December 12, 2025 – Why Not Today Leslie Kane and Live Nation ex-CEO Jason Garner

Intro 1 0:04
Broadcasting from AM and FM stations around the country, welcome to the Small Business Administration award-winning School for Startups Radio, where we talk all things small business and entrepreneurship. Now, here is your host, the guy that believes anyone can be a successful entrepreneur because entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk, or passion: Jim Beach.

Jim Beach 0:26
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another exciting edition of School for Startups Radio. I hope you’re having a great day out there, taking over the world and making some money, having some fun, and getting ready for the holidays. We have a great show for you today, and I am excited to share it with you. First up, we have Leslie Kane. She was a five pink Cadillac winner for Mary Kay, one of the top Mary Kay salespeople in the country, and had an amazing career there. She still works there, but she has her own podcast out now called Why Not Today. In other words, why not today? When are you going to start your business, tomorrow? You got to start it today, right? Very motivational. I love what she is doing. I’ve been a guest on her show, and so I’m excited to hear her story and find out how you sell Mary Kay during the pandemic, which she was incredibly successful at. So I’m excited to learn from her. And the Cadillac stories that she has are great, too. We’re going to hear some of those. After that, in the Greatest Hits, again, our server was out of business, and so we had to move a bunch of stuff, and we’re currently still getting caught up. Got to get some of these Greatest Hits back on the server. Jason Garner from Live Nation, the CEO and founder of Live Nation, is going to talk about that business, the concert scene, and all of that. So that’s Greatest Hits. We’re always excited to share those with you because they are greatest hits for a reason. Not only is the guest a superstar, but they have something interesting to say, as well, as Jason does, and we talk in depth about the pricing of the concert industry and how to defend their pricing and all that. Anyway, talking about defending myself, I have gotten a lot of pushback about my comments on China, and so I just want to talk about why I am so down on China right now and let you know where I get all of my information. What I’m talking about China, I’m getting from one source. It’s the China Today YouTube channel. They have two English guys, English speakers, Americans, I guess. I think one’s American; one’s from Australia, perhaps, that traveled through China on a motorcycle for years. They’re both fluent, and they report what they are finding in China, and some of the media reports that we don’t hear. For example, 13,000 offices or factories were burned last month by employees who have not been paid. Some of those were government offices. You can’t tell me that that economy is doing well and growing. That doesn’t make sense. Those two data points just don’t add up. If there are 13,000 factories that got burned, that represents 130,000 other businesses that aren’t paying their employees, as well. The entire thing is going to collapse soon. There’s my prediction. There’s my best defense of it, as well. That’s all I have to say. And if you want more, watch that channel on YouTube. It’s great. Anyway, big show here. Thanks for being with us. Let’s talk some Mary Kay. We’ll be right back.

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Jim Beach 4:23
We are back, and again, thank you so very much for being with us. I’m very excited to introduce my first guest today. Please welcome Leslie Kane to the show. She is a courage coach. She has a podcast called Why Not Today, and I was on that podcast and had a great time talking about why not go ahead and do that thing you’re talking about today? Get off the sofa and go do it today. I just love the idea of it. She took that from her father, and I will let her tell that story. She was a Mary Kay Cosmetics Sales Director for over 25 years and has hosted and coached thousands of women on how to build their own business. She earned five of the pink Cadillacs. Amazing. Leslie, welcome. How are you doing?

Leslie Kane 5:13
I am doing great. Thanks, Jim, for having me. I’m honored to be a guest on your show.

Jim Beach 5:18
That must have been awesome getting the pink Cadillac.

Leslie Kane 5:21
It was. It definitely is one of those things because whenever you say you are with Mary Kay, people—the first question out of their mouth is, “Do you have a pink Cadillac?” And to be able to say, “Yes, I’ve had five and 16 or 17 cars,” you know, it’s definitely an accomplishment and something I’m proud of. 

Jim Beach 5:40
How much do you have to sell to get a Cadillac? 

Leslie Kane 5:42
It’s not just me; it’s me and my team, and it’s about $200,000 worth of products in six months. So it’s a lot of products and a lot of people it takes to happen, Can’t do it on your own, okay? 

Jim Beach 5:58
So $200,000 and the average woman buys, what, $50 worth?

Leslie Kane 6:02
Um, yeah, probably. And, you know, the majority of our products are $10 or less.

Jim Beach 6:08
Okay, so it’s a lot of products.

Leslie Kane 6:13
Yeah, it is.Leslie Kane 6:13
I did do the math one time. Somebody stopped me, and he’s like, “How many—how many lipsticks did you have to sell to get that car?” And I did calculate it one day, and I don’t remember the number, but it was a lot.

Jim Beach 6:25
Did they give you sales techniques at Mary Kay? Do they help you?

Leslie Kane 6:30
Oh, absolutely. And I think that’s the beauty of a direct selling company that I found is they give you a roadmap. Like, you do this, you get this; you do this, you get that. And you have amazing mentorship and people you can call, and a community and a culture that teaches you how to do all these things. And when I started my new business, I realized, oh, it’s not given to you like this. And there’s so much I learned that I didn’t know I didn’t know. Like setting up a website: you push a couple buttons on Mary Kay, and you pay $30 and it’s done. You know, it’s thousands of dollars, maybe, to do a website. And there’s so many different things and tracks you can—why not open your own business? But Mary Kay, really, yeah, they teach you so much, which I didn’t realize how much I’d learned until I started doing something else.

Jim Beach 7:13
The thing that bothers me about this business and other businesses like it is that you’re selling to your friends.

Leslie Kane 7:21
Not really. You start with your friends, and you quickly leave your friends because your friends want to know what they get free and what their discount is. And it’s hard to sell to a friend. But once you start selling to other people—and it’s what Mary Kay is: as a service, you know? We don’t just sell a product, but I get the service. People come to my house, or I meet with them, and I show them how to use the products, and they can text me in the middle of the night and the product shows up at the doorstep. And so it’s way past friends.

Jim Beach 7:53
How do you get past friends?

Leslie Kane 7:55
It’s a million different ways, from just volunteering in the community to networking to referrals from other people. You know, Mary Kay has been around for 62 years. People are looking for it. I’ve had lots of people reach out to me just from my website or just looking for a Mary Kay consultant. Yeah, I’ve gotten thousands of customers—just lots of different ways—just like you get any customers any other way, right?

Jim Beach 8:25
And how is the company doing overall?

Leslie Kane 8:33
Doing really well.

Jim Beach 8:30
Struggles with the change in retail patterns?

Leslie Kane 8:33
Yes, and they’re pivoting. And so just this month they are coming out with new websites, new ways that people can order online. Because, you know, with COVID happening, I had to completely pivot my business into a virtual business because I’d done face-to-face for 25 years. And so I had to figure out how to do things virtually. And so what it’s done is freed up our time and taught us a whole new business model on how to run the business. And Mary Kay corporate is following suit. And that’s, you know, the advantage of working with a team of millions of people that you have access to. When COVID happened, somebody started a Facebook group and we all shared ideas and helped each other. And we weren’t lonely. It wasn’t an isolation. We all figured it out together.

Jim Beach 9:17
Excellent. That is amazing. I am a boy, so I’ve never bought cosmetics, and I just don’t really know about it, but everyone has heard of Mary Kay.

Leslie Kane 9:29
Mary Kay was way ahead of her time, I think, in creating businesses for women to give people freedom and the flexibility. And, you know, we wouldn’t have been around for 62 years if it wasn’t successful and still family-owned.

Jim Beach 9:41
Oh, really?

Leslie Kane 9:42
Yeah, it went public years ago, and she hated it—just the control of a board—and so she bought it back. And at the time they bought it back, it was one of the biggest buybacks from the stock market, or from being publicly held, So still family-owned, family-run. Her grandson is the president.

Jim Beach 10:04
Now tell us about your dad.

Leslie Kane 10:07
So my dad was a character. And if you notice my logo, it says Why Not Today, with a face, which is an eye patch and a handlebar mustache. He always had that. He lost his eyesight when graduating high school, but was always positive and always a problem solver, and nothing—

Jim Beach 10:25
Was it eyesight right after high school?

Leslie Kane 10:29
Yeah. I got in a car accident, and I graduated from high school and was thrown 300 feet out of the car. Didn’t think he’d survive and he did…

Jim Beach 10:36
And thrive and make a living.

Leslie Kane 10:39
You know, that’s an interesting story. We talked about when he did pass away 13 years ago. And we talked about, you know, he had a plan. He was a planner. His background—his degree—in accounting—or— And he was an architect and a planner. And so we always had Plan A, B, and C, you know? And so he was supposed to actually play football for USC, and because of the car accident, it didn’t happen. And so he was in the hospital for six months, and my grandfather put him on a train and sent him to South Bend, Indiana, to Notre Dame to go to school, and that’s where he went to college. Which is different today; you couldn’t just decide tomorrow, “I’m going to Notre Dame.” But that’s where my mom grew up, and so that’s how they connected. And he became a planner and then moved to the Northern Virginia area to a brand-new planned community. So he was able to thrive. And I think that’s the Why Not Today message, you know? You just got to try something and try the next thing.

Jim Beach 11:35
Start on the message. He used to say that all the time, right?

Leslie Kane 11:40
Yeah. And I don’t ever remember him specifically saying it, but he was always—you know—there was always a positive. My youngest sister has Down syndrome. When she was born, people asked if my parents were going to keep her. He’s like, “Of course we’re going to keep her.” And, you know, he figured it out. He started a group home when she was born. He made sure she was able to go to local high schools. And so we always figured things out and just did things. And so I had this crazy idea during COVID to do a podcast, and I call them Why Not Today moments where, you know, you have that idea that you act on and it totally changes your life. And so I had the idea to podcast. No idea what—some friend of his I didn’t even know posted something on a social media site a couple months later with a picture of himself with an iPad. She’d had to have some surgery. And he said every morning he woke up and it made him think of his old friend, Pat Kane, who was my dad. And he talked about all the accomplishments, everything he did, and he said, “And we both said, ‘Why not today?’” And I told that to my friend that I talked about the podcast. She’s like, “That’s the name of your podcast, and you just have to do it.” And that’s what I did.

Jim Beach 12:45
How cool. About the podcast, what are you focusing on? Obviously the message. But how are you getting guests? Tell us about how you grow a podcast.

Leslie Kane 12:56
Okay, so, yeah, it started with an idea, and it’s just taking action. I do not edit any episodes, and that’s part of it because it’s not perfect. It’s just progress, and you just start. So my dad actually was born and passed away on the same day, March 5. And so that was the day that I started my podcast. And I always say I don’t procrastinate, but I am deadline-driven. So the Friday before, I posted it on a Saturday. I recorded, I asked people, got advice, and just did it. And as I grew the podcast, which will be four years in March, I just started learning a new thing every time. And so it started with courage and just people sharing their courage stories. And literally, if you walked by me and you said “courage,” you got on the podcast. And that’s where I started: with friends. And then from there, it just grew, and I learned to ask. There was somebody I saw on CBS Sunday Morning that wrote a book about her father who had passed away, and I reached out to her and asked her to be on the podcast. She’s like, “Yes, I’d love to.” And other people—you know, you were another example—somebody reached out to me to have you, again, as a guest on my podcast. So it started with just courage, and then it started getting some traction. It started every other week, and then two years ago, I went to every week. And now it’s kind of evolved because of what I learned in starting a business. So I did start Why Not Today as an LLC two years ago, but what I found is with Mary Kay, as I said earlier, they did a lot for us. And when you start your own business, you don’t know what you don’t know, and it’s not a straight line to the top. And so what I found in talking to people on my podcast is we heard the obstacles, the things that didn’t go right, the adversity in their life that got them on the path they’re on, and they didn’t start here and go there without a lot of bumps and changes. And so the podcast has evolved now, but I really talk to people about their entrepreneurship journey, and we talk about what didn’t work, and what do you wish you would have known before you started, and what are you so glad you didn’t know? And we kind of talk about the messy middle in between because it’s not perfect. You know, on social media it looks like it’s all success. So it’s kind of pivoted there. And really my goal with the podcast is to give people hope and permission to do it, to take action. Like, let’s take imperfect action and just say, “Why not today?” And do it now. Don’t wait.

Jim Beach 15:13
But it has to be right before I can start.

Leslie Kane 15:16
No, it doesn’t. And you know that. You just need to start, and where you start and where you finish are probably completely different.

Jim Beach 15:28
I love it. Do you have any guests that stick out in your mind as amazing?

Leslie Kane 15:34
I would say Laura—Laura Carney—is one, who’s the one I mentioned from CBS Sunday Morning. Her dad was killed by a distracted driver, and she found his bucket list, and did the bucket list, and wrote a book about it, which is a pretty amazing story. A good friend of mine—she just happened to be visiting her in New York one time—and my guest canceled at the last minute. And she’s like, “Well, interview me.” I’m like, “What have you done courageous?” She’s like, “I got clean after being addicted to opioids.” And she was addicted because of mouth surgery, and it got so bad that her husband went to pick up a prescription, and the pharmacist gave him Narcan, and that’s how bad she was. So that was very touching.

Jim Beach 16:14
You’re not allowed to get oxy without Narcan. You have to have it.

Leslie Kane 16:21
Well, this is a couple years ago, so, yeah. And she had to go through the whole detox, and it definitely opened my eyes and awareness of things that you didn’t know. I’ve had people in the addiction recovery—some nonprofits—and somebody talking about recovery, addiction, or addiction recovery; somebody talking about domestic violence shelters. So really, people doing good things. Yeah. I’ve had, I think, over 150 guests.

Jim Beach 16:54
Wow! And do you go get guests still, or are you just at the point where all your guests are people who approach you?

Leslie Kane 17:08
I still, when I’m out and about in the community, ask people, meet people. I just go with my gut and ask. I’m seeing people on social media. One woman that wrote a book—not sure the exact title—but basically about doing something new every day. She moved to a new city, knew nobody, and decided every day to try something new, and wrote a book. And I just saw her on Facebook and reached out to her. Somebody else—recently—I just had someone recommended to me. She was having some health issues because of stress and decided, you know, what if the health issues are caused by stress? What if I do positive things would make me feel better and get better? And she started writing a letter of gratitude a day for a year and wrote a book about it.

Jim Beach 17:55
Wow, what a challenge that is, because when you’re spiking down, being gratitude or having gratitude is so hard, yes.

Leslie Kane 18:03
Yes. And she literally wrote letters a day, every day. And I asked her, I said, “So, like, if one day you were traveling or something was going on, did you pile them up?” She’s like, “Nope. It was one a day.” And she said there were some nights I jumped out of bed and I’m like, “I gotta go write the letter.” And she wrote them—her first was to her grandson that was just born, and her last was to her dad that had passed away years ago. And, like, in between: the barista at the coffee shop that made a great latte for her—she handed him a letter. Very cool stories that I’ve heard from people, and had great connections—people that have helped me. Also with my business mentors that have supported me.

Jim Beach 18:42
Now, is this going to make money for you?

Leslie Kane 18:46
Well, the podcast isn’t making money, but I have grown and started a couple other things. I had another Why Not Today moment. I couldn’t sleep one night, and I was like, “You know, we’re missing community and connection.” So I started a luncheon called Why Not Today Connects. It’s not your traditional networking luncheon. It’s more: let’s build relationships and have speakers that help support us in all areas of our life. And then I’ve done some coaching, and I’ve done some courses and mastermind. And kind of where I’ve landed at the moment—which I’m sure will change again—is I’ve started something called the Why Not Today Inner Circle. And it’s supporting women in business that are solopreneurs or just starting. Or I have somebody who’s been in business for 20 years. To give them a safe place to support each other. It’s really lateral mentoring, where we celebrate wins, we pay attention to tracking and accountability—things you don’t get in a business by yourself.

Jim Beach 19:41
No, it’s hard without the formula. Got the playbook.

Leslie Kane 19:45
And you think you can do it all yourself, but, you know, we do need that support. We need someone to celebrate—when you do something good, somebody to celebrate—and when you have a question or need to bounce an idea, you need that person. And so, yeah, the Inner Circle has definitely filled a space that I think is missing. And the women that are in the group, we continually say it’s magic—just the people that are in there that are supposed to be there, that are supporting each other, building relationships, helping each other with their businesses. And, you know, it’s the day you don’t feel like you really need to show up that you need it the most.

Jim Beach 20:20
That is so true. That is so very true, yes.

Leslie Kane 20:24
And a lot of what I’ve done with the Inner Circle comes from my Mary Kay business. You know, that is what I did with teaching and training thousands of women, helping them grow businesses. And it was a safe place. Mary Kay had weekly success meetings for years, and we started doing it ourselves as a sales director. But what she always said is, you know, when you’re having a really good week, you need to show up just to encourage somebody else, and when you’re having a really bad week, you need to come and get encouraged.

Jim Beach 20:54
Oh, that’s great advice.

Leslie Kane 20:56
Yeah.

Jim Beach 20:57
That’s one of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur, especially now at your home. You know, you don’t have someone to congratulate you that day, and it is nice to have an organization that’s structured to do that, just to—right—have some positive—

Leslie Kane 21:15
The dog is not applauding me when I get a sale.

Jim Beach 21:18
Say that again?

Leslie Kane 21:19
The dog is not giving me applause when I get a sale.

Jim Beach 21:23
Oh, that’s true.

Leslie Kane 21:24
Right.

Jim Beach 21:25
Yes. The dog doesn’t know. No. I think cats do.

Leslie Kane 21:30
Do they?

Jim Beach 21:32
I think cats have an inner knowledge or something. I don’t know. What has been the hardest part of this new business?

Leslie Kane 21:45
I think it is figuring out all the things I didn’t know. And there are so many paths you can go on. And I think giving myself permission to take time—like when I started the podcast and you felt like you need to do the website, need to do all the things. But I just like, okay, one thing a week, or every two weeks, or one thing a month—just taking my time to learn and not be afraid of new things. I often say, you know, there was something new I needed to do, and it took me a year and three minutes. It took me a year to think about it, and three minutes to do it. And so sometimes it’s just figuring out the things that you don’t know, and it’s scary. And just say, “Why not today?” to try them. And if it doesn’t work, that’s okay. You’re learning a lesson.

Jim Beach 22:28
I do that with my taxes. I can’t do my taxes, but I can in one day get all the paperwork. Okay, that’s today. And then tomorrow I’ll put them in order, and then the next day I’ll do the check to see what’s missing. Exactly. I will find what’s missing. And I can do tiny, little baby steps. But if I say I’m going to do my taxes, I can’t do it. It’s too mentally

Leslie Kane 22:53
No1, And I think that’s the Why Not Today message. You just got to take that one step today. What is the thing you’re avoiding? And with Why Not Today, some people—you know—I often say their Why Not Today might be just getting out of bed. And I had somebody that attended my luncheon one time, and she bought a Why Not Today t-shirt and cup for her daughter that was in college struggling with some mental health issues. And she’s like, “I gave it to her,” to encourage her just to get up and tackle the day.

Jim Beach 23:21
Yes, yes. What do you do when you’re down, Leslie, and you’re not ready to get out of bed? I mean, you sound like you got your stuff so together—you got stacks on top of each other. Yeah.

Leslie Kane 23:34
Every once in a while, I have a bad day. Every once in a while, I do. And you know what I found? Give back. I remember one day I was just—it was during COVID—I was really having a bad day and just not motivated and feeling down. And you know what? I went to the dollar store and bought a whole bunch of Valentine’s cards and sent them to a whole bunch of people. It’s like, I know when I am feeling down that the last thing I want to do is do something positive. The last thing I want to do is listen to a podcast, listen to music, call somebody. But I know when I feel that, that’s the time to reach out, reach up.

Jim Beach 24:11
It’s amazing what giving back and gratitude can do.

Leslie Kane 24:14
Oh, absolutely. And, you know, going back to the beginning of the conversation, we talked about: where do you meet people? Volunteering and giving back. That is—you know—there are people there that you can meet and they’re going to help. You never know who they’re going to be that it’s going to be a potential customer.

Jim Beach 24:32
Yes, yes. I was doing an episode a year or so ago about fundraising in alternative places, and that night I went to PF Chang’s, sat at the bar, and told my wife about the interview and raised money from the guy on the other side. Got a $25,000 investment from him. There you go.

Leslie Kane 24:54
And you just never know where those people are, but they’re not going to be sitting at your house. You have to get out. And I had a mentor one time say, “Things don’t fall in your lap unless your lap is out there.” I like that. So you need to be, you know, out and about and exposed and talking to people. And I did a podcast episode on the Why Not Today scavenger hunt, and basically have your eyes open and paying attention to who is out there and not have your head on the phone.

Jim Beach 25:23
What is the scavenger hunt?

Leslie Kane 25:25
Just being open to who’s out there? Who are you going to meet? You know, who’s going to introduce you to who? So, like you came about by somebody just sending me an email about having you on my podcast. Now, I do get a lot of emails from people now, and literally in the subject it says “Pitch,” and they’re trying to sell me to be on the podcast. But for some reason, when James sent me the message, it wasn’t so salesy that I responded and listened to what he sent—an example of some stuff you’ve done. And I’m like, okay, I want to get to know this guy, Jim Beach. So I’m grateful that I paid attention to that email.

Jim Beach 26:05
When are we going to have men normally wearing makeup?

Leslie Kane 26:11
Um, probably never. Never. Maybe. I don’t know. But you know what? We do have skincare. We have products that work for men just as well as they work for women.

Jim Beach 26:19
I need a bleaching product. You know, the little—I don’t know what you call them—the little brown areas, the little dark—

Leslie Kane 26:30
We have those things. One is you need to be wearing sunscreen every day.

Jim Beach 26:35
Shut up.

Leslie Kane 26:36
Even on cloudy days, because that’s what causes—

Jim Beach 26:39
A billion years—gonna do that.

Leslie Kane 26:41
You put lotion on your face?

Jim Beach 26:43
Only when I get out of the shower, and that took 15 years of women yelling at me.

Leslie Kane 26:49
Well, put a lotion with sunscreen on,,And, yeah, that’s a whole other subject, but yes, that is gonna—and there are things to help fix it, but first you got to prevent it. But there’s definitely products that can help you. I can send you some things.

Jim Beach 27:04
You know, I’m just the typical guy. I don’t, you know, I don’t do that unless I need to, you know.

Leslie Kane 27:12
Well, it’s interesting. The men’s skincare industry and self-care has definitely grown and is expanding.

Jim Beach 27:20
Yes, yes. Well, they’re coming out with all sorts of things that men are expected to do now.

Leslie Kane 27:28
Yes, and they’re marketing way too young—to young teenagers—with all the social media and TikTok and trying to get them to buy all these products that their young skin does not need, unfortunately.

Jim Beach 27:43
Yeah, I never thought about that. When is it correct for a young lady to start wearing makeup? When is it safe for her skin?

Leslie Kane 27:51
Well, our skin starts to age around 20, so it’s a good time to really start paying attention to anti-aging products and making sure you’re taking care of your skin. If you take care of your skin, the makeup looks great—or you don’t need makeup. Yeah. It should be an accentuation of your beauty, not covering something up.

Jim Beach 28:09
Well, I need it to hide stuff. Leslie, how can we follow you online? Why Not Today?

Leslie Kane 28:18
Yes. So the website is whynottodaymovement.com because we are creating a movement to encourage or inspire people to live their life, to be brave and pursue their dreams. So that is where everything sits. If you’re interested, I’m on all the social media sites under Why Not Today Movement. And, you know, would love to connect with people that are feeling like they’re stuck, they need some inspiration, they’re running a business, they’re lonely. Or I’m always looking for guests for the podcast. And my biggest goal with Why Not Today also is that it is a mantra. Like, life is good.

Jim Beach 28:51
Yeah, exactly. That’s what you talked about last time, right? You should have shirts for encouraging, just like I do—smiley face shirt.

Leslie Kane 29:00
I do have—on my website—there are shirts, there are cups, there’s hoodies, vinyls, and we’re going to expand that. And I did actually—another interesting guest is I had one of the owners of Life is Good on my podcast, just a random—my neighbor knew him.

Jim Beach 29:17
That’s the smiley face guy, right? Didn’t we talk about that? I’m pretty sure I talked about that. Okay. I think so. Yeah, smiley face shirt from Forrest Gump. Yes, yeah, we talked about that.

Leslie Kane 29:30
Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah—Why Not Today. Let’s spread the word. Let’s take action. Don’t wait. 

Jim Beach 29:36
Thank you so much for being with us.

Jim Beach 29:41
Great. Great.

Leslie Kane 29:43
You’re welcome. Thank you, Jim. We’d love to have you back.

Jim Beach 29:46
Thanks a lot.

Leslie Kane 29:47
Absolutely. Thank you.

Jim Beach 29:49
And we will be right back.

Intro 2 30:00
Well, that’s a—that’s a—that’s a wonderful question. Oh my gosh, I love the opportunity to do this. Thank you, Jim. Wow. That’s—that’s—that’s a great one. You know, that is a phenomenal question. That’s a great question, and I don’t have a great answer. That’s a great question. Oh, that is such a loaded question. And that’s actually a really good question. School for Startups Radio

Jim Beach 30:23
Welcome back to School for Startups Radio. Thank you so much for being with us today. I hope you’re using today to stay motivated and get out there and take control of your own life. Go start a business, do something exciting with your life. I am very excited and honored to introduce you to my first guest today. We all know his company, the company that he was the CEO of, and it’s an amazing story. I think you’re going to really enjoy this. Jason Garner was the CEO of Live Nation, which is the nation’s largest concert promoter. As such, he traveled the world with famous rock stars and sports legends—all of that. He even had dinner one time at George Clooney’s house, and the other guest was some guy named President Barack Obama. You don’t get any more impressive than that. But bad things happened to Jason, and at the age of 37 he found himself unemployed. His mother had passed away, and he was—I guess—lost is a good way to put it. He went on a discovery of self, of self—everything. And he has produced a book about the experience called And I Breathed: My Journey from a Life of Matter to a Life That Matters. I am very excited to introduce you to Jason Garner. Welcome to the show, sir. How are you doing today?

Jason Garner 31:40
Good, Jim. Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.

Jim Beach 31:44
Well, I’ve enjoyed your book. I have it here in my hand right now. You know, I get sent lots of free books, Jason, and I don’t read a lot of them, I must admit. But I loved your book. It was fantastic and so honest.

Jason Garner  31:59
Well, first, thank you. I know you probably do really get a whole bunch of books, and the investment that we as authors ask people to take—of three, four hours to sit and book—is a huge amount of time in today’s world. So I always appreciate anyone who reads it, and especially somebody who’s as busy as you. And I think that was really my goal with the book. You know, I didn’t want to write a music tell-all, and I didn’t want to write a beat-your-chest, “Look at the career I had” kind of book. I think there’s a lot of those, and there’s many people who have a much sexier, more exciting kind of beat-your-chest story. But what I really wanted to share was what I had learned through that process, what was going on inside of my mind and inside of my heart. And to do that, I really had to write a tell-all of a different kind. I had to write a tell-all about my own feelings—my rise to the top—but the fear and the insecurity that came with that. And then, you know, the parts of my life that were really challenging, and the heartbreaking nature of going through some of those things, and then the self-love and fulfillment that I have started to find at the feet of some of these really great teachers. And I just wanted to share that in a really open way that I hoped the readers who were kind of in that same place in their life could look at this book as a friend and say, “Wow, this really sounds like something I’m going through,” and find a friend and not feel quite as alone as I did as I was going through it all. Right?

Jim Beach 33:36
Well, I love the combination in the book. It is a tell-all, but you’ve also got tons of great stories in here. You tell your entrepreneurial life, the things that you’ve done. And so not only does it have some great little nuggets and stories in it, but it is very fulfilling on a very personal and very intimate level. I want to go back and dive into your past a little bit, Jason, before we get too much further in the book. You started off as a flea market parking attendant, I believe. You didn’t finish high school, from what I recollect. And you worked up to, at the age of 37, you had been twice on the list of the, I think, Fortune highest-paid executives in entertainment—an amazing accomplishment. Tell us some of that story and how you became so successful so young.

Jason Garner  34:30
You know, it really was an obsessive, subconscious drive for success. I was raised by a single mom in a trailer in the Arizona desert, and my mom worked two and sometimes three jobs to put money on the table. And I remember falling asleep at night and hearing my mom in the other room crying. And this kind of bred in me this really intense desire and belief that if I made money, everything would be okay. And so for those first 37 years of my life, I didn’t think about much other than how to make money. You know? I mean, it really was that thing. And in the course of doing that, as I talk about later in the book, I neglected a lot of the care for my own health and wellness and spiritual well-being. But really, I think, like so many people in our culture, it was just this real belief that money was happiness and fulfillment. And so I sold gum on the schoolyard when I was in middle school so that I could buy my lunch and not have to get the free lunch and the stigma in my mind that came with that. I sold roses on the corner on Valentine’s Day. I worked in the parking lot at the flea market, and then later had a series of entrepreneurial ventures at the flea market. And I went on to form my own concert company, which I ultimately was then brought over to a larger company, and went on to become, as you said, the CEO of Global Music for Live Nation. And it was really one long—or short, you look at it—kind of drive of the little boy in me saying, “I’m going to make something of myself. I’m going to be somebody, and when I do, everything’s going to be okay.” And the first part of that statement was true. It did make something of a life that I think we wouldn’t look at and say, “Hey, those are the ingredients that are going to get someone to where I got to.” But the second part wasn’t true. When I got there, I wasn’t fulfilled, I wasn’t happy. Everything wasn’t okay.

Jim Beach 36:41
And your mother wasn’t happy either, was she?

Jason Garner 36:45
No. You know, my mom didn’t have the financial success that I had in my life, but my mom definitely worked hard, and she touched so many lives. She was a daycare teacher, and, you know, I remember as a little boy sitting in the corner at six o’clock, waiting to go home from her daycare center, where I would go after school to be with her. And there’d be this long line of kids waiting to get their hug from my mom. And so in her really beautiful, tender way, she was just touching so many lives, but she was also taking in all of the fear and all of the insecurity and the sadness of the world. And ultimately, at age 59, it was too much for her, and she developed a very large tumor in her stomach. And it was diagnosed, and six months later, she died in our arms at home. And it was really an eye-opening experience for me because I really looked at that experience and said, “Wow, this is also part of my destiny.” You know? I’m different than my mom in that I chose a different way to express myself in the world—different than my mom—and I made more money than my mom, but very similar in that it was just all about that output, all about doing, not a lot of taking care of myself. And, you know, as I sat there crying, no longer having a mom, I—you know, as a father of two at the time—I said, “This just can’t be my story.” And that’s really when changes in my life started to happen.

Jim Beach 38:22
Jason, I don’t really have a question here. I just want to make a comment, and then I will continue the passage about your mother and the conversation with the priest or minister, your—I think his name was Paul—your religious friend, you know I’m talking about.

Jason Garner 38:40
Yeah. You know, that was really—that was kind of after Live Nation. I started looking for a spiritual outlet, and I got in touch with a Christian church. And one of the things that happened later in my life was that my mom fell in love with a woman and ultimately married a woman. And so here I am, part of this Christian church, and at the time the issue of gay marriage came up. And my mom had already passed by this point, and I started to realize that everybody around me believed that my dear mom was in hell.

Jim Beach 39:25
And your mother, who had kids lining up to receive hugs from her, is in hell. Now, it’s hard to believe. And again, I didn’t have a question about this, Jason, and I don’t really want to get into this part because I don’t want to talk politics and religion and all of that. But it was so profound, and the way you put it, I just want to say this to the listeners: this one chapter is worth reading the whole book. Jason compares his mother, who lived like a saint, and then this Christian man said that the woman was now in hell, to a Chinese child who had never experienced any sort of Christianity, and it was just powerful. And I wanted to say your Christian leader gave you the wrong advice. I don’t believe that that’s what Christianity is about. I don’t think that the girl in China who never experienced God goes to hell. You know, I don’t know about your mother—I think she’s in heaven for all the hugs. There’s a hugging heaven. There’s a special place in heaven for people who give out hugs to kids. I think the girl in China ends up in heaven too. And I think that you got some bad biblical advice. Anyway, all of that’s tangential. I want to ask a question now: why did you leave Live Nation at the age of 37?

Jason Garner  40:41
You know, the short answer is I just couldn’t do it anymore. After kind of being a part of such a profound experience as my mom passing in my arms and the deep connection that came around that, I went back to work and I tried to dive back in, as I always had done my whole life, and it just didn’t matter anymore. And it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to all the employees and the artists and everyone who needed someone in that job who was 100% dedicated to the job. And quite frankly, it wasn’t fair to me to do something that I was no longer passionate about. And so I was really blessed that my boss and mentor and dear, dear friend, Michael Rapinoe, who is the CEO of the global company there at Live Nation, he really worked with me. And we came up with a way for me to have a graceful exit and a way for me to move on and do what I’m doing now, which is bringing me so much joy.

Jim Beach 41:43
All right. Before we get on to that, I want to do one celebrity story. I actually attended the Coldplay 2004 tour in Atlanta. You were the guy that organized that tour, apparently. And I loved the show. It was a great show. So thank you. Tell me about your porn star mustache.

Jason Garner  42:04
So I used to have a very much ’70s porn-star-looking mustache, but at the time, I didn’t think that was the case. I thought I looked pretty good, and I thought the mustache looked pretty good. And it was a leftover from kind of being, you know, the youngest guy in the room all the time. So I tried to look older with a mustache. And when I met Chris Martin the first time, I knocked on the door to his dressing room, and I introduced myself and said, “Hi, my name is Jason, and I’m here on this tour just to really try to make it a positive experience for you and do anything that you need.” And he looked at me and smiled and said, “You can start by shaving that porn star mustache,” and shut the door. And that began a two-year journey of me with them and Chris invariably teasing me about this mustache. And so one night in Los Angeles, we were having dinner. My boss, Michael, was there, and Gwyneth Paltrow was there. And Michael asked how everything was, and Chris told him everything was beautiful and that I was great, and that there was just one problem—one easy problem—but that I wouldn’t fix it for the band. And my boss said, “What is it?” And Chris said, “Jason has that damn porn star mustache, and he won’t shave it off.” And so that night, I went back to the hotel, and I was probably more nervous than I’d been in many years, and I shaved the mustache off. And the next day, I met him as he was coming out of the elevator, and it became this long-standing joke about me and my mustache that I shaved for the band. 

Jim Beach 43:45
That’s a good one. All right, let’s move on now. At 37 your mother dies, very tragically. You transition out of your work. What’s next? Talk about the process of writing this book, of the self-discoveries that you go through, and what was at the end of the process.

Jason Garner 44:02
Yeah. You know, the beginning of the process was really an interesting realization that when I no longer had a job, to a point, I didn’t really know who I was.

Jim Beach 44:16
Men define themselves by their work, don’t we?

Jason Garner 44:19
I think we do. I think. And I think more and more men and women in our entire culture, we really—you know—who are you? The first thing we say is, “I work at X,” or “I do this.” And so it was extremely difficult, but I had to find a new way to define myself. And that really sent me on this journey with a question, which was: Who am I? And I went to the mountains of China. I studied at the Shaolin Temple. I studied with Bruce Singh and Taryn Salzberg and so many wonderful—David Wolf—and so many wonderful teachers, looking for any answer of “Who am I?” And then: how do I fit into this go, go, go culture? And I don’t mean “I, Jason,” but I mean kind of the universal “us.” How do our feelings and how do our lives fit into a world where we work 10-hour days or more and we’re available on internet and social media and email all the time, and we’re bombarded with all these demands? And I really wanted to understand how I could find balance without having to live in the mountains of China full-time, right? Because that’s not realistic, right? That’s not real-life spirituality, right? And so that’s really been this journey. And as I started to have some answers—new questions—I just started to write them down. And over a two-week period, I kind of wrote my life story from a perspective of just sharing. I didn’t want to write a how-to book or self-help book. I really wanted to write just my journey of self-love, and then hope that, in sharing my journey really honestly, it would connect to readers who were kind of on the same journey.

Jim Beach 46:17
And I think it’s a great result. I love the book, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Okay, Jason, here’s the million-dollar question: who are you?

Jason Garner 46:27
Who do I think that I am? You know, at the deepest level, I am love. At the deepest level, you are love, and then love.

Jim Beach 46:37
Love or Are loved. Is there a D at the end of that word?

Jason Garner 46:40
Well, I hope it’s both. But, okay, I think it’s love without a D. I think that we’re all this pure expression of life, which, at its really core, is kind of this unbiased love. And then, at the same time, we’re very unique expressions, right? This is what we call the ego, right? We’re this very unique expression of that universal sentiment. And so you become Jim and I become Jason, and I think one of the challenges that we have is that we get too caught up in “I’m Jim and I’m Jason, and aren’t we different?” and we forget that at the core we’re the same. And likewise, if we get too caught up in our sameness, we lose that unique expression, that purpose that we’re here to be: the unique perspective. You know, kind of, if you look at a crystal and you shine it in the light, and then there’s all these different perspectives of that crystal that appear on the wall—like, each one of us is that. And so what that really says to me is that I have to learn to be unseparated: both kind of this spiritual being, but also this person that really has his or her feet on the ground walking through the world. And so I call that “warrior monk,” which is something I learned in China with the Shaolin monks, which is: within us is a warrior. And in China, these monks are kung fu warriors, and they’re also Zen Buddhist monks, and it’s this really odd mix. But I think that’s all of us. So in me is a warrior who can go out and do business, can pull out the sword when it’s necessary, but in me is also this monk who can use serenity and calmness and love and kindness when that’s appropriate as well. And so when you put both of those together, we have this ability to be compassionate, be strong. We have the ability to be both serene and wise. We have the ability to be both sharp and loving. You put that together and now we have a toolbox that we can walk into the world with and have a full expression of ourselves.

Jim Beach 48:55
What are some of the things that you learned that you can share with us—habits that we can change, something that we can do to make ourselves more successful?

Jason Garner 49:05
For me, it’s all about daily practice. So I think when I was in business, I had a daily practice that looked like: jump up out of bed, grab my Blackberry at the time, check my email, rush through the day, don’t breathe, don’t eat well, work, work, work, work, and then stress about work when I was at home. And I think that daily practice describes everyone’s lives, right? And so what I’ve learned is that I now get up a little bit earlier, start the day at six, 6:30. I start the day by breathing, then I stretch. I call it yoga. I then sit and I do some meditation. And then throughout the day, I nurture my body with green juices and smoothies and things that really tell my body that I’m loved. If you think about your body as a community of cells, you are exactly identical to the community at your work. And we have thousands of people who work in companies, and if the boss comes to work and screams and yells and drives the workers into getting more and more done and never shows appreciation, eventually that organization will get sick. That’s really what happens to our body. And so when we take time to stretch, we take time to breathe, we take time to nurture ourselves, it’s like good leadership of ourselves. It’s that compassionate leadership that we wish our boss exhibited. And some of us have those bosses who do exhibit it. It’s that kind of leadership within the community within ourselves. And so what I really learned is: you don’t have to check out life. You don’t have to go to the mountain. But if you want to live a life of fulfillment, a life that has a little bit deeper meaning to it than just all the physical things that we acquire, you do have to care for yourself, and you do have to learn to listen, and you do have to learn to love yourself. And in that process, that’s where that magic balance that everybody talks about starts to happen. We won’t ever balance the time because we spend 10 hours at the office, but we can start to introduce this idea that our feelings matter, that we’re loved, that we care for ourselves, along with caring for our business. And in there, I really have found magic starting to fruit in my life.

Jim Beach 51:25
And what’s next for you, Jason?

Jason Garner 51:28
I don’t know. You know, right now I’m really enjoying sharing this book, and I have a few clients that I consult with on stuff like everything that we talked about today. And we’ll just kind of see what comes next. It’s been such a beautiful adventure going all the way back to the days of working at the flea market, and I’m sure something beautiful is going to continue to come out of life.

Jim Beach 51:53
Star that you’re most excited to have met?

Jason Garner 51:59
You know, I always go back to Enrique Iglesias, and he was the first concert I promoted. And I just went to one of his shows the other day. He invited me down, and I walked into the arena, and I stood off to the side of the stage. And he saw me, and he walked over and, from the microphone, said, “So happy you’re here.” And it was—for me—just kind of this expression of, you know, I no longer represent the guy who signs checks at his concerts. And yet here’s a friend who just says, “What really matters is you’re here for me.” And I think if we can learn to be that in the world, that’s really a life that’s successful and that’s really fulfilling. So I always pick him because of that deep friendship and love.

Jim Beach 52:47
Well, I like his music too, so he has that going as well. Tell your son Kevin that Coca-Cola is infinitely better than Pepsi, okay? Will you get that clear in your house for me? And, Jason, how can we buy the book, find out more about you, follow you on Twitter, that kind of thing?

Jason Garner 53:03
My website is jasongarner.com, and we sell the book right from there. I self-published it because I didn’t like being told what the book had to say or had to do. And so by self-publishing it, you know, it’s a true expression of what was in my heart at the time. And my Twitter is @thejasongarner, but you can find it all off the website at jasongarner.com.

Jim Beach 53:29
Fantastic, Jason. Thank you so much for sharing this book with us and your story. And I hope you’ll come back on the show again and tell us about the next chapter of your life.

Jason Garner 53:38
Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it.

Jim Beach 53:42
As do we. As do we. We are out of time. Thanks for being with us. We will be back again tomorrow or real soon, whatever it is. Take care. Happy holidays. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. Happy holidays, everyone.