Beast Games Winner Breaks Silence on $10,000,000 Prize, MrBeast, and Getting Fired

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Beast Games Winner Breaks Silence on $10,000,000 Prize, MrBeast, and Getting Fired"

Introduction In this compelling episode of "The Iced Coffee Hour," hosts Graham Stephan and Jack Selby engage in an in-depth conversation with Jeffrey, the winner of the inaugural season of Beast Games, who triumphantly secured the largest cash prize in entertainment history—$10,000,000. Released on March 9, 2025, this episode delves into Jeffrey's journey through the intense competition, his strategies, the emotional and psychological impacts of winning such a significant sum, and his personal motivations tied to his son's rare disease.

---

1. Motivations Behind Joining Beast Games Jeffrey's decision to compete in Beast Games was deeply personal and driven by his desire to use the platform to raise awareness for his son, Lucas, who suffers from a rare condition called Creatine Transport Deficiency (CTD).

• Quote:
  Jeffrey [00:51]: "The whole purpose of me getting on the show was to have a platform for my son to talk about his rare disease."

• Motivation Breakdown:

  • Platform for Advocacy: Jeffrey aimed to spotlight CTD, hoping the grand prize could significantly impact research and support for families facing similar challenges.
  • Personal Growth: Additionally, he sought to push his boundaries creatively, stepping out of his comfort zone after a layoff from his job in a startup healthcare company.

---

2. Navigating the Competition: Strategies and Challenges Beast Games is characterized by its highly social and strategic gameplay, demanding contestants to form alliances, make critical decisions, and withstand various physical and psychological challenges.

• Social Strategy:

  • Quote:
    Jeffrey [00:58]: "It's a very social game where you need to make friends, you need to earn trust."
  • Building Alliances: Jeffrey emphasized the importance of genuine relationships, which not only advanced his position in the game but also fostered lasting friendships post-competition.

• Notable Challenges:

  • The Copperal Challenge [01:04]:
    Jeffrey recounted a particularly tough challenge where contestants were confined in a cube for five hours, with the option to request anything.

    • Quote:
      Jeffrey [01:08]: "There was a horse ready. There were puppies. There was a fortune teller pizzas. This is what the Beast team riders probably do."

  • Emotional Turmoil: The challenge tested contestants' emotional resilience, especially when Jeffrey initially requested a personal favor—a phone call with Elon Musk—to seek hope for his son's condition.

---

3. The Winning Moment: Emotions and Immediate Aftermath Winning Beast Games was a life-altering moment for Jeffrey, filled with a whirlwind of emotions and immediate practical considerations.

• Receiving the Prize:

  • Quote:
    Jeffrey [07:58]: "So I found out you won Beast Games. The prize is 10 million, correct?"

• Handling Taxes and Financial Planning:

  • Quote:
    Jeffrey [02:16]: "I'm working on it. So I think it all depends on what I do with the money this year."
  • Tax Implications: Living in California, Jeffrey anticipates a hefty tax bill estimated over $5 million, highlighting the complexities of sudden wealth.
  • Strategic Financial Moves:
    • Charitable Donations: Planning to offset taxes through philanthropic efforts.
    • Professional Advice: Engaging with financial advisors to set up trusts and investments aimed at long-term impact.

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4. Personal Impact: Family and Advocacy Jeffrey's victory extends beyond personal achievement, deeply influencing his family's future and his advocacy for Lucas's condition.

• Family Prioritization:

  • Quote:
    Jeffrey [73:34]: "Winning $10 million was awesome. Did it bring me happiness? I'd say at the time it kind of brought me like stress. But ultimately after kind of fizzled out, like, I think peace of mind is the ultimate gift of the $10 million."

• Advocacy Efforts:

  • Rucking Across California [85:03]: Jeffrey, along with fellow contestant Jeremy, is raising awareness and funds for CTD by rucking 365 miles across California.
  • Legacy Projects: Establishing platforms like ruck4rare.com and legacy831.com to facilitate donations and spread awareness.

---

5. Reflections on Human Nature and Game Mechanics The intense environment of Beast Games offered Jeffrey profound insights into human behavior, alliances, and the balance between personal integrity and competitive drive.

• Survivor's Guilt:

  • Quote:
    Jeffrey [27:23]: "I felt that, and it’s not fun."

• Trust and Betrayal:

  • Alliance Dynamics: Jeffrey discussed the formation and strain within alliances, emphasizing how trust can be both a tool and a vulnerability.
  • Quote:
    Jeffrey [52:46]: "I'd say overall, very optimistic about the future of humanity."

• Gameplay Lessons:

  • Adaptability: The necessity to balance leadership and teamwork, adjusting strategies based on evolving game dynamics.
  • Emotional Control: Maintaining composure under pressure was pivotal to his success.

---

6. Post-Game Life: Opportunities and Challenges Winning Beast Games catapulted Jeffrey into a new realm of opportunities while presenting unique challenges that required careful navigation.

• Public Recognition:

  • Quote:
    Jeffrey [88:11]: "I posted it. So Jimmy posted it on Twitter. Like, I, like, just wired $10 million to the winner, and I, like, post my receiving side of it."
  • Maintaining Privacy: Despite the substantial prize, Jeffrey remains grounded, focusing on his family's needs and advocacy rather than extravagant spending.

• Continuous Advocacy:

  • Leveraging his newfound resources to further his mission of aiding Lucas and others with CTD, ensuring the prize money serves a purposeful and impactful role.

---

7. Conclusion: No Regrets, Only Forward Momentum Jeffrey reflects on his journey with gratitude and determination, viewing his victory as a means to effect meaningful change rather than a personal milestone.

• Quote:
  Jeffrey [121:03]: "No. Obviously you look at the ultimate outcome. I won season one of Beast Games. I won $10 million. For me to have regrets I think is super selfish."

• Future Aspirations:

  • Continued Advocacy: Expanding his efforts to secure funding and awareness for CTD.
  • Financial Stewardship: Ensuring the prize money is invested wisely to support both his family and broader research initiatives.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Jeffrey on Taxes:
  [02:25] "I would have guessed that my taxes will be over $5 million if I didn't donate to charity or if I didn't tithe or if I didn't give anything into a DAF or a crt."

• Jeffrey on Human Nature:
  [52:46] "I'd say overall, very optimistic about the future of humanity."

• Jeffrey on Winning Impact:
  [73:34] "Winning $10 million was awesome. Did it bring me happiness? I'd say at the time it kind of brought me like stress. But ultimately after kind of fizzled out, like, I think peace of mind is the ultimate gift of the $10 million."

• Jeremy on Integrity:
  [124:17] "I want my kids to have that. That level of integrity and understanding that the decisions that we make have massive impact."

---

Final Thoughts Jeffrey's story is a testament to resilience, strategic thinking, and the profound impact that personal motivations can have on extraordinary achievements. His victory in Beast Games not only transformed his financial landscape but also amplified his advocacy for a cause close to his heart. Through thoughtful financial planning and unwavering commitment, Jeffrey exemplifies how immense winnings can be harnessed for meaningful change.

For those inspired by Jeffrey's journey, supporting his advocacy efforts and spreading awareness about CTD can contribute to ongoing research and aid for affected families.

Transcript

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[MrBeast]

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[Jeffrey]

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[MrBeast]

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[Jeffrey]

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[MrBeast]

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[Jeffrey]

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[MrBeast]

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[Graham Stephan]

So let me get this straight. You won the largest cash prize in entertainment history.

[Jeffrey]

This is about to be the most important decision of all of your lives. I looked at my phone, and all of a sudden there's $10 million wired in. 1 in 10 chance.

[MrBeast]

What's it like winning $10 million?

[Graham Stephan]

Beast Games.

[MrBeast]

Beast Games. Beast Games. What prompted you to sign up?

[Jeffrey]

The whole purpose of me getting on the show was to have a platform for my son to talk about his rare disease.

[Graham Stephan]

Did you have a strategy going in?

[Jeffrey]

It's a very social game where you need to make friends, you need to earn trust.

[MrBeast]

What challenge was the most difficult?

[Jeffrey]

Here's what we're going to do. We're going to stick them in a cube for five hours, and they can ask for anything.

[MrBeast]

Could you actually get anything?

[Jeffrey]

So there was a horse ready. There were puppies. There was a fortune teller pizzas. This is what the Beast team riders probably do. When I looked out the window and saw the horse, I'm like going, what world am I in?

[MrBeast]

One of the most memorable moments for me was the coin flip.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. MrBeast literally lost $5 million of his own money because of a coin flip.

[MrBeast]

What was your first impression of Mr. Beast?

[Jeffrey]

I never shared this before, but when.

[Graham Stephan]

Jeffrey, winner of the largest cash prize in entertainment history, $10 million from Beast Games. Thank you so much for coming on the iced coffee hour.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, my pleasure.

[Graham Stephan]

So everyone's dying to know how much is your tax payment?

[Jeffrey]

Great question. I'm working on it. So I think it all depends on what I do with the money this year. I think the crazy thing about Mr. Beast, you know, he doesn't withhold taxes when he kind of gives the distribution. So I literally got $10 million wired to me. So it's up to me to do state taxes, other withholdings, federal taxes, and it just depends on kind of how I invest the money when it comes to my son's research and nonprofits. So it's a tbd. We'll tune in about a year.

[Graham Stephan]

What percent do you think you're going to end up paying?

[MrBeast]

Because you're in California.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah.

[MrBeast]

And people online have been saying that you're going to have to give half like a $5 million tax bill if.

[Jeffrey]

You didn't do anything with the DOL. And obviously you can correct me if I'm wrong, I would have guessed that my taxes will be over $5 million if I didn't donate to charity or if I didn't tithe or if I didn't give anything into a DAF or a crt.

[MrBeast]

Now why not move out of California? Because I would be thinking, okay, I know I have $5 million, come in, let's go and move to Las Vegas. Let's get out of California.

[Jeffrey]

I thought about it and I thought about it before. So I've worked in startups my whole life and you know, you have these pipe dreams like, oh my gosh, this is going to be the next Uber or Google. And what happens if you have a distribution of 5 million or 10 million? And my wife and I have talked about it, but we just have a great support system for our son and for our family. We live directly close to my wife's sister and their two kids. Lucas has a caretaker who's amazing and you know, to take them out of their schools and move them away was just like, yes, it'd be great to save 1.3 or $1.4 million, but it's like, is it worth it to disrupt our kids lives?

[MrBeast]

And what about your job? Do you quit your job after winning that amount of money?

[Jeffrey]

If I did have a job at the time, I would have. But you know, fortunately I got laid off last April. So I was leading a sales team for a kind of startup healthcare company and they went through some restructuring. I lost my job, which started doing some more entrepreneurial stuff, small business stuff, which included kind of applying to Beast Games. So put it this way, I don't think I'll be going back to a W2 anytime soon.

[MrBeast]

How did you find out about the show in the first place? Like, what prompted you to sign up.

[Jeffrey]

Early 2024, I wanted to do more creative stuff and I've done musical theater once every five years or so and I'm like, okay, what else is out there? So I looked at some casting billboards And I saw Mr. Beast, Beast Games. I'm like, oh. My oldest son Jack has introduced me to Mr. Beast. We've watched a bunch of videos. I see that he's kind of philanthropic. I'm like, I like this guy. And I go, if I can apply for this and get on I can be like the cool dad for Jack, my nine year old. But also I could have a platform to talk about my son Lucas's rare disease. He's got a rare disease called creatine transport deficiency. It's super rare and if I can get on there, I can spread awareness to the world about it.

[MrBeast]

So where was it posted exactly? Because I didn't see anything of like, hey guys, you know, apply for Beast Games.

[Jeffrey]

So I, I saw it on like a casting billboard, you know, a website that's called a casting billboard that kind of goes, you know, we're looking for an extra on this movie or we're for a, an actor for this commercial. So I saw it there. But I have friends who literally applied by seeing an ad on LinkedIn. He also posted it on, on X. So it wasn't widely advertised and I think that's probably part of it. He probably wants people who are looking for it, who are trying to, who are really into it.

[MrBeast]

So on the casting websites, is that like a normal place that you go peruse me?

[Jeffrey]

No, no. So it's again I, in the beginning of 2024, I was kind of like this midlife crisis for me. I want to do more creative stuff. So I cold emailed like this modeling agency in San Francisco. I'm like, I'm trying, I want to get into commercials or like I want to just do something where I can express more, do, do more artistic stuff. And so after I signed up for that, I signed up for this website to just to see if I can self source any gigs and literally within weeks, I sell Mr. Beast Beast Games.

[Graham Stephan]

It's kind of funny. You look exactly like the type of guy I would see in a commercial. And I mean that in a very complimentary way.

[Jeffrey]

Thank you.

[Graham Stephan]

It's like I could see you in a teeth whitening commercial. Oh, I could see. That was like my number one thing. It's skin care, teeth whitening, like staying looking youthful even though you're not old.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, like, like a Just for Men commercial.

[Graham Stephan]

You could be a fake 55 year old. Everyone's just like, how's this guy look? 35.

[Jeffrey]

Hey, any brands out there who are listening, please listen to this again and, and reach out to me.

[Graham Stephan]

So what is the vetting process like to get on Beast Games?

[Jeffrey]

The application was you have to complete a video that's like 60 seconds or less that says, you know, why do you want to be on Beast Games? And what would you do if you won a million dollars? And I wrote it on my Whiteboard. And I put an alarm on my phone. Like, the deadline date. I think it was May 31st. And guess what? May 31st came. I haven't done it yet. And I'm going, oh, my gosh, how am I going to do this? It's Mr. Beast. It's got to be edited well, it's got to be fun and exciting. And I just used my webcam and recorded. The background in my office was kind of messy, but my son was in there. Lucas. It was just a super simple message or a super simple video. And I'm like, I press send. I'm like, there's no way they're going to choose me. Like, this is so boring. And two weeks later, I got a. I got a call from a guy named Danielle, and she said, hey, we watched your video. We liked it. We have some more questions. But okay, I made it past the first step. Then I had to do, like, a social media background check, a kind of health and wellness background check. Had to do another video and then another phone call. And I'd say, you know, fast forward a month. I finally got the call that says, you're in Beast Games.

[Graham Stephan]

So they check your social media to make sure that you haven't post any, like, reprehensible content.

[Jeffrey]

That's my guess.

[Graham Stephan]

And the, the other check, the health and wellness check, is to make sure that you wouldn't, like, fall down and like.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I think it's a little bit of how is your, you know, cardiovascular health? Like, if you, you know, go through some challenging things, how are you going to respond? I think it's also probably a little bit more psychological, too. Is like, there's some questions in there to really see how you would respond to stressful emotional and psychological situations.

[MrBeast]

What are some of the questions they ask you?

[Jeffrey]

I don't know. I can't remember. But remember offhand, but they ask the same question many different ways, many different times.

[MrBeast]

Try to get you to, like, slip up.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, so I think that's part of it. They're trying to make sure people are being honest and not gaming the system.

[MrBeast]

Did they do like a criminal background check or anything? Do you know?

[Jeffrey]

I think they did because I remember, like, you can request a copy of your background check. You know, fortunately, there's nothing on mine, but I'd imagine that Amazon and Mr. Beast would 100% do that.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, I watched your video. I thought it was really. It was memorable because you were with your son and your son goes, as you're in the middle of a sentence, to play the piano behind and you're pulling back and be like, oh, that was great. I thought that was really sweet to include your son in that. What did your wife think at the time?

[Jeffrey]

She didn't know I was applying, so I didn't tell her I applied until I got in.

[MrBeast]

Why?

[Jeffrey]

My wife is, like, the most amazing wife around. She's like the best planner. And I know that once I tell her I'm going to do something in her mind, she's going to think about all the logistics that have to take place in order for it to go well. So it's okay. How long are you going to be gone? Okay, what do we need to do? What days are you taking the kids to school? Who's going to do this for practice? Okay, who's going to go to the grocery store? She just will start thinking about solutions to all the challenges this brings. And I just didn't want to do that to her until I for sure knew I was in. But she loved the video once she saw it. But, yeah, it was like a month later.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah.

[MrBeast]

I was curious what people do when they go on a show like this. Do they quit their jobs? Do they. Do they have jobs? They could be like, hey, guys, I'm going to be gone.

[Jeffrey]

You know, the contestants in Beast Games were awesome, and it's just such a wide variety of people. But there was, you know, I met at least a couple dozen people who quit their jobs, and I'm sure there was dozens more. There's other people who are kind of either small business owners or more kind of in the industry, you know, in the arts or, you know, actors or influencers or content creators. So people had a little bit more flexibility. But I think most people kind of go, I can go take two weeks off. If I go further than that, I'm gonna have to get creative with my job.

[MrBeast]

Yeah. So, yeah, I was always wondering what people did in those situations or, like, for money to, like, not have income for potentially a month.

[Jeffrey]

I. I remember one, a friend of mine kind of took two weeks off, and she's like, if it goes past this date, I have to call my boss. And she works for an airline, and I have to get super creative on how I'm going to stay. And she went super far. So, like, I. I still don't know what her conversation went, but I know she's still employed, but it's. I think a lot of people took the leap of faith and took the risk.

[Graham Stephan]

So when you're in there in the city just competing In Beast Games, do you have access to technology? A phone?

[Jeffrey]

No. So the moment you kind of check in, they, you, you check in your, your laptop and your phone and they kind of, they seal it so it's only in like a bag that's assigned to you. And they put it in a kind of a locked room. And I didn't have my phone from early August until the middle of September, so it was like five weeks where I went without my phone, without any Internet.

[MrBeast]

How do people contact you if, if there's an emergency? Is there a person that someone could reach?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. So the Beast team did an awesome job of kind of letting your emergency contact know what's the status in the game. So after every challenge, you know, my wife would get a text and go, hey, by the way, Geoffrey made it to the top 500. Jeffrey made it to the top 250. And then it was like Jeffrey made it and is traveling to Panama for the island. So it's like, it's like kind of cool that she can take this and show my son Jack, like, hey, guess what? Here's what dad's doing. So they keep them in the loop and yeah, there's obviously emergency contacts that the Beast team can reach out to and vice versa.

[MrBeast]

I would, if, if I were your wife, I'd get so excited to be like, oh, my gosh, top 250. Oh, my gosh, top 100. And like receive those texts.

[Jeffrey]

It was like, you know, I don't know. I, I, I heard it was like a last minute thing that they were going to do to the contestants. And I'm like, that is like, brilliant. It's like just a great way to keep the families engaged. But yeah, it was when I, when I first chatted with my wife and son Jack, they're like, it was awesome because it's just like, hey, any updates? How's he doing? What's going on? Yeah, it's, it's just a brilliant way, I think that Beast could keep people involved.

[Graham Stephan]

To me, it's shocking that it was like five weeks for Beast Games because as a viewer of Beast Games, I thought it was like maybe like a week or ten.

[MrBeast]

That's what, that's what it, you know.

[Graham Stephan]

But five weeks is like way longer. How was it being disconnected from society, like reality for that long?

[Jeffrey]

Oh, I mean, the, the first three days are hard. First three days, like, oh, my God, like you're just like everybody's phantom reaching for their phone. And then, you know, I'd say probably day four, day five, you Kind of go, I'm. Oh my gosh, this is awesome. Like, I feel like I'm in the 90s again. I'm a, I'm a child of the 90s. I, I think I had the best time to grow up. I was born in 80, so I got to live like 6th, 7th grade, ride my bikes. No one knew where I was. And then I get the Internet in high school. Like, it was perfect. So it was, it was awesome to be disconnected and it just forced people to chat with others and get to know others.

[MrBeast]

It's funny you mentioned when you were born because we were doing research on you And Wikipedia said 1980 or 1981.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, they.

[MrBeast]

And so now they could put as the source.

[Jeffrey]

Nice.

[MrBeast]

1980. We got it, guys.

[Jeffrey]

Exactly. You pulled it out.

[Graham Stephan]

Aside from your family and friends, what did you miss most about being aware of what's going on?

[Jeffrey]

I love to take in information and, you know, it's just nice to know kind of what's going on or, you know, I think one thing that like, really stuck out to me was like, hey, what's the price of bitcoin? Like, so it was, it was just an interesting time to, to not have constant information coming in. But I kind of got my fix, you know, I was able to get it, like by asking questions to people and getting to know people. I got weirdly obsessed with numbers while I was there, like memorizing people's numbers because we were known by our jersey numbers. But you know, family and friends the most. You know, I talk to my, even my mom and dad often. And it's just like, not having those connections is tough.

[MrBeast]

What are your first impressions during the Las Vegas round? This was the first round where 2,000 people competed. Down to a thousand.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I, I questioned signing up at the time. I was like, what am I doing here? Like, I am a fish out of water. Silver haired, I don't know a single soul. I treat it like a networking event. I was going around sitting at different tables. You know, some people are like, why are you sitting here? Other people like, oh, hey, you know, and, and I think I got over kind of being an introvert. And I'm like, okay, I feel good. But I look around, I'm like, there's so many people here. Like, what are we doing in Allegiant Stadium? In my mind, I thought we were going to the mirage 100%. I don't know if you remember being in Vegas. The Mirage just closed down in mid July. And so I was like, oh, what a perfect place for Mr. Beast to have it. You have 3,000 rooms. Like, so I was looking at the Mirage map and memorizing where stairwells are. Like, I was so geeked out on this stuff. And even in my hotel, I was like memorizing serial numbers underneath the lamps. Like, I thought the games had already started again. I've never done any of this before, so I was just totally in my head. But once I kind of met other friends in the stadium. Patrick 9:30 stopped me in the hallway and started asking me questions, just like you said. He was like, he's like, who do you model for? He goes, you order from Willamea or do you know Patricia Milan? I'm like, I have no clue what you're talking about. Like, I have zero clue what you're talking about. And just him. And I hit it off like that. And once I felt like I had friends, I'm like, okay, I don't know what I'm doing, but at least I'm doing it with people who I could be friends with. And that's, that's how it all started in Vegas. And Vegas was a trip.

[MrBeast]

Why do you think there's so much controversy around the whole Vegas thing? Because I've seen like right after that happened, there was a whole bunch of just people talking about the poor conditions or that they were being mistreated.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I think when anytime you're doing something for the first time, it's hard, then you factor in it's 2,000 people in the middle of the night. So I think the logistics were challenging. But I also think there's. For me, my experience was if I'm going to go compete for $5 million, I don't expect it to be the Ritz Carlton. I don't expect it to be kind of the most lush betting. I thought we were going to rough it a little bit. And so, yeah, we all got sleeping bags, we slept on the floor, we got three meals a day. Like I ate every single bit of my meals. Some people didn't like the meals. So I think it was a little bit of, you know, some people might have been disgruntled, but my experience was exactly what I signed up for.

[MrBeast]

So at that time, what were the meals?

[Jeffrey]

Chicken, starch, rice or quinoa, some vegetables. You know, we had oatmeal, we had hard boiled eggs. You know, he had three meals a day. But it was kind of weird because most of the filming was at night. So we would kind of eat breakfast at night. So we'd have breakfast and then we'd have lunch while we're filming and then, like dinner afterward on filming. And sometimes we'd have dinner, you know, like 5:00 in the morning. So it was just. It was. It was a ton of fun. I mean, it was. It was one of those things where it was only four days, but it felt like I was there for weeks. But it was one of these things where anytime there was an issue, especially in Vegas, they were attentive to it. I mean, they kind of got after it. And then once we got to the Beast Games on Prime, oh, my gosh. Like, it was like, the best accommodations, best food, the betting, like, in the city was fantastic. So I have no complaints for Vegas or Toronto, but I can definitely see where some people might go, gosh, you know, I wasn't used to the conditions, but for me, it was exactly what I expected. They push you every single way, emotionally, psychologically, even physically. But, like, you kind of leave there smiling. Like, that was great. I wouldn't change a thing.

[MrBeast]

What was your first impression of Mr. Be?

[Jeffrey]

Very first impression. I remember in Vegas and he walked out, I'm like, oh, my gosh, there he is. He's in per. Like, this is in person. I was kind of like fanboying out over him and. But he was pretty honest with everybody. He sent a video before Vegas because he goes, hey, I'm so glad you guys are here. There's 2,000 of you. Just letting you know, I'm not going to be able to talk to most of you guys. I probably won't be able to talk to most of you guys until we get down to kind of the top 20. But I really want to spend time with you then. But he always talked to people between challenges, but you don't really get to know him. But once I got to know him, it was. It was great.

[Graham Stephan]

Was there anything that surprised you about him?

[Jeffrey]

You know, being the number one YouTuber in the world at his age and, you know, watching his content, you can just tell he is committed to his craft. He's a perfectionist. I didn't realize outside of that how competitive he was. So, like, when we got to the top 10, we. We were in a. You know, kind of had a night with him and his fiance and some other people from the team, and there's some people playing catan, and he was so competitive, like, there was no chance he was going to let anybody beat him. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, how is he this competitive with just contestants? So it's Just like, he never turns it off. But he's super compassionate, really thoughtful. Like, I asked some really thoughtful questions. To me, he's. He just seems like a standup guy.

[MrBeast]

What were some of the questions he asked?

[Jeffrey]

Well, once he. Once he kind of found out, because the whole purpose of me getting on the show was to have a platform for my son to talk about his rare disease. And so there's a couple times where he interviewed me, and I would talk about it. So off camera, he'd say, you know, what is. What's the condition? Oh, I'm sorry. Like, what does it mean? Like, what does the future look like? And again, he's got a. He's getting pulled in a thousand different directions. You know, he could easily give me lip service, but he didn't. And it was like, man, this guy. This guy cares, too. Which I think is just. I don't want to say it's hard to find in the space, but it's like, I just didn't expect him to be that thoughtful, this young.

[Graham Stephan]

And what about on set? Did he seem present, or was he distracted? Because, like you said, I imagine he's getting pulled in a thousand different directions at once. So it would be kind of hard for him to be present and just having a good time. It surprised me that he allocated time to, like, play catan.

[Jeffrey]

I mean, on set, when we were filming, he is you. You won't find anybody more committed to what they're doing. I mean, he is dialed in. Like, even in the final episode. The final episode we filmed for 10 hours, and you can just tell he was. He was tired in between shoots. And then once the camera's on, it's a different person. So, like, he just is so committed to his craft that he's always kind of stepping up when. When the. When the cameras are on and when the cameras are not on. He loved going around and talking to the contestants. He likes to get a feel for what they're thinking, what they're interested in, what strategies do they like. He loves the game, so people who are strategists, he would kind of take a shine to and want to hear what they're saying or what they're thinking.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, I saw in Colin and Samir, they were doing a behind the scenes of. I believe it was Vegas. And he went to talk to everybody in groups of 20. And what was remarkable is that you think, okay, that can't take that long. He's like, okay, well, if I talk to 20 people at a time for 10 minutes each it's gonna take me, like, the whole day to, like, get through everybody. And he just did it.

[Jeffrey]

He taught. Yeah. I think he think he talked to over half of the people. And then after Vegas, he and his team personally called people to hear about their experience, because it's not like, hey, it's, you know, you kind of mentioned the Vegas challenge. It's like, it's one thing to kind of have people kind of, you know, grimace or, you know, kind of complain. And the Beast team doesn't do anything about it. No. They said, we want to hear what you're thinking, because obviously, this is season one. They. You better believe they're gonna do a season two and three and four. They want to learn to get better. So it was just. I thought they were very kind of thoughtful, how responsive they were.

[MrBeast]

Do they ever have, like, psychologists on set? For people that have, like, a breakdown for losing.

[Graham Stephan]

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[MrBeast]

Do they ever have, like, psychologists on set for people that have, like, a breakdown for losing?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, yeah. There. There's a psychologist on set 24 7. And everybody who gets eliminated, it's kind of a. You have to go through and get processed out through a psychologist.

[MrBeast]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

And. And even me, even after I won, I had to go and sit down with the psychologist. It was a great conversation.

[MrBeast]

What do you got? Can you share, like, what you guys talk about?

[Jeffrey]

Of course. I mean, so for me, it's different because I didn't get eliminated.

[MrBeast]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

And I remember, like, he's patting you on the back.

[Graham Stephan]

Good job.

[MrBeast]

Fist bumping.

[Jeffrey]

It was. I mean, it was just. It was interesting. And I'm sure it was interesting for her, too. It's like, how often do you get to debrief with someone 30 minutes after they just won $10 million? And, you know, it was. I told my wife and my son, like, hey, I'll be right back. I gotta go in here. And she's like, so how do you feel? I'm like, awesome. Like, I feel great. But then she had to go through, like, well, I'm sure there were times that were psychologically challenging or emotionally kind of pressing. Like, how do you feel about that? Do you feel like you processed it? Obviously, I felt great, but, like, there was a. They gave me access to a psychologist. Like, by the way, even though you want $10 million, here's probably what's going to happen. You're gonna go home, you're gonna be elated. You realize you're not gonna be able to talk to anybody for some weird reason. You're probably gonna get depressed. Then you're going to forget about it for a little bit, and then the show's going to air and you're going to start feeling all these feelings again. And they were spot on. And they're like, please call us. So the Beast team made available psychologists to anybody to chat with who was struggling with this. And this psychologist is like, he. His thing is reality competition shows.

[MrBeast]

Wow.

[Graham Stephan]

How long until the, like, depression set in? And why do you think that happened?

[Jeffrey]

I don't. I don't know. You're asking the wrong guy why it happened. But I would say probably three weeks, you know, and depression was just like. It just. It's like you. You planted a seed, but you can't tell anybody about it. It hasn't kind of Bloomed yet. And it's like you want to start making changes in your life, but like, like, it's like. But I don't. I didn't get paid yet. I didn't. It hasn't got announced yet. It's just a weird feeling.

[Graham Stephan]

So you didn't get paid until. Until when?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, so the, the finale aired February 13th of 25, and I got paid the very next day.

[Graham Stephan]

So that was just recently that you got paid just recently that you just saw like a $10 million wire?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, no big deal. Just $10 million.

[MrBeast]

Does Chase ever call you and be like, hey, Jeff, we notice your normal account balance unusual, and now it million. What happened?

[Jeffrey]

And this was a checking account that I literally opened up for Beast Games.

[MrBeast]

Because that's not suspicious at all. Well, no, but it's brand new checking.

[Jeffrey]

No, but I opened up after Vegas because after Vegas, everybody who went to Vegas got $2,000. So I had, I just said, hey, I want to open up another checking account. I put that in. And so it's like I have this one checking account that was specifically for that. And I see it pop up. But yeah, to your question, nobody from my bank called me, which was like.

[MrBeast]

Seems like a major oversight. Maybe just like all of a sudden a $10 million wire, especially considering it's.

[Jeffrey]

A brokerage house too. It's like, hey, let us help you put that to work. I'm sure they, you know who you are. If you're listening, they could put some, they can put some alerts in there because it would have been a great thing to have, you know, private banker call you and go, hey, here's what happened. What. What just happened? How can we help you put this to use? What are you thinking about? But, yeah, no call, no nothing.

[MrBeast]

You would think that just any wire over 5 million should deserve a phone call. If not even just like, hey, congratulations on this.

[Graham Stephan]

This is cool.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah.

[Graham Stephan]

How'd you do this?

[Jeffrey]

Well done. Granted, I live in Silicon Valley and this is the startup capital of the world, and distributions like this, even though I've never experienced anything close to it happen often. So I don't know if it's just par for the course in Silicon valley to have $10 million wires, but certainly not for me.

[Graham Stephan]

So how much did you actually win in Beast Games?

[Jeffrey]

So the total sum, including the 2000 from Vegas, the 10 million from the grand prize, plus 4242. 4242 from the phone bribe or the million dollar bribe. So at 10 million, 6,000 something, 242.

[MrBeast]

Now, going back, winning that amount of money and speaking with a psychologist, was there ever an amount of guilt that you felt getting this money, knowing that someone else had to lose?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I mean, of course. And, you know, I also think about all the friends and people who helped me get there, and it's like, oh, like, how do I. How do I pay them back? How do I pay it forward? Why was it me and not them? You know, I don't know if they call it survivor's guilt or. But, yeah, I felt that, and it's. It's not fun.

[MrBeast]

Could you split any money at all? Were you allowed to be like, hey, you really helped me out. Here's like, 20 grand.

[Jeffrey]

It was in our contract that we weren't allowed to. And then, you know, in certain challenges, they'd kind of reiterate that it's like, by the way, like, you can't make any deals. You can't say, hey, if I. You help me get to this, I will give you 10 if I win.

[Graham Stephan]

See, that's what I was thinking when it was down to the three of you with a $10 million prize, like, you could have each walked away with, you know, 3.33. $3 million, which is nearly $5 million. I was getting up there, and everyone could have left happy. But you're saying you couldn't have negotiated out some sort of split?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, there was no negotiation. And I. I think. I mean, if we could have, we probably would have, you know, with. With those three people. I don't think there was anybody there who's like, no, no, no, I have to get this. But, yeah, it's. There was no ability to negotiate a split, and I think there's some pretty severe clawbacks, too, in the kind of the agreement we signed. If they find that someone is splitting after the fact.

[Graham Stephan]

So for Beast Games, did you have a strategy going in? If someone's competing in Beast Game Season two, what do you think of the things that they should be practicing?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I think you got to figure out what kind of game you want to play. You know, do you want to stay true to your values, or do you want to play to win? I think you can do both. I think I did both. But, like, I would just get crystal clear on how you want to play two. You got to step up your social game. It's a very social game where you need to make friends, you need to earn trust. People need to be able to trust you, and the more genuine, obviously, the better, and have a number in Mind, like, if there's a number, like, because you're going to get opportunities to bribe. And you think about this, like, so many people turn down a hundred thousand dollars in that first episode, and you see four people turn down a million dollars. So there's going to be opportunities where you can take money to either eliminate people or not eliminate people. I'd figure out what that number is and how important it is to you.

[Graham Stephan]

What was your number?

[Jeffrey]

My number was 1.5 million.

[MrBeast]

How did you come to that number?

[Jeffrey]

My wife and I were talking about it, and to be honest, I think it was a number that we figured would never get presented to us. So it's kind of like this thing that, yeah, we have a number, but we're never gonna have to worry about it because, like, we just. I wanted to go all the way. And, you know, when I signed up and I told my wife, hey, I'm. I want to be in Beast Games, like, it's gonna be an awesome platform to talk about Lucas's disease. And she looks at me, she goes, if you're going to be gone for a handful of weeks, you better win this damn thing. And, like, that totally shifted my mindset. Like, oh, my gosh. Like, I can talk about Lucas and win this thing, but winning, winning. Having the thought of winning when there's a thousand people is just so hard. It's just, for me, it was like, okay, I just got to survive. I'm on the platforms. I need to get the city. I'm in the city. I need to get to the, to the island. I'm in the island. I need to get to the top 10. And once you kind of got there, it's like, okay, I got a shot.

[Graham Stephan]

So it was at the top 10 when you first realized, okay, like, I can actually win Beast Games.

[Jeffrey]

It was probably right before the top 10 on the elimination train when it was the top 21. And once I learned the rule set of the elimination train, I kind of go. I feel pretty safe. Like, I feel like there's an 80% chance I'm going to get through. And so I was able to see myself in the top 10, where I kind of go, man, if I get to the top 10, I have a one in 10 chance of winning. And I think I've built very good social capital and good relationships and I think I could do a great job. Like, like, I can win this thing.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you think it's more effective to be a leader or a follower?

[Jeffrey]

Great question. I think you need to be able to Be both. I think there's times where you need to step up and lead. I did that more in kind of private settings. Like on our episode six, on the physical challenge, I would step up as a leader, a vocal leader for a small group. There's other times where I think blending in is better. Like on the elimination train, like, to be a leader. There was, like, the last thing I wanted to do. I saw there was no upside. I feel like I'd have to eliminate myself or like my buddy Patrick. I didn't want to do that. So I think it's kind of circumstantial.

[Graham Stephan]

It seems like the people that all rejected $1 million, they ended up making it pretty far in the games, and they were looked pretty favorably amongst the other competitors. The only thing that was weird is that as soon as it went 51, 49, as though it was advantageous for them to flip on them like sharks, like piranhas, they would just be like, oh, yeah, and then you did this. And that was a jerk move. And we can't believe this. And everyone's like, showing that they're better than the other person.

[Jeffrey]

It's weird. In the games, there's really fresh memories. Like, people remember what happened yesterday in the last challenge, and there's also, like this unspoken reciprocity. So think about the million dollar bribes. You know, three out of the four that made it out of the cubes, Dino, Tawana, and Jeremy. Then the next thing is the helicopter rides. Tawana gets selected for the first helicopter. Dino gets selected for the second helicopter. So there's one captain left. And now we have the 110 coins. Jeremy gets 103 of the 110 coins. Like, so, like, people are always wanting to give back to these people who step up. But then again, in the helicopter, you see that that reciprocity didn't last long, where people were stabbing Jeremy in the back in a matter of minutes because he didn't do what they. They wanted him to do.

[MrBeast]

I felt so bad for him in that moment because he was one of my favorite players. Same with Dino. Just turning down a million dollars like that in front of all these people takes so much control. And then to see people now look at that negatively is like, oh, but, yeah, he did that. But this. I was shocked.

[Jeffrey]

I was. I was shocked too. It was. It was one of those things where I, during that episode, I was going around and trying to tell people the math, like, hey, we have to give the coins to somebody, because if we don't, our odds of getting on a helicopter decrease, because this helicopter is going to go away empty. So that was my mindset. I wasn't trying to go around and say, hey, give these coins to Jeremy, because obviously I knew that would also put a target on my back. So I didn't hear all these kind of talk about, you got to bring a woman on or this, that, and the other, until we got into the helicopter and I kind of like, I'm, like, happy. And like, Jeremy looks at me, he's like, no, this is not good. Like, this did not end well. And he kind of sat there and he, like, kind of led a prayer. And it was like one of these things where I'm like, oh, I. I didn't realize how badly people were coming at you. And so it was. The first couple days on the island were interesting because there was. There was some bad blood, especially to Jeremy, but also to me because I was involved with it.

[Graham Stephan]

And that's because Jeremy would not select a woman to join him on the helicopter.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. And he did. He selected Daphne 976. But it was one of these things where he chose two people. First, he chose Gage 974 and myself. And then he asked us to choose people, and I didn't choose a woman.

[Graham Stephan]

Why didn't you choose a woman?

[Jeffrey]

I don't know. Well, I chose my best friend at the time, Patrick 9:30. And he's the guy who brought me in. He's the guy who stopped me in the hallway in Vegas. I was like, hey, he chose me. It's my time to choose him. Yeah. And in retrospect, you know, I would have taken a lot off of Jeremy if I would have. I would have chosen Matty852, a dear friend of mine. But at least, you know, I made that episode exciting, I guess. And what's this little bottle?

[MrBeast]

Oh, my God, these are so good. So this is called Magic Mind. And they started sending us this a few months ago. Absolutely love it. And we actually reached out to see if they would sponsor our podcast because we like it that much. And they've agreed to sponsor our podcast, which is so co. Basically, it's. It's an energy focus shot, like, for a little bit more mental clarity. And no joke, I have these every single podcast, just to, like, dial it in a little bit more. There's a little caffeine in this, so it's not, like, so much that you're going to be wired afterwards, but it's just enough to give you a bit of an extra boost. And I take These with us, no joke, everywhere we go, because you could take them through tsa.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, beautiful.

[MrBeast]

And it was actually a bit of an accident. I just packed these in my backpack, like, went through tsa. And then on the other side, I was like, oh, wow. They never confiscated it like this. This is really good because it's under the. The liquid limit. And now I've just been taking them everywhere. And then Jack and I now trade. I bring these, he brings protein bars, and we'll trade. I'll be like, I'll give you a magic mind for a protein bar because I bring extras.

[Graham Stephan]

They taste great. It's not too much to where you start feeling jittery. And it's perfect because you can also drink these later. So if we have a podcast at like, 8pm you're not going to drink a coffee at 7pm in preparation for the podcast because then you're going to be up until 2am but this right here, I've had success drinking it later in the day. And it's great. Yeah, Just tones your focus.

[Jeffrey]

Still gets to sleep.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah. It's not a lot of caffeine. It's just a little bit. Yeah, yeah.

[MrBeast]

So we have a link down below in the description if you want to try this out. It's really good. It tastes like a bit of a matcha flavor. It's delicious. So, again, the link is down below in the description. We got an exclusive offer with the Iced Coffee Hour. They were kind enough to say yes to sponsoring us just because we genuinely like their product. So the link is down below in the description for anyone who's interested.

[Jeffrey]

It. This is super good.

[Graham Stephan]

I told you.

[Jeffrey]

I thought it was gonna be like, more like vegetable y. Like, that's how it tastes.

[Graham Stephan]

Like probioticy, huh?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. Such a unique flavor.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, but it's like. It's like the ones you go to the grocery store and it's like $8 for, like, a little, you know, health and wellness shot. Except they're not, you know, $8.

[Jeffrey]

I can taste the passion fruit. Like, enough to, like, make it sweet.

[Graham Stephan]

We might be able to get them to send you something.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, we'll actually give you a few on the road just like them.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah, they're really great for that ruck. Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

Yes.

[Graham Stephan]

Perfect.

[MrBeast]

Yeah. How much was luck versus skill on the game?

[Jeffrey]

Season one of Beast games had a lot of luck and a lot of chance, but I think less than most people think. So are you guys kind of familiar with how we got our jersey numbers?

[MrBeast]

Could you explain it?

[Jeffrey]

So I was number 831. And it wasn't randomly assigned. It was back in Vegas in episode zero on the third challenge, we had to go get our flags. And whatever flag you go get and are able to kind of successfully capture is your jersey number. And so there was. There was actually 1100 flags. So the people who went and got flags one through a couple hundred were the ones, hey, I gotta go out there first. I gotta get this flag. It's mine to get. Oh, I'm gonna beat you. And in the first episode in Beast Games on Prime, you had to have someone self eliminate your row. There was three rows that did not have anybody self eliminate. It was the first row, the second row, and the fourth row. And these were the numbers kind of 1 through, like, let's call it 1 through 170. Like, these were all these type A aggressive people to go go getters, where the rows that kind of got up to the. The eight hundreds, nine hundreds, and thousands were the helpers who help people get their flags and the more kind of altruistic people who needed support, which you'd think those are the people who would eventually self sacrifice. So I think, I think there's a little bit more nuance to the chance. But yeah, when you really think about, I think through all the things that had to happen for me to get to episode 10. Oh, my gosh. So much, so much luck.

[MrBeast]

What challenge was the most difficult, like, physically and then emotionally?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, physically, hands down, was the monster truck pull. I mean, we had eight people pulling a 12,000pound monster truck. I did not expect that. You know, in. In B City, we had this giant billboard that would kind of give us, like, clues to what these challenges would be. And there was a, like a. It was like 19. I felt like it was 1950s kind of art, art themed and had a big monster truck. And it said, you know, our red light is your green light. And we're like, oh, my gosh. So we get out there and I see this monster truck and I'm like, oh, they're gonna put on the brakes, which is a red light. That means that's when we're gonna walk. Green light. That means. So we're practicing doing red light, green light, like how to stop. And then they kind of turn us on again and go, nope, you're going to pull this monster truck. And we. We pulled it for like 25 minutes. I literally, when I got done, like, they almost called a medic for me. Like, I was in, like, tunnel vision. I just, I had Never done anything that strenuous in years. And it was. It was wild.

[Graham Stephan]

See, it didn't look that bad.

[MrBeast]

I'm not gonna lie.

[Graham Stephan]

It didn't.

[MrBeast]

As you're laying in bed watching pita chips, I can do that. That's easy.

[Graham Stephan]

I'm just saying when I was watching it, I was like, okay, these guys, you know, they're falling over a little bit. Like, they're stumbling. They look fit. And so it was surprising to me because it also didn't seem like it was going on for 25 minutes. And so. And like, if you push a car in neutral, it's not that hard, but I can understand. I didn't know it was £12,000 of a monster truck. So, yes, that does sound very challenging. But as a viewer, you know, I'm sure some people, they know what I'm thinking, right?

[MrBeast]

It's an armchair critic.

[Jeffrey]

But I didn't think it was going to be that hard either. To your point, Jack, you know, it's like. But once they said go and we started pulling, it's like this thing is hardly moving. And then you see the other team who's like 20ft ahead of us, and they're like, they're huge. These are all like, you have a ex College Division 1 college football player, you have an ex college rugby player. Like, you have some just horses over there. And I'm like, how are we going to do this? Unfortunately, we had a lot of good teamwork. We never gave up. We had a lot of brains. So, like, we, like, it was physics that actually helped us win is getting over that hump with both wheels. But that was like. That was so fun. That whole episode was aired were filmed in one night. So we did that. We waited an hour. We filmed kind of the flags. We waited an hour and then we did the Dead hang. And it was like. It was one of my favorite nights.

[MrBeast]

How late did that go?

[Jeffrey]

I think we probably wrapped around, you know, 5:00am wow.

[MrBeast]

So the guy's hanging on the thing at 5:00 in the morning.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, yeah. And you know, and once you get into the games, like, we film a lot at night, so you're sleeping in. You know, we're always getting eight hours of sleep if you want it. But it is so fun to film at night because just knowing. And I think about, like, everybody's sleeping and here we are doing things that you can never imagine a grown man doing. It was like. It was so fun.

[Graham Stephan]

So what was the most mentally challenging?

[Jeffrey]

I. I would say episode three, the Cubes was super challenging. And part of it is, like, it was kind of early on and, you know, starting to miss my kids a lot. And we kind of got a little rug pull here. Like the night before, we had this awesome steak dinner, like the best meal we've had. We had a dance party around the money. Like, they played music and everybody was having fun. And then the next morning, like, hey, we're just going to have a game day. You know, we're going to do a potato sack race and people are like, oh, my gosh, like, this is going to be fun. And then they handcuff us to each other, they take us into a cube, they tell us that we'll be here in five hours and that at least one of you will get eliminated out of your group of three. And my group of three was me, 808 and 204 and 204, Chris, great friend of mine. We're like, oh, my gosh, how's this going to work? What are we going to do? And so we get into the cube and like, at first none of us wanted to play a game. Like, hey, let's just see how this goes. And maybe somebody will get something of value that will make them want to cuff. And just, just to kind of tell the viewers is there's a red phone in there. And it said, ask for anything. And we could ask for anything that would help us make a decision on who would cuff themselves. And you could ask for anything, but you couldn't take it out of the room. So, yes, you could ask for a million dollars, they might bring it in, but you can't take it out, you can't take it with you. And so for me, I was kind of going, gosh, what could I ask for that would help me make a decision to handcuff myself? And I asked for a phone call with Elon Musk.

[MrBeast]

Why Elon Musk?

[Jeffrey]

Well, in my mind, I kind of go, Elon. You know, obviously our generations, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, just brilliant. But between Tesla, which is like, what really made Tesla go is the energy side of it. And then neuralink brain, I go, my son's condition is creatine transport deficiency. Creatine is the energy that kind of supports ATP in the brain. If there's one person who can kind of spend some cycles to try to figure out how to get creatine in the brain, it's Elon. So I said, gosh, if I can get a phone call with him for a minute, if I can ask him to dinner, I'll Fly anywhere in the world to take him to dinner and bend his ear for an hour, like, maybe, just maybe we can make some progress on this condition. And so, like, I was like, I was just super naive. I was so hopeful. I'm like, oh, yeah. Jimmy gives away Teslas all the time. Him and. Him and Elon are on, like, text basis, like they're friends. And then a couple hours later, like, a producer looks at me, like, through the window, like, hey, Jeff, like, you might want to ask for something different. I'm like, what do you mean? He goes like, it's Elon Musk, like, you're not going to get a hold of him. So I was. Then I was, like, just dejected. And I was like, oh, my gosh, like, I'm going to go home. I'm not going to get a chance to, like, make an impact for my son. And it was just. It was. The room was tiny and it was, like, so sterilely white, bright lights. It was just. I did not want to be there any longer. And there was, like. I felt like there was no end in sight.

[Graham Stephan]

So you almost just kind of wanted to self eliminate?

[Jeffrey]

I wouldn't say that. I kind of felt like I was going to get eliminated. I just. I felt like I just had lost this hope because no one else was asking for anything of value that would force them to handcuff themselves. So I realized, oh, I'm playing a different game. I'm thinking of this differently. And my friend Chris asked for a tattoo artist. So he had a tattoo. Tattoo artist come in. He got a Mr. Beast tattoo on his bicep. This guy's. I mean, this is my friend Chris. He's jacked and he's like, in his 50s, and he has this huge bicep and now has this big Mr. Beast logo on it. It's sweet.

[MrBeast]

How would that help him win the game, though?

[Jeffrey]

So what helped him is it helped him pass the time. He could. He could calculate the time, how much time we had left, because we only had five hours to do this, and we had no guarantee that we would know how much time was left. We didn't have clocks. So he's like, if I can get a tattoo artist in here, I know how long this stuff takes. He'll have a phone that he has to, like, take pictures of. We'll be able to see what time it is. So he was strategically thinking of why he had a tattoo artist come in. The other person asked for steak and lobster. Did they get it? They got it.

[Graham Stephan]

Did it not did you not want any steak and lobster?

[MrBeast]

Like, why? Yeah, why didn't you ask for a timer?

[Graham Stephan]

I would ask in and out at least.

[MrBeast]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

I don't know if they have in n out in Toronto, but yeah, no, I just. I was at this point where I'm like, I. I wanted something that would help, and I just didn't think, like, a pizza or steak and lobster would. But we. We just. We then we finally realized that, hey, there. There's no chance that anybody's gonna eliminate themselves on their own. We need to play a game. Like a game of chance, like flip a coin, pick cards, whatever it may be. But one of the. One of the. One of the out of the group did not want to play a game and said, even if we did play a game, like, I'm not gonna eliminate myself. So I go, oh, my gosh. Like, how are we gonna do this? So I picked up the phone and I asked for a clinical psychologist to come into our room. And because I'm like, we're. We're part of an alliance. Like, we're friends. Like, can we get past this impasse? So the clinical psychologist sat down with us. I mean, it was so bizarre. She's sitting in a chair, all of us are sitting Indian style on the floor. And after 25 minutes, she kind of looks at us and go, hey, you know, I. I tried to help you guys. I don't think there's anything further I can do. I think you guys need to figure it out. Because we couldn't get past the impasse of not all of us choosing in to play a game. So long story short, my friend Chris, 204 and I looked at each other, we were super close and said, hey, one of us is going to have to go home. Let's just flip a coin. And we get the coin, I call tails. We flip it. I don't look at it. He looks at the ground at it and gives me a hug and says, best of luck. And then he went over to the wall, he cuffed himself, and I walked out.

[Graham Stephan]

Was that not frustrating to have someone in that room? Because I feel like, to me, I would have felt like we're all making sacrifices here, and yet you want all of the upside and none of the downside and therefore pushing the burden on.

[Jeffrey]

Us at the time, 100%, that's how I felt. I mean, I literally walked out of the room, saw one of the production assistants, and I looked at her and said, I. Can I have a hug? Like, I was like, so, like, I Just felt sick. But watching the episode, I realized it's good gameplay. You know, she knew. She knew that Chris and I were super, super close. She also knew that we aren't stubborn enough to kind of go, oh, screw that, all of us. Because if someone doesn't handcuff themselves, they all get eliminated. So I think she, you know, in retrospect, I think it was good gameplay. Not the way I would want to play, but did that ever come back.

[Graham Stephan]

To bite her, though? Because I feel like if someone does something so bad, like the Habibi Brothers. Yeah, that was when they were in the box, like, how they got that girl who was, like, crying and they, like, faked the game so they could each win, which, yes, it was awful, but it was also strategic. That stuff gets out. And then they got eliminated.

[MrBeast]

Because how did that get out?

[Jeffrey]

I'm. I'm pretty sure so early in the games when you get eliminated, you have, like, this, like, little tote in, in your bunks with all your kind of personal items, and you have to go in there and pack it up and carry it out. And I think in that process, you know, she spoke to people in her bunk like, hey, here's what happened. And then it just gets around, like the telephone game.

[Graham Stephan]

But then does that come back to bite them, though? If you do something like that in the boxes, did you go and you share that information like, hey, this person, they just withdrew and they didn't want to.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I mean, I, I, it didn't, I don't think it helped her, you know, but it was like, you know, people always ask because, like, this was the first psychologically, like, really challenging game. People like, hey, what happened in your cube? And for me, I was just like, yeah, you know, one person didn't want to play, you know, and kind of, kind of left it at that. She eliminated. She eventually took a bribe on kind of episode four, and so she got money from it. And, you know, I think it worked out well for her. And for me, it's like I look back at every single thing and I have to thank it, because if I don't, I'm not grateful for the ultimate outcome.

[MrBeast]

Yeah. Now, that episode for me was quite memorable because on that phone, like you said, you could ask for anything you want. What are some other requests that people were asking for? And could you actually get anything? Because I saw someone bring in a horse. Yeah, how do they have a horse? How do they have a clinical psychologist that they could just call? Be like, you gotta get here right now.

[Jeffrey]

Well, I mean, I. I think for you guys is like, if you sat here for hours and kind of, like, said, okay, what are the craziest things that people might do with their finances or people might want to buy from an insurance perspective? You could have the craziest things listed. And this is what the Beast Team writers probably do, is they sit around, okay, go. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to stick them in a cube for five hours, and they can ask for anything. What are the craziest things that people might ask for that we can deliver? So there was a horse ready. There were puppies ready. There was a fortune teller, a psychic, a clinical psychologist. I mean, pizzas. People got their haircuts. People got massages. Like, it was like. Like when I looked out the window and saw the horse. And again, after I just told you, like, I was in a really bad spot. I was, like, thinking of my kids, and I look out and I see a horse. I'm like, going, what world am I in?

[Graham Stephan]

But you couldn't ask for a vape or Elon Musk.

[Jeffrey]

You can ask for it. You can ask for anything, but you might not get it.

[Graham Stephan]

Was it.

[Jeffrey]

What did.

[MrBeast]

Yeah. Was there anything that they said no to? Or was there besides, like, the phone call with Elon Musk? Did you hear any stories of, like, oh, I asked for this. I didn't get that.

[Jeffrey]

Well, I. I feel like. I mean, if you look at the episode, it's like Nolan Mack, Tariq Chandler answering the phone. I think there was, like, a little delay on some. Like, so some people ask for stuff, but just they asked too late, so they didn't get it delivered. But a lot of people, like, ask for kind of pizza or sushi. Because most people decided, hey, we're gonna play a game, and we're gonna play at the end. In the meantime, let's have some fun. But then there was cubes like ours, where it was more of, hey, like, we gotta figure out how we're gonna get out of this thing.

[Graham Stephan]

It'd be interesting to see what all they had on standby. Like, what was in that big room, you know?

[Jeffrey]

That's why.

[MrBeast]

I was about to say.

[Graham Stephan]

See, look, if we just sat down for a couple hours, we could come up with.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, but I would never guess a horse. Never.

[Graham Stephan]

They probably had every animal.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, and they had multiple dogs. Like, many people asked for puppies. One. One. Landry asked for. She. She said, hey, I'm gonna eliminate, but I just want to have a princess party. And like they brought all the princess and prince gear. Like, how did you have that? So it's a. I would love to see the BTS on that room.

[MrBeast]

My guess is they had to have someone at like a Walmart and a Target nearby and they call in, yo, we need five monopolies.

[Graham Stephan]

I think it's got to be that. There's no way that ready to go.

[MrBeast]

In a room and then just return it massively.

[Jeffrey]

I mean like an Amazon. I'm gonna have to ask Jimmy and.

[Graham Stephan]

See because there's sizes too. Like, you know, do you have like a princess outfit in every size? Like, would you have it in Graham size or.

[MrBeast]

Or Jack size? The plus size.

[Jeffrey]

But it was so quick. Like that's the thing that is like, like, I think a lot of it was there because they got this stuff so quickly.

[Graham Stephan]

So seeing so many people behave in so many different ways. You have Landry who's willing to self eliminate as long as she has her princess party. You have other people that are unwilling to play the game and by any means necessary continue advancing. Other people take bribes. Other people don't take bribes. What did you learn about human nature participating in Beast Games?

[Jeffrey]

I'd say overall, very optimistic about the future of humanity. I mean, I think I did not expect to connect with that many people and I did not expect like four people to turn down a million dollars because 60 people chose them to represent them. I did not expect people to kind of play hard, but play with integrity. And I just didn't expect to forge these friendships. It's one thing to like, you're in the games, you forge these friendships and it's like, oh my gosh, this is great. This, this works for now, but after the games, I'm still friends with these people. We still keep in contact. So it's kind of like, you know, you think back to some of your jobs, you kind of go, oh yeah, I was really good friends with this person while I worked with them. And then you guys go to separate jobs and now you hardly talk.

[Graham Stephan]

It's interesting because I feel like through talking with you and as well as watching you on Beast Games, one thing that I feel like helped you out a lot is that your actions are very divorced from your emotions. In fact, as a viewer, it was even hard to tell your emotions at times. Like sometimes, you know, there was a little sympathy, sometimes a little bit of this, sometimes a little bit of that, but it was never too far deviated from just like a cool and collected state of being. Do you think that that is like, that was one of the main contributors to your success.

[MrBeast]

I noticed that too. Do you play poker?

[Jeffrey]

I do not.

[MrBeast]

Don't play poker. You had a good poker face.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, don't ride the highs too high or the lows too low. Kind of like, you know, Rudyard Kipling's if, like. And also, I think being a father of a rare disease, special needs kid, definitely teaches me how to listen better because, I mean, I really need to figure out what he's telling me and what he's feeling and also try to feel with him. So, like, you know, being a. Being a data Lucas, you kind of go, gosh, do I try to fix him or do I try to connect with him? And the more I connect with people, I think it really benefited me. In the games.

[Graham Stephan]

Was there ever a moment where you lost your cool or you fought with other competitors?

[Jeffrey]

Oh, yeah. You know, I mean, it didn't get too heated, but in episode eight, when we. There was a million dollars, we each had an opportunity to kind of go to the pyramid and take as much money as we could. My friend JC 566 took 650,000. And it was just from my experience of him. He was a friend. I just, I didn't expect it from him. And so, you know, I kind of, you know, called him out or at least shared my experience with him, you know, that night and the next day and, you know, it was two grown men having a heated conversation again. Like, I true, I believe that maximum growth comes between the pinnacle, between support and challenge. And this was kind of a poke in the chest to a friend. And it was a good dialogue, but it wasn't like, you know, no fists were going to be thrown at the time. I was heated. Once you watch it, you realize again, it's a game. He had an opportunity to not eliminate anybody and to take the money. And again, whether he pays down his entire mortgage or he pays down some of it, or he gets rid of all of his debt and now he can put money into kind of a. A529 plan for his kids. Like, like, good on him. Good on him. And then afterward, he kind of threw the alliance under the bus. I think that's what kind of was like, man, come on, what are you doing? You just got your money and now you're taking out on us. Like, what's this about?

[Graham Stephan]

It was interesting to see a little bit of a switch, though, in his behavior. Like you said before and after he got his rewards.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. So It'll be. But I have to look back at it. It's a game. And I think in season two, you'll see a lot more play like that.

[MrBeast]

But see, it's interesting. You say here it's a game, but then also I see Jeremy not taking and Dino the million dollars. To which your point. It is a game taking a million dollars at that point and turning it down. In episode two, I saw Ben Shapiro's reaction to it. He got very heated. Did you see his video?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah.

[MrBeast]

He got very upset that no one took the million dollars because he says at that point, it's a positive expected value. When you look at your chance of winning across all these people and you're offered one fifth of the prize pool, it would be dumb not to take that money.

[Graham Stephan]

It was. The expected value was like a million dollars for anyone rejecting a million dollars in that moment. But then if you did the math in terms of the amount of contestants left over and the prize pool at the end, if you evenly distribute that, it was like $5,000. So it's $5,000 per chance or a million dollars in your pocket. And everyone rejected that, which is insane.

[MrBeast]

Yes, it's. I look at that as like, hey, it's a game. You're on a game show and you have.

[Graham Stephan]

But then again, Graham would have, like, taken the first bribe opportunity. Like, he's. He's standing on.

[MrBeast]

It would be over to take ten grand.

[Graham Stephan]

No, it would have been. It would have been, you know, the first round, eliminate everybody in your row and take like 10 bucks. He's like, well, that's a couple coffees.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, well, I mean, I. I think it all depends on your intention and going to the games. Like, I think, like, there's one reason to do anything, and it's as a sign to the universe of who you are, you know, and like, so, like, it's like if you went into the games with people you love, if you told your wife, hey, here's what I'd do, here's my number. And guess what? If it means I'm going to have to sacrifice people to do it, I'm going to do it. If you haven't had those conversations and you want to show the world or you want to do you want to show the world through your actions who you are, whether people are looking or people aren't, I think that's what we experience with Dino, Tawana, Harrison and Jeremy is this is who they are. Like, if they got chosen to represent them, they kind of go, I'm not Going to let you down. Granted, that cost them a million dollars, but I truly don't think any of those people regret it. I've talked to them all, which is just wild to think about. I think of more of a testimony of who they are as a person versus kind of what they wanted to do in that situation.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you think a lot of players weaponize sympathy in the game? For example, they kind of acted as though they were feeling sympathetic towards other people's plights, but in actuality they, their mind was set on the ten million dollars or the five million dollar goal.

[Jeffrey]

I, I didn't think so at the time. Like, I just, I, like I, maybe I'm naive or maybe I'm too trusting, but I didn't think people had ulterior motives with sympathy. But like, after the show it's, it was so fun. Like have friends call me, like, hey, asking me different questions about every episode. And I have a, a neighbor who's a psychologist who I'm good friends with and she would ask me these questions and she goes, you know, crying definitely is a tactic for narcissist or so. And so to induce sympathy. Like, especially in situations where you're trying to get something maybe that's not yours or you want to get something from someone else. And so like, I like, it made me kind of like, look back at the episodes kind of go, wow, wait, did this person deliberately do this in order to get sympathy to keep moving on? I'm not sure.

[Graham Stephan]

See, that's the thing. It's like when a lot of people got eliminated, a lot of people would cry that they got eliminated, but at the same point, that's the objective of the game, is to continue on. And so I was wondering, it's like, okay, if I was in a game with other people and it's like, sure, we had a little bit of an alliance and everything like that. When you get out, like, I'm like, oh no, no, no. So everyone feels sad for me. And they're like, okay, well this guy's been through a lot. Let's, you know, keep him around. We'll talk to him, get to know him. But in actuality, I'm just making it farther in the game.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, it's, you know, and even in my alliance, you know, in the top 10, we had four people in our alliance. It was me, Patrick, 930, Gage 974 and JC 566. And the ultimate aim is we all want to win, but it would be awesome for all four of us to get There and then battle it out. So it's like, we understand that people are going to get eliminated and it's going to suck. And, like, for example, Patrick930, my closest friend of the games, he gets eliminated, and we're like, I'm, like, bittersweet. Like, I'm sorry to see you go, but, like, okay, I'm in the top six. I got to keep moving on.

[Graham Stephan]

And how was the experience different as a competitor versus as a viewer? Were there certain things that. That maybe you didn't notice when you were competing and then you got, you know, some secret drama or something, maybe, or people were in cahoots that you didn't know about until you actually watched the video?

[MrBeast]

I'm curious, too. Did you see any of the episodes before they air?

[Jeffrey]

So episode one and two, we got to see in a premiere, so we got to see a day before they aired. But all the other episodes, we saw it just when you did, you know, when it. When it. When it drops at kind of midnight on Thursday was when I would watch it.

[MrBeast]

Are you watching it right when it drops? The moment it drops?

[Jeffrey]

Sometimes, yeah. So sometimes my, like, my wife and I would, like, either try to stay awake or, like, I'd wake up middle night like, hey, do you want to watch it? But yeah, there was times I'd watch it at midnight. Sometimes I'd watch it in the morning, Sometimes I'd watch it during the day.

[Graham Stephan]

What was the most surprising thing watching it?

[Jeffrey]

Just to see other people's perspectives. You know, for me, it's. I experienced the game through my lens and through kind of my values, but to see other people's experiences was awesome. And I think the biggest takeaway, again, was seeing it as a game and kind of going, I respected or I understood the Habibi Brothers moves much differently watching it than I did kind of living it. I understood Akira's moves much different than I did living it, but it was just fun to see people who I got to know really well. Like, once you get to the island, those top 50 people we got to know super well, and to see their journey and how they played the game was, like, so fun. As a viewer, was there anything that.

[MrBeast]

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[Jeffrey]

I think there was a lot of character development and a lot of the game being played between the challenges. So at the meals, while people are hanging out, like, I think a lot of this game is social, so it doesn't show how people are building their friendships, their alliances. And it would be really, it would have been really neat to see some of the alliances, how they were formed because there was more that were that than were shown.

[Graham Stephan]

I thought it was really interesting when they had introduced your secret alliance. I thought that was something that they could have leaned in a little bit more because that introduced a whole different dynamic as a viewer to, to pay attention to, to be mindful of. And it just gave a lot better perspective. It was a lot more enjoyable. I like that a lot.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, yeah, no, and I, I think, and I think when I think forward to season two, and again, I'm no writer, but I think I think you'll see those, those alliances or those characters get developed earlier because, yeah, it is, it was so juicy. Like, that was like, that was my favorite episode. One of my favorite episodes to watch is you have the family reunion, which was like literally one of the top five moments of my life. And then you have this money grab and this like the first kind of tension of the game. And I think seeing more of that will allow people to understand characters much better.

[Graham Stephan]

What I find interesting is I feel like, like you have to, like, if you were an employer, you could look at Beast games and take the final 20 competitors and put them on some sort of a curve of personalities, skills, intelligence, and they would be outliers in terms of a positive way. I feel like you have to be in terms of social skills, intelligence, everything. And I'm curious because of the amount of self elimination games that they had, if that could somehow throw a rock in that distribution. If instead they had more competitions. Like, I loved the Intelligence one, the Chance one was interesting as well as the, the physical skills one. If more of the stuff were like that. More of the competitions were like that. By the end, if you'd have an even more refined group of people that, you know, one could argue would be good to an employer or just overall like an exceptional being.

[Jeffrey]

Jack, you're spot on. Like, like one of the guys who got eliminated in episode one. John312. Brilliant guy, great social game, really strong leadership. Got eliminated because nobody in his row self eliminated. He would have been kind of formidable at the end. Some other great competitors who were very loyal, always helping each other. A friend, Justin, 66, didn't get. Got eliminated in the first episode too. So, yeah, I envision a world. And this is some of the feedback I've seen online too is like, I want to see more skill based social development as well.

[Graham Stephan]

Like, that's why I liked the alliances. Like a little bit of drama. Who can you be in cahoots with? Who could you be in secret cahoots with? The thing I think was Patrick or the. The person that took the fifth or the sixth slot in the tower.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah.

[Graham Stephan]

Like, that for me was one of the most exciting things, how he was able to outsmart everyone else and get voted in. And it surprised everybody. I'm like, that was such a low percentage chance for him to continue to. For him to advance. But he was able to pull it off.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. Patrick was the one. He's puppet master. Patrick. Patrick who took $0. So he took a big risk and going, I think there's gonna be upside to zero. He took a big risk and it didn't work out for him. Gage974 is the one who did this kind of miraculous move on the towers where he's like, I'm gonna tell this person that I'm gonna vote for them. I'm gonna ask for their vote and vice versa. Then he. Then he had this beautiful throwaway vote from Mikey. 4, 5, 3. Cause he knew no one would vote for him. And when I was sitting there, I'm like, oh my gosh. This is like brilliant.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

And Gage. It was neat to see someone like Gage step up. Yesi had brilliant moves in the ninth and 10th episode. So it's neat to see these characters kind of seize the moment they're in and crush it.

[MrBeast]

One of the most memorable moments for me was the coin flip when you know the prize is gonna be $5 million. And then he brings out another $5 million. If you flip the coin and guessed correctly.

[Jeffrey]

I hope, you know, like that's. Those are real US Dollars. This isn't Fake money. Like, like. So he wheeled in another, literally $10 million in cash sitting there. And kind of when he opened the coin, you know, there was zero chance I was going to do it. Like, I'm like, it's just not worth it to get this far and lose over coin flip. I was never the best kind of in Vegas, you know, betting, playing blackjack or roulette. And I'm like, I'm not going to come out of retirement and flip a coin. But I look over Gage and Gage became a good friend of mine. He's got these kind of beautiful blue eyes and like, you see them sparkling, you see this grin that I've never seen. I'm like, Gage wants to do this. Like, Gage really wants to do this. And Gage is so talented and kind of stepping into his own. I'm like, if he wants to do this, I want to make sure he does it. So I go over there and kind of chat with him and I feel it. He wants to do it. And after kind of a little back and forth with him, Tawana, you know, he reaches out, puts his hand on it and what Jimmy said is the first person to touch this has to flip it so there's no take backs. And you could just see it in his eyes. He was feeling it. And he back in the cubes, he flipped to stay in the game. Tails. And so he holds it up and goes. I'm feeling tails again. And one of my favorite edits of the whole entire show is the coin flip, you know, and you see the kind of the, the sand going through it. And then they, they pan back and they show Emma's face than Tawana's face. And they are like in total game mode, like focused. And then I'm sitting here with my eyes half open with a little smirk because I'm just feeling so good for Gage. And he flips it and you hear the coin rattling. And my eyes are still closed and I hear Jimmy kind of like sounding devastated, like, ah. And I'm going, oh, no, we didn't get it. And then it hits me. This is Jimmy's money. He is pissed because he just lost $5 million. I look at it and I'm like. And I got goosebumps thinking about it. It was tails. Like we literally in a split second went from 5 million to 10 million. And my buddy flipped a coin for this. I was like. I mean, it was like the most surreal moment, like one of my favorite moments of the entire games.

[Graham Stephan]

So Jimmy was actually upset that he had to fork over 5 million bucks.

[Jeffrey]

Oh my gosh, like a hundred percent. But also like, he gets over it quickly because he realizes this is going to be pretty awesome content, but he.

[Graham Stephan]

Can'T use it in the data.

[MrBeast]

I got so upset when he said that because I'm like, that's true. Imagine putting that in the title, winning $10 million.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, yeah.

[MrBeast]

Like how more intense the game would have been with that from.

[Graham Stephan]

I doubt they'll do that for Beast Game season two.

[MrBeast]

No, I think that was a one and done. I mean, maybe, hey.

[Jeffrey]

Well, it's one of these things where Johnny Shea was interviewing Jimmy on the bts and it's like, how do you top this? And Jimmy's like, oh, we'll do it for sure. Like, so, like, this is the thing about Jimmy is he's always going to up it one way or the other. I mean, it might not be the dollar amount, it might be something unique. But I, I have no doubt that season two will be better than season one.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, I was surprised that this is his money. This isn't like he's getting, you know, a sponsor to come in and say, hey, T Mobile's putting up an extra 5 million for this is out of his own pocket. And so to put $5 million on a coin flip to me is just like, that's insane.

[Graham Stephan]

There was no T Mobile logo on the coin.

[MrBeast]

There needed to be like, something on that coin is like a sponsor to help. But no, this is like his own money that he's putting up.

[Jeffrey]

It's how committed to his craft he is. Like, I want to create the biggest spectacle ever with the simplest thing, a coin flip. I mean, people have been flipping coins for thousands of years and he makes it amazing.

[MrBeast]

Did he think that someone was actually going to flip the coin?

[Jeffrey]

I've heard that he did not.

[Graham Stephan]

I assumed that no one would.

[MrBeast]

That's what I thought too.

[Graham Stephan]

I thought, there's no way.

[Jeffrey]

But this is what's beautiful is like you look back to the million dollar bribe. He and Mac were beside themselves. They could not believe that no one took the million dollar bribe and nobody did. And the flip side, they thought that no one flipped the coin and we did. So it's like, I love the fact that when we can surprise someone like Jimmy Money man, you know, we're making great content.

[MrBeast]

So I'm curious, how did $10 million change the game for me?

[Jeffrey]

I just, in my mind, I kind of go, you know, I've thought about this, like, okay, I need to put money aside for my family and I need to have money to kind of invest into research for my son's condition. And $5 million, don't get me wrong, certainly helps. $10 million is totally different because it's like, okay, I can put money aside to make sure that my son Lucas is taken care of. I can make sure that Jack doesn't have to take care of Lucas. And our parents as we get age, like, there's just a lot of things we can do, but we can really make a dent in research. We can really invest in some research that can really hopefully speed up this kind of quest for a cure or quest for a treatment by years.

[MrBeast]

And what about in terms of gameplay? Did people all of a sudden take it, like, way more seriously?

[Jeffrey]

I know I did. Going into the top six, I kind of felt like I was going into a big football game. I was. I was nervous going into it. We take the bus over from the city, and I remember sitting out in front of our van and the production teams are now looking at us. They're starting to treat us differently. I had my thermals on. I go to the bathroom, I take my thermals off. I come out, I'm like, oh, it's cold. Let me put my thermals back on. I have this nervous energy, but once I got in there, I'm like, okay, this is it. I can play the game fair and I can also play the game hard. And so that was my mindset as, like, be calm, kind of be focused, but play to win.

[MrBeast]

When did you realize that you were going to win? Or when did you have that feeling that's like, hey, I got this.

[Jeffrey]

I felt really good after I made that first shot. In the first challenge when we had the red balls, I knew that if I made the first shot, people would think twice about shooting at me because they kind of go, oh, gosh, he's good. If I shoot at him, he can shoot at me and get me out. So after that, I felt like, okay, I made the shot. I'm gonna get to the top four. And I look around the top four, Tiese, Gage, myself and Tawana. I felt pretty darn good too. I didn't feel I was going to win until, like, once we got into the top two and we had a little break, they had to strike the set and build it. And I'm off kind of in this warehouse, you know, in the middle by some pallets. It's dark. I'm kind of trying to eat a snack. It's 5:00 in the morning, and I go, I Think I got this, you know, and it was just more of like, it wasn't kind of arrogance, it was more of like, hey, I think I'm in a great spot to win this.

[MrBeast]

Yeah. Even the top three. You had the opportunity to pick a million dollars guaranteed and you didn't take it. Was there a part of you that thought, man, maybe I should just take the guarantee million dollars right now and.

[Jeffrey]

Self eliminate based on the gains? No, the, the game was kind of everybody in the top 50 voted kind of who they thought was most deserving to win or least deserving to win. And I felt like I made great relationships and great inroads. But I'll be honest, I didn't think it was Tawana's number in that. I thought it was Gage's.

[Graham Stephan]

You know, Jimmy probably hates Gage because Gage is single handedly it's his Fault Jimmy's lost $6 million dollars.

[Jeffrey]

I mean it's crazy.

[Graham Stephan]

$5 million from the coin flip, A million dollars from taking the bribe.

[Jeffrey]

It's, I mean, or he loves him.

[Graham Stephan]

And the most expensive, you know, employee or person that Jimmy's ever had.

[Jeffrey]

It's unbelievable. Yeah. And I love when like Jimmy was interviewing Gage, like, hey, what are you gonna do with $10 million? He goes, oh, I'm probably gonna get a conversion van and play music. He's like, well, what are you gonna do with the other 9,900,000, 90,000 bucks? Yeah, it's hysterical.

[MrBeast]

Just a Lambo.

[Jeffrey]

I know that, that, that was a good. I mean that threw some people off in the last week. They people definitely took the hook and thought he won.

[MrBeast]

Interesting. So what I'm most curious about, the final episode. You're supposed to pick the winning briefcase and you picked it on the first try. And Jimmy said, wow, we've done tests like this in the past. It takes like 18 times on average to pick that briefcase. You did it your first try. How did you do that?

[Jeffrey]

I was remarkably calm and I don't know how. I mean, it was six o'clock in the morning. I had like five cups of coffee all throughout the night. But the number six kept appearing to me in the days ahead. So you think back to the million dollar kind of money grab. You know, Patrick got number five and he gave me key number six, which put me into bunk number six. And then the next day I get into top six and we're spending a lot of time by ourselves. So I'm in my room, you know, I have kind of a prayer book and I'm saying a Prayer that has six words in it.

[Graham Stephan]

What was the prayer?

[Jeffrey]

The prayer is called the Shema. And just the number six was actually the. That day before the night was the sixth day of the sixth Hebrew month. So the number six just kept popping up to me. And so when I got up to the top of the pillars and we looked down at the kind of the lazy Susan with the briefcases and they're numbered, it just came to me and said, it's six. Six is it it? And so I just kind of felt remarkably calm going down there. And then Jimmy's teen up the game, and they kind of come out and kind of give us the rules. Jimmy spends it twice, or actually three times. One of the times he spends it, he puts his hand down on it, it's on the number six. Another time he spends it, it lets it go. And right in front of me is the number six. And I'm like, like. I mean, do I. Like.

[Graham Stephan]

So you went in thinking six, I.

[Jeffrey]

Went in thinking six. And. And when the game started, you know, if I saw a briefcase on number six, that was my starting point. And the only way I'd get off it is if she shared something that would dissuade me from picking that. So I was calm, and I wanted to kind of pressure test, you know, is there anything that she could tell me to make me choose otherwise? And ultimately there wasn't.

[MrBeast]

How did she pick six?

[Jeffrey]

I want to know that. I wish I would have asked her. I wish she would get on a podcast, you know, maybe.

[MrBeast]

Is she not speaking about it?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, no one's. No one's asked her. But I would love to know. Like, I know in my mind, I thought, there's no chance she's going to choose one. She loves that number. And three. She has three daughters. Five. She has five people in her family. Like, I just think these would be unique numbers to choose. Like, part of me thought, like, one of the reasons why 6 could be it for her is because it wasn't special to her, you know, but it was special to me. So I'm like, you know, it was just one of these weird, weird moments where my certainty levels were nearly a hundred, if not a hundred.

[MrBeast]

See, I would think to myself, if you have a number one through 10, what would most people pick? And I think a lot of people would just pick one. Seven, eight.

[Graham Stephan]

I was thinking two is a perfect. Like, no one thinks.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, I know. I would never think two or four.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah, four is good. Good.

[MrBeast]

And I would just place it in that. Just knowing Statistically, people are more likely to pick certain numbers.

[Jeffrey]

If. If I were in her shoes, if I had to hide it, I think I would do it in a way where I would lose track of where I put it.

[Graham Stephan]

Because you don't want to signal.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, because, I mean. Or. I mean, she could have turned around. She could have not answered any questions. But, like, for me, it's kind of like, can I mix up the briefcases enough where I don't know where it's at? Because, you know, you can either make it a total chance game. But, like, the way we played it was a chance and bluffing game. She knew where it was.

[MrBeast]

Did the briefcases have numbers only on one side or both sides?

[Jeffrey]

So the briefcase.

[MrBeast]

The.

[Jeffrey]

The numbers were just on the lazy Susan. So you could have taken all the briefcases and stacked them up 10 high, right in the middle, and I would have to choose, like, point to one that I wanted. So you could. You could have put the briefcases anywhere. She could have stacked multiple ones on number six, which would have really thrown me off. But, yeah, it was the. The rules weren't fully explained during the show. Go. But you could have put the briefcases anywhere as long as they were on that kind of lazy Susan.

[Graham Stephan]

How long did it take for her to create that assortment?

[Jeffrey]

I want to say it was like three minutes or so.

[Graham Stephan]

That's not that long.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I mean, and I was just. I was eyes closed, calm, you know, not really trying to listen to anything because, like, I'm like, I don't want to. Like, what am I really going to hear? Some people, like, online are like, oh, you saw the fingerprints. I didn't see anything kind of out of the ordinary, but, yeah, it was three minutes, and I took it off, and I kind of go, gosh, if it's. If there's something on six, that's where I'm starting.

[MrBeast]

What was your first impression? Winning $10 million. And you opened it.

[Jeffrey]

It was like, shock. I mean, I was staring at her when I opened it, and I saw, because we did a test run before, because they wanted us to know what it looked like or felt like when we opened it. So each of us opened it before. Before the episode or before the challenge started. Started. So we knew that a light opens up. So for me, I was going, if I see a light, I know I won. And so I open it up, the light shines, and I. Like, I paused for a second, like, is this real? And then you hear Jimmy. Oh. Like. And then you hear the cannons go off. I'M like, oh my gosh, like, I just won $10 million. And so I just took off and I subconsciously did this like Elvis move. I'm a big Elvis fan. And then I jump and run up to the pyramid head. And I'm sure the kind of stunt and safety is going, oh, my gosh, please do not hurt yourself. Like, I could have ran over the other side.

[Graham Stephan]

Good content.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. And then I fell and I kind of just slid down kind of like the Joker. And it was just, it was just this surreal moment. I just wanted to hug people and thank them. And I just picked up Carl and Chandler and it was just, it was so fun.

[MrBeast]

What was her reaction?

[Jeffrey]

I saw it on the show and I did get a chance to talk to her. So it's kind of like this out of body experience where you kind of like, you know, you get in the zone and you kind of black out a little bit. It's like when I got home, I remember kind of talking to my wife kind of going, I can't believe I didn't say and go, you know, thank Tawana or shake her hand. She just goes, I think you might have, you know, I'm like, no, I don't think I did because I forgot I did, you know, But I'm so glad I got to go over and talk to her because I just respect her so much. She was like, she literally was who I wanted to compete against at the end. And she was kind of gracious in defeat and she said she was happy for me. But I could only imagine how hard it must be, especially for a competitor like her, not to even be able to play. Like, she really didn't even get a chance at bat. She was only in the field.

[MrBeast]

That's where I feel like the psychologist would really come in to help. Because if I put myself in that position, that would be really tough. I mean, I bet over time you could work through it. But just thinking I was that close and having regret of I should have picked five, I should have picked 10. I could have done all these other things that in that moment I can't change anymore.

[Jeffrey]

And at the moment I told a joke earlier in that episode, I don't know if it was before it started or during that. I was like, oh yeah, when I was used to be a professional poker player. So the joke fell flat and apparently she thought I was telling the truth. So she thought I was a professional poker player. So in her mind after that she's going, going, this guy read me. I gave him some Type of tell. And so, like, even more so, I think, gosh, going home and thinking I shouldn't have answered, that I should have turned around, I should have said something different. But there was nothing, nothing in her that I kind of go, gosh, I was gonna choose five, but she said this on six, so I was gonna choose six because of it. But, yeah, I could only imagine what it must have been like to have that on the first try after winning.

[MrBeast]

Who was the first person that you called? Because you hear a lot of. Of lottery winners that go broke and blow through all the money. How did you make sure you weren't going to do that?

[Jeffrey]

What do you call? So the first person I called the Beast team and said, hey, can I get some NDAs signed for some people? And they're like, of course. So got a few NDAs signed and talked to an estate planner because we just wanted to talk about the special needs trust and making sure that that was set up correctly. Talked to some tax people and then also talk to just kind of some investment advisors, because this is something that we need to make the money work for us, not only for our family, but also for other families like ours who have kids with ctd.

[MrBeast]

Yeah. What was it like not being able to tell anybody? Who could you tell?

[Jeffrey]

Your wife, obviously super blessed that my wife and my oldest son were there, so they got to experience it and feel it, but I signed an NDA, so I couldn't tell anybody that didn't sign an NDA, So I never told my mom, I never told my dad. I have four sisters, and my oldest sister Stacy, became the biggest Beast Games fan ever and asked me a thousand questions. I know you won. I know you won. Did you win? Would you win? If you told me you won, would you tell me? She'd ask all this stuff and then I would just lead them on kind of rabbit trails to them, thinking I did not win when and. But once we got closer to the end, like, they thought I was going to get eliminated every episode, but I made sure that they all watched it together at the end because, like, their reaction videos, oh, my gosh, absolutely priceless.

[Graham Stephan]

And how was that first talking to them once they realized you had won?

[Jeffrey]

Oh, they were so proud and so happy, you know? And again, they know. They know how much Jen and I, and we live far away. They live in Ohio, we live in California. And they know how much that Jen and I care about, about Lucas and trying to find a cure. And so they were just so happy that we actually had resources to kind of put our money where our mouth was. And they were just, I can't believe you didn't tell me. You know, like just all these little things that. So much banter back and forth. And even today we're two weeks out, they still love asking questions. Wait, wait. When I talk to you about this, did you mean this? How did you not tell me? So it's just a ton of fun.

[Graham Stephan]

It's interesting that none of the other contestants knew that you had won as well because I was messaging other contestants to try to get some information for this podcast and they were like, yeah. I mean, I was talking to Jeffrey all the way up until the finale. I had no idea that he had won.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. So one of my best friends from the game, Patrick 9:30. Like I literally talk to him probably every day and he is the ultimate Sleuther one to give him credit, he never asked me where I finished. He goes, I don't want to know, I want to watch it. But I, I led him on some kind of rabbit trails to think somebody else might have won, but other people, like other people in the top six, you know, kind of. Or not top six, but other people thought I had won. But it was like, it was all hearsay. No one was 100% certain. As long as people aren't 100% certain. It was awesome. But it was so neat seeing because I watched the finale in LA with my family in the top 10 and Patrick was right in front of me. And this is so great. I get goosebumps thinking about it. And when he saw it at the end, he looked at me and just was like, like usob. And he loved it. He loved the fact that I did not rob that from him. Because that's one thing in the games we get down there, yes, we have an NDA, we can't tell people, but we get down to the top six. And I remember Klits, who's one of the show producers, who's awesome and is like, hey, think about all the things you've experienced so far. How fun has it been? How great has it been, how life changing it's been. We're like, oh my God, yes, yes, yes. And he's like, believe it or not, people who watch this at home will feel the same feelings, kind of will have the same thoughts. If you tell them when you got eliminated, how you got eliminated, if you won, you're going to rob that from them. Please don't do that. That combined with the NDA was enough for me to kind of Go. Yes.

[MrBeast]

They're like, and our lawyers, by the way, would love to speak with you about this.

[Jeffrey]

Exactly. But it is, like, for me, I am a big fan of allowing people to have their own experience. And just because I want to tell somebody, like, I wanted to tell my mom so bad, like, because she would have been so proud. It would have been fun for to watch, but, like, to see how she responded after was so worth it.

[MrBeast]

Did anyone ask you for money after you won?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, fortunately, nobody who I know personally. So it's a lot of just people dming me or on comments on YouTube or Instagram. But yeah, anybody who knows me personally understands kind of my cause, my mission. And so they're. They probably know better than to ask for anything.

[MrBeast]

Is anyone treating you differently?

[Jeffrey]

No. You know, and I. I was actually in Costco here in Vegas a couple days ago, and like four or five people stopped me or just said hi to me like, hey, congrats, Great game. I'm happy for you. But no one is, like, doing anything kind of out of the ordinary.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah.

[MrBeast]

Are you getting recognized just, like, left and right?

[Graham Stephan]

I feel like you'd be a celebrity.

[Jeffrey]

I think people a lot. There's a lot of double take who are like, they kind of point at me. Like, it was neat. I had a pilot at the airport kind of come up. He goes, jeff. I'm like, yeah. He goes, oh, I love the show. So, I mean, I've definitely been stopped. And it's interesting because this has never happened before, but everybody's been friendly, you know, I think it helps that, you know, the way I played the game and the way the games what the games kind of represent that. Everybody who's watching this is pretty excited for.

[Graham Stephan]

You should just say you're Ryan Serhant.

[Jeffrey]

I think I'm going to start doing that 100%. Yeah. Do you want me to list your home? Terrific.

[MrBeast]

It was so funny. As soon as we watched the first episode and you came on screen, immediately I'm like, yo, it's Ryan Sirhan.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I've gotten that so many times, it's crazy.

[MrBeast]

When did you start to go gray?

[Jeffrey]

Probably my 20s. My dad, ever since I've known him, has had salt and pepper. His dad had kind of bright white hair. So I started going gray in my 20s. I tried to kind of camouflage a little bitty. I wasn't ready to fully grow up. And then once I got married, I started said, let's let it go. And every year just gets silver and whiter.

[MrBeast]

I think it's A good look.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, no, it's. It helps that like this has, like been in the last five years. Like people will dye their hair this color. So, yeah, it's. I think I'm riding the wave at the right time.

[MrBeast]

So when are you going to meet Ryan Serhant? I feel like this has to happen. There's got to be a collab.

[Jeffrey]

I got to figure out how to make it happen, you know, and, you know, fortunately someone on his, on his team is a big fan of Beast game, so I've been messaging him so hopefully I can get out to New York. And you know what, I'm going to.

[MrBeast]

Shoot him a text. I'm gonna send. Yeah, I'm gonna send him a photo right now.

[Jeffrey]

Awesome.

[MrBeast]

Let's see.

[Graham Stephan]

There you go.

[Jeffrey]

The collab has gotta be coming soon.

[MrBeast]

So in terms of the money, I'm curious, what's it like paying or potentially paying $5 million in taxes?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, it sucks. It's not fun. Well, especially like in today's day and age where you kind of see where some of our tax dollars are being spent. It's like, ugh, man, I can put it to better use. But I, it's the nature of the beast, you know, And I think for me it's kind of going, how can I minimize my tax burden, you know, whether it's through kind of charitable deductions or setting up a donor advice fund to be able to continue to fund research in the years ahead. But I'm sure there's better ways for me to figure it out.

[MrBeast]

So. It's so funny, I was thinking about this because there was a post that went super viral on X and the title was Winner of Beast Games is going to pay $5 million in taxes to the state of Californ and the IRS. And my response, I was like, right on it. I responded back and I'm like, well, actually, if your wife becomes a real estate professional, you're able to deduct real estate paper losses against your active income. So hypothetically, because it's early enough in the year, she could be a real estate professional, spend 750 hours on that. This year, you go and use some of that money as a down payment on a commercial property. You then do what's called a cost segregation analysis to be able to take paper losses against that property to your income. So let's just say as an example, you put $2 million down on a $10 million building, you're able to depreciate $8 million of that building. Now all of A sudden you've just saved two, two and a half million dollars in taxes that you could then have working for you and not pay.

[Jeffrey]

Damn. Now, it's funny because I've been on real estate Twitter, real estate X for like, five years, and so, like, cost segregation analysis has gotten super hot, and I feel like I've never had a reason to do it. And my wife has, like, always been interested in real estate. So, like, you might. You might have planted a seed.

[MrBeast]

I'll.

[Jeffrey]

I'll have to let you know, this.

[MrBeast]

Would be so easy for you to do now, especially because you're getting a lot of eyeballs on you and just say, hey, is anyone looking to buy or sell a house? My wife would. Would love to help you out. She just got her license and she's giving it 100%. She's working with another agent who's been doing it for 20 years. We'd love to help you, by the way.

[Jeffrey]

She'd be awesome at it. Like, I think my wife, like, anything I see. I'm like, oh, gosh, Jen, you'd be an awesome figure skater. You'd be a great chef. Like, she. Anything she touches, she's gold at.

[MrBeast]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

So, like, Jen, I think we need to get your license soon.

[MrBeast]

Yeah. The other option. See, I don't know if you could do this because California might want to call this, like, California sourced income. I really don't know. They can't be strict about this. But potentially looking into setting up a corporation in another state with no state income tax. Delaware, I think, is pretty, pretty popular. Nevada is pretty popular too. Setting up a corporation so that the money goes to the corporation, the corporation pays. I think it's a flat, like 20% income tax on that. But then the corporation could then disperse the money as needed, and that way you're not taking the money personally. It belongs to the corporation. But perhaps that could be used to fund research or certain things. So now you're only paying 20%, $2 million in tax, which is a lot versus five.

[Jeffrey]

Graham, you're hired. No, I mean, no, no, no.

[MrBeast]

My fee is, by the way, only a million dollars.

[Jeffrey]

Exactly. Yes.

[MrBeast]

That's a great deal for you.

[Jeffrey]

Yep. It's just 25% of all the savings. No, these are awesome ideas. And one thing that's just happened recently is once this got out and I've. I've been introduced to some more people through some great connections, so connections I trust. I've had some awesome conversations with tax attorneys that, like, totally opened my eyes to, you know, Obviously legal structures to be able to kind of preserve and grow your wealth. And it's like these are things I would never have had access to. Like these tools of the uber wealthy. Man, it is crazy how much I didn't know.

[MrBeast]

Did you get any bad advice? Like, someone, someone's telling you, like, yo, I got this new, like roller skating rink. It's going to be the next big thing. Or this new meme coin.

[Jeffrey]

No one's pushing. No, no, no one's been pushing too hard at things. But like, I definitely, definitely have felt some people planting seeds, like, oh yeah, yeah. Like, you know, I might have this opportunity coming up. You know, let me know if you're interested. It hasn't come to fruition, but I imagine I'll be getting a lot of phone calls.

[Graham Stephan]

People say money doesn't buy happiness, but how did it feel to win $10 million?

[Jeffrey]

Winning $10 million was awesome. Did it bring me happiness? I'd say at the time it kind of brought me like stress. But ultimately after kind of fizzled out, like, I think peace of mind is the ultimate gift of the $10 million. Everything my wife and I ever dreamed about has kind of. We have line of sight to it because of, because of winning Beast Game season one.

[MrBeast]

Now, besides buying the Lamborghini, was there anything that you spent money on? I'm joking, by the way.

[Jeffrey]

I mean, I'm. It's so funny because like so many people have said that to me and I picture myself in a Lamborghini and I just feel so out of place.

[MrBeast]

It's a top down.

[Jeffrey]

Oh my gosh.

[Graham Stephan]

See, I always think you won $10 million, but what about 20 if you just put it on black? Because I think black is a lock today. That's what I think.

[MrBeast]

I mean, just on a coin flip. Tails.

[Graham Stephan]

That's what I'm saying.

[Jeffrey]

I would love to do that. I mean, I mean, how fun would that be? But we'd have to get Jimmy here because it's good content. We need, we need to get this thing filmed. The first thing we spent it on and we spent this actually before we got the money was we just went on a nice, really nice family vacation to Maui. My kids have never been on a beach vacation, even though we live in California and we brought the in laws. So my sister in law, her husband and their kids and we just had an awesome trip. But other than that, you know, you'll still see me cruising around town in my Honda Odyssey minivan. Maybe I'll upgrade it to a Tesla model Y. Someday, Elon, at dinner, maybe you can give me a nice deal on that, too.

[MrBeast]

Are you getting any other opportunities because of the show? Like, appearances? Like. Like, people pay you to show up at the club?

[Jeffrey]

I mean, what.

[Graham Stephan]

That's the one thing you choose out of all of the other opportunities?

[MrBeast]

I have to say.

[Graham Stephan]

Cool. People reaching out. Like, who. Who's reached out to you? Who slid in your DMs?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, no, what was really interesting was, like, a couple days. Like, it might have been a day after, like, Logan Paul slides in my DMs, and he's like, yo, bro. Like, dude, that was awesome. I love you. I love how you played. I'm so proud of you. I'm happy for your family. I'm like, and. And Logan, I'm actually. We're both from Ohio, and we actually went to the same college. I'm just way older than he is, but it's just like, Logan Paul just DM me. Like, how cool is this? Yeah. And I've had some opportunities. I mean, to be here on your podcast is, like, crazy. Like. Like, I mean, I've seen your.

[Graham Stephan]

Thank you.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah.

[Graham Stephan]

You're showing up here.

[MrBeast]

I know.

[Jeffrey]

And I got to be on Good Morning America. My wife's like, what are you gonna do next? Dancing with the Stars? I'm like, maybe, like, I got rhythm. Um, but it's just. Yeah, it's. The doors have opened, and I get to tell Lucas's story, and I get to share my story, and it's been awesome. I mean, I, I. I hope more doors open up, and I'll definitely let you know.

[MrBeast]

And do you miss competing in Beast Games? Like, was there a part of you afterwards where you're, like, really sad it's over?

[Jeffrey]

Oh, like, that is. That's one of the things. One of the reasons why people don't take bribes is playing the games is so fun. Like, you. The fear of missing out and not playing anymore more is real. And so the challenges are fun. Thinking about the challenges are fun. Strategizing on what you think it's going to be and how you're going to respond. So when it's over, it's kind of like, now what? So I. I wish I had something to fill that kind of competitive, strategic void.

[Graham Stephan]

So you received the $10 million wire only recently. Could you show us that screenshot?

[MrBeast]

No.

[Graham Stephan]

So that's what it looks like.

[Jeffrey]

Like, isn't that crazy?

[Graham Stephan]

That is nuts. There's a lot of zeros there.

[MrBeast]

Wow. How many people have seen that? Like, do you just show it to people. Like, check this out.

[Graham Stephan]

Everywhere he walks.

[Jeffrey]

No, I mean, obviously I don't want to do that. You know, it puts. Puts a target on my back. But I. I posted it. So Jimmy posted it on Twitter. Like, I, you know, just wired $10 million to the winner, and I, like, post my receiving side of it and say, like, no takebacks. And it's just surreal. Like, to see again to win $500,000 is amazing. A million dollars, $2 million. $5 million. Are you kidding me? $10 million is ridiculous. I mean, it really is absolutely ridiculous because I signed up on a little webcam video with my son.

[MrBeast]

You should have messed with Mr. Beast and just said, dude, I never received it.

[Jeffrey]

I should have.

[MrBeast]

I don't know what happened to it never hit my account. Where did it go? Send it again.

[Jeffrey]

I'll do that after I won season two. That's perfect.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you think you're going to be able to compete in season two?

[Jeffrey]

I think if I did, I would be a target. Like, a really good. Like, you think about how. How people want to take Mia out after she won the island. Oh, I. I would be target number one.

[Graham Stephan]

Walk us through the first day. After receiving $10 million. What did you do?

[Jeffrey]

So I received it Friday. The Friday after. The next day, I actually, I was in LA and I drove back. Back to San Francisco area by myself, and I just called family and hung out. I mean, it was. It was. Nothing changed. It was really odd. You know, it was like, okay, like, this one in my bank account. I get this ultimate kind of sense of peace of mind, but I'm like, what. What do I do now? Like, like, what am. What am I supposed to do with this? Like, and then I can. And then my mind kind of goes, gosh, I need to figure out how to make it work. Like, I've had five months to prepare for this, but now it's go time.

[Graham Stephan]

Was there, like, a test payment? Did you get like, a dollar sent to you first? And then Jimmy's like, okay, yeah, you got the dollar. Okay, cool, let me send the 10.

[Jeffrey]

No, it was. It was just $10 million.

[Graham Stephan]

Sent the 10 million.

[Jeffrey]

$10 million. I mean, it's. It was just. I didn't like, I remember the Beast team kind of said, hey, by the way, the wire is going to get sent out today. Like, it might take a couple days within an hour or two. Like, I, like, I think my wife said, like, hey, check and see if it's there. And I opened up my account. I'm like, oh, my gosh. This $10 million is sitting, like a $10 million input into my checking account. I'm like, this is ridiculous.

[Graham Stephan]

If I'm sending, like, $150 to a contractor, like, I'm sending a dollar to make sure that they received it for 100%. And so you're saying he, like, pardon my French, like, raw dogged a $10 million payment to you just sent it totally raw dog. Insane. Insane.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. No, And. And, like. And there was no, like, hey, hey, did you get it? Because me, no, did you get it? I'm the same way. Like, hey, if I wire someone money or send ach. Like, hey, did you get it? Like, are you sure you got it? But there was nothing. I was like, just sent.

[Graham Stephan]

That's horrifying.

[MrBeast]

That's crazy. I would at least follow up, like, yeah, you got this, right?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, it was. I mean, it was hysterical. I mean, obviously, we verified my, you know, bank routing number and account numbers, like, three or four times. I had to sign a paper and all that stuff. So, like, I feel like they kind of go, oh, it's on you. We put the numbers in.

[Graham Stephan]

It's on you.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, but. But. But here's the crazy thing about the Beast team is, like, just because. Just as I couldn't tell my parents about this inside Mr. Beast, not everybody knew that it was actually 10 million and not 5. Most people didn't know who the winner was. So it's like kind of like when they had to tell accounting, hey, by the way, we need to wire the winner the money, and it's 10 million. Like. Like. Like, they had to, like, say, hey, by the way, you can't tell anybody because, like, they want. They. They are so committed to their content that they. Even in the last challenge, they kind of struck the set. It was, like, bare bones, staff and crew, because they wanted to reduce any. Any kind of opportunity for leaks.

[Graham Stephan]

So you're saying Jimmy didn't even check with Accounting to see if he could spend five more million dollars?

[Jeffrey]

Oh, no. I mean, he. He knew he could, but Accounting did not know that the winner was 10 million.

[Graham Stephan]

Oh, my God.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. So it's like. It means, like, this is one of the things that I love so much about them, and I. I'm a big fan of kind of discernment and sharing, you know, being. Knowing who to share what with. And I just love how they kept the secret. I love how no one knew how the game ended until it aired.

[Graham Stephan]

And you're saying that there wasn't anything that Maybe you've wanted for a couple years, but it's like, ah, you know, these headphones are, like $400. I have, like, a pair of $20 cheapos that I can continue using. It's fine. I mean, there wasn't anything like that. That you, like, splurged the first day you got the 10 million bucks.

[Jeffrey]

I think I bought a pair of shoes. Like, running shoes. Like.

[Graham Stephan]

Like, dad, are they pricey?

[Jeffrey]

I mean, they're cheese. No. No.

[MrBeast]

Louis Vuitton.

[Jeffrey]

Yes, totally. I mean, there's always been a. Like, a watch I've wanted, but, like, I mean, I literally have not had a watch since I was 19. It was a fossil watch. And I got. I can tell the time on my phone. So, like, there's nothing, nothing kind of crazy, out of the ordinary that I want. Kind of for me, still. My focus is my family and trying to fund research. So it's like, I'm sure I will splurge and get something. And I think I have to. I think, like, anytime you have, whether you have an exit from, you know, a company or you have an awesome year or a big bonus, like, I think it's worth celebrating because if not, like, why the heck are you doing it? It's just numbers and zeros on a screen.

[MrBeast]

Do you still keep in touch with J. Jimmy?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. I mean, it's not like him and I were, like, buddies on the show. Like, we knew each other, we would talk to each other. But since, like, him and I have DMed a handful of times, and, like, literally, I'll message him and he'll respond. Like, it's like, I'm like, how does he have the time to do it? But he, you know, since he's gotten engaged to Thea, who's I got to meet on the show, and she is just brilliant and smart and beautiful. Like, I just am super excited to see what those two do together. Like, like, so young, like, power couple. Like, I'm like, man, I can't wait to be your biggest fan.

[MrBeast]

Going for your reason why throughout the entire show. You're talking about your son. What is his condition? How does that even come to be? Like, how are you. How are you diagnosed with it?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah.

[MrBeast]

What causes it?

[Jeffrey]

So my son Lucas has a rare disease called creatine transporter deficiency, or ctd. Do you guys take creatine? Yeah. You know, creatine is great for kind of bodybuilders, performance athletes, but it's also just great for. For normal brain health. So his body makes it naturally. It gets into the blood and the travels through the blood to the final destination, which is like your. Your muscles and your brain. But there's a transporter that takes it there. And his transporter is defective. So his brain doesn't get the creatine, the energy it needs to function, develop, and thrive. And it presented when he was super young, like, about 8 months old. He started. We noticed he starts missing mile milestones. He's not able to kind of sit up, he's not able to crawl, call. He's not very verbal. Like, doesn't cry a ton. And we hooked him up to every machine, did every test, saw every specialist for, like, 18 to 24 months. And there was no answer until finally we called in one favor. And they're like, hey, maybe you should try to get an Mrs. In addition to an mri. And that showed that the creatine was stopping at the blood brain barrier. And he got diagnosed with ctd. And, you know, Jen and I are kind of like. And I was the optimist. Like, maybe he's development delayed, and Jen's, like, more pragmatic. Like, we need to take the steps to make sure it's not any unique condition. And once we get the diagnosis, we realize, okay, great, he. We know what he has, but then we soon realize there's no therapy. Like, there's no treatment. There's zero cure for what he has. And so now we're kind of in this no man's land where we know what we have, but there's nothing we can do about it. So I join this nonprofit called the association for Creatine Deficiencies, become a board member and realize, hey, I need to get out there and spread awareness. So I just started doing funky things to try to raise awareness. I walked 68 miles for the gene SLC688. I wrote a Christmas song to try to raise money. My son Jack and I did this kind of rendition on Home Alone 2 to try to raise money. And we're just trying to do all we can to kind of raise more awareness and raise money to try to ultimately find a treatment. But Lucas is a sweet boy. He's a happy boy.

[MrBeast]

How difficult is it to raise money?

[Jeffrey]

It's hard. You know, it. It's. It's more difficult than you think. You know, the. These people who are super philanthropic, who have big pockets, they also want to change the world. And for creatine transport deficiency, there's less than 400 kids diagnosed, so there's certainly bigger ends that you can impact. So. And then also academia you know, it's tough to get them interested in something so small. Big pharma, obviously it's, you know, and I don't blame them, you know, they're a for profit business, they want to make money. It's hard for them to invest into stuff that is really hard to recoup your investment. So a lot of the fundraising depends on parent advocates and there's a lot of people who are kind of repeat donors who are awesome. But to fund and cure a rare disease costs upwards like $50 million.

[MrBeast]

What do you think is the best solution to finding a cure for something like that?

[Jeffrey]

Cure and treatment are kind of synonymous. I mean technically a cure is like something that, like, hey, it's never going to happen again, sure. But kids will be born with this and ultimate goal is to have a kid diagnosed at birth and receive a treatment within a week that will ultimately allow them to have a normal life. And that's the kind of the summum bonum. That's where we want to get. That's like the highest good. But to get there, like there's different kind of ways you can get there. It could be gene editing, gene therapy, it could be drug repurposing, like finding drugs that are already proven safe and effect by the fda, repurposing them and realizing they can get creatures in the brain. Or like Stanford's working on small molecule, like how can we make something so small that it can get through the blood brain barrier to help either induce creatine creation of the brain or bring creation to the brain. So like we have researchers at Stanford and Italy and British Columbia and Toronto who are doing awesome stuff and I think eventually we'll crack the code. But boosting this with an injection of money is, you know, fingers crossed, going to help it get there quicker.

[Graham Stephan]

How can viewers help if they want to?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, they can go to. You know, actually right now me and my friend Jeremy from the show are rucking across California. So we're carrying the weight of Lucas between us and we're rucking 365 miles across California to raise awareness and raise funds for the 365 days a year that Lucas suffers with this condition. So you can go to ruck4rare.com right now and see ways to contribute. But you can also go to my website, legacy831.com there's a ton of information on CTD and other ways you can get involved, but spreading the word and even contributing just even a little bit really helps us go a long way.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, I've been watching your videos. I really enjoy it.

[Jeffrey]

Good.

[MrBeast]

Yeah. So I'll link to your channel down below in the description.

[Graham Stephan]

All that stuff will be linked down.

[MrBeast]

Highly recommend you guys go and subscribe and support because the videos are really interesting and like, sharing some of the behind the scenes from your perspective is really cool.

[Jeffrey]

Awesome. No, I'm glad you enjoy them.

[MrBeast]

How did his condition change your life?

[Jeffrey]

In a ton of ways, it changed my life. You know, it immediately kind of forces you to change your priorities and change your perspective. So Lucas brought faith back into my life and he also allowed me to kind of see the beauties and the bumps. Like, this is a challenge that is lifelong. Like, Lucas, as of today, will live with mom and dad, dad forever. And eventually there'll be a time where mom and dad are gone and where does Lucas live? Like, will people take care of him? Will he be treated well? And so for me, it just forced me to look at things differently and see the things that are important. Like, Lucas has given me so many blessings in life. Like my outlook, how I treat others, how I value my family is so different because of what he gave to me. So, you know, like, one of the reasons why I'm out rucking across California and one of the reasons why I set up for Beast Games is going, if I can ever repay all the blessings he's given me, man, I will be a happy man. I'll be a happy dad. So until, you know, I don't think that's ever going to end because he keeps giving me blessings and so does his older brother, Jack. So he's changed my life, he's changed my perspective and allowed me to have a ton more empathy for families like ours. It's a different journey and it can be hard, but it doesn't have to suck. You know, if you, if you really search hard, I think you'll find the blessings in these, in, in these bumps.

[Graham Stephan]

So winning 10 million bucks, you can stretch that pretty far. How are you planning on investing it?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, and I, I think that's the ultimate goal is how do I make it work for my family and how do I make it work so I can continue to invest into research? Kind of first things first. Like, just as you, like Jimmy wired me 10 million, I wired a great chunk of that over to a financial institution to kind of get it to work, work. And right now it's kind of sitting in kind of some Treasury ETFs as I figure out kind of where I'm going to put it. But it's like this opens up a whole new world for me because I'm now a qualified purchaser. It's like structured products, different, different private investments I would never have had access to. So there's different things I want to do to make sure my family's taken care of over the long term. We got to look at kind of ppli. We have to look at long term care insurance like, like making sure we do things so our kids don't have to care for us. But also like how do I make sure that we're funding the research we need to. How do we stretch those dollars? So making donations this year, setting up a donor advised fund to continue to invest over the years and hopefully integrate investments so those dollars grow. It's a great problem to have, but it's a little overwhelming. So I have a great team of people who I know and trust who are helping me and the ultimate goal is to stretch these dollars to continue to make an impact in my family and, and other families like ours.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, it seems like all the fancy stuff like if people try to pitch you like oh, I got this great fund and this and that, like it's just distractions. It usually is. It's usually the really simple approach of like hey, 70% US equities, 20% international, 10% treasuries, SL cash tends to be the safest. And then like long term does really well.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. And, and my wife is more conservative. You know, I'm more. When it comes to investing, you know, I'll specialize like, you know when I look at my, my IRAs, it's like my Roth and my traditional. I own three stocks in it and that's it. You probably would.

[Graham Stephan]

What stocks?

[Jeffrey]

Tesla. I own MicroStrategy and I own Coinbase. Very risky.

[MrBeast]

How long have you owned those?

[Jeffrey]

A while. So I, I've had a good run.

[MrBeast]

Those are, those are insane stocks to own recently.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. So I've had a good run on those. And for me especially being in my ira, it's like I can be a little more risky at least how I do it. And then so this other stuff, I'll be a little bit more conservative and take my wife's approach and kind of your approach and just make sure these dollars stretch.

[MrBeast]

Wow. Don't tell Jack whatever you're investing in because as soon as he buys it, it's going to go down.

[Jeffrey]

No way.

[MrBeast]

Every single time it's bad.

[Graham Stephan]

It's recently too cuz. Oh, cuz I. Do you remember how I was like I have way too big of a cash position right now. Like, I need to buy stock. Stocks. So I created a whole new. I use M1 Finance. At least right now. I won't forever. I created this new account within my M1 account, and it was called my VUG account. It's my growth stock. It's like an index fund. Basically put a bunch in there. I was averaging into that. I've been doing that now for, like, probably about a year. And then I realized my cash position's too big. So I started really putting money.

[MrBeast]

I remember you telling me about dumping.

[Graham Stephan]

Money into the end of the year.

[MrBeast]

When the market was at its end of the year.

[Graham Stephan]

Year. And I really. And I'm overall down so much in that account. And it's an index fund because I just bought at the wrong time. It's. And I've been. I've had it for over a year. I just like. And I. I did small investments while, like, you know, it was obviously just skyrocketing. And then right at the peak is when I just, like, unloaded into it and I'm down so much.

[Jeffrey]

Isn't it crazy how it works out? I mean, like.

[Graham Stephan]

But it's not working out.

[MrBeast]

But this is not working.

[Graham Stephan]

It's crazy how it all works out.

[Jeffrey]

Well, hey. But doing the exact opposite.

[Graham Stephan]

Opposite.

[Jeffrey]

But you gotta hold it.

[Graham Stephan]

Oh, well, yeah. I mean, that's. I don't let it keep me up at night. In every day that the market's down, I'm like. Well, you know, like, you know, my averaging in because I don't even have enough money now to, like, continue bulk investing like I was. So that's the worst for years.

[MrBeast]

I mean, this has been, like, since 2020 or 2021. Everything.

[Graham Stephan]

And you know what's crazy?

[Jeffrey]

Are you your generation's Jim Kramer?

[Graham Stephan]

I think I am. Because also, I. I built up this Robinhood account, and I've talked about it on this podcast before, and I built it from, like, I think it was like, 22 grand all the way to 75. The best investment that I made was Dogecoin. And I turned $100 into just shy of $17,000. And then I parlayed that into basically everything was call options on Robinhood and Palantir. And then that was when they started plummeting. And so I got margin called, and I was forced to sell my call options on these, so I couldn't hold on to them anymore. And that's like leveraged positions. And guess what's happened to Robin Hood and Palantir recently.

[Jeffrey]

Crushing it they're crushing it.

[Graham Stephan]

But guess what happened to me? I had to give away my shares because I got margin called on that account. So it's short term calls. It was long. So I was like. I was like. As I maxed it out in terms of the time, so I think it was like a year and a half March fortune. And so I. I don't know what it is, but especially with the recent purchases of. Of the index funds, it's crazy. As soon as I start loading it.

[MrBeast]

Yeah.

[Graham Stephan]

Because I've had it for over a year, but I'm still down.

[Jeffrey]

So you're a big Tesla fan.

[Graham Stephan]

Yes.

[Jeffrey]

Are you going. Are you getting long options on Tesla?

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah. But the thing is, it's like the heavier I go into something, usually the worse it performs. And I haven't gone incredibly heavy into Tesla, so it's one of my smaller.

[MrBeast]

It's still okay. I was pissed on Robin Hood because I was investing in Robin Hood and Jack saw me buy Robin Hood stock, and he's like, oh, I'm gonna buy some of that too. Like, immediately the next day.

[Graham Stephan]

I'm not gonna have hundreds of thousands of dollars right now in my Robinhood account because of Robinhood stock and Palantir because they've just been going like hundreds of thousands.

[MrBeast]

But here's how bad it is. There was a day where Robin Hood just kept going down. It was down like 80%. And I go to Jack, I'm like, I'll pay you to sell your stock. And he's really stubborn. He's no, like, come on, there's got to be a price I could pay you. Guess what? We come up with a price. He sells his Robinhood stock. The next day it's up 10%.

[Jeffrey]

So when I. When you read those financial questionnaires to kind of figure out your risk profile, it's like, if you lost more than X percent, do you buy more? Do you hold? Do you sell? You're the one who sells.

[Graham Stephan]

No, no, like. Like, I do the right thing now. At least after that whole, you know, Palantir and Robinhood fiasco, I now do the right thing. I'm dollar cost averaging into index funds. That's everything. That's all I've ever done now since that incident. But still, it doesn't matter.

[MrBeast]

There was another one that was really funny. A buddy was talking about what he was invested in. Jack's like, we're not. I'm going to go into that too. He buys into it. And this person is always.

[Graham Stephan]

Didn't know that I Bought into it.

[MrBeast]

But. But he's always right on the money, very smart. And he's got into, like, certain things before they've taken off. Like, his track record is fantastic. So Jack knows this is like. Well, if his track records, like, basically 100%, I'm going to. I'm pretty safe buying into this. How is that doing?

[Graham Stephan]

I had to sell because I bought calls on it, so, you know, just leverage positions and basically lost everything. But it wasn't.

[Jeffrey]

I mean, I love how so conservative you are. The dollar cost average into index funds, but you're doing leverage calls.

[Graham Stephan]

Well, the thing is, like, I did that with like, an account with $2,000 in it, but I do have, like, my daily auto invest, which is more like not more than. But it's. It's a substantial amount that I'm investing every day into.

[Jeffrey]

I love that you DCA every day. That's great.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah, a lot of people do it every week. I prefer to do it every day. Graham's a weirdo and he likes to manually do it every day. But I recommend it to a lot of my.

[MrBeast]

We also, we have a few friends who we know when they buy into something, it's the peak. And so with bitcoin, we have one friend in particular. It's like, no, I'm not going near that. And we know, okay, when that person buys in, we sell. We have to. Because that's the peak.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah, like, I was always a little bit skeptical. Graham is very. What do you call that, that thing, that word?

[MrBeast]

Optimistic.

[Graham Stephan]

No, it's not optimistic. It's when you don't want to walk under a ladder.

[MrBeast]

Superstitious.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah, Graham's very superstitious. So he starts connecting the dots with a lot of things, and I am exactly the opposite. And he brought this to me, this whole jack trading, you know, jack inverse trading thing. And I'm like. Like, I don't believe it. I don't believe. Recently, it's. It's. It's really hard to ignore with the index fund thing.

[Jeffrey]

Well, it's so funny, I forget who. Who you had on the show, but he talks about, like, knowledge parody, where.

[MrBeast]

It'S, oh, Chris Camillo, which I loved.

[Jeffrey]

And it was like, it's like, like to be able to spot these trends. But yeah, once you, like, it's like your friend, like, once he start talking about it, okay, it's time to get out. Like, yeah, if he's getting in, we get out.

[MrBeast]

So we got a good group of friends diverse enough where I know if this person buys this sell. If this person sells that buy, I love it. Just between them, I think we got the markets covered so good. But Jack is like the ultimate bellwether.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah.

[MrBeast]

Of like buy or sell, like the greed fear index.

[Jeffrey]

I think it's the jack of the past. I think 20, 25 and beyond is going to be.

[Graham Stephan]

I think I just need to make more dogecoin investments.

[MrBeast]

No, super, super. You could make a lot of money just people pay you just to know how much you're investing in the market and what you're buying. So they could do the opposite of that.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah, but if they're paying me for it, it then like, like the universe would want to minimize the amount of gain that I possibly have. So if they're paying me for it, then like the first couple trades I would do would be successful, but to a very small degree to where everyone's like refunding their to me and then I would start. Yeah, that's what I think. But no, no index funds, they've been. Overall, I'm positive, but way less than I probably should be.

[Jeffrey]

Well, and especially at your ages, based off your timeline is. So you got. You got a long time timeline.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah. So good to know that you have some plans to mitigate your tax implications. That's going to be pretty brutal when you end up paying that.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. And we'll have to report back whether, you know, we have this amazing new real realtor in northern California who's got. We got a great commercial property. So let's see if that. Yeah.

[MrBeast]

Keep posting videos. I think that would be really important and do more appearances. I think the more awareness you raise, especially now because you have, I think a few months right now where you could really maximize everything before people are like, oh, I've seen the show already. I don't need to watch it again.

[Jeffrey]

Old news. Season two is coming out.

[MrBeast]

Exactly. I think you got three months where you could really make the most of it. And so I would.

[Graham Stephan]

Do you have any regrets from the show?

[Jeffrey]

No. Obviously you look at the ultimate outcome. I won season one of Beast Games. I won $10 million. For me to have regrets I think is super selfish. Um, so no, you know, regrets per se, but there are times where I wish I could have maybe helped a friend more. Like, like one is on the telephone voting game. Like, could I have done something different to have helped Patrick get to the final six? Um, granted he could have beat me in the top six. He thinks he could, but he wouldn't have. Um, but like those are the types of Things like, could I have done something different to help a friend get further.

[MrBeast]

Well, speaking of a friend, I would love to have Jeremy on here who turned down a million dollars.

[Graham Stephan]

All right, Jeremy, how did it feel to reject a million dollars for the sake of your team? And then it seems like shortly afterwards, everyone forgot about that and it seems like there was an uprising against you, man.

[Jeremy]

I feel like that's more of the editing. You know, you look back at episode four and there was definitely a lot of drama for sure. But I was able to receive the, the majority of the coins and still make it to the city and to be able to bring really good people through. So it's interesting how loud a few people can make a room.

[MrBeast]

Why did you turn down a million dollars, though? Ben Shapiro got very upset at you.

[Jeremy]

For turning watch that. I haven't seen it yet.

[Graham Stephan]

You should.

[MrBeast]

Yeah, he gets very frustrated.

[Jeffrey]

I'll take.

[Graham Stephan]

Not that frustrated. But he was not thrilled. Yeah, well.

[Jeremy]

And I get it if you're, if you're looking at it from just a financial point of view, if you're it from a game as well. Again, it is a game where they're to, to win money, but it's also this experience and it's this massive social experiment of that, that line of who you are in the real world and who you are in this. This game. Well, this game is still the real world. How are you perceived? What does your word mean? And in this situation, you know, we. I've been voted in as a leader with 60amazing people that every battle you go into is this five million dollar battle. And we lost and got resurrected and it was incredible. And then they put their trust in me, so I wasn't going to break that. And I looked down. I've got really good friends there. We've got Jordan, we've got Jeff is down there. We've got Daphne, we've got Dallin, There's Tim. Just so many incredible people that have these dreams and these visions and these things that they would like to receive from this. And these people have all turned down bribes to be here. Episode one. They could have hit a buzzard and could have taken anything from $10,000 all the way to a hundred thousand dollars. You know, again, looking down, Jeff is a dear friend of mine. I, I care for his family and want to help his, his son and their condition to see if we can spread this awareness. And everyone's like, well then if you really cared, you should have hit the button and just given him some money. But it's like, oh, no, there's so much more to the journey than that. And to turn down $100,000 and then have it be ripped away from you literally almost the next day.

[Jeffrey]

That's.

[Jeremy]

That's brutal.

[Graham Stephan]

Was it easy, an easy decision to.

[Jeremy]

Not take the million?

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, for sure.

[Graham Stephan]

So you knew from the start?

[Jeffrey]

Yep.

[Jeremy]

And again, I've got four kids at home, and I. I want to set an example for them of, you know, if we're going to get ahead in life, it's not because we're lying to people. It's not because we're being deceitful. You know, if there was an opportunity to take that million dollars and eliminate myself, oh, man, I would have taken it and I would have been home in a minute. But again, I want my kids to have that. That level of integrity and understanding that the decisions that we make have massive impact.

[MrBeast]

Hypothetically, let's just say it didn't stop at a million. It kept going. Is there a point where you would have hit it? It gets a 5 million bucks, $10 million, $15 million.

[Jeremy]

I don't know. We're going to have to find out. You know, play it back. Talk to Jimmy, talk to your dad, Elon. And let's just. Let's just see, you know, because right now I'd like to say that, you know, I still wouldn't hit it.

[Graham Stephan]

For the record, he. He mentioned my dad, Elon, because we had previously discussed that, like, there's a rumor going around apparently that my dad's Elon Musk, or that, like, my wealth and my dad's alleged wealth is directly.

[MrBeast]

Tied to Elon Musk's and some, like, mineral mine. It had a lot of life.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah. So someone commented.

[MrBeast]

That's.

[Jeremy]

That's what we've heard all through Death Valley on this ruck. Yeah, that's what I hearing the rumors of this.

[Graham Stephan]

The. The idea is apparently somehow that I'm like, I have a trust fund. And these people are commenting and they get hundreds of likes on these comments of people, like, saying, I have all of this wealth. And then other people are commenting back. They're like, really? I've been watching the show for years. I had no idea Jack's. Jack's dad was Elon Musk, or Jack's dad's wealth is directly tidy and Jack has this trust fund. He's like, oh, yeah, you didn't know about that? Well, there's clear evidence. I'm like, just reading through this comment there to this one guy, and they're getting so Many likes. So it's. Show me some evidence. I would love to know where my trust fund is. Don't know where it is, but I think it's because I. I figured it out because there was the PayPal mafia, which is like all of these super, super intelligent investors. They're all incredibly wealthy. Elon Musk was one of them. One of.

[MrBeast]

Yes.

[Graham Stephan]

Yeah. One of the mafia members names is Jack Selby. Not me.

[Jeffrey]

Me.

[Graham Stephan]

You know, unfortunately, it's not me, but we share the same name, so that's pretty cool.

[MrBeast]

I remember. Okay, so at least it can be rooted in some grain of, like, find.

[Graham Stephan]

One picture of me next to him, please. Like, see if we're even following each other on Instagram. At least before you say, oh, yeah, like this guy's. There's. There's no evidence.

[MrBeast]

People don't do research when they read a comment like that. They just take it at face value, like, oh, wow, yeah, that must be true because this guy said it had 200 likes, so 200 other people agree. Read.

[Graham Stephan]

But yeah, and if Jack Selby, if anyone knows that Jack Selby, tell him to reach out. I'd love to have a conversation with him. I think having him on the podcast would actually, like, we could have the best title of all time. Jack Selby is now worth $100 million. Not clickbait. It'd be amazing.

[Jeremy]

See, there you go. So prove to the world once and for.

[MrBeast]

But what about rumors for you that you're a cult leader?

[Jeremy]

Oh, man, that was so funny. Because I'm definitely not a cult leader, Peter. I'm just sitting there praying because literally every situation is a 5 million, $5 million choice. And the pressure and the stress from the coins, you know, I'm dropping to my knees praying because I don't want to hear from anybody else. It's like, lord, just help lead and guide me through this. I need your opinion. I need to calm down. I need to think through this. And instead of taking what everyone else is throwing my. That way I know who I am. I'm very confident in who I am and the. The amazing life that I've been blessed with. And I'm not going to let other people's opinion change that. I find it funny.

[Graham Stephan]

The main criticism is that you weren't going to give away a ticket to join the island to a girl. Is that true? Like, how did that rumor get started?

[Jeremy]

Yeah, that was one of the rumors. And it. It wasn't a rumor. That was something that I said. I. I had a lady come up and say, well, if you win, please take me. And I said, well, to be honest with you, I, I probably won't.

[Jeffrey]

Won't.

[Jeremy]

I'm going to respect my wife and I, I don't want her to watch this show and see me, you know, filling a helicopter full of women and flying off to a tropical vacation.

[MrBeast]

That's what Jack would do.

[Jeremy]

Like, that would be a Jack.

[MrBeast]

Would your wife question that though? If it's like 50, 50, like, you.

[Graham Stephan]

Know, two women know you well enough to.

[Jeremy]

She does, but what did we just talk about? We just talked about the Internet and how one comment of some person that has no understanding or research can change the things. You became wealthy and your dad is Elon musk. It got 200 comments. Just takes one comment on the Internet to say, oh, Jeremy has this behind the scenes relation and it's just foolishness.

[MrBeast]

And how would, how would that impact your life if someone were to say, yeah, he picked her because they were having romance.

[Jeremy]

So disrespectful to my home and my personal life and my wife. So I'd much rather be called a cult leader than an adulterer.

[MrBeast]

Now, because you're friends with Jeff and you technically gave up a million dollars so he could win 10. How does it work if you guys are out at a restaurant? Like, who, who pays the bill?

[Jeremy]

You know, if I had enough money to pay the bill, maybe, maybe I'd, I'd take it. But most days, as much as I eat when we go out, he, he has to take care of me.

[MrBeast]

Do you, do you pick expensive bill? You pick expensive spots?

[Jeremy]

Oh, not expensive. I just like a lot. Not like the first time. I think we went out to eat. Even before the winning of the game, I ordered 20 chicken wings. He's like, no, we all got food already. He's like, no, those are, those are from eaten. He's like, oh, oh.

[Graham Stephan]

There's nothing like it, though. That is a great feeling.

[MrBeast]

I just realized we have Ryan Saran and Brandon Turner.

[Graham Stephan]

Oh, my gosh. That is hilarious. That is hilarious. The real estate gurus are here.

[MrBeast]

So, Brandon Turner, what's the best way to invest in multi family real estate?

[Jeremy]

Now, listen, a lot of people are still into the real estate game, but we're actually going more into agricultural, but mostly into chickens. The price of eggs is going to be what's going to deter the market. So everything that I've put into real estate is done chicken farming. Everything we've got.

[MrBeast]

How much does that cost?

[Jeremy]

I think we're taking out a $35 million loan, 18% interest growth rate of the chicken.

[Graham Stephan]

Chicken eggs. Pretty good, huh?

[Jeremy]

Sorry, that's all.

[Graham Stephan]

Can I. Can I throw you some money? Are you raising.

[MrBeast]

Can Jack buy in? Raising our own.

[Graham Stephan]

Sounds like a good deal. Thank you so much for coming on the Ice Coffee Hour. Seriously, it means a lot that you took the time out of your day. I'm sure you're a very busy man. Congratulations. And I can confidently say I feel like the right person won Beast game. Watching you on the show and also meeting you in person, you're like the nicest.

[MrBeast]

Really.

[Graham Stephan]

It's so enjoyable to spend time with you. Thanks for coming on the show.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah.

[MrBeast]

We're also going to be making a donation and anyone else who wants to follow along, do that as well. The link is down below in the description.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, amazing. Thanks so much. Hope to see you guys soon.

[Graham Stephan]

Shout out. Jeremy, Brandon Turner. Shout out. Shout out. Ryan's our hand.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah.

[Graham Stephan]

Thank you guys for watching. Until next time.