On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Kobe Bryant: ON How to be Strategic & Obsessive to Find Your Purpose

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

On this episode of On Purpose, I sat down with Kobe Bryant. Kobe is a five-time NBA Champion, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and Oscar winner. Kobe created Granity Studios: where his new role consist of being a producer, storyteller and writer. Here’s a snippet of the brilliance you’ll witness … Kobe: “Now it's different because it's not about the awards, you just wind up trying to create something that's going to inspire someone, that hopefully through that inspiration they can inspire someone else. What I've come to learn as my career went on, that's more significant than any championship." Please support Kobe’s mission to inspire today's youth and create future champions through his new novel: Legacy and The Queen https://amazon.com The Punies https://apple.co/2m5t1iC See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Eva Longoria. And I'm Maite Gomes-Rajon. We're so excited to introduce you to our new podcast, Hungry For History! On every episode, we're exploring some of our favorite dishes, ingredients, beverages from our Mexican culture. We'll share personal memories and family stories, decode culinary customs, and even provide a recipe or two

for you to try at home. Listen to Hungry For History on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Regardless of the progress you've made in life, I believe we could all benefit from wisdom on handling common problems, making life seem more manageable, now more than ever. I'm Eric Zimmer, host of the One-Dee Feed Podcast, where I interview thought-provoking guests who offer practical wisdom that you can use to create the life you want.

25 years ago, I was homeless and addicted to heroin. I've made my way through addiction recovery, learned to navigate my clinical depression, and figured out how to build a fulfilling life. The One-You-Feet has over 30 million downloads and was named one of the best podcasts by Apple Podcasts. Oprah Magazine named this is one of 22 podcasts to help you live your best life. You always have the chance to begin again and feed the best of yourself. The trap is the person often thinks they'll act once they feel better.

It's actually the other way around. I have had over 500 conversations with world-renowned experts and yet I'm still striving to be better. Join me on this journey. Listen to the one you feed on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart.

I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions. Like, can we create new senses for humans? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Intercosmos with David Eagleman on the IHART Radio app, Apple app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Our job is to try to inspire the creativity inside of our children so that they can think through how to problem solve situations. So like, when I coach my daughter's team, it's not about giving them answers. It's about asking them questions.

Hey everyone, welcome back to On It Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every single one of you. Thank you for listening to learn and grow every single week. And whether you're commuting right now, whether you're walking your dog, whether you're in the gym, whether you're walking around town, whether you're cooking, whatever you're doing right now, I can't wait for you to hear this episode. Now, today's guest needs zero introduction. I mean, who in the world does not know Kobe Bryant, but for the 0.2 people out there that

don't know, I wanted to remind you, and for those of us to just recognize how on a day feel right now and how grateful I feel right now, to be sitting here with this legend and icon, he's a five time NBA champion. He's a two time Olympic gold medalist and an 18 time NBA all star. And in his new role as writer, producer and storyteller, Kobe created Granity Studios, which is aimed at helping athletes maximize their potential. And he's winning awards in Hollywood already as well. He's won an Academy Award in 2018, and then any award in 2017.

And today is the launch of the new level legacy in the Queen, and also the new podcast, The Punis. So I can't wait to talk to him today, Kobe, thank you for doing this. My pleasure, man, thank you for having me. Yeah, it's so great for the being your studios here as well. Happy to be here. And the first question I want to ask you because so much

of your content right now that you're creating here at Granity is aimed at helping young people, aimed at helping children. And as a father of four girls, I wanted to ask you, what's the biggest thing you've learned about yourself by being a father? You know, it's amazing. Like when you become a parent, things become much more,

you know, life becomes, you know, lines things up for you a little differently, right? Like before you have kids, me and my wife, we can travel anytime, you know, there's work and you know, you become very, you have a very clear focus when you have children becomes about them. It's not about you guys anymore. Right? And so that shift, it's a big one. You know, it's one of kind of a selfishness

together and then to be an absolutely selfless and doing anything you can for your kids. And so what I'm trying to do is create content to teach them first and foremost. That's why I started this whole thing is just reading stories to them that I felt like didn't exist. You know, our kids are athletes and they love reading about princesses and all these fairy tales and you know, they get a little sick and tired about the man saving the princess every time and you know, the same old stuff, the magical wines and all that. My kids are athletes, man. They want to learn about soccer balls and basketballs and volleyballs and magic that comes from that. Yeah, and I love that you encouraging young people to think more imaginatively about sports.

And I think that's where you go a step deeper. For me, observing you and learning about you and hearing you speak and other interviews and everything, what I'm fascinated by is that you've dealt with things in life pretty head on. You've always gone at it. What took you a while? What was something in your life that you were shy about originally or that took you a while to go head on with? But then finally you got there and you figured it out. Writing beer basketball, that was a hard jump. You know, because I had

written before and I started writing probably about 17 years ago. So practice in every day, a lot of things that I wrote were ads. And so you write an ad, you know, by looks up it, who wrote the ad, right? You can kinda, there's a certain anonymity that comes along with that, right? But writing their basketball was different.

Let's put it out there for the world to see, it's trying to create a short film. And I didn't know if I could do it, man. And it was my daughter who kind of put things in perspective for me, Gianna, she's now 13. And she was like, well, you always tell us to go for it. So. You put you on the spot.

Yeah, she put me on the spot. She was like, you gonna talk about it? You gonna be about it, basically. And that gave me the final push. I love that. When you started writing 17 years ago, did you envision that one day you would move into this storytelling space? Or was it just something you enjoyed? No, man, it's just something I enjoy and I enjoyed writing ads. It was something funny about trying to distill a message

down into 30 seconds or a minute, depending on the budget. You know what I mean? Trying to say something important, trying to speak to the brand attributes, but also speak to something that's greater and that has a stronger message, stronger philosophical message, and how do you connect those dots? So putting that positive together with something that was really intriguing.

But like, I'd never thought I'd be writing novels or movies and that sort of stuff, never, man. I love that, man. I love it how everything evolves naturally. And actually hearing you say that reminds me, so my vision when I was sharing earlier became very clearly making wisdom go viral. I was like, how do I take these teachings

that are like so sacred, they're hidden away in these books? And how do I make them really relevant and accessible and practical to the whole world? Because I know that anyone can access them, they're universal, right? These teachers can apply to anyone but sometimes they just hidden away and a young person doesn't know how to find them. So that inspires me hearing them. That's beautiful too because especially in today's world, there's so much clutter. It becomes harder for kids to try to weave through a lot of the crap that's out there to find

Stuff that's actually been official to them. Yeah, it was I think you reminded me. I think E.O. Wilson said we're Drowning in information starting to wisdom. Yeah, sure That's why I think your work is cutting through because I think what you've managed to do with your new work is that You're finding ways to connect with what people care about, but you're taking a step deeper. Yeah. You're not just settling for that. Let's talk about sports. It's not just about sports, it's about life.

It's about the metaphor that supports has for life. I mean, sports is the greatest metaphor we have in terms of dealing with life. Because even if you listen to music, music will give you guidance, right? That you can then meditate on and think about how you would apply it. In sports, you have to apply it in the here and now.

I mean, your face which challenges moment to moment, your face with pressures and anxiety and communication or the lack thereof and all of this other stuff, like it's in the moment. So you have to live it. And when you practice those things, you become better at it. But I just feel like in this day and age, our children have become less imaginative about how to problem solve. And parents and coaches have become more directive in trying to mandate or give orders or teach kids

how to think and teach kids how to behave versus and tell them how to behave versus teaching them how to behave. And so that's why I'm creating these stories and creating this content. I'm Jay Shetty and on my podcast on purpose, I've had the honor to sit down with some of the most incredible hearts and minds

on the planet. Oprah, everything that has happened to you can also be a strength builder for you if you allow it. Kobe Bryant. The results don't really matter. It's the figuring out that matters. Kevin Haw.

It's not about us as a generation at this point. It's about us trying our best to create change. Louren's Hamilton. That's for me been taking that moment for yourself each day, being kind to yourself, because I think for a long time, I wasn't kind to myself. And many, many more. If you're attached to knowing, you don't have a capacity to learn.

On this podcast, you get to hear the raw real-life stories behind their journeys. And the tools they used, the books they read, and the people that made a difference in their lives so that they can make a difference in hours. Listen to on-purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join the journey soon. Hi, I'm David Eagleman.

I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on I Heart. I'm a neuroscientist and an author at Stanford University. And I've spent my career exploring the three pound universe in our heads. On my new podcast, I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions so we can better understand our lives and our realities, like, does time really run in slow motion when you're in a car accident?

Or, can we create new senses for humans? Or, what does dreaming have to do with the rotation of the planet? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Intercosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I am Yomla and on my podcast, the R-Spot, we're having inspirational, educational, and sometimes difficult and challenging conversations about relationships. They may not have the capacity to give you what you need.

And insisting means that you are abusing yourself now. You human! That means that you're crazy as hell, just like the rest of us. When a relationship breaks down, I take copious notes and I want to share them with you. Anybody with two eyes and a brain knows that too much Alfredo sauce is just no good for you. But if you're going to eat it, they're not going to stop you. So he's going to continue to give you the Alfredo sauce and put it even on your grits if you don't stop him.

Listen to the R-Spot on the iHeartRad video app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. Yeah, I love that. I think it's so true. When you treat people as kids, then they always be kids. Right. Even when they grow up. Yeah. And for you, it was really powerful because you've talked about this before where your father said to you, like, whether you score zero or 60, like I love you. Yeah. Tell me what that statement meant to you at that time and how did it actually motivate you to continue scoring 60 rather than go, oh, I'm all right at zero.

Well, it did more than that, right? So like the basketball stuff and the speech for itself in terms of what that comment made, you know, did for me in terms of giving me stability and giving me confidence to say, okay, it's okay to fail because you're going to be loved no matter what. And that doesn't just mean basketball. That means anything alive. That means writing. That means being an entrepreneur. That means having a confidence to go for it. I've seen too many parents do the exact opposite and it terrifies children and children become paralyzed by their own fear Because they don't have that security blanket of love and comfort Yeah, absolutely. How have you been able to in your life

see He passed the cloud of emotion to actually execute on things because I think what we were speaking about earlier this Challenge that young people have today everyone has today I've just so much information so much cloud of emotion so many feelings so much childhood Baggids that you're bringing like how have you always caught through that? Can execute on that you know what I try to do is just try to be still and Understand that things come and go Emotions come and go, emotions come and go.

The important thing is to accept them all, to embrace them all. And then you can choose to do with them, but you want versus being controlled by emotion. You know, a lot of times I've seen players, even myself, you know, when I was younger, being consumed by a particular fear. And to the point where you're saying, okay, nah, it's not good to feel fear. I shouldn't be nervous in a situation like that. And it does nothing but grow,

versus stepping back and saying, yeah, I am nervous about the situation. Yeah, I am fearful about the situation. Well, what am I afraid of? And then you kind of unpack it, and then it gives you the ability to look at it for really what it is, which is nothing

more than your imagination running its course, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I love that because what you're saying is that when you're dealing with something, it's almost like, how can I get to the root of it? Yeah. Because sometimes what we're dealing with, like you're saying, it's an imagination and illusion, it's not really a thing, you know, like you think about game winning shots or game winning free throws and people go to the free throw line

and they're nervous about it. Well, what are you really nervous about? If you unpack that, okay, you're nervous that you're gonna miss the shot. All right, so you miss the shot, then what happens? People are gonna be embarrassed. You're gonna be embarrassed

because thousands of people, millions of people see you miss the shot. All right, and then what? People are gonna talk bad about you. Okay, right? And so you look at Aiko, are those things even important? You know what I mean? That is my fear. Like what is, about you. Okay. Right. And so you look at a go, are those things even important?

You know what I mean? If that, that is my fear. Like what, what is, you worried about letting your teammates down? Okay. Have you let them down before? Oh, I'm sure in practice and things of that nature, right? They're still there. Yeah. You know, and so when you're able to unpack it, you kind of look at it for what it is, which is really nothing. Yeah. I love that. Breaking it down. I think that's so important. I think everyone is listening and watching right now. Next time you're facing a fear, next time you're going again, something do that. Breaking it down. I think that's so important. I think everyone who's listening and watching right now next time you're facing a fear next time you're going again, something do that. Like literally unpack it. Don't just settle for your first answer because the first answer is really the right one. Don't hide from it. You know, you got to be able to look

at it and you know and deal with it head on. Yeah, I love that man. And you talk about that because you talk about, you know, when you talk about missing five throws, you talk about getting over yourself. Yeah, right? Like getting over yourself. How did you get that mentality of just being like, I need to get over this. Like I need to get over myself.

You know, trial and error, you know, you grow up and you make game winning shots and it's awesome. You come back the next day and miss a game winning shot and it's misery. And then the next day comes and you're back playing again and you understand that life has a cyclical nature where it's, you know, what you do on Monday, it's fantastic, but then Tuesday's a bad day. But guess what?

There's Wednesday. So we just supposed to live our lives like this the whole time, you know, versus just staying like this and understanding that it's really just a journey of evolution every day. It's just constant improvement, constant curiosity, constantly getting better. The results don't really matter. It's the figuring out that matters. Yeah, and we all get obsessed about the results.

Yeah. Now we get obsessed about like the output, not the input of not figuring it out and not like changing things. What you said trial and error, like the experimenting. Yeah. We forget to do that. It's unfortunate man. Like I've seen a lot of players, especially now, you know, and youth basketball

dealing with that. You have players that are like bigger and faster and stronger and you know, their coaches are just coaching them for results. You know, we're just going to use your size that because you're bigger than every other 12 year old out there to dominate today. But they're not growing, right? So they're just based on that result, but they're not growing, right? So they're just based on that result, but they're not focused on growing this young child and becoming a better and affluent. And through that, teaching them how to become

a more well-rounded person. And we're missing that. Yeah, see what you've said there, just I wanna ask you this, and I'm not saying, because you know yourself best, and you know how you've got there. So I'm asking it from a place of humility of learning. When I look at you, I'm like,

you know, your superpower isn't just to work ethic, your superpower isn't just like figuring things out. Your superpowers like you think strategically like that's a very strategic thought of saying this person could be this in the future if they were developed as a whole individual. Right. Rather than just like let's use them for the short term. Where did you develop that from, that ability to see beyond, to think deeper, to reflect deeper? Where did that come from? Well, I had to do that because I grew up growing up in Italy. When I first moved over there, I didn't speak Italian. I didn't have any friends.

I had the game of basketball and through sport and playing soccer, I was able to make friends and build connections. But it was a lot of time spent alone. And when I came back to the States, I wasn't the most athletic kid. You know, I was really scrawny, like really, really skinny and had like major knee issues because I was growing.

So I was the dorky kid with high socks and big, old knee pads. Fashionable now. It's fashionable now. One in, and so I had to look long term because in the here and now I couldn't compete with these kids. I mean, there's kids that were like 12 years old with beards like a kid. What's supposed to do with that? Like they're doing winnals and dunking backers and I'm happy to like tap the backboard,

you know, so I had to look at it from a long term because I wasn't gonna give up on the game. So I had to say, okay, this year, I'm gonna get better at that. Next year, this, and then so forth and so on. And then patiently, I was able to catch them. Yeah, that's, I love hearing that because I think so many of us kind of,

you believe like when you see people like yourself, it's like, it's so easy as an excuse to ourselves to just, oh, you're destined for it, right? You were made for it. Kind of like that. You know, like, oh, yes. You know, but when you talk about saying, oh, actually, when I started, I didn't have the physicality that meant that I was going to make it. Like, you have to figure it out. And I love it. Yeah, figure it out, man. It's just piece by piece, and it's the consistency of the work, which I feel like a lot of parents are missing today because we're not teaching that to our kids. We tend to say like kids

don't want to do the work but in reality it's when we're failing them because we're not leading them the right way in teaching them. Yeah. You know how to fish, you know what I mean? And so like the consistency of work, Monday, get better, Tuesday, get better, Wednesday, get better, right? And you do that over a period of time, not like one month or two months. I mean, it's three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years, and then you can get to where you wanna go. Yeah, of course, I think it was Bill Gates

who was talking about that. He talks about how we overestimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in 10 years. No doubt. Right, it's like that, you know? No doubt. I think everyone thinks about it, like, what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in ten years. No doubt. It's like that. No doubt.

I think everyone thinks about it. Like, what can I do right now? Like, how can I make it happen? But like, with you, I think people always ask you also, like, you know, how do you do with losing or failure? What I'm intrigued by is how someone like you deals with winning. Because you've won again and again. And like I was saying earlier, you know, you want, obviously,

we know you want to embossable big as an athlete. But you're winning now, even in the work you're doing here, as a storyteller, as a producer, right? It's amazing to see so many incredible awards coming through. How have you dealt with winning? Like, when you win, what goes through your mind to help you to continue winning? Well, it's a little different. Like in basketball, it was different because I expected to win. I expected us to win championships. I expected us to win five, quite honestly. I expected us to win eight.

And so when you have that vision in sports, it's a direct competition. Like I know how hard they're working. I know how hard we're working. I know what their strategy is. I know what R is it. So it's a little different. So when we went in the NBA, it was like, yeah, we expected to do that. But now we're going to come back and we're

going to do it again, you know. And so it's that constant, like, all right, you're churning. You went one championship, I'm back in the gym the next day, working, getting ready for the next one. Now it's different because it's not about the awards. You know, you just wound up trying to create something that's that's going to inspire someone that hopefully, through that inspiration, they can inspire somebody else. And what I've come to learn as my career went on is that's more significant than any championship. It's how do you connect with somebody that can then connect with another. And then whether whether the awards come or not, you know, that's for, you know, you know, academy, I can't work body to decide, but you know, like for us, it's just to try to create things.

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And yet, we're constantly discovering new secrets. The depths of them, the variety of them continues to be astonishing I can't wait to share ten incredible stories with you stories of tenacity Resilience and the profoundly necessary excavation of long-held family secrets when I realized this is not just happening to me This is who and what I am. I needed her to help me. Something was gnawing at me that I couldn't put my finger on, that I just felt somehow that there was a piece missing.

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Like your content is really about making a difference in an impact on young people's rights. Sure. Sure. Which I think is like the biggest way of winning. I think so. I mean, you know, we're looking at 62% of young children are dropping out of sports. 62% and they cite the fact that it's not fun anymore. But what does that tell? I mean, that's telling us, us as grownups are getting in the way. Get out the way. Let these kids be imaginative, which, you know, like in our stories, it's important that, yeah, there's a fantasy nature to it, right? But it's rooted in reality, right? When we have fire breathing winged horses and things of that nature, those are actual drills that are taking place. We don't have fire-dream, you know, fire breathing winged horses actually actually performing that, but we do have ball machines that are spitting balls at tennis players, right? And so all of our stories are all anchored in an element of

truth so that children feel like when they are doing these drills at these ball machines, they can envision maybe it's a fire-breathing winged horse. Yeah, to keep them next time? Yeah, yeah, they can envision gusts throwing fireballs at them. Yeah. And even the plays, like when the, you know, in the Wizard art series, when the basket is opening up and shrinking, these are things that we experience as athletes. Like some days I feel like I can't make a shot, man. And the basket feels like the size of a keyhole, you know?

In other days it looks like a swimming pool. Yeah. You know, in other days it looks like a swimming pool. Yeah. Yeah, well, that's magic. And so we root our magic in reality so that when kids experience these things, particularly the failure side of it, they can connect it to one of our stories and say, okay, I've seen this before. I know how to deal with this. Yeah, that's beautiful, man.

I love that analogy of like feeling the basket bigger or smaller. And I'd be able to vision that, I can vision it right now. Like, yeah, you're so right. Like, some days it looks huge and I love that. That's such a great way of thinking about it. And I guess so much of this is from your real life vision. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, this is like some days. I'm experiencing it. Yeah. But I love that because it's also giving them the permission to say, like, be imaginative about this, right? Yes. And that obviously gives so much. I think when we imagine, it changes the reality of, oh, I'm just setting out here, taking shots, right?

Which can get boring and tiring. Comes mechanical. Mechanical, that's the one I wanted to get. That's mechanical. And like, our job is to try to inspire the creativity inside of our children so that they can think through how to problem solve situations. So like, you know, when I coach my daughter's team, it's not about giving them answers. It's about asking them questions and getting them to process things.

Right. When the game is being played, I'm not sitting there giving them answers or barking out things on a sideline. I sit down and I'm quiet. I sit and coach this there and she's quiet. And the kids figure things out for themselves, or they don't. And then they come back and they, there's always questions.

And then you've gotta ask them more questions and you help them figure it out. But then you see their level of excitement to practice every day and crease. Because it's a process that they are owning, right? They're not coming to get orders barked at them every day. They're coming for kind of their personal quest to get better.

Yeah. And how does your how do you do it? It's filled about you coaching. I guess that style makes them feel comfortable. But how have you been able to manage that with the pressure of you being there? No, it's no pressure because you know, it's their process to own. I have knowledge information that I've gained, you know, through playing. So like the little details of things I can teach at a high level. But ultimately it's them.

Yeah, you seem very still and detached about it. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, the kids love playing basketball. So that's the anchor of it all. They come and they play and they learn and they have fun and, you know, and they compete and, you know, they challenge themselves and one another. And you know, they challenge themselves and one another. And you know, they just get better every day. Yeah. How have you seen that with, obviously with legacy in the Queen, you chose tennis.

Yeah. Like what was the, what was the choice of sports about? I mean, Treg by the white tennis. Yeah. So like the first novel we did was, was the Wiz and R series. It was important that for that to be basketball because I wanted the first story to be one of empathy and compassion. And in team sports, if you don't have that,

you can't win. Right. And so it was important to tell the tale of a basketball team dealing with their own personal fears and have those fears and insecurities lead to empathy and compassion for others. Right. And with the second story, I wanted to look more internal, individually, and look at how do you deal with the inner challenges, the kind of the self negotiation that takes place inside of our own heads. And there was no sport better than that in tennis. There's golf. But tennis, you have more movement, which to me, symbolizes life in general, because life is there's a lot going on, right? There's the elements and tennis that you have to deal with as you deal with and golf,

maybe not to the same extent, but they're still there. And then there's the confrontation with the person across the net from you, right? As well as the strengths and weaknesses in your own movements and how you feel in your own body. And because of that, it was important for this story to be a tennis story. I love that. That makes complete sense. And give me an example of that self-negotiations. I love that word. And I get that. Can you expand on that a bit? Yeah. You're out running on a track working out and you start talking to yourself saying, man, my knee is really sore right now. Maybe I'm doing too much. I need to back off.

You know, man, my lungs are burning. And maybe I can just slow down here. I'll do like an extra two sets tomorrow. You know, it'll be okay. Right? That sort of stuff. That's thus dangerous. And that's just gotta say, you know what? I'm not negotiating with myself.

The deal was already made. The deal was made when I set out at the beginning of the summer and said, this is the training plan I'm doing. I signed that contract with myself. I'm doing it. You know, throughout that process, you'll start talking to yourself like, man, I gotta, I think I need to maybe if we, nope. No, this is not a gochial, not a gochial. Yeah, I love that. And for you, empathy and compassion were things that you'd been through. Like that was, that was personally inspired work.

Yeah. When did it come to your awareness that empathy was something missing for you and that you wanted to develop it? I had a teammate that, that spoke to me and say, he called, you know, I just want to feel like as a teammate, you need me. I was like, well, duh. I can't, I can't, you know?

That was my meteorite reaction. I was like, dude, yeah, of course. But I had to kind of think about really what he was saying and where that was coming from for him and his story and his journey and what that meant to him. And that opened my eyes to this, a bigger game being played. It's not just basketball,

but it's the emotions of each individual and the backstory that they're carrying with them, the baggage that they're carrying with them. And if I really wanna be a champion and be a great teammate, I have to understand what those mean to help them become better. And in turn, help me.

Yeah. And do you think this content is going to help all the content you're creating here at Granity? Is that for you to help build better bonds between parents and kids? Like are you hoping that the podcast, for example, like kids are going to listen to it on the way to school or on the way back? Or like, how are you imagining people consuming the work? Yeah.

I mean, I imagine it in different ways, you know, but like ultimately people always figure out a way to do it that's comfortable for them, but like, you know, which is why, and everything that we do, we try to create the highest quality of product, right? Like, you know, people will sit down and tell me, they'll say, okay, well, audio books, very small percentage of people listen to audio books.

We don't really have to invest too much and do an audio books and We don't really have to invest too much into an audio book. And what, excuse me? No, because that one person just listens to audio books. That one family enjoys audio books. They have to get the best experience that I could possibly give them. So that means using a London orchestra,

that means doing full symphonies, that means having a full-ish of a shot, read the stories. Like, it means everything, the books themselves. I got this this all down. There's no money in making books man nobody makes money in books and I'm sorry you want to make a book with using what material you want you know that yeah I'm like yeah because children matter so like I don't know how they're going I imagine how they're going to be consuming content but ultimately it's my responsibility, and our responsibility is studio, to make every single thing that we put out,

the highest quality possible. Yeah, yeah. No, I can imagine, I can imagine parents listening to it on the way to school. I can imagine listening on the way back or on the way to practice. Sure, sure.

Of things like that. I think it's cool, I think it's. Well, the punies for sure, like the punies I was like, you know you know, when I first made the punies, we're gonna release it in the summer. I think we released it in August. And I think it was August around the same time. But my mind, I was saying, okay, parents are gonna listen

to this every Saturday morning. Cause I know I'm in the car, driving my kids to soccer games and like, you know, volleyball games and stuff. So parents can listen to this with their kids in the car as they're driving the sporting events. Like that was kind of what I had in my mind. And then when it came out, it's like, you know, teachers were using it more so anybody in classrooms and doing like classroom reports on the punies and also stuff. So, you know, never know.

It's, it seems like you study life a lot, right? Like when you're talking about all of this imagination, which stems from your own work. a lot, right? Like when you're talking about all of this imagination Which stems from your own work like for example like when you're dealing with empathy and compassion It's reflected in the content when you're going for these visualizations of what could this look like it goes in the content You study life a lot what currently are you studying and what kind of gets you imagination really growing right now like what keeps that moving for you? And what kind of get to imagination really growing right now? Like what keeps that moving for you? Uh, you know, there's a certain element of truth and everything, you know, and, um, you know, the creativity generally comes from personal experiences first.

And then you kind of look on a broad, kind of on a broader scope of, okay, how do you take something extremely personal and then channel it in a way for masses to understand and get their arms around sort of thing. But it always starts in the element of truth and then you start unpacking that by sitting in thought and figuring out like character and, you know, who is this person and, you know, who's his family. And then that's when I start getting in trouble. You know, because it's like the questions don't end. You know, so I have like books and books and books and books and books and books and books

and books and books of backstory because it's not good enough just to say the characters this way. Yeah. Why are they that way? Well, the parents, where do the parents come from? You know, where's the dad come from? Why are they raising a kid this way?

And you know, what does it have to do with the economy that's around them? And then, and just one thing leads to the next, and then you're just writing all kinds of stuff. It's crazy. Yeah, that's awesome, because I think so many of us get, you know, in our lives, we get stuck with imagination because you kind of get into that autopilot mode.

Doing the same thing every day, same routine, same drive to work. Yeah. And it's like, I feel that what you're sharing is, that's easy for anyone to do. It's not like, oh, because you're coping with Brian, you don't feel that everyone gets into that. You're able to find these creative outlets.

Yeah, well, you know, like creativity is in everything, you know, like even then consistent, like what I found is creativity a lot of time comes from structure. I agree, I'm so glad you said that. You have those parameters in the structure then within that you can be creative. But like if you don't have the structure,

you're just aimlessly doing stuff. Yes, right. Yes, right. You know, where are you going? You know, so like having a clear structure of understanding, okay, this morning, I'm going to like when I was writing a Wizzenard series and outlining legacy

I'll come in in the morning, 7 a.m. and I'm there. I'm writing backstory from seven to 12, then go pick up my kids and then I come right back and I'm writing again. So within that structure, my mind when I go to sleep is already planning of what the next day is going to be

because I know what it is I have to do is that consistency and structure. Yeah, I kind of agree with you more. I'm writing my first book right now. Oh, why? And a lot of people have been asking me like, Jay, and I'm like that. I have a very scheduled focus on writing and people be like, well, how do you find inspiration at that time? What if you're not inspired at that time? And I'm like, no, the structure helps spontaneate. Yeah. Right? It's that consistency that breeds creativity. Well, that's the thing too, is like, you know, people think like it's, you're just kind of just kind of, you know, mulling along and all of a sudden,

aha, you know, like the show that we have on ESPN, now called Detail, basketball, you know, Sports Breakdown Show. That came to me when I was walking around with my wife, shopping, and I look at a piece of fabric, and I'm like, wow, this is really the detail. And this thing is, oh my, detail. This is the name of the show.

And then everything came from there. But I had been thinking about a show like that for like a year. Yeah. You know, I couldn't shake it loose. I'm like, I gotta find a sports show that I'm going to do, but it needs to be basketball focused, has to be broader. And I wanna hear from the best minds in the world, hear from Peyton Manning, I wanna hear from,

what is it, what is it, for like a year? And then all of a sudden, boom. You know, and so people think it just comes out of nowhere. And then you gotta like, obsess over for a while, and then it kind of pops loose. Absolutely, you had to plant the seed well before. To see the fruit. Yeah, and you gotta water it all the time.

Like you got to sit down and watch other shows that are out there and like, you know, and then ultimately you just find, you know, like when the answer comes to you, it's like, my God, I could have thought it out on the first day. Remember John Williams told me that, he said, he said, he'll sit for like two months to try to figure out what the melody is.

Yeah. And he'll just be playing. He'll be at his piano all day. He'll say, you only day he'll take off at Sunday because his wife forces him to take Sundays off. And he'll just be sitting there writing, writing, writing. And then it just comes. Yeah.

And he's like, I seriously could have thought of that on the first day. Like why? It's just so simple. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what people don't realize as well. Like when you go out, then you're shopping with your wife and you see the detail and you're like,

okay, that's the show. And then you go back into consistency to create it. Yeah. It's like, you know, it wasn't just like, oh, now I thought of them just gonna throw that idea and it's like, now I'm going back to the drawing board. Have the name now. Build around it.

I try to, what I try to do is shoot the idea down and figure out everything that's wrong with the idea. Oh, okay. Right. This show won't work because like detail, for example, it's like this show won't work because it's not for fans. It's for the 1% athlete.

Yeah. All right. Well, we'll, we'll be successful. People connect to it. Like, you know, you just start unpacking every little thing. How will we shoot it? Can I even get painting man in to do it? Could I get, you know, and you start shooting them down.

Same thing with the novels, like characters and plots and stories, does this make any sense? No, here's why. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop wishful thinking side. You have the positive vision and you're like, oh, this is how it's gonna turn out. And then you ignore the bad stuff. Or you ignore the kind of like the pot holes or the loop holes because you're just like, oh, no, I don't want to focus on the negativity.

Yeah. But actually what you're saying is, if you're aware of it of those known unknowns, then you can actually break them down yourself. Well, yeah, it's just like the same thing for any great movie. You have to have the antagonist. Yes.

You know, a strong villainous character will really drive the narrative along. If you don't have that, you have nothing from what your hero has to bounce off of. You know, that villain could be, you know, Maleficent. They could be something inside of you. It could be whatever, but you have to have that clear antagonist that's driving a narrative

forward. And so, and this is the same thing. You pick apart the negative and from that, you can then move. Yes. Move forward. Absolutely. What I'm loving here right now is that all I'm hearing is like, COVID, this storyteller, like I'm loving it.

Like what I feel is like what I'm hearing about is your obsession and obsessiveness with stories. And it's not just like, you know, I'm sharing this. It's like you've really studied stories. Like you've really broken them down and understood it. Where, tell me about where that obsession comes from in general, like how you find obsessiveness and how you've applied that to story. Yeah.

You obsessiveness has come to something that you love. Like you really love it, you'll go through fire for it, you know, you go through the ups and downs with it, and you'll just keep at it because you love it so much, you know. And story for me started a long time ago. I mean, I had a great English teacher at Lower Marin High School, named Jane Maasriano, and she explained to me the art of storytelling my soft more year, and that's why I started falling in love with and understanding story structure, you know, how to develop compelling characters and how this thing, how stories are the

driving force, whether they're inspirational or informational, that really change society. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're defined by the stories we tell us, whether personally or or outside, absolutely. Absolutely. And it seems by the stories we tell ourselves. Yeah. Whether personally or outside of the world. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it seems like you just mentioned that it just shows the role of teachers. And now when you find that teachers are using the work you're creating to teach, that must be amazing. Comes full circle. Yeah. And it's a pretty cool feeling, man. Like growing up, when I was in high school,

man, I didn't read much at all. Yeah. Because basketball was my thing. Now, if you give me a basketball book or like a sports book or like a sports psych book or I'm devouring that. You know what I mean? Because it was a clear focus for me which kind of gets me into this market a little bit too because like for our active children that love being outdoors and playing all the time they're not reading. No. But they're missing out on so much by not reading. But they will read if there's something that they feel like speaks to them. So true. You know, and so now I think we get more readers in the world because of it.

That's so true. No, I think so. I agree with you. For me, and this is why everyone's different. And I think there's such a need for what you're doing because when I was growing up, I never enjoyed fiction. And so I thought I didn't like reading because all the books that the school suggested

were fiction books. And then when I was 14, my dad handed me an autobiography in a biography. And I devoured it. And I started reading because I was like, I wanna hear about real people who break and who develop and who learn and grow and like have been through failure.

And like I wanna hear about rags to riches. And I wanna hear about real people who went through real pain. That's right. But I grew up believing that I didn't like reading. And I think that you're so right. I think there's a lot of kids out there who think they don't like reading.

Well, they think reading is boring. It's a problem because what I found in the industry, which is why we self publish, because a lot of publishers want to publish the same type of story, you know, the same type of plots, same looking characters, that a lot of the verse characters out there at all.

And so we said, you know what, we're gonna have to do this on our own. This way we don't have anybody in our way telling us with the market once to hear. I don't care about that. We write stories that come from the heart and our characters are gonna look like my daughters because my daughters don't have characters out there

that look like them. It's a great point. So, they're gonna look like my kids and we're gonna go from there. Yeah, I think what you've just raised there about diversity and representations, you know? It's huge, man. It's huge.

Cause I don't see it, man. And like, you know, so, like, books is the first thing. Publishing is the first thing. Now, if we look at animation, animation is even worse. It's even worse, you know, in terms of developing characters, diverse characters, but even beyond that, the animators themselves, there's no diversity in that industry. Right.

None. And I'm talking not just racial diversity, but gender diversity as well. And so there are a lot of things that we need to take on that we are taking on and hope to make the world in the industry a better place because of it. Yeah, no, I fully agree with that. I'm a British Indian, right?

Born and raised in London, Indian, never seen any character that looked like me anywhere. Right. Because they think, you know, the mass market, they're not going to, it's not going to peel the mass market, so we're not going to do that. Yeah, exactly. Wait, what?

It's what? Yeah, and everything's spreading so fast now and everything's global now. Right, nearly all content is global now and most global markets are growing everywhere. So the need for people, especially young people being able to see themselves in characters. And even, and it's not, and I think it's a deeper point that you're making, is you want to be able to see your story in someone, right? Even just beyond like color and background,

it's like your story, your experience of life. We made their basketball, we got a lot of pushback on people. Like, oh, I took it to some very prominent studios at first. And they all said, yeah, no, because you said basketball is too sport specific. Nobody's going to connect with this sort of thing. Because, you know, there's a lot of people out there who don't watch basketball. And I'm like, well, that's not the point. Yeah, that's not, yeah, it's not the point. And so it was really a case study, even with our novels, everybody was like sports novels. Nobody's gonna read that. It's too much of a niche market, niche market.

I'm like sports is bigger than that, man. And so we made their basketball to really prove a point that you don't have to watch basketball at all to connect to the journey of a dream. Yes. And once we saw that connection, it was kind of validated our point of view. I think that's a massive point of view. And for anyone who's listening or watching right now,

who thinks, because Kobe Bryant wants to do something, he just happens, it just shows, you have to do it yourself sometimes, because not everyone's going to believe in you. Certainly not. Certainly not. And what you'll see is, you know, once you start doing it, and now people want to come and jump in, but I'm like, you know, you kind of forced us to go about this ourselves. So I think we're just going to build it from the ground up ourselves, but thank you. It's that they saved you.

Yeah, right? Thank you, but we appreciate it, because if you had signed on, and you know, we just get kind of going with the flow. Totally, yeah, you can be grateful to them. Yeah, appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. No, I agree. It was the same with this podcast funny enough. When we launched, a lot of people were considering whether it was, you know, going to, like, you

do social videos, like, is it going to work on a podcast? And there were a lot of people that were not sure. And then, like, we launched with the biggest podcasts in the world in the health category, which is, which is my world. And it was just like, everyone was like, oh, interesting. But I'm like, thank you. Like, thank you so much for saying no and you didn't think it was gonna work because now I figured out myself. And what you said, it actually builds confidence and validation and everything.

And Oprah told me this while first decided to build studio and I was asking how Harpo came to be. She said, well, when she was doing her deal for the Oprah Winfrey show, She was re-upping her deal. And actually the first contract she made, she said, well, don't pay me up front just I want to own a percentage of the show. And so they gave it to her. And now at the time there weren't any black women hosting a daytime talk show.

So it was really new. And she said, you know, Kobe, if they believe that the show is gonna be successful, they wouldn't have given me that. Yeah. They wouldn't have. In their mind, they're thinking, oh, we gotta still, we don't have to pay her, we can take this money and move it over here.

This is great. You know, it's just gonna be a flop or we're success. I don't know, at least we get diversity on TV. It's fine. And all of a sudden, it's, oh, oh, oh. That's, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, trouble. I'm sure they're giving it away. Opened up Pandora's box. So now you come back for the next day on this like, yeah, I had to give me some more ownership. Yeah. Like

dang it here. And then ultimately she, you know, came to only a hundred percent of her show. Yeah. Which is amazing. Wow. That's a great story. Yeah. That's fascinating. I think because sometimes when you think that, you're like, oh, they like me. Wow, that's a great story. Yeah, that's fascinating. I think because sometimes when you think that, you're like, oh, they like me. That's what they're giving it. No, don't like me. Please, here's an idea. It's terrible.

I just need you to buy in just a little bit. Yeah, I love that one. That is awesome. How are you encouraging? You've shared so many stories of like you, teacher who taught you about storytelling and writing early on you just shared it. Oprah's example, like, you've had so many incredible mentors

in your life. We all know about that. How are you encouraging young people to find the right mentors? And how can they find the right mentors? Even through your work, I guess your work is somewhat mentorship. We try to be, you know?

And I think the important thing is research. You know, in the hall here in the office, I have a hall that I call Muse Hall. We have all the portraits of some of our muses here from JK Rowling to Steve Jobs, and so forth, and so on. And I think it's important to research them. And it's like putting fuel in the fire every day. It's constant inspiration. When you read about them, what they were able to accomplish, how they went about accomplishing

it. inspiration when you read about them, what they were able to accomplish, how they went about accomplishing it, is just constantly feeding that flame and learning and the best way to do that is to learn from the people who have done it. Yes. That just made me so happy. I have a gallery wall in my home. If we were recording this at my place in Hollywood,

like I have a gallery wall, Steve Jobs is right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Einstein's there. Martin Luther King's there and there's a few right there. And Einstein's there. And Martin Luther King's there. And there's a few other people. And for me, it's the same thing. It's like, sometimes I'm sitting there and I'll be like, what would that person do?

Like, how would they have dealt with this challenge? And you're so right. I think you can be mentored by people who aren't alive. 100% because their story still live, which brings us to the importance of storytelling. Their story still live. These muses are here. It's important to learn from them.

And if anything, it helps you remember that they are human, just like us. These great things that get accomplished can be accomplished by others. And beyond building Walt Disney Company is not something that people look at and scoff at and go, oh, it can't be done. Well, why not? Why not? Yeah. And the more action you take, the more you think is possible. Yeah. Because you realize there are people just like us. They make mistakes just like us.

And they kept going. And we can do the same. Absolutely, man. Well, I could talk to you for hours, but you're a busy man. And you got loads of things to do. So we end every interview with what we call the final five quick fire rapid fire round Which means you have to answer in one word or one sentence maximum got it So this is easy for you. So the first question is what brings you the most joy right now? Family beautiful second. What do you want your girls to think when they hear your name? Daddy nice number three your favorite animated film want your girls to think when they hear your name. Daddy. Nice. Number three, your favorite animated film.

In Tokyo. Oh, nice. Oh, I was not expected that. It's the greatest. Yeah. They, they, they mean, they were in a zone when they made that film. Absolutely. Question number four, the book that's

had the biggest impact on you. The Alchemist. Oh, nice. OK, great. Question number five, you won message to all storytellers would be. The Alchemist. Oh nice. Okay great. Question number five. You're one message to all storytellers would be. Create from truth.

It's beautiful man. Kobe thank you so much. This has been an honor man. Thank you. It was such a beautiful conversation. Thank you for sharing so many gems, so many wisdom pieces. And anyone who's out there right now, I've got the copy of the book right here.

Legacy and the Queen. you can go grab it and you can also listen to the podcast, the punies as well right now, so you can go and download that, we'll put the links to both of them in the comment section and in this podcast, you can go directly there, Kobe, thank you so much for allowing us into your space,

man, this was really special. Thank you. And remember, thank you, man. Thank you. remember is thank you man. What do a flirtatious gambling double agent in World War II? An opera singer who burned down an honorary to Kidnapper lover, and a pirate queen who walked free with all of her spoils, haven't comment. They're all real women who were left out of your history books. You can hear these stories and more on the Womanica podcast.

Check it out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. I'm Munga Shatekler and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe. You can find it in major league baseball, international banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me, and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our 20s are often seen as this golden decade.

Our time to be carefree, make mistakes, and figure out our lives. But what can psychology teach us about this time? I'm Jemma Speg, the host of the Psychology of your 20s. Each week we take a deep dive into a unique aspect of our 20s, from career anxiety, mental health, heartbreak, money, and much more to explore the science behind our experiences. The Psychology of your 20s hosted by me, Gemma Speg. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Gemma Speg. Listen now on the iHeartRadio AMP Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.