“Healthy Pressure of the Uber Days” - How Bobby Hobert is hunting big ambitions with daily habits
A few Fridays ago, I texted Bobby Hobert asking if he could do an interview. Within minutes he responded with a window of time that worked for him the following Wednesday. This sums up Bobby: calculated but cordial. Measured, yet neighborly. His calendar is stacked up high like a tower of colorful Lego bricks. He knows what every minute of his week looks like, but he’ll just as quickly move a few Legos around to fit in a conversation with a friend.
I met Bobby in 2018 when he came over to my apartment to interview my roommate for a podcast. I was building my own freelance business at the time, trying to hide the fact that I was also washing dishes to make rent. Bobby wasn’t like this. He packed up his podcast gear, switched on the Uber Driver app during rush hour, and posted an Instagram story from the perspective of the “World’s greatest Uber Driver” on the drive home (his words, not mine).
I was endeared to Bobby’s positivity and authenticity, and became a fan from that moment on, like many of you reading this. Over the years I watched quietly from afar, enjoying the daily dose of podcast content and encouraging Instagram stories. Until recently, something peculiar happened. Bobby started blowing up! In the past 12 months, he gained over 300,000 followers across his various social media platforms. I saw content with millions of views, links to online courses, and pitches for high-ticket coaching clients. I knew I had to get Bobby on the phone to hear more.
In this exclusive interview, Bobby explains his creative ecosystem, his tips for crushing the algorithm, the darkest moments from driving Uber, and his advice for his 40-year old self. Enjoy this lightly edited transcription of my conversation with the truly unique and wonderful Bobby Hobert.
Reese Hopper: What projects are you involved in now? I see a lot about private coaching, your online class, and brand sponsorships. You have your personal content, you have your emails, and your job at Liquid IV. Could you break down your ecosystem for us?
Bobby Hobert: So right now what I'm offering is first: a one-on-one coaching program, which I call Lost to Limitless. It's a 90 day program. It's definitely crafted for entrepreneurs to help them stay on track of their goals outside of their business. Everything personal: health and wellness, wellbeing, building in structure for their day, making sure that they're carving out time for balance. All that good stuff. The second thing: back in January I launched the Master Your Minute video course. That's a free four-day video course to help people optimize their day by building routines and habits. That's free. I'm really excited with how that project came out. As of now we're at nearly a thousand people that have gone through it. It's been really cool to create something evergreen that is free and really helps people go from point A to point B, and develop better routines and habits. And then last, timing is really interesting that we're doing this today, because tonight I'm hosting my first ever masterclass focused on destroying your distractions. So it's a live masterclass that is paid, and then after today it will get repurposed and will also be an evergreen product that I will be offering. So you got that. So those are the three main things. And then balancing working full-time at Liquid IV, and then balancing outputting at least one piece of social media every single day.
RH: You were consistently podcasting for a long time. What was behind your decision to put the podcast on pause and then go full steam ahead into short form content?
BH: Great, great question. So I started the first podcast Purpose in the Youth back in 2016. I was head down until fall of 2019. And I was taking a break because I was burnt out, but at that same time I also got a full-time offer to work at Liquid IV. So I jumped in at Liquid IV—after nine months of not podcasting, I decided to start It's the Bearded Man podcast. I did that weekly for the next two years. In June of last year I shut down It's the Bearded Man. It was something I was thinking about for probably three to four months—once again being burnt out. I was fulfilled with the content I was putting out but at some point if you're not seeing the results you want, you obviously need to make pivots. I had played the consistency card for far too long and I knew something needed to change.
At the time I was also creating on TikTok on the side and I was just starting to see massive growth there. I had a good conversation with my buddy JT Barnett, who is a big creator in the TikTok space and runs a TikTok agency for brands—he’s crushing it. We chatted and he was like, “You need to go all in on TikTok.” So in June of last year I decided to put podcasting on pause and I went all in on TikTok and Instagram reels. That was the single best decision because it allowed me to get so much awareness to my message and my meaning. A 30 minute podcast I'm now just turning into a 60-second video.
The intent is still there, the message is still there, the topic is still there. It's just giving it to people in a different medium. And that one decision just opened up so much awareness. It led to me doing brand partnerships, which was the first step in monetizing my brand. Then it led to me starting the coaching. All that to say, it was a very needed decision. There's always that resistance when you're deciding to go from one medium to the next or make any changes in your life. But I just knew deep down: this is what I need to do. I'm so fortunate and happy that I followed through on what I felt was right.
RH: What's the philosophy behind the content you create? It seems like the value driven, service-oriented philosophy that you had with the podcast you just transferred over to TikTok.
BH: Yeah, one hundred percent. You want to be niche, right? Once I started testing TikTok content, I was creating self-improvement content, then I was starting to dabble in men's lifestyle, and then I got very clear in the last three to five months on my content. To summarize it all, I would say my mission through content, coaching, and everything that I do is truly to help people stay on track by optimizing their time. I've seen it firsthand. If I maximize my time to truly be in alignment with the person I want to become then I'm going to stay on track of my goals by doing that. A lot of people aren't on track because they're not optimizing their time. That doesn't mean making a minute-by-minute plan every single day to do X, Y, and Z. It’s just being honest with yourself about if you are actually carving out the time to do the things that you value the most. So I'm just trying to be that voice that helps people stay on track. Even though in your mind it's telling you, “Well, this is costing me time.” It's costing you even more time because of how much time you're wasting because you're not feeling energized, focused, clear, or excited for the day ahead. Maybe if you just prioritized yourself a little bit and carved out an extra hour to plan your day, the next 23 hours of your day would actually feel 10 times better.
“You beat the algorithm by creating high-value content that makes people want to interact, comment, share, like. The algorithm works in your favor when you've created something that more people want to see and hear.”
RH: Do you have any short form algorithm tips for us today?
BH: Ooh, that's a good one. I think you beat the algorithm by creating high-value content that makes people want to interact, comment, share, like. That's how you beat the algorithm. The algorithm works in your favor when you've created something that more people want to see and hear. So it's not posting at 5:00 AM every day. It's not posting at 3:00 PM. It's not using a certain amount of hashtags. It's truly coming up with your own style of content that will get people to want to share and comment.
I figured that out through list-style content. This is coming from direct experience of growing over 300,000 followers across socials in the last 12 months. I lead in with something like, “Six ways to better your wellbeing.” When somebody crosses that on TikTok, they hit that right within three seconds, they know exactly what the rest of this video's about. It’s six things that are going to benefit their wellbeing. Okay. So if they want to better their wellbeing, they're gonna watch it. If they really resonate with it, they might comment on it. They might send it to their buddies.
So yeah, the algorithm is interesting. In the last two to three months I've definitely seen a slowdown of my content being pushed around, but it hasn't stopped me from creating at the same speed. It hasn't led me to believe that my content isn't valuable anymore. I just think it comes in waves.
RH: When you look back on your childhood activities or hobbies, do you see any breadcrumbs that have led you to where you are today? I mean, obviously no one goes to school to become a thought leader or become an influencer but what do you think from your younger years has sort of helped you get here?
BH: At a high level, one theme that I've always seen in my life is that when I set my eyes on a target, I've always found a way to get it. So my first taste of that was starting to work for my uncle at a nursery. We sold plants and bags of mulch. I started working for him when I was 12. I started to learn work ethic and the value of a dollar bill. Then, fast forward to when I'm 18, I apply to college. There's this school that I want to go to. I would do anything to get into the school. I didn't get in and I was heartbroken. So I did a year at another school, I had a great time. I applied to transfer and I got into the number one school and I ended up graduating from there. Once again, putting my eyes on the target and doing it.
There was a limiting belief I had to fight through a year ago when I started my coaching program. I thought: I don't have enough value. I haven't learned enough. Nobody is gonna want to pay for my time. But I just made a decision about who I am and what I want to become. Gotta stay humble and do the work and constantly learn along the way. I'm kind of on a tangent from your original question, but I was just taught from a young age that if you want something you need to work for it and go get it. And that's just translated into who I am and the way I operate today.
RH: One thing I admire most about you is how you shared so much about your Uber driving days. With no shame, you owned it, and you shared it with so much positivity, but I can't imagine it was all easy. Are there any dark moments or bad times you can share from those days?
BH: I will say the reason I was so confident with sharing was because Gary Vaynerchuk planted it in my head: document the journey. I wanted to show people the real shit that was happening behind the scenes. Podcaster by day, Uber driver by night. I didn't want to try to hide it because it was the truth. And that just honestly allowed me to just be unapologetic about it. Now it’s a strong factor of my story. I'm very fortunate—I'd say 90 to 95% of the Uber days, I was really positive, optimistic, and happy on the day-to-day. I loved people. I never minded driving.
There were those moments when I hit the wall. I just felt I had so much value to bring to the world. I can think of one moment in 2018 where I was driving on a Tuesday night in Santa Monica and I just dropped somebody off and I pulled over to the side of the road and just fucking bawled my eyes out because I was just like, Why isn't this happening faster? Why am I not doing this creative stuff faster? Why is it that I'm still behind the wheel driving people?
Driving Uber was a really valuable lesson to me: as long as you're putting in the effort, there are certain things you can't really control. I mean, five years later and I'm still not even doing my business full-time. But the growth I've had has been tremendous. I'm so much closer to doing this as a full-time thing. There were plenty of moments that I hit the wall, but I think through those years I was learning that it's a choice to choose optimism versus negativity. And I continued to remind myself of the small things and that allowed me to show up on a day to day and feel okay and know that with time I'm gonna get to where I want to be.
RH: I remember feeling like that early on too. Man, I'd give anything to just fast forward a year. What a wild, terrible thing to think though. We don't know how many days we have left here. I was trying to just skip a year's worth of life.
BH: When you're in it, that's all you wanna do. Skip time. But at the same time, you gotta enjoy it.
RH: What is the best thing under $50 that you purchased recently?
BH: Well, it's under $50, but I didn't buy it. I was gifted it from my girlfriend and I fucking love it. I have a little miniature water fountain that sits on my desk. It has three layers. It has a bunch of nice pebbles that go through it. She got it, I believe through Amazon. It is just so blissful. Something about the sound of water is extremely peaceful to me. And I have it on every day when I'm working and I just love it, man.
RH: It seems like you've got a pretty strong morning routine going. On the really busy days when you don't have time to do everything, what are the essential things that you still do even if you don't have that much time?
BH: I hope people reading this take this with a grain of salt, but that's what I'm trying to challenge people to think differently on. You will have the time if you create the time. At a high level, every day I'm doing exactly the habits and routines that I want to be doing. But meditating and working out are the most crucial. Hitting both the mental and physical. And they're non-negotiable. Monday through Friday I need to do them. On the weekends I'm pretty tight on myself to make sure I get them done. But I'm a little bit more flexible if I'm traveling. But yeah, the daily sweat and meditation are absolutely crucial. I'm really happy that I do those religiously. It creates the momentum for the day ahead of me because I feel like my best self because of those routines.
“I became a master of time all because of Uber. If it wasn't for Uber, I don't know if I would be creating content or running a coaching program today.”
RH: I have a little theory. My theory is that people who are very regimented about their morning routine have had times in life when a lack of structure took over. Does that sound true for you? Did you create these systems as a response to a time in your life when there was no structure at all?
BH: That's a great question, Reese. I became a master of time all because of Uber.
If it wasn't for Uber, I don't know if I would be creating content or running a coaching program today. I think I still would've learned these principles through whatever first step out of college would have looked like, but for me, the first step out of college was driving Uber while building the podcast. And Uber taught me opportunity cost. For every hour I wasn't driving, I was losing an opportunity to make money. Yeah. And that was the beauty of the app. You could turn it on and off. So I had to get very good at managing my time because once again, when I set my eyes on a target, I find a way to get what I want.
I wanted to build this massive podcast and I wanted to see where it would take me. And I knew it was gonna take a lot of fucking work coming from someone who had no creative background. And I was starting at zero. So for me it was those early days of life, I needed to optimize my morning because I knew: I'm going to start driving around 1:00 PM and I'm gonna drive at least till 8:00 or 9:00 PM to get in my eight hours to make enough money to pay the bills. So that means that if I'm getting up at six every day, I have from 6:00 AM until 1:0PM to knock out personal habits, routines, podcasts, emails, and social media content.
Fast forward to today, I still live like that. I build in healthy pressure minute-by-minute, so I get things done in a timely manner. So as soon as we get off this call, this interview, I go right into the next thing on my to-do list for. I keep the healthy pressure of the Uber days.
RH: What secret hobbies do you have that you don't share online?
BH: Hmm. Ahhh… Really good one!
RH: I’m trying to expose you.
BH: I like new experiences. Like I just played Top Golf yesterday for the first time. I love new experiences. I pushed myself this year to cook a new recipe every week. I’m not doing it consistently, but if there's been 12 weeks of the year, I'd say I'm at like nine or 10 of the 12 weeks so far. I love watching shows. I'm watching Lost right now. I'm watching Ted Lasso.
RH: What advice would you give to your 40 year old self?
BH: I thought you were gonna go behind. What advice would I give to my 40 year old self? Fuck. This is a really good question, Reese.
It’s just so clear to me right now (and I still have room for improvement), but if I could give my 40-year old self advice, I would say please make sure you live within balance. To tie it back to the last question, I just played Top Golf yesterday for the first time. I was driving there yesterday and I had this internal thought in my mind running on repeat: You should be working. There are more things that need to get done. But when I get there and I'm doing it, and I'm present, I’m thinking I'm so happy I carved out the time to do this. So reminding myself that there's always gonna be more work that needs to get done. But please make sure that you're living within balance and you are carving out the time for new experiences, and you're carving out the time for the people that you love. That would be the advice for my 40 year old self.
RH: Gonna make me cry over here, bro.
BH: It’s coming from the heart and I felt it yesterday. So it's great. It's perfect timing.
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