Rick Rubin & Intuition-Driven Building

`1:33:11`

And then also, 10% of our profits go to our employees every year. And it's based on seniority. Or actually, that's the wrong... It's based on longevity, not seniority. The two aren't the same thing. However long you've been here. So every month you've been... You basically accrue units, up to ten years' worth of units. At that point, you've maxed out your units, and we distribute profits based on that. So, it's not based on which role you're in. It's not based on the salary or your title. If you've been here for ten years and you're a principal software engineer making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, your bonus, your profit-sharing bonus, is the same as someone on customer support who's maybe making 90 grand or a hundred grand, who's been here for 10 years.

`1:33:56`

So, all that money goes to real people. It's real money, it's real cash. No options, no RSUs, no stock, any of that BS. I find almost all of that to be pretty much BS, unless you're a really well- established public company. Our bonuses are based on profits. We've been profitable for 27 years, and they're distributed every year, and they're meaningful. I looked this up before the show. About 20 out of the 62 people last year, or 2024, because we haven't closed the final books on 2025 yet, there were six-figure bonuses, and this is year after year after year after year. It's real cash. That's the beauty of a simple business, a simple cap table, an LLC, and sharing real profits. There are plenty of people in

`1:34:43`

our industry, plenty of our competitors, which I'm not going to name, that hire a lot of people and promise them a lot of stock, and you look at the chart, and it's down and to the right. And I feel bad for those people because they were promised something they'll never, ever get. So getting back to real, I want to pay people with real money they can actually put as a down payment for a home, pay for the college education for their kids, go on vacation, sock it away, whatever they want to do. This is real cash on an annual basis, and this is all part of a good business with sound fundamentals that has high margins and high profits and is an LLC, so we can distribute it every year. We have to, in fact, you can't leave any money in an LLC. You can, but you've got to pay taxes. Anyway... — I know. — You know what I... Just so, there's some pedantic person watching, you know.

`1:35:29`

— The wrong show for this. I want to go back to Rick Rubin and you knowing yourself through this psychedelic experience, partially in your forties. Before you had that experience, what was your inner monologue like? Let's say, when you're running your business, you're 10 years into it, you're 35 years old at the time, did you have a negative inner monologue? — No, I think I was just more aggressive. I don't know how I'm coming off. I try to be pretty steady. — You're definitely not... No, you're like a soulful dude. — Okay, good. Okay. Well, I don't know. Like, I don't know. Sometimes I have a scowl, and — Yeah. — people think... I was probably a lot more aggressive... — No, it's not a scowl. The kids call it — Probably resting face... — RBF.RBF, Resting B**** Face. — oh, yeah. — You should see our photographer, Mike. — Yeah. — He sends me pictures of me, I'm like,

`1:36:15`

"I'm happy!" — You're like, "I'm happy!" Exactly. — There are so many times where I'm like, — Yeah. — literally, we're having this conversation, — Yeah. — and this is how I know I'm going to do this for a long time, I'm like, "This is so much fun." "Can I do it again tomorrow?" — Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. — While we're talking. But, like, my face just, like... — I know. Yeah, anyway, I think I was more maybe aggressive, or I don't even... I kind of don't remember myself, actually. I'll just pull it back to something else, then I'll come back to this thing in my mid- thirties, perhaps. But we don't do post-mortems. I don't look back on things. I don't like to look back on things, actually. — Jimmy Iovine sat in that exact same chair, and he said, "I have no rear view mirror." — Yeah, but that's how I feel. — No trophy room. No, just like... — So you're like, "What were you like at 35?" Like, I don't... Probably more aggressive, but I don't really know. And I'll tell you why — Yeah. — I don't like to look backwards. First of all, backwards is a story you're telling yourself about what you remember