in the right position. But so he grabbed me and opened me but I, since then, I always do this and that he you can't see it, because you're listening. But he's got his arms open. And he's, you know, stretching out, but he's opening himself up to talk about posture and like, Why so that's so important.

Ian: [25:36] You know, I think they all these different things about body language, but what you're saying is only a portion of how you're communicating. And there's a great thing we should share with your audience. There's a Stanford professor called Amy Cuddy, who did a TED talk on posture. And it just, it's amazing. Just how physical posture affects everything not only affects your mood, but it affects how people perceive you. And, you know, I'm a big believer of like we talked about earlier, if you're gonna make the most of your environment, you have to be open to it. That's why I like heliski. And that's why I'm getting the fly fishing, you have to be tuned into your environment, like even golfing what's happening in the, in the elements around you. And when you're closed off physically, you're not tuned into your environment. So I think that how you carry yourself, you know, we have all these sensors, we're more than five senses, we have hundreds of different sensors in the body. It's like when you learn to ride a bike, no one teaches you ride a bike, all of a sudden, you get it right, you turn on the sensor of balance, someone's sensor balance is so good, they can walk across a tightrope in the middle of the Grand Canyon. And once you learn how to ride a bike, you never forget it. So life is like that. How do I get these sensors open, that are closed. And then I have all these different experiences their sensors around money, there's sensors around intelligence, there's sensors around everything, but getting your body open is is massively important. And most people close as they get older, when we you know, we're for me, I'm that's why I'm learning. I'm growing. I'm doing all this self discovery. So I every day, I want to be more open than I was yesterday. more flexible.

Max: [27:02] I love it. I love that to my goal, too. So tell me on that note, and this is kind of in the same vein, what do you attribute your success to? And we're talking about I mean, all of this does, but if I asked you that question, like how would you answer it? Like what, how do you what do you attribute your success to?

Ian: [27:19] I you know, it goes back to me of the notion of planting seeds. So I think there's a, I grow things in my life where other people are like hunters or gatherers. So like I have, there's a one of my greatest teachers, a guy's greatest geisha, Michael Roach, and he wrote the book, the diamond cutter, and he's the only white guy who's like a master of Isa. He's a geisha like, which is like, I'm a cardinal of like Buddhism. And he has a four step process to get what you want. One is like, figure out what you want. Step one, pretty, that's not even most people can't even get to that. Step two is find someone else who wants what you want. Step three is go help the other person get it. So that's counterintuitive. Most people you know, it's like in order to get it, you got to give a fourth and the fourth step, which is like the real magic how you fertilize it is like when you're at home and you feel really good about helping the other person get it. So I'm a big believer of success comes from planting seeds and being generous. You know, one of the things we talked about, we didn't talk about this, but since we started spiritual gangster, you know, we've done I think over 13 million meals now with Feeding America plus we do a bunch of other stuff with but we found what I call karmic business partners. So when it's not just the company, spiritual gangsters winning, every time we sell an item online, we donate a meal. So the customer gets the karma donating the meal, and someone gets fed. And so it's it's important that you know, I call it 360 degree winning or even things that happen spiritually, when someone walks in the office. It's not just the owners who when the employees when the customers win, but the FedEx or UPS guy wins the everyone feels good and feels the energy. And that's how I think it's important to build things. And I think that's why it's successful. Because we're having a real positive impact, and it's intentional.

Max: [29:06] That's what I love, too. If you go to their website, they don't brag about this. They do it for the karmic reasons.

Ian: [29:11] For years, we didn't even share about it. And now I feel a lot like way better about sharing about it. One thing you know, you know, one of the greatest things that we talk about, you know, you do things and all these wonderful things come from it, like you know, we had a great thing. And one day we were on Good Morning America, Savannah Guthrie, whose initials are SG love spiritual gangster, she got to pick one brand in the entire country. And she made her shirt called like you with my wife. And in five minutes, we sold enough to sell to give 3 million meals. And we got Tony Robbins to match it. And that's how I ended up getting connected. Tony Robbins who ended up inviting me to date with destiny. Of course that's how it happened. So it's just like these things snowball in a way better than you could ever expect it.

Max: [29:56] yeah. No, I love the given back piece of spiritual gangster, it's one of the reasons I love the brand. It Tell me about the challenges and finding one's purpose or challenges you've had and kind of finding your purpose. I mean, it sounds like you're a spiritual gangster, you know, I kind of know you and met you just a couple years ago. So you're pretty far down the journey, but in finding your purpose in life, and maybe maybe you're still in the search purposes, a journey for sure. But tell me about the challenges and finding your own purpose and, you know, kind of share the challenges other people have that you see and finding their purpose.

Ian: [30:32] I think clarity is powerful. So, you know, one of the things the practices that Tony Robbins I got from David s&c is you get really clear of like, you know, what are your drivers? What do you value the most, and we even, you know, did a little bit of that in positive intelligence, but what's important to you and then every year I keep a board of these are my four goals for the year. And then when you get them you want to always be setting new goals. I think a lot of people some people are super successful, they reach their goals, and they don't set new ones and they kind of plateau. So you always want to be you know, right as you get close to hitting a goal, you want to set another one. And I think that it's you know, one getting clear what you're going for because clarity is power. If you don't know what you're aiming at, you don't know when you're gonna hit the target or not. So I'm a big believer of like writing things down even the journaling, like I write daily goals and things I wanted to have a great podcast with you and be able to share the energy with people so it's very you know, important for me you know, specificity like being clear like you the way you can work with the universe's you'd be clear, you know, and I think one of my one of the greatest examples, and this gets back to it is not only people like you know, we like to golf like you want to focus the fairway, not the water. But Ghostbusters, one of my favorite movies is the greatest example of like, how most people work with the universe. Most people figure out their I don't want this, I don't want this. I don't want this their biggest fear the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And guess what peers the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bigger than ever. So most people are focusing on all the time of what they don't want or talking about what they don't want. It's important to be positive and speak about what you want in a way that you're having it versus the universe doesn't understand. No. So it's just you're always manifesting your your fears and nightmares. And I think most people are stuck on that channel.

Max: [32:18] It's a frequency. Yeah, yeah, we were in our positive intelligence course together on our pod. So we'd have these conversations. And every morning I get up to work out I'd see a deer. And so we're trying to figure out what that is. And to Ian's point, he said, my dad died three years ago, and he loved coralayne rows that he said, Every time I saw a deer, it was probably my dad, which I don't know if I think I probably mentioned this before, but since that time, I probably saw 10 deer a day there. So it was well, there's

Ian: [32:44] another great book for your readers called signs. And there was she was just on the goop deal. And, and I read that book, and I shared it with you. And you know, both my parents have passed away. And I think you know, it's just with my son and you know, deers, hummingbirds, dragonflies, birds, if you're aware of their environment, they're your people, they're always communicating to you. And then once you become aware of and see it, they'll do it even more. And it's, it's amazing. It's just, there's so much out there that's available to us, if you open up our sensors, you know, it's like, the thing is, most people are missing it. That's what we talk, you know, it's like, why is it so hard for so many because they're missing it, they're closed, they're not even, they're not even where they are

Max: [33:25] They're stuck in the matrix,

Ian: [33:26] they're fully in the matrix. I mean, one of my favorite movies is the matrix, you want the red pill or the blue pill, you know, it's like, what reality is going to be and and I think, you know, even now the vibe of the matrix is so thick with fear, you know, like, we talked about fear around money fear around health. And what it does is it close closes people down. And it's a frequency of, of lack versus abundance. And then the other side of the coin is, you know, you're in the energy and you have coincidence, and you have serendipity in your, you're in tune with the animals and wonderful things drop in your lap. And it's even better than than could be expected. Yeah, but there's, there's two frequencies. And whichever one you invest in, the thing of this is really important. That's what we talked about building a platform, is the matrix is always going to want to crush you or bring you down. So that's why it's so important to do these practices and build your energy up. So you're at a different frequency, and that you're coming out with vitality versus coming out of it. In a broken state of lack.

Max: [34:25] Yeah, yeah, he had such a good example of what he's talking about, too. So if those of you that don't know, um, I can attest to. He just lives by the stuff we're talking about. So coming back to fill in the blank, leaders would be better if they did, blank...

Ian: [34:41] listened

Max: [34:43] They listen. If you could sit down with one person and ask them something, who would it be and what would you ask

Ian: [34:48] Tony Robbins? And I would just how do I continue to dial it up? You know, what are my three greatest things that I could tune into right now?

Max: [34:58] Yeah. You went to been to two?

Ian: [35:01] I've now probably been to maybe five to eight live events, I've got a two day with Destiny's and I'll redo that again, I find it's like one of the, it was one of the greatest, it happened right after my mom passed away but I went there and I was able to really author my life versus there was so much default programming in there that I was unaware of. And it was just a massive wake up call for me. And I had, you know, there have been different people and things that have shined the light on it. But all of a sudden, at that moment, like all the lights in the room got turned on, it was a it was a huge, huge beginning of, you know, a massive breakthrough that's continuing to this day. Yeah.

Max: [35:45] So this is why I love asking you this question. Because it may be difficult because you have this abundance mindset. But if you knew x 10 years ago, you would have done what?

Ian: [35:58] So if I knew half of what I knew now, I mean, you know, one of the biggest things that I've learned is, is really being aware with people and learning how to, to size up people better. You know, I think there's different types of people, there's people who are win win win, people like you and I are always looking to help others and contribute. And, you know, and then there's, you know, other types of people, there's some people who are win lose are always out to kind of take a little piece from you. And you know, and then there's people who are massively win losing their job, they're gonna carve you up and take as much as they can. And then there's another type of people, which is a complete narcissist, who pretend their win win win, and they got your back and they got your interest, and they're just out there to like, completely crush you. And if I had could realize that everyone's a type one, and how to how to really categorize the type one from the narcissist, and learning how to win with all these different types of people. Like, you know, that's what I've done over the last, you know, I'm a total win winner, and I'm always looking at how to have other people win. And I had a huge education and realizing that not everyone's set up that way and you also to the more the bigger light you are the narcissists are there to kind of take you out. So getting into reality and not saying everyone's the greatest guy in the world, because there's a lot of people out there that are narcissists who are out there looking to, to, to win at your expense, where I'm out there looking to win with you and everyone else involved.

Max: [37:22] I love it. I love it. I think, coming into the business world, I played a lot of sports, and I was very competitive. And it took me a long time to figure out how being competitive was to my advantage in the real world of the business world. And I think if you're overly competitive, you focus on just being a little bit better than your competitors, which if that's what you're focused on, what I've learned over the years, is you missed a huge opportunity to just crush everybody not in a bad way, but crushed like the game and and change the game. So I love that. So what is the one thing you wish? People would stop saying?

Ian: [37:57] I'm trying? I'm like, can't try either do it or don't? Like, it cannot? You know, that's annoying when people I'm trying? I'm trying like,

Max: [38:06] either doing or you're not? Yeah, yeah, do try. And by the way, his son's name is Jedi. So he's the only guy I know who named his son Jedi. So you do not try you? Do you do it or you don't do it? Yeah. If you had only one sentence, describe yourself what would you say?

Ian: [38:22] enthusiastic, positive. generous

Max: [38:26] Yeah, me too. Me too. What are you curious about now? I mean, obviously, you're very curious person. That's almost all we've talked about. But like, what are you most curious about today?

Ian: [38:36] right now I'm very curious about breathing. And you know why there's such a disconnect in our society of people don't know how to breathe. And I think a lot of the health issues, anxiety, over obesity are all due to people breathing through their mouth. So I'm very curious about breathing correctly, and finding ways to share that with other people. I mean, I've even been this sleeping now taping my mouth when I sleep.

Max: [39:05] It's amazing. And we do we meditate at least once a week at my for my office, and we usually do it by zoom. Can we have you do blood? breathing? 100%? All right. All right, we've got them. We've got them committed. So why Sal's going to have them do our meditation this upcoming week. So what do you find most challenging?

Ian: [39:25] So the thing that I find it's keeping the energy and using the energy with my kids, and staying in a positive state and always, you know, one of the things that I really, you when you're in a positive state, when you're energy rich, when you're things work better. And what I find is sometimes with my kids, that's where I'll get, I'll respond or react from an A low energy state and it's never the great way. So what I'm really working on is only responding especially with my family, my wife, then as we work together and my kids when I'm in a good energy state. And that's, it's it's more challenging than the sounds I've gotten. They're pretty good around business stuff, but around family and even little kids of, of not reacting from a from a low energy place.

Max: [40:13] Yeah. What's it like, being in a successful partnership with your business partnership with your wife? And I, you know, I've been by your house recently. But what is there is there challenges in that?

Ian: [40:23] Oh, there's tons of challenges. And I think it's like any relationship, it just brings, you know, different, this whole other dynamics, you know, we work together, we live together. Now, we don't have an office over, you know, we're trading and we're in different parts of the business, and she's incredible. She's super creative, and passionate, and, you know, but we've learned, you know, over the years, how to communicate with each other how to share and give feedback. And I think, you know, like, we really making massive evolutions, and we're growing and learning together, I think, you know, any relationship and it's all about growing and learning together and having each other's backs and, and just, you know, it's the same thing as raising. It's like, the, the kids are our main business and then spiritual gangsters, but we're, we're partners in life, and then all of them, you know, she's granted a lot of stuff that I'm no good at, and I'm good at other stuff that you know, so I think it's figuring out like, where to play with your strengths, and even most importantly, how to communicate.

Max: [41:20] Yeah, no, that's awesome. That's awesome. All right. Well, this is uh, this has been episode one. I think he's setting the bar high for for our last guest. What a great guest have episode one. I think I planned this out perfectly. If you if you have a bad interview or conversation with Ian, it's probably not you is what I have come to the conclusion. But I'm going to start wrapping up just a little bit. We're gonna go I'm trying to create like segments. This is the first time I've ever done a podcast before so we're just kind of feeling this out. But I want to break into some segments and I always want to end like on a rapid fire question like segment so I'm gonna just kind of throw some questions at you. quick answer, actually answer as long as you want whatever you feel like needs to complete the answer, but they are in a rapid approach. So what's the first thing you do when you wake up?

Ian: [42:04] I do my energy exercises. Like, like, I one of the things I learned from Dr. V, one of my meditations before I go to bed, do him like do a mantra to myself and do in the mirror.

Max: [42:14] But what book Have you read more than once?

Ian: [42:16] the game of life and how to play it Florence Griffith Shin,

Max: [42:19] I still have not read it. You've told me about that more than once now. So what person had the greatest impact on your life?

Ian: [42:26] Yeah, I would say Tony Robbins, massively impactful. There's been a lot of people who have impacted me in powerful ways. But recently, Tony Robbins. Dr. Barry Moreland very good. Sadhguru geisha Michael Roche, I've been very lucky to have like, awesome influences.

Max: [42:44] Love it. What is something on your bucket list that you're waiting to check off?

Ian: [42:47] Play Augusta.

Max: [42:49] We have to we have to do it together. If you do that. If you could teach one subject to school children, what would it be?

Ian: [42:58] mindset, the value of positive mindset and posture.

Max: [43:03] Are you a morning or night person?

Ian: [43:05] Both.

Max: [43:06] Yeah, you know what? To think about that question. I couldn't.

Ian: [43:08] I mean, I feel like I'm on like, as long as your eyes are open, yeah, I'm on that I like morning and night. And

Max: [43:14] if they're not on the way Oh, and you're feeling pretty good. Probably. What's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done lately?

Ian: [43:20] lately? That's a good one. I mean, I feel like a lot of spontaneity. This is a little bit not super recently, but you know, within last year, and so I was in LA I was out there. And uh, one of my best friends has his own private heliski place I'm in it's in Canada, and I don't have a passport. And I'm there for a bunch of meetings. I'm interviewing like a couple people and he calls me it's like, 99. He's like, We're going skiing tomorrow. What do you mean, I got a bunch of meetings. He's like, we're going to ski tomorrow. So I'm like, Okay, I'm like, I don't have a passport. He's like, don't worry about it. So I end up moving a bunch of my meetings doing one morning, get on an airplane. And then I have to come I'm like, I got to come back the next night because in Phoenix my this is my son's favorite player was Russell Westbrook. I promised I take him to the game. So I go we go up we heliski all day. And then I get into Canada using the energy with no passport. So getting the energy, use the pack, go to Canada, no passport, all that even asked and then now I have to fly home. So he's going somewhere else. And I have to get back to take my son to the game. So I end up getting back and having my assistant Meet me at the airport with my passport. So I get this heliski all day and then pick up my son and get to take them to see see the songs play Westbrook and he gets to hang with Westbrook and we get there in time for the warm ups and was was amazing. So and that just fell out of the blue like that was, you know, an amazing day

Max: [44:49] Yeah, that's amazing. That's amazing.

Ian: [44:51] But I think the biggest one for me was learning how to get in another country without a passport.

Max: [44:56] That Canadian one or two. That's not exactly right. All right, well, I'm gonna have to bring this to a close. Luckily, I get to continue to talk to Ian today and moving forward. But thanks for being on episode one, you set the bar, like I said extremely high. We're grateful to have you and we look forward to having you at why scouts to the lead our breathing and our meditation practice next week,

Ian: [45:18] Max. Thanks for having me. You know, you're tremendous friend. And I know this is gonna be an awesome success. You've got so much to share, and thanks for having me.

Max: [45:27] Awesome. Thanks for being on behind the resume. Thanks, Ian.

Max: [45:34] Thanks for listening to the behind the resume podcast with why scouts max Hansen. Join us next time as we continue to have intimate conversations with leaders to learn their stories, life hacks, life experiences and other interesting practices or learning experiences that have made them who they are today. You can learn more about your host max Hanson and why scouts at why scouts calm. Join us next time as we go behind the resume with why scouts max Hansen on demand 24 seven right here at Star worldwide networks calm or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.