Before becoming a champion for the podcasting industry, Larry Roberts had dreams of becoming a martial arts champion. A child of the ’80s and a fan of “The Karate Kid,” ninjas and the movies of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Segal, he vigorously pursued karate and, later, mixed martial arts. That dream was crushed by limitations from a birth defect that should have killed him by age 4 but didn’t. He replaced his pursuit of sports glory with a vigorous pursuit of drinking and partying. By the time he turned 40, he was stuck in a dead end job and deep in alcoholism and felt like life was pointless. But at 41, he reached out for help and went to rehab. Today, he works as hard as he ever did, but now it’s to elevate podcasters instead of crushing opponents. 

Guest Bio

After burning out in the corporate world, Red Hat Media founder Larry Roberts took a dive into a new realm of opportunities. His goal was simple: to find excitement in what he was doing every day.

He found it in droves.

Since 2014, Larry has been making himself a household name within the podcasting industry, speaking on stages of national and global trade events including Podfest Multimedia Expo and Podcast Movement, hosting shows that reached the top 1.5% of podcasts, and being named to Podcast Magazine’s 40 Over 40 in Podcasting.

With technology and media changing faster than many can hit play, Larry and his team have committed themselves to staying at the forefront of the industry. Larry is aptly seen as a thought leader in the AI space, teaching workshops and hosting speaking engagements to help creators utilize new technology, and will continue to push business owners out of their comfort zone and into a chapter of innovation and growth.

Turning 40 and Outgrowing Cobra Kai Energy 🐍

Larry Roberts was born with an inverted sternum that would have suffocated him before age 5 if he hadn’t had reconstructive surgery. Because of this, his childhood was pretty sheltered. He went to private school for most of his life, except for two semesters - one in eighth grade and one in high school, both of which ended up in fights and drove him back to private school. 

Admittedly, Larry has always had a mouth on him (which is what makes him a great podcaster) and it got him in trouble almost everywhere he went. 

It being the early 1980s, a teenage boy would have been influenced by the Karate Kid, the emergence of ninjas in Western popular culture and the movies of Claude Van Damme and Steven Segal. Larry thought, if he could only fight, then he’d be able to solve all his problems. So he started studying karate and has experience with a wide variety of martial arts. Through his teens and twenties he studied and taught karate. 

When the UFC debuted in 1993, Larry knew he wanted to go to the “big show.” He wanted to be a professional fighter so he trained with the best coaches he could find and fought in a handful of low-level professional fights. 

He was on his way to a professional fight, the biggest fight of his career, and the night before the match he was training with his coach when another coach walked by and said seven words that changed his life, “your cardio is a bit suspect, bro.” 

Larry was crushed because he had invested everything into being ready for this competition. Because of his birth defect, his lungs had not developed normally, which left him with about 60% lung capacity. 

Larry ended up pulling out of that fight. But he went home and told everyone he had won because he couldn't face the prospect of letting people down or not meeting expectations. Fighting had become his whole identity for about 20 years and it was ripped away that night. 

He went through an extreme identity crisis, which led him to start partying. He became the guy who hosted the big parties for every pay-per-view UFC event. He was still involved tangentially, doing some coaching and cornering for friends. 

Professionally, he transitioned from just having a job that would allow for him to train to having a corporate career that included the 9 to 5 and then happy hour with the gang afterwards. They had a local spot that they’d get to by 5:15 and stay until it closed every night of the week. He and his crowd got to the point where they’d go through 4 handles of booze every week plus a couple cases of cold beer - on top of what they drank when they were out at the bars. He kept this up for a couple years. 

The first time he thought he might have a problem, he was in a meeting at work and hadn’t had a drink in about six hours and started sweating profusely from the DT’s - or withdrawal. But instead of getting help, he  doubled down. It got to the point where he was only going three to four hours at a time without having alcohol. 

Then one day, he had an epiphany and knew that if he didn’t get help, he’d be dead soon so he called his best friend. Within hours he was checked into an inpatient rehab facility, where he spent seven weeks and he’s been sober ever since. He was 41. He had done so much nerve damage during his drinking days that he was in pain almost constantly and walked with a cane for several years until his body healed. 

The year before, when he turned 40 he cried because he thought life was all over. He thought all his opportunities were gone. He felt like he was in a dead end job. He was at the peak of his alcoholism. He felt like his life was in shambles. 

Shortly after he got out of rehab, though, he found podcasting. His first taste was Joe Rogan’s podcast, since Joe Rogan has been the commentator for UFC since its inception. He started a comedy podcast with a friend, found success with that and went on to start another podcast. He made his way into the network of people talking, coaching and presenting about the business of podcasting. In 2021, he left his corporate job and now works in the podcasting industry full time. 

Today, he finds the same sense of fulfillment from speaking on stage at an event that he used to get from fighting in a ring. Now he’s known as a subject matter expert instead of a kicking and punching expert. In his fighting days, his goal was to crush his opponents and make them feel less than. Today, his goal is still to perform at a very high level, but now he works to elevate others instead of breaking them down.

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