Politics, Perspectives, & Progress - A Path Forward | Entrepreneur - Artist - Visionary, Ruben Rojas

Join me as I sit down with visionary artist and activist Ruben Rojas to explore how we can bridge divides, embrace new perspectives, and bring a spirit of civility into our polarized world. In this candid conversation, we discuss the power of reframing narratives, fostering empathy, and focusing on actionable ways to create meaningful change in our communities and beyond.

From the challenges of navigating political toxicity to the importance of grassroots involvement, Ruben shares insights from his mission to inspire positive transformation through his work. Together, we unpack themes of unity, understanding, and the role each of us plays in shaping a better future.

🔹 Topics Covered:

• How to foster open dialogue despite differences.
• The value of starting change at the local level.
• Why reframing perspectives leads to better outcomes.
• Practical steps for building bridges in divided times.

🎨 Ruben Rojas is a celebrated artist and advocate whose work has empowered countless individuals to see the world through a lens of possibility. His unique approach to creativity and activism has inspired partnerships with global brands and a movement for change.

👉 Watch now and be inspired to take action, create connections, and rethink what’s possible!

✨ Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more conversations about creating a positive impact!

#Unity #Empathy #BridgingDivides #CommunityLeadership #PositiveChange

Meyerside Chats seeks to eliminate the “us and them” narrative and toxic polarization by striving to create virtuous community leadership and authentic conversation.  We showcase the humanity in those who take on the often thankless work through public/civic service, civil discourse, differing points of view, and how we can improve our politics and society as a whole.

About Ruben Rojas

Ruben Rojas is a visionary artist and advocate for positive change through his mission, Live Through Love. This lifestyle brand inspires creativity and optimism and is channeled into various mediums such as streetwear, art prints, and public art, including sculptures and murals in cities around the world, and uniting communities with beauty and hope.

His work empowers individuals to dream big, live with possibility, and create lasting impact. He collaborates with major brands like NFL, BMW, and Google to promote social responsibility and inspire innovation.

He’s a sought-after speaker and TED presenter, and through his podcast, he delves into how love can transform lives and communities.

For the early part of his journey I’ve personally had the pleasure of working with Ruben in building and scaling the organization Beautify Earth. “Until no unkempt wall remains” was our mission using murals to end wh

Transcript

Ruben Rojas: 0:40

What I want is to see humans be better to each other, to be kinder, to be kinder to themselves, and to be open to honest conversation. Like, we don't have to agree with each other, but we do need to accept each other. we all think we need to be the president. We all think we need to be an Elon Musk or Joe Rogan or something to create that change, but like, what can you do in your family and your friends and in your community to let that ripple out? in the name of inclusivity, we're creating more divisiveness across the world. We're adding more labels. We're adding more definitions to everything going on, on what it means to be a human.

Evan Meyer: 1:21

All right. We are alive. How are you, buddy?

Ruben Rojas: 1:24

I'm good. What is today? Well, it's Thursday. Beautiful Thursday, I'm talking to you. I mean, it

Evan Meyer: 1:32

It's the best. It's that it's something special about Thursday. I don't know what it is. It's got a certain feel. You feel Thursday?

Ruben Rojas: 1:43

Honestly,

Evan Meyer: 1:44

Anyway.

Ruben Rojas: 1:45

that's actually a good moment. No, seriously, think about it. people dread Mondays and they live for the weekend. And they live for Friday. then you kind of get to Tuesday and you're like, Oh, it's past Monday, Wednesday. Ooh, hump day. Thursday. Oh, there's something about Thursday. It feels like the freest of the days because it's not the weekend yet and you're past the schlag of the first. Couple of days of the week. So I kind of feel that energy, but at the same time, we've always, we're self employed. So like Monday through Sunday is kind of all the same. We're dads. We got our kids all the time. Like everything revolves around the same thing. So like all days are really the same, but I do notice the energy around Thursday in general seems to be a little lighter all around. I wonder if

Evan Meyer: 2:32

Yeah, I think so. And there's opportunity there for Thursday. Improvement in the world's experience of Thursdays.

Ruben Rojas: 2:39

Yeah.

Evan Meyer: 2:41

We should do something about that. Maybe make a nonprofit

Ruben Rojas: 2:45

Making a

Evan Meyer: 2:46

or something every Thursday. Well, Hey, let me introduce you.

Ruben Rojas: 2:52

Thursday is the day of beauty.

Evan Meyer: 2:55

There it is. Okay. I love that. Well, I'm going to, I'm going to give an introduction to you now. That I think you're going to like. Are you ready? Are you ready for a good introduction?

Ruben Rojas: 3:04

We'll do it.

Evan Meyer: 3:06

Ruben Rojas is a visionary artist and advocate for positive change through his mission, Live Through Love. This lifestyle brand inspires creativity and optimism and is channeled into various mediums, such as street wear, art prints, and public art, including sculptures and murals in cities around the world. And uniting communities with beauty and hope. His work empowers individuals to dream big, live with possibility and create lasting impact. He collaborates with major brands like NFL, BMW, and Google to promote social responsibility and inspire innovation. He's a sought after speaker and Ted presenter and through his podcast, he delves into how love can transform lives and communities for the early part of his journey. I personally had the pleasure of working with Ruben in building and scaling the organization, beautify earth. Until no unkempt wall remains was our mission using murals to end what we called ugly wall syndrome on our streets and communities and beautify earth continues to thrive today. But today we're here to dig into something else. Something a little different. For Ruben and something a little different for me in having Ruben as a guest today different style of guests and different style of co for me and different style of conversation for Ruben. But throughout our friendship, we've had so many conversations about the toxicity in politics. And we've watched many of our people we know, including friends divorce their families for their, for their politics. It's been heartbreaking to watch. And I know this resonates through with Ruben because of his, of how powerful his mission is and what he stands for and what we've built together. But today we're here to fix it. So are you ready to fix it?

Ruben Rojas: 4:54

We'll do our best.

Evan Meyer: 4:57

We will do our best. How was that intro?

Ruben Rojas: 5:01

You made me blush a little,

Evan Meyer: 5:06

I had a feeling you were going to, you were going to enjoy it. It's been a while since I've since I've gotten to introduce you and You know, the world's in a very interesting place. It's some ways it's very sad. In some ways it's very exciting. I don't know. I don't think anyone knows where things are going to go, but we do know that there is a lot of, there's a lot of toxicity and we've seen this now for, for years. And. You know, your art carries this theme of love and positivity and unity. And I, just to kick things off, how do you feel knowing that that's what you stand for? What is the connection between, you know, these themes and, and, and the political landscape?

Ruben Rojas: 5:55

you know, that's a good question. I think about this all the time because politics are important, right? And having differating opinions is important. It's important for us to argue, to debate, to have opinion, to conversate. And if we start realizing that we're coming from this from our own sets of values, from our own principles, but what I'm seeing right now is that a lot of it is coming from fear and scarcity and being right and insignificance and not feeling worthy or of importance. And what if we just really look at that through love? So, you know, I have this mission to live through love, to choose love, to look at the world through the lens of love. So if like we pull off the fear glasses, put on the love glasses, what does that look like? What does it look like to respond versus react? Can we take a moment? What would it be like if I could take a beat and have a conversation? So what we see now is everything is so extreme. And it's, I'm right, wrong, you don't align with me, GTF, right? And I don't know what we can do about it. And at the end of the day, one of the things that we're trying to say, and we try to look at it, are we coming from that space? Where are we losing our values? What is it that we're really trying to, to move forward? And it's looking like it's money, it's looking like it's greed, and it's looking like in the name of inclusivity, we're creating more divisiveness across the world. We're adding more labels. We're adding more definitions to everything going on, on what it means to be a human. And I think if we could simplify it all back down to, like, you're a human, I'm a human. Let's talk about what you believe in. Let's talk about what I believe in. And let's unpack that conversation. Instead of saying I'm dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot zero window to conversate if you don't align with me, see you later.

Evan Meyer: 8:06

Yeah, the common theme here is to be able to communicate, you know, with people period. I mean, it's like every relationship in your life whether it's personal or business or If you can't communicate things don't get done And I think that's what's always bothered me about is like all that all that this means is that things Things that people want are gonna take a lot longer to get It's just not efficient, right? Like from the, in the name of efficiency, it doesn't, it doesn't make any sense. And, and, you know, I know you've been, you know, you have quite an influence now and you're a public figure and that comes with a responsibility. And what do you feel that, you know, your audience, do they expect you to take a stand on political and social issues? Do they what is, how do you, how do you respond to maybe inquiries that come in about this? Type of stuff on behalf of yourself personally or your brand.

Ruben Rojas: 9:23

So most of it is like deduce what you want to deduce. Ultimately, the mission is a universal message for humanity. Love, whether you're Republican, whether you're Democrat, whether you're gay, straight, believe in God, don't believe in God, we know that there's this power of love that is all around us, that we ultimately all to get more love or seek to give more love. That's what we're here for. And if we be the love you seek, that's something that I say, and no one outright asks it. I think a lot of people do assume and they do assume a side because it is message of love and it's okay because I want them to use it for whatever they need to use it for. I have zero political agenda around the mission of Live Through Love. What I want to do is to see humans be better to each other, to be kinder, to be kinder to themselves, and to be open to honest conversation. Like, we don't have to agree with each other, but we do need to accept each other. And that's something that I say a lot. And if we can find acceptance in the lens of love, whether you voted one way or the other, that's us moving in the right direction. think we all have different views, and it's about getting clear on our views and getting clear on the pros and cons of everything going on and actually starting to make our own decisions for ourselves instead of Honestly, regurgitating headlines and clickbait.

Evan Meyer: 11:06

Yeah. Well, that's, that's surely a problem for everyone. The algorithms, the clickbait, the clickbait, the headlines, reading very little of a thing. I always say like, how many people have ever read the bill? It's, which is funny because it's like, you'd want to, if you were to have a, you know, understand any contract that you would make with anybody, you would, you know, Have to read the contract, but you get the clickbait behind the contract, but you don't actually read the contract. It's such a funny thing to think about. Right.

Ruben Rojas: 11:47

So, one thought should be, how do we make it easier? Another thought should be, is how can I be more interested in what I'm voting in to actually go unpack it and learn and educate myself? You know, we're both dad of toddlers. I have a baby on top of that. Where am I going to find more time not to run the business, parent, spend time with my wife, life, and find a little R& R and now I have to go research a bill, right? So that's just one example of what is it, what is it about politics that makes it more difficult? It's hard to sometimes get the information. Yes, we could Google it all. Chat GPT is actually Even more impressive now because you're like, what does this bill mean? Make me understand it as simple as possible. So we do have the opportunity, but do we really want to educate ourselves? Do we really want to go out there or is it just like, yo, I'm voting for president and that's it, and I'm going to leave everything else blank, you know, and maybe that's the right thing to do, I don't know, but also every bit for every good thing in it, there's a bad thing, no matter which way you cut. There's a compromise. There's an agreement. There's a contract. There's always winners and there's always losers. So who's winning the most or the least and who's losing the most or the least? I don't know. Right. You get these commercials that tell you that these unions back here, firefighters back this, and you're like, Ooh, firefighters back it. Oh, it must be great. Teachers back this, right? They start to like. it for you to feel and fuzzy. Oh, well, if the teachers are behind it, of course, I'm gonna vote for that. And then you

Evan Meyer: 13:31

Right.

Ruben Rojas: 13:32

it like, holy cow, it's taking everything away from the teachers. How are they behind this?

Evan Meyer: 13:38

Yeah.

Ruben Rojas: 13:38

you know, I think that's also part of what makes it interesting. And what you get on the news is all the surface level. It's the top thing. It's really like The president who's running for president and ultimately is that the number one thing that matters? I mean, look at all of government, look at federal all the way down to local, all the way to your city. If you really want to create change, don't just worry about the federal, go to your state, what's happening in the state, go to the city, what's happening in the city, what don't you like in your own backyard that has nothing to do with the president. It has everything to do with your councilman, right? Who's in that? You've been there. We fought in those arenas before. So start taking action locally and start expanding from that position, too. I think I just slid

Evan Meyer: 14:25

Yeah,

Ruben Rojas: 14:26

from a bill to this, but we like to

Evan Meyer: 14:30

I tell, yeah, well, and just like, I tell people when they don't understand stuff or they're just complaining about politics, it's like, you know, if you were to build a business, you wouldn't just sell internationally. Out of on day one. So like, if you're not involved in a process, you have to start getting involved and the way to get involved is at a local level. And that's very easy to do. Neighborhood associations love when people come to their meetings and you get to have a voice there and you can work with them to improve things and get letters written to council or whatever, but there's real, that democracy is a beautiful system and it works, it's not perfect, but it actually is. And in smaller cities, when you have to vote for people in city council, like your vote is like a one to one important vote. It's actually like, like meaningful that everyone puts their personal vote in. And for things that you support in local measures, or, I mean, this stuff is stuff are things that you can get involved in and have impact in on day one. But I guess it's not sexy, right? Local politics, state politics regional, county, state. No one, people don't know who their county supervisors are or that there's even a county level of government. Sometime they don't know that a lot of people

Ruben Rojas: 15:59

what

Evan Meyer: 15:59

don't know that.

Ruben Rojas: 16:00

actually do, right? People don't know, what's a city manager? What is this supervisor? What is that supervisor? And also, how many of those positions are actually redundant? Separate question, we could leave that unanswered, but, you know, it's, it's, what matters?

Evan Meyer: 16:21

You mean from an efficiency standpoint?

Ruben Rojas: 16:24

Yeah.

Evan Meyer: 16:25

I mean, you know, we could break down how to, to improve. And I think there's a lot to that, and I think people in government know that government needs to be improved, too. I mean, every system is evolving and needs to be improved. And, but, just to kind of bring it back to local for a second, that happens because people get involved. And without the voice of people who care enough, and the people who care enough, for one reason or another, are the ones making the change. Sometimes that tends to be, like in local communities very often people with time on their hands. Thanks. Who may be retired, who write letters a lot, who, you know, so generally certain demographics tend to be at those meetings more than others. I was like the youngest guy at my neighborhood meeting for On the board by like 10 years or 20 years. And eventually my goal was like to bring a diversity of thought into, into those meetings. And it started to work actually a bit in, at least in my, you know, in my,

Ruben Rojas: 17:29

I went Those, I know.

Evan Meyer: 17:32

yeah, you did. That's right. That's right. We were, we were able to, yeah, we won't

Ruben Rojas: 17:42

but you started bringing it up. It isn't sexy, and the majority of people on there, There's from my observations, there's two sides of it. the old chromogeny complainer that doesn't want any change and they want it how it used to be. And then there's the people that are just trying to stay current and relevant and bring all one side in and make sure we're there. But like most of us are here in this moderate space. And I guess what we like to say in the moderate space is like, eh, well, how many people here and how many people here are actually hearing the voice of everything? And we don't have that time. You said it. We don't have that time. It's retired people. It's, it's people that just have time to write letters. I also think it's people that like to complain. I remember very specifically going to vote a couple of years ago. And you know, these people, and I even told you this and they're like, Hey, Ruben. Beautify guy, huh? How about you leave some walls empty and blank for the imagination? And I'm just like, Right? Those are the people that are also spending time doing that. But I'm like, for the imag A beige boring wall? That's like seven shades of beige? Like we've been fighting these battles. And

Evan Meyer: 19:10

name names for that, by the way, we're not going to name names.

Ruben Rojas: 19:14

No, no, no.

Evan Meyer: 19:15

But I know who it was.

Ruben Rojas: 19:16

though. You can write them a letter.

Evan Meyer: 19:19

Wow.

Ruben Rojas: 19:20

it's comments

Evan Meyer: 19:21

Okay.

Ruben Rojas: 19:23

And then I've also, like, that's at one extreme in the end, because the people that are making the change, then they don't want to see that as well. The other comments I hear or see and experience is, and I'm going to use this very specifically because in 2020, when not 2020, the first time Trump won, people were out rioting the streets, and they're like, not my president, not my president, we're in LA, like, it was chaos, like, people lost their minds, and I just asked one question to people, did you vote? Nine out of ten people said no, I didn't vote. And I just want, I was just like, look, I'm not trying to instigate, but are you out here then you actually gave up your right and your voice by not voting and all you're doing out here is creating chaos and it's not helping anything because yes, we're allowed to protest and do all these things, but if you're actually not taking action and what you're protesting, what is the point of what you're doing? You're, you're just rioting. You're just out here being angry, but you gave it all away. So I like to point fingers and say, someone else will do it for me. And then when it doesn't happen, you want to go out there and complain, but you already gave your opportunity away. And those are the two things that I see. And I'm just like, how are we ever going to get anywhere? If we don't want to take the time and the action to take action or we want to negate all the new current action and people younger that are doing things to improve neighborhoods and communities and telling them to stop or don't do it so much, right? It's

Evan Meyer: 21:09

Right.

Ruben Rojas: 21:09

It's not a win win. It's not a win win. I think that's part of the problem.

Evan Meyer: 21:14

Well, I think, and it's funny when people don't vote, they're like, well, it doesn't count anyway. And I think my thought on that is that like, that's a little true, but it's, it's, it's mostly not true. It's mostly not true. It does count. And, and,

Ruben Rojas: 21:30

but look, let me pause you for a second. Even

Evan Meyer: 21:33

yeah, go ahead.

Ruben Rojas: 21:34

true, go do it for your own sake of, I have the power to vote.

Evan Meyer: 21:41

Yeah. But you have to make the, I think. And we could get into why it's true and not true kind of at the same time. And there's cases where it hasn't worked out with the electoral college and all that. But like, but generally speaking, it does work correctly. There's been cases where those haven't matched the electoral college numbers in the voting, right? But like, generally speaking, it does. And And, and that's not a reason not to vote, even if it did it, because the whole purpose of this, our constitution is to improve it. And it, it shouldn't be improved easily, right? We can't just make changes because you don't like something, things that are embedded or embedded for a reason. And it takes time. Some things are harder to change than others, but if you don't engage in the process, Even though the choice for president is binary, it's a complex web of decision making that you have to go through, ideally, unless you're a single issue voter. Some people, a lot of people are. I think most people tend to be, from my experience.

Ruben Rojas: 22:39

on one thing, yeah.

Evan Meyer: 22:41

Yeah, usually the thing that affects them financially, sadly. Like, I find, like, the, and that's like the first, the first line, like whether or not it will affect them financially. Not always, in this case, you had some other hot button items that I think were wedge issues that really divided people, but it doesn't matter. You still have to get out and vote. Even if you don't like both candidates, you have to make a complicated choice. You have to pick one and you have to play into the game of improving our democracy. Each time a little bit more and more and getting involved to do that, and that's why I think it's so important to vote if you don't do it. I think it's a I don't know if there's an understanding of how privileged we are to have that opportunity to vote, even though it's not a perfect system. Right. And I think that's the thing that there's a sense of gratitude. I think that comes with voting, which I know you can speak a lot.

Ruben Rojas: 23:38

love putting my little sticker on, you know, and obviously I'm first generation immigrant. I'm brown. You're white.

Evan Meyer: 23:46

What?

Ruben Rojas: 23:47

a whole nother privilege of being white and being able to vote and then think about being a woman and being able to vote and think about, like, how long did it take us to get to this point to throw these votes away, you know, and if you're a one issue voter and that's your one thing you want to hold your head on, cool, then do it for that reason. But either way, do it for something with vindictive, with conviction and. And take part in the process of our government and our democracy of what keeps us free. And in many cases, I've traveled a lot and I've spent a lot of time in different countries and look. People, there's amazing things in other countries. Number one, the amount of gratitude people have for how little they have. That's something we can take away here in America. We have so much and we're not grateful for it. That's one thing. But ultimately, it always comes down to everyone I talk to, like all they're trying to do is save all their life savings to come visit America. You are so lucky that you live in America. Like, As bad as it is here, it's worse in other places. And if you haven't left this country, go travel and go experience something. And maybe you'll come back with a little more gratitude, regardless of where we live, because yes, we live in LA. Super blessed. We're not lying. This is, I was born in LA. Super blessed. But you know, there's beautiful parts of Europe from Indiana, right? There's people from all over New York. Well, you went to Indiana for college, so you got to experience that. But you're from the East Coast, now you're on the West Coast. Like, people are from all over the place and just realizing, we get to live here. That right there is something that I think we need to really, really respect and honor and cherish because we could have been some, my wife was born in a dirt village in Ethiopia and she found her way here, right? She could have still been, there would have been a different life. Wouldn't have been my wife. Like imagine what her life would have been if she never made it to America. She was adopted for those that don't know. how she got here. But it's such a blessing. my parents immigrated the right way. Years ago from Colombia. Separately, they happened to meet here and I'm full Colombian because they were both Colombians. Like, we start thinking of these stories and start realizing it and speaking into immigration, like open borders, like, people are coming in here breaking the law and just coming in here and then there's people that have been waiting in line, doing it the right way, paying their taxes, doing all the things correctly. Of course, they're upset at this happening. It doesn't make anyone racist. It doesn't make you thinking you're better than anyone else. It just makes you think like, I'm, I did my part as a good human to in a system as a good human. can we start looking at each other as good humans participating in a system and willingly? Again, that's borders. One issue abortion rights are one issue. you know, same sex marriage is a one issue financial. So there's so many things you could. You could look at it and that's what we started unpacking. But I think that's what it comes down to. It's like, holy cow. Thank you. I'm born here. I'm American. I'm American person. I will always be. So like, just be proud and go vote because of that. You know, the long rant,

Evan Meyer: 27:24

Right. No, I think, I think, I think it makes a lot of, you know, like if you're, it's funny if you live in the bottom 5 percent of the income bracket in America, you still live in the top 95 percent of the world. Did I get that right? If you're in the bottom, yeah, you're still, you're still at like living better than 95 percent of the world.

Ruben Rojas: 27:53

Yeah.

Evan Meyer: 27:54

Yeah, so like to think about it that way of how good quality life has gotten even for low income here, like, and there's a great book by Hans Rosling called Factfulness that I, that I always like to reference and bring back. Into this that talks about he has a great project where he goes around and takes pictures of of, of, of all the ways that people live in all the different countries in different, in different income brackets. And he has these like levels one through four of, of, of

Ruben Rojas: 28:25

yeah,

Evan Meyer: 28:38

are still brushing their teeth with their finger, you know, and here in America, my son has a choice of four toothbrushes. And I was like, I thought of this book and I was like, when he got, when he got like into the debating, which toothbrush and I don't want the green one, I want the blue one, you know, I was like, you know what, dude, I was like, no, we're not doing that anymore. You're getting one toothbrush. You're going to brush your teeth with this one toothbrush. And we're not getting into like the choice paradox of, of, of toothbrushes. Give, you know, and, and that's been something that's been really important to me, like,

Ruben Rojas: 29:21

for

Evan Meyer: 29:24

of like. Like of, of how fortunate we are and to not take that for granted. Don't just, don't just pursue this. Like this kind of luxurious overtone that dominates a lot of the social media stuff and how people live their life of, of look at me, I'm here and I've got this great thing and that great thing. And it's like, yeah, first of all, you're like in the top X percent of the world that you can do that. And to brag about it is even worse. You know, a lot of times they're like, I, and some of these are the things I think about, like, how about bragging about, you know, something from a, from a humble nature, instead of from this, look at this meal, this filet mignon. Like that's where we got to on social media. Like, and that's what I think is a part of the issue is there's this like sense of like, that's what is normal is to brag about your filet mignon and, and And to focus on things like that when you have it. And, and, I think that's part of the, the narcissistic tendency of, Where the country is, it's not just the president who's a narcissist. Narcissists vote for narcissists, I guess, right? Like there's, there's, there, there are people who activated by different types of people and whether you voted left or right, you know, there's a certain hubris, I think on just to run for president period. But you know, if we're complaining that the world's too narcissist.

Ruben Rojas: 30:58

capacity, everyone at that capacity is a narcissist. You can't say it's one versus the other. Oh, one's more narcissistic than the other. Dude, look at our own parents, look at our friends, look at how many walk around us, but, but to talk a little bit more about what you were just saying, I also think that that's also the gaping hole in the problem of how lonely are we, how detached from ourselves are we, how are we, like, how is our mental health that, like, we find validation in off a thing, and that's how we find self worth, instead of, like, This is another thing you learn from traveling. Like people could just sit there and mind their own business and be happy. They know they have less, they are happy. And we have everything and we are not happy.

Evan Meyer: 31:45

Yeah. Yeah. Which level of, of income in which country you're, you know, the quality of life you experience has, has little to do with the happiness that you experience day to day. I remember being in Vietnam and traveling around and in some neighborhoods where, you know, the mattresses are on floors, the houses have no windows and I'm riding around on my From the big vat that's right outside that house where you stop and have a soup in a little chair, like a, like a toddler chair. Right. And, and the joy that they experience to even just meet me and have a conversation and, and, or if they speak English and if they don't, they're still joyful and I'm just, I remember experiencing that of like. It's just, it made me think of how little money has to do with happiness, if at all. And you could just have, you have to travel to see that, to know if you're trying to create happiness in your life or for people, or even through policy and legislation or whatever money doesn't do that, money does a lot of other things, you know,

Ruben Rojas: 33:01

a tool. And if we

Evan Meyer: 33:03

but

Ruben Rojas: 33:03

hear a lot of people talk about it, that it's a tool and like, yo, I'd love more of this tool because I would do X, Y, Z. You know, I say it all the time. People like. If you were a billionaire, would you do something else? And I'm like, if I was a billionaire, I would be funding all my art projects and not seeking money or having to sell it because A, I value it and B, I need to feed my family. I'd stick a sculpture everywhere. I would paint murals everywhere. I would give away the clothes. Like literally I would do what I'm doing now. I would just make it free for everybody. So, so money's a tool in that capacity and I I've had money in the past and. In my early twenties, it was all about my diamond watches and 26 inch rims and houses and all that, because I was under that guise of like, Oh, that's what it means to be successful in America. And that's what it means to me to have that future wife and that big house and this and that quote unquote American dream. And I lost it all. And I was able to learn from those lessons and move forward. You know, there's a difference in when I, back then when I wanted a Lamborghini, straight up wanted to show off for my ego. Now, I would love a Lamborghini as a top of my list. No, it's much more. things on that list, but the Lamborghini Urus is a dream car that I would love to have, but it's for me and solely for me. That is the difference. It's not about showing it off. It's not about this. There's obviously some byproducts on that for whoever's going to, you know, poke that hole, but it's same with fitness. If you train to have a six pack, you will probably diet and do steroids and do everything you can to make sure you have a six pack. If you just train and stay fit and eat healthy. And you happen to have a pack as the byproduct of all that. And you're just a healthy human. Then that makes sense. And you know, that's more of my guys now versus the other way. at the end of the day, you know, I like nice things and we all need money, but money is a tool. And some of us have more of that tool than others. So our job should be like, how can I get more of these tools to help benefit me to do the more of the thing that I want to do in life? And I think there's a mindset, you know, broke versus poor. Probably heard that conversation before that broke mindset really keeps you like broken, worthless, and where poor is temporary poor could be. I just started a business. I'm a little poor right now. I went bankrupt. I got to rebuild like. I'm not where I want to be, but that's something you can fix. And I think, I think sometimes we're just, we're in the wrong mindset. We're in the wrong definition. we're not looking at it through the lens of love. It's more through the lens of fear. And me, I react to a lot of things. I react much less than I respond much more. And this is a practice and everything we do is a practice. So thinking, because you subscribe to one thing now you're cured and you're fixed. You know, we went and did some emotional intelligence years ago before it was a trending thing Did it give us tools? Are we better off than we were when we went? Yeah, but do we go back into old habits? Yes, if we're not staying consistent and practicing and moving forward So, how can we take responsibility and agency and all of this that we're talking about and stop

Evan Meyer: 36:28

yeah,

Ruben Rojas: 36:28

other people's shoulders?

Evan Meyer: 36:31

yeah. I, I guess I find that the responsibility comes from having intellectual humility. And civic humility being able to realize that maybe your thoughts, your thoughts can change, your beliefs can change, new data changes things maybe what you know or read on the news isn't exactly the truth. What is truth? I ask people what a fact is, I get a hundred different answers. It's like,

Ruben Rojas: 36:58

It's

Evan Meyer: 36:58

what?

Ruben Rojas: 36:58

truth.

Evan Meyer: 36:59

don't even think

Ruben Rojas: 37:01

I just, I

Evan Meyer: 37:02

we are

Ruben Rojas: 37:03

earlier today. Yeah. So I just saw something earlier today, but instead of calling everyone a liar. Let's just say that is your truth. Here is my truth. Let's go find the actual truth. Because we all have our own truths that are based in fact and education and experience and what we've learned what headline we read and decided that it's a fact. But just really like, it's just like, let's stop pointing fingers at Fox News versus CNN versus that is their truth they're giving to us through their lens and how they want to give you the information. It's up

Evan Meyer: 37:39

right.

Ruben Rojas: 37:40

Digest it through their lens absorb that, or put it into our lens and try to see, oh, does this make sense with my lens? this apply to my truth? what if we start operating that way? Okay, I see your truth, here's my truth. of saying, you're wrong, you're a racist, you're this, you're that, you're homophobe. Like, all the things that people like to point the fingers at if you don't align with their truth. Okay.

Evan Meyer: 38:16

truth, right? Not even objective truth, but they're, they think their subjective truth or objective is absolute, which is like life, death. Very few things are apps are binary and absolute, right? But we understand them to be, you know, this is a, this This is a cup. There's a, there's, there's some things that no one's going to argue, but once you get into narrative, it starts to transform things, the narrative changes everything and memory is not good. And memory has a funny way of making you believe things you want to believe. And like, and.

Ruben Rojas: 38:48

Silence.

Evan Meyer: 39:08

And, you know, like, why do we even use the word truth? I just don't understand that very few things should be reserved for the word truth. Or fact, very few things. The rest is

Ruben Rojas: 39:21

Yeah, I understand what you're

Evan Meyer: 39:23

perspective,

Ruben Rojas: 39:23

it is your perspective that you share your truth. And it is still your truth. Is it the truth? Like you're talking about factually true? red is red? plus one is two, you know, those are correct answers and facts and truths, but my truth is my truth. Your truth is your truth is derived from our perspective through our operating system and through what we kind of figure it out. I think we allow, I don't want to change the word truth because I want to allow people to keep that part of their power, right? Like that's your truth. I understand. I see you. But we do need to realize, like, that's your subjective interpretation, that is from your

Evan Meyer: 40:08

but isn't that the definition of a perspective? Isn't that the very definition of a perspective?

Ruben Rojas: 40:15

change your perspective, you could be looking at it like this, or looking at it like this, or looking at it like this. Isn't that more the position of how you're looking at it, right? That's being open to looking at it differently. Let me look

Evan Meyer: 40:28

But you can reframe your truth too, right? You can reframe how you see things, which is actually a good, I think, a good piece of this conversation. Like, you could see the positive in things versus the negative, right?

Ruben Rojas: 40:40

you to reframe it. the whole point. Let me accept your truth. You accept my truth. And maybe we come somewhere in the middle and we reframe our truth together and we don't have to be enemies. We're friends. Or now we're like, yo, we're on the same page. You're just looking at it your way and I'm looking at it my way, but we're actually saying the same thing.

Evan Meyer: 41:05

Have you experienced this? So, as in your world now of being a public figure, And in your interactions with people and, you know, hundreds of comments per post or whatever, right, across social media and, or people you speak to does, does, does this kind of thing come up into like the politics come up? Do they want to see you behave a certain way? Do they want to see that you're like, that certain things from you and how do you reconcile with like, Staying on 10th authentic and kind of living out what we're talking about in this conversation to to what the audience what your audience expects of you. Do you feel that there's a difference between those things? Are you good at balancing it? How do you manage that? And have there and I guess a follow up part B, maybe part D. It's a long question. Is are there people that or instances that have bothered you that you've had to deal with around this? Right?

Ruben Rojas: 42:11

You know, I think part of what I try to do is let people be people and I always say with my mission, I go as far as opening a door for you, but you still got to walk through it and it's never been about my or my beliefs or my specifications. just been more about. Use love as your guide, right? And if you lose, use love as your guide, you're going to end up in the right place and talking politics or voting. If you voted through genuine love, then that was your right answer. And that's all that matters. And I don't care if it was blue or red. Right. And if you believe in God or Allah or Buddha and you're doing that through that lens of love again, then it's, it's good. It's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. Now, if, you're voting, like, one of the things that during this political season was if you didn't vote blue, hated women. You hated, and you wanted female rights taken away, and you were anti abortion, and you were all this, that, and the other. I'm like, how, how is that the absolute truth on voting the other way? Right? Or if you voted red, you're a racist. Like, that's what I'm talking about. That's not coming from a place of love. That's coming from a place of fear. you're voting from a sense of fear and a sense of scarcity or a sense of like something's being taken away from you, I think that's the best way for me to answer this. As long as you're coming from a genuine place of love, I voted blue because I have a daughter and I believe in her female rights and I want her to live in a world where she can. Get abortions. I'm like, okay, that's coming because you love your daughter. There is nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that position. I don't think if you're only holding, you know, that's your one voting metric. would encourage you to look at more metrics. What does everything look like? I think that's, that's what that comes down to. If you're voting blue, because I am not a racist, you know, sometimes being racist without even realizing we're being racist. Just the sheer nature of saying certain things makes us racist. if you didn't vote for Kamala, are a racist because she's a black woman or a woman of color. So automatically now you're racist, but saying that. actually makes you racist,

Evan Meyer: 45:00

Right, actually.

Ruben Rojas: 45:01

your own people.

Evan Meyer: 45:02

Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

Ruben Rojas: 45:07

So, you see, like, I go down rabbit holes and I start seeing things like comparing women on The View from 10 years ago to four years ago to now, and they start doing comparisons on how much people are flipping and flopping back and forth. It's okay for one person to do one thing, but not okay for the other. Like

Evan Meyer: 45:28

You're right.

Ruben Rojas: 45:29

make sense to me, you know, and you know, one of the things that was said on the election results was Latino and black men are not ready for a female president, the misogyny and anti women rhetoric is through the roof and you're hearing people say this. That, in its nature, again, is the same thing you're accusing everyone of, and now you're just trying to blanketly say all Latinos and all Blacks are X. that wasn't even the reason no one voted. The fact that she was a woman wasn't even on the table. That wasn't, that was the Hillary conversation. That wasn't the Kamala conversation. So I, I think that's, that's what it comes down to. That's my best example for this piece. part of your question is, are you doing it from a lens of love? Are you doing it because you really think that's the right thing to be the best human I can be? Are you doing it because you want to put more love in the world and you want to more love from the world? And if you're coming from that space, That's fine by me. I don't care which side you vote for. It's just how are you voting? How are you participating for humanity? And are you just, just realizing I'm another human that bleeds and cries and feels and needs all the same things that you need?

Evan Meyer: 46:47

Yeah. Any instances in particular that you had to deal with that you remember like someone came to you with a certain thing or you put out a piece of art and someone said something about it or, what, you know, some messaging that you put out and someone, you know, Didn't like the thing and you had to comment back and say, it's all about the, and you had to explain it obviously without identifying the person, anything come to mind, like of a concrete example?

Ruben Rojas: 47:17

years, there have been lots of comments, emails, this, that, and the other, and I have learned to just let it be. Because it has nothing to do with me. And this applies to everything in general, right? One of the four agreements, don't take it personal. Like, just realizing how much of this has nothing to do with us, and why are we taking it personal, and why are we putting it on ourselves? When realizing, like, that person just needs a hug. And this is what they're sending and putting out there, not even asking, knowing they're asking for a hug. But that's really what they want. And that's really what they need. They don't need a reply or rebuttal or an explanation. But in many cases, you know, top level, people are like, Oh, you're going to change the world with love. Yeah. That's a hope. That's some hippie shit. I'm like, I'm not doing anything hippie. My stuff has nothing to do with that movement. Hippies, nothing. Nothing against it. But that was, that's a different time. And in many cases, all of this choose love, and slip through love, I'm telling you like, first choose yourself. in the mirror and choose yourself. And start unpacking what's going on in here. That is affecting how you're showing up out there. This isn't about opening, opening the doors, being polite and chivalry. That's great. isn't about rom coms. This isn't Valentine's day. This isn't giving flowers, chocolates and going on a date. This is tough conversations. This is. Not what we said earlier, breaking up with your family over politics, but up with your family because there is a whole slew of reasons that they are poisonous for you and you and each other. Like, you have to do that, that deep work and that deep conversation and then realize, look, I love you so much and I love myself so much that is what's going to happen now. So, yeah, Yeah, I believe I am going to change the board. We've said this a few times, know, if you go on stage pumping your chest, I'm on a world peace mission. Like that's a little narcissistic. It's a little egoic. a little out there. But if I say I'm on a world peace mission by asking one person at a time to choose love. And then that ripple effect eventually is more than the thousand, ten thousand, a million people that I impact. Maybe it does hit eight billion people. And if eight billion people choose love, wow, maybe there can be world peace. think realizing when we talked about local level versus state versus federal, we all think we need to be the president. We all think we need to be an Elon Musk or Joe Rogan or something to create that change, but like, what can you do in your family and your friends and in your community to let that ripple out? And yeah, so that's what I believe as far as this mission. And in many cases, you know, I've heard, I did this, this, this tequila bottle with my loves all over it. And some, some of the, they're, they got the email of like, Oh, that's a. Why are you doing a pride or a gay bottle to use some other nasty slurs? And the, and the, the company replied with, that's not about that. That's his art. Why don't you go look him up? Why don't you go look up the mission before you come giving hate emails to that brand? And then they would send me some of that stuff and then they would look at it. But it's like, at the end of the day, you want to believe what you want to believe. Go for it. I don't think we need to start defending ourselves anymore. I think it comes with age. The older I get, like, I'm a father, I'm a husband, I have a mission, I'm clear on my values, why do I need to keep defending myself? That's a lot of energy. And if I continue to defend myself, Then how am I taking away from delivering the mission and the vision and executing where I want to take this brand and this mission to the world. So in many cases I let it go cause it doesn't apply to me, but yes, obviously there's all of that. And I think a lot of us can take away from it slide off. It's just dirt on your shoulder, it off, you know, maybe instead of replying, like, You know what? I hear you. You want a hug? You need a coffee? Like, maybe, maybe answering like that instead of just going deep into it.

Evan Meyer: 51:48

Let's, let's take that to what can be done level of say Congress or the Senate federal level, right? If you had to share What you want to see in government in our legislative branch right now with that sentiment, and you were to say, you, you get, you get like a minute to tell them what needs to be done and how they need to be. What are you going to tell him?

Ruben Rojas: 52:28

I mean, I would distill it down to that one sentence that I always talk about. Like, are we looking at this through the lens of love? And I would help define that. to me, is actually undefinable. Most of us think that it's the dictionary definition, a strong feeling of emotion. of affection, right? No, it's more than that. But I would say let's stop reacting to everything and let's actually start responding. Let's, let's take a moment and breathe it. And I joke around, you want to know what the real answer is? I need to go in there and run for it and get a seat and work my way up and create the purple party. And align both parties, you know, and I can think that way. I'm, am I the guy for that? No. Do I have any political aspirations? Hey, my wife would divorce me. She says, Oh, hell no, but you better never do that. But you have to have the attitude of like, well, then at least me be the guy to go do it. And if you at least have that attitude, maybe you can support the people that are doing it or championing them or find the next person that's going to do that and start building circles of people that align with those missions and values. I think it comes with that and then getting the right person who's going to go talk at Converse and give them what they need to hear, but at the same time, I watch these videos, I watch all the stuff. And they're all grandstanding. They're all, especially on an election cycle. They were just being told what we want to hear to vote for them. And then they disappeared. It moves on. And four years go by a few years go by and we forgot all of that. And somehow they end up there again. I think the system and the people that are way too old, they're way too old. Like we need younger people in there. That's a whole nother thing. Did that answer that? I don't know if that answered that.

Evan Meyer: 54:21

Sort of, no, I think it did a good job of explaining, but I, I guess what I, what I, what I really wanted to hear was like, Hey, Congress, you all need to, you know, X, Y, and Z. That's okay. I'm just messing around.

Ruben Rojas: 54:38

Well, if you want, you want that, the one thing I would say. Hey, remember why you first ran in the first place? You wanted to make change, you know, we know people change and that system is corrupt and they get corrupted and there's different levels of corruption. All of us humans are corrupted. We all have our vices, you know, whether you watch. fi or porn or gamble or this or whatever. We all have a level of corruption. So we cannot think we're all safe, but I would take them back to like, remember why you first ran, remember your first term, remember why you got here and you did it for the people you didn't do it for the money that's backing you and for this and for a repeat of getting voted in there again. And instead of doing that, why don't you actually put your values where you came from, deliver those results and get voted on results, not get voted in on what they want you to say so that they can vote for you again, actually deliver. Maybe it comes down to like, you can't be a repeat. Maybe it's every other time have like people flip even more. I don't know, but that's what I would say. You've been here for how many years now? Remember when you first ran? Like Biden, 60 years in politics. Does that guy even remember anything? Why did he start like you go through his whole career? He flip flopped back and forth like decades, but we change right in our 40s We think one way in our 30s. We think one way in our 20s. We think one way I don't even know what it's going to be like 50s 60s and 70s So I think, I think that's what I would say. I was like, remember why you first ran? What were those values? And I'd probably ask them to tell me what they were. And I say, well, what's keeping you from delivering at that promise? What has changed? What is it about these waters that isn't allowing you to get to that initial goal? And what can you do about it to change that? And if you go back to that, can you start rebuilding on that? Instead of just trying to keep your seat forever. I can't imagine how stressful that life is. don't get paid enough. You can get more in the private sector, but I do see how later they get the politicians on the most wealthy people because book deals and this deal and that deal, and they invest in secret stuff all over the place, but I can't, I'm not mad at that. Like I'm not mad at anyone ever getting ahead because we all have that opportunity doing it very illegally. That's a whole nother ballgame, but that's what I would say. Hey. Why did you first run? What did you want to accomplish in your first few years here? And why have you strayed so far from that? And how can you get back to that point? That would be my

Evan Meyer: 57:28

Perfect.

Ruben Rojas: 57:29

sentence, my course.

Evan Meyer: 57:30

There you go. That was, that was, that was beautiful. That was beautiful. Well said. Well, we got a a long way to go. It's definitely not a perfect system. And I think as long as people know that, and it's their job to make it better. You know, you it's, it's, these people come from you, they've come from your schools, they're raised in the American system with American values. So anyone you don't like in politics, it's not like, who are these people? It's like, they went to your high schools. They were raised with your education system. And this is, you know, and they have a certain set of characteristics or qualities that eventually puts them in that seat, but that could be you, Or it's just you getting involved in a way that can support them and make meaningful change. You don't have to be a politician to make change. So, you know, here's to more people getting involved in, with civility and love. There you go. We'll drink to that.

Ruben Rojas: 58:42

we think about it, one of the greatest things as a human is to be in service to another human, true, genuine service. You've done it repeatedly. I've done it repeatedly. We've done it with what we did at Beautify. You just go do it for the sake of, it's better for the community, it's better for the humans that are there. It's better for all the humans around us. that's it. And leave it at that. And the wealth you get from being in service, and for those that have done it for that reason, no. There's just nothing greater than being in service. So, you know, being a politician, there's a level of you wanting to be in service. Like, how do we stick true to that?

Evan Meyer: 59:31

Yep. And respect for getting to, for having what it takes to say, I want to be in public service to that degree. There's a certain piece of me that respects anyone who gets involved to put their whole life. Under a microscope for the world to analyze, you know, and, and, and, you know, there's to have what it takes to do that is there's respect there and whether I agree or disagree, that's, they're the people doing it, the people who complaining at those people are the people not doing it. So, you know,

Ruben Rojas: 1:00:05

That's your name on the SATs.

Evan Meyer: 1:00:07

there's some degree of.

Ruben Rojas: 1:00:08

it. Here's some points. Yeah.

Evan Meyer: 1:00:10

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. You don't like it. You run. I tell that to people. Why aren't you running? Oh, I got reasons and I don't want my life under a month. I don't want to be, you know, this and it's going to be too much of that too. Well, guess what? They have what it takes to do it. And they went to the same high school you did. So what's the difference between them and you? You've got reasons. They don't.

Ruben Rojas: 1:00:33

that brings a good point, though. That's true. We've talked about that. Everyone has their reasons for everything, we say reasons instead of excuses, but we're talking about excuses also, right? It's the same thing. But

Evan Meyer: 1:00:44

Same thing,

Ruben Rojas: 1:00:45

you give, you give a little power to the reason. I chose this, so it is my reason instead of making an excuse,

Evan Meyer: 1:00:52

right? Excuse has a little, is a little more negative.

Ruben Rojas: 1:00:55

Yeah, but,

Evan Meyer: 1:00:56

It's got a more of a negative connotation though. Yeah, I see that.

Ruben Rojas: 1:00:59

let's say, say we do, boom, I'm going to go run. I'm going to make it happen. There's a lot of obstacles. There is a lot of obstacles. Like you can't really run as an independent. It's a total joke. And then was there a green piece? Like if I literally start the purple party, love, you

Evan Meyer: 1:01:17

Yeah.

Ruben Rojas: 1:01:18

how much money can like the amount of money Kamala and Trump raised, like, so it's like, where,

Evan Meyer: 1:01:27

But that's, you know, you've got to start locally. It starts locally. You run, you become your neighborhood board. President, neighborhood association president, you get on the board of the chamber, you get on the board of planning, you get, you know, become a commissioner, you can run for council. And if that works, you can start working at the county level, the state level, and you grow. And as you get, you get larger and larger responsibility, right? You, you increase the amount that people trust you with. Or that you've earned to some degree, this sort of trust. I'm going to manage my decisions will now affect the million people in my Senate district or the 330, 000 people in my assembly district at the state level. And if you do it, you know, at congressional districts You know, I think it's similar with the congressional dish, but at the Senate, the States, a U S Senator talking about like two senators for California. So it's like, you know, responsible. If you divide that up, it's sort of like 20 million each. It's like a pretty big deal. So, but you can't get there.

Ruben Rojas: 1:02:29

No. Yeah.

Evan Meyer: 1:02:30

Sorry. I was just gonna say, you can't get there. You can't, you can't get there. Like it's, it's not like saying I have a cure for. Cancer. Well, how do you think you're going to get to develop a cure for cancer? You have to work 30 years in the, in, in the biotech world and the recent cancer research, right? So it's sort of like, you can't just fix things. There's a, there's a process. That's my point.

Ruben Rojas: 1:02:53

need to

Evan Meyer: 1:02:53

Get involved.

Ruben Rojas: 1:02:54

No, but the other thing I was going to say, you can start through all that. But this is where it like goes back to the corruption or the who do you owe? You have to raise money campaign unless you're self millionaire, billionaire, but then you're owed. You're in debt to these people. Oh, big pharma just backed me. They gave me a million dollars. big pharma got powerful again. Because you can't flat out just screw them over next time because they'll get, they'll burn you and get you out of there real quick. So like, how do you start walking that fine line? I mean, we don't have to go into that. The whole thing in the weeds, but then you do

Evan Meyer: 1:03:32

Part two.

Ruben Rojas: 1:03:33

and you do need to put it all in there. And how do

Evan Meyer: 1:03:36

Yeah. How do you raise money and not feel beholden to those, to those people? I, you know, there's a real conflicts of interest. The second money enters politics. It's like, how do you navigate that? And some people are thought of to do that better. I think that's why a lot of people have voted for Trump. They actually think that he will, he's not behold, right. That narrative is that he is not beholden to anyone, or at least to the degree that the establishment is right. Like that's sort of the, so, Hey, I want to you know, we had an hour set aside to do this. And I want to be respectful of that because I know we can talk forever, but Some point we'll have to do a round two, but sending tons of love your way right into your, right into your studio in Santa Monica. As I as I sit here in Venice and thanks for joining me. I mean, it was so cool that we got to do this and spend the time together and talk about something you know, hopefully that can impact a lot of people and maybe we can get some people involved by, by doing this. By not just what we're saying, but, you know, from what we've done for so long. And have, you know, proud to say we've practiced what we preach in a lot of ways here. So, keep up all the good work, brother.

Ruben Rojas: 1:04:54

we've drank from the faucet.

Evan Meyer: 1:04:57

Yeah, we sure have not trying to self toot there. Just you know, we've done it together. That's geez, thousands of walls and so many schools and, and it's Just an incredible journey that we got to share together. So, here's to continue in making the world a better place. And any last words,

Ruben Rojas: 1:05:20

Nope.

Evan Meyer: 1:05:21

spread love.

Ruben Rojas: 1:05:22

Thank

Evan Meyer: 1:05:23

you go. All right.