How Ari Gold went from Weed Dealer to Millionaire Entrepreneur | The Power Move Podcast EP 58
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From the art of the deal to keeping it real.

Live from the Simply Vegas studios, it's The Power Move with Jon Gafford. Back again, back again, back again, back again. Colt. What's up, guys? Welcome back, buddy. Thank you. Welcome back. We missed you last week. I know. You guys had a cute girl on. We did. Yeah, we did. We did. We missed you. Got another guy on. Yeah, we did. Cute voice. I'm not a cute girl. We did have a cute girl last week, but we always miss you.

John Gafford

in the hot seat today you're gonna answer my question what was your question how are you john nobody ever asked you how are you doing you know yeah that's how are you doing today you know i'm doing well that is excellent i'm doing well i'm doing well i'm you what about you i know you know i try to keep this as much as i can about you guys and never so much about me but today like here's the thing man everybody's got that friend i like to say you got that friend right and uh and for me i have a couple of them which i'm lucky that way and uh

I've got a friend named Hugh, right? And Hugh lives in New Orleans, and he's friends with our set there. I've been friends with Hugh for 20-some-odd years. Hugh is always on vacation with Kenny Chesney. Hugh is always all over. He's house-sitting for Vince Vaughn as we speak right now. And I've known Hugh for 20 years. Hugh drives a Range Rover. He's always got money.

I know he's not a drug dealer. I know that much. But other than that, I have no clue. How do you know when someone's not a drug dealer? I don't know, but I have no clue what Hugh does to make money or earn a living. And I've acquired another one of those friends who seems to be kind of a jack-of-all-trades.

And that's Ari Gold, because Ari is the dude who was in the hot seat today. And Ari is, man, I turn on the gram and I got Ari playing beer pong with Post Malone. I got Ari in the Gentleman's Club in Atlanta. I mean, he is just, every time I turn on, it's like, I'm in LA. Who's here? Plug in. I'm in Atlanta. Plug in. I'm in Miami. And I think the guys are in the same seat three days a week, which is crazy.

And obviously super successful. Also, go ahead and disclaimer, not a drug dealer. Let's go ahead and disclaimer that. Allegedly. I know, because I tried to buy drugs off him. Allegedly. Allegedly. You tried. It didn't work out. But no, but dude, so look, man, our show, what we always try to point out is we believe that success leaves clues. And obviously, man, you're a guy with, you got, I know part of your story. I know some of the cool stuff about some of the adversity you had to overcome and where that's led.

And I want to talk about how you got into what you do now I want to talk about whatever the hell it is you do now because you do kind of everything and

A jack of all things that make money, which I love. I love that, man. You've got to spread yourself, you know? You do. And then I want you to talk dirty to Colt for five minutes and see how quickly it takes to turn him down. We're not going to do that. Just kidding. Behind the scenes magic. Colt was commenting on the attractiveness of Mr. Gold's voice. Yes, he was. A little behind the scenes magic. That'll be on the DVD. I'm married.

On the director's cut. On the extended cuts. Don't worry. On the director's cut. Don't worry. So first of all, bro, where did you grow up, Ari? I'm actually born and raised in Atlanta. So I grew up right outside of Atlanta, Georgia in a little spot called Gwinnett County. In Gwinnett? Yep. I went to Norcross High School, a pretty famous school for athletes and...

A bunch of putting kids in the league, and I wasn't one of them. Did you know that somebody in this room used to be the general manager of the Norcross Hooters? It was me. Not me. It was me. Yeah, I'm like. No, it was me. My dad and I, you know what? I'm funny. My dad and I, after Pee Wee or Pop Warner, when you're like sixth grade, whatever you're

He'd say, okay, son, today we're going to go to a man's place for dinner. We'd go to Hooters and he'd just sit around and be like, I'm just here for the curly fries. Like, yeah, tell him. Tell him. And that was it. So you grew up there.

My favorite thing about where you grew up Gwinnett is that intersection off of whatever interstate that is it goes up and I'm over 200 as anymore 85 85 where the mall is right where there's literally a Waffle House on every corner intersection We went to some crazy growing up in Norcross. Not a lot of people know this Waffle House headquarters actually in Norco. Oh, yeah And so there's more Waffle houses in that general populous of area You can go across the street and then across street again and go to three different ones

different Waffle House. Oh, bro, no question. Here's a little tip for you. If you ever want to hire the hardest working people you'll ever find, find a Waffle House chef. No, no, no, no. Find a Waffle House general manager because you know who he is? He is the chef. He's everybody. He's the cook. No, no, he's the Waffle House chef is literally the guy running the register. Yeah, running the whole place. Busker. Taking the phone, bussing tables. Dude, that guy...

I used to love to recruit Waffle House people. So you grew up in Gwinnett. You're there your whole life. Ironically, you guys are talking all this stuff about drug dealers. I was a drug dealer. Okay, there you go. I'm not even going to lie about it. Because look, back then, the times were very different on weed. And I already knew growing up, you know, it wasn't...

properly regulated. Let's put it like that. Right. Um, and, and, and, and for me, you know, I, I got actually arrested when I was, I think, uh, 17 or 18 for having, um, 0.3 grams of marijuana. I swear to God, the cop, the cop, they put you in jail over 0.3, the cop, uh,

smelled weed in the car, couldn't prove that there was weed in the car. So he dug. And what he did was he, I'll never forget this. He took a piece of tape, clear tape. I swear to God, took a piece of clear tape, folded it in half, then put another side of it and put it in between my seat like this. And they did the other side and then sat there for 20 minutes, picking out crumbs and stems of weed and had enough to weigh up that it was a, a misdemeanor charge. What would we call that counselor? What would, how would,

Lack of probable cause. I mean, dude, this is 2008. 2008. And this is Georgia, so it was... But 99 problems had already come out. People already... Yeah, you didn't follow the advice of 99 problems. That's like you. By the way, just a legal disclaimer. A police can search the trunk of your car whether it's locked or not. It is not a part of your Fourth Amendment protections. Is that really? Yeah.

You have no reasonable expectation of privacy in a vehicle that is in public. What about a locked glove box? Doesn't matter. Hmm. Hmm.

Learn something new every day. Yeah, live in, see? I like that. People always think that about the Fourth Amendment. There's a whole thing about unreasonable searches and seizures and securing your own private property, but it only works within what's called your home, your domicile, and the curtilage surrounding where there would be a reasonable expectation of privacy there. Yeah, so the thing you learned today from the Power Move, we can wrap it up, is if you're smuggling, right up to Keister. That's the only place you're safe. I also heard from a friend of mine that

If you're in a hotel room, you have that same courtesy because it is a domicile. Yeah. I mean, it's like I said, a car, you have no reasonable expectation because you're taking it on public roads, you're driving it around, et cetera. Right. Now, a car in your garage is a different story. I'm not a criminal attorney. If you live in an RV.

Yeah, well, I mean, like, where's your RV? Is it on land that's privately rented? Then yeah. What if I'm on a yacht? That's pretty good. Ask me how I know. Yeah, you've been on a yacht with me. Can I phone a friend? In this conversation. You've been on the yacht with me. All right, I'll drag us all back. I used to sell weed to...

But after I got arrested, I realized, I was like, all right, Atlanta Miami had to be a place for me. And I was doing various odd jobs, working at a burger joint. I worked at a Smashburger. I did a bunch of random shit that I hated. And it all kind of fell back to weed. Everybody needed weed. And I ironically moved to weed and had really great connections to really good stuff. And so the stuff that I had around that time was just very different than what most people were doing.

you know, we're getting it. It was like indoor, really like a really boutique weed. Like now, now it's really popular. But back then this, this wasn't, yeah, it was like from Mars. It was unheard of. It was unheard of for somebody to pay $300 for an ounce of weed. Ludicrous. I think ludicrous was, wasn't he? Back then. I'm not, I'm not, man.

I'm not a liberty to disclose our previous career. But did you make good connections through that? The best connection is my life. It actually put me. So what I did was I had a lot of friends in the music scene and a lot of the friends in the music industry that knew I had good weed. And the problem was that around that time,

artists were coming to Atlanta to record albums and to spend time in studios and So so def all these guys were locking themselves in the studio left face. And so, you know, I was I was getting phone calls 1:30 to 4:00 a.m. While I'm still in high school and and going and going and leaving deal sneaking out going to the studio hanging out with like some of the biggest names in the game and some of them with smoke a weed and

And then I go back home and I go to high school and people are like, what'd you do last night? Like, you know, they studied. What'd you do, Ari? I'm like, I was in the studio. With Ghostface Killer. A thousand dollars, you know. Titty Boy and I were on some blueberry onions. Yeah, like, we'll be going to his birthday party this Sunday. Like, how? So that...

And that progressed over time. Like I kind of fell out of weed and I, I fell into, um, into lacrosse. Ironically, I moved to Israel after high school. I wanted to get that. I wanted to get the hell out of, out of Georgia. I just knew selling weed was like, it was cool, but it wasn't the best. Um, and that time again, it was dangerous. So,

Moved to Israel, did a program where, you know, met a bunch of people, did like an IDF program where you get to like, you know, do basic training and all this shit. I loved it. I loved being out there. But again, got in trouble for weed. So where were you playing lacrosse though? So got in trouble for having weed on the, on, on, not even on the base, but one of the kids at the hostel had weed in his bag and everybody in the room got in trouble. So whatever. Kicked out of the program.

But I met some guys that were talking this crazy jazz like yeah, but we're starting the first ever Israeli national lacrosse team I laughed it's like a cool runnings dude. I Laughed I'm like lacrosse in Israel. Ha funny they invite me to a warm-up mixer at At some big park and and and I see there's like 15 guys. I'm like, oh it's is it's rough and

So I start throwing around with them. They're dead serious. They're like, dude, why don't you come out for an exhibition game for the Kraft family? I'm like, I'm not really thinking about it. As in like own the Patriots family? As in like Bob and the Patriots. So come to find out.

Robert Kraft has funded the entire IFL, which is the Israeli Football League. And we're going to... Because why not? And we're going to the Jerusalem Stadium to play a game in the halftime of their Champions League. That's cool. So it's like Maccabi Haifa versus Jerusalem. It's a big game. And then halftime comes out and we bring out fucking nets and do an exhibition and everybody's hitting and stuff. And we come off and...

Robert Kraft's son, I think it was Bob or one of the... Not...

I always forget which one it was, but it was the older one, not the nerdy-looking one. He had his daughters there, and they were spectating the whole thing, and he comes out of the field and starts throwing around with me, and we start getting into a whole conversation about the Patriots. And I'm sitting here talking to the guy who owns part of the Patriots about Tom Brady, the guy who I'm like the greatest of all. Dude, I'm in love with Tom. And this is maybe right after they just lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl.

So it was like greatest season. Don't worry. We're going to get this. We got this. We got 2011, 2011, 2011. So whatever. Fast forward. Fucking New York.

Anyways, fast forward. I come back to the States. I catch a couple random gigs coaching lacrosse for little leagues. I was coaching youth, like U9, U11. Did you start playing lacrosse in Israel? I started playing lacrosse in high school. I played a lot of different sports. I grew up playing soccer, baseball. I played football with the same group of guys from sixth grade all the way to high school. I love this because my son is a lacrosse player.

And this weekend we had an exceptional experience. I don't think I told you about this, but we went to San Jose for a tournament this weekend. He plays, he's 14 under the, or 20, 26. Where do you buy gear out here? I haven't seen a single lacrosse monkey. So, uh, we were playing a, a 20, 26 tournament in San Jose and it was now my son plays on a rec team. So his team is just, there's probably, uh,

Eight rec teams playing 14-under in Vegas, right? Through all the areas. He said he's rec team. So when we went to this tournament, though, every team was an all-star team. So the all-star of them. So they're the club. They're the club. They're an all-star of the club teams. Yeah, yeah. Right. So we had five games. I had to play in a couple of those. No, no, no, no. Right. We had five games. And we boathoused everybody. Oh, I love that. The first five. L.A. trounced them to the point where, like, you know lacrosse.

For those of you who've never seen a game, it's not like sports where you sit with your fans, they sit with their fans. If your kid plays defense, you're down there, and you're with the other team's parents who play offense. You're sitting right next to the dad talking shit. Yeah, you're right there, exactly. So as we're watching this... Your kid sucks, buddy. No, the L.A. dads were the worst because they could not believe they were getting beat. Sure. And they're like...

So you guys are an all-star team, right? It's like, no, we're a rec team. The Clippers thought they were going to win too, John. I know, but they're like... You should see lacrosse in the South. It was so different because none of us played lacrosse and it was no... Okay, when I started, someone from my high school came to me and was like, hey man, you play football? You're a pretty physical dude.

How about if I tell you I can give you a six-foot pole and you can beat the shit out of people on field, would you want to play? Yep. What fucking sport is this? Sign me up. That was literally how the conversation went. And I was a sophomore, and I said, off-season, down. Get some cardio, fine. I led the league that year in takeovers. Awesome.

Penalties And I was murdering kids I was Literally, I had a stat that somebody showed me where I put one point two people out of the game every game I'm like, that's a real statistic. That's pretty cool If you got kids though get them in lacrosse cuz I go Sam and this tournament this tournament is

You know, it came down to, we ran through everybody. We got in the finals against Seattle, the best kids in Seattle, right? And with 18 seconds left, we were tied 5-5. And it was the closest game we'd been in the whole game. And our best kid, Damon, who just can rip it probably, I mean, at 13, he's got an 80-mile-an-hour shot at 13. And he just ripped it. And you hear thong off the post. And you're like, ah.

Son of a gun. And then double overtime, we lose. Now, the thing was, all of our kids were just collapsed in tears. And it's just in this day and age of video games and nonsense and bullshit and just everything. It was so great to see kids so invested in something. I'll tell you something. Just for the sake of it. Something about that moment. They will remember that forever. And I'll tell you one thing. Next season.

I'm praying for those kids. God help them. I'm praying for, no, I'm praying for the kids that play Seattle because I, listen, I coached a team like that. Um, Johns Creek high school. Uh, I won't even name a bunch of the kids, but they, they all, I mean, I'm still friends with them. I still talk to a lot of them. And one of them has actually gotten into coaching and coach the championship team like myself. And I'd like, I love that. I love watching that. I love hearing experiences like that where I, you know, get somebody else to do something. Um,

They lost one close one the season before to some kids. And it was really just a lapse of, you know, just kind of like a dick around. But they lost because of them, not because of the other team. You know what I'm saying? When I say these guys came out, John, you know about lacrosse and scores. 22-22.

to three yeah that's probably half oh that's brutal by half i had i had the kids that had never even hit the field playing play all the seniors 45 seconds dude i mean but but when when i hear them and i see them come on the sides and then they all talk about that experience that hurt that pain that hunger it was like they weren't even gonna think about they wouldn't even think about taking a loss no so dude again i'm sure you'd vouch for this if you got kids

And you want to get them a lacrosse call me because it's the greatest thing ever. Thrill of victory, agony, defeat. It really, it really is the best sport we've ever played. Let's get back. Lacrosse took me down that path. I was coaching at a high school. I was coaching at a high school in Georgia and on my way to a practice one morning, I hit a patch of black ice. Oh, that's right. This is the story. Yeah. So day after the day after my 21st birthday, um,

on my way to work, first day of work. I remember texting the coach that morning. It was like 4:00, 4:15. I'm like, "Hey, it's pretty rough outside. "You wanna do this?" He's like, "Fuck yeah, we got turf. "Fuck 'em." I love that mentality. I was like, "Right on, I'm in the car, I'm on the plane." - Let's play ball. - I remember trying to go to the Chick-fil-A and grabbing breakfast and it was too early. They weren't open, so I got on 141. And right by Petrie Parkway and the Forum,

My car just, I remember it kind of just started going sideways and then hit sideways the other way. And then it just started whipping. I ended up in those trees off to the right. And my car had wrapped around on the driver's side at a 90 degree angle. So I was fully encased, pinned up against a tree. So if you look at my legs, actually, you can still see that they're

yeah a little little little crooked and then this one's all metal well i've never seen you late i'm the pictures you laying in that bed just looking like robocop it was tough it was tough they uh i had an 18-hour surgery two blood transfusions and made my parents sign a document saying hey you might not come out of this thing you know you're on your own and when i woke up you know a couple days later i just remember having weird ass dreams and seeing things that i couldn't explain and and

You know, doctors told me, you know, it'd be, it was grim. They were, they were, they were, they were expecting me to be kind of in a wheelchair or at least assisted walking for the rest of time. And did you see an old man by a stream by chance? Yeah.

Here we go again. Oh, God. I was saying by an angel. Because Cole swears that God came to get him one time by a streamer like, no, I'm pretty sure that was just a bum. I'll tell you a weird one. I'll tell you the weirdest one. That's a very specific height you remember this guy when you were five. Oh, he was 6'1", 220. I blocked it out. I'm glad you remember. I got a weird one. The best one I remember is I was looking down into the hospital room. Yeah.

at myself on the bed but the ceiling was like glass and I remember kind of trying to bang through the ceiling to like get to my body and my sister was sitting by my bedside and I can hear her Ari come on wake up you gotta just you gotta just wake up dude like it's time you had some rest like get the fuck up and next thing I know I open my eyes and

Still gives me goosebumps. That's so weird. Freaks me out. Because I had a friend. Freaks me out. He got in an accident, broke his back, and died for a second. That's exactly what he said. Yeah. He goes, I was just above the hospital bed. That is so. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You had a friend?

i'm sorry he's like we got rid of it i thought he was a friend because he said the same thing he's like i was just floating above i've never experienced anything that was that listen you go through a trauma like that and then i had to do like 18 different surgeries just to put my hand back together my arm back together my legs and i mean listen

It was a journey, but my sister and I, you know, still to this day kind of talk about how freaking weird, you know, like you just, and again, a sibling's bond, like, you know, sometimes I can feel if something's up and I'll call her, you know, something's up with me, she'll call me out of the random and I'll just, you know, we'll laugh and talk about it. But that moment for me kind of just put things in a crazy perspective because I really questioned everything. I was like, you know,

Is there a God? Why would God do this? Like I'm 21 years old. Like I'm an athlete. I play for a professional team. I was about to go to Israel next year to go play again with team Israel. And now, now here we are. Now I got fucking noodles for legs. So it started a whole process of, of me really having to understand that the recovery process was more mental than physical because how long did that take? How long? Okay. So let's talk about it. So, okay. So, so you had to start, you start out obviously with the, why me?

Why me? Why hath God forsaken me? Whatever. That goes on for how long? That went on for months. That went on for the problem. Again, a part of the problem was I was so doped up. First of all, you got to understand, I was on oxycodone, hydrocodone, a PICC line injection of Dilaudid. And not to mention, they had just ripped out a catheter that was fully inflated. But I was so doped up that they couldn't. Oh, God.

Or as Connell calls it, Tuesday night. Think about this. Imagine being locked. I've done a hospital practice. Imagine being locked in your own body. You feel it coming in, and you feel the dilatant, and you're just like. Cold. And then all of a sudden, you feel the most excruciating pain you've ever felt in your life. And you go to scream, and it's. Nothing happens. Good.

You know a catheter, they inflate a balloon so it stays in your bladder. Okay. I'm good. Pulled out. And it starts to actually... That's the size we're talking about? Oh, God. Are they

Out of the peeper. They got to use an extra big one on me, man. It's a cult. What are you doing this weekend? Anything good? No, it's not that. So that added to the healing process, too, because I had a catheter attached to fix all that and I had to do surgery to get the tunnel. So when you flip the switch, decide, okay, fuck this, I'm getting back to it. So what happened was I got off the pain meds. Were you mad first or were you just like, okay, let's go time?

I had a really good friend at the time, all circles back to weed. I had a great friend at the time that was just like, dude, you're not eating. You're not drinking anything. You don't want anybody to come see you. I'd shut out the whole world. I told everybody I'm dead. Like, just fuck off. I don't want to see. And really, I had a lot of people that had abandoned me in that time. And I really, you know, started to question a lot of like the friendships and relationships and things that I had. And it was just...

It was just an eye-opener. At one point, I just realized nobody gives a fuck about you but you. And if you're not going to get up off your ass to fix your situation, tough shit. You'll be there for as long as you're going to pity yourself. Nobody's coming to help you. But at the same token, you got the power to fight it. It's not physical. It's mental. And so I had a buddy that, again, he would come into – he'd sneak into the rehab facility.

I was in a, because I couldn't be transported, my legs were both broken and my arm was in a full sling and my hand had a nub on it. The only way I was able to transfer in and out of a wheelchair was they'd have to back me up and then I'd have to use my- Yeah, kind of lift over. To crawl. This elbow was my savior. It was the only thing in my body that didn't break. So you're like, I got one thing left. I got a chip and a chair. So I started getting a strong core. Yeah.

I started, so I was at a rehab facility with like, you know, old people that fall and can't get up. Yeah. I started doing, you know, double the, the rehab. I started pushing a lot harder, a lot, you know, and the doctors were noticing. And, and the same token, I was trading in my pain pills and my sleeping pills, which were giving me crazy dreams. Yeah. I can imagine when I say my mind was living, I swear to you guys, my mind was living a double life. Mm-hmm.

When I went to bed, I would. A whole new, like the Sims. Kayaking and hiking and running marathons and doing this and doing that. And then every morning I'd wake up and try to get out of bed and my legs wouldn't move and it would just be the worst pain ever. It's just, oh my God, we're back. We're right back. Fuck. I can't go pee all by myself. Great. Okay. And every morning. Like the Matrix. Like you literally go to sleep and be plugged into the Matrix. For fuck's sake.

three to four months I was locked. I was locked in. And I, I honestly was to the point where I was very debating suicide because it was just like this. I'm a burden to my parents. They can't even move me into the house. I'm a burden to my friends who don't even want to see me. Cause it's just like, and I'm a burden to everyone else because you don't have to sit around and take care of me. Like I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a full on potato and I'm 21 and I got a good heart. I'm going to be around for a while. I'm going to be potato. So I,

My buddy was like, dude, like, you know, I'm gonna make you some pop brownies. Start taking them before you rehab. Start, you know, in the mornings and start, you know, I'll come in every night and I'll wheel you outside and we'll smoke a joint and then you'll go to bed. And just my whole mentality started to change, man. I just started looking at things differently. I would go into rehab and I'd be laughing and joking around with everybody. You know, like suddenly the doctors are like, you got some life in you, dude. Like you, okay, like.

You're back. The will to win returns. I had a mental, again, and the mental debate was really all, like, was I worth it? Like, can I do this? Am I supposed to do this? Or am I supposed to just lay down and take it? And I wanted to fight. And within that time, you know, I cut down a two-year, they told me it would be at least two years for me to be doing anything. Six months, I took my first step.

Like the day of six months, I had a doctor's checkup and I told him, I was like, I just dropped the crutches. And I was like, I'm going to stand. I just remember wobbling there and everybody in the room was like freaking the fuck out. Like, no, no, no, no, no. I had no, dude, I had no ACL, MCL or PCL while I'm doing this. My left leg had just been rebuilt, but I couldn't get,

worked on my right leg because the trauma would be too severe for both so i had to just have this one literally this leg was a noodle yeah it was a fuck just nothing to hold it no the tent so nothing so i had to deal with that and the that was the first three months and then the next three months were recovery on this leg and then once i got the balance back at nine months i started to like

lightly jog very lightly brisk three four five miles but like we weren't maxing out okay by the end of the year i don't know if i could run five miles now it's kind of a brag i was i was a humble brag i was biking a minimum seven miles a day i was biking seven miles a day minimum i had a gold's gym right next to my house 24 hours i would go sit in the movie theater smoke a bowl and

I'd ride like there's no tomorrow. My legs would burn. - That's a great way to rehab though. - Because that was it. That was the only low impacting that my body could handle. - So here's the question, based on that story.

What is your, I mean, that's a lot of adversity to hit and overcome. So what, what is your tolerance level when you hear people explain to you why they can't do this? Do you want to take a minute to think about it? You know what the worst is when people complain to me about aches and pains. And I'll do this. I'll go aches and pains. Come here. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. For those of you who didn't see what just happened. I thought there was going to be a, you're about to have emotional aches and pains after giving me a hand. Yeah, that was it. I'm just kidding. Yeah, exactly. That's it. You feel that clicking. And I won't even let you feel this one. Yeah, it's the same thing. But if you're an athlete, if you grew up an athlete and you lived as an athlete and, you know. Thank God, because had I not, I'd be a potato. Your mentality, though, is one where you get used to playing through injury. You want to play through things. You have a mental toughness. The kids that don't do that, they're not going to play.

And there's this weird thing that you see in our society where we attribute athleticism and physicality with being a dumb jock, which is the most interesting people I know have had physical adversity. I'm more of a nerd than anything. Yeah. Well, honestly, I got to tell you, that's why I love lacrosse because you know who plays lacrosse?

The nerdy tough kids. They're all just... Because it's not mainstream, right? You're supposed to be a little touched and play lacrosse. You just got to be... Bro, you see lax bros walking around with the...

I'm Canadian. Canada is not national. Lacks Bros are crazy different, like hybrid versions of Hockey Bros. They're just like a little more radical and like more Hawaiian. One of the 13 year olds on our team comes rolling out with a shirt that says, I heart Lacks Moms.

I was like, he's 13. He's trying to run it up on lax. Me too. Him and Zach Wilson, which I thought was awesome. So, but yeah, lacrosse that, that whole, so I went through a whole thing where I was in a hospital bed and rehab for about a year, year and a half. And I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. And ironically, I had a friend of mine that,

Originally got me in the music industry when I was in high school He used to take me to all the late-night spots and all the you know all the under underground after-hours places and and The I think it was literally the first night. I got out of the rehab facility He was like oh we're going out. Oh, we're going out and this guy wheeled where'd you go? Club cheetah no amnesia

What year was this? What year was this? It was like Club Primal, maybe. It was called. Primal? I don't even know if it was Pink Pony. Was that on Buford Highway? No. Okay. If you pull out of Pink Pony and you make a left and you go down the street, or maybe it's Icon Lounge. No.

No. There was some random bar out in the middle of nowhere. No, it's not a bar. It's like a nightclub. It was like a club club. Yeah. This dude wheeled me into this fucking club and parked me right next to a little stripper pool. Basketball Diaries style. And he was like at the DJ booth. And I was just sitting there just rolling up a blind, just smoking. Somebody came over like, are you crippled? I was like, uh, not really, but yeah. Not forever. Not the most flattering, you know, way to go. But I mean, he would start to, I mean, cause he knew how,

miserable and depressed I was, he would start taking me out and

you know one thing led to another i started you know going out to nightlife and getting back into this music industry getting back into the scene and getting around the same guys and got back into you know selling weed again because i didn't have a job i couldn't coach i couldn't do anything i had no way of making income and i could barely walk i've literally had walk around you remember in forrest gump where he had the oh yeah i had to walk i had to walk around with those for a year but here's but it's but at some point right you go from being the weed dude

So convert those relationships into something else. Again, you have to mature and progress relationships because obviously you're selling weed to somebody. They're not going to fucking trust them for any reason. I got this investment opportunity. I want to talk about it. Didn't cat William say that if you're selling weed last year and you ain't selling coke by this year, I don't mess with you. You gotta be moving. I got to a point where I had a flash and somebody, you know, a close friend of mine got busted and the house got raided and I,

was in California, luckily, because had I not been, I would have been there. And I would have got caught up with it. And that was the day where I was just like, all right, no more of this, we need to find something new. And I started going around and I caught a job, this is kind of crazy, I caught a job with an online marketing guy who was teaching people how to do like, you know, build your own business, build your own websites, this and this, that and that.

i went to college for you know sports marketing consulting and i was like all right you know this sounds kind of interesting you said hey i'll fly you out to las vegas i'll pay your first three months of rent you know if you don't like it you know you can go back to atlanta but what's what's what are you gonna lose what's stopping you everything's free like just come out yeah probably the worst job i ever had but but the best decision i ever made was to come out here get it get away from hometown dude i was fresh early 20s and i

I just realized I have so many connections out here that are all from Atlanta because a lot of guys were coming to town and they didn't have connections. So really for me, I was like, okay, let's find the niche here.

I started going out, hitting up a lot of the hip hop guys that were coming. I'm like, Hey, you guys need weed. Okay. Let me connect you with the dispensaries. Let's get you guys paid instead of paying for weed or let's get you marketing deals and let's do a little brand, you know, a little brand. Cause now weed's legal. So now become not becomes high commerce above the table. It had just hit rec and I'm like, all right, bet.

I think Reef was one of the first ones that we were talking to. And shout out Matt Morgan. You know, I brought in a couple of celebrities and a couple of guys to do tours and we were getting people paid. And then it kind of progressed. Hardeen started to do a program where they bring in DJs and, you know, bring in one Atlanta DJ, then two Atlanta DJs, and then everybody in Atlanta was like, yo, come on.

Hit me up with that weed store. Like, what's up? I mean, but really things didn't actually pop off until I started seeing people

an issue with payment solutions in the dispensaries. Everybody's paying cash. And nobody had a way to take cards. So I found this guy just through the Wee channels. I was doing a bunch of off-brand licensing deals and things like that. And he was like, hey, man, if you know anybody that needs payment solutions integrations, let me know.

Like, I do know those people. I'm like, can you handle cannabis? He's like, that's our number one specificity. I'm like, okay, perfect. I start looking at the numbers. I tell him, yo, we're going to partner up. I'll start.

laying them up on a dish and we just start cooking percentages. I wouldn't even tell you how good it was, but there was a fat on the front and a fat on the back. - Oh, I can imagine it was just sick. - We're talking about the first time you could ever go in and swipe a frigging debit card. People were more than happy to pay an extra 30, 40 bucks to do it. More than happy. And they didn't even miss it. So that took off and that was my introduction into crypto because he was converting it into either Bitcoin or I think at that time it was like Doge.

Because it was just so cheap and it was so light. I really don't even remember what it was. But at that time, I just remember somebody like, hey, you need to get a Binance account, buy a bunch of this Dogecoin, buy a bunch of XRP, buy a bunch of Ethereum, buy a bunch of Monero, buy a bunch of... Just sit on it. $1,000 a piece, $5,000 a piece, and just sit on it. I didn't do that. Yeah.

now what i did was i go ahead and do like no that i feel like a hundred bucks 200 bucks and uh and i'm like ether i had bitcoin uh on like a couple exchanges like um and not mount cox was the other one bit connect and but i had been i got scammed i'd lost a lot of a lot of coins and then like as things are running i'm starting to do the math in my head i'm like i could have been a gazillionaire

what's happening here. - What a good a shit, my friend. - So then I'm looking at the age, I'm looking at all my connections and then shit coins or, you know, they were called altcoins then, but shit coins with no utility, no purpose, they started popping out and everybody needed somebody to help market and promote. And who knows all the celebrities who has the contacts. Okay, well, give me a call.

I'll connect you with these guys. Dude, I was just laying in contracts every other day. Some, you need to, okay, cool. One tweet and one post. Great. Yep. Send the money. And I was just middlemanning deals day and night. And then it, and then it grew exponentially because I started getting added into like private chats and whale chats. And I started building a name because I, I, a lot of these kids were scamming people left behind. I'm like, dude, you, you guys are literally kids. I've done business before where you don't,

you know, somebody's going to show up at your house and it's not going to be good. You're not going to need a car wreck. That's how I do business. So these internet kids really fucked with my head. Cause I just realized how much stuff these kids are getting away with and like fucking a hundred thousand dollar projects. And then these guys are coming to me crying. Ari, help me. Ari, you got to say, I'm like, dude, you should have given a 16 year old kid that you've never met before a hundred grand and then anticipated that he was going to change the world for you and make you a hundred mil. Like, come on. So,

That's kind of where Gold Group started. I took it from artist hospitality, artist management, which I was doing for all the celebrities, into consulting and bringing them brand deals. And then again, in the cannabis side, I was still doing the same thing. I was bringing guys a bunch of cannabis deals and bringing them a bunch of different... And then brands would start to hit me up. Hey, do you have access to this person? We need these influencers. We need family deals. We need this, that, whatever.

Dude, I started putting it around a team and, and sooner than later, I think I had like seven or eight people working around me and one kid was getting paid, you know, 10 grand a month. I'm like, dude, dude,

You're 20 years old getting paid 10 grand a month. You know what I was doing when I was 20 years old? Nothing. I was a busboy at the Hard Rock Cafe. Listen, this isn't even to include the fact that he's getting in on early pre-sale deals on tokens and projects. The kid was rolling dough. I must have made him over a million dollars the first years working with me. But again, when you're building your teams and you're building people around you, you just have to be careful who you are.

Give the sauce to yeah, it sucks and it's unfortunate because now looking back, you know I put a lot of people in great positions and gave them a lot of leeway when things didn't come back But now it's like I'll give you the connection of a lifetime you burn it once. Yeah, you don't get it back. You're not coming back to me That's a character thing. Well, let's talk about this because all of this is really based on everything man You're all of your success no matter what it is. It boils down to building

and building trust with people who, you know, it's one thing if you knock on a door on 123 Main Street and you try to sell them solar and you got five seconds to fucking try to build trust. You're talking about people...

People that have everybody trying to get at them. Everybody trying to get a piece. Everybody trying to get next to them. Even the family members. It's sick. Everybody. Oh, yeah. So my question is, if you had to boil that down to Ari's secret sauce for how you get in the inner circle of these people, because honestly, if you can get these people's trust, you can get anybody's trust. Don't ask for shit.

Don't ask for a single fucking thing. Don't ask for a single handout. Don't ask for a favor. Don't ask for a fucking ticket. Don't ask for nothing. Ask them what you can do for them. Ask them how you can make their life easier. Ask them what you can do to alleviate some of the stress, some of the anything.

Don't ever don't ever go to a person in position of power money well any of that Don't ever go ask it for handouts because you know what you're gonna get that dude's fucking broke. Yeah, well, it's not even that it's broke They want something for me and I you know, it's like you want fewer people trying to bite from your Apple and

that's the number one this guy um was greg fox or secrets of great rainmakers the people that get the contracts are the ones that come in and provide the solutions right but not i'm not going to tell you what your solution is yeah i'm going to listen to you i'm going to ask you what you know what do you need i came in i i came into a point where it was like i was just seeing a lot of leeches i'm seeing a lot of people hanging on i'm like yo

Was asking the question nobody was willing to ask my girl. What does this guy do for you? Like yo, that's my cousin. That's my little cousin. Okay, and what does he do for you? Yeah, he's on payroll. He's he's on payroll. What's he do? He's a he's on payroll in the free market guys wearing your brand He's representing your label. He's part of you and your entity. What percentage of professional athletes go broke? I

Oh, I'd say at least 70%. It's like 90-some percent. 90. 96 or whatever. Three years out of the league. Three years out of the league broke. I believe it. Because they got, mom wants a Range Rover. Everybody wants a piece of what you got, right? We all came up together, so now we all got to get rich together. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. Like Ari was saying, think about him. When he was in the hospital, what's the number one thing you were thinking?

I'm the one looking out for me. I just want to walk. Yeah. I, I'm the one, my friends, I'm going to die alone. I hate to tell you this. I hate to be a Debbie downer. Everyone dies alone. Like you will be your greatest, you know, asset. Now you have to be able to protect that first. I really believe that. I think if you go up to people and you, and they want something from you, did you, did, did you see the thing? Did you see what the rock and, and, uh, what's his name?

Kevin Hart. They were doing an interview on a show, and the lady was like, I talked to The Rock. She goes, oh, I heard you just bought your mom a house. And he was like, yeah, I did. And Kevin Hart just goes, a billion dollars later. Like, hang on, Mom, we're almost there. We've got to keep on the come up. Hang on, Mom. He's like, should we clap for this now? I mean, no, I definitely went through my days of...

Of frivolous spending and and honestly during the bull market I was I was probably spending 10 20 grand a week on investments I'm just giving anybody and everybody a handout something. Yeah, let me ask you guys a question. I'm thinking about this I saw something circling around on Instagram the other day and I thought it's kind of a brutal perspective But I wonder how you guys think about it when one of your friends asks you for a favor in a professional capacity Send them an invoice

for what it would cost and then say discount 100 or whatever so that when people ask you for a favor you send them an invoice to let you let them know that this is what that cost that's the most jewish thing i've ever heard and i love it as a jew i love it but you know what i'm saying like if you if because people ask me all the time hey okay do you got one of these documents and send it be like that would be i'd be yeah that would be a thousand dollars just

I'm not going to charge you for it, but I have to keep track of how I invoice in my business. Yeah. I can't do that because I would take too many phone calls with friends and be like, Hey, I'm sending you a thousand dollar a minute. Yeah. They'd feel bad. They'd feel bad. They'd feel bad. Like five grand. What did I do? Five minutes of my time. I think this is, this is what I think. I think if you're in a, come on, I think if you're in a business where there is a cost of goods product that is changing hands,

Right? I think yes. Like, for example... Maybe he's a lawyer, so if you're giving... It's my time, it's my inventory. You're giving your services up. It's the same with me. I understand. You're asking me legal trouble. I understand that. I understand that. And I think... I think it's easier said than done when there's actual...

You know, because here's the thing. If, if, you know, you call me sometimes and ask me questions and I call you and ask you questions and that's fine. But like, I always look at like Noel, right. In his bars, like whenever I go to Noel's bars, I always try to, I always try to pay. I don't ever, because he has to literally come out of his pocket. Right.

To buy whatever it is that we're drinking and I'm using services. That's that's my point I think it was I think it was time. I think that's what's the most valuable I'd rather buy someone a drink sometimes I would - I totally agree. I can't buy my time back I totally agree But then again, I think that also is part of for people like you and I that sell time, which is really what I do So I think you got to learn to say no

Right, but we also sell relationships too. And I don't mind. Colton, I've called Colton and asked him questions because we have friends who are experts in their field, right? I'm not talking about people that are within your own. But again, you have to think of it from a perspective of you're going to someone that provides value, but you're not going to

you provide just the same value in a different sector. This isn't somebody that has zero value to provide to you other than sucking the information out of you. Amongst professionals, it feels more like a barter system. I leverage my time for your time. That's right. I wouldn't come to you and say, do a whole trial for me for free. Remember that thing that happened, though? That one guy that did that? He's like, hey, do you mind...

Doing this deal and putting my name on it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. This is this is. Well, this is what I love. I get I get I had to look at my phone because I make sure I was right. But I get I get this all the time and I get like.

from, from flippers, investors, realtors, whatever. They always want me to value luxury properties for them. And I just get these calls like, Hey man, I just, I think I want to dump this property. What's it worth? And I'm like, no, my response is my response is to do, to answer that question properly. I would have to work and I've been working all day.

And then people normally are like, oh, okay, like whatever. Like, dude, I'm not going to, if I'm sitting there and the MLS is open and I can run comps and I can kind of get a feel or it's a place where I know, I know it really, really well. And I can, I can throw out a per foot price based on what it is, then fine. But if it's something that's sort of obscure, I just say no. Cause I used to say yes all the time. People have to respect that. But here's the difference. The difference is I think you have to tell them that it's work.

But I see, here's the thing. If it's something I know off the top of my head, I just answer it. But if it's something I have to go work to figure out, then I think you're fine to decline based on the fact that it's work. Or I would just say that'd be about an hour of work. Yeah. And it's hard because some people... Yeah, which is fine. It's work. Some people will say, well, I give you something free. Okay, you call me an hour. Right? It's like, I give you something free. It's like, I went on a... I had to go with the roofing company on a deal. And they're like, oh, you know, I'll give you free this. And it's like...

Okay, your stuff's like five bucks. My stuff isn't fine. I can't do what you're giving me I'm not trying to sound shitty or tip for tap But I just mean in general there is a time where you start looking at your own bottom line if you start tracking your Own hours you go I gave away twenty four thousand dollars in free advice this week. Yeah, I

Yeah, no, no, no, no. There's, there's no question with that. And I love and attorneys are honestly, your field is the worst, right? Cause people are always gonna call you and say, but your attorney will bill you for literally 1000%. Every call. No, what's even worse is no, no. I, I hate when you look at it and it's like, I had an attorney like that. It took, it took, no, it took 15 minutes to send a one line email because that's quote unquote industry standard for billing that pisses me off. Well, that's not accurate. You could actually make a complaint about that. Yeah, I know I, I have, it's six minute increments. I have, which is horseshit anyway.

So yeah, you know, obviously so now man with you already back to you I'm not saying you hijack this show Connell. That's that's no, no, I like it. I like it Listen at the end of the day, it's funny because I'm constantly put in that scenario with what crypto to balance my not even crypto, dude Hey, I want to get my views up on my on my account. What do I do? And and for me

you know, sometimes I'll just automatically just start telling them, hey, you can do this, this, this, and this. And then I'm thinking to myself, I'm like,

I mean, you could just hire us and consult for you. That's literally what I do. So, so, so what is it that you do? What, what? So if I'm somebody that is, and I need, and I'm not post Malone, but I need some sort of goods and services from Ari gold. What do you say? We have a couple of different umbrella core set up, which I dig. Like I said, I spread myself pretty thin, but not too thin where it's, it's,

- Unmanageable. My main focus right now, we do web two to web three integrations for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. In layman's terms, that is, we help people, we help big box brands and big companies transition into blockchain technology, NFTs, any type of web three presence or crypto integration.

We also specialize in marketing and consulting. So we help you curate that presence. We help you across all your different socials, set up your networks, websites, everything. Everything entailed A to Z. And then we also have Gold Group X, which has just been acquired by the number one company.

I don't even know what they are. They're... Are you subject to a non-disclosure? I don't know if I want to disclose their name. Yeah, it's fine. You don't have to say it. Yeah, I'm like, whatever. Anyways, we got... If you're subject to a non-disclosure, Connell Law advises you. We sold one of our companies a couple months ago to the number one agency for only fans and adult film stars. So...

I was managing athletes, celebrities, influencers, and then that kind of spanned into doing mass OnlyFans management where we hire... Found my new manager. Yeah. Found my new manager. Yes, you do, Colt. You have a new manager. There you go. We have different types of integrations that we can do for chatters or growth or whatever it is, and certain girls will come to us and basically just have their numbers through the roof after working with us. So...

We sold, and now my partner is in control of basically that kind of Rolodex. I don't deal with any of the OnlyFans side. I don't deal with any of the... I just deal with connecting people at this point. So I've kind of based myself out. Do you know Bruce Springsteen's daughter by any chance? Mm-mm. Okay.

I don't even get the joke either. I want to be in on it. You went deep for that one. That was like episode 17. John's sister one time called in pretending to be her. Colt thought he could make the Olympics in equestrian. Colt's opinion was and argued this. Even with your legs now and everything, do you think you could be an Olympian?

An equestrian. No, at any sport. He says he could be in six months an Olympian equestrian because the horse does most of the work. I like that. That's not a fair bet. I'm also double the size of your average jockey, so I don't know how that's going to work. But I don't know. I mean, listen, right now I'm kind of going through a health thing where I'm trying to go back to the five to seven miles on the bike a day and hitting the sauna. Yeah.

Dude, I don't know about an Olympian. That's curling, man. Colt, you're not going to be able to say that. I'm made of glass now. My whole body is literally just, you blow a feather on me and I can shatter. But a strong heart. You're not. You know, I feel like we haven't had Colt here in several weeks, and I feel like it's time for some oddness for the show. Somebody sent me this. He hasn't said a lot today, Ari, but just for lack of a better phrase, Colt is the guy that says the things that you think and probably shouldn't say.

I don't know. I think Carl is the same person. Yeah, pretty much. Somebody sent me this. I'm getting yelled at for saying things that I should not be saying. Somebody sent me this. It's Poddex, Interviewdex. Poddex, Interviewdex. This is a great bit, by the way. We're keeping this. It is. Basically, they sent me this. There's just random questions that you can ask podcast guests. All right. Yes. I figure I'm going to ask Colt five questions. We're going to see what we get. You ready? Colt. These are random. No special order.

What do you keep on your desk or workspace area that boosts your mood? Topo Chico. No, I would do Topo Chico. No, Scott always puts the honey bun on my thing. The honey bun.

That's more of a taunt though, isn't it? I'm a big Texas roll guy myself, but I respect that. Is that there to taunt you? Honeybun's like the less established cousin. It's like, oh yeah, he's with us, but he's not with us. Have you put that in the microwave, threw some ice cream on it after? Going through high school, I had a best friend of mine that we would go to the vending machines every morning and get two Texas rolls. One, we would peel all the icing off and put on the other and just eat it.

Genius. Genius. All right. Moving on. They call me snack daddy for a reason. They do call you the snack daddy. Don't let the skin physique fool you, Mike. I have a fat ass at heart. I forgot that. Colt, what's the most creative excuse to get out of doing something you didn't want to do? He's going to bust himself right now. Oh, yeah. Creative? Oh, man. I don't know. I'm pretty upfront. I just know people don't want to. I don't know.

No, I don't excuse. I do. I tell people I'm sorry. Like, nah, not busy. Just nah. I can see you telling people, I don't like you enough to spend time with you. I have an auto text that I don't want to tell people what it is because then everybody's going to write it off. Oh, now you have to. What's the auto text? What is it? Come on. I'll send it to you. You probably have sent it to me. I have sometimes. Multiple times. He's like, just read back through your text and look for the similarities. All right. It says...

You know, I feel like this says something, but it should say something different. It says, what's the main thing on your bucket list? But I feel like you say, what's the man thing on your bucket list? What's the man? I don't have nothing manly on my bucket list. Horseback riding. Even though I have horseback riding. Wait, wait, wait. Listen, listen. That's manly. I'm throwing down the gauntlet right now. I'm feeling like the snack daddy. Uh-oh.

would be good for the adventure list with us. Hey, do you want to go trek down Silverback Gorillas in Rwanda next year?

You said that. That doesn't sound too fun. Oh, that sounds fun. I don't know if I want to kill anything. No, no, we're not killing you. No, no, no, we're not killing you. No, no. See, Connell is the guy, like Connell goes on all his adventures. But eventually I was like, I want to go on an adventure too. He's like, fine, you just can't say no next time I have something. Which led to literally us playing Indiana Jones at a live dig site in Saqqara in...

60 feet under the ground with 60 mummies I'd be down to do that and like Petra or something like if you said I'd be like I saw Petra I was looking at Petra Petra's honestly on my bucket list and it's dangerous Are you a citizen? I'm a citizen, but I'm also an Israeli citizen. Are you an Israeli citizen? I was gonna say so can you travel to Petra with your USA passport?

No, no, it's not illegal to do that. Should I? Yes. I'm just saying, do you have Israeli stamps in your U.S. passport? Here's how it works.

Israel actually recently has gone away from the stamps and given you a piece so that you don't love that. Shout out Israel. Second, I could, however, if they found out that I was... Israel doesn't care. It's Jordan. It's not Israel we're talking about. It's Jordan that's a problem. Yeah, they wouldn't be as...

It would make the trip that much more exciting, though. Hey, man, I've been locked up abroad before. That's not fun. That's not a joke. I can imagine. That's just not a joke. That'll be part two of the power move. If you had no morals, don't you think it'd be fun to hunt somebody? Absolutely not. No? I save spiders when they're in my house. Welcome to the podcast, Colt. There we go. The worst thing I've ever hunted is on this mountain. Look at Harry's face.

There's this person you don't like on this mountain. Go hunt him. He definitely just watched Hunger Games last night. I've never seen Hunger Games. He watched the most dangerous game. I went to Elvis. No one wanted to tell me fucking Tom Hanks was in it before I went. No, I don't want to murder anybody. It's not about morals, Cole. If I didn't believe in the afterlife... If I didn't believe in the afterlife...

I'd be hunting. Are you that one that they talk about the atheist myth of, well, if there's no God, then why don't people run around just murdering others? No, he's the guy that goes postal over like a box of milk duds. Or Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks. Do you like Tom Hanks? No? Leave it alone. All right, next question. Colt, you ready? Here's your next question. I couldn't hear you on the headset. Here's your next question. What are most people afraid of that doesn't scare you? Him. Himself.

What are most people afraid of that doesn't scare you? The unabounded nature of man. That doesn't scare me? Yes. People don't scare me. There's no one on this earth that scares me. I called it. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, and we're going to finish up with this. If you can install one piece of advice in a baby's mind, what advice would you give? This is cancel culture in a baby's mind, baby.

That's a deep question. You can set it up for its entire life right here. What are you going to put in the baby's mind? What piece of information to change this baby's... Don't be afraid of anybody. Don't be persuaded by Cuban cigar manufacturers. Nicaraguan Honduras is just as good. I like my Nicaraguans. Just say, don't be fucking afraid of anybody. I think people grow up... I think people... Honestly, I think people...

Until they get older, they're afraid of people or they get around people and shut down. I mean, Ari's story is great, right? He gets around people and he just...

I don't know you at all, but I know you get around people and just be friends with them where other people get around them and they get scared. Yeah. But they get us scared. They change their, I was always this person that I look back at 18. I should not have been doing the deals. I was doing the commercial deals I was doing, but it's just cause I didn't give a shit if he was worth 300, 400 million or this, you know, I think you and I have a lot of things in common. And one of which is telling people of status or power that,

They don't mean shit. That's why I was not good in LA. I live for that. I was not good in LA. In the deposition, I want you to deny you ever said that. But listen, I can't believe you have this one opportunity to instill a deep hatred for Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks and an innocent baby. Why do you like Tom Hanks?

He started COVID. I like Castaway. You like Castaway? I like Castaway. We're not friends anymore. We're not friends anymore. That's it. We just became enemies. Also, I think that if Forrest Gump was made

10 years later, Tom Hanks would be the number one most canceled person alive. Probably. Forrest Gump is a story about coming through adversity. Yeah, there's a lot of... No, Forrest Gump is a story about a poor retarded boy from Alabama. Sorry. And a best friend named Bubba. And a best friend named Bubba. Let's cut the shit. Well, let's face it. Let's cut the shit. The movie's racist as a...

That's like the least racist. What is the best movie made in the last 20 years that there's no way in hell they could make it now? What would you say? What is that? I know mine. Tropic Thunder all day. Tropic Thunder all day.

Because, dude, Robert Downey Jr. When he does Blackface, he does Blackface. I don't think it's that bad. Oh, my God. I love it. I think you get murdered. I love it, too, but I don't think that's like... You couldn't make White Chicks right now. No, I think White Chicks definitely beats Tropic Thunder. Yeah. And I definitely think...

anymore yeah you can make the show the Ben Stiller goes full R-Tard in there yeah remember going full R-Tard you can't do that you can't even say that you know what I'll tell you I'll tell you a comedian that'd be completely canceled who oh every movie from the 90s Jim Carrey oh done yeah gone really gone why if you went back and watched it would you be because I haven't watched the Jim Carrey movie since then if you go back and watch some of them now you'd be like

because they're not very good or because he's like dropping hard but it's dropping hard rs it's just like you know

You know, some of the retardum stuff. That's what I meant by hard-on. Hard-on. Oh, all right. There you go. All right. He's trying to give you the subliminal hand. Send in the hay bale. I'm not PC. I'm sorry. Yeah, the thoughts and feelings are very good. Do not reflect those. Yeah, cold arm of him. This guy's definitely going to lose the Gillette sponsorship at the end of this. The power move does not intend to hint human beings at any point in the future. Robert Kraft. That would be the...

biggest rush. Don't worry. They got enough massage parlors trying to do that. Oh, wow. What if you gave the human like a knife? How did we get back here? How did we get back here? All right. This happens every single time he's in the room. Okay, hold on. Then I got a good question for him. What's your weapon of choice? Give me top three. Top three? Hand-to-hand combat. Top three.

And then give me one long range. I'll just take an AR for long range. See, I think that's an AR for long range. But I only need to be away 50 yards from you. That's long range. And if I'm 60 yards, you're done? I would love to go... 30-06.

i would love if it was law that if you challenge somebody that you had a duel yeah you had to get on that was a hundred years ago buddy how awesome would that be just fist fight you live in a constant state of just chaos i'd love to fist fight we live in the least violent most prosperous health hold on i got a real question when was the last time you physically fought someone tell me right now this morning it

was on... No, no, no. I'm talking a physical artication with a bloody nose. He's married to a Latina. That's cool. In front of the fountains at Bellagio, it was beautiful. Fountains were going off. It's on Worldstar. How long ago? 13 years ago. Oh, yeah. He's got some built-up rage. He's ready to blow everybody out. I'm going to bring you to jujitsu. We've got to get some of that out before... Those guys will beat me up, but...

I might punch somebody in the face. Just go to a kid's class. Yeah. You'll be fine. Stupid kid. We'll start chopping. We'll start chopping a big intercut. Everybody that doesn't do jujitsu always wants to talk about what would happen in a fight. People that get in fights all the time, even recreationally, don't want to ever get in any fights ever. No. Like, ever. I don't like getting in fights because I know how horrible fighting is.

I literally turn into a different human. Like, I think I'm like half werewolf. Like if somebody gets an altercation on me and I get pushed first,

i thought i thought i killed a guy it was like the worst night of my life i literally thought i killed the guy the last this fight i was in like real real fist fight i've been in stuff in bars and stuff but that bounced the guys had off a payment i thought i was going to jail i had to like run away and get a cat i thought i killed the guy same thing happened to me yeah it's horrifying i mean you don't say listen especially because you understand how i feel being a bigger guy and john you you know too like being a big guy you also have a low-key responsibility not to someone

somebody else. If you do, that's all. It doesn't matter altercation, self-defense, none of that. You're the bigger dude and they're going to be like, nah, man. That guy was not a threat to you, buddy. That's what really scares me, especially in today and age. I bring a gun everywhere. I'm from Georgia. That's just how I am. Especially in Las Vegas, I like that the laws are similar. I learned a law where if you step out of your car and someone has a gun in their car, you're dead.

You know why? Because you're a perceived threat to them. Sure. I mean, if you can articulate. First off. I did not. A cop explained that to me, and I was mind blown. You get out of your car, and you attack somebody, and they're able to reasonably articulate that your behavior was aggressive. Erratic. You're allowed to defend yourself, especially in your home. You can't shoot a guy who's running away. Yeah.

was like florida has what the standard ground the standard ground law in florida it's called castle doctor and we're staying around georgia too dude yeah i love that georgia's really loose about it it's like hey man you got it you got it you got it you got a pistol you got a pistol okay you guys got licenses okay who shot who first yeah i don't know all right who got hit this guy all right you get a ticket arizona has mutual combat laws

See, I'm just, I need to move to Arizona. This is what I need. Go outside and say, I want to fight you. And if the guy agrees to it, you can go in the middle of the street and fight, fight each other. And the cops won't come in. You won't be arrested for it. I'm just looking for, if somebody sends me an auto text telling me they're too busy for me, I should be able to shoot them. I think that, I think that's the law. That's what I need on the auto text. Well, all right, man, bro. Thanks for coming in. It was awesome. I appreciate it. If somebody, if somebody wants to find you, dude, how do they find you, man? Uh,

Uh, my Twitter, my Instagram at Ari gold, a R I G O L D E E T H. And that's it, man. Check out our dude. His, his Instagram is off the charts. If you want to see somebody that's living the life that you fucking wish you could check that shit out. Kind of, if they want to find you, how do they find you? Con law LV at Connell, LV three L's and Connell law. Yep. And Colt, if they want to hide from you, where do they hide from you?

Mountains. Mountains. Mountains. Do you at least give your prey a head start? Do you give your prey a head start, Cole? Absolutely. You put them on. I just want to end it on this. You put them in like a three mile radius on a mountain. I want to end it on this. When the apocalypse starts or when this new monkeypox bullshit outbreaks or whatever happens, this guy is going to be up in fucking Mount Charleston. Eating people. And like the hills have eyes with like a bush on his head.

I'm going to go get a rifle. Like a piece of human flesh holding an arm in his mouth. You might not believe me. That was the superlatives used in his yearbook in high school. I am getting most likely to be chewing on a human arm. Five people were going top of the stratosphere. One came down. Oh, my God. Most likely to have a human arm in his mouth in the next 15 years. All right, guys. It's been fun. We'll see you next time.

Hey, it's John Gafford. If you want to catch up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to thejohngafford.com where we'll share any links that we've things we talked about on the show, as well as links to the YouTube where you can watch us live. And if you want to catch up with me on Instagram, you can always follow me at thejohngafford. I'm here. Give me a shout.