← Coffeez with Joe Shalaby
Coffeez with Joe Shalaby
From Beats to Business ft. Clinton Sparks | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby Ep. 56
01:07:34
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- [00:04]
A
What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of Coffees for Closers. This man needs no introduction, but I'm gonna do one anyway. Today we have an extraordinary guest whose achievements span across the music, gaming and business worlds. He's a Grammy nominated, multi platinum music producer, author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker. As the former VP of business development at Fazeclan, co founder of Exit, and a C suite executive in multiple companies, he's built multiple multi million dollar startups. A creative visionary, brand builder, he's known for integrating culture and creating meaningful, successful collaborations. Please join me in welcoming the one, the only Grammy nominated, Mr. Clinton Sparks.
- [01:08]
B
I gotta have an audience here.
- [01:10]
A
I know it sounded, it's funny no matter how.
- [01:12]
B
First of all, this sounds like it would sound like you. It was Wikipedia, Wikipedia podcast, man.
- [01:17]
A
Your Wikipedia is amazing, by the way.
- [01:19]
B
It's funny you say that because I'm sitting here thinking like, I gotta fix it. It's not good enough. You know, it's funny, no matter how many people give you intros, there's always like little things that are not completely accurate and you don't want to call people out on it. But then like, it's later on, someone's like, well, you said this. I was like, I didn't say that. The host said that. You know what I mean? Like, you know what I mean? So like, you gotta fix things. Whatever. Anyways, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate that. Grandioso intro, by the way.
- [01:45]
A
Was it all. Was it all accurate, by the way?
- [01:46]
B
Mostly, but my. In this camera, at the beginning, we were just talking regularly, just talking like this. Then the cameras come on. Ladies and gentlemen, this guy stepped it out.
- [01:58]
A
Oh, man. Once I'm camera, Once I'm on camera, once I'm on, it's like, thanks for having me, man. Next level.
- [02:03]
B
Yeah, appreciate it.
- [02:04]
A
Hey, you know I've been a big fan, obviously, I've been following your music for a long time and thank you, man. It's just, just such so many incredible accolades. Outside of music though, it's like you're dominating the business world now.
- [02:15]
B
Well, music was a Trojan horse from the beginning. Although music was a passion of mine and I loved it. And that's all I did. I knew very early on that if I wanted to get to the money, you know, the business, the people with the money in business that I needed to be become the cool. Because money chases cool, right?
- [02:35]
A
That's right.
- [02:35]
B
And so like, I knew that if I just created success in the music world, which music is cool, the Whole industry is cool. Being around, you know, being a popular DJ and producing hit records and being around famous people, the 50 cents of the world and stuff, it makes those people say, like, man, this guy's cool. I want to hang out with him. And then you have the opportunity to now say, hey. So I was thinking about this and then I can't tell you how many times in my career I've had a powerful executive look at me like, aren't you a dj? Because like, as if like I'm like being a dj, I wouldn't be smart enough to have other great ideas, right? So over the years I would start kind of intriguing business people in. People in business that like, Clinton's bigger than music. All along I knew that. And all along that's what I'm here for. But the whole music. Yeah, I never even wanted to be a dj.
- [03:23]
A
Well, I didn't even mention that you were DJ on this intro. Yeah, I wasn't even like in the intro. I mean that was like, that's way and slurry. But that's what made me famous, right?
- [03:31]
B
Yeah, you were successful and like popular and rich was being a dj, touring the world as a dj. But yeah, being a DJ was a means to an end. Yeah, I really wanted to be a producer. And like this one little story I'll tell you right now literally is applicable to almost everything I've done in my career. So when I wanted to get people familiar with me as a producer, mainly the music industry, I befriended the popular DJ in my city and I would teach him how to better brand himself. And then I would do things like when artists come to town, I would go to them and go get know audio drops from them, like, hey, what's up? This is, you know, whatever, hanging out with whatever. And I'd give that to him. So now I'm value adding to him by getting him stuff he couldn't get. And then I'm teaching him how to brand himself to dominate the whole market. And so as I'm doing that, I'm in the office with him. In exchange, I'm making remixes to popular songs that he's playing in his mix that's exclusive to him. So I'm here. So there's a bunch of strategy going on this whole time. So then I'm in the office when record labels would call him and say, hey, are you playing my new record? And he'd say, yeah, by the way, you should check out my boy, Clinton Sparks. He did a remix to your song. And then I would Hear them say, yeah, yeah, cool. Hey, are you going to make sure you play my record this weekend? So I was like, oh, man, if I become a dj, it those guys will want to be my friend and at the very least give me a courtesy listen because I put myself in a position that they need me. So that's why I became a dj, really was it just kind of get the leverage of having the power for the music industry to want to now be my friend?
- [05:03]
A
Man, you were leveraging business, creative business strategies in the DJ world. That was like an unknown platform for people. And yeah, yeah.
- [05:11]
B
I mean, even in 2000, when I first got on the radio, or 1999 actually, and is when I first started really kind of being out there publicly as a DJ and becoming more popular, I realized when I was going to get on the radio that that was a huge platform. And I've been branding myself and treating myself as a personal brand since 2000. I know it's normal now, but the first 10 plus years of my life, people would kind of laugh at me when I would call myself a personal brand. They're like, personal brand? You're a dj? What does that even mean? Right? And like, so I was Clinton Sparks, Get Familiar. That was my tagline. What does every successful company have a great tagline. So when I started, I was like sat in my room for hours just jotting down different ideas of what's a good line, what's a good tagline? I remember I wrote Get Familiar. And I kept coming back to it, coming back to it. And I was like, man, there's nothing better than that. That's me coming on the radio saying, get Familiar. Brand new Busta Rhymes OR yo, this 50 cent. You need to get familiar with my boy Clinton Sparks or Get Familiar. This weekend we're going to be at this party. Like, it's just basically saying, come or you need to know about this.
- [06:14]
A
That's great.
- [06:14]
B
No better tagline. So I trademarked it back then. I still have a trademark now, but I knew early on that, like, if you wanted to become a successful brand, you needed to have a tagline, but you also needed to treat yourself like a corporation. And I've been doing that from the beginning. And that's what how I started doing as the DJ thing. I was saying, what does great companies do? Provide value, solve a problem, or do things that somebody else can't do. So that's what I started doing to get my way to become a dj.
- [06:39]
A
Man, I got so many questions to ask you. And we're really trying to push the personal brand idea into a mortgage loan officer because E Mortgage Capital, we're the back end ecosystem for thousand loan officers and yep, portraying the idea of personal brand. I'm hoping all of them are listening to this podcast now because it's like you're, you're the brand.
- [06:59]
B
This live.
- [06:59]
A
This is live.
- [07:00]
B
This is all. This is a pre recorded.
- [07:02]
A
No, no, no, this is live.
- [07:03]
B
Come on. All right, keep going.
- [07:04]
A
Yeah, we're live right now. We're live on.
- [07:06]
B
We're gonna go live.
- [07:07]
A
We got five and a half million followers across all platforms, right?
- [07:11]
B
Well, we're gonna go.
- [07:12]
A
We're going live on Clinton Sparks channel now. Let's go, baby, let's go.
- [07:17]
B
We're live.
- [07:17]
A
We're live on Insta. We're live on kick. We're live on Twitch. We're live on Snapchat.
- [07:21]
B
We're familiar that.
- [07:22]
A
Let's get familiar.
- [07:23]
B
Let's get familiar with us.
- [07:24]
A
We're live on every platform now. Here we go.
- [07:26]
B
Let's go.
- [07:27]
A
Copies for closers, baby. So I like to start now. We haven't even, we haven't even started the podcast. Oh, we go live yet. Okay. Oh, there we go.
- [07:34]
B
We got away from me.
- [07:35]
A
I like. Well, we'll start with the opening question. I like to start every podcast with the same question. I ask everyone. I close out with the same question.
- [07:40]
B
So basically you're not original and unique.
- [07:43]
A
No, no, no. This is just something everybody likes to know. What is your Clinton Sparks, your morning routine. Every morning, what do you do?
- [07:50]
B
I make my kids breakfast, probably change my son's diaper. And then I make a smoothie.
- [07:56]
A
Nice. Every morning?
- [07:57]
B
Every single morning.
- [07:57]
A
See, everybody's got a morning routine. Everybody wants to know what.
- [07:59]
B
Well, that's after. If it's the morning, I go to the gym, which I have a gym at my home. So I get up at 5:00, 5:30, go to the gym, respond to some emails, text, maybe write a caption for my Instagram, and then I make the kids breakfast and have a smoothie.
- [08:14]
A
There we go. See? Yeah, very similar. Me and you were talking earlier and you said, you know, you dropped how much weight? Ton of weight. And back in like £50. £50?
- [08:26]
B
Yeah.
- [08:26]
A
And what was it? What was the catalyst for you to drop £50? And you look great, by the way. You're super lean.
- [08:32]
B
Well, when I got on E. News, man, we're not really getting much here. When I got on e. News In 2008, I was hired to be the music guy on E. News from a guy named Ben Lyons, who was the movie guy and would interview actors and, like, review movies on the network. So I had befriended him. And then he called me one day and he said, hey, would you want to be the music guy on E. News on the E. Channel? And I was like, you mean like Hollywood, Paris Hilton, E. Because I'm a hip hop head, right? So that's not really my world at the time. So he's like, yeah. And he laughed and I was like, yeah, I guess. And the reason why I said I guess is because even throughout high school, I was doing Jackass Shit before Jackass, the movie was the show right on mtv. So I was always like a clown and a ham for the camera. I would skip classes and just go to the fire station and do tours with a video camera or pretend like I work at the supermarket, like, meat market until I got thrown out and, like, pranking people on the streets. So when he asked me to come do that, I was like, yeah, that'd be fun. So I went out. I flew out to Hollywood and I went out three different times, and there wasn't even an audition or an interview. It was literally they mic me up and I just went live on stage and did the part. And then after like, the third time, I was like, guys, am I hired? And then, yeah, we'll send you a contract. And so anyways, when I see myself on TV the first time, prior to that, I'm just a hip hop guy making beats for rappers. And like, nobody until 50 cent in hip hop, no one really cared about physique While working out 50 cent is what changed everybody's. Yeah, man, we need to start looking good. Prior to that, everybody wore, like, you know, basketball jerseys and football jerseys and big white T shirts. So we were just eating bad food all the time and just making music. So when I see myself on television for the first time, I was like, man, I look like a slob. So that now, prior to that, I have a wicked sweet tooth. You know, from eating powdered iced tea to Coca Cola, I'm the type of guy eat a pound of pasta, chicken parm sub, and a brownie blast sundae.
- [10:33]
A
Are you Italian or Irish? Yeah. There you go.
- [10:36]
B
And I would eat all of that stuff and, like, you know, you're never full. You know what I mean? And then once I got on, I seen myself on tv. I cut out sugar and carbs immediately. To this day, I still. The only liquid I put in my body since 08 is water and hot tea with Nothing in it.
- [10:53]
A
You know, that's impressive considering that you're in the music industry. You were surrounded by drugs, alcohol, and, you know, you look great. 47, 48 years old and.
- [11:00]
B
Yeah, no, I never drank. I never drank alcohol my whole life.
- [11:03]
A
You kept it pure. And I know, like, 50 Cent also lives a pretty pure life as well. You. I know you've done a lot of business with him too, a lot of music with him. So what, what year did you transition from hip hop into, like, you know, pop culture?
- [11:18]
B
I guess. 08 When I got on E. From, like a forward facing point of view, but I've always. I'm a kid that would. When I was a kid, I would go to the store and steal. Not buy Circus magazine, Word up magazine, Mad magazine and Fangoria magazine. Four different genres, Heavy metal, rap, comedy, and like, you know, monster makeup. Right. So I've always been someone that's been very eclectic and liked everybody and everything. And that goes back to my childhood of how I was raised and where I grew up and the neighborhoods that I lived in. I was exposed to everything very early on. Like, my mom's friends were all black and Puerto Ricans from Boston. She had, like, gays and lesbians, like, coming over and living at our house. So, like, I was exposed to, like, everything early on. I'd go to Catholic school, and then I lived in the hood. Then I got sent to the suburbs. And so I was exposed to kind of like every sort of cultural background very early, before I was even a teenager. So everything I've ever done since then has always considered and cared about everybody because I just assumed everybody matters because they do. And that's how I approach life.
- [12:31]
A
I love that. I love that now. Right now. When did you start your entrepreneurial journey?
- [12:38]
B
Like, well, I guess at 12. I know I didn't really answer the question of pop culture, but the E thing was really what really kind of pushed me, you know? I know because a month after I started, I went to do DJ in Hong Kong and girls recognized me in Hong Kong from E. So I was like, oh, this shit really works. But so about 12 years old, my mom helped me start my first company. It was called Rent a Teen, which sounds weird today, but back then, nothing sounds weird today. Well, in the 80s, basically it was a rented teen. And what I would do is I get all the teenagers in my neighborhood and I'd hire them all to go, like, take out the trash, clean people's houses, shovel their snow, clean their cars, go grocery shopping for, like, all the Old folks around our neighborhood and stuff.
- [13:24]
A
That's like Uber delivery now.
- [13:27]
B
Yeah, yeah. And I take a nick from every kid that I hired, so.
- [13:30]
A
Amazing.
- [13:31]
B
I understood infrastructure management, sales, marketing, and then also margins, you know, very early on.
- [13:37]
A
You could start that now and make it an app and rent a T.
- [13:40]
B
Would mean a whole different thing nowadays.
- [13:41]
A
Yeah. With employment law you can't do it.
- [13:44]
B
Yeah, yeah, it'd be weird in California. No, not even just weird, but back then it was like, you know, it was more pure in the 80s, like I'm gonna rent a teen to do this work for me, you know, to help out the teen and make some money.
- [13:58]
A
Yeah, yeah. So right. You started your own business at 12 years old. Then what was the next business you started?
- [14:07]
B
Well, really I guess it would be me. The business of me, which is where I made most of my money.
- [14:14]
A
Personal brand. Most people don't even. Right now, people have a hard time digesting personal brand.
- [14:20]
B
Well, that's because, you know, I think a lot of reasons why people do is ego and greed. Those are the two things that get in the way of everything. Cause a problem for everybody. Whether it's a personal relationship where it's a business. Because I think a lot of people, when they're building a personal brand right now, one, most people aren't honest with themselves of who they are.
- [14:38]
A
Right.
- [14:38]
B
Because most people don't know who they are, right. So they take on a facade or a Persona that they think they should be or that's going to make them money or that's going to get them clout or that somebody else that's successful is doing. So they're just trying to follow in the footsteps of that person. And it's not authentic or real to them, which is why it's difficult for them to build a brand because it's not really something solid you're building on top of. It's like building a building on top of a soft ass foundation. And like you can't be fake for long. We're all gonna sniff you out. Everybody knows. And from the way you talk from your body to least real motherfuckers know, you know what I mean? So real, recognize real. We all know that saying, right? And nowadays there's so much fake that it's hard for most people to decipher from fake because they never were even built off of real in the first place to understand where real comes from. So I mean, I think that's a big reason why a lot of people don't know how to build their own Personal brands, because they don't know who they are and they don't know what they want to be or they want to be everything to everybody, right? And they don't understand that's not how you build a brand. It starts off with deciding who you want to be, building your life by design, not by circumstance. You don't become something because I didn't have money, because my father beat me, because my mother was an alcoholic. You become something solid by deciding what you want to be and then making a plan on how you're going to become that person. Once you decide that who you're going to be and you work to get there, and then you get there, which, by the way, doesn't happen overnight. It takes a long time to really identify and build a solid you. Because you don't even know at first, especially when you're young, you think you know things. You think you know who you are, you think you know who you want to be, and you think you know where to go, get all the information. But you're never done growing or being solid. But there is a point where you know who you are. There is a point where you're confident in who you are. There is a point that, you know, no man can waver me from the man that I've decided to become because I worked and I put the work in to become this person. And you can tell from when people are swayed by money, when they're swayed by, you know.
- [16:43]
A
Worldly things, you know what I mean?
- [16:45]
B
Like whatever it is, right? Things that will make them. Will he cheat on his wife if he's in the position? Will he cheat? Will he rob his friend? Will he take more money? All of those things, like when you know that you've built a you that you would never do that shit under no circumstances, then once you decide who you want to be, nobody should ever be able to waver you from who you are. And if they're able to, then you didn't build a solid you yet because their word is stronger than yours or whatever they brought to you. Like, you know, took you off of what you thought that you were. So that's. To me, the reason why I've been able to build such a solid brand is because one, the life that I grew up in. Two, I intentionally built my life by design. I knew exactly who I wanted to be and even more important, who I didn't want to be. And it's really easy to identify that because all you have to do is look at the world, look at who Sucks. Look at who made you feel like shit. Look at who's doing bad out here to these other people. Listen to women talk about what they don't like about their husband or men. Listen to employees talk about what a shitty employee is. All the answers are right in your face if you just shut up and listen to it. But people spend too much time chasing answers for questions in places that that's not where you're going to get the answer. And then on top of that, they also feel like they need the answers to these questions in order to feel whole. On a personal level, maybe you're like, why was I molested? Why did this happen? And you want to go talk to the person that did it, or you want to ask your mom or dad, why didn't you protect me? And you won't get those answers. You'll never get those answers. Because most people don't want to assume accountability, don't want to admit that they were wrong or they're at fault. So you're going to be like, well, I just need these answers. And you feel like you need these answers to be whole. And therefore if you never get these answers, you'll never be whole. And then those not having feeling whole, then, now you have excuses for why you're not advancing in life or why you're not as good as a person as you should be. And if you just go backwards and reverse engineer who you are. But it starts with having self awareness to know who you are, maybe you're a shitty boss, maybe you do treat people poorly, maybe you're a horrible communicator, maybe you're greedy, maybe your ego does get in the way of your decision making. But it takes you and own only you to really sit in a room and identify like, man, why do people not like me? Or why did this thing not work? Or why does my wife always get pissed at me? But people don't do that because they find excuses that deflect, looking internally within themselves to see what they contribute. Now me personally, this is what worked for me since I was young. I've always thought first and foremost, shit, what am I doing wrong here? What did I say that caused this? What am I not understanding? What can I say better? I've never been like, well, if they listen better, well if they didn't do that because you're always responsible somewhat. And also if you want to be a leader or a boss, the best way to do that is to assume responsibility for everything that goes wrong. And the best part about that, the benefit of assuming responsibility is now, guess who gets to fix it?
- [19:50]
A
Yeah, you.
- [19:51]
B
Right.
- [19:52]
A
A lot of people have problems with internalizing that, you know, and blaming themselves. Everybody's a finger pointer. Nobody's a thumb pointer.
- [19:59]
B
Well, they're good, good finger pointers. When they're talking about great shit, they point at themselves.
- [20:02]
A
Yeah.
- [20:03]
B
Right. And it's like part of being great is knowing what you're not great at.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And most people don't recognize what they're not great at.
- [20:11]
A
Now, let me ask you, who's been, like, the greatest motivation for you to, number one, have this amazing moral compass and number two, have this incredible sense of grit.
- [20:21]
B
The streets, really. Yeah. Being broke, being bullied. Probably my absent father played a big role because, again, going back to the philosophy, I was just saying I knew how I felt by my father not showing up. So I knew I would never do that. You know what I mean? So it's. Again, the answers are right there. How did I feel? You know, you see people who's like, let's say they were beat by their dad and now they turn around and beat their kid. And then you give them the excuse, well, that's all he knows. That's what he grew up getting from his dad. Then you fucking know better because you know, you didn't like it and you know that you're fucked up because of it. So why are you going to fuck somebody else up now? Because of you being fucked up. So it's that easy. I think life is easy, man. People make it hard.
- [21:11]
A
Yeah.
- [21:12]
B
Because of those things.
- [21:13]
A
And that's why you've prioritized. Hey, I asked you, you know, why did you move to Santa Clara? He said, because it's got good school system for my kids. What do you do in the morning? Make my kids smoothie. Actually, I do the same thing. Jim McKiss smoothie. Every morning I have to exchange smoothie recipes. You know, with you. You're like, I'm making four kids smoothies in the morning. You know? But prioritizing your kids has been an integral part of your life. Now probably just because you know that you experienced a lack of priority.
- [21:39]
B
You want to know how I won at life? Doesn't matter how much money I made or whatever companies I was a part of, how many records I produced, how I know I won is since I was young, around 12, 13, I had two goals. None of them were about money or being famous. I had two goals one day to be an awesome dad because I didn't have one, and then two to make People happy. One day when I was on tour, I was coming home to see my son Jack, because I used to travel a lot as a dj, and me and my son Jack are best friends. Like, he's my number one best friend growing up. We're always there together.
- [22:18]
A
How old is your son, Jack?
- [22:19]
B
He's now 20. So one day I call him and I said, hey, man, I'm coming home tomorrow. I can't wait to see you. He's like, yeah, me too. We're super psyched. We're amped up on the phone. And I said, hey, man, let me ask you a question. He goes, what's up? And I go, what do you miss most about me when I'm gone? And he paused for a few seconds. He said, you know, dad, you just make everything happy. In that one line, I won at life. I accomplished both goals in that one line. I have that framed at my house, that quote from Jack Sparks framed in my home, because how can you be mad looking at that? You won. And that's another problem a lot of people have is they don't keep score of their life. So they don't know if they're winning or if they're losing, right? And those are the things that show that I won. I can look right up at that. That's a scoreboard for me. I won. And people don't do that. So every time something doesn't go their way, they think they're losing at life because they're not keeping score of the wins. And I could elaborate on how you do that day to day or to do lists and whatnot, but just the overall thing is, you gotta keep score of your life, man, or you won't know. I'll give you one example. If you have a plan this week and you got this one big thing that's just eating away, I gotta get this done this week, and I'll get this weight off my chest. And you end up not getting it done. But if you kept track that week and you kept score of your life, and you look back and you're like, shit. But I did 47 other great things. I made six new contacts, 13 new leads, two new friends, made some money over here, took my kid to football practice twice, da, da, da, da. Put my kids to bed, worked out four times, you start looking at it, you're like, shit, I had a killer fucking week. But what we do is we look at that one thing, and then we feel defeated and deflated. And we lost that week because we're only focusing on that one thing, because there's no scoreboard to look at. But if you look at the board and see the other 47 things done, which, by the way, some of those might have, might be of value. That, when you get to that thing now, helps that thing even more now because of some of the 47 things you did. But we don't do that in life. And we beat ourselves up.
- [24:30]
A
Let me ask you this, because your dad, and clearly you're an awesome dad. How are you? How are you?
- [24:36]
B
I gotta put that in my intro. Awesome dad.
- [24:39]
A
That is the most important, most important thing. Most important thing. How are you instilling that same sense of work ethic, grit, and most importantly, in this crazy world, that strong moral compass in your son Jack?
- [24:50]
B
Well, you lead by example. I've never told my son what to do. I've never, like, yelled at him. Maybe once I got mad one time when he was a man, it was more of a man yelling at each other, not a kid. I've never punished him in a traditional form of punishment. And I always reasoned and spoke with him, not at him. So even if he did do something wrong. But, hey, let's talk for a minute. And I would explain to him why that would upset somebody or why that could have a negative outcome or how somebody may feel after you doing that. Would you want to make somebody feel that way? No. Wouldn't it be bothersome if it made you feel that way? Yes. So now do you have a better understanding of how when you did that, it would make somebody. So when you talk to somebody, you get on their level. You don't talk down to them or you talk at them, or like, in a superiority way where I think I'm better than you or I'm smarter than you. Because now I'm talking past being a father, because bosses do this too, right? And when you talk to your employees or you talk to your partners in a way that shows that you care and that you're not trying to, like, talk down to them or that you're better than them or they're. Or make them feel like an idiot. Life's about feelings, man. Like, you guys do mortgage, right? So it's like you're never selling a product, you're never selling a service. You know this. You're the CEO of this company. You're always selling one thing. What is that?
- [26:09]
A
You're selling yourself.
- [26:11]
B
No, you're selling a feeling when you understand what people. What's it feel like to get a new home? What's it feel like to get approved. What's it feel like to improve on your life? You're selling a feeling. That's what you're doing. And once you can understand the feeling people need to feel or the void that you can fill with the right feeling, you can sell anything to anybody, man. And that's why a lot of scam artists get away with it, because they understand how to play on people's feelings. That's why there's a show called American Greed. Because be like, oh, this investment, what are they feeling? I'm going to have a better life. I'm going to have no more financial worries. Everything, music, every clothes, everything you're selling. You're not selling clothes, you're selling confidence. You're selling how you're going to feel when you walk out. And when you're selling music, you're selling a feeling. Everything is a feeling, man.
- [26:57]
A
Yeah, especially. I mean, homeownership is an absolute feeling. I mean, we sell the American dream here.
- [27:02]
B
Hardly nobody walks into their new house or their first house or buys a house and says, sure did a good deal. Those numbers were right. Nobody does that. They walk in. Can you believe this is our home? Can you believe we made this happen? Can you believe that Joe helped us make this happen? You gave them a feeling.
- [27:21]
A
Yeah. The funny thing about our industry is nobody wants the mortgage, but everybody wants the house, right? Nobody wants a mortgage because what is a mortgage? The same thing. It's like, have you ever seen somebody going, I really need that student debt right now. We sell debt.
- [27:36]
B
I mean, no one's ever said, I really wish they'd create a league where people slap the shit out of each other. But you just go there for the feeling of camaraderie and culture and excitement and fanfare.
- [27:47]
A
Now, you're in several industries. You're in the music industry, you're an entrepreneur. You got. I didn't know you're in the gaming industry as well.
- [27:55]
B
Yep.
- [27:57]
A
By the way, in the gaming industry, what games are you producing?
- [28:00]
B
I don't produce games. So I'm glad you asked this question because there's a stigma and a confusion around the gaming industry, which is the fastest growing form of entertainment in the world.
- [28:10]
A
I mean, my kids are on Fortnite.
- [28:14]
B
And that's typically what every parent would say. I know, man. My kids are doing this. And it's bigger than just your kids doing that. As I said, it's the fastest growing form of entertainment in the world. Makes more money than the movie and music industries combined, and is projected to make over $500 billion by 2027. The problem is most people think they need to game to be in the gaming business. But you don't have to be an actor to be in the movie making business. You don't have to be an athlete to be in the sports business. You don't have to be a rapper to be in the music business. You don't have to be a gamer to be in this amazing business.
- [28:47]
A
I know, it's amazing. I mean Mark Zuckerberg is in it, right? He started meta every all around gaming.
- [28:53]
B
There's so many celebrities and I mean the average gamer is 34 years old now. So people still think it's like 16 year old thing that they're playing Minecraft or something. But how many husbands get yelled at by their wives or their girl because they got headsets on playing Call of Duty? Happens all the time, right? And these kids are going to grow and they're going to continue to play gaming because it's becoming a bigger and bigger business. It's a tangible career. Colleges give scholarships for gaming. Now 46% of them don't even get claimed because they don't even know that it's a thing. The future engineers are gamers. It teaches strategy, leadership, camaraderie. Studies show that it helps with depression. And I'll tell you what, you can become successful 10 times faster being a gamer or being in the gaming industry than you can trying to be an athlete dribbling A basketball for 15 years.
- [29:38]
A
Well that gives me some hope. So how many hours should I let my kids play Minecraft a day? I mean maximum. Because the thing drives me crazy with Minecraft.
- [29:45]
B
Well, I mean look, if they're passionate about it, you feel, feel that it's helping them more than it's hurting them. Because some people do. This is. Now we're going to get into psychology. Some people use things for escapism because like let's just say you beat your kids. I know you don't, but I'm just saying let's say you beat your kids. That's escapism. I'm in this world to get away from this world that I'm in. And that's with everything by the way, even chasing dreams. Most people that are chasing goals and dreams, they think they're chasing this thing to get a better life. But what they don't recognize is you're not really running after something, you're running away from something else. Being broke, being insecure, being miserable, past trauma. So you think by chasing these things that you're now going to have a better life, more money is going to make your life better or whatnot. But you can't fool yourself to believe that once you make your dreams a reality, that you've now escaped your nightmares. And this goes back to the earlier part of this conversation. How do you solve that? Well, you reverse engineer where you are now and you build the person that you want to be. And then that's how you're able to build all the things that you want to build, how you want to build them, because you have to build it by design, not by circumstances.
- [30:55]
A
So how many hours do you let your kids on play video games?
- [31:00]
B
I knew, I knew you were going to bring it back there because I.
- [31:03]
A
Got to know my gaming right now is like for a parent seeing their kids on video games, there is like. I mean, me as a father, like my kids love.
- [31:12]
B
Well, let me ask you this and then I'll answer the question. Were you an athlete when you were young? Did you care about sports now?
- [31:18]
A
I care a lot more.
- [31:19]
B
How often do you watch them?
- [31:21]
A
Not much.
- [31:21]
B
Now, let's say you're someone that likes sports.
- [31:24]
A
Yeah.
- [31:24]
B
Yeah, because I don't watch sports either.
- [31:25]
A
I mean, I just know somebody that.
- [31:27]
B
Loves sports probably watches dozens of hours of sports a week. Right. Watching other grown men that work really hard, train, practice, work out, spend decades of their life to get here. Just to sit in your chair and have chicken fingers and french fries and watch them play and drink beer.
- [31:44]
A
Yeah.
- [31:45]
B
Does that make sense?
- [31:47]
A
You're right. Yeah.
- [31:48]
B
I mean, it does make sense now because it's become a social norm.
- [31:52]
A
Yeah.
- [31:52]
B
But at one, if you think of the concept when I say it out loud, sounds pretty dumb.
- [31:56]
A
Yeah, right.
- [31:57]
B
But then it's been commercialized.
- [31:59]
A
Yeah.
- [31:59]
B
Celebratized, publicized, you know, advertising. It's become part of the fabric of.
- [32:05]
A
You're actually. You're actually like just wasting your mind. You're doing nothing. Actually, when they're doing Minecraft, playing Minecraft, it's like engineering, dude.
- [32:13]
B
Guys, grown men wear other grown men's name on the back of their shirts. Does that make sense? It happens. It's normal. Right, but I'm not saying that to knock it. I'm saying it's become so normal, no one questions it. It's the same with gaming. These kids, these kids are training, they're practicing to become better at the game. You'll sit and watch golf, which is boring as shit, you know what I'm saying? But you watch it. So when you watch something like gaming that's fast, it's strategic, it's entertaining. There's also discord. There's also live chats. So you're engaging with other people. It's a community. When you're watching the football game, if you're by yourself, you're just sitting there yelling at the screen by yourself, you're not engaging with other football fans around the world, you know, but you do do that with gaming. So it's a whole new world and community that's growing whether you like it or not.
- [33:01]
A
Yeah.
- [33:02]
B
Your kids are exposed to it and they're going to be a part of it whether you like it or not. So to answer the direct question, how many hours that's subject to what they care about, what other priorities they have, and how much you want them to be involved, depending on the way that they're utilizing it. If you feel they're being productive, if you feel they're becoming better at it, if you feel they're getting friendships and relationships, if you see, like this is something that could be something for them, then you might want to let them do it more. If it's someone that's just like trying to do it to avoid hanging out with friends because they're insecure or they're an introvert or whatever, then maybe you don't want them to just only do that.
- [33:34]
A
Yeah. Well, I worry as a parent, just, like, how does this impact them at a social level? Does this make them more introverted? Does this make.
- [33:42]
B
No, because you're engaging with people online, you're not. It's not siloed by yourself, just you against a game.
- [33:47]
A
Yeah. Sometimes on Minecraft, they're playing by themselves.
- [33:50]
B
Or whatever they can. But there's also other people within Minecraft.
- [33:53]
A
Yeah.
- [33:53]
B
And there's a huge community. Like I said, there's over 3 billion gamers around the world. It's already making hundreds of billions of dollars. It's not slowing down, it's only scaling like crazy. This is the next generation. So there's going to be like, your kid might grow up and have a company like you, but it's developing new games or it's managing new gamers like that. It's going to be. It's going to be just as equivalent as a typical traditional sport right now.
- [34:14]
A
No, it is already because it's global.
- [34:17]
B
Like when you look at football, it's one sport, one season, one region. This is all sports all year in the globe, from India to Asia to South America, North America, Europe, Middle East, India, everyone games. They don't all watch football.
- [34:31]
A
You're right. You're right. They're all playing Minecraft, though, right? They're all playing Fortnite. Roblox.
- [34:36]
B
Billion dollar game.
- [34:37]
A
Yeah, I'm spending 100 bucks a week on Roblox.
- [34:41]
B
Right? And, like, look, there's another thing. If you're not going to a game to watch a team, where are you buying a jersey? You're not sitting in your living room. I think I'll buy a Los Angeles Charges shirt right now on my tv. Doesn't happen, but it can with games. So it's a very, very big business. Like, oh, I want to wear those sneakers while I'm running around. This field is a lot. It's a huge business, man.
- [35:04]
A
So what is your role in gaming?
- [35:06]
B
So Faze Clan was the first company I was a part of in gaming. I'm not sure if you know who they are, but they were. They became the biggest esports organization in the world. We took them to a $2 billion IPO. Started with a bunch of popular kids online that were known for trick shooting, playing Call of Duty, and, you know, I went there with my other team, a bunch of other people, when they were just popular kids online. No business model, no revenue drivers. I brought everybody from Offset, Pitbull, Swae Lee, Yo Gotti, DJ Paul, Lil Yachty, Troy Carter, all these fascinating names into it. Then we brought NFL champion Bear Brick Beats by Dre. That then made that the most cultural juggernaut in gaming.
- [35:43]
A
You own Faze Clan?
- [35:44]
B
No, no, no. I was the VP of business development. So the company I owned then I founded in with my partners, I founded another esports organization called xset, which we made that the fastest growing, most diverse and inclusive gaming organization. And then I resigned from founding that to my new company, which I'm the CEO of and, yes, I do own, which is going to become the NFL, wwe, UFC of gaming. I'm building the biggest global league.
- [36:11]
A
What is it? What's it called?
- [36:12]
B
Global Gaming League.
- [36:13]
A
Nice. Faze Clan. That's Faze Rug owns that, right?
- [36:16]
B
He's a member? Yes.
- [36:17]
A
Okay.
- [36:18]
B
Yep.
- [36:19]
A
Yeah. I mean, he's one of the biggest YouTubers on the planet.
- [36:21]
B
So then you understand what caliber of company that I helped build.
- [36:25]
A
Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing.
- [36:28]
B
You see, that went to a $2 billion IPO. What I'm building now is going to be 10 times bigger than that.
- [36:33]
A
Really? Wow.
- [36:34]
B
That was a team. What do you think makes more money? No, no, the league Florida Panthers or the NFL.
- [36:39]
A
Right, of course. Yeah. Well, Let me see if my kids can play in that league.
- [36:45]
B
That's the whole point of building this is to bring parents in, to make them understand, to create another league that kids can aspire to be a part of, parents can support because it's so much cheaper, faster and safer for your kid to become an athlete in the gaming industry than it is in sports. We know how many more injuries are happening in sports and the reality of them becoming a professional NFL and NBA players. I forget the stats, but it's like so hard.
- [37:11]
A
Yeah, yeah, it's a fraction of. A fraction of 1%.
- [37:14]
B
There's a kid that we signed in my last organization from Atlanta whose family was behind in Bill's seven months. They were about to get their house repossessed. He asked his mother to rent him a gaming console. She did. He turned around and won $150,000 in Fortnite and saved their lives. Those narratives are not being told. When you're from the hood like me, you look at sports and music as a way out. Gaming is a third vertical that nobody's talking about. Most people from the hood don't even know that this is a thing or how to get the money or where to get the money. We all know gaming is big and we all play it. We know there's a big audience, but nobody understands the business of it. I do because I've built entertainment, cultural, music, gaming brands for the past 20 years. I know how to bring them all together, commercialize it, publicize it, celebratize it and turn it into something that's authentic and maintains the integrity of traditional sports, but also brings the entertainment and celebrity value that nobody else has done or could do the way that I'm going to do it.
- [38:12]
A
You're gonna go big. I mean, when is this all going? It's already live. I'm assuming now.
- [38:15]
B
We've already got, we've. I've already raised millions. We've already got a bunch of celebrities involved, got a powerful leadership team. And we'll be announcing exactly what this is and who's involved in the next few months.
- [38:26]
A
What, what games like are gonna be involved in.
- [38:29]
B
Is the first multi title.
- [38:31]
A
You got Game of Night, you got Roblox, you got all that, man.
- [38:34]
B
Donkey Kong, Street Fighter, everything. Everything, man.
- [38:39]
A
I still play games with my kids too, you know, I'm just like.
- [38:41]
B
But imagine now there's a league that plays games that you played when you were a kid. How much more would you be interested to play or watch with your kids now?
- [38:47]
A
Oh, yeah, no I know, familiar. I mean, that's right, baby, we're getting familiar today.
- [38:51]
B
We're connecting cultures, building international bridges, uplifting underserved communities and closing age gaps all in one.
- [38:58]
A
The closing the age gaps is huge because, you know, one of the biggest things parents struggle with is like connecting with their kids now and there's that stigma with gaming. And one of the biggest things I connect with my kids other than sports is like, hey, let's play Nintendo together. Because I don't play Minecraft.
- [39:14]
B
Right.
- [39:15]
A
I don't play Fortnite either.
- [39:16]
B
It's not your speed.
- [39:17]
A
Yeah, it's not my speed, but he'll play Street Fighter and he'll play Donkey Kong with me.
- [39:22]
B
Right? Of course. So we have a stand up arcade at my house that has 200 old school games in it. My kids play Donkey Kong, pole position, golden tee, golf, everything. And they're two and five.
- [39:34]
A
That's awesome.
- [39:35]
B
Yeah.
- [39:37]
A
So what is, you know, what are some of the biggest hardships you've dealt with, starting from music all the way up until building this gaming business?
- [39:49]
B
I would say the biggest hurdle that I've consistently had to jump over throughout my career is convincing people the right thing that they should be doing for them. That's probably been the only hurdle because I haven't really had any other problems.
- [40:05]
A
And how do you continue to foster talent within your organizations, especially with these like gnarly narratives that people have in their minds?
- [40:13]
B
Well, I mean, look, when you own a big company like yourself, you're always going to step on landmines. No matter how much due diligence you do and how great your intuition is, you're going to step on a landmine here and there. But paying attention, everything goes back to caring, right? So when you pay, part of caring is paying attention and listening to any and everybody. So that's how I discover talent in places that most people wouldn't discover them because they're not even looking there because they think you got to graduate from an Ivy League school or make this much money or have sold three companies or sit at the beach and make 10 million in passive income. And like whatever all this bullshit that you hear on the Internet is, it's like, man, talent is everywhere. And the smart people look in other places that most people don't look because they're looking at a resume. I'm looking at results. So when I find somebody that's dope, I can tell someone's dope, or I know how to make them doper, or I know how to pull the dope out of them that they don't even know they have.
- [41:04]
A
Man, you've worked with some of the dopest people on the planet ever. Lady Gaga, Damon John. I mean, who's the greatest talent that you've worked with?
- [41:14]
B
Well, that's tough because everyone's talented.
- [41:16]
A
Okay, one of your favorites. That is an unfair.
- [41:18]
B
Well, I would say T Pain is insanely talented and gifted in like multiple levels. Not just like a good songwriter, not just a good producer, not just a good singer.
- [41:29]
A
I only know him as a singer.
- [41:30]
B
Yeah, like that. He's part of my company. He's one of my partners in the global Gaming League because again, back to my point, I seen the brilliance in his brain. Let's be real. The average person and T Pain will tell you this. The average person that's in a corporate America that's building businesses would look at T Pain for T Pain, the artist. Let's pay him for the cultural currency he can bring us, for the celebrity value of being T Pain. Right? But his brain, watching how he's done what he's done over the years, becoming immensely popular in the gaming industry in a way that nobody else has done. He's probably the most popular musician that's crossed over to gaming, that's monetized it and made it both operating businesses. That's monetizable. And he's the greatest at it. There's some other people like T grizzly and whatnot, but T Pain is by far the biggest, most successful musician that's went into the gaming space and learned how to turn them both into businesses. Right. And build a big audience around it. So watching him just evolve and do what he does, I was like, this guy would be perfect to be my partner in this company because he understands entertainment, he understands culture, he understands music, he understands gaming. And everything starts with just like understanding. It's not about money, it's not about your resume or like what companies you are a part of. I don't care if you weren't a part of any known companies. If I hang out with you and I listen to you talk, I just know that they missed out on magic that I'm not going to miss out on because I see it inside you. So looking at somebody like T Pain like that dude's just full of magic.
- [43:04]
A
Wow. It wasn't 50 Cent though, huh?
- [43:07]
B
What was it? 50 Cent. I did just meet 50 the other day about this too.
- [43:11]
A
Is he going to get involved?
- [43:12]
B
We'll see.
- [43:13]
A
I mean, he, he's.
- [43:14]
B
He doesn't know Much. I'm going to get him familiar.
- [43:16]
A
So he's not in the gaming space at all?
- [43:19]
B
Not yet, no.
- [43:20]
A
He's got a bunch of kids probably gaming.
- [43:21]
B
Like there's, dude, there's a lot of people. Like for the past eight years I've been running around getting everybody familiar with, with gaming that wasn't familiar.
- [43:28]
A
Snoop Dogg's been. And I know you're good friends with Snoop Dogg.
- [43:31]
B
Snoop, we're working on Snoop to be in the league as well. I have a meeting with him on Monday.
- [43:35]
A
So he.
- [43:36]
B
It's going, man, it's happening, man.
- [43:38]
A
You're going to have to get me involved now. You know, I don't know what good I'm going to be, but you know.
- [43:41]
B
Like, this is one of the smartest investments you could ever make.
- [43:45]
A
I mean, I know gaming like it's, it's one of those things like people didn't want to accept crypto. People don't want to accept like social media. Still a lot of people are like, you know, and I'm on every social media platform, platforms that people like adults like you and I are like, you're on Snapchat. Like, what the hell are you doing on Snapchat? Like that's where the youth are, you know, like you're marketing to 50 year olds. You're not marketing.
- [44:07]
B
Well, the thing with crypto, for example, you brought. It's, it's, it's too foreign and too complex to understand for the average person to social media. It's typically older people that don't understand it, right? Because I don't know, I don't even know how to post on here. How do I do, how do I find this thing on my phone? So you're talking about older folks, right? But when you're talking about forecasting trends and staying on trend or understanding what's going on, if you're a business person, you need to know what's going on with the trends. You need to know what's about to happen in all different sectors. Fashion, music, sports, all these. The one thing that always prevails, even during economic downturns has always been one thing. And it's entertainment, right? So even somebody like you, who does, we could sit here for half an hour right now and I could tell you how to grow your business even bigger than what you're doing right now without even knowing half of what you know about your business. Because everything's the same. It's the same fundamental understanding of how to grow businesses and connect with people and scale. It applies to everything. But most people don't do that. They think, well, I know mortgage. I don't know nothing about gaming. Yeah, you do. You understand people, you understand marketing, you understand business, you understand leads, you understand scalability, sustainability, you understand margins, you understand everything. It's all the same. It's just a different title. Real estate, gaming, it's all the same. But most people don't take the time to recognize that because they don't care to realize that. And if they did, they would 10 times their business because they, holy shit. Now I know how to talk to those people now. How to sell. Now I know where these people hang out now. I know what they feel, what they need. But most people don't do that. They wait for people to come to them or for people to specifically say, I need a mortgage. Well, that's what we do. How about the people that don't know they need a mortgage or what the options are? A mortgage or how to get a mortgage, or that mortgage is even a thing. That may sound silly, but a lot of people don't even know that mortgage is a thing.
- [45:53]
A
How do I buy a house? Like, do I have to have all the money?
- [45:55]
B
I don't even know exactly. That's what I'm saying. So, like this giant audience for even your business that you're not even touching.
- [46:02]
A
Well, I look at it when I try to illustrate this to the organization. Like, everybody needs money. We sell money. We're in the business of selling money. But a lot of people are just like, no, we're selling mortgages. Like, no, dude, you're selling money whether it's debt, what, you know, they need to pay off their debt. They want to buy a house, they want to buy a commercial.
- [46:17]
B
How scary that sounds. That sounds scary to somebody that's not financially literate, that's afraid to be in debt, that doesn't understand it. That sounds scary. I'm going to sell you money. That fucking sounds horrible. Do you know what I'm saying? That's a horrible position to put that in. You're not. You're selling a feeling. And now you just got to plug in what feeling you're selling. When you lead with that, you're selling hope, happy, freedom, newness, escapism. You're selling things that people need, right? Not money. That's fucking scary. Would you like me to sell you a fucking mortgage or a school loan?
- [46:55]
A
No, you don't.
- [46:56]
B
You just said it earlier. I don't want to have a school debt.
- [46:58]
A
No, you want your house.
- [47:00]
B
You're Selling intelligence. You're selling all of those things now you start thinking, like, I don't even care if I got a fucking pay it back, because I'm gonna get this fucking awesome thing that I know that I need, and that feeling is going to now encourage me to do these awesome things that I can do. Right. So that's the whole point of selling, I guess.
- [47:17]
A
Yeah. Well, that's. You know, man, you need to come in and do the conference and speak at emc, Connect and tell these guys, like, really how to. How to sell what they do.
- [47:26]
B
Well, I do that from time to time.
- [47:29]
A
I heard you do, but I.
- [47:31]
B
But I'm more busy doing dope shit than talking about dope shit.
- [47:34]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're actually implementing your man of action. Outside of, like, running all these businesses, what are some, like, the hobbies you have, some of your personal interests, you know?
- [47:43]
B
Well, you know, the funny thing is that I found what interests me the most in life and what makes me happy, and I just made that my career. So I don't need to, like, punch out to go do other things that make me happy. Because the only two things that make me happy is making people happy and being a good father. How do I do that? Spend time with my family, all the time they're part of. There's no work life balance. Like, when do I do that? It's all intertwined, right?
- [48:13]
A
And then gaming, I mean, you can easily get your kids involved in that.
- [48:16]
B
Yeah, we game. We game at home. We play on the arcade. And then the happiness is the company that I'm building, the impact that it will have on so many lives, and building something where families can now come together, where different cultures can now understand and respect one another. No race, religion, or region is blocked by gaming. And I've watched it firsthand. So if I'm gonna build, like, the biggest thing where everybody can come together and close age gaps, bring different communities together, build international bridges through this, that's not only making people happy, it's making the world happy. And that's my mission, is to make the world better. And it starts with making people better. When you make people happy, it makes the world happy. Think about it as a boss, if you come in here and you walk over to everybody on their desk and say, for no reason. You know what, man? Thank you for being a part of this company. Here's a $50 gift certificate. Please go out with your husband this weekend. Do you know what that does? The trickle effect doesn't stop with making them happy. They now go home. And that husband's now nicer to his kids, nicer to his wife, just feels happier. It just brings more happy into the home. And like, when people understand the effect and the residual effect that happens from small little things that you can do, from just not being a dick or being nicer to people, you fucking make everything better in life. If everybody does a little, no one has to do a lot.
- [49:36]
A
That's a great concept. Actually. One of my mentors actually brings that up all the time. It's just. You just gotta genuinely care. There's no faking it. And, you know, when you see somebody and you do a little act of kindness like that, I mean, it moves mountains for these.
- [49:48]
B
Totally does.
- [49:49]
A
Who don't have a lot, right?
- [49:50]
B
Going back to the beginning of my conversation, think of a time where you weren't in a good mood and somebody just said something flattering or did something that totally made you happy. Now there's the answer. In life, you just got the answer. That was the key to life. Keep doing that to other people. It's that easy. But people don't care enough to hold on to that and say, fuck, I just had an epiphany. I was in a shitty mood. This person did this. Now I'm not in a shitty mood. I just learned the formula, how to make people happy. Now go do it. That's how easy life is.
- [50:26]
A
When did this dawn on you, like, this realization that this is your purpose?
- [50:31]
B
Being a lonely, bullied kid that was sexually abused for years. That was. We were on welfare and food stamps and being the only white kid in black neighborhoods and just getting punked by older white kids in other neighborhoods, and you realize these feelings that you feel. I don't like them, and I don't want to have these feelings. And I want to try to figure out how to make other people not feel this way. It's that easy, man. I mean, we talked about alcoholism and how, like, passed down and, you know, your dad beat you, so now you beat your kid, because that's all you know now. But it's like, you don't want to know that.
- [51:05]
A
You know, coming. Being in a celebrity culture, which is basically what you were surrounded with for decades, how did you manage to stay away from all the temptations of the world? You know, drugs and sex and this and the other. All the. All the evil that you were surrounded by. You just, like, you didn't do drugs, you didn't drink, you never drank. Like, how did you do that?
- [51:27]
B
Well, I gave you the answer. Already, if you cared enough to listen.
- [51:30]
A
No, no.
- [51:31]
B
I definitely heard the answer was I built my life by design. I knew. I know when that guy gets drunk, he beats his wife. I don't ever want to do that. You can go to DUIs.
- [51:41]
A
But you didn't drink at all. Nothing.
- [51:43]
B
Why would I. It's stupid. I'm looking at people making mistakes because of drinking. Why would I do that? If a cigarette pack says you're gonna get cancer if you smoke these. Why would I do that? You're not gonna eat rat poison because it says you'll die. I'm not gonna go have sex. Not wearing a condom, randomly, promiscuously, when I know there's a thing called AIDS and herpes. Why would I do that? It makes no sense. The answers to life are right there. Don't be a fucking idiot. Just listen. It's that easy. So it's just building my life by design. I knew I didn't want to do this. I wanted to be a good dad. I wanted to be a good husband. I wanted to be a hard worker. I wanted people to welcome me back to what they just hired me to do. I wanted people to pay me more. I wanted people to be pleasant, to deal with me. I wanted to be invited places. So I built myself to be the guy that doesn't do drugs, that doesn't do this, that isn't shady, that would never fucking sell somebody out, that is trustworthy, that's going to show up when he says he's going to show up, means what he says and says what he means. It's really easy, man.
- [52:45]
A
Yeah, but for.
- [52:46]
B
By the way, I was just fucking with you on the you can't. You weren't listening to me thing.
- [52:49]
A
No, no, no, I don't think I was serious. Yeah, yeah, but you did, by the way. No, I could tell you're. You're east coaster. No, but you know, it's important for people to hear this because, you know, people slip very, very easily in a culture that.
- [53:02]
B
Because they didn't build a solid them. Because back to my original point, if you don't know who you are, people think they know who they are. You have to fucking figure out who you are, and then you have to build who you want to be, because you're probably not. When people say, oh, if he can do it, I can do it too, that's not true. Fuck out of here. Because we came from the same neighborhood, just because we were both broke, just because we both look the same, it doesn't mean Anything. It doesn't mean anything, man. Just because we're from the same place. I did it. You can do it, too. You don't know the work that I put in. You don't know the care that I put in. I'm just using me.
- [53:36]
A
I mean, but. Yeah, but you outworked everybody. You outworked me.
- [53:38]
B
But anybody, for instance, like, if, like, you. If you could do it, so can this guy. You don't know what sacrifices he made. You don't know where he came from. You don't know where his grind comes from. You don't know if he was beat up or molested or whatever it was. You don't know if he has rich parents. You don't know if he has a connection. You don't know if, like, it was easy for him or it was hard for them. It's not the same for everybody. And you don't need to worry about anybody, dude. You shouldn't compete with other people, man. You should only compete with yourself. And here's why. When you compete with other people, you're only aiming to be their best, which may never be as good as your best. But you'll never know unless you take the time to build the best. You by design. It's that easy, man.
- [54:25]
A
Is there a book called Best yout By Design?
- [54:27]
B
My new book is called Built by Design.
- [54:29]
A
Really?
- [54:29]
B
Yeah.
- [54:30]
A
You got a book coming out, Built by Design?
- [54:31]
B
Yeah. Not By Circumstance.
- [54:33]
A
Dude, that's. Yeah, that. I like it.
- [54:34]
B
I wasn't sure if I was going to make that the title.
- [54:36]
A
That's a great. That's a great title.
- [54:38]
B
All right, all right, all right. A bunch of people said it is. I was still on the fence.
- [54:41]
A
What makes you on the fence about that title?
- [54:43]
B
Because. I don't know. Because again, marketing. When you walk by, you have to just see it while walking by in an airport. That's for me. And if you look at it, you say, built by Design. What does that mean? Construction working. Does that mean that. So it doesn't clearly say, this is how it's gonna make you a better you. This is how to get the fuck out of your own way and stop letting bullshit from your past stop you from being awesome. It doesn't really say that. When you look at the COVID that's my hesitation for that title. Although everyone loves the title.
- [55:11]
A
Yeah, the title, Built by Design or whatever, I just.
- [55:14]
B
Not by Circumstance.
- [55:16]
A
That's a powerful title. I mean, you're not putting a picture of a building on there where they're.
- [55:21]
B
Gonna like you Got to assume that everybody thinks differently. And you know, most people hang out with like minded people because they want their ideas endorsed, right? Think about with your friends that you hang out with and known for a while. Halfway through what you're saying, you're like, you know what I mean? They're like, yeah, totally, because they know how you think. You guys think the same. I purposely, throughout my life have looked for people that didn't think like me because I already know how to sell to me. I already know how I feel. If I want to know how to be able to sell to other people or relate to other people or help other people, I need to know how other people think. As weird as I may think it is, as dumb as I may think it is, it's real and it exists. And you can even learn from someone that you may think is dumb. You can learn how not to be dumb, right? You can learn how not to say things like that or get in trouble like them, or approach a conversation like them. So a lot of people dismiss someone that they categorize like, ah, that guy's a fucking idiot. I want to talk to that idiot. Because first of all, as we all know, a broken clock is right twice a day. And then second of all, an idiot is going to teach me how idiots think. And guess what? Unfortunately, there's a lot of fucking idiots in the world.
- [56:27]
A
I mean, a lot of, I mean, big percentage of society, sadly, big percentage of society. And they're becoming more idiots because of.
- [56:36]
B
Social media, because of not applying some of the principles I'm saying by letting the world just, you know, they're not built by design. They're following what that says. They're following that social media, they're following this ill advice. They're following these rumors, these conspiracies, these lies about making money, these ways to do this. It's like, dude, throw it all away. Sit in a room by yourself, delete the world. Pretend everything that you've learned doesn't exist, right? And just say, what kind of person do I want to be? What kind of life do I want to have? Fuck this guy telling me if I invest, if I leverage a bank and I get 10 billion, I can do it's not fucking real to 99% of the people. What is real is building a great you. And everything that's real starts with a great you or it's not real.
- [57:26]
A
I'm hoping that this, this, this podcast and I'm. And that's your perpetual message to the world anyways. But you know, Those listening, especially those who work for E Mortgage Capital, are implementing this, this thing. Let me ask you a couple questions here.
- [57:39]
B
And well, you guys are saying we gotta wrap it up. And by the way, that was a great ending.
- [57:43]
A
No, no, we got, I got.
- [57:44]
B
Pause a second, sat back and be.
- [57:46]
A
Like, that's it, guys. Thanks, Marks. I got a couple of last questions here. I just, just, just for our, you know, for our shorts, you know, what's your favorite quote you live by?
- [57:56]
B
My favorite quote is probably one of my own quotes.
- [58:05]
A
What is it?
- [58:06]
B
Which is. And I've said, I've said a couple of my own quotes here. But don't fool yourself to believe that once you escape your nightmares. No, no, no, no. Don't fool yourself to believe that once you make your dreams a reality that you've now escaped your nightmares.
- [58:21]
A
I like that.
- [58:23]
B
Actually, I got a better one. Ask me again, what's your favorite quote? My favorite quote is one of my own, which is, you should only compete with yourself and not compete with others. Because when you compete with others, you're only aiming to be their best, which may never be as good as your best.
- [58:40]
A
I love that quote, by the way.
- [58:41]
B
Thank you.
- [58:42]
A
And then what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
- [58:45]
B
Best piece of advice I ever received is everything will work out in the end. If it didn't work out, then it's not the end.
- [58:55]
A
Man, you're just dropping beats right now.
- [58:58]
B
I don't know where I heard that from, by the way.
- [58:59]
A
That's a great one too. And then what do you think the most painful thing is that you've ever been told?
- [59:07]
B
The most painful thing I've ever been told. Good question. Never got that one. Most painful thing. Oh, dad, I'm moving out. My 19 year old moved out like six months ago. And he was like, I'm gonna move out. And I was like, wait, what?
- [59:22]
A
Where'd he go?
- [59:23]
B
Just downtown la. But for two weeks. I mean, you would've thought he died. I was crying every single day. I was distraught. Every day for two weeks. Because look, as much as people will say like, ah, dude, you're, you're overdoing it, or he's right down the street. What you don't understand, especially if you don't have kids that moved out, is especially me and my son being best friends. We came up together through so much that there's no more good morning hugs, there's no more going to bed hugs. There's no more like making breakfast for him. Say, hey man, I Made you breakfast or hey, want to go chill in the Jacuzzi or want to watch a movie together? Want to take a ride? Like that doesn't exist anymore. And, you know, now I'm fortunate enough to just be, you know, a small piece of my son's life when at one point I was my son's life. So, like, it hurts a lot. It feels like somebody died because really an era died that you can never get back. How old are your kids?
- [60:26]
A
10, nine, four and three.
- [60:28]
B
Yeah. So you, you got all that to look forward to. You're welcome. I got a 2 and a 5 year old. I have to go through this again. Maybe it won't be as hard the sec, the, the second and third time, but man, I gotta tell you, man, people thought my son died, how sad I was.
- [60:43]
A
And that sounds like it. That sucks.
- [60:46]
B
Yeah, it does suck.
- [60:47]
A
And he's your best friend. You were talking about him, raving about him, you know.
- [60:50]
B
Yeah, like, look, and I don't even tell him these things. He doesn't know how probably listen right now. No, he doesn't know how messed up I am because I don't want to give him that burden to feel bad. I want him to thrive. I want him to live his life. And I wrote a song when he was like 6 years old that was about this very moment, about letting him go. When you need to fly and stop the show if you need to cry. I have a whole song and now I had to live it when I sang it and it sucked.
- [61:16]
A
And you kind of like manifested it.
- [61:18]
B
Well, I mean, it's going to happen assuming he doesn't die.
- [61:22]
A
God be with them, man.
- [61:23]
B
Thank you so much. Thank you.
- [61:25]
A
You're an awesome father, raised great kids. And I can only hope and pray that I raise kids like you.
- [61:33]
B
See, that's the best compliment I could ever get, a father compliment, because I put a lot of work into everything. But that's the thing that brings me the most pride to look at my kids. And when I see people compliment them or when I see them figuring things out, or when I see them doing the right thing by other people. Like my 2 year old hasn't really got there yet, but my 5 year old's already following in my 20 year old's footsteps of just being a good person and has a Boston sarcastic sense of humor at 5 years old already. So you got the right, you got all Boston. You got the humor, the sarcasm, but then you got keeping people honest and doing the right thing all like in one trait.
- [62:14]
A
Let me Let me ask you this, what's. What do you think the most popular business principle is that you've implemented in your business is your book. I'm deeply listening here.
- [62:25]
B
Okay. The best business advice principle, principle or.
- [62:30]
A
Mindset that you implement in your business right now.
- [62:34]
B
Well, I know I'm going to sound like a broken record, but it's not something I do in business that it didn't stem from what I do in my life. So all my businesses are just a carbon copy or a reflection of what I built me to be. So it's. I'll tell you how about this. I'll tell you what I tell my company. There's no room for water cooler talk. There's no room for talking shit about each other. There's no room for creating problems or tension in this company. If there's a problem or you don't like something with somebody, you approach them. If you don't like or you feel awkward doing that, come to me, we'll do it together. If you feel the need to talk shit or start creating clicks within the company, there's no room for you here in this company. So I'll tell you that's one principle that I have within my company. Why? Because I want happiness and it's my job to defend happy. So if I'm going to create happy, I must defend it too.
- [63:25]
A
Amazing. Amazing. And this just because my team wanted me to ask you this. What do you think the most monumental relationship is that you've made outside of Jack?
- [63:38]
B
Oh, I assume you meant celebrity. Do you mean celebrity?
- [63:41]
A
What's the most monumental celebrity relationship or relationship in general? I mean, I've seen you with.
- [63:47]
B
Relationship in general would be. Would be my son Jack.
- [63:49]
A
Jack, yeah, but.
- [63:50]
B
Yeah, but outside of Jack, my partner Kamau, who I produced all of my big records with and we share life philosophies together for 20 years. We'll be in the studio and for like three, four or five hours of our session, we're just talking about life and working and navigating and working through theories and like, why do people do this? And you know, why does our wife do this? And then we talk it out. We don't gossip and complain. We try to understand and fix and philosophize. Is that the right word, philosophize? Better. Better ways of navigating and handling things. So I would say he's my most profound, meaningful relationship outside of my wife.
- [64:37]
A
Excellent. And two last questions I'm asking. This is a three pronged question. What's a personal goal that you have for yourself a business goal that you have for the business and a family goal that you have for the family.
- [64:48]
B
They're all the same. Making them happy and healthy.
- [64:52]
A
Awesome.
- [64:53]
B
That's it.
- [64:54]
A
And then last question. I ended with this question with everybody. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's gonna tell you?
- [65:02]
B
Good job, man. Proud of you.
- [65:05]
A
You know, I knew from the bottom of my heart that that's gonna be the answer. And I know that God's gonna also do the same, say the same.
- [65:13]
B
Well, you know, I'll tell you just on that note. I believe because of, you know, the first half of my life, there's a lot of shit I had to go through. And whoever's listening, whether it's God or whatever, whatever energy is the thing that you kind of look to. I believe. I don't mean to get too spiritual on this moment, but, like, I believe that because I know who I was, where I came from, what I am, and what I do now. It was almost like, look, man, I'm going to put you through shit. I'm going to give you a shitty life, and I'm going to test you over and over and over again, but I'm going to give you the strength to go through it, because when you go through it, you're going to have powers and an understanding to then go out and help all those other people that don't understand it. So I would go through being molested again. I would go through being lonely, bullied, homeless, all of it again, if I knew I could be the man that I am today because I like the man that I am today because I'm built by design, not by circumstances.
- [66:15]
A
Love it. Love it. You've been an absolute blessing, man. God bless you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming on this show.
- [66:21]
B
By the way, anyone watching live right now, follow me. Lintonsparks if you like what I had to say. I give a lot of game and positive messages every day.
- [66:28]
A
Yeah. So before we end, how's everyone?
- [66:31]
B
Sparks on every social platform and then also follow lobalgamingleague if you want to see me make history.
- [66:38]
A
You know, how do we get our kids involved at Global Gaming League?
- [66:42]
B
We'll talk.
- [66:42]
A
Yeah, I'm serious about that. Just because I need to, like, hone that energy in for my kids and I've been hard on them for gaming, and I feel bad about it now.
- [66:51]
B
I think this is going to truly turn parents around.
- [66:53]
A
Yeah. And I. And I want to turn that around. And I know that, you know, it can be leveraged for good. And I know because I've talked to adults who've played Minecraft. They're like, have you ever tried to play this game? This is a hard game. So.
- [67:06]
B
Well, thank you so much for having me, brother.
- [67:07]
A
Bless you, man. Thank you. All right, thanks, everybody, for watching at Clinton. Smart. Yeah, we got a. We got a brand new one for you at the end of box. Yeah, no, this is even on the show. We got. We got. And we need to get some signed merch from you, too.
- [67:18]
B
Awesome, you guys.
- [67:20]
A
Thank you, guys.