Dana White: A Winner's Mindset On Business, Health, & What It Takes To Get What You Want In Life

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Dana White – A Winner's Mindset On Business, Health, & What It Takes To Get What You Want In Life

The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Show
Hosts: Lauryn Bosstick & Michael Bosstick
Guest: Dana White
Date: November 10, 2025

Episode Overview

In this dynamic episode, Lauryn and Michael sit down for an unfiltered, in-person conversation with UFC president and CEO Dana White at the UFC headquarters in Las Vegas. Dana explores the core principles that drive his business success, his personal philosophies on health and resilience, loyalty, and what it truly means to win—in business, in life, and in health. The episode is packed with actionable insights, memorable storytelling, and a candid look behind the curtain of one of the most relentless minds in sports and entrepreneurship.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Meeting Gary Breca and Transforming Health

[01:39 – 10:41]

• Dana recounts his skepticism and eventual conversion to Gary Breca’s alternative health protocols, detailing how they radically improved his health, alleviated chronic issues like sleep apnea, and got him off prescription medications.
  • “For me, like, when I talk about Gary Breca, I’m so over the top that people think I’m being paid to...Not only am I not being fucking paid, I’m paying him shitloads of money, okay?” – Dana White [02:18]
• Gary’s diagnostic accuracy and tailored supplementation, as well as his use of blood work and gene testing, impressed Dana and his family.
  • “He doesn’t have to see anything except your blood work and your gene test. And he’ll tell you exactly what is wrong with you without you telling him what’s wrong...” – Dana White [05:19]
• Gary's protocols revolutionized Dana's health, vastly improving his sleep, energy, and chronic pain.
• Dana stresses, “I don’t give a shit if you do it or don’t do it. I’m just...I know what I went through.” [03:55]

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2. Dana’s Origin Story: Never Working for Anyone Again

[10:49 – 13:03]

• The pivotal moment at age 19 as a bellman in Boston Harbor Hotel convinced Dana to walk out and pursue the fight business, against all logic and advice:
  • “I said, I want to be in the fight business. And he’s like, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Yeah, you’re probably right. But guess what? I can always come back to a hotel and become a bellman.” – Dana White [12:15]
• Dana emphasizes not listening to doubters and forging your own path, using himself and examples like the Maloof family’s Vegas hockey gamble to demonstrate unpredictability in success.

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3. Building Billion-Dollar Niche Sports: UFC & Power Slap

[14:35 – 18:32]

• The vision for UFC came from gut intuition—turning overlooked, niche sports into worldwide phenomena:
  • “Everything I do is based on gut.” – Dana White [15:35]
• Dana details the explosive growth of Power Slap, referencing comparisons with major sports viewership:
  • “Power Slap...did 10 million viewers. So you know, and it’s global.” – Dana White [15:33]
• He seeks “holy shit moments,” saying, “I sell holy shit moments for a living. That’s what I do.” [18:01]
• Predicts that Power Slap will one day be “bigger than the UFC” [18:32]

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4. Loyalty, Friendship, and Working with Donald Trump

[19:23 – 36:11]

• Describes Trump as “one of the first people to believe in” UFC, offering his venues when others wouldn't.
• Shares personal anecdotes of Trump’s consistent support throughout Dana’s career:
  • “He was...the first guy to reach out and say, congratulations, that’s awesome...” – Dana White [20:04]
• Loyalty is rooted in Dana’s upbringing and personal code—he doesn’t forget people who help him early on.
• Talks warmly about Trump, Ivanka, and Jared Kushner, dispelling prevalent media narratives.
  • “He’s one of the greatest human beings you will ever meet. He is...cares about people.” – Dana White [33:19]

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5. Family, Values, and Defining Success

[37:02 – 41:53]

• Talks about meeting his wife in eighth grade, their enduring relationship, and the centrality of family:
  • “My wife, all she cares about is being home with her kids and her family. That’s it.” [39:39]
• Instills in his children the importance of hard work and, ultimately, the pursuit of happiness:
  • “I think that being successful means being happy when you get up every day and you’re happy with your life...” – Dana White [40:36]
• Warns that money does not equate to happiness, recalling he was happy when broke and remains so now.

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6. The Role of Pressure, Stress, and Relentless Drive

[41:53 – 46:24]

• Dana thrives on pressure and stress, even seeking to create extra challenge when lacking:
  • “If I don’t have enough of it, I create more.” – Dana White [41:56]
• Compares work styles with Donald Trump—both are tireless and love the grind.
• His idea of celebrating success: “Amalfi. And doing it on a boat, there’s no doubt about it. That’s my...no greater time that you will spend with people that you care about than on that boat.” [45:59]

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7. Meta Board Membership, Censorship, and Technology

[47:06 – 52:17]

• Invited to join Meta’s board by Mark Zuckerberg—a role he accepted out of curiosity and respect.
• Dana’s key boardroom philosophy: Listen first, but know when to speak up and be authentic to his perspective.
  • “Now I know exactly why I was asked to be on this board. I know my place, and I know my position on this board.” [48:53]
• Praises Zuckerberg and other Meta leaders as “brilliant,” “badass,” and capable of running world-class operations.
• On Zuckerberg’s fighting skills:
  • “Mark Zuckerberg will beat the shit out of you, okay?...He’ll kick your ass.” [52:19]

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8. Public Perceptions, Time Management, and Mentoring

[53:07 – 56:10]

• Addresses the misconception that he’s “far right”—in reality, he once “leaned left” but eschews extreme politics.
• Reveals a warm, disarming side and describes efforts to balance business with family, striving for 4 big family trips a year.
• Takes an active, personal role in mentoring interns and entrepreneurs, regularly offering time to hear pitches.

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9. What Separates the Great from the Good; Advice for the Next Generation

[61:53 – 67:01]

• To be great, “you have to be an animal...consistency is the key to everything.” [62:02]
• Shares his health and discipline routines, like fasting and strict exercise, as examples of commitment.
• Offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: The landscape is more open than ever thanks to technology—there are “no more gatekeepers.”
  • “You don’t need them. You go right on YouTube...you can create anything that you want by yourself at very low cost.” – Dana White [65:48]
• Warns about the dangers of complacency in the younger generation, urging grit and resilience over comfort.

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10. Problem Solving, Resilience, and Creating Opportunities

[67:39 – 71:25]

• Condemns protesting and victim mentality, lauding action-oriented problem-solving—shares the story of Fight Island as a creative response to COVID shutdowns.
• Underscores that every successful person he knows “worked their ass off to get there”; there are no shortcuts.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• "When I set my mind to do something, I do it." – Dana White [07:14]
• "Don’t listen to anybody. Everybody’s full of shit. Nobody knows anything." – Dana White [13:03]
• "I sell ‘holy shit’ moments for a living." – Dana White [18:01]
• "If I say I’m doing it, consider it done. It’s going to happen." – Dana White [63:36]
• "If you even have this much of it in you, you will run everybody over." – Dana White on next-gen ambition [67:37]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 1:39 – 10:41: Health Transformation with Gary Breca
• 10:49 – 14:30: Dana’s Early Career and Mindset
• 14:35 – 18:32: Growing UFC & Power Slap, Building Attention
• 19:23 – 36:11: Relationship with Trump, Loyalty & Career Breakthroughs
• 37:02 – 41:53: Family Values and Defining Success
• 41:53 – 46:24: Pressure, Ambition, Stress as Fuel
• 47:06 – 52:17: Meta Board Experience, Technology, & Censorship
• 53:07 – 56:10: Time Management & Mentoring
• 61:53 – 67:01: Traits of Greatness, Consistency, Advice to Young People
• 67:39 – 71:25: Action vs. Protest, Resilience, Life Lessons

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Final Reflections

This episode offers a rare, in-depth look into the mindset of one of the most successful—yet unconventional—leaders in sports. With stories that span business pivots, health transformations, and personal philosophies, Dana White’s brutal honesty and relentless drive shine through every topic. His advice is clear: trust your gut, outgrind the competition, never forget where you came from, and always keep moving—no matter what 'no' you hear along the way.

Transcript

[Lauren Everts]

The following podcast is a Dear Media Production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire.

[Dana White]

Fantastic.

[Lauren Everts]

And he's a serial entrepreneur, a very smart cookie. And now, Lauren Everts and Michael Bostick are bringing you along for the ride.

[Michael Bostick]

Get ready for some major realness.

[Lauren Everts]

Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Skinny Confidential him and her show. Today we have a legend of a guest, someone who needs very little introduction, and that is Dan Dana White. Dana White is the president and CEO of the ufc. He's a meta board member and prominent American businessman. He's known for transforming mixed martial arts into a global sports phenomenon. And he could not have been a nicer host. Lauren and I recently flew to Vegas with our team to record this episode in person with Dana. And I was blown away not only by the conversation which you're about to hear, but how incredibly kind Dana was, not only to Lauren and I, but to everyone that came with us, the entire crew. He spent almost an hour after the show taking us all around, taking pictures with everyone, showing us the headquarters of ufc, giving us some merch and some gifts, all sorts of things. And here's the thing, we've met a lot of successful people doing this podcast. Not everybody always has the grace that Dana has. So for me, as a fellow entrepreneur, it's no surprise that he has reached the heights of success that he has. He was graceful, he was nice, he was impactful, and the conversation was powerful with that Dana White. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential him and her show. This is the Skinny Confidential. Him and her.

[Michael Bostick]

We got all different kinds of questions.

[Dana White]

All right.

[Michael Bostick]

And we have a mutual friend, Gary Breca.

[Dana White]

Oh, yeah, I love Gary Brca the best.

[Lauren Everts]

Yeah, he's been on here twice. And any. I feel like now though, anytime there's like any ailment with anyone which is like, gary, what are you doing?

[Michael Bostick]

I know, but everyone does that to him. I feel bad.

[Dana White]

Yep. I do the same thing. I do the same thing.

[Michael Bostick]

Anything.

[Dana White]

He is so legit and so from. I mean, I could tell you a wide range of family and friends that this guy has saved and, you know, including my 81 year old mother in law.

[Michael Bostick]

That's so cool.

[Dana White]

Yeah. So good.

[Michael Bostick]

Yeah.

[Dana White]

And so legit.

[Lauren Everts]

How did you guys originally get connected?

[Dana White]

So you guys are probably too young. You ever hear of Casey Kasem?

[Lauren Everts]

Yeah, he's on the radio.

[Dana White]

The big radio guy. So I've been friends with his daughter forever. Her name's Carrie Kasem and she's what I used to call A hippie, okay? She's into all the, you know, alternative medicine and all that shit. I didn't believe in any of that stuff. So for me, like, when I talk about Gary Breca, I'm so over the top that people think I'm being paid to. Not only am I not being fucking paid, I'm paying him shitloads of money, okay? And she was like, you gotta meet him. I'm telling you, he's gonna change your life. He's all this stuff. I didn't even wanna meet him. Like, I am not interested in this. And then Covid hit, and if Covid didn't change your mind about modern medicine, nobody can help you. You can't be saved. Good luck to you. So I met this guy, and he would make these claims. Like, the first day I met him, he hits me up and he says, hey, I'm in town and know Carrie wants us to meet. Should I come by? I said, ah, you don't want to come by today. I'm really sick. And he says, well, how about if I come over and heal you? And I laughed. I said, all right, come on over here and heal me. He came over here, he gave me an IV oxygen and all this other shit. Two hours later, I was 100%, like whatever I had.

[Michael Bostick]

But he knew the right supplements to.

[Dana White]

Give you literally gone in two hours. So then that. That started. He. My son's 21st birthday was in Miami. He said, well, you guys are gonna be down. Why don't you let us do IVs for you guys while you're down there, you know, because we're gonna be drinking. I said yes to it. Then he comes in and he says, let's take your blood and test your blood. Did the blood. And then he literally flew out here with my blood work, walked me through my blood work, which was all really bad. And he said, give me 12 weeks, I'll change your whole life. I guarantee it. It didn't take 12 weeks. It took like, six. By six weeks in, I was absolutely converted, and I was in. And he did everything he said he would. Now I've been, listen, I got great health care. It's not like. It's like. When I talk about this stuff and I see the comments online, my thing is always this. I'm not fucking asking anybody to do this. I don't give a shit if you do it or don't do it. I. I'm just, you know, I know what I went through, and I have great health care and I can go to la. I flew to Germany one time for stuff. You know, I can go to the best of the best. None of them could ever fix anything. All they would do is put me on pills, and then, well, let's try this pill and changing up the pills. And then before you know it, you're taking a handful of pills every day and you still feel like shit.

[Michael Bostick]

Wow.

[Dana White]

Gary Brecker healed everything that he said he would heal. And he said, Give me 12 weeks. It took six weeks. The other thing that a lot of men deal with and have trouble with is sleep apnea and snoring, right? So I went to. I did all the sleep studies where you go in and they put the. You know, the stuff all over your body asleep. And then. And then when you leave, what do they do? They give you a CPAP machine, right? So you take this CPAP machine. You gotta put this mask on your face, which I could never sleep with, right? I'd sleep for 10 minutes and rip the thing off. So then I went through 50 different masks, and Gary Breckett got rid of my snoring. He got rid of my sleep apnea. You know, And I tell people all the time, if you don't believe what I'm saying about it, then strap that mask on your big fat face and try to go to sleep. And good luck to you. You know what I mean? It's not like I'm begging people to go see Gary Brecket. Don't go see Gary Brecket. Who cares? But I'm telling you, he is a guy that does what he says he can do. You know, my legs were so messed up, like, they hurt to the touch. I had a hard time tying my shoes because my legs hurt so bad. And he told me exact. This is the other thing that's impressive about him. He'll do your blood work right? Now, when you go see a doctor and you're telling them what's wrong with you, they want to see your medical records. What have you done? This that he doesn't have to see anything except your blood work and your gene test. And he'll tell you exactly what is wrong with you without you telling him what's wrong with you. He told me my legs are like. I have a gym in here, and I have this part of the gym that I call Death Row, and it's all the nastiest leg equipment that exists on Earth, and we do legs once a week on Death Row. I couldn't even do that stuff when I was younger because my legs were so messed up. Now we destroy my legs in there on death row. It's just Gary Brecke is the guy who. If this guy called me today and said, hey, I got this new thing. It's great for you. When you wake up tomorrow, put pepper in your eyes, I would literally do it the next morning when I woke up. This guy has delivered on so many things and with lots of different people, not just me older, younger, my age.

[Michael Bostick]

What does he do specifically? Does he give you a supplement list? Is it like iv? Like, what is it? What are the tools he gave you?

[Dana White]

Yeah. So the first thing he said to me is, like, listen, if you do what I tell you to do for 12 weeks, I'll change your whole life. He goes, it's going to be hard. And I'm like, no, it won't be hard. When I set my mind to do something, I do it.

[Michael Bostick]

So we know.

[Lauren Everts]

We got that.

[Dana White]

So we got in there, and I started doing it to the letter. And six weeks, I felt all the differences. Now he had me on supplements. He had me on keto diet, and I do the ozone every. They come in. This vein is like, I look like a heroin addict here, but I do literally every week, they come in and do the I.V. the exosomes, ozone. I do all that stuff every week. And he started to wean me off the prescription pills that I was on, you know, for blood pressure and thyroid and. Oh, I was doing the $10,000 cholesterol shots in the stomach.

[Michael Bostick]

All that.

[Dana White]

I was on all the, you know, that. That. That the doctors sell you. And I'm on no prescription meds now. I'm only on supplements.

[Michael Bostick]

I thought with thyroid, it's like, almost impossible to get off. That's incredible.

[Lauren Everts]

They say the same thing with blood pressure medication once you start, right?

[Dana White]

Yeah. And I started the blood pressure medication. So did my sister. My sister was on blood pressure medication at a young age, and my sister's a nurse. My sister's off all that shit, too. Gary got her off all of it.

[Michael Bostick]

So, Gary Brca, you are legit.

[Dana White]

I am. He's so legit. Yeah, the guy. Not only my life, but other family members. I'll give you an example, too. So I go on this motorcycle trip every year with my family and friends, like my cousins and some of my friends, and we pick a destination. We did Colorado this year, and we literally ride 150, 200 miles a day on the bikes for seven days. And my cousin, who's like a brother to me, wasn't feeling well. Before the trip, and he was starting to have numbness in his arm and his hands and stuff. And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna send him to? I'm gonna send him out to. What's the place here in Arizona? The Mayo. Right? The Mayo Clinic, I think. Sent him out there for three days, did all the testing. They didn't know what was wrong with him, so I felt better. They're like, ah, we don't. You know, we don't know. We don't see anything. So we go on the trip every day. He starts to lose more of his right or left. I can't remember what it was. And maybe it was the left. It was the clutch hand. So obviously he had to stop riding. Cause I'm like, listen, I'm no doctor, but I think this guy's about to have a stroke. So finally, I called my assistant and I said, you know what? Send all his blood work to Gary Breca and ask Gary to look at this thing. Now he's been at the Mayo Clinic for three days doing studies. They have no answers for him. I shit you not. Gary Breckett calls me back in 30 minutes and says he's got Lyme disease. He's got Lyme disease. I don't know how the hospital wouldn't. He's from the. He's from Maine. He's from the Northwest, where all this. Gary put him on a protocol. Three days later, he was back on the bike, riding and feeling great. There's so many stories I could tell you like that with family and friends that, you know, finally I get to the point where I'm like, send the blood work to Gary.

[Michael Bostick]

Damn. Yeah, Gary, I gotta get my blood work to you.

[Lauren Everts]

Well, he's been sending that. He's been asking us to do the swabs for forever. That's what he says. It's also the gene test, too, right? He needs to know if you have the mutation.

[Michael Bostick]

I'm so scared of.

[Dana White]

Everybody should do it.

[Michael Bostick]

Okay?

[Dana White]

Everybody should do it. I'm not on here pitching or selling. Everybody should do the gene test and blood work with Gary Bracken. And if you have any of these problems where the doctors. Have you taken tons of pills? Definitely do it.

[Michael Bostick]

We want to kind of get the lay of the land here. If your younger self could see you now and see all this, what would he say?

[Dana White]

Obviously, you'd be blown away. I mean, you. I knew that I wanted to be in the fight business, but you don't know. You don't ever imagine A level of this. And if you look at my younger interviews, I always say, the UFC is going to be big, it's going to be global, it's going to be this and that. But you don't ever, you know, the level of things that I'm involved in now, you don't see that stuff coming.

[Lauren Everts]

I mean, even just walking into this place and you see all the flags and all the places that you guys are in, and you see all of the accomplishments, and this is a small footprint of all the other stuff that you guys have. It's pretty astonishing.

[Dana White]

Well, thank you. You know, people don't realize how big the UFC is until they come here to the headquarters and see the level of. The level of this place.

[Lauren Everts]

The way they describe when we were setting this, like, we're going to Dana's bar, and I figured, oh, we're going to go like a bar that you invest in or you like. And I walk in here, I'm like, oh, shit, this is different.

[Dana White]

Yeah. So this is where my office begins, and it goes this way. This is the bad side, and the good side's on the other side, the gym and all the Gary Breca stuff.

[Lauren Everts]

I like the bad side.

[Dana White]

Yeah, I do, too. I do, too.

[Michael Bostick]

I've read that you never wanted to work for anyone again. What is the moment that made you decide that? Is it when you were little, teenage.

[Dana White]

No, no. It's a great question. I was literally standing in the lobby of the Boston harbor hotel. I was 19 years old. I was a bellman, and I swear to God, I was just standing in there, and I'm like, the. Am I doing here? Why am I doing this? This is. This isn't me. This isn't what I want. And I literally walked out of the door, and one of my buddies, still, my friend today, was the doorman, and he's like, what's going on? I said, I'm quitting. He's like, quitting? Why? What happened? I said, nothing happened. I don't want to do this anymore. He's like, what are you going to do? I said, I want to be in the fight business. And he's like, that's the dumbest thing that I've ever heard. Yeah, you're probably right. But guess what? I can always come back to a hotel and become a bellman, you know?

[Michael Bostick]

Do you still talk to your buddy?

[Dana White]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We talk all the time.

[Michael Bostick]

Is he like, can I please come work with the ufc?

[Dana White]

So he has his own promotion, MMA promotion, in Massachusetts now, too. And he's actually on Fight Pass. We just did. I just did a new deal with him back.

[Lauren Everts]

What did the fight business even look like back then?

[Dana White]

Not this. I mean, it was. You want to talk about a long shot? It was like the. It was literally. He was right. It was the dumbest idea ever. And that's why I always tell people, you know, don't listen to anybody. Everybody's full of shit. Nobody knows anything. There's a family, big family here in Las Vegas, the Maloof family. They owned the Palms. They're the ones that started the Palms and opened it. They used to own the Sacramento Kings and lots of other things. They are the reason that the Las Vegas Golden Knights are here in town. So when they originally went around and they were pitching and trying to sell season tickets and they offered me a piece of the Golden Knights to be part of it, and I'm like, hockey in Las Vegas. Yeah. I don't think that's going to work too well or whatever. The Golden Knights are huge here. So even somebody like me that's, you know, been in the same position with people telling you it's not going to work. You know, I'm not a hockey guy. I'm not into hockey. So, you know, I didn't see it coming. But the bottom line is, don't listen to anybody. I don't care who you go to. You know, nobody knows what you're capable of and nobody take the smartest businessman in the world. Your idea might not click with them, but it doesn't mean that it's not good and it doesn't mean that it's not gonna work.

[Michael Bostick]

How many no's did you get before?

[Dana White]

Like, that's all I hear is no.

[Michael Bostick]

Is it? All day long.

[Dana White]

So my thing is, I like, you're never gonna hear, oh, Dana White just invested in the NFL or Major League Baseball or what? I like niche sports. I take niche sports that nobody believes in and I turn them into billion dollar businesses.

[Lauren Everts]

When you seen the slop thing, the power slap. Power slap, yeah.

[Dana White]

These aren't apples and apples. But let me just put it to you this way. The event that we just did last week, you know, it's on YouTube, right? So last week Miami played Florida in college football. Huge rivalry, and it did 6.3 million viewers. The Dodgers playoff game did 3.65 million or something like that. And then Ohio State, the number one team in the country, played like Minnesota. And these are on all the three major networks. ABC, CBS, I think NBC too. And then that did three point something million power slap. Last weekend on YouTube did 10 million viewers. Oh, my. So you know, and it's global.

[Michael Bostick]

How did you know? Did you just have a feeling?

[Dana White]

Everything I do is based on. On gut. You know, when I started watching the stuff in 1718 on social media, I was like, the thing that I found interesting is that I would stay on to see who won. You know, I'm so jaded in the fight business. And so I said, God, this is interesting. I started looking deeper into it, and at the time, this stuff was coming out of Poland and Russia, and there was a video of. Of a slap event. Looked like it was filmed in a barn. They were literally slapping over a barrel. And it looked like it was filmed on a flip phone. And it had like 280 million views. And at that time, I was like, a Justin Bieber video. I was like, God damn, this is interesting. So I called my partners, the Fertitta brothers, and I said, I'm into this slapping thing. I think I'm gonna do it. Because my thing was, imagine if I make this a sport like we did with the ufc. Great production value. Now we have more cameras than the super bowl when we film these. These events. I said, this could be big. And the brothers are like, how much money do you need? I said, I need a million from both of you and I'll put up a million myself. And that's it. And slap was started.

[Michael Bostick]

You're kind of like a master of seeing where attention goes. Like, you're, that's. It seems like that's what you're really good at. Like, you watch where attention goes.

[Dana White]

Yeah.

[Lauren Everts]

We watched your 60 minute interview, and I thought it was fascinating that people describe you as you yourself doing things from the gut. How do you, how do you know to lean into that? And, like, what does that feel like to you?

[Dana White]

That's a good question. I guess when I see something like, like slap. When I saw the slapping stuff, I was like, man, I think this would work. It's. It's. It's perfect for social media. You know, I think it'll be, you know, a great live event too. It's about having something that works on television, but it has to be great live too. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I don't care what you think of power slap. If you think it's the dumbest thing ever, let me get you in that arena to watch an event one night. You will.

[Michael Bostick]

I'd like to go. Could I get an invite? Like, formally?

[Dana White]

Of course. I'm telling you, we just had, so we just did the Paramount CBS deal. So I had all the Paramount CBS people come to Power Slap last week, and they were blown away by it.

[Lauren Everts]

Well, I like the way Theo Vaughn.

[Michael Bostick]

It'S kind of like a long meme.

[Lauren Everts]

Like the way he described it when he spoke to you, which is like, you know, the moment of, like, when it's gonna, like, you know, the moment of excitement. We're in a fight or in a game, you're like, when's it gonna happen?

[Dana White]

Exactly.

[Lauren Everts]

Like, you can go and chill out. And you're like, at this moment, this is where it's all gonna unleash.

[Dana White]

So what I really do is I sell holy shit moments for a living. That's what I do. And the great thing about, you know, the UFC's awesome live, it's awesome on TV. You could watch, you know, a three round fight or a five round fight and never get that holy shit moment in Power Slap. It's one, two. Holy shit. Yeah, it's, it's, it's an incredible live event and it's great on television. And I'm telling you, I tell everybody this, but I'll tell you two right now, it's going to be bigger than the ufc. Wow.

[Michael Bostick]

What?

[Dana White]

Speaking of holy shit, you don't have to train for 10 years and be an elite athlete to do it. You and everybody understands slapping men, women, children.

[Michael Bostick]

Can I put my husband in the ring when I'm pissed off and do it?

[Dana White]

Absolutely.

[Michael Bostick]

I kind of like that.

[Dana White]

Absolutely.

[Michael Bostick]

I kind of like that.

[Dana White]

You better be careful though. He's got like an American Psycho resemblance here. I know you heard that one before. That is the first time you heard that one.

[Lauren Everts]

You know what, he played Dick Cheney too. So I'm like, it depends what version, you know, like, speaking of holy shit moments, I think, like what this book is on your table, that's a holy shit moment even today. But I think people are infatuated with your friendship. And when I look at it from the outside, not knowing you, first time meeting you, and I hear the story about how basically Trump was one of the first people to believe in you, did that kick off this lifelong friendship?

[Dana White]

Yeah, I'm one of these guys that I don't forget. I don't take anything for granted. And I don't forget. And he was one of the guys in the beginning that, you know, this wasn't allowed on tv, meaning ufc. It was illegal in some states, and it, you know, just Trump Brand here, UFC brand down here, and we Had a hard time getting venues, venues didn't want us, cuz they were like, what kind of people show up to watch this type of an event? And Trump got it from, from the beginning, not only did he have us at the Taj, gave us a very fair deal and he showed up to the first fight of the night and was there both events that we did. And the Trump Taj Mahal sort of was like our kickoff kicked us off to going to different venues once we had done the Taj. And from that moment on, anything that ever happened to me in my career, he would be the first guy to reach out and say, congratulations, that's awesome. I knew you were gonna make it. And then we had like the COVID of the New York Times cause we were trying to get into New York cause it was illegal. When we got New York done, he sent me the COVID of the New York Times and said, congratulations, Dana. I always knew this was going to happen and sent me that paper. And you got to think again. Trump ran, you know, he was doing the Apprentice and the number one show on tv and you know, he was always that guy that always reached out. So then in like 2015, he called and said, I'm going to run for President of the United States. Would you, would you speak for me at the convention? And everybody, I mean, everybody told me not to do it, don't do it. You don't want to get into politics, number one. And number two, he's never going to win. So it's, you know, and I didn't look at it, oh, is he going to win or lose? Like, this is a guy that's been great to me. He's asking me, you know, I have nothing but incredible things to say about Donald Trump.

[Lauren Everts]

Where do you think that loyalty comes from? Is there something from your childhood or.

[Dana White]

Has just always been in you that I don't know? I mean, when you start psychoanalyzing my childhood, it's hard for me. Obviously there are a lot of things that happened to me as a kid and my dynamic with my parents and my family and everything else that sort of molds who you're going to be later on in life. So I would say yes, that had a lot to do with it, but I don't know any specific moments or time or.

[Lauren Everts]

Well, I think it's interesting for somebody that's accomplished as much as you have. And like the way that we talk about you is like you seem to be able to do things your own way, your own terms without, without any regard to what People think about that. And so I wonder, like, thinking about your childhood, like, were you always like that? Or is this something that's kind of just been developed over time through struggle?

[Dana White]

I'm sure I, you know, I've grown a lot, you know, in the last 25, 30 years. But, yeah, most people that you talk to that have known me my whole life say I'm pretty much the same. Yeah.

[Lauren Everts]

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[Dana White]

It was crazy because I was actually in New York because we had a Conor McGregor fight and my wife and I were at dinner at this Italian restaurant that I love there.

[Michael Bostick]

What's it called? You got to tell me what it's called.

[Dana White]

It's the dumbest name ever, but it's the greatest restaurant ever. Scala, Nutella.

[Michael Bostick]

Oh my God.

[Dana White]

No. You guys know it. You go downstairs, downstairs into the basement.

[Michael Bostick]

You make fun of me for loving this restaurant. Dana White loves the same restaurant I love.

[Lauren Everts]

She Beats it to death every time. I beat it to death over and over and over.

[Michael Bostick]

Sorry.

[Lauren Everts]

Sometimes twice. Go ahead.

[Michael Bostick]

I knew he was gonna say that.

[Lauren Everts]

It's incredible with the pasta.

[Dana White]

Yeah. Where do you guys stay when you're in New York?

[Lauren Everts]

Do you know what's funny? So, like, okay, the last time we stayed up at the Mark, stayed at the Carlisle. Before that, this most recent time, we stayed at the Greenwich.

[Michael Bostick]

I like the Greenwich, to be honest.

[Lauren Everts]

I love, like, going.

[Michael Bostick]

You have a sauna in the room.

[Lauren Everts]

But the hotels, I don't know where you. It's. I've never really found, like, man, where do you stay?

[Dana White]

I've been staying at the Peninsula for 25 years.

[Michael Bostick]

Okay.

[Dana White]

For 25 years, I've been.

[Michael Bostick]

That's right.

[Dana White]

On 55th and 5th. And if you walk out the front door of the Peninsula, you take a left, literally halfway down the block on the right hand side, there's a place called Pizza Art.

[Michael Bostick]

That's my favorite Pizza Art.

[Lauren Everts]

I love that place, too.

[Dana White]

This is weird.

[Michael Bostick]

Pizza Art is my favorite pizza in New York.

[Dana White]

It's incredible. And their pasta is incredible, too.

[Lauren Everts]

There's a guy that I used to buy washes.

[Dana White]

I was trying to help you guys out and turn you on to this new place, but you guys already know it, too.

[Lauren Everts]

There's this guy that I used to buy watches from, Mike. He's in New Yorker. And I'm like, where's a good place to pizza in, like.

[Michael Bostick]

And it's a R, T, E, right?

[Dana White]

Yes.

[Michael Bostick]

Yeah.

[Dana White]

Yes.

[Lauren Everts]

It's incredible.

[Michael Bostick]

Every time I ask you to go to Scalinatella, or however the fuck you pronounce it, I'm going to say, Dana said it's his favorite cheese.

[Lauren Everts]

It's always that same HD that's been there 100%.

[Michael Bostick]

Go ahead with your story, Ratzkley.

[Dana White]

All those guys, the whole team that's been there. And you know what's crazy is what I love about that restaurant is they're like, all right, we're going to go through the specials today. And they rip through 500 different things, right? And then they say, oh, whatever you want. They will literally make you whatever you want. Now, the kitchen in this place is as big as this chair. How do they have that much food? And how do they. And the service is unbelievable. The guys are great. The restaurant's great. It's just. I can't. I love that place.

[Lauren Everts]

I get so overwhelmed when they do that that I just say, you just tell me what you think I should have.

[Dana White]

So whatever. Your favorite Italian food Is you tell them, and not only will they have it and they'll make it, but they'll make it better than any place you ever had it.

[Michael Bostick]

Hey, Michael, My taste is impeccable.

[Lauren Everts]

The thing is, Lauren, like I said, she will find the same. We will do it over and over, and we'll never switch.

[Dana White]

What are the odds that you guys know that the. Both know the two places that. That I actually love in New York?

[Michael Bostick]

It's my. They're little hole in the walls. They're not like, famous or anything.

[Lauren Everts]

Like, the. The problem is when you go there and people give you the recommendations, they give you, like, the trendy, poppy things, and I'm like, no, I want the. The. The old classics.

[Dana White]

So true. I love.

[Lauren Everts]

I don't want the whole scene.

[Michael Bostick]

So go back to your story about when you found out he was president.

[Dana White]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we're having dinner there, and the Fertitta brothers hit me, and they're like, you know, they're my first partners with the ufc. They said. I think it was. I want to say it was. It was Pennsylvania. They're like, they think he's going to win Pennsylvania. If he wins Pennsylvania, he could win this election. And I was like, holy shit. So I told my wife, I said, they just said, they think he's going to win this thing. Let's go to the hotel and watch it on tv. So we're driving back to the Peninsula, and his security reached out to my security, and they said, he's gonna be the next President of the United States. He wants you to go to the. I think it was the Hilton. His, like, after party was at the Hilton or something like that. He wants you to go to the Hilton. And I'm like, oh, shit. I only brought one suit for the fight. So I had to wear my fight suit to the Hilton. Went to the Hilton. They announced that he was the President of the United States. We were all there. We celebrated. And then I went back to the hotel. We had the fight the next night. People protesting up and down, I mean, Fifth Avenue for as far as you could see. There were people there protesting. And then it began. I get back here in Vegas on Monday and I get a call. It's like, hi, I have the President of the United States on the phone for you. And then, you know, then. And. And then, obviously over the next, you know, over the next 10 years, our relationship has just become stronger and stronger and stronger and we become closer and closer and closer. And I mean, he and I are at a level now that it's just like he's, he's one of my best friends.

[Michael Bostick]

He's funny. I think he's funny.

[Dana White]

He's hilarious. He's hilarious. He's one of the greatest human beings that you will ever meet. He is, cares about people. You know, he always talks about America first. But notice he's stopping all these wars that are happening all over the world right now. And it just, I can't say enough good things about him and his family. I'll tell you. I'll tell you this quick story. So I'm with him for the last election at Mar a Lago. It's me, him, Elon Musk. And it looks like he's going to win, right? It's leading. Elon Musk called it way before anybody else, but it looks like he's going to win. So, you know, we're at Mar a lago, there's 30,000 people there. Everybody's all over me. He's like, I'm gonna go to the convention center. That's where his after thing is. And he's gonna speak and all that stuff. And he's like, I said, I'm good, you go do your thing, whatever. I get in my car, I go to the convention center. So we're in his room and it's me, him, his family, his whole family. And like one of his other really good friends, they call it. He won the election. You know, I hug him. Congrats. And I sort of just fade off into the corner and let him and his family have their moments. And you know, then he's gonna go out on stage, we spill out and there's these kids. He's such an animal. He's been on the road for like three weeks. He hasn't slept. How does he do that? Yeah, it's. I've never ever seen a more resilient human being. This guy, a harder working guy. And just, he doesn't end. Now there's all these young kids that are working on his look. These kids haven't slept in days, right? Maybe even weeks, who knows? But they're all crying and, and you know, you know, they're coming up and they're thanking me and, and, and, and all this stuff. And I'm in the corner, him and his family are getting ready to walk out on stage and he starts looking around and he looks at me and he puts his hands up like this and I'm like, what? He's like, get over here. Like, oh my God, I'm, you know, going out on Stage. So I start to walk to the back of the line. Eric Trump grabs me and goes, uh, you're in the front of the line. And then we go out there, and none of that was planned. I wasn't going out on stage. And then I end up speaking at the thing. But him and his family are the best people that. That you could possibly meet. They're all really, really good people.

[Lauren Everts]

And, yeah, Ivanka's done this show, and we never met her prior to doing this, actually, no. Lauren's met her doing the short. But my first time meeting her was on the show, and I can corroborate that. Like, one of the nicest people that we.

[Dana White]

Ivanka's incredible. And her husband, Jared Kushner. I mean, I. I literally, in the first term, I didn't know Jared Kushner. We. We'd never met. Whatever. During the first term, I met Jared Kushner. Jared Kushner and I are.

[Lauren Everts]

I sent him a message after everything that's gone on, especially with peace in the Middle East. And I was like, listen, like, talk about just an incredible accomplishment. I mean, they're. In my opinion, they're not getting nearly enough credit for that, because what he's done is nothing short of a miracle.

[Dana White]

Right? 100%. I mean, what they have done, they did it in the first term, too. They'll never get credit for it now, but in history, they'll be looked back upon as, you know, the incredible, brilliant humans that they are. The whole family is just. They're all good people.

[Michael Bostick]

I text Ivanka and told her I was coming here, and she said a paragraph of the nicest things about you. Very, very nice things. She told me to be myself, and I thought, really? Are you sure she said be myself?

[Dana White]

You don't meet Jared and Ivanka and not absolutely love them and adore them. They are incredible people.

[Michael Bostick]

You and your wife met in eighth grade. Michael and I met in sixth grade.

[Dana White]

Oh, shit.

[Michael Bostick]

All right, so we have, like, a kind of a similar situation going on.

[Lauren Everts]

I was telling your. Your fabulous team that her dad caught us in the closet half naked when we were 12.

[Michael Bostick]

Yeah, Michael, my dad interrupted your 30 second blowjob that you were talking about.

[Lauren Everts]

And it was back in the day where he picked me up by the collar, threw me in his car, drove me down to the mall.

[Michael Bostick]

We were 12. So do you blame my dad?

[Dana White]

Right?

[Michael Bostick]

Yeah.

[Lauren Everts]

And I saw they had those slits in the. In the, like. What's it called? The closet. You know, like from a movie. We were looking out through the Shades. And he grabbed me and he threw me in the car. We went down the mall, and this is before cell phones. We had pagers. And I had to get on a payphone to my dad and her parents, like, you're going to boarding school. You're never coming back to this school. And I pick up the phone, I call my dad, and I said, dad, I'm in real trouble. What the hell do I do? And I'm silence. And all I heard was just bellowing laughter. At the end of the day, all he did was laugh at me. You idiot. You should have jumped off the balcony. And ever since then, the rest is history.

[Michael Bostick]

What is the moment that you met your wife? Was it in a classroom?

[Dana White]

Yeah, in class in eighth grade. And I was the new kid in school. I just gone to that school, and literally, they had a bench outside, and I was, like, sitting on the bench, and her and a couple of her friends came up and started talking to me. And they were, like, the first kids that I met in class. Yeah. And then her and I had a relationship, friends all through high school and whatever. And then I moved to Boston right after we graduated, and we always kept in touch. And then when I came back to Vegas, she picked me up from the airport, and we've been together ever since.

[Michael Bostick]

What would your wife say that you're, like, at home?

[Dana White]

I don't know. That's a good question. What am I like at home? I mean, I'm the same at home as I am here. I mean, it's not like what you see with me is what you get. It's not like I'm any different at home than I am here.

[Michael Bostick]

Who's the cook, you or her?

[Dana White]

Neither. Neither. We have a chef.

[Michael Bostick]

Okay. I thought you were gonna say that. I'm just wondering if you're, like, in the kitchen grilling up a steak.

[Dana White]

Her family, they're Italian, so, you know, her family was always cooking on Sundays. Like, her dad. Her dad passed away during COVID but her dad was. Was. Was the big cook in the family. And, you know, he made the sauce. They're from Chicago, so.

[Michael Bostick]

Scalina Escalinatelli. How do you say it? Yeah.

[Lauren Everts]

It would be a great restaurant if you could remember how to pronounce it.

[Michael Bostick]

I know, but, you know, it's a long name.

[Lauren Everts]

If you could remember how to pronounce it, it's a long name. Maybe be more popular.

[Dana White]

It is the dumbest name of all time for such a great restaurant. What does Scala Nutella even mean? Is that in the Dictionary Linnae. Look up Scala Nutella.

[Lauren Everts]

Maybe it's a.

[Dana White]

Does it mean something?

[Michael Bostick]

Call it Dana's. How do you guys think about family values?

[Dana White]

Oh, they're Italian. I mean, it. It's all about family. I mean, you don't see. If you, like, Google my wife, you don't see too much about my wife. My wife, all she cares about is being home with her kids and her family. That's it. We bought her mom a house 2000 houses down from us.

[Michael Bostick]

How's it going?

[Dana White]

Good. No, I like my in laws. I've always liked my in laws. So it's, you know, even when I was a kid, you know, I've known them my whole life, basically.

[Michael Bostick]

I bet your in laws camp. I mean, I bet they can believe it, but I bet they're just like in awe of what you've accomplished.

[Dana White]

Yeah, it's pretty crazy because when I did come back here, we got married. It's like, you know, I was in the fight business, but not like this.

[Michael Bostick]

You know, with three children. What are the things that you want to instill in them? What do you want them to inherit from you?

[Dana White]

Hmm. Well, my kids have been very lucky that, you know, they've had a strong family foundation at home, you know, with my wife and her family, the whole Italian thing. And, you know, they've learned on my side that hard work is the only way you get anything in life and you get anything done. I guess all I really expect from my kids and all I really want for them is to be happy. Because at the end of the day, when you talk about what is success? How do you define success? How do you define. I think that being successful means being happy when you get up every day and you're happy with your life, no matter what it is you decide to do. I don't care if my kids want to pump gas for a living. If that's what they love to do, then do it. I think the hardest thing in life is to be happy. You run into a lot of people. I say this all the time. The only guys I know with money that are the most miserable motherfuckers you will ever meet in your life. When I was broke, I was really happy. Now that I'm not broke, I'm still really happy. I just. I love what I do. I love my life. And, you know, everything that I ever wanted to do, I have done. If I was still training people and doing what I was doing back then, if none of this happened, I'd still be happy.

[Lauren Everts]

How do you Deal with pressure. I heard you brought oxygen.

[Dana White]

I love it. I love it. And I got this weird thing about me. If I don't have enough of it, I create more.

[Michael Bostick]

Oh, my gosh. I call it Saber Tooth Tiger.

[Dana White]

Why is that?

[Michael Bostick]

Because every time everything's good, he's looking for the saber tooth tiger, and he wants the tiger to come out and hang out with him.

[Lauren Everts]

I feel like I get more stressed when you're looking for saber tooth Tiger.

[Michael Bostick]

So you.

[Dana White]

You know, I have a saber tooth tiger.

[Michael Bostick]

He. He wants a saber tooth tiger.

[Dana White]

I have a real one in the other room.

[Michael Bostick]

Oh, you have a real one?

[Dana White]

Do you really actually own one? Yeah, it's in the other room. I got to show it to you now.

[Lauren Everts]

That's where the guy.

[Michael Bostick]

We have to take a picture next to that.

[Dana White]

Yeah.

[Michael Bostick]

Okay, that's. I'm gonna need.

[Lauren Everts]

That is a flex to be like, I actually.

[Dana White]

Actually have one. Yeah.

[Michael Bostick]

Wait, so you like the pressure? You crave it?

[Dana White]

Love the pressure. It's. I. I got a buddy. I got a buddy that works for me here. He'll come in and tell you, if he's not. Whatever, he'll light himself on fire. He'll fucking. You know, I love. I love pressure, and I love stress. Love it. I absolutely love it.

[Lauren Everts]

And what do you mean, you create more for it? If you don't have it, like, what are some things you'll do?

[Dana White]

Yeah, I don't know. I got the UFC now I'm getting into boxing. Did Power Slap. We're doing jiu jitsu. You know, I'm adding. If you'd have told me when I was 36 that I'd be busier when I'm 56, I would have never believed it. I mean, when I was growing up, when you were my age, you were looking at. I'm getting in my 60s here. In the next, you know, the next 10 years, I'll be looking at retiring. I'm actually adding more onto my plate. Yeah, I love it.

[Lauren Everts]

Well, I mean, think about even, like, the guy we were talking about earlier. Like, he's, you know, still handling all the. That he's handling. I don't think you can ever stop.

[Dana White]

He's another level. I'm telling you right now. Donald Trump is another level when it comes to just. I mean, he is an absolute workhorse. And if you look at what he went through, you know, the last five years, literally trying to destroy him and his family, and he would just. I mean, I would talk to this guy, and I'd ask him, why Are you doing this? Go jump on your boat. And, you know, he loves it. He's an absolute killer, man.

[Lauren Everts]

Are you a guy that can do that and jump on a boat for a period of time or you can't just.

[Dana White]

Yeah, yeah, every year. So I never gave a shit about Italy, could care less about Italy. Then I went to Italy. Italy, and especially, like, the Amalfi coast, like, other than the top of California, all the way down to, like, Cabo, the greatest stretch of land on planet Earth. It's a toss up between those two places. Right.

[Michael Bostick]

I gotta agree with you.

[Dana White]

And the Amalfi coast is just unbelievable. The people in Italy, the food, the water, all of it. The first time that I ever went and did it, I said to my wife, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life every summer. You know, there's a reason the richest, most powerful people in the world go to Amalfi every summer. So I'm going to do it either till I die or go broke, whichever happens first.

[Lauren Everts]

And how long can you. Can you do that and kind of disconnect and go with your family?

[Dana White]

No more than 10 days. By day seven. I'm tired of putting lotion on my skin. I'm tired of, you know, it just becomes. I can't wait to get back to work.

[Lauren Everts]

Yeah, I think that's interesting for people to hear because people will hear us about that place and they'll aspire like, oh, that retirement looks good. But even someone like you, who you could do that, you could just sit out there and do nothing but that. But you choose to come back.

[Dana White]

The greatest thing in the world to go do that. I tell all my. All the guys who can actually afford it, that have never done it, I tell them, I'm telling you right now, it's a game changer. It's one of the greatest times you will ever have in your life. And when you do it on a boat, you literally. So you go to bed at night and you're in Sicily, you wake up the next day and you're in another spot that's just as beautiful or even more amazing than the last spot you were in. It is undescribable, and everybody has to experience it in their lifetime.

[Michael Bostick]

Is that how you celebrate your success? Do you? Pizza, champagne, gambling? What's the way you celebrate?

[Dana White]

Yeah, I would say. No, I wouldn't say gambling is. I gambled when I was broke, too, but. But celebrating my success is. Is Amalfi. And doing it on a boat, there's no Doubt about it. That's my. It is. There's no hotel that you will ever stay at that's nicer. There's no restaurant you'll ever eat in where the food is better. And there is no greater time that you will spend with people that you care about than on that boat.

[Michael Bostick]

I'm going to play that while you're sleeping. So I get to do that trip next year.

[Lauren Everts]

Doesn't take that much convincing.

[Michael Bostick]

No, I think that's just convinced you. Next year, that's where I expect to be next summer.

[Dana White]

Well, if you see, you know, all the most successful guys in the world, that's what they end up doing. I mean, when we get down into Capri, you know, you'll start up. You start up at like the corner of France and then you travel all the way down through Amalfi and hit all these different places over 10 days. And you want to spend the last three or four days in Capri, which in my opinion is the greatest place on Earth. And then when you pull in with these boats, you got Zuckerberg's over here, Gates over there, you got Bezos over here. I mean, those are all the boats that are around you.

[Lauren Everts]

Speaking of Zuckerberg, why did you decide to get involved with Meta? I thought that was a really interesting move.

[Dana White]

Well, I didn't decide. They actually called me and asked me, he asked me if I would be on his board. And I would have never dreamed that I would be interested in being on a board. So, I mean, if you're going to be on a board, yeah, Meta's the board you want to be on board. So when I accepted that, my thought process was, you know, when I get there and I do my first board meeting, actually the first board thing they did was dinner at his house. You do a board dinner at his house. And when I got in there, I mean, the people that are on this board are all brilliant, all have a ton of value to add in these conversations. And Zuckerberg, this guy starts these board meetings at like 8:39 in the morning. And the timing on how this is timed out, he doesn't, he's not off by a second the entire time you had this board meeting. And everybody that's on the board, you know, when they, when they speak on whatever the topic is, I mean, it's, it's incredible. I'm literally on the edge of my seat from 8:39 in the morning till 6 o' clock at night during these board meetings. And every time I leave, I'm blown Away by what we talked about, input that the other board members had. And it is absolutely fascinating, and I'm so glad that I said yes.

[Lauren Everts]

What was your. What would you think your big input was when you initially got involved? Because I know you're very much against censorship.

[Dana White]

I'll put it to you this way.

[Lauren Everts]

Okay.

[Dana White]

The first board dinner, my philosophy was, the first couple board meetings, I'm going to shut the fuck up and learn and listen. I did the complete opposite my first dinner. I said, now I know exactly why I was asked to be on this board. I know my place, and I know my position on this board. And through the first two meetings, I think that there's a perception of people that you have until you meet them. And after our first board dinner, I started to create relationships with the other members of the board, even ones that I think probably didn't like me coming in, knowing what they see and hear about me, other than actually meeting me and, you know, getting the opportunity to talk to me. So it's been a great experience for me. I have so much respect for the guys and women. The women on this board are absolutely gangsters and absolutely brilliant and add so much value to the. To the. It's. It's awesome. I can't say enough good things about it. I'm so glad I did it.

[Lauren Everts]

Outside of, you know, obviously, you being an extremely accomplished entrepreneur yourself, did you ever figure out why they chose? Like, they picked you and they could pick. You know, there's so many people they could pick.

[Dana White]

Yeah, I wouldn't say it publicly, but, yeah, I knew the first 30 minutes into the first board dinner why I was there and what my job was on the board. But. But Mark. Mark did Rogan, and I'm on his podcast. He said, we. We brought Dana White in because this company needs a backbone. This was his quote.

[Lauren Everts]

Yeah. It was a weird four years trying to put out content. And I run, you know, a media business regularly. We produce a lot of shows outside of this one. I call it, like, 100 or so shows. And my big thing is, like, I'm never gonna tell people what they can do or not do or say or not say on these properties. And as you can imagine, like. And you've dealt with this to a great degree. It's. It's challenging because you're getting pressure from both sides.

[Dana White]

Yep. And, you know, Zuckerberg's another guy that. Everybody saw the movie. Right. So you see the movie and you hear all these things about him, and people talk a bunch of shit about Him, Zuckerberg. When you get into a board meeting with this guy and you watch him run this board and talk about every single one of his businesses and the people that he brings in and just the team that he has built, the cfo. CFO at Meta. The first day that I went to Meta and we were going to have our first board meeting, they had this huge, like, they had all their employees from all over the world, they were all talking about the business. His CFO got up and spoke and I was blown away. She's absolutely brilliant and incredibly badass. And when you listen to her speak on calls, going toe to toe with these Wall street guys, it's what he has built, who he is as a person. By the way, too. People talk shit about Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg is actually a great athlete. He trains and mma, he surfs, he does all this shit. You know, everybody. Zuckerberg will beat the shit out of you, okay? Everybody thinks he's some, you know, some computer nerd. Mark Zuckerberg will beat the living shit out of you. All these guys that talk stuff about him on the Internet. Yeah.

[Lauren Everts]

So who would have won?

[Dana White]

He'll kick your ass.

[Lauren Everts]

Him or Elon? Who would have won?

[Dana White]

Listen, that's. Elon is much older and weighs more. But the thing is with Elon, too, that we found out during the promotion of that fight was, you know, he grew up doing judo, so he's a judo guy. So that whole thing was fascinating. That was fun too, I'm sure. A fun moment in my career, like Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather. And we traveled and did that, you know, the press conferences and all the different cities around the world, incredible fun period of my career. But promoting the Elon Zuckerberg fight and trying to put that thing together was a lot of fun too. But the moral of this story is all of you, you know, telephone tough guys and Internet tough guys that talk shit about Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg will beat the shit out of every one of you.

[Michael Bostick]

Just for the record, Dana, you have exceeded my expectations. Really. What's the biggest misconception about you?

[Dana White]

There probably aren't any. I'm probably not as. As far right as everybody thinks I am. Everybody thinks I'm, like, far right. I literally, up until the world lost its mind, considered myself to be liberal. I leaned, you know, a little left. But I would say that's probably the biggest misconception. Everybody thinks I'm like some far right. You know, I'm not really even that political, to be honest with you.

[Michael Bostick]

You're also very warm.

[Dana White]

Warm.

[Michael Bostick]

Yeah.

[Dana White]

Oh, thank you.

[Michael Bostick]

Yeah, that's. I think you were saying, like, some people were surprised when they got to know you at the Meta dinner.

[Dana White]

Yeah.

[Michael Bostick]

I think, like, that's something about you that I can see is. You're warm. You're disarming.

[Dana White]

Thank you.

[Michael Bostick]

How do you think about what to give your time to and time management as a whole?

[Dana White]

Yeah, it's one of the most difficult things for anybody who runs a business or has a family or has to work. Has to work and figure out, you know, how you divide your time up. You know, I say this all the time. It's, you know, I have a lot of things. I have acquired a lot of things in life. Time is not one of them. Time is the. Is the enemy to all of us. I, you know, my wife would disagree, but I take as many trips as I, you know, I think for as busy as I am and all the things I have, you know, we probably do four big family trips a year.

[Lauren Everts]

That's a lot.

[Dana White]

That's what I say. She disagrees. She would make it be 55 if she could. But I try to take as much time as I can to spend, you know, with. With my family, spend quality time with my kids as much as I can, and, you know, try to get all the shit done in a day that I have to get done. But it's. It's the hardest thing that everybody in life has to figure out. This. This balance of work, relaxation, and family time.

[Lauren Everts]

And outside of family, how do you decide who gets your time?

[Dana White]

Nicole decides mostly who gets in. Lynae, thank you. Yeah, we love. Lenae are the two that decide how I spend my time during the day. But I try to do as much as I can to, you know, I don't ever want to be that guy that doesn't, I don't know, give back. I meet with a lot of people that want to come in here and pitch me things. I mean, this room right here is like Shark Tank. Every day, people are in here pitching me business ideas, looking for advice or trying to raise money, and I try to meet with as many of those people as I possibly can. It becomes incredibly, incredibly tough. You know, it bangs my schedule up every day. But I like to do it. I like to do it. We have a great intern program here, which I love. Every intern that comes, I meet with every intern when they come in, and I meet with them all when they leave. One of my favorite things to do. I love to be with the younger generation. And talk to them. And I think they learn a lot being here and we learn a lot by them being here.

[Lauren Everts]

Quick break to talk about Kion and Kion aminos. These have become absolutely critical staples in Lauren and I's routines. We travel with Kion aminos. We take them when we're at home, we take them throughout the day, we take them when we're working out, we take them when we're not working out. It is so important to get your essential amino acids. We've done most multiple episodes with Angelo, the founder of Kion, on this podcast. Just search Angelo Keon Skinny Confidential and you can check out any of those episodes while we dive into the importance of getting the essential aminos in your body. Lauren and I happen to love the mango, but they also have this great watermelon flavor, a lemon lime flavor and a berry flavor, which is also incredible. It also comes in pill form, but our favorite is the powder. We put it in our waters throughout the day while we're hydrating to make sure that we're getting those essential aminos. So if you've been trying to lose weight and struggling, when you cut calories you lose muscle and fat. Kion aminos help prevent muscle loss. Aminos can also help you feel full when cutting calories. And Kion aminos can help you build lean muscle for a faster metabolism. For a lean, toned body, this is a total game changer when it comes to weight management. The difference between Kion aminos and most is that they have all nine of the essential amino acids. BCAAs, if you've been taking those, have only three. Some other brands have only eight. They have the ideal ratios proven by over 20 years of research and they have a transparent formula with exact amount of essential amino acids given. So be sure to check them out. Grab the Kion aminos, take them when they go, take them when you're at home. Take them wherever you want to get those essentials in. And of course use our link to get 20% off. Use our link to save 20% [e-mail] skinny that's getkeon.com skinny this episode is.

[Michael Bostick]

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[Lauren Everts]

You'Re in the business of people, and not just as it relates to fighters, but how do you, like, think about what separates the good from the great? Like, what kind of personality traits are you looking for?

[Dana White]

Yeah, you. You have to, to be great, you have to be an animal. I mean, you have to be an animal, and you have to, you have to love the grind. The grind is tough on people, man. Every day. When you were talking about stress, you know, the grind. Stress is a big part of the grind. The, the daily grind. To be great, you have to be consistent. Consistency is the key to everything, and it's not easy for people to, to be consistent in anything. You know, it's like, like Gary Breckett. You want, you want. You. You want to get all your numbers dialed in or whatever, you have to be consistent. Like, right now. Like, I could show you videos, like, a year ago, beginning of summer, I went off the deep end this summer. I was eating everything. And yesterday, I, I, I am. Where's my phone? I'm on a, I'm on a fast right now. I just started. I'm 19 hours into a fast.

[Lauren Everts]

Like a, like a water fast or.

[Dana White]

Yeah, water fast. I won't eat again till, like, I think it's gonna be Wednesday.

[Lauren Everts]

Do you do those often?

[Dana White]

I'll be in the Middle East. I'm heading to the Middle east tomorrow. And I'm gonna do this fast Kickstarter. I'm in the Middle east for the next three weeks. I literally had them put the oxygen in my room. I had them put a treadmill in there. The cold plunge is in my room. And they got a great gym at all the places that I have to go in the Middle East. I am going to rip off £20 on the next three weeks. I'm going to go absolutely bat shit crazy. And, yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to murder it over the next three weeks while I'm in the Middle East.

[Lauren Everts]

So is that how your mind works is like when you tell yourself you're doing something? It's like there's no negotiation.

[Dana White]

Consider it done. If I say I'm doing it, consider it done. It's going to happen.

[Michael Bostick]

What's the key to pitching you? You said you get a lot of people in here, like Shark Tank. What's the secret? What gets you interested?

[Dana White]

Yeah, so if I'm not interested in it personally, there's a lot of other people I can send them to to go pitch and raise money. And if anything that they get out of meeting with me is I can get them in front of the right people. And even if these people don't take what they're selling, they're going to learn a lot, you know, over the next two or three meetings that I'll set them up with. And, you know, I know there's guys that I've met that to do this, you have to give them a piece. Right. If I set you up and you go meet, you know, if I set her up with you, she goes and meets you, you give her the money, she gets a deal, I get a piece. Right. I don't do that. I set people up. And I do it because I want to see you do it. I want to see you win and I want to see it be successful. I'm not doing it because I'm looking for a piece. I can't stand that shit. That drives me crazy.

[Lauren Everts]

Feels a little slimy.

[Dana White]

Yeah, I hate it. Hate it.

[Michael Bostick]

Some of our audience is just starting out in their career. What advice do you give to your kids?

[Dana White]

Yeah, I think that it is the most interesting time in human history right now.

[Michael Bostick]

Yeah.

[Dana White]

Now, when I grew up in the 80s, there was a lot of old money and, you know, to really get out there and create something different and be. It was almost impossible. Now everything is about disrupting. Everything is being disrupted. The biggest businesses that have existed since, you know, for 100 years are being disrupted right now. And with this thing, anything is possible. You know, you don't need, let's say you have a concept for a TV show and you want to go pitch it to all the cable companies, all the majors, everybody else. You don't need them. You go right on YouTube, you can go on Facebook, you know, you can go on Instagram, and you can create anything that you want by yourself at very low cost.

[Lauren Everts]

I mean, think about this platform and platforms like it. When we started doing this, people were like, what the hell are you doing? Why would you do it? And now, like, I just call podcasts the new talk shows. Like, I don't even call them podcasts anymore. They're just shows. They live everywhere, just audio. They're video, they're YouTube. The streamers will pick them up. In my opinion, like, it's just. And it's so much more cost effective to do it. But, but outside of that, there's no more gatekeepers. Like when we wanted to do this 10 years ago, we didn't have to ask permission. We just started talking to people and there was no barrier to entry, right? It was like, there's competition for sure, still a lot. But there was no, there was nobody saying, yes, you can do this or you can't. Where in your day, you had to get the green light from someone.

[Dana White]

100% power slap. So this, when our rights deal was up with Rumble, right, We started pitching all the networks going, all the networks. I had a few network deals, but as we started to dive into the network deals, they're telling me, we don't like this, we want to change that. And then you start getting into sponsorship. And I said, you know what, I don't want to be on TV, I want to stay on YouTube. I went out and cut my own rights deal, you know what I mean, to stay on YouTube and it reaches more people. I walked you through the numbers. You know, these guys did six, we did 10.

[Lauren Everts]

I mean, look at the, like the Piers Morgans and the Megyn Kelly's and the Tuckers of the world that all left and said, fuck it, we're just going to do our own thing.

[Dana White]

100%, right? Yep. That's, that's what exists now. That is what's possible. Any of these kids out there, you know, first of all, to be successful, you have to be creative, right? Any of these content creators out there, like these kids, when, when they show up to our events, I just let them go, create, do what you do. You've obviously been Very successful at it. Do what you do, number one. Number two is you have to be a fucking animal. You have to be a savage. You have to go out. And I feel like this. This next generation is so weak. If you even have this much of it in you, you will run everybody over.

[Michael Bostick]

Why do you say that? I want to know why you think this generation is weak. Keep on that.

[Dana White]

Because I feel like if you look at the way that they act, the things that they say, and everybody's offended by something, or, you know, it's just very weak. Very weak.

[Michael Bostick]

There's. There. They've gotten used to being comfortable in every which way.

[Dana White]

I agree. And. And you. I'll give you an example. I hate protesting. I don't care which side it is, who it is. Protesting is the dumbest waste of time. So I built an arena right here next to the headquarters here. They were literally putting the last screw in the building when Covid hit. So I start working with our ex governor. I want to put on events over here. He tells me, no. Like, what do you mean, no? I'll. Social distance. I'll do whatever the bullshit is. I'll do it right. And I got my own arena. No. So then I started thinking, now, you know what I could have done? I could have protested, could have got a bunch of idiots together. Would be. We could have marched up and down the street. We want to fight. Blocking traffic. What is that? Not only is that going to achieve nothing, it's going to piss off a lot of other people toward your cause because you're inconveniencing them. What I did was got in here every day and started grinding and figuring out how I could put on fights. Obviously, it's not going to happen in my state with this governor. So I need an island. You know, that's. I don't know why I had island in mind, but, you know, places actually being in it.

[Lauren Everts]

And it was like a bubble, though.

[Dana White]

It was.

[Lauren Everts]

What did you. It was like a bubble you built.

[Dana White]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We created the only real true bubble that existed in sports. So, you know, we end up with Fight island and Abu Dhabi, and the thing's a huge success. I could have been in Las Vegas protesting all through Covid trying to fight. You know, don't be that guy. Don't be that guy. Or girl. Part of being an entrepreneur and part of being successful in life is solving problems. You're always going to have problems to solve. And this can be in business or in your personal life. Every day when you get out of Bed. Life's standing right there to kick you in the teeth. And you got to figure out how to get through it. Come downstairs, got a flat tire. Oh, shit, I'm going to be late to work. I got to do this. That you're always solving problems. Be a problem solver.

[Lauren Everts]

Yeah. It's always funny to me. Like, you'll see some. I'll just a random example, like, someone like a Kim Kardashian, they'll post something out of contrast, says, work, you got to work your ass off, or work, work, work, whatever. And they give her so much shit. And it's like, well, don't you think the better lesson is to figure out, like, how that person got to where they are? And, like, maybe there's a lesson there, as opposed to just.

[Michael Bostick]

I got what she was saying about that. I understood exactly what she was, but.

[Lauren Everts]

I've never met one. I mean, we've done almost a thousand of these. I've never met one highly accomplished entrepreneur that's like, yeah, I just kind of happened, like, I just kind of floated into it.

[Dana White]

Well, you know who it doesn't happen for? The people that you see. I see them all the time on Instagram and on social media. The post. Oh, he has this because of this. Oh, she has this because. No, that's not how it works. You know what, man? Anybody you see that has something significant, they work their ass off to get there. Even, you know, catching up with the Kardashians. Film that fucking show every season, how hard that is and what a pain in the ass it is and what you have to go through just to film that show, it seems. Oh, big deal. They come. Nah, nah, it's a big deal. I've been doing reality TV, you know, for 35 seasons. Believe me, I know. And they're not in my house. That's just over at the gym. These people are in their house, in their cars, up their ass 24 7, filming these shows. It's not easy, and it's definitely not fun.

[Michael Bostick]

Dana White, you're a legend. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Where can everyone find all the things you're working on?

[Dana White]

Thanks for having me. I will be on Paramount, Paramount, cbs, starting January. We just signed a new deal with those guys. That's actually my next meeting is. All the Paramount people are coming in, and we're going to go through the new marketing plans leading into January for boxing, ufc, and a lot of other stuff I'm working on with them.

[Michael Bostick]

Is this in front of the saber tooth or yeah.

[Dana White]

Yeah. No. Well, that's. That's next. I'm going to take you to show you the saber tooth.

[Michael Bostick]

That's amazing.

[Dana White]

So crazy. You brought up saber tooth and we got one in the other.

[Lauren Everts]

Maybe we'll run into you, into scalina telly or whatever. However you say it.

[Dana White]

Yeah. Scala Della or Pizza Arte?

[Michael Bostick]

Pizza Arte.

[Lauren Everts]

Dana, thank you for doing this, for hosting us. Really appreciate you.

[Michael Bostick]

Thank you so much.

[Dana White]

Thanks for having me.