Speaker 1: So the big question is this, how do investors like
Speaker 1: us get access to the ideas, information, and most importantly,
Speaker 1: the right people that give us the tools of information
Speaker 1: we need to make informed and educated decisions to have success.
Speaker 1: That is the question, and this podcast will give us
Speaker 1: the answers. This is Mark Moss, your host. Let's get
Speaker 1: this started. Welcome to another episode of the Market Disruptors podcast.
Speaker 1: You know, we like to talk about disruptive companies, companies
Speaker 1: that are disrupting markets, technologies, but also people who are
Speaker 1: disrupting things. And today we're talking to someone a little
Speaker 1: bit differently. We are talking to Kenny Florian, who's a
Speaker 1: UFC legend um hopefully a potential Hall of Famer, and
Speaker 1: he is it was UFC fighter and was and is
Speaker 1: now also a UFC commentator. It's a little bit different,
Speaker 1: but you have to understand Um, he has been a
Speaker 1: disruptive person. He's been involved in the very beginning of things.
Speaker 1: UM seen them blow up and to be really big
Speaker 1: big things. Built his platform off of him. He's also
Speaker 1: been an investor for most of his life before he
Speaker 1: was a UFC fighter, and he's been involved in investing.
Speaker 1: He can tell you what it takes to become a champion,
Speaker 1: and he likes cryptocurrencies. So let's get right in. Let's
Speaker 1: talk to Kenny Florian. So we have Kenny Florian on
Speaker 1: on today. Uh, and he is known as being a fighter,
Speaker 1: he's known as being a commentator for UFC, among many
Speaker 1: other things. Um, he's been kind of at the forefront
Speaker 1: of a couple of things that have really changed the
Speaker 1: way that we view entertainment and whatnot. And he's a
Speaker 1: perfect guy to talk to you about disrupting markets because
Speaker 1: he's really been a piece of it, and so I
Speaker 1: wanted to have him on to talk about that. So Kenny, Uh, welcome,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, man. I always enjoy your information on
Speaker 1: crypto and good good to be talking to great So, uh,
Speaker 1: I want to get into that. But you know, I
Speaker 1: know we're we're right around the same age. I think
Speaker 1: I got you by just a couple of years. But uh,
Speaker 1: so we I think we're old enough to have seen
Speaker 1: this massive shift that's really happened in our world, right.
Speaker 1: I mean we were both there before internet days, and UM,
Speaker 1: I really feel that we're just now really seeing the
Speaker 1: shift in our world from the Internet where where people
Speaker 1: you know, all this decentralization and information and whatnot. So
Speaker 1: so we're like young enough to kind of get it,
Speaker 1: but old enough to have that perspective, which is cool. Um.
Speaker 1: But you, uh, you you went down I know, you
Speaker 1: went to college and then you went into the UFC
Speaker 1: and started fighting. Tell me about that just a little bit. Yeah. So, Um,
Speaker 1: I was in Boston College. I did martial arts as
Speaker 1: a kid, and I was playing soccer there and uh
Speaker 1: found Brazilian jitsu while I was in college and be
Speaker 1: connected with martial arts and UM as I was playing
Speaker 1: soccer for for BC. You know, I just had I
Speaker 1: felt like I always had this mistress on my mind,
Speaker 1: which was martial arts and Brazilian jitsu specifically, and really
Speaker 1: just got very much into it. Um started competing in
Speaker 1: Brazilian jitsu and and back in the day, you know,
Speaker 1: people really had no idea of what Brazilian jiu jitsu is. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: I feel like, specifically in southern California, you see them.
Speaker 1: You see Brazilian Jet two academies everywhere nowadays, it seems.
Speaker 1: But back in the day, a lot of people didn't
Speaker 1: know what it was. And of course it was a
Speaker 1: grappling yard and it came into prominence because of the
Speaker 1: Ultimate Fighting Championship and the Gracie family and their success
Speaker 1: in the UFC, and ultimately the UFC became um more
Speaker 1: about not what martial arts discipline was the best, but
Speaker 1: UM basically there was the idea that you need to
Speaker 1: do know everything, you need to be good at kickboxing
Speaker 1: and wrestling and Brazilian jiu jitsu and and that kind
Speaker 1: of morphed into something completely different. And ultimately, as I
Speaker 1: was competing in Brazilian jiuit, so I said, you know,
Speaker 1: the tough test is really how I would do against
Speaker 1: another train mixed martial arts fighter. How would I do
Speaker 1: against a skilled UH fighter who kind of knew everything?
Speaker 1: And I didn't really want to learn kickboxing the other stuff.
Speaker 1: It was more of a test of my Brazilian jude
Speaker 1: in the beginning. And UM, one fight led to another
Speaker 1: fight and another fight, and UM, I found myself on
Speaker 1: the Ultimate Fighter Season one. UM I was asked to
Speaker 1: do that. I was the least experienced person on there.
Speaker 1: UM and UH ultimately you know, made it to the
Speaker 1: final and was offered a contract with the UFC. And
Speaker 1: you know, for me, like in my family, you know,
Speaker 1: my my father is a physician, and he expected me
Speaker 1: to go to law school after graduating from Boston College.
Speaker 1: It was like, wait, what are you doing there? How
Speaker 1: are you gonna try to make money doing martial arts?
Speaker 1: And now you're gonna fight in the cage? Are you crazy?
Speaker 1: So it was kind of a bit of leap of
Speaker 1: faith because back then you really couldn't do that well.
Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't really a big time professional sport
Speaker 1: back then. And um, you know, I was lucky enough
Speaker 1: that I did well. And of course the UFC kind
Speaker 1: of blew up, you know, around that that same time,
Speaker 1: and um, I think in large part two to the
Speaker 1: reality show and it brought in a whole new audience
Speaker 1: of fans, and um, it's uh, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a crazy trip. So, um, you know, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about that just a little bit. So you know,
Speaker 1: you it did blow up at the time. Um did
Speaker 1: you did you see the future there? Right? So I
Speaker 1: want to like get this perspective for people because we
Speaker 1: have as investors, we suffer from normalcy bias where we
Speaker 1: think like, whatever is happening today will always continue to
Speaker 1: be that way. And that's why people didn't see the
Speaker 1: Internet when it was coming in. People today doubt cryptocurrencies
Speaker 1: because we can't see past that. So I'm just curious
Speaker 1: when the UFC first started and I remember those early days.
Speaker 1: Did you see that or did you just get kind
Speaker 1: of lucky? You know? I think a little bit of both. Um.
Speaker 1: I definitely saw the potential in it, UM. And I
Speaker 1: saw that boxing was kind of dying out a little bit. UM.
Speaker 1: And I just thought that mixed martial arts was a
Speaker 1: very exciting thing. And I'm I'm the kind of person
Speaker 1: that tends to be um let by my passion and
Speaker 1: also the passion of other people. And UM, when I
Speaker 1: saw this sport, I knew it had a lot of potential.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure if we were going to be able
Speaker 1: to pull it off, um, but they did. I think
Speaker 1: they made a lot of great business decisions over the
Speaker 1: years of getting the right TV deals and uh marketing
Speaker 1: uh it and the fighters in the right way, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, it was able to become a huge success.
Speaker 1: You know. I think that the the UFC was purchased
Speaker 1: by the Fatida brothers, who are these casino owners back
Speaker 1: in the day, I think for like two million dollars,
Speaker 1: and they recently sold a few years ago to w
Speaker 1: M E I M g uh for four point two
Speaker 1: billion dollars. So I mean quite quite an amazing turnaround.
Speaker 1: And you know I was lucky enough to be a
Speaker 1: part of them. Yeah. So that's one thing that I
Speaker 1: talked about a lot, which is, you know, these things
Speaker 1: that come around that are disruptive, they kind of killed
Speaker 1: the old way and bring in a new way, and
Speaker 1: if you can catch them soon enough, then you have
Speaker 1: this huge opportunity. So, like you said, the Rito brothers
Speaker 1: did right. They saw this, they believed in the future,
Speaker 1: they made that future come real and they went from
Speaker 1: two million to four billion. But even you and I
Speaker 1: talked about this a lot where we don't have to
Speaker 1: invent anything, we don't have to create anything. We can
Speaker 1: just be in the right place at the right time,
Speaker 1: believe in it enough to hitch our wagon. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of what you did in a sense where you
Speaker 1: didn't you didn't invent it, you didn't create you weren't
Speaker 1: even pushing it, but you did see the opportunity you
Speaker 1: did jump in, and you've built a career out of it.
Speaker 1: Absolutely uh. And and then you know, of course that
Speaker 1: led to you know, me doing commentary and hosting you know,
Speaker 1: various UFC shows over the years, and um, it really
Speaker 1: has become quite quite an impressive monster. Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1: And and so I just think, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of times people get um, you know, may maybe they
Speaker 1: get overwhelmed or confused. They don't really understand, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: these opportunities are investing and things like that, but really
Speaker 1: it's just life and it's really just about seeing opportunities,
Speaker 1: seizing opportunities, believing in the future, pushing the future, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So I like that. Now, I know through your career
Speaker 1: like that. I'm a fan, and I know you were
Speaker 1: one of the maybe kind of known for being one
Speaker 1: of the smarter fighters, but you kind of really had
Speaker 1: good game plans and pick that. Um. So I guess
Speaker 1: maybe that leads to you seeing those opportunities and kind
Speaker 1: of seeing that I hope. So, you know, I think, um,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's important to kind of be able
Speaker 1: to look ahead a little bit and also try to
Speaker 1: do what other people aren't doing or what the majority
Speaker 1: aren't doing. I think that that's super important, not only
Speaker 1: for investment, but I think in a lot of different fields.
Speaker 1: I think if you want to be successful, Um, you
Speaker 1: have to understand that things are evolving around us all
Speaker 1: the time, and if you get onto something a little
Speaker 1: bit too late, you can miss it completely. And if
Speaker 1: you have a certain passionate interest in that field, why
Speaker 1: not you know, try to lead the way and look
Speaker 1: for things that are a little bit different than whatever
Speaker 1: other people are doing. Um. You know, in the hopes
Speaker 1: that it's going to turn into something special. And I
Speaker 1: think I've always looked to try to do that. I've
Speaker 1: always looked to try to get into things that, um,
Speaker 1: I find is interesting, getting the things that I'm passionate about,
Speaker 1: um and uh, and try to try to do things
Speaker 1: a little bit differently than than what the majority is doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I want to find out what those things are.
Speaker 1: But I want to ask you first, UM. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people see these opportunities, but they don't.
Speaker 1: We all want it to be like this big mystery
Speaker 1: that if I can figure out, everything comes easy. But
Speaker 1: I always say that the truth is it's actually pretty simple,
Speaker 1: but it's hard to do because it's hard work. Right.
Speaker 1: So obviously to achieve the level of success you've done,
Speaker 1: you've put in a lot of hard work. You've had
Speaker 1: to overcome a lot of adversity and whatnot. Tell me
Speaker 1: a little bit about the mindset that you've had to
Speaker 1: have in the commitment you've had to have in order
Speaker 1: to achieve that success, you know, I'm I think it's
Speaker 1: very important to have UM good mentors around you. I
Speaker 1: think that's extremely important. I think that, you know, in
Speaker 1: the martial arts world or in a lot of different worlds.
Speaker 1: You know, we we were only standing on the shoulders
Speaker 1: of giants, and but at the same time we have
Speaker 1: to look to try to make those things better and
Speaker 1: try to see what other people aren't seeing or try
Speaker 1: to look for um perhaps say a deeper perspective on
Speaker 1: what's going on, and UM try to bring new things
Speaker 1: to to the space as well. And I think that
Speaker 1: was always what I tried to do, is bring techniques
Speaker 1: and training regiments and UM different things that definitely worked
Speaker 1: for me specifically, but always try to do things that
Speaker 1: very few people were doing at the time. So I
Speaker 1: was always willing to take those risks and sometimes it
Speaker 1: worked out, but for the majority of the time it
Speaker 1: always worked out. You know, it worked out more often
Speaker 1: than it didn't. And I think you we have to
Speaker 1: be willing to um, have that mindset of having a
Speaker 1: little bit of faith both in ourselves and in the
Speaker 1: space that we're in, UM, and and be able to
Speaker 1: work hard to to prove ourselves. Right. UM. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's super important no matter what we're doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. Um. Yeah. So I just you know, I
Speaker 1: see a lot of people. They want this better life,
Speaker 1: They dream of this better life. They want to be
Speaker 1: a better investor, they want to know what to invest into,
Speaker 1: but they don't want to put the time in. And
Speaker 1: that's that was kind of what I was asking about, Like, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, it's simple, but it's not easy. You mean,
Speaker 1: and you have to put the work in. It's easy,
Speaker 1: you know what to do, you just have to do it. Um.
Speaker 1: And So, like you said, you were kind of reinventing yourself.
Speaker 1: And I would imagine, you know, you're learning this new
Speaker 1: technique that feels very foreign to you. But after you
Speaker 1: do it enough, it starts to feel comfortable. You're You're
Speaker 1: okay having those failures, knowing that's part of it because
Speaker 1: you know ultimately will achieve that that success right absolutely,
Speaker 1: And and again, like you said, putting in the time
Speaker 1: and the effort you know, every single day doing again,
Speaker 1: doing more, doing more than everyone, putting in more time,
Speaker 1: putting in more of your creative mind into the process
Speaker 1: as well, that there's a true end this amount of
Speaker 1: work ethic that is needed. But it's not only work ethic.
Speaker 1: I think it's uh using your mind to be creative,
Speaker 1: using your focus, being as present as possible, to learn
Speaker 1: from those experiences and uh and be able to adjust
Speaker 1: and adapt I think is huge. Yeah, yeah, definitely, it's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love it. I just always just always just try
Speaker 1: and reinforce that, like you have to put the time
Speaker 1: and you have to put the work in. So I
Speaker 1: appreciate you saying that. Now. UM, I know another project
Speaker 1: you've been on for a couple of years is this
Speaker 1: Battle Bots. Um, I uh just kind of curious about that. Um.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's kind of more just kind of
Speaker 1: like a fun show. What do you think about that?
Speaker 1: What do you think about robots being in the future.
Speaker 1: I know with AI and stuff, it's really start to
Speaker 1: take off, But what do you think about that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's impressive. You know, I think I've always been fascinated
Speaker 1: with all forms of combat, and you know, we have
Speaker 1: these engineers that are part of battle Bots that are
Speaker 1: some of the best in the world. Guys that are
Speaker 1: working for UH, you know, the Jet Propulsion law UH
Speaker 1: in Pasadena, were the guys from NASA, various engineers from
Speaker 1: from all over the world, Brazil, Europe, the United States,
Speaker 1: and you know, as a part of their job, you know,
Speaker 1: they are doing engineering in various aspects. But I think
Speaker 1: these guys have a lot of fun putting that aside
Speaker 1: and using engineering for something fun like combat. And they
Speaker 1: built you know, these robots that are up to two
Speaker 1: fifty pounds UH. And they come in with various tactics
Speaker 1: and various weapons and various styles of um how they
Speaker 1: put it together. UM. And you know it's kind of
Speaker 1: this Uh. It's been around, I guess since the nineties,
Speaker 1: but the reboot of battle Bots kind of happened, I guess,
Speaker 1: um what two thousand fifteen or so. UM. And we
Speaker 1: were originally on ABC, now we're on Discovery Channel, and UM, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember watching it, uh, you know in the late
Speaker 1: nineties and early two thousands and being fascinated with it.
Speaker 1: And you see how how far the robots have come,
Speaker 1: both in the materials that they use and the kind
Speaker 1: of weapons that they use, and every year you see
Speaker 1: these teams step it up. Um, and just seeing that
Speaker 1: evolution is something that I've always been fascinated with of
Speaker 1: how these how the how these teams are learning from
Speaker 1: their experiences and adapting and getting better. Um. The ones
Speaker 1: that don't, they're not doing too well, they die off.
Speaker 1: The ones that are that are taking to this new technology,
Speaker 1: taking the risks, um, but not maybe going too far
Speaker 1: with the technology, are the ones that are always doing
Speaker 1: extremely well, the ones that are making those small improvements. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's it's been fun just meeting the teams and
Speaker 1: and seeing how they how they evolve and get better.
Speaker 1: It's just a lot of fun. And the fights have
Speaker 1: been obviously very entertaining as well. Yeah. Now, um, when
Speaker 1: you went to college, what did you what was your major? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, I started off of political science and then
Speaker 1: moved into communications. Uh. Um. So my my plan was
Speaker 1: originally I was part of the pre law program. My
Speaker 1: my goal was to ultimately go to law school, and
Speaker 1: obviously that change. I went to a different kind of school.
Speaker 1: Uh fighting in a cage. But um, yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: that's what I majored in. Alright, good now. Um, Obviously
Speaker 1: most people know we talked about investing, and so I
Speaker 1: want to I want to kind of transition into that. UM.
Speaker 1: Like I said before, though, I think there's lessons that
Speaker 1: we get from all areas of life that really pile
Speaker 1: into this UM. I have two young girls. My ten
Speaker 1: year old does jiu jitsu. Talking about how in southern
Speaker 1: California everybody seems to do it right, So my ten
Speaker 1: year old daughter does jud's been doing it for a
Speaker 1: couple of years now, competes a little bit here and there. Uh.
Speaker 1: I have an older daughter who's a competitive surfer, and
Speaker 1: I always tell them like, like, look, it's not about
Speaker 1: the sport. This is about life, right, These are the
Speaker 1: things that you're learning for life. So I like to
Speaker 1: I like to draw those comparisons. That's cool, But um,
Speaker 1: knowing that you're a smarter guy, college educated, you've really
Speaker 1: managed to build yourself a nice career. Obviously you you
Speaker 1: we kind of connected to the cryptocurrency space, um, before
Speaker 1: we jumped right into crypto, Like, how do you view
Speaker 1: just investing in general, that stuff that you've like dabbled in.
Speaker 1: You bought a house, you've you've put money away into stocks,
Speaker 1: like what's you just overall viewpoint and kind of where
Speaker 1: you're out with that for sure. You know I've always um,
Speaker 1: I guess my first kind of investments happened pretty early
Speaker 1: in my early twenties. Um, and it was mainly in
Speaker 1: real estate of just started small by you know, buying
Speaker 1: the condo pretty early on and creating value off of
Speaker 1: that and going into you know what I thought was
Speaker 1: um and my uh, you know, immature mind at the time,
Speaker 1: you know, getting into the best market that I could
Speaker 1: find in good towns and good cities, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: later selling that and and turning that into profits and
Speaker 1: things like that. So I real estate was kind of
Speaker 1: my first foray into investing, I guess you could say. Um.
Speaker 1: And later on, you know, when I started making money
Speaker 1: in my fighting career, UM, you know, I started putting
Speaker 1: money away from retirement. UM. And you know the various
Speaker 1: four one K plans that I had, so I have, um,
Speaker 1: you know, a retirement plan where I invest through Vanguard
Speaker 1: and UM. I also UM, let's see, uh, I didn't
Speaker 1: really invest in new businesses per sally, but UM yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I only invested in in kind of things that I
Speaker 1: knew and that I was involved in. So I have
Speaker 1: a I have a gym called Florida Martial Arts Center
Speaker 1: in Boston with my brother Keith, and I own a
Speaker 1: gym um here in Brentwood, California, um uh called Maraakei
Speaker 1: Brazilian jiu jitsu. So um. You know, I've kind of
Speaker 1: always tried to stick to what I know the best
Speaker 1: that I can. I think crypto was really something that
Speaker 1: was very foreign to me, but it was very interesting
Speaker 1: and I probably came into that space maybe about three
Speaker 1: or four years ago. Um and um, yes, so I
Speaker 1: kind of have my he has a lot of different
Speaker 1: uh uh pots. But uh no, that's super great and
Speaker 1: and I love to hear that because that's what I
Speaker 1: always recommend. I got my started in real estate as well. Um,
Speaker 1: and I had a friend that was doing I was
Speaker 1: eighteen year old. I didn't even know what I was doing.
Speaker 1: I jumped in. Um. But you know, I'm spread across
Speaker 1: like that as well. And I believe the key to
Speaker 1: success with investing is allocating your assets across multiple things.
Speaker 1: I didn't know much. I got in when I was eighteen,
Speaker 1: and I had like a ten year bowl running real
Speaker 1: estate and then in. When the market crash in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, I lost everything because I was just
Speaker 1: all in real estate. I didn't understand it. Uh, now
Speaker 1: you know, I'm spread across different things, so when the
Speaker 1: markets move, I can benefit from that. Now. I do
Speaker 1: believe that cryptocurrencies are the best opportunity that we have today,
Speaker 1: and I believe it's probably the best opportunity will ever
Speaker 1: have in our life. Um. That being said, it's still risky.
Speaker 1: So I'm not a hundred percent in, right, I put
Speaker 1: a percentage of my portfolio and um, and and so
Speaker 1: I do things like that so I can I can
Speaker 1: benefit from the upside without putting my whole life at
Speaker 1: risk over it. Right, But you talked about like private businesses,
Speaker 1: So you started a couple of businesses, which is an
Speaker 1: amazing place to invest. This one of my favorite. I
Speaker 1: invest in my businesses. Lots of businesses like that and
Speaker 1: other things. So that's really good. Now you've been in
Speaker 1: cryptos for a couple of years now, which which makes
Speaker 1: you kind of old in the space now at this point. Right,
Speaker 1: So you've been through, Uh, you've been through the kind
Speaker 1: of run up. You saw the big crash. You're still around.
Speaker 1: Why are you still around. I'm still around, you know.
Speaker 1: I I still believe in it, you know, I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, I've kind of come from the place where
Speaker 1: I believe that, Um, most of us don't know what
Speaker 1: the hell we're doing. You're gotta have to have a
Speaker 1: belief in yourself at the end of the day and
Speaker 1: what you think is going to work out, and you
Speaker 1: have to have a certain amount of faith. And I
Speaker 1: I feel like people still don't understand the benefits of
Speaker 1: crypto and they kind of just go off what the
Speaker 1: media is saying and just repeating a lot of being
Speaker 1: statements and um, you know again, and like you said,
Speaker 1: who knows, you know, maybe it fails, but honestly, there's
Speaker 1: something extremely valuable there whether it fails or not. There's
Speaker 1: tremendous value um in in in crypto and and things
Speaker 1: like bitcoin and it's potential. Um And tell me, tell
Speaker 1: me what you think about bitcoin specifically, what what what
Speaker 1: what do you see as the big killer app or
Speaker 1: what's your favorite piece about it? Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: think we're in a weird point where, um, you look
Speaker 1: at just whether you're buying, you know, huge businesses or
Speaker 1: making huge transactions, um in the millions of dollars. We
Speaker 1: have a fundamental problem and how we go about doing that,
Speaker 1: And I think that bitcoin solves a lot of those issues.
Speaker 1: And how you can transfer um large amounts of money,
Speaker 1: small amounts of money, UM, in any quick time that
Speaker 1: um makes sense for everybody without crazy fees, without crazy complications. UM.
Speaker 1: And I you know, I believe that's the way it was.
Speaker 1: It was created to make transactions via the Internet, to
Speaker 1: make it as easy as possible, and UM, you know,
Speaker 1: I think people got really excited at one point that
Speaker 1: the you know, the value of bitcoin was going up
Speaker 1: a lot, and um, now it's kind of stabilized, which
Speaker 1: I think is is a good thing in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. And UM, I still believe in it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not you know the twenty tho dollar mark, which
Speaker 1: which which was around and everyone was kind of putting
Speaker 1: their money into it. But I do think that there
Speaker 1: we're still in its infancy and people are still learning
Speaker 1: about it and understanding the value of Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's a it's a giant fundamental
Speaker 1: shift for a couple of reasons. Like I said, you know,
Speaker 1: the internet has just now I think over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, we're really starting to see the shift
Speaker 1: that the internet has made, uh in a couple of things.
Speaker 1: But um, if you think back, like I said, we're
Speaker 1: a little older, so we've seen this. Right, Like life
Speaker 1: before the internet, life didn't really change that much all
Speaker 1: the way U until that point. And if you think
Speaker 1: about like where we got our information, well, we thought
Speaker 1: the way the way we even thought of what is
Speaker 1: information when information comes in the newspaper or the nightly news,
Speaker 1: and like that was it. But the way that the
Speaker 1: way that we get information is everywhere. It's all around us, right,
Speaker 1: so it's like, uh, we're getting information from everywhere. And
Speaker 1: and the newspapers have done their best to control the information,
Speaker 1: and they're trying to stay relevant, but they're just less
Speaker 1: relevant today. And and the and the internet technology allowed
Speaker 1: us to share information, whereas the blockchain technology allows us
Speaker 1: to share value. And today we look at value or
Speaker 1: money as like the dollar and the bank centrally control that.
Speaker 1: But really value is anything, right, So I can exchange
Speaker 1: my money for what you want. I could give you
Speaker 1: my labor, right, I could dig afense, build a fense,
Speaker 1: or dig a hole for you. Um, and and I
Speaker 1: have little kids and I see them on the playground
Speaker 1: and they're trading turkey sandwiches for chips or Pokemon cards,
Speaker 1: so and and in jail they do the same thing. Right,
Speaker 1: So humans are uh innately designed to exchange value and
Speaker 1: we haven't been able to do that freely, and now
Speaker 1: we have a technology. So what I the way that
Speaker 1: I see it is twenty years after the Internet. Today,
Speaker 1: information is just everywhere, and it's all all shapes and forms.
Speaker 1: And I believe twenty years from now, value will be
Speaker 1: all around us in all shapes and forms, and and yeah,
Speaker 1: the banks and and the money will still be there,
Speaker 1: but it will be a lot less relevant, kind of
Speaker 1: like newspapers is today. Um. And so that's that's the
Speaker 1: big shift I see now. Like you said, we could
Speaker 1: all be wrong. I think bitcoin either takes over the
Speaker 1: world and is worth you know, a million dollars or
Speaker 1: maybe it goes to zero. Um. But if you have
Speaker 1: a little bit of exposure to it, you have the upside.
Speaker 1: And if it goes to zero, you lose a little
Speaker 1: bit of money. Absolutely, And you're you're seeing you know
Speaker 1: a lot of these um banks and other entities that
Speaker 1: are now trying to get into this space when they
Speaker 1: originally they said this will never work and this is
Speaker 1: not not gonna happen. This is silly, you know, it's
Speaker 1: too difficult. And now they're the ones who are trying
Speaker 1: to you know, bring in their own you know, cryptocurrencies
Speaker 1: into the space or or trying to learn about it
Speaker 1: at the very least, because they realize, UM, that there
Speaker 1: is some tremendous value and how we're functioning now as
Speaker 1: you said, I mean, I can, you know, get my
Speaker 1: groceries and whole foods through Amazon and get it delivered.
Speaker 1: I mean, like so much of how I purchase things
Speaker 1: is over my phone that I'm using right now to
Speaker 1: talk to you. So uh, it's it's it's so valuable now, UM,
Speaker 1: what do you think about UM? Obviously being in the UFC,
Speaker 1: we saw light coin come in and do that partnership. UM,
Speaker 1: what do you think? What do you think adoption looks like?
Speaker 1: Awareness adoption looks like and how do you view that
Speaker 1: you think that moves the needle? I think so, you know,
Speaker 1: I think any kind of awareness about us certain technology
Speaker 1: or about it a certain product is going to help
Speaker 1: UM at the very least. I think that the UFC
Speaker 1: in mixed martial arts promotions in general. UM, they've always
Speaker 1: done things a little bit differently and and try to
Speaker 1: lead the way in various ways. And how they bring um,
Speaker 1: you know, products into the public eye and and you know,
Speaker 1: seeing something like like coin and seeing certain fighters come
Speaker 1: out and being sponsored by different cryptocurrencies. I think it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: I mean, things have changed so much. And UM, I
Speaker 1: think if if a brand, especially like a big brand
Speaker 1: like the UFC or Bellator, mixed martial Arts whatever, is
Speaker 1: seeing value in that, UM, I think that's huge. I
Speaker 1: think the USC demographic could be perfect for it, right,
Speaker 1: being that it's like a younger it's mostly male, younger demo. UM,
Speaker 1: maybe people are more kind of freedom oriented if you
Speaker 1: call it that or whatever, So it's maybe a perfect
Speaker 1: demo to go into. UM. I would have liked to
Speaker 1: I know, I know that I heard the deal came
Speaker 1: together kind of really quick, kind of last minute. I
Speaker 1: would have liked to see them try to do more
Speaker 1: activation at the event where like maybe they were selling
Speaker 1: merch and stuff like that with with like would have
Speaker 1: been really cool. Yeah, maybe maybe we'll maybe we'll see
Speaker 1: that on the next one. UM. UM, where do you
Speaker 1: where do you mostly get like your information? And and
Speaker 1: are you active? Are you just kind of like I'm
Speaker 1: taking a couple of positions, I'm sitting back waiting or
Speaker 1: you kind of like actively like researching and making moves.
Speaker 1: UM right now, I'm not. I you know, I have UM,
Speaker 1: I have money and and uh different cryptocurrency just a
Speaker 1: few UM, so right now I haven't been as active.
Speaker 1: I've just been kind of holding UM for for a while. UM,
Speaker 1: so not really actively invest thing. UM. You know, probably
Speaker 1: in the last you know, three months, six months, I
Speaker 1: haven't done much. But so right now I'm just kind
Speaker 1: of um holding my positions and and seeing what happens UM.
Speaker 1: And yeah, but where I was getting my information from
Speaker 1: is basically UM various news subscriptions that I subscribed to. UM,
Speaker 1: you're one of the guys that I follow on YouTube
Speaker 1: and I've always enjoyed listening to and educating myself on
Speaker 1: those things. And UM, did you watch that last video
Speaker 1: about why bitcoin is undervalued? I did that research report
Speaker 1: from Adam at Capital. I don't think I saw the
Speaker 1: most recent one. There's a lot of data was really good,
Speaker 1: but it kind of showed where bitcoins at in the
Speaker 1: market it was pretty good. But okay, uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: think uh, I think taking that buy and hold approach
Speaker 1: is perfect. You know. I think if you look at
Speaker 1: if you look back even just at the internet trend,
Speaker 1: right you see Amazon went to eighty Bucks, went to
Speaker 1: five bucks, and then I hit two thousand. But you
Speaker 1: know you had to wait fifteen years and so um,
Speaker 1: you know you've been this long enough to be patient.
Speaker 1: You understand. As we get older, we get that perspective
Speaker 1: knowing like I'm like, shoot, oh wait ten years, ten
Speaker 1: years is nothing for me right now? Right? Absolutely? Do
Speaker 1: you uh you got me on? You got any questions
Speaker 1: for me? Um? Jeez, you know, I guess right now,
Speaker 1: it seems like bitcoin is is steadily moving up right
Speaker 1: now in value. Um, where do you see it by
Speaker 1: the end of the year. I'm sure that's something that
Speaker 1: you get a lot, but it seems like it's it's
Speaker 1: going in the right pace and moving in the right direction.
Speaker 1: Where do you see it at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: It is? It is so um so a couple of things.
Speaker 1: So I I really don't like to do predictions or
Speaker 1: guesses um and and not because I want to look wrong.
Speaker 1: It's just that's not the way that I look at things. Um.
Speaker 1: What I do is I look at things in probabilities.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like what the CIA does. So
Speaker 1: the c I says like, hey, we could have this
Speaker 1: terrorist attack that happens here, or they could do this,
Speaker 1: and if they were going to do this, these are
Speaker 1: the things that would be happening. But if they did this,
Speaker 1: these are the things would be happening. And then they
Speaker 1: watched those signs and then that tells them what the
Speaker 1: outcomes will be. So those are like probabilities. So I
Speaker 1: like to look at things like, hey, these are problems.
Speaker 1: So it's probably a bitcoin goes to two thousand, it's
Speaker 1: probably goes to zero, and I'm gonna watch for the
Speaker 1: signs and let me know either way. So I don't
Speaker 1: want to I try not to get stuck into one
Speaker 1: frame of mind. I have my opinion, but I want
Speaker 1: to stay flexible. So anyway, with that being said, not
Speaker 1: trying to be wishy washy um about at the at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the year, I entered in like a pool,
Speaker 1: like like we put some money in with I don't know,
Speaker 1: on a big social media thing, and I think I
Speaker 1: picked like bitcoin around in the six thousand dollar range.
Speaker 1: UM I thought at that point he if it went
Speaker 1: up a hundred percent over the year, that'd be amazing.
Speaker 1: No other investment in the world goes up a percent. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we're we've blown past that now already. UM. I did
Speaker 1: a video about a month ago where I talked about
Speaker 1: bitcoin going to twenty thousand by the end of the year,
Speaker 1: and so that's what I'll talk about right now. So
Speaker 1: UM basically, UM, at the end of last year, everybody
Speaker 1: started a lot of people started calling for the stock
Speaker 1: market to crash, right, and at the in December, the
Speaker 1: stock market drop like whatever, you had a big drop,
Speaker 1: and people are saying that's it, it's topped out. The
Speaker 1: market's gonna crash, which we're well overdue for a market crash, right,
Speaker 1: we know it's coming, but nobody can time it. And
Speaker 1: I I went on record with a few people said
Speaker 1: I don't think the market's gonna crash. This isn't how
Speaker 1: markets go out. They don't go out with a whimper.
Speaker 1: It's gonna go out with a bang. So I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna have this what we call them melt up,
Speaker 1: where the stock market will continue up into this magnificent
Speaker 1: top and then crash, right, And so anyway, um, I said,
Speaker 1: in order for that to happen, here's here's what's gonna
Speaker 1: have to happen in January. The Dow Jones is gonna
Speaker 1: have to hold. And I made this whole video and
Speaker 1: I and I did these things. So anyway, that is
Speaker 1: playing out as I projected. This, this blowoff top or
Speaker 1: this melt up is working out like I've been watching
Speaker 1: for the signs, and I believe if we continue to
Speaker 1: see this, potentially another run in the stock market by
Speaker 1: the end of the year. If that happens, I really
Speaker 1: think it's possible to see a bitcoin hit hit a
Speaker 1: new all time high by the end of the year.
Speaker 1: I did. I mean it would be a crazy Now.
Speaker 1: Markets don't typically work like that, So like that's why
Speaker 1: I wasn't calling for the stock market bluff because they
Speaker 1: typically they rise, they have a blow off top, and
Speaker 1: then they crash and then they consolidate and then they
Speaker 1: slow they go up and then eventually go up into
Speaker 1: that bluff top again and they kind of repeat that.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have to I figured bitcoin would start
Speaker 1: slowly and kind of ramp up and then we'll get
Speaker 1: into that blow we'll get to that bluff top again.
Speaker 1: But if the stock market holds up like I think
Speaker 1: it's looking like it will, yeah, I think I think
Speaker 1: twenty by the end of the year. I think we
Speaker 1: can see it. Um. Now, how do you how do
Speaker 1: you think that affects how people use bitcoin? Because if
Speaker 1: the if the price of bitcoin is changing so dramatically,
Speaker 1: how does that affect how it's used and how the
Speaker 1: transactions take place? So? Um, you know, people get confused
Speaker 1: because they think I can't afford to buy a whole bitcoin,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to write you could buy five
Speaker 1: dollars worth, um. And so you know, we're still kind
Speaker 1: of in this dollar denominated world, so every kind of
Speaker 1: converts back to dollars. So whether bitcoin is five thousand
Speaker 1: or twenty thousand, I don't know if it really affects
Speaker 1: that because it's really going to be in that dollar value.
Speaker 1: I'll send you five dollars worth of bitcoin, and whether
Speaker 1: bitcoin is twenty thousand and five, it's still five dollars
Speaker 1: worth of bitcoin. UM. As far as what some people think,
Speaker 1: like in the network got congested and it's slowed down,
Speaker 1: and because it had gotten so high up in value,
Speaker 1: got congested and transactions were slow and expensive. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't really see that being a problem because now we
Speaker 1: have second layer scaling solutions. That's what like Lightning is doing.
Speaker 1: And so now you know, you have to look back
Speaker 1: the history of money. So gold was money for five
Speaker 1: thousand years, and that was like a settlement layer. And
Speaker 1: if I wanted to settle my debt with you you're
Speaker 1: in Boston, I'm in California, I'd have to ship gold
Speaker 1: to you, which is very slow and expensive. And eventually
Speaker 1: the bank said, hey, we'll hold your gold and we'll
Speaker 1: give you gold paper certificates and those, of course we're
Speaker 1: very easy to exchange. That was a layer to scaling solution.
Speaker 1: And then eventually the bank said, hey, we'll give you
Speaker 1: a check a checkbook, and then events of the banks
Speaker 1: that I'll put a credit card on top of it,
Speaker 1: and then we have PayPal and Venmo. So we have
Speaker 1: like six layers on top of a base settlement layer.
Speaker 1: And I believe that's what bitcoin is. Bitcoin is a
Speaker 1: base settlement layer. Lightning will be a second layer which
Speaker 1: will be really fast and almost free. And you know,
Speaker 1: we need bitcoin to be slow because if if it's
Speaker 1: going to hold a hundred billion in value, it needs
Speaker 1: to be secure. Um Like, like we saw this binance
Speaker 1: hack last night, and now people are saying, oh, they
Speaker 1: can roll back the blockchain to get those fees back,
Speaker 1: but they can't because the longer it goes, the more
Speaker 1: expensive it's going to be to do that. And if
Speaker 1: if it happened really quickly, it would be cheap, too
Speaker 1: cheap to attack it. Um. And And the way I
Speaker 1: see it is if I if I have a million
Speaker 1: dollar a ten million dollar transaction, it needs to be
Speaker 1: slow and secure. But I don't need to put a
Speaker 1: Starbucks cup of coffee on the blockchain on a base
Speaker 1: settlement layer. So that's where the Starbucks coffee goes on,
Speaker 1: second layer, third layer, where it's really fast. So to
Speaker 1: answer your question, I don't think it going up to
Speaker 1: twenty will really cause any problems with speed, uh, settlement layer, costs,
Speaker 1: um or or transactions. Gotcha, Yeah, if that makes sense,
Speaker 1: Yeah absolutely, um yeah. So that's where I see it,
Speaker 1: and and potentially I think we could be there. I
Speaker 1: think we could be back at that twenty thou if
Speaker 1: the stock market continues. And the reason why the stock
Speaker 1: market matters is because obviously, when everybody feels rich, they're
Speaker 1: putting money into a lot of places. If the stock
Speaker 1: market crashes, everybody feels poor and speculative investments go out
Speaker 1: the window. And today I do believe bitcoin will become
Speaker 1: a store of value and eventually a medium of exchange money.
Speaker 1: But today it's mostly a specultive asset. It it just is.
Speaker 1: And so when you're when you feel poor, you don't
Speaker 1: speculate as much. M h. Now do you see any
Speaker 1: other prospects and other cryptocurrencies that you find interesting that
Speaker 1: that could I don't want to say compete with bitcoin,
Speaker 1: but potentially, um, I don't know, bb something that's worth investing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely do. And uh I'll send you a link
Speaker 1: and you can have a free subscription to my new
Speaker 1: letter that I write every month. Uh but I do,
Speaker 1: I do? I think? Um, you know, I think first
Speaker 1: of all, you have to go, well, there's Internet stocks, Well,
Speaker 1: Zilo and Facebook are nothing the same, right, and so
Speaker 1: there's a cryptocurrencies that are nothing the same. So bitcoin
Speaker 1: is definitely a payment coin, but there's other coins that
Speaker 1: are not payment coins. So like Horizon, for example, is
Speaker 1: a privacy platform that now they have private messaging and
Speaker 1: private storage, and that doesn't really compete with Bitcoin, for example,
Speaker 1: where we have like UH or privacy coins, because Bitcoin
Speaker 1: is not a privacy coin, So we have privacy coins
Speaker 1: that have shielded transactions, or we have like a on
Speaker 1: that's UH that's a hub basically an interoperable coin that
Speaker 1: can connect networks. So there's and then we have like
Speaker 1: supply chain companies. Um so, I think there's other areas now.
Speaker 1: Um the investor in me understands that when new technologies
Speaker 1: roll out, they roll out in a certain way, like
Speaker 1: a sequencing, where first it's infrastructure you invest into, then
Speaker 1: you invest in the platforms, then you invest into applications later.
Speaker 1: So to put that into perspective, in the early nineties,
Speaker 1: you were investing into like Cisco routers. In the midnight,
Speaker 1: mid to late nineties, it was like Internet Explorer, Netscape,
Speaker 1: a well in UH. In the two thousands, it was
Speaker 1: like platforms like Amazon in two thousand and eight and
Speaker 1: on it was applications Uber, Airbnb. So you want to
Speaker 1: change your investing as the market matures. Um so. Um
Speaker 1: right now, I see lots of opportunities as an investor
Speaker 1: to make money Ultimately, I love bitcoin, and I think
Speaker 1: bitcoin will probably take over everything at some point. But
Speaker 1: the investor in me sees lots of opportunities to make
Speaker 1: a lot of money. So I kind of hold both
Speaker 1: of those pictures, like the investor side and then like
Speaker 1: the bitcoin maximal side of me. Right if that makes sense? Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: thank you. Yeah. So yeah, so there's different use cases
Speaker 1: and I think, uh, you know, people say there's only
Speaker 1: gonna be you know, bitcoin, we rule everything. I think
Speaker 1: bi when we rule all the payment coins. But I
Speaker 1: believe there will be other options for that. So yeah, cool,
Speaker 1: all right, Uh, well, it's been been awesome talking to you.
Speaker 1: Good to meet you. Like I said, I've been a fan. Uh.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear your perspective. I try to get
Speaker 1: as much perspective from people that don't eat and sleep
Speaker 1: this and like as much as I do because it
Speaker 1: really kind of helps me out. So I appreciate taking
Speaker 1: taking the time to do that. Mark, Thank you so
Speaker 1: much and always educational talking to you. Man. Hey, if
Speaker 1: you like this episode of the Market Disruptors podcast, please
Speaker 1: help us take this to the top of the podcast charts.
Speaker 1: Just please do me a favor and rate review. And subscribe.
Speaker 1: Taking fifteen seconds to just leave a quick review goes
Speaker 1: a long way in helping us reach more people and
Speaker 1: disrupt more markets. I really appreciate you listening, and I'll
Speaker 1: see you next time on the Market Distructors podcast