In this interview, Dean Graziosi talks with entrepreneur Jesse Itzler—founder of Marquee Jet, early backer of Zico, and author of Living with a SEAL—about the daily habits and mindsets that have powered his varied successes. Itzler emphasizes that his ventures are built on "soul" and purpose rather than pure profit, and he reflects on the humbling responsibility that comes with raising capital and experiencing loss. Drawing inspiration from David Goggins, he highlights the value of simplicity and the need to downsize life as one ages. A core habit he champions is planning the next day the night before, creating an "evening routine" that sets up early‑win momentum each morning. He contrasts this with the pressure‑filled daily to‑do lists of his 20s, advocating a weekly‑goal framework that allows flexibility and reduces burnout. Itzler also discusses the concept of a "life resume"—balancing family, work, wellness, friends, and charity—over a traditional career résumé, and stresses maintaining hunger without being driven solely by financial metrics. Throughout, he shares practical sales insights (product quality drives repeat purchases) and an underdog mindset that keeps him striving for the next challenge while avoiding complacency.
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Yes, I've had success in business and I've sold companies. Yes, I've also suffered the defeat of having to call people and be like, we're out of business.
You are the quintessential entrepreneur, man. I
had a loss. The loss hurt. When you raise money, it comes with tremendous responsibility.
You started out as a rapper turned entrepreneur, founder of Marquee J.
Everything that I've built has been built completely on soul. It was never a goal of mine to be like, I want to be the richest, I want to be this. Yeah, like, I don't even— I don't play that game. But I did want to be the richest on this side of the equation.
Jesse Itzler, welcome. Founder of Marquee Jet and your incubator helped start Zico Water and the All Day Running company. It's great watching what you do, but I want to tell you, watching you from the outside, when I read your book Living with a SEAL, get me to know you a little more, and I have some byproducts of that book. It pushed me to be more focused, even more focused on exercise and And pushing through the hard parts. Is there any, is there anything from that experience that still lives with you today? Yeah.
Well, you know, they always tell you to surround yourself with like-minded people, and I've always felt the opposite. I've always been attracted to people that were, had an expertise in something that I was interested in, but it was a little bit outside of my comfort zone or, or whatever. And this was the, this was the same case. I didn't go into this to write a book. I saw Goggins at a running event in 2006. It was a 100-mile race, and I was running it as with a group of 5 guys, relay style. Like, you run a mile, I run a mile, the next guy runs a mile, you run, I run, he runs, and whatever team runs the most wins. He was running by himself. This is pre-internet, pre-Instagram, pre-everything. And I saw him have a really tough moment. And then get back up and finish the race. And I thought to myself, it was a small field. There were maybe like 40, 50 runners. Whatever secret sauce this guy has that got him out of his chair in misery.
I want some of it.
To answer your question, you know, as you get older, Dean, I'm sure you've experienced this too. You know, your life can get more complicated. It evolves. You know, you, you have, I have children, 4 children. I have a wife. I used to eat dinner at midnight when I was hustling my businesses, and now I eat dinner at 5:30 with, with a family. Life systems evolve as you evolve.
Yep.
You know, and it's easy as you get more, life can get complicated quickly. People always think that more is better, but better is better. What I learned from, from him really, I mean, not even the physical stuff that we went through, was just the simplicity of how he conducted himself. I wanted more simplicity in my life. And I sort of, it forced me to look around and say, like, when I think of the, the, the people I go to advice, they're usually older. My parents, the, my elderly, you know, like people that have done it before. And what do they all have in common as they get older? They downsize, they simplify their life. And I just, I love the way he lived his life. It was simple. And I know that's a, a weird answer, but that's really the truth.
Sometimes we overthink how to get certain things done. And sometimes, not to quote Nike, sometimes you just have to do it and find something that drives you to do it. Simplify so you can amplify. There are things that you practice to be a hustler in your 20s, to move the needle, that now you probably could get more done with your pinky in your 50s than you could in your 20s with such a heavy lift. In that journey, What mindset shift, what are some practices that you use?
Well, I think, you know, a lot of people talk about morning routines, and morning routines are definitely important, but I'm a much bigger believer in evening routines. So my, my day starts the night before. I don't think anybody on this listening to this podcast is good enough to wake up and just wing it. The competition is too fierce to like be like, oh, today I'm gonna, I don't know what I'm gonna do today. So like I map out my day. The night before. So it's super efficient and I just follow my script. You know, the best, the top CEOs in the country have multiple CEOs and they walk in, Dean, 11 o'clock, you're here, 11:30, you're here, 12 o'clock, 1. We don't have 3 assistants, so we have to map out our day. So it's super efficient. I try to layer in early wins first thing in the morning to get momentum. I'm a big believer in momentum both ways. Negative momentum. If you're spiraling down, you gotta stop that. Right. Right away. And that could be the easiest way to stop it is creating a small win or helping somebody. Yeah. If you have, if you're in a rut, go into Starbucks and anonymously buy someone coffee. Go pay for, pick up someone's, like, do something that makes you feel good about you. So I try to start my days with early morning wins. I plan my day out in advance. I used to think in, in terms, this is probably the biggest thing I think that I've done Shifting from my 20s to now my 50s. In my 20s, I put a lot of pressure on each day. Like, I gotta, I gotta run. I'm a runner. I gotta run 5 miles today. I'm an author. I gotta write 10 pages today. There's already enough pressure on all of us. We don't need to put that much more pressure on ourselves. So Dean, I shifted that into thinking in terms of weeks. So like this week, I'm gonna run 35 miles. I'm gonna write 50 pages. So if I miss a day, Or if life gets in the way.
That's, that's life.
No, it's big because I'm, otherwise I'm setting myself up for failure. I didn't run today, so am I gonna beat myself up or be like, I couldn't even run for one day, I quit? But now I've given myself the opportunity to make it up tomorrow. So creating, like, thinking in terms of weeks versus days has been a really big thing for me. In your 40s and 50s, it becomes a lot easier. You know the mistakes you've made. You have a bigger network. You're better at what you do. Like, you know, I think the process is always the same. Figure out what you love to do, get really good at it, and then monetize it.
Sometimes we build things that we, we know people need, but people don't buy things they need. They buy things they want. People need to go to the gym more. They need to eat less bread. They, they need to stop sugar intake. They need to be active listeners with their significant other to bring intimacy back in their relationship. They don't do any of that crap until they want to do it. Sometimes it's the pain, the doctor saying you're sick, lose weight, or your wife saying I'm going to leave you, or right, that's when you— or you have to quit smoking because you have emphysema. Then they need to. But most people don't do it until they want. And like you said, people didn't want to switch from a Coke or a coffee that soothed them, even though they might have needed it. It's not what they wanted.
What, what we learned was, like I said, the sales the first couple of weeks were through the roof, like unbelievable. And it, marketing will get people to buy it once, but the product will get people to buy it twice. Yeah.
Great point.
And, you know, also like it was very humbling, man. Like, you know, when you raise money, I've done it several ways. I've bootstrapped things, I've raised money, I've sold companies. And I had a loss, this loss, and, and the loss hurt. When you raise money, it comes with tremendous responsibility.
Yeah.
Everything that I've built has been built completely on soul. It's been built on caring the most, giving the most, not being the best. Now I'm back of the pack sales. You said you wanted to talk about sales. I'm probably the wrong guy. I'm back of the pack everything. But, but, you know, you can't outsource soul. And it doesn't live on a spreadsheet. It's something that customers feel, my team feels, the culture I build feels. I, hopefully the audience feels it when I speak. And, and it, it's a, it's a two-edged sword because it, soul and enthusiasm and passion is something that everybody has. Anybody can want it the most and care the most, but when it doesn't work, that soul and passion haunts you. And, you know, you make a guy $100,000, a dollar, $5, $10, you're a hero. You lose $100,000, $5, or $10, they never forget it. When you lose people money, it's not like I— it's the weirdest feeling, Dean, because part of me wanted to write a check back to everybody that invested. And then part of me is like, well, I lost the most amount of money. You know, this comes with risk. And then part of me is like, if I did pay people back, which I don't— I had no responsibility to do that. That's just in my nature.
What still drives you? You still, you still got that same hustle as you probably did when you were making $30 grand a year in your 20s. It's more mature. It's gone from knowledge to wisdom, from just effort to, to accomplishments and all those great things that happen over time when you stay in it. But what still drives you?
I think the biggest thing for me is One of the drivers. I don't want to be in my 80s, 90s and look back and be like, I was the 80% version of myself. Like, I don't— that's a B-. I don't want to be a B- when I look back on it all. I don't live in the past. Like, I don't own a Marquee Jet hat. I don't own a Zico hat. I have no pictures of that stuff around. Like, that's all old news to me, man.
Yep.
But it happened. I mean, I celebrate it still. It's in my DNA. But it's, I'm a what next guy. And I'm a big believer in building your life resume more than your traditional resume. And I think that matters equal. I think that gets neglected a lot while people are trying to, obviously it's important to make a living and I'm, I'm a capitalist. I wanna make a living and make money, but, but building your life resume is equally as important. And I'm an underdog, man. My dad owned the plumbing supply house. He lived in a house with 3 generations in one roof where they had a paint shop. There's a million stories like this, but I feel like Rocky in Rocky III. In Rocky I, he's hitting the meatbags and everybody's like, oh my God, Rocky's hitting the meatbag with his hand. Yeah. But in Rocky III, he's getting powdered down and Clubber Lang's coming up in the clubs knocking everybody out. I don't want to be Rocky III. Yeah, I want to
be— Oh God, you and I, you're kind of cut from the same cloth. I never want to be the guy that used to.
I just feel so lucky to be in this position, you know, and I feel like I have a lot— I don't know what the driving thing is, but a lot more in me. And, um, I never want to lose that hunger. And I'm not, I'm not talking about financial. I'm not— I'm talking about in all— the way I look at success is There's so many definitions, but like, I take the buckets that matter the most to me. My family, my work, my wellness, my friends, charity, whatever. I wanna be as good as I can be in those buckets.
Yeah.
I don't think I'm the best in the world. I don't think I'm not competing with this one and that one, but for me, those are the buckets that matter. And if something doesn't fit into one of those buckets, I'm usually not doing it. It's like a waste of time.
Yeah.
So I'm trying to just Focusing on those buckets that matter the most and spend— when I turn 50, I made a promise to myself to put more on my plate of the things I love to do with the people I love to do them with. That's my driver.
Success without fulfillment has got to be the emptiest thing on the planet.
