← Julian Dorey Podcast
Julian Dorey Podcast
#352 - Rap Mogul UNLOADS on Dreams, Delusions, Kanye’s Secret & Nike Story | Charlie Rocket
03:10:01
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:11]
B
Rocket. This is a full circle moment for me, my man. So back in 2019, before I had this podcast, and I was trying to figure out a lot of things in my life, it was, like, a very important year for me, like self discovery, if you will. I remember seeing a video of you on Instagram at the time that was from the Ed Mylett show, where you walked Ed through this theory that you had discovered on life called the IMU Theory, which I am telling you to this day. You and I were talking off camera. I told you. It's been mentioned probably 20 different episodes throughout the history of my podcast. I tell it to everyone I know. It is the best theory I have ever heard in my life. It explains human existence and human relationships all at the same time. And I'm sure we'll go over it today so people can be refreshed on what it is. If you haven't heard me say it a million times, but, dude, like, whatever that perspective was that you captured through your strictly, like, your curiosity to then put all these different things together across culture, I was like, that guy is a fucking genius. So to see that you eventually saw a video of me talking about that all these years later, and. And then found me through social media, and you and I have become friends. It's a really. I don't know, it's a really special thing for me and very, very validating in kind of where I'm at at this point. So thanks for being here, bro.
- [01:34]
A
What's crazy is, when I saw the video of you, I was like, this guy articulated it better than I did. I said, this guy's a genius. And immediately I was like, I got to get this guy on the phone. I'm the type when I'm inspired by somebody, I have to talk to him.
- [01:48]
B
I. I like that.
- [01:49]
A
And I'm like, I have to ask them questions. You might be looking at me as a smart guy. I'm like, no, this guy is smart. This guy's the future. I've always had this gift of being able to, like, see around the corner of, like, almost like, somebody's future. Yeah. I've never actually seen somebody as they are today. I only see, like, their future version. And that's what made me, like, a good manager. Like, I take somebody who literally has nothing, and I only see their future. I don't even know how not to. I do not see that. They don't have this or that. But when I saw you, I was like, oh, my God, this guy's the greatest thing that Podcasting has ever had. And I truly believe that I tell my girlfriend, I'm like, this guy. This is the guy right here.
- [02:28]
B
Well, thank you. That's pretty crazy to hear. What is it? Use, like, what makes you able to see in people their future rather than who they are right now?
- [02:39]
A
I think it's. I'm naturally a delusional optimist.
- [02:48]
B
Delusional optimist.
- [02:49]
A
Delusional optimist. To where, like, I see a lot with my, like, heart instead of, like, my brain. So brain needs to, like, be realistic. Heart just kind of knows stuff. Like, for example, if I were to say, like, follow your. What would you say?
- [03:07]
B
Dreams.
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A
Okay. What's another thing you would say? Follow your.
- [03:10]
B
Your heart.
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A
Okay. Those two things.
- [03:12]
B
Yeah.
- [03:13]
A
Now name another organ. Follow your brain. It feels weird, right? Both are organs, though.
- [03:20]
B
They are.
- [03:21]
A
And like, dreams are never associated with the brain. So it's like when I, like, feel something, I don't feel it here. This is going to. My brain is going to tell me, okay, this guy's on the come up. How many views does he get? Or like, oh, no, he's doing all right. But I mean, it might not be Joe Rogan, but it's like. But that's all. Well, that's the brain's job, right? Sure. I have been extremely blessed in my life to learn how to get my brain to be an employee for my heart. Usually it's a war. It's usually a war. Heart says, I want something, or I like something, or, oh my goodness, that's my dream. I want that. Brain goes into this place of liking it first. Brain's like, that's a great idea, but.
- [04:10]
B
But there it is.
- [04:11]
A
And then there's like this, like, there's this place called the Valley of Reality. And that's where, like, most everything dies. And it's because of the brain. Brain says, no, what about if this happens? Okay, we need to be smart about this and let me, like, connect dots based upon my current knowledge. Nothing to deal with the future. Brain doesn't even know what the future is. Brain only can think about the past or how to size somebody up or something up or a dream up. So I've just been very blessed to be able to get my brain to be like, heart, you know what you're doing. I'm here to work for you. Because when the brain takes a lead, man, it really messes some stuff up.
- [04:59]
B
Gets crowded up there with a lot of thoughts. It gets really loud, too. I mean, from one overthinker to whoever else is listening out there that can understand that. That's. That's the pitfall. But I think, you know, there's also something ironically based on like the IMU theory that you gave. This kind of ties right into it. But there was something very inspiring and seeing you and your come up and what you did, because you literally started in your mom's basement as a kid, you know, like underdog. And you just love one thing above all, which was music. And you're like, I love hip hop music, so I'm going to fuck with this. And I think a lot of people out there, when I'll talk with people who are trying to start something, whether it's a podcast, a YouTube channel, or, you know, some new endeavor, the brain kind of comes right in and starts in the conversation, be like, well, what if I can't have this? Or, well, I have thought about this and I don't know if I could be able to do that. And yet I go back to when I first started to do this. And I know it's the same way when you were a kid starting to do what you did, it's like you just didn't think about it. You're like, I fudge with this. That's what I want. That's what I love. I'm a go for it. And if that's delusional, then I love being delusional.
- [06:11]
A
Delusional is amazing, bro.
- [06:13]
B
Yeah.
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A
Oh, my God. I. Let me tell you, man, being delusional, like, I'm a delusional optimist. So, like, if I were starting a podcast, let's say for example, I would go into it and be like, okay, who's the biggest in the world? Oh, wow, there's a lot of big podcasts. It might be easy. I actually do this all the time. I always go to, like, it's easy. It's kind of like a little like life hack or like theory I have. And I always just need proof that it's easy.
- [06:45]
B
Hey, guys, if you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button. It is the number one thing that we need to get our videos into the algorithm. So I appreciate all of you who have been doing that and all of you who are going to do so now enjoy this episode.
- [06:58]
A
And I'm like, so I get to talk on a microphone, have really interesting conversations, and I get to like, learn how to, like, edit a video, and if it goes viral, then I'll get more listeners. So I just need to get really good at like, talking and editing. Like, okay, that sounds pretty easy. How long did it take for, like, this podcast to blow up or this podcast to blow up? Okay, that's it. Like, that's really not that bad. And then I actually show up because I believe it's going to be easy versus the brain takes over. Well, how am I going to get my first guest or, like, who's going to, like, set up the lighting and, like, I don't know how to edit? And then now I didn't even start a podcast at that point. I'm done. I quit Valley of Reality took me out the game. Because you start thinking it's hard.
- [07:51]
B
Yeah.
- [07:52]
A
And the reality is it is hard.
- [07:54]
B
Do you think some of that has to do with. Subconsciously you're thinking about the time Right. When you. When you're thinking about a task and something that's hard? A lot of the reasons that it's hard is not because it's like rocket science or something like that. It's hard because it's like you start thinking about, oh, how long will it take me to figure that out or learn how to do this thing that then allows me to just do the baseline to get better at that thing over time, which takes how much more time? Right. Like, you start. You start, like, almost quantifying in your head time as the ultimate barrier to what you want to get.
- [08:28]
A
I. I'm gonna just tell you a story. Okay. I'm in the music business. I'm managing some of the biggest artists in hip hop. I'm £300 and I'm at 2 Chainz's house. And it's Grammy week, and we're most likely about to win our very first Grammy. We were nominated for five Grammys. I have the biggest studio in Atlanta with my business partners called Street Execs. I had amazing business partners, tech and Al. I have five of the biggest artists in hip hop. I remember Atlanta's radio station, Hot 1079 did the top seven at seven, and I had six out of the seven songs. Like, I was like this chubby little white kid from Atlanta who had a dream. And, like, I became like. Like the king, I guess, of sorts, as, like, a manager. Yeah. And I met 2 Chainz's house, and I reached down in the closet to pick up some socks. I was staying in his guest bedroom at the time, and I passed out. When I got up, I could not stop the room for spinning. I'm going to say this for four days. I wasn't in the closet for four days, but I couldn't get the World to stop spinning for four days. Come to find out I'm diagnosed with a brain tumor. And my entire life, I was always, one plus one equals two. When it comes to business, that's a very. If I do this, I will get this. And my mom, she would always say to me, like, in my success, she's like, make sure you put God first and thank him for this. And I'm like, I don't know what that means. And I would be honest with her. I was like, I passed out those CDs every night at 4am Even when we have the number two song in the country. I'm outside the club in my suit at 4am passing out the CDs. I'm like, if I do this, I will get this. One plus one equals two. Here I am, sick with a brain tumor, 300 pounds in the music industry. And I close my eyes, and I would see my dream. The dream I buried a lot. I buried it when I was a kid.
- [11:04]
B
Your brain buried it?
- [11:05]
A
My brain buried it because it was. It didn't make any sense. As a kid, I was chubby, I was short, and I was slow. But what was my dream? I wanted to be an athlete. You get to that age, you need something to be good at for girls to like you. Duh. Like, I'm not making the team. So I buried a dream because I needed something to be good at. Simple. And so I went into business. So here I am, sick with a brain tumor. Close my eyes, and I see my dream. And I look at my life as if it was a movie. I actually saw, like, a screen in a theater. And I said, here's a. Here's a really good kid named Charlie. He buried a dream. He went on to be a businessman and make a lot of money and make a lot of really good things happen. And he gets sick and he dies. And I said, that has a terrible rotten tomato score. Like, that's like a 19. It's like one of those embarrassing rotten tomato scores. I asked myself, and I'm very sad and depressed at this time. Scared, really. I'm. I'm laughing about it now, but my brain knows how to, like, erase a lot of pain.
- [12:30]
B
This is 2017.
- [12:31]
A
This is 2017. Impressive.
- [12:34]
B
I remember you've told. Not this exact story, but you've told.
- [12:38]
A
Like, when it happened, stalker vibes. Okay. Okay. So I said, what would make a good story? What if I lived a good story? That'd be a good Rotten Tomatoes score. And so I started asking myself questions. Well, what if I Left the music industry. And what if I went and chased my dream of being an athlete? Brain kicks in. Come on, Charlie, how are you going to make money? Hart says, if I'm going to die, I need to know what it's like being an athlete. Brain kicks in. Be like. You need to be realistic. You're not going to play for the Lakers. You're not going to be in the Olympics. We're talking about you're going on a jog. I was like, Hart says, no, like, when I was a kid, I was eight years old, I wanted to be an athlete. My favorite company was Nike. The first stock I ever bought was Nike. Like, I love Nike. Michael Jordan. I would read every book. No, for real. I had a choice of wearing Asics today. And I put on the Nikes because I was like, it's good juju. It's good fricking juju. I love Nike. So my heart started taking over and I was like, what if, what if, what if? It's easy, okay? This is where the delusional optimism comes in. And it's like, what if I left the music industry? What if I went and did the most difficult thing I had ever done? What if I did an Ironman? And what if I lost the weight? And what if I become a really big inspiration? What if Nike actually needs somebody like me more than they need just another person who runs fast? What if I made a fan made Nike commercial and it was like the most inspiring Nike commercial ever? What if Nike sees it? And what if Nike signs me? And what if my dream dream came true? And what if that inspired like millions and millions and millions of people to like, maybe take that leap?
- [14:51]
B
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- [16:33]
A
Will thank you and allow their heart to drive and not their mind. And I kind of brainwashed myself. Now, now, brainwash sounds like a really bad thing. But like if I were to ask you a question, Julian, if your hands are dirty, what are you going to do?
- [16:49]
B
Wash them off.
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A
Okay, so why is brainwashing a bad thing?
- [16:52]
B
It depends on the context. I see exactly what you're saying.
- [16:55]
A
If my brain is dirty with negative thoughts thinking this is not possible, what's the right thing to do?
- [17:01]
B
Clean it off.
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A
Clean it off. And so like I literally brainwashed myself and I got my brain basically working for my heart and I was like, no, we're going to do this.
- [17:10]
B
How'd you do that? And how long did that take to do that?
- [17:13]
A
To do what?
- [17:14]
B
To actually brainwash yourself.
- [17:16]
A
Oh, it's, it's, it's a couple days.
- [17:18]
B
A couple days?
- [17:19]
A
Yeah, it's a couple days. Because the second I can see something, I believe it. My eyes don't have to be open to see. But if you're sitting in the dark and you can't see anything, you just sit there until you see something because it is there. Like literally, like if you were to close Your eyes right now, you might not see anything. You sit there long enough, you will start seeing things. And I kept seeing this commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams, and I literally believed it. And I. I went to my artist, I went to my business partners, and I told. I told them what I was going to do.
- [18:05]
B
How old are you at this time?
- [18:06]
A
28. 29. 29.
- [18:09]
B
Young as hell. Young star in your business.
- [18:12]
A
Yep.
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B
You're making a lot of money.
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A
A lot of money.
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B
And you're like, I'm ready to just, like, 103,000.
- [18:20]
A
Just walk away on top of just going to walk away and go live an interesting life. That would have a good Rotten Tomatoes score. Because more money does not mean the movie's going to be good. It's actually like, we're just going to make more money. But, like, you are sick and you're going to die. No, no, no, no. So I left. I left, and everybody was wondering, is Charlie okay? Like, we know he's sick, but he's sitting here talking about he's going to be a Nike athlete. And I would, like, speak it to everybody I had a chance to speak it with. And I would say it in a way. I wouldn't even let people have an opinion. They would probably have opinions when they're not talking directly to me. But you know how they say, I'm not gonna say anything. I don't want to jinx it.
- [19:19]
B
Yeah.
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A
And then you know how, like, they'll say, like, oh, like, I'm just gonna, like, go into hiding. I'm gonna pop out, like. And it's like, I'm not even gonna tell anybody. No more talk. I'm just gonna do it. I was the opposite.
- [19:32]
B
You spoke it into existence.
- [19:34]
A
Well, not just spoke it. Like, there's, like, this process I have in, like, my, like, delusional optimism and, like, me brainwashing myself into believing something's gonna be easy. Because at this time, I'. Path. I'm, like, training for the Olympics. Might take eight years. That sounds hard. I'm not going to do that. I was like, I'm going to find the easiest path for my dream, and it's going to be easy. But what I do is I tell everybody what I'm going to do. I remember I told this doctor, okay, I'm going into the doctor's office, and I'm extremely overweight. And I told the doctor, well, one, he says, you got to get this under control.
- [20:14]
B
This is after you're diagnosed with a brain tissue.
- [20:16]
A
Yes. You got to get this weight under control. At the time, I was a binge eater. I was. I would eat 15,000 calories in a night. I was addicted to food and it controlled my life.
- [20:28]
B
Was that something you had been. That you'd struggle with since being a kid?
- [20:32]
A
Absolutely, because I had been on a diet since I was 8. I was always trying to be an athlete, so I needed to be on a diet. But I would, like, restrict my food. And then what would, like, what would happen if you, like, held your breath.
- [20:44]
B
For like two minutes, eventually breathe really fucking hard.
- [20:48]
A
That was me with food. And so, like, I knew no, no difference to like, restrict, binge, restrict, binge. And it got to this, like, really dark place where it would restrict so much that I would binge to the point where I would try to make myself sick. I would eat. I would go from one gas station that had like, Mrs. Fields cookies to another gas station that would have, like, Krispy Kreme doughnuts. And then I would drive to another gas station that had like, the ice cream sandwiches with the Mrs. Field cookies, like the two cookies on both sides. And then I would drive to Wendy's and I would like, be like, okay, I've messed up on my diet. I'm just going to make myself so sick that I'm never going to want to do this again. Like, I'm going to overdose intentionally to inspire me to be like, this is the last time I'm ever doing this. And I remember I went to. I went to Wendy's and the lady, she would see me every day. She was a big, big lady who worked at the drive thru. And she saw me one night and she said, you got to stop coming here. And I had never. I mean, she's like my friend, but I had never had anybody at a business tell me something. So, like, start. And she, I was like, what are you talking about? She said, you're going to kill yourself. And I was like, kind of like, taken back. I'm like, like, who are you to tell me, you know? But, like, I'm embarrassed because when I would binge, I would always do it in hiding. I'd never go to a restaurant. I would be in my car. I'll go to the gas station. I eat in my car. And there was this one day, I get the Wendy's. I'm sitting in my car and my best friend, she calls me. She said, where you at? I was like, I'm at the studio and I'm sitting in my car, just, just frosty, two or three baconators like, making myself sick. And I see a black Dodge Charger pull into the Wendy's parking lot. And she drives a black Dodge Charger, but I'm like, there's. It's Atlanta. There's a thousand black Dodge Chargers. There's a million black Dodge Charger. And the black Dodge Charger drives around the Wendy's, pulls up, parks right beside me. And she rolls down the window, and I'm like, fuck, it's my best friend Tasia. And she looks at me and she's like, we got to get you help. Like, it was like that. She would catch me digging in the trash can in the middle of the night because I would see, like, she would go out, come back with macaroni and cheese, eat some of was still in the to go box, and she would throw it away, and I would see that there was still some macaroni and cheese left. And so she would, like, catch me digging in the trash can like it was a sickness that I had. So do you think it's because.
- [23:48]
B
I'm just curious here, because you said it came from when you were a little kid. Do you think that emanated from maybe spending a lot of time alone and that was, like, a joy you had that you'd be able to eat or something like that? Like, what did that come from, you think?
- [24:07]
A
When I learned how to make a sandwich, I started eating too much. When I got to the height where I can make a sandwich of peanut butter and jelly, it was mayonnaise and turkey, and it was like, I would just. I just. I would just. I liked it. It was. It was good. But I love sports, so I would train and train and train. But then I'd eat and eat and eat, and then I would diet and restrict, and then the balance of that is eat and then diet, restrict. It was just a vicious cycle. So I'm at this. I'm at the doctors, and he said, you got to get this under control. And this is about the fourth person who has told me this, because when you're overweight, it's very rare that people ever are honest with you. I'm talking about so extremely rare. My artist quest from Travis Porter, this lady from Wendy's, my best friend Tasia, and this doctor, he said, you are out of control. And I told him what I was going to do. Abracadabra style. Like, I always speak things. Abracadabra means as I speak, I create. And that's always been a secret of my success in the music industry. Anything I've Ever done. I say what I'm going to do to everybody, I get an opportunity to. And I said in 10 months I'm going to do an iron man. And he said, son, he's like an older gentleman. He says, son, you need to set realistic goals because you're just going to let yourself down. And I said, excuse me. He said if you set a small goal it'll be easier for you not to disappoint yourself. I said first of all, please don't ever tell me to be realistic. Second of all, is it going to be easy? He said, what? I said I'm going to do an iron man and I'm going to do it in 10 months and I'm going to just train like an 8 year old would. Because I looked up the Ironman training schedule and it was so freaking complex, bro. It was like swim this many laps at this heart rate and then at this stroke and then bike at this heart rate for this long. I was like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not doing none of that. I went to the bottom of the page and it said two hours every single day of training. And so I was like 14 hours, okay, when I was 8 and I went on a bike ride on a Saturday with my friends, we biked for a couple hours. Okay, that's Ironman training. Okay, we're swimming at the pool for a couple hours. That's not that a couple hours, okay, eight year old, that's Ironman training and we're running for a couple hours. What bro, like running around the park as a kid or playing basketball all day long. We're not talking about two hours, we're talking about eight, nine hours of playing. That's Ironman training. I said I'm going to train like an 8 year old and I'm going to have fun and I'm a play and I'm going to do an Ironman and I'm going to lose all this weight. And he said, he said son, you need to be realistic. A year and a half later I walk in his doctor's office and what is on his lobby table?
- [27:47]
B
A magazine cover with you on it.
- [27:49]
A
Doing the Iron Man Runner's World magazine.
- [27:52]
B
There you go.
- [27:53]
A
And I picked it up and I walked in and I showed it to him and he said, son, I always knew you were special. I was like, thank you for always believing in me.
- [28:16]
B
At least he's a good sport about it. It's funny as what's it, I mean it's amazing that you did something like that and obviously along the way also got yourself healthier and lost a lot of weight. And I want to talk about like what ended up happening with the brain tumor. But even before that, like this visit with the doctors after you've been diagnosed, you can, I think you said you went to like four different doctors or something. Like when you go to the first one though, after you pass out in the at 2 Chain's house and everything's spinning, you're like, what the fuck is wrong? And they put you in the fucking machine and they're like, oh my God, you have a brain tumor. Here it is on. Yep, on the mri. What, what is that moment like?
- [28:54]
A
Well, for me it was a not again moment. When I was 17, my childhood was like half paralyzed underneath my bed.
- [29:08]
B
Paralyzed underneath your bed?
- [29:10]
A
Swear to God. I'm talking about under my bed with pillows surrounding the bed, no light, no sound. Because for five years straight, when I would get done eating lunch at school, I'd get the most God awful migraines ever. It went on so long. And I'm going to a doctor and they give me migraine medicine. People have migraines, that's a thing. So I take the medicine. I'm like, it's not working. Every year, progressively the migraines got worse. Now what also happened every year, you said on the phone, you said I'm a pattern like identifier. Yes, I identified a couple patterns. One, I would eat really unhealthy at school. Two, I was running businesses in high school. The more stress I had and the more I ate unhealthy, the more imbalance of my pituitary gland and the hormones. And it grew a brain tumor that was so big and it was, it was putting pressure on my eye. It was wrapped around like the, the artery going into my breath, restricting the blood flow into my brain that if I walked upstairs at school, I would get to the top and have this like, like this like shock in my brain. And I guess it was from the, the lack of blood flow. I remember this one time like in my backyard, there was this guy walking past my window. He was working with my dad on the yard. And it scared the living crap out of me that he was like, outside my window. I'm like, boogeyman. And it gave me like a two minute, like, I'm not going to say seizure, but a paralyzed where I couldn't move because of the lack of blood. So I was first diagnosed at age 17. They gave me medication, went away. I'm doing great until 2728 years old. So I knew. And so it was like, oh, wow, not again. The difference this time, medication wasn't working. They kept up in my medication and to. To a place where it was like four times the amount to try to get my levels. And it started affecting my heart valves. That's a side effect of this medication at too high of a dosage. And so this is when I asked the doctors, I'm like, does this have anything to do with how I eat? And does this have anything to do with, like, me being stressed? I had just lost one of my artists. Bankroll Fresh got shot and killed. Rest in peace, Bankroll Fresh. And it was a lot of, like, violence at our studio and like our empire grew so big that it kind of like had some issues. You know, there was just a lot going on violence wise. And another one of my artists was getting shot at several times and the studio was on the news. And I was on the news because I didn't want to be one of those owners. It's like, no comment. When I'm walking out of the studio, I was like, I'll come talk to y'. All. You know, I'll go get crucified in front of the, you know, neighborhood association meeting. Because people's houses have bullets in them behind our studio because there's so many bullets flying. So there was a lot of stress and I was very unhealthy. And so I asked the doctors, I said, how much of this has to do with, like, my food and my stress? And they said, no, just a certain percentage of people get this type of tumor and it's usually easily managed.
- [32:52]
B
So it's not, is it. Is it cancer?
- [32:54]
A
No, it's not cancer. It's just mine was, I guess, just out of control. I guess I've lived a much more extreme life than most people. And for me, it was just a recipe for it being extremely invasive through my brain. I mean, it was there for so long, it started corroding the top of my spine. Like it just sat on it. So long story short, I kind of took things into my own hands and I was like, I'm going to go learn everything there is about health if I'm going to achieve my dream. And I went to a longevity center in Florida for two months, and it's just all old people there. And I loved it. I walked away from the music business and I'm in a old folks longevity center. And I even took one of the guys to the strip club. Like, we snuck out. I swear to God we snuck out and apparently word spreads really fast with the old ladies. And when we walked in for breakfast the next morning, they were the little old ladies. I'll never forget because I never heard it called this. They were like, I heard you went to the girly club.
- [34:08]
B
And I was like, you know women, they never stop gossiping.
- [34:12]
A
But long story short, I had a blast. Learned everything about health, and I was on my way. I solved my food addiction. I started eating living food.
- [34:21]
B
You solved your food addiction?
- [34:23]
A
Absolutely. How did you do that, brother? It was quite simple. Simple, it was not complicated. One, I need to be full. Rule number one, I am not restricting ever again. I need the top of my stomach to fill up. So I learned a simple philosophy at this place, and the place is called Pritikum. And they said that if I eat a pound of strawberries, which is like this much, a pound of strawberries, heaping, it's 150 calories. And they're like, well, when you're cooking your chicken over there and you're cooking with oil, just a little bit of oil in the bottom of the pan that you're using on the chicken and then on the vegetables. You think you're eating healthy. Just the oil is 150 calories. And is that hitting the top of your stomach? Little bit of oil? No, it's hardly coating the bottom of my stomach. The goal is to be full. When I learned that a baked potato, I could eat like seven baked potatoes for the same amount of calories is like a big old bag of chips. I'm like, I could down a bag of chips like it's nothing, but I can. I can't even eat seven baked potatoes. And it's like, just put salsa on it. I'm like, salsa's actually pretty good, like on a baked potato. So I just replaced with the most lowest calorie dense food on planet earth. And there's like a. I would just search Google. How many calories are in a pound of oil? 4,000 calories per pound of oil. How many calories are in a pound of sweet potatoes? 250. And I'm just like, I'm going to eat those foods and I'm going to always be full. Now, what did all those foods have in common? They're like living real foods. Like, not touched by a machine. They're like, it's just like God grew them.
- [36:10]
B
Ain't that funny how that works, right? It's like we evolved backwards, right? Started using the machines and putting all kinds of shit in Us now did that. Like, you hadn't eaten a lot of foods like that before. I mean, the places you were describing earlier, the direct opposite. Was there a. A jump there from going from being used to, like, the taste of, you know, sweet, processed foods to natural foods that when we're kids, we're. We're kind of wired in a weird way by society to be like, oh, the natural food isn't the treat. The treat is the thing with sugar. So we think that this is, like, oh, we got to. Whereas this is, like, we want to.
- [36:50]
A
This is why I appreciate rock bottom so much, because it really makes everything easy. Like, I always say, like, Santa Claus delivers the presence in the dark. That's the delusional optimism in me. And it's like, if I'm in a really bad place, it's so easy to have motivation to do something very difficult. And so, like, I went, like, plant based. I changed how I ate. I started training for an Ironman. And if you ask me, it was freaking easy. I had an amazing purpose. So I'm never mad at Roc Bottom. I'm, like, actually grateful if something bad happens to me. I'm like, there's always a gift in this. I've actually never had anything bad happen to me.
- [37:31]
B
You never had anything bad happen to you how?
- [37:34]
A
I had a brain tumor, okay? It made me a Nike athlete. I got fired from being Soulja Boy's cameraman, okay? I'm gonna be the biggest manager in hip hop at the time. Like, my girlfriend broke up with me. Like, she kind of was toxic. Like, appreciating her.
- [37:49]
B
Yeah. I was gonna say, found a better one there.
- [37:51]
A
Found a way better one. So it's like, what actually bad has ever happened to me? Please tell me. Like, my grandfather died of cancer. I swear to God, he guides me and is an angel. Like, literally, he's with me every day, guiding me, like, giving me so many blessings. Like, I'm trying to carry on his name and legacy. Like, he's still here with me, okay? Like, my grandmother died. I swear to God, I found the reincarnation of her. Is my girlfriend the sweetest girl? My grandmother was the sweetest lady. And it's like, okay. My grandmother sent me her. Like, I've never had something bad happen to me. Now when bad stuff does happen to me, I do. I do throw my tantrum. And I am human. Let's be very, very clear. I'm extremely emotional. Y' all could probably look at me and see I'm an emotional guy. So, like, I'm not this, like, rainbows and butterflies.
- [38:46]
B
I got you.
- [38:48]
A
I am rainbows and butterflies. It's just, if I'm in the shit, I'm pissed, frustrated, sometimes punching a pillow, sometimes punching a steering wheel. And then I'm like, this isn't fun. It's just not fun. And most of us get caught in this perpetual vortex loop of thinking about the bad things, and it's replaying this really bad fucking song. And who the wants to replay a bad song? I'm not a hater on anybody, but I heard, like, a Lady Gaga song the other day. It was. It was really bad. And I'm like, I would never play that again. Like, please, I would pay you not to play that song. And she. I think she's an amazing artist. So sorry, Lady Gaga. It was just a bad song. We all make bad songs. Yeah, but why would I ever play that? So it's like, when something bad is happening in my life, usually it's a loop of, like, thinking about the negativity of that person or that thing. And people get stuck there for lifetimes.
- [39:44]
B
They do.
- [39:45]
A
And I'm like, I don't want to play a bad song. Let me turn that off. What's a good song?
- [39:51]
B
So you. You kind of answered a question I was going to ask, but I want to make sure I understand when something does happen that, you know, if we were looking at 30,000ft in the air. Not you, just objectively, it's like, well, that's not a positive, right?
- [40:03]
A
Yeah.
- [40:04]
B
In the moment, you react the way you react. You're mad, maybe you're sad, whatever. It may be. Upset, annoyed. But then once you release that energy.
- [40:14]
A
Yeah.
- [40:15]
B
You place that energy in a box and push it down the river. And now you look at this thing and be like, well, I can't change what happened, but here's actually what it can do for me moving forward, which is what I can actually affect and change for the better.
- [40:30]
A
This is my thing.
- [40:31]
B
You.
- [40:32]
A
Well, for one, you nailed it. But this is my thing. I'm on a winning streak, okay? If I'm losing, I have to find the win. And if I'm gonna keep my winning streak going. All right, who's your favorite sports team?
- [40:46]
B
Oh, I think that's so hard because I like all the sports Eagles gunned in my head.
- [40:51]
A
Eagles? Yeah, Eagles won 11 in a row. What are you thinking about?
- [40:58]
B
Don't lose.
- [41:00]
A
What else are you thinking about? 12. Yeah, that's it.
- [41:05]
B
Yeah, but you see what I said, don't lose.
- [41:08]
A
Yeah.
- [41:08]
B
You see where the mentality is, it's like, we're doing so well right this up.
- [41:12]
A
You're at this elevation that you think you could fall, or it could just be like, we're going to 12. So if I'm on a winning streak, okay, I'm winning. I woke up this morning, I'm on your podcast. I'm in New Jersey, which I actually think I like New Jersey better than New York. New Jersey is nice. Get a backyard. I like New Jersey. Dog has a. I like this guy.
- [41:33]
B
He can step.
- [41:34]
A
Dog has a little place to take a scratch. The dirt in New Jersey. New Jersey is a win, okay? So it's like I got this beautiful cup of coffee, right? I got a hot girlfriend. She's amazing. My mom's alive, my dad's alive. Like, this is a blessing. I'm going to Turks and Caico. I'm on a winning streak. Let's just be very clear. I'm on a winning streak. Let's say something bad happened to me. Does it end the winning streak?
- [42:00]
B
It could if you let it.
- [42:01]
A
I have to find the win in it the second I find a win in it. Now we're at 12. We got to 12. So it's like a loss is like a lesson learned. What's that?
- [42:12]
B
A W?
- [42:13]
A
2L'S make a W, baby. I can't lose. They might think I'm crazy, but this is just a much better way to live. It's fun, okay? Some people are gonna roll their eyes. Some people hate my. They think my positivity is, like, toxic, and they have.
- [42:27]
B
Not real, but it is, dude.
- [42:29]
A
Well. Well, if you. If you ask me why, I just be like, I just want to have fun. Losing is not fun. We go to Vegas, all right? Me, you, and your boy. All right. What's your name?
- [42:42]
B
Joey.
- [42:43]
A
Joey. Me, you and Joey. We're in Vegas together, right? I'm playing. I'm playing blackjack on this table. Joey's playing blackjack on that table. You're just hanging out right now. You're not. You're like. I'm not. Okay. I'm over here.
- [42:59]
B
That sounds right.
- [43:00]
A
Okay, so I'm over here playing my blackjack. Or you know what? I'm playing craps scene in the movie. I'm playing craps. Boom, I won. Hey, I gave a little. I gave a little cheer. And then, boom, I hit it again. Hey. And then a couple other people, I hit it again. Boom. Three in a row. Now it's like people start gathering around. Okay? Now it's like this attractive Pull. Because what does it. Everybody wants to be around a winner. Boom. I've hit seven, eight in a row. And it's like cheering, and people are like, oh. And then I'm like, you can see it, right? And then your boy Joey's over at the other one. He lost. Damn. All right, let me pull out the money. Lost. Lost again. Lost again. Is a crowd gathering around our boy Joey, actually. Are people allergic?
- [43:57]
B
They're allergic.
- [43:58]
A
They're like, I can't. I need to get far away from this Marty Mush dark cloud named Joey. But this guy's over here, passed me the magic. Just. I just need to be around the magic. So winning has this gravitational pull of, like, mass. It's like. You think about, like, the sun, right? It has all this energy, and it's so big, it actually attracts all this amazing stuff like Earth and Saturn. If it didn't have this, like, mass of energy, it wouldn't attract anything, right? He's like a dead star that has, like, collapsed. And guess what that is. A black fucking hulk. Okay? Now that attracts shit, too, but it's going to attract some negative shit. We're all fucking dying, okay? That is the choice we have to make. What is fun? Who do you want to be right now in this situation in Las Vegas? I want to be the winner. So I'm going to wake up and I'm going to choose to win. And that doesn't mean a whole bunch of stuff has to happen for me. That means I'm going to appreciate all the things that are going on in my life, and I am grateful for them. I do not need the Lamborghini, and I do not need the $20 million house. I needed my cup of coffee to be happy. I needed my mom to be alive to be happy. I'm on a fucking winning streak. And when you win, you keep winning. And when you lose, which is very easy to look at, all the things going wrong, even just comparing yourself to other people will make you feel like a loser. You see what you're looking at? So people ask, why are you so freaking positive? It's simple. I just want to have fun. It's not that deep. And fun is a choice.
- [45:46]
B
How do you. How do you make that switch, though, so fast? How do you let that emotion out and then get right there? Because, like, that example you gave, it's hilarious. And it's. And it's funny, too, right? Like the black hole over here. I love how you're like. What's your name? Joey. All right. You're a black hole. I'm the good guy.
- [46:05]
A
Sorry, Joey. My bad, big dog.
- [46:09]
B
But, like, when you're over here. Yes. In that scenario, you won four in a row.
- [46:13]
A
Yeah.
- [46:14]
B
The vibe, though, went on the third one. Instead, you lose.
- [46:18]
A
I want me to tell you the story. You know, I got a story for this.
- [46:21]
B
I'm sure you do.
- [46:22]
A
Check this out. I'm in. No, no, no, for real. No. Okay. I'm in Miami. True story. I put it on my grandfather, Jiddy. Okay. You know, if I put it on my grandfather, it's real deal.
- [46:37]
B
Yeah, some real shit, bro.
- [46:39]
A
I wake up in the morning and I scream these words, wheel of fortune. And then. And the rest of the day, I said these words, wheel of fortune. 500 times so much. My girlfriend and my best friend, Langford. I like, shut the fuck up. And we're just. We're just in Miami having a good time. But I was channeling this energy that I'm winning. Okay. When you play the slot machine, Wheel of fortunes, you gonna win some money. I'm winning Wheel. Oh, for. I'm just saying it all day, every day. Almost to the point. I'm trying to get on their nerves, okay? We're out helping some people. We're doing our little nonprofit thing.
- [47:26]
B
We'll talk about that. It's good.
- [47:28]
A
And then we're done. And since we're in Miami, what's just 40 minutes away?
- [47:34]
B
The strip club.
- [47:36]
A
There is a strip club, but no.
- [47:37]
B
Less than 40 minutes.
- [47:38]
A
But. But no. The Hard Rock Casino.
- [47:43]
B
Oh.
- [47:44]
A
In Fort Liquidale Liquor, Dale.
- [47:46]
B
Yeah.
- [47:46]
A
There we go. Yeah. And so I was. I told. I told my girl. I told my best friend. I was like, let's go. I've been saying wheel of fortune all day. I had no intentions to go to the. To the casino, but I'm like, let's go. I'm feeling lucky. We go. Now this is where it proves your point. I pull out my limit from the ATM. $500. That's my limit. Okay. Pull out my $500. Like, let's go have some fun. Pop it into the Wheel of Fortune. You know, the $10 push. The $10 push. Okay. I pop it in. Lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost. I'm down to $200. What do I tell my girlfriend? I said, I know why I'm losing. This is the regular machine. We need to go to the high stakes machine. Because when I win, it's going to be big. I just lost. I looked at it as a gift. True story.
- [48:47]
B
I think the casino manager Looked like at it as a gift too.
- [48:51]
A
So I pulled out my little. I pull out my little piece of paper voucher for 200 and I say we're going to the high stakes. Let's see if they have a wheel of Fortune in there. But you know that's $100 spin. That's not a $10 spin. Oh, $100.
- [49:05]
B
The old ladies aren't on that one. Japanese guys.
- [49:10]
A
I pop in my voucher. Fortune Gold Spin, 10x16000 fucking dollars. You should have seen the look on their faces.
- [49:32]
B
I think Nev just got some ptsd.
- [49:35]
A
We have a video.
- [49:36]
B
She looked like she was back at numb.
- [49:40]
A
I deserved better than the regular machine. I needed the bigger machine. Because I believe that I am a. See, I'm very, I'm very pronoid.
- [49:55]
B
Pronoid.
- [49:56]
A
Pronoid. There's. There's 2. There's 2. There's two ways to be. There's a paranoid and a pronoit. Paranoid. The universe is conspiring against me. Pronoit universe is conspiring for me.
- [50:09]
B
Oh wow.
- [50:10]
A
I'm not losing. I'm supposed to go to the big machine. Why am I doing this? Because it's more fun. It's not deep. This is not mental health in my mind. This is not some deep psychology, nlp, none of that. This is just called fun. I just want to have fun in this one life I was given. So if I'm losing, I'm just going to look for a silver lining. I'm going to try to make it into a winning streak. But there's a couple lessons in this one I'm losing. I'm like, I'm supposed to have something bigger. The second lesson, abracadabra. I said Wheel of Fortune 500 times in a day. Of course I hit the jackpot. They my, my girl and my best friend looked at me like, do you have some magical wizard powers? I'm like, yes, I do. Is called, it's called spelling. As I speak, I create. That's what magic is, right? Abracadabra. That's what Aramaic origin of the word abracadabra means. As I speak, I create. And our words are like a wand. Words are called. Like you spell words. So it's spelling. You cast spells.
- [51:24]
B
Who just said that?
- [51:25]
A
That?
- [51:25]
B
Who just someone just said that in the studio. Who the just said that? Was that Chris? Who said that? It was Chris. We were at dinner. He's a world class magician, Chris Ramsey. He's like, what is. What is spelling? It's casting a spell. Amy, it's got shakes, man.
- [51:40]
A
See what I'm saying? I said wheel of fortune 500 times. I won the jackpot. I took my girl to Turks and Caicos a couple of days later and it paid for the whole trip. It was great. It was her birthday. Like true story. Now I have a losing version of this.
- [51:59]
B
Oh no.
- [52:00]
A
Last week I was feeling lucky. I go to the ATM and I pull out my limit 500. I'm not at a casino. I buy my lottery tickets. There was a lottery that had a $40 million price, $150 million prize and $400 million price. I bought 500 worth of lottery tickets.
- [52:23]
B
Wow.
- [52:25]
A
I lost all of them. I lost on each and every one. But I was so sure I was going to win. Let me tell you what I did the night before. I went to open houses. Oh, no, no. This is, this is how you win. Like that. Like, listen, I got a point to this story. I go to open houses. I put this on Jindy. This is a true story, okay? Go to open house. I found my dream house. And I told my girl when I win this ticket Tonight, tonight at 7:45, I'm gonna know that I won. And I'm gonna call the realtor and I'm gonna tell her I want to move in tonight. I'll let her intent but give me the keys right now. Here's my lottery ticket. I proof I won't. I'm ready to move in tonight. But this is what's delusionally going through my brain, okay? I'm making plans. Want me to tell you what? I saved the realtors number in my phone as this is what you know, this where I'm going to lose people because people are going to be like this dude might be too far out for me. You know what? It freaking works. I've done a lot of things in my life. I've won Grammys, I've won Emmys. I was a music manager, I'm a keynote speaker. I built one of the biggest nonprofits on the Internet. I have 9 million followers. I was a shy, antisocial kid who just was behind the camera. I was soldier boy's cameraman. I've done anything thing I've ever wanted to in my life because of this. And so when I move into this house, I'll make for a cool story on part two. So let me tell you what it's done, okay? So I saved the realtors name in my phone as Brown Realtor Malibu. My house on Selfridge Road. It's done. Exclamation mark. It's easy. Exclamation mark. That's how I saved her known in my, in my phone. So I'm looking at it like I'm going to win this lottery ticket. I'm going to call her at 7:46, tell her I won and I want to move in right now. And then I'll obviously have the money in a couple of weeks when the lottery gives me the money I didn't win. Okay, but what happened this, this week, the same week I got a download and I wrote a business plan that's so cold. And I was able to reverse engineer the numbers to be like 30 million. Like it was like, like a guy even flew in. Like I was in the energy guy flew in. And we're working on a business that's one of my smartest and the biggest business I've ever built in my life. And I thought to myself, holy shit, I actually did win the lottery this week. It was just in a different form. I actually did. It was just not how I expected it. But, but this is, this is my thought process. Why do I do this? It's fun. It's just more fun.
- [55:10]
B
It attracts energy. Attracts energy for sure.
- [55:13]
A
And when I move in that house, it'll just be another one of those Jim Carrey stories. And then that's what people actually need to know stuff as possible. They just need that to exist. So I actually believe that God wants this to happen to me so that it can help other people know that this is a cool way of living life.
- [55:34]
B
You know, there's a piece of me that used to look at, let's say over manifestation or people that tried to just solve all their problems with saying nice things out loud or whatever. Many times, by the way, and this needs to be said. They were people who would, who would say those things as if that were the end all, be all, and then not actually do things to make those things happen.
- [55:58]
A
Happen.
- [55:58]
B
Right. I think a clear distinction with a guy like you, if you look at your entire life, is that you're a doer. Yes. You say these things, you talk these things out loud, you have this attitude, you have a positive bend on things, you set expectations of the universe for you so that it's, you know, rather than paranoid, it's pronoid and it's. And it's working for you, that's great. But you go and you put the work in and you make it happen. And there's proof in the pudding. But there was a study that I saw not too Long ago. Because I had been like changing my mind on some of the energy around you. Right. Not to get too woo woo. But I'm like, yes, you have to go do like a Charlie.
- [56:34]
A
Absolutely.
- [56:35]
B
But there really is something to saying things. How you talk to yourself, how you talk to the things around you. And there was a doctor named, I believe it was Masaro Emoto who came up with a study. I don't even remember how the he did it, but he essentially found that the way one group of people talk to themselves versus the way another group of people talk to themselves or talk to the world around them, one being negative and one being positive, created a massive V in their outcomes. Because down. The study showed that down to the cellular level. And it's going to get above my pay grade here, exactly how this happened. But down to the cellular level in their body, it changed how they physically reacted to the environment around them so they could perform at a higher level and potentially make those things happen. So when I see things like that and then I combine that with a lot of different other neuro experts who talk about putting words into the universe and attitudes into the universe and how your brain is directly tied in your language to like the heart and what the heart wants or says you can get that the brain tries to shut down. I'm like, holy. It really is all there within us. It has to do with how we have to just rewire ourselves to be on the right path rather than the path that says, I can't, I can't, I can't.
- [57:55]
A
I have a story for you.
- [57:57]
B
Please share it.
- [57:58]
A
But I need to use the restroom first.
- [57:59]
B
All right, we'll be right back. Yeah, Anything.
- [58:03]
A
I'm going crazy.
- [58:03]
B
You can go crazy. We have multiple.
- [58:05]
A
I actually think this is going to end up being like my bible episode.
- [58:10]
B
It's. You're doing pretty good so far.
- [58:12]
A
I just having too much fun. Because you understand entertainment. You got to think, I'll sit there and talk to somebody. Somebody who understands self development or like somebody who understands like how to make YouTube videos. I'm talking to somebody who understands entertainment right now. I'm having a blast.
- [58:25]
B
You think? I'm glad you're having fun, bro.
- [58:27]
A
You think I understand best in the business. Why do you think I keep saying that to you? I don't know.
- [58:34]
B
I really. It's very humbling to hear. I. I just. It's crazy that when someone says something like that though. Because really at the end of the day, I mean you're. I hope you're seeing it today, Like, I just talked about talk with people. That's all it is. Like, you and I, you got here, we started talking in the kitchen. Like, we've talked forever and then we just sat down and deep said, the cameras are ready. I'm like, great. And we started talking.
- [58:54]
A
Is it.
- [58:55]
B
You know, that's, that's. And we're back on now, by the way.
- [58:57]
A
Okay.
- [58:57]
B
I kind of. We should have picked it up right there. When he said the Bible part, that was perfect. That was like, great. This is the Bible, right? Like just the way you say things with a story. Like you, you. We were talking just off camera before we started about like, Charlie's like, man, I gotta figure out how to hook things and tell a story, right? I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? Like, he fucking pulls his sleeves up right when he's gonna start. You get all dramatic and you're like.
- [59:21]
A
I got a story for you.
- [59:23]
B
Like, if my thumb is going through the feed and like, I come to a video where some guy in like a pink hat goes, let me tell you a story. I'm like, my thumb's off the screen. You got 10 seconds go. And 10 seconds in. I'm gonna stay with you. Like, you have a very, like, obviously for you to get the guys that you got to believe in you even when they were nothing. When two chains wasn't two chains yet. But you saw it, you knew what he was going to be, right? I want to come back to that topic, by the way, of like, how you know things and people. We got off that. But like, you saw what that was. He still saw a young guy. You know, maybe you're 20 years old at the time, 21 years old, whatever. You know, the self described awkward fat kid from his mom's basement. And he's like, what does this white boy. You know what? I believe in him.
- [60:08]
A
This guy. Exactly.
- [60:09]
B
And so there's something in you. There is a. There is a magnetic energy that draws people to you. And so when you talk about, oh, how do you hook a story? You, number one, you already got that. Number two, that's exactly what it is. Like, if you didn't know how to do that, you'd never be able to have that magnet magnetic energy. Steve Jobs always said it, storyteller runs the world. That's why you're successful. That's why you got to where you got, of course, a lot of hard work in that and actually understanding the industry. I don't want to discount that. But to put yourself in A position where you even do those things, I'm telling you, without having been there as a fly on the wall in the room. That's what it was.
- [60:45]
A
Appreciate it, man. Yeah. Now I just need to learn how to edit whatever I do. All right, all right, story time. I did it. I'm sorry. It's not intentional.
- [60:57]
B
No, it's great.
- [60:57]
A
Okay.
- [60:58]
B
It's great. So I got to get a baggy shirt like that so I can have an excuse to do that all the time. I used to have a watch I would, like, play with, but I don't wear that anymore, so.
- [61:06]
A
All right, slight hot take. But this has been, like, a thought process of mine the past week. Only a week. It's not that deep. Brand new. Brand new.
- [61:16]
B
Breaking news.
- [61:18]
A
Hot take in my mind. Please, y', all don't destroy me for this, but, like, I am a big, like, manifester, obviously, but I'm a way bigger doer. Way bigger to where? I like the law of Attraction, but I honestly feel like law of attraction is old school, like, personal computer. I believe law of delusion is like the iPhone, because I actually have a process through being delusional that actually makes you show up and do where law of attraction is like, let me wish, Let me speak, let me write, let me vision board. But law of delusion inspires action. I'll tell you a story. I hate me now. I don't even like me now because of y'. All. I just did it again. I'm so sorry. Y' all not trying to be dramatic. Okay, so I want to be a Nike athlete. I'm delusional enough to believe it's possible, and I'm delusional enough to believe it's easy. If you're in high school, do you want to go to the hard class?
- [62:41]
B
Like, want depended on the topic.
- [62:44]
A
Okay.
- [62:45]
B
Yeah.
- [62:45]
A
For me, I didn't like physics. It's too hard.
- [62:49]
B
You and me both, bro. That's the one I was thinking of. I didn't want to do.
- [62:52]
A
It's too hard. I really don't want to go.
- [62:54]
B
I love it now, but I have to go.
- [62:56]
A
Yeah, I have to go. Do I want to go? No, I have to go because if I don't fail, my mom will take the Be Good stick that's hanging on the wall, and she will hold it up and be like. And I'll be like, all right, I'm going to class. No, we had a stick on the entrance of our house.
- [63:16]
B
When you walk in, that's a switch down there.
- [63:17]
A
No, it's called a be good. She wrote on it in a magic marker. It was a paint. It was just a pain.
- [63:23]
B
Oh, she's not hitting you with it?
- [63:24]
A
No, she was threatened. She wasn't hitting me. But it was called, like written on it. Be good stick written on it.
- [63:32]
B
They call that a paradox.
- [63:35]
A
So my mom was a great mother, but she was also tough. And there was a reason why I acted so good. I didn't want to be good stick. So I have to go to the hard class. I don't want to go to the hard class. But when it comes to the easy class, I want to go. So let's go back to me being a Nike athlete. I believe it's going to be easy. In order for it to be easy, I need a path. I need to find an easy path. If I think of playing for the Lakers or going to the Olympics, I'm probably not even going to show up because I don't have an easy path. Well, what's my easy path? I'm going to do an Ironman. Well, that's not that easy. I'm going to lose weight. Basically. I'm going to be an inspiration and I'm going to make a fine man Nike commercial. And this will take me about a year. It's not going to take a lifetime. It's going to take me about a year. Make a fan made Nike commercial. Nike's going to see it. Nike's going to sign me. That's easy. I'm going to show up for that. So my delusion actually got me to show up. Now I need a filmmaker, an editor, somebody who can color grade, someone who can score music, someone who owns all this equipment to make me a fan made Nike commercial. So I start calling my friends in Hollywood and I say, what do you think this will cost? About $70,000. I said, I'm not spending 70,000. I could put a down payment on a house for $70,000. This little Instagram video, I need it to look like a Nike commercial, though. They're like, charlie, you want it to look like a Nike commercial? Guess what? Nike commercials cost $700,000. Sometimes like 200,000. But if you do it, a local agency, little Instagram Nike clip of like the run club, they're still spending a whole bunch of money on just that. Yeah. They said, charlie, you need to be realistic.
- [65:28]
B
I said, there it is.
- [65:30]
A
Three or four people told me to be realistic. And so I'm actually showing up making almost difficult phone calls because people are telling me to be realistic. But I'M actually showing up because I see this easy path. I'm gonna make a family Nike commercial. Nike's gonna see it. Nike's gonna sign me. I'm showing up in action. So I take this gentleman out to a restaurant, Vegan restaurant. He's a film producer. He knows lots of camera guys, editors, music scores, color graders. He knows all the guys. And I'm, like, showing up to take action. I'm taking them out to dinner. Can you introduce me to somebody who can do this for a couple few thousand bucks? He said, charlie, you're being ridiculous. I said, what are you talking about? He said, you need to get a bigger budget together and then call me. I said, no, I'm going to find somebody who can do this. He said, charlie, there's not somebody who can do this. This is like a staff of nine people. The lighting guys are three people. The sound guys, the color grade. The person who makes the music there might be like, you want Hans Zimmer strings? You want Hans Zimmer strings. Charlie, this is expensive. You can't get that off of Epidemic Sound.
- [66:48]
B
No. No, you definitely cannot.
- [66:51]
A
I said, never tell me to be realistic. I took my friend outside of the restaurant who was with me, and I was furious. I was furious. And I was telling my friend, like, I said these words. I said, I'm a find this person, and I'm gonna find them tomorrow. It's like, nobody's going to tell me to be realistic. Nothing I've done my entire life has been realistic. Now, remember when I told you I get mad? The difference when I get mad, it actually doesn't lower my frequency. It actually. The way I get mad is for a very positive outcome. I'm not mad at him. I am speaking exactly what's going to happen now. And I'm speaking it with so much fire and energy. I said, I'm going to find him tomorrow. Nobody's going to tell me to be realistic. I leave the dinner meeting, I go home. I wake up the next morning. I'm in Santa Monica, California, sitting on my couch with my Magical Manifestation Quantum Possibilities notebook. And I'm writing my dreams in it. I'm gonna be in a Nike commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams. I'm going to be a Nike athlete. I'm gonna be the face of Nike. Like, people ask me, do I write the same dreams every day? Damn near. Like, different forms, different ways, but on this.
- [68:21]
B
Still do that every morning?
- [68:22]
A
Not every. No, no, no. I'm not that consistent.
- [68:24]
B
Okay.
- [68:25]
A
I'm human, right? I didn't write in my notebook this morning, but I wrote this line. Today is the day I search slash, found my videographer slash editor is done. Exclamation mark. It's easy. Exclamation mark.
- [68:44]
B
No, period.
- [68:45]
A
No, period. It's done. It's easy. My roommate walks in the front door. My roommate should never have a cameraman following him, ever.
- [68:55]
B
Why?
- [68:56]
A
He just does business development for a goji berry company that sells goji berries to whole Foods. He is not an entertainer.
- [69:02]
B
I thought you were gonna say he was a coke dealer or something.
- [69:06]
A
That would be more fun. That would be fun. He's like, morgan walks in the front door, and behind him is this huge, steady camera guy. I'm not talking about, like, a little camera. I'm talking about every accessory, like, the big. And I'm like, morgan, why is a camera guy following you? Like, imagine if your boy walked in the front door. He had a camera crew behind him.
- [69:29]
B
You'd be like, you're free to do that.
- [69:30]
A
What is it? You'd be like, what's going on? This is cool, right? Yes, very cool. So I look over at this camera guy, and my heart kind of, like, got excited and then dropped immediately. It dropped because he looked so gothic. It was like a. It was like a 1999 or 2001. Like, rock band, black hair, black everything. And I was like, he looks kind of like a dark cloud. And so I asked him, I said, do you do videos? He said, yeah, I do videos, but nobody ever hires me. I was like, okay, he's a dark cloud. I said. I said, can I see some of your work? I haven't updated my website in, like, five years. I'm like, everything this man's gonna say is negative. And I'm over here manifesting and, like, dreaming. And, like, I'm gonna be a Nike athlete. I'm colorful in my mind. And I said, all right, what's your website? Pull up my computer. Go to his website. And he had a short film on there. And I was like, okay, click on. Looked good. It looked real good. And so I said, who shot this? He said, well, I shot it. I said, whose equipment is this? Because, like, this is, like. It looks like a movie. He said, well, I'm kind of like a hoarder. Anytime I make money, I just buy equipment. I said, what type of equipment? He said, well, I have lighting. I have dolly tracks. I have all the C stands. I have different anamorphic lenses. I have this. He was just like, like, geeking out on his equipment. And I'm like, you own all of it? He said, yeah, I own all of it. I said, who made the music? Because the, the person who shoots usually never makes music. He said, well, I used to be in a rock band. We were on the Warp tour and we had a record deal and. But the record label dropped us. I said, hold on. You made this music? Yeah, I said. I said, who edited it? Because the person who shoots and who owns the equipment and who makes some music probably did not edit this. I edited it. I said, who did the color grading? He said, well, I taught myself da Vinci. So you did everything? Yeah, I said. I said. I said, look at my notebook. He's looking and he's like, okay. I said, I said. I said I was gonna find you today. He says, okay. I said, can I hire you? He said, man, I needed a job. I applied to Hulu two weeks ago, but they didn't hire me. And I'm like, I kind of know why they didn't hire you. I said, can we go out to lunch? I want to tell you my idea. So we went and got some vegan burgers at this place called the Counter.
- [72:22]
B
You and the vegan burgers killing me.
- [72:25]
A
The vegan burgers I used. I'm not vegan anymore. I was vegan for five years. We sit down and I told him my ideas and I said, this is the commercial I want to make. And he pulled out a sheet of paper and started drawing pictures. And I was like, wow, he's smart. Like, I'm like, wow. He just like sprung into action. I'm like getting excited. We haven't talked about money yet. I said, how much will this cost to make? And you know what? I'm, I'm. I'm already scarred from my last 20 conversations. He said, $660. I said, you're like. I'm like, okay, now I'm skeptical. It's almost the opposite. Like, I'm like, okay, why? He said, I need a 10 foot PVC pipe with two elbows with two belts. We need a skateboard. And if we rent this one specific lens on a Friday, we get to keep it all weekend. I said, $660 and you can make all this? I said, what about the music? He said, I make the music. I said, what about the mixing and master? I mix and master. He. I said, so you have all the equipment? He said, we just need one lens, a ten foot PVC pipe. I said, why a ten foot PVC pipe? He said, well, I need your feet to be the same exact distance from the camera at all times so that it feels like the background is changing as you're running. All throughout la, I was like, this guy might be a freaking genius. We shot a commercial, a fan made Nike commercial.
- [73:56]
B
I remember it.
- [73:57]
A
We put it on my little Instagram with 10,000 followers. I pressed upload and I went on a bike ride and my phone lines just started ringing for my friends, like, charlie, I know somebody at Nike. I'm gonna send it to him. Charlie, I know somebody at Nike. I'm gonna send it to him. And. And over the next three days, it had like a thousand comments. People tagging Nike, tagging their friends. And then I'm in my living room and my phone rings and the caller ID said, Beaverton, Oregon. And there's only one company in Beaverton, Oregon. Only one. And I'm freaking out. I'm like, there's no way. I actually have a video of this somewhere. And I'm jumping up and down screen, but I have to answer the phone because I know it's Nike. I know it's Nike. I answer the phone, I calm myself down, try to act like a professional here. I said, hello, I'm out of breath. He said, this is Andy Miguel from Nike. Is this Charlie Rocket? I said, yes, it is. Yes, it is, Charlie. How can I help you, Andy? He said, we don't know how you did this, but you have managed to get our entire campus in a frenzy fighting over who's going to bring you here first.
- [75:23]
B
Whoa.
- [75:28]
A
This is where my brain kicked in and started being realistic. I mean, this probably is not going, like, turn into anything. Like Andy says, we want to fly you to campus. They're probably just going to do like a little, like, good deed thing. Let me take a picture. Give me some shoes. You know, because it's like, got a few, you know, hundred thousand views. I think even on Facebook it got a million views. And I'm like, they're just going to like, check a little, like, charity box. This is my brain thinking. He says, we want to fly you to campus. They put me in a limousine. They put me in first class to Portland, Oregon, put me in another limousine. We pull up to campus and they gave me like 75 pairs of shoes. And all the employees were walking up to me and they're like, they don't do this for people. And I was like, what do you mean? It's like they're doing something. And the gentleman, he walked me over to a conference room and that employee whispered in my ear, he Said they must be up to something big. Do you know who's in that room? I don't know. I walk in and there were all these TVs and it was my face on it. And There was about 30 executives in the room. And I'm like, what is going on here? They said, charlie, have a seat. We are changing the direction of our company because of that film that you made.
- [77:08]
B
That's what they said to you, Swear to God.
- [77:13]
A
I said, excuse me, I'm thinking here. This a Dow 30 company. This is a massive corporation. They have their plans set out years in advance. And they said they're changing the direction of their company because of my fan made Nike commercial that everybody told me I could not make because I didn't have the budget. And a guy walked in my front door, a guy walked in my front door and charged me 660 bucks. And we made a commercial and Nike's executives are sitting in front of me saying, we're changing the direction of our company because of this film. But then my brain kicks in again, again, again. I mean it's not. I'm human.
- [78:05]
B
Yeah, but still.
- [78:06]
A
So nothing happened at this meeting other than that. They let me go around campus, make videos, take pictures. They said, we're going to keep you updated. I guess I'm not a part of the company. I don't have an NDA sign. I guess they're not going to tell me what they're up to to. But they send me a gift. This is a couple weeks later, an astronaut backpack. They mail it to me and I said, I'm going to make another fan made Nike commercial based around this gift. And I made a commercial where I go to outer space literally as an astronaut and I tell this inspiring story about crazy dreams. And I called the commercial dream crazy. I put it out, it did very well to my little Instagram following. Nike loved it. And one day I'm running around a track in El Segundo, California. My phone rings from an employee at Nike. His name is Tim. He says, charlie. I said, hello? Hello. He said, are you sitting down? I said, I can be like, what's going on? He's like, you're about to get an email. I said, I like emails. He said, in the email is an NDA. I said, oh, this is going to be good if I got to sign an NDA. This is about to be great. He said, and then there's going to be a link with a password. Once you sign the NDA, I'm gonna give you the password. Over the phone. I said, you can't even text me the password. I was like, this is good. I signed the NDA. I click the link, I type in the password. I'm sitting in the grass on my phone looking at a Nike commercial. And this Nike commercial gave me chills down my spine. Tim said on the phone, we need your permission. I said, you need my permission. He said, we need your permission before we put this out. None of this would have happened without you. And what I was watching on my phone was a commercial that became the biggest Nike commercial in Nike history. It was the Colin Kaepernick commercial. And when it, when it went out, Nike stock price went up over $8 billion from one commercial alone. Sales were at an all time high because of one commercial. This is overnight sensation. I got to see a commercial of myself with LeBron James and Serena Williams in a Nike commercial that was played on the super bowl. And I got to win an Emmy. And I thought back to all my notebooks and I thought back to that brain tumor and me sitting on a beach looking at my life as a movie. And I said, this is a bad movie. What would be a good movie? A good movie would be, I'm gonna leave the music industry. I'm gonna go chase my dream of being an athlete. I'm going to become a Nike athlete. I'm going to make a fan made Nike commercial. Nike is going to see it. And I'm going to be in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams. And here I am in the real life, physical version of something I saw when I closed my eyes. I was in a commercial with LeBron James and Serena Williams as a short, slow, overweight, fat person who was delusional enough to just show up and do it. And that's why the law of delusion is the most powerful thing. Because, yes, the law of attraction worked. He walked in my front door. I did not do that. What did I do? I was delusional enough to leave my business. I was delusional enough to ask everybody. I was delusional enough to write it down. I was delusional enough to tell everybody. I was delusional enough to give myself an athlete named Charlie Rocket. I was delusional enough to be like, I need to be an athlete if I want to be an athlete. So I'm going to make a fan made Nike commercial. And then the universe conspired for me, sent him in my front door. Nike saw it. Nike signed me. I was delusional. And you're only crazy until you do it. And you're only delusional until it's real and it became real. Dreams are real. If you close your eyes and you see it, it's already done. Time hasn't caught up yet. You just got to be delusional enough to actually show up. But why do I show up? Because I actually believe it's going to be easy. If I thought it was going to be hard, there would have been no action. My entire life, I've been a doer. And there's a reason why the universe keeps blessing me with miracles. Because I'm a lightning rod for Lucky. It keeps striking over and over and over. And that's why I believe this law of delusion is the real secret that we all need in our life. A law of attraction. That's good wishful thinking. I do that every freaking day. Day. But my delusion gets me to put myself into action. That was my little story. Thank you.
- [83:34]
B
It's. It's. It's unreal, man. It's. And. And I've. I've heard some of it before. I've. I don't know I've ever seen you tell it that perfectly or like making goosebumps go up on my skin like that. But this, I. I think there's. There's three things there. One, you said, and you outlined perfectly, which is that you're a doer, Right. The second thing is that you actually believe that these things can happen, and that allows that attraction to happen when you combine that with being a doer. And then the third thing is you find a way to be a magnet for people to see the best in them and bring it. Bring them to your level. You brought that guy to your level. He walked in there, you immediately, like everyone else who had ever seen him, judged him for the things that were very clear that needed to change for him. Like the way he acted, his attitude on the world, maybe the way he presented himself, the way his tone of voice was, all of it. But you said, wait a minute. Like, I. I can't kept thinking about this over here, Tupac, because he had. He has a great, great poem that is really just like a modicum of life model to how things are. And I'm sure you've heard of it before, but he talked about the rose that grew from concrete, right? And one of the ways people can interpret these things in all different ways, but one of the ways I always took that, one of the perspectives was that the rose might not know it's a rose because where it was growing and it didn't have a mirror mirror and it couldn't see itself, but it needed the sunlight to grow and it needed someone to stop by and look at it with a smile and know that there was some potential right there. And I think that there are a lot of people walking around the world who are begging for an opportunity, but they don't know how to ask for it. And they rely. And I don't mean this as a negative, but in some cases, the hinge of how their life can go one way or another can rely on one moment, moment, right time, right place, with the right person who can pull that from them. And I gotta be honest, man, there was a lot of. There's a lot of self reflection for me in hearing stories like that. Because one of the things I've been really judging myself on correctly lately. It's fair to judge myself on this is opportunities coming into my face. Pause.
- [85:56]
A
That was. Wow.
- [85:57]
B
That was a little. Wow, that came out wrong.
- [85:59]
A
Goodness gracious. Just got X rated. God. God, this was most pure. Little innocent podcast.
- [86:06]
B
So innocent.
- [86:07]
A
Got calmed on here.
- [86:08]
B
Jesus Christ. Wow. That was like one of those slow motion train crashes. Like I could feel it was happening. I'm just Nevs like, no, no, don't do it.
- [86:19]
A
Reconsider.
- [86:22]
B
It's all good. We don't edit it out, we'll take that out. But all these opportunities have presented themselves in different ways. Small ways, simple ways. And I think of a lot of reasons why I don't deserve them or why it's not really the opportunity that I see right there. And that's not good.
- [86:39]
A
That's.
- [86:39]
B
That's something that, that has to change. And it really, it's. It's something that's entirely my fault. There's no, like, I think a lot of times you can look at some things and say, well, you know, the circumstances aren't right or, well, you know, the people that are there. It's. It's not the right vibe or what. You can come up with whatever excuses you want in your head, but the reality is we let really simple things get in our way. Speaking for myself, because we decide that, you know, we're not in a position to be able to handle that. And I think a lot of your life is constantly, like, even when you've been operating from a place of being way behind or at a disadvantage, I have a brain tumor or something like that. You're like, okay, I can change this reality. Okay, that door is creaked open just a little bit right there. I can see the light on the other side. I don't know what it looks like, but it looks bright. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna rip that open and it sounds so simple, but like me hearing you describe it and see that. Like that, even just that one story play out play by play, just like that. Hits home big time, man.
- [87:44]
A
Well, I'm glad. What are you manifesting that's going to be so big and yet so easy? Because maybe bigger is easier. What's the big one? That's the easiest big thing you've ever done. It's big and it's easy.
- [88:02]
B
What do you mean by that? That was the other thing I wanted to ask you. I knew there was something else in there.
- [88:06]
A
Okay.
- [88:06]
B
You kept on saying, it's going to be easy.
- [88:08]
A
It's going to be easy.
- [88:09]
B
But is that the things you did, though? They're not. They're object. And this is a compliment. They're objectively not easy. You did hard things. You did them well. You put the time in, you believed in them, you made them happen so that afterwards you can be like, look, that's all I had to do.
- [88:27]
A
You're three years old, okay? You've never tied a shoe. You're. It's. You're tasked with tying a shoe. It's time, little Julian, you're about to tie a shoe, and I show you this complicated process, and you go to try. Is that hard or easy? It's hard. At first, it's hard, and then once you know how to do it, is it hard to. Ah. So what is hard and what is easy once you know how to do something? One plus one used to be hard. There was a time you didn't know how to do that.
- [89:13]
B
I thought I was gonna say two. I was like, where's this going?
- [89:16]
A
One plus one equals two at one point in your life, was that hard?
- [89:20]
B
Yes. I see what you're saying now.
- [89:22]
A
Was 2 times 2 at one point hard?
- [89:24]
B
Yes.
- [89:25]
A
Was 4 divided by 2 at one point hard? That is a very complicated process. But the second you know, how is it easy?
- [89:33]
B
Yes.
- [89:34]
A
So why even label something as hard? We just need to know how. I knew my how with each and everything. I want to be a successful manager. I sign a group named Travis Porter. I just got fired from being soldier boy's cameraman, back to my mom's basement. I get fired from signing my first girl group, got him a record deal. They fired me back to my mom's basement. I signed a guy group named Travis Porter, and I said, I'm not doing a record deal. I'm not going into this big, unknown, smart world of trying to be strategic. I need to be successful. So I'm going to develop a play and I'm going to run the play. And if I can find a play that guarantees my success and it doesn't rely upon anybody else, is it going to be easy for me to be a successful manager? Absolutely.
- [90:26]
B
Once you get there.
- [90:27]
A
No. Once I know how to do it, it's easy tying the shoe. So this is what I did. I said, what's the play? I'm going to pass out CDs every single night. If you want more fans, just more people need to know about you. Is that harder? Easy concept. Easy. Easy concept. So if I pass out 10 CDs and I end up with one fan, easy or hard concept? Easy. Okay. If I pass out 100,000 CDs, the ratios are always going to be there. So I need to pass out a million CDs if I want to have a lot of fans. Hard concept or easy concept?
- [91:08]
B
Easy.
- [91:09]
A
Okay. I need to pass out CDs.
- [91:11]
B
A million CDs is a lot, though.
- [91:13]
A
I frickin did was the play. And I ran it all the way to number two song in the country. I passed out CDs and then I hired people to pass out CDs with me. And then we passed out CDs. I'll be standing outside the nightclub and somebody said to me, you've given me eight. I said, take nine. It's a spiritual act for me to give you this cd. I am proving to myself that I am not smart. I do not want to be smart. I want to be the factory worker. Smart people think a lot. I am guaranteeing my success. I put the widget in the hole. Widget in the hole. I am guaranteeing my success. That is easy. What is hard? Being smart is hard. I'm putting the widget in the hole. Take nine, take 10, take 11, take 12. Give it to your cousin. I grew one of the biggest management companies in the world when I signed 2 Chainz.
- [92:18]
B
Yeah, what's the story there? How did that happen?
- [92:20]
A
I'm at a Lil Wayne music video with my group, Travis Porter. We're on top of the world. Number two song in the country. Lil Wayne has a music video shoot. And my business partner, DJ Techniques, had a great relationship with this artist by the name of Titty Boy. Titty Boy. So we get invited to Titty Boy's music video with Lil Wayne. Titty Boy was in a Rap group called Player Circle. Little Wayne's in the building. And it was my first time being around Lil Wayne. I was like, that's a superstar. Lil Wayne's, you know, biggest rapper in the world at the time. And so two chains walks in, and something happened. It was different, bro. Two chains walked in, in. The atmosphere in the room changed.
- [93:18]
B
And you didn't know him at the time.
- [93:20]
A
I knew who he was. I remember when I was on tour with Soulja Boy, I'm sitting in a minivan in Little Rock, Arkansas, looking at a music video. And I saw this guy wearing a. A wife beater in the music video. And I said, he sure is ugly, but, man, he looks so cool. It was very distinct looking. He almost looked like a very tall, like, Little Wayne. You know how Lil Wayne is, like, technically a little ugly, but looks so cool. And Titty Boy was the same, except he's like 6 foot 6, and he's.
- [93:51]
B
Got a name, Teddy Boy, and his.
- [93:52]
A
Name is Titty Boy. But I was like, he's so cool. But this is years before I'm looking at this music video. So Titty Boy walks in, atmosphere in the room changes. The man had so many necklaces on, you couldn't even, like, see his neck. He looked like a. A black Egyptian pharaoh. I'm, like, looking at him, and my heart lit up. And now I have this gift, right with my heart, where I let my heart dictate my direction. And I've always had this gift, and even to this day, and I credit so much to my heart because I've never took it off of a ring. What do I mean by that?
- [94:41]
B
Yeah.
- [94:42]
A
Okay. We get scorned, right? I'm gonna give you an example. Your cell phone. When you first got a cell phone, did you have a ringtone?
- [94:52]
B
Yes.
- [94:53]
A
All right. And then it went from, like, a song, right? To then it went to, like, a normal ringtone, and then it went to vibrate and then do not distort. Disturb.
- [95:05]
B
I don't really put on do not disturb.
- [95:07]
A
Impressive. Very impressive. Most people, over the course of time, it went from ringer to vibrate to do not disturb. Actually obnoxious ringtone to normal ringtone to vibrate to do not disturb. And, like, those. All those notifications scorned us to where we kind of, like, are, like, allergic because it's, like, so much. It might have been so many bad calls or so many emails or so many things, and we, like, shut down. And it's the same way with our hearts. Our hearts. When we were young, Were open. And then we put it on vibrate and then it gets scarred. And then we put it on do not disturb and it stops having life Mine, I've always kept my heart on ringer. So when you get a calling, I answer Because I can feel it ring. I can hear it ring. It lights up, it's glowing, it's dancing, it's the obnoxious ringtone. It's vibrating, the light's going off. But like I allow my heart to still be on ringtone it is not on do not disturb. I can hear it. And it's always been this way. I haven't let the world tarnish my heart so when titty boy walks in my heart lights up I'm going that way when my heart lights up I know okay. When I was a kid, I saw a baseball field did my heart light up? Up I saw a football field, did my heart light up? I saw hockey heart light up I walked onto a basketball court I saw those lights shining off of the floor I heard the squeak, the smell My heart lit up Did I choose that? No, it was already. It was meant for me. I loved basketball. So I'm very keen to listening to my heart. So titty boy walks in, my heart lit up I want to sign him, but everything's going against this guy. He was in a rap group, he was signed to Ludacris. So this means we'd have to take him solo. We'd have to get him out of a contract.
- [97:16]
B
That's hard in music.
- [97:17]
A
He signed to Ludacris for 10 years. It's like, it might be like a terrible situation for me. It might be a bad business decision, but my heart likes this. And my business partners, Tech and Al, they were so excited as well. And we approached them and we said, we want to manage you. And he looked at us maybe like we're a little oddballs. I was like a 20 year old kid. I have a DJ who you know, is a business partner. And like Al was like a like kind of like our like Birdman. He was like a street dude, you know, so it's like we're kind of like an odd couple, right? We're like the Three Stooges. And so he didn't imagine us as a manager. He saw this gentleman by the name of Rico Brooks, who was very successful, educated black man who has managed some of the biggest artists in hip hop, be his manager. But me, I don't like asking for permission to be great, great. If my heart lit up I know it's Already mine.
- [98:22]
B
You know it's already yours.
- [98:24]
A
I know it's mine. It's done. Tom just hasn't caught up yet. My brain will tell me all the things that are wrong. I'm sitting in a meeting with Titty Boy Rico Brooks and me and my Three Stooges business partners. And we're like the oddballs. Like, we're sitting there like this and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to take this and I'm not going to do it with force. We're going to be the managers. So we went and bought CDs, run the play. We go to the next meeting. All of us are in the meeting. And Tit sees us with CDs. He's like, what are those? He's like, we pressed up CDs. I'm going to act like the manager if I'm going to be the manager. And then I take them out to a nice restaurant by the airport and I presented a 30 day, 60 day, 90 day game plan, next meeting. This is your promo tour. You're going to this club, you're going to these radio stations. We're shooting these music videos. Music videos are coming out on Friday on Worldstar. We're doing this mixtape's coming out here. We bring it. We're bringing all this to the table. Rico Brooks stopped showing up to the meetings. I love Rico Brooks, by the way, great friend of mine. But we're getting shows booked, so if the money's already flowing through us, who's the manager? Me and my business partners. I knew it was ours. I just had to be. At first, it's very similar to the Nike commercial, just in a different way. My heart lit up. I knew it was going to be easy. I go pass out CDs. I remember there was this moment. Two chains felt something. He. I don't know. I don't know what happened, but there was a connection. Figure 8, Nightclub on the west side of Atlanta. It's raining. Titty boy walks out of the. By the way. Anybody listening? Teddy Boy is two chains. Teddy Boy is walking out of the nightclub. He sees me chasing people down, passing out his CDs in the rain in my suit. I would pass out CDs in my Joseph A. Banks suits every night, size 5X. And he looked at me and I could tell that there was something there where he was like, maybe he was thinking, damn, this is. This is how I should be treated. I need. I need that in my life. And so we ended up managing two chains. We took his name from Teddy Boy to 2 Chainz.
- [101:08]
B
Good move.
- [101:10]
A
He was saying it as an ad lib and it was like a natural fit and it was just like perfect. And so it was like, let's transition your name into two chains. And it just took off. Right? But let's go back. Back to just my heart. If your heart lights up at something, it's already done and it's going to be easy. Now let's, let's take this for example. Passing out the CDs. That was my play that guarantees my success. I'm passing out two chain CDs every single day. But I had never experienced what happened before. I'm on a college campus, always in the auc, pass out a CD and people would drop it on the ground. I was not used to that. People like Travis Porter and so they wouldn't always throw them on the ground. But now I'm passing out a two chain CD and they're all on the ground. And so I started asking people, like, why don't you want this? It's like, like, he's old. Like, why would I listen to that? Because at the time he was maybe like 33.
- [102:18]
B
Yeah, he blew up late and I.
- [102:20]
A
Was like, no, this is the future. Like, like, listen, like, he's one of the best rappers in the world. But they, I guess the, the kids looked at it kind of like, if I were to like pass you out a new like 50 Cent mixtape right now, you'd just be like, eh, like we just don't listen to 50 Cent like that. We would rather listen to his old stuff. But it's like he's old. Like 50 Cent isn't like new. We want NBA youngboy. Right? And so they kind of looked at titty boy as that. And so I would go pick up all the CDs off the ground and I would rehand them out. I have to run my play. I'm not about to start getting strategic and trying to be smart, because smart is hard. I'm going to run my easy play until it works. That's it. I need it to be easy. And if I start, if I stop that play and start trying to do other things, I'm probably going to start, stop, start, stop, start, stop. I need one play that's guaranteed my success. So I'm passing out the CDs and then things started shifting slowly. It took longer than I thought, but I'm passing out the CDs every night. Every night. And it wasn't going exactly how I had planned. But the universe Blessed me with something I didn't even do. It was my walk in the front door moment. We had with two chains. There was a. Somebody walked in the front door. And it was actually a fight that happened that changed our life.
- [103:48]
B
A fight.
- [103:49]
A
A fight between P. Diddy and TI Is BET weekend in Atlanta, Georgia Compound Nightclub, the number one nightclub in Atlanta. Diddy is promoting Ciroc and he's promoting it heavy. So he's in the nightclubs, and this is the biggest club destination weekend in Atlanta. Diddy's on stage and he's like getting mad at people in the crowd who are drinking Gray Goose. So he's talking reckless. And so T.I. is there, and T.I. gets on the microphone. He's like, hey, homie, like, T.I. style. And. And he tells Diddy, like, you're not. You're in so many words. You're not going to come in our city and talk to our people like that. Like, you're from New York, you're in Atlanta, you're in my city. So they get in, like a verbal fight on the stage and everybody's filming it. And the DJ has the music cut off and it's like getting tense. So the DJ is trying to get everybody back to focusing on the party. Like, we don't want this thing to spiral out of control. So the DJ drops a song, I'm riding around, I'm getting it, it's mine, I spend it. And then they're still fighting. DJ brings it back, spins a song. I'm riding around, I'm getting it, it's mine, I spend it. DJ brings it back again. Everybody's filming the fight, riding around, I'm getting it, it's mine, I spend it. Footage leaks on world star of the fight worldstarhiphop.com Everybody's in the comments saying, what's that song? What's that song? What's that song? Song takes off, no fucking looking back. I didn't do that. Just like I didn't ask the gentleman to walk in my front door. I went and planted so many freaking seeds. And one day it's going to freaking rain.
- [106:07]
B
That's right.
- [106:08]
A
And I'm going to have a forest. So I planted how many seeds? How many times did that DJ see me standing outside the nightclub? Me, my business partner. And it wasn't just me. It was me, my business partner, street team. We are running the play, guaranteeing our success. And passing out a CD is easy. Becoming a successful manager is easy.
- [106:34]
B
Here's one place, and this is a credit to you.
- [106:36]
A
Yes, sir.
- [106:37]
B
Where I would just add context and, and I understand what you're saying. With Easy now, you want to pick a play that you can do, a muscle memory. So in theory, yes, that's easy. The thing that, another thing that separates you from a lot of people, people that haven't done it, that maybe wanted to do it, is that you're willing to put that time in that time is not easy. We, we don't, we don't know when our life ends. We have a finite amount of time. It's even a funny thing when you even think about it in concept. But you are out there every night passing out CD after CD in the Internet era, I might add. Like this wasn't like 95 or something like that. Like you're like, we're gonna use some of the old school plays too.
- [107:21]
A
Yes.
- [107:21]
B
Because we know what, it's math. We know what we can control. So, yes, the action itself.
- [107:27]
A
Easy enough.
- [107:28]
B
Hand out CDs. Few people say fuck you and throw it on the ground. Great, I can hand it out to someone else. But doing that again and again and again and again and again, that's inspiring. Firing. That's, that's the hard thing. That's where, you know, people, a lot of people fall short because they get afraid of, you know, they, they live that quiet desperation.
- [107:49]
A
Right.
- [107:50]
B
Where they're desperate to do something, but they're not desperate to do something about it. You did something about it.
- [107:55]
A
Yeah. You'll notice a, like, kind of like a common thread. Iron man hard Iron Man. 8 year old. Go and run for a couple hours in the park. Easy.
- [108:08]
B
Yeah.
- [108:10]
A
I actually show up because I actually believe every day everything's about to change. It might take a year or two, but every day I think today's the day. I actually thought I was going to win the lottery that night. I believe that I actually thought, no, like moving in tonight. That's delusional. So if you wake up every day with that delusion, you don't even feel the pain because today's the day, every day. And it's going to be easy and it's going to work. And when we get knocked down, I throw my temper tantrum. That's not fun. You see a pattern. That's not fun. Oh no, this is about to happen. And I go right back to the delusion. So I actually end up doing really hard things. And it gets done in a very short period of time in the scheme of things to where if you look at the first 31 years of my life and you see in everything I did, you would be like, well, he makes everything look easy.
- [109:11]
B
After the fact.
- [109:12]
A
After the fact. And technically, in one hand, it is easy, right? In the other hand, it is hard. Which one do I want to look at?
- [109:20]
B
You want to look at easy?
- [109:22]
A
And I'm going to continue doing that. I'm doing it right now with my book. I'm writing a book.
- [109:26]
B
You're writing a book right now?
- [109:27]
A
I'm writing a book.
- [109:28]
B
Memoir.
- [109:29]
A
No.
- [109:30]
B
What's the book?
- [109:30]
A
It's called Winning Streak. The Art of Mastering. No. Mastering the Art of Delusional Optimism.
- [109:39]
B
I like that.
- [109:40]
A
Okay. And it's going to be a classic. It's going to look like a classic. It's literally going to look like a 1930s cover. It's going to have a linen cover. It's going to look old school. Okay, Check this out. It's going to sell 30 million copies. Now. Have I ever written a book before? No. Is writing a book hard? Maybe. But. But I heard that the Alchemist was written in six days.
- [110:09]
B
I didn't know that.
- [110:10]
A
True story.
- [110:11]
B
Wow.
- [110:11]
A
Six days.
- [110:12]
B
Rocky was written in three.
- [110:14]
A
Rocky was written in three. Okay. I heard that Forrest Gump's book was written in six words. Weeks.
- [110:20]
B
Wow.
- [110:20]
A
Does that sound hard? That doesn't sound hard. That sounds easy. Actually, six days. I could do six days. Okay, so might be hard. Might be easy. I'm going to say, okay, it's going to be easy. Now, how many copies of the alchemist were sold? 150,000. Wow. That's a lot. Like, you think about, like, Let Them Theory, which is, like, the biggest book in the world right now, sold 7 million copies.
- [110:44]
B
You want to do 30 months?
- [110:45]
A
I want to do 30 million. The Secret. Did 30 million or, like, think and grow rich did, like, 100 million. I'm like, 30 should be pretty easy. Like, I'm like, okay, I know what it looks like. I'm going to tell everybody what's going to happen. It's going to be a classic. It's going to look like a classic. I know the title. I know the color of the book. I know exactly when I'm a drop it. I came up with a date. November 27th. Have I written it yet? No, but I'm going.
- [111:12]
B
November 27th. This year.
- [111:13]
A
No, next year.
- [111:14]
B
Next year?
- [111:15]
A
No, next year. We gotta go. You got six days. So it's like, I'm just gonna find a way for it to be easy. I'm like, okay, like, I'm gonna write it in six weeks. That's gonna be easy. I found a self publisher. I don't even want a traditional publisher. Why? Because they're gonna get in my way, right? Like David Goggins sold 7 million copies and he self published. Like I'm like, okay, cool. Like I don't need anybody in my way. That's when it's gonna get hard. Okay, somebody mess up my play. We're not having anybody mess up my play. I'm. I'm doing it.
- [111:49]
B
Why'd you put pick? Is that Black Friday?
- [111:52]
A
What?
- [111:52]
B
When you want to release it?
- [111:53]
A
Yeah.
- [111:54]
B
Why'd you pick Black Friday?
- [111:55]
A
People ready to spend money. So you got Black Friday and then Cyber Monday. I'm gonna create all this fomo. It's gonna be the cool thing to have all the influencers. Everybody's gonna like. It's going to be a fashion statement, right? If you have this orange classic looking book, it's going to say who you are. We are delusional optimists. We are on a winning streak. That's what we all want. So it's like this episode, for example, is going to be the baseline for all of my marketing. This episode. I'm going to say something in this episode that's going to get 50 million views. And then everybody's going to start saying like, delusional optimism is the way of the future. And then I'm going to write the book and then sell 30 million copies. And it's going to be. Be easy, okay? And it's just going. It's just going to go crazy, right? And I'm going to buy that house, right? So it's like easy. But that's how I talk to myself. These are my conversations. There is another path. Want me to tell you what the other path is?
- [112:49]
B
Please.
- [112:50]
A
Other path is this. This is the dreamer's journey.
- [112:53]
B
Dreamers journey.
- [112:54]
A
This is the dreamer's journey. Okay, we can all agree we get really excited about stuff. Okay? I want this. Man, we're going to be rich. This is going to be awesome. Sell 30 million copies. And then on the dreamer's Journey, there's the valley of reality. And this is where. Damn, I don't know how to write a book. I'm not a writer. I need to get a writer. Okay, let me look.
- [113:18]
B
You are a writer.
- [113:19]
A
Okay, thanks. I like that. You're a good friend. That's.
- [113:22]
B
No, I'm serious. Like, writing is just the expression of actually putting down a into physical form. The ability to think and speak. That's all it is.
- [113:30]
A
You want to know what's crazy? That's what you got this episode might write the freaking book for me. That's how good this episode is. Like, that's how easy it's going to be. Like, we'll just take this, put it in the air, transcribe it. Okay, cool. Easy, right? Like we got our chapters right here. It's super easy. So the valley of reality is. I need a write. I need a ghostwriter. Somebody who can make this sound like of a bunch book that can explain like, oh, I walked into the room and it felt like this and it looked like this, okay, all right, it might be that easy. But then as I'm googling like how much does like the ghostwriter for Kevin Hart's book? He's like super successful ghostwriter. And I'm like, he was written some really good books. Oh wow. He charges a million dollars. Okay. Can't afford that. Okay, let me look up a cheaper Ghostwriter. Normally about 100,000 for a good one. I'm like, yeah, I'm not spending a hundred thousand on a ghostwriter. Now we're in the valley of reality right here. Okay, so I'm a write it myself, but it might take me like a year. I hear like people like spend a year writing a book and then I need to hire an editor and editors can cost like 30,000. And then I need a publishing company. And then it's like, fuck. Like, you see where the valley of reality takes me? It's like that's where the brain is. And like my dreams are probably going to die a life of like, I'm going to fall into the valley of reality and I'm probably going to get fucking paralyzed. And guess what happens when you're paralyzed in a valley?
- [115:11]
B
You can't fucking walk.
- [115:12]
A
You can't fucking walk. We're dying in this fucking valley. And that's where the dreamer's journey usually ends. You dream big, your brain kicks in and you die in the valley of reality. Let's go all the way back. It's going to be fucking easy. This motherfucker wrote it in six days. I'm going to write it in six days. I'm a self publish it. I know what the COVID looks like. I'm releasing it on Black Friday. I don't need a publishing company. I'm a do it myself. These people sold 30,000. These people sold 150,000. You know what? I can do it. You know what, I'm going to take this podcast, transcribe, and they got these little AI tools. It'll help me. And then I'M going to put it out there and I'm going to post it on Instagram. And people are going to be really inspired by one of these clips. And an editor is going to be like, I want to help you with that. And I'm not spending 40 grand. He's like, I just, I want to be a part of this. I'm freaking inspired. Okay, now we got an editor. I used AI to make the freaking cover for free. I know what it looks like. I'm actually even going to. To own a new identity.
- [116:14]
B
A new identity.
- [116:15]
A
A new identity. Because I'm gonna be an author. I need to look like a scholar. So I made, I went on Pinterest, made a mood board of my new style. Now I'm gonna go varsity jacket, Ivy League underneath. Okay. Varsity jacket. Every time you see me, I'm gonna be wearing a varsity jacket, but Ivy League preppy wear underneath. I got pictures on my phone. Let me show you. So, like, I literally, if I want to be a clap, I really, really live this. So this is what I'm gonna look like. I'm gonna look like this guy. Okay. But that's what an author, that's what a best selling author looks like. You can go left or right.
- [116:52]
B
Yeah.
- [116:52]
A
And you're gonna see how I'm gonna keep it streetwear with the varsity jacket. But I'm gonna look like an author.
- [117:01]
B
Does that look like an author?
- [117:03]
A
Abso fucking lutely.
- [117:04]
B
That's an author. To give you the author's approval.
- [117:06]
A
But like, I want to write a classic, so I need to be classic. Okay. I'm going to keep my street wear. I'm going to keep my streetwear with my varsity jacket, but I want to look like a classic. So I'm going into a new chapter. So I'm creating a new character. This is delusion.
- [117:22]
B
Are you gonna. Are you gonna put a Charlie Rocket spin on it?
- [117:26]
A
Not a name, but a metaphor.
- [117:29]
B
No, no, no, I don't. Sorry, I should have said that differently. Not the actual name. I'm saying, like the style. Like that. Are you gonna change up a few things to make it personal to you?
- [117:39]
A
The hats and the varsity jackets will be my, like, street wear. Okay, but. And the colors.
- [117:45]
B
Oh, this is a team effort.
- [117:46]
A
I like this. She's great.
- [117:47]
B
Stylist, designer over here. I like this.
- [117:49]
A
But like, look at my man.
- [117:51]
B
Oh, that's gangster.
- [117:52]
A
That's actually.
- [117:53]
B
Come on now.
- [117:53]
A
Too cool.
- [117:54]
B
Yo, flames. Okay, I don't know who that is, but. But keep doing what you're doing.
- [117:58]
A
I'll buy that book. I would buy his book.
- [118:00]
B
Yes. I would, too.
- [118:01]
A
Okay.
- [118:01]
B
He looks like a real straight shooter.
- [118:02]
A
So anytime I go into anything, I do this thing where I have to be the identity, and it creates a lot of accountability, but it's a hack for me. I want to be a businessman. I take off my normal clothes, and I put on a suit. In high school, I took off my backpack, and I. I held a briefcase, and I went to high school every day with a suit and a briefcase. I put it on my grandfather, and I don't put anything on my grandfather. Okay. Put three things on my grandfather.
- [118:37]
B
That's awesome.
- [118:37]
A
I'm CEO Charlie. I gave myself a name and an outfit, and I'm going to become that. And so in the yearbook, guess who gets voted most likely to succeed? Me. Why? Because it's my identity. It makes it easy to be most likely to succeed because I'm telling everybody what I'm going to do, and I'm showing them. And I have my little businesses, and I'm wearing my suit and I have my briefcase. Okay. I became a successful businessman when you were.
- [119:04]
B
Charlie, sorry to cut you off. I got to ask this, though. When you were a little kid, 5, 6, 7 years old, who was your hero?
- [119:12]
A
Michael Jordan. And then became Allen Iverson.
- [119:17]
B
Fictionally, who was your hero? Jordan and Iverson makes a lot of sense.
- [119:21]
A
Okay.
- [119:22]
B
For real people, but fictionally, who was your hero?
- [119:25]
A
My favorite movie.
- [119:26]
B
Sure.
- [119:28]
A
Cool. Runnings. Senka, you dead man. No, it's Darish. You dead man. No, Senka. No. It's like, I like sports. I liked inspiration. I liked Angels in the Outfield. The movie I liked. I liked anything that was like, I'm a little bit disadvantaged, and a miracle is going to happen, and my dream's going to come true.
- [119:59]
B
I'm an underdog.
- [120:00]
A
I'm an underdog. And so, like, my favorite movies of today are like, Moana. Little girl had a calling to go save the world. Everybody told her, stay here on the island. Your dream. Don't go chase your dream. She went to go chase her dream of saving the world, and she would fall off the raft, and the water would put her back. She couldn't fail. It was guaranteed. Like. Like, every time she fell off the raft, the water put her back. It was guaranteed she was going to save the world. And then I think about, like, Sing two or, like, Greatest Showman. Like, these are, like, my favorite movies. I love seeing somebody get their dream. Dream. I just love it. I've always loved it. Like, somebody who's struggling and like disadvantaged. And they got to experience that in their lifetime. That's what I like.
- [120:46]
B
Did you like that they then did in. In achieving their dream? They did something larger than life. As in they took on a figurative hero's role. Did you. You like that a lot?
- [121:00]
A
I always liked it. Yeah. So where was I before you were.
- [121:06]
B
You were talking about CEO Charlie.
- [121:08]
A
CEO Charlie.
- [121:09]
B
You were rocking. That's why I asked you. You were rocking the briefcase and the suit, going to school, putting, becoming, getting into character in a way to be the.
- [121:17]
A
And then I became it and it worked. So when I wanted to become an athlete, I needed an athlete name. I'm just going to do it again. My name can't be CEO Charlie anymore. I need to be Charlie Rocket. And so, like, I'm gonna like, give myself a name. A name that has meaning. I gave myself a name. Rocket. I was fat. Rockets start off slow and then they get fast. The first mile, like that thing is going like this, it's so slow. But then once it gets to 62 miles, it's fast. Every mile gets faster and faster. So I'm like, I'm a rocket. Start off slow. I'm going to get fast. Okay, cool. Charlie Rocket. And I put on the clothes. Colorful clothes, Bandana, sunglasses. Just fun. Colorful. I'm a ball of energy. Charlie Rock.
- [122:08]
B
Yes. I remember this look. Yeah.
- [122:10]
A
And so now I'm going into being an author.
- [122:16]
B
Now you gotta be the author.
- [122:17]
A
I gotta be. It like was. There's a couple things that are going to happen through this process. One, I just went on your podcast and told everybody what I'm going to do. Do you believe me?
- [122:30]
B
I do. You put it out in the universe.
- [122:32]
A
But how did I say it?
- [122:35]
B
What do you mean?
- [122:36]
A
How did you even have a chance to have an opinion about anything I said? You just believed me.
- [122:42]
B
I believe. Well, I believe in you because of the vibe you carry. But as you're saying things, things as a human being, there's a part of me that's like, maybe. And then I'm like, nah, I think this guy will figure it out.
- [122:54]
A
Absolutely.
- [122:55]
B
Like me. And, and I'll tell you one, one part where I was thinking in my head, I don't know when you said 30 million, but you know what I thought in my head I said, a classic award winning book does 5 to 7. This guy could do 15 and be a legend.
- [123:09]
A
Yeah.
- [123:09]
B
You know what I mean? Now you're saying 30, 15 wouldn't be what you want, but 15 million books about teaching people how to have a winning streak and everything that you're teaching today that changes the world.
- [123:20]
A
I'll tell you why. I can quantify it. Everybody feels like a loser. I mean, even the people that are successful, they still don't feel like they're winning. Bad stuff is happening every day in people's lives. The most successful people I know, they're like the most insecure. And the most broken people I know, they're also insecure. Everybody's insecure. Everybody wants to win. Everybody has levels of happiness that can be achieved. So title of my book is winning streak. It's the most infectious two words that we also consciously want in our life. That's one. Think about how to win friends and influence people on a subconscious level. That just is like, ultimately what humans want or need in their life. Winning streak is going to touch everybody. And for me, most of my audience is women. And most women buy books. It's like 80% of books sold are women. So it's like, I got women, I got the subconscious. It's going to be a classic. It's going to be the best book. It's going to have the best stories. I'm going to tell the best stories of the best celebrities and entrepreneurs that were delusional. And we're going to literally write the greatest book book. It's going to have a hero's journey arc, then it's going to have all these cool lessons, and then it's going to have a structure on how to apply it all. I'm like, it's the best book ever written. You know what I'm thinking too small. 100 million. I'm not even going to have to do anything. It's going to be so good. Everybody's going to do it for me. It's easy. Abracadabra. Guaranteed. You just made me go to 100 million. Thanks.
- [125:06]
B
On the record, too.
- [125:07]
A
100 million. I mean, I might. Hopefully I'm alive while it does 100 million because you think about, like, how to influence, how to win friends that influence people. But the interesting thing about, like, the Alchemist, for example, when it first came out, it was a flop, right? And then it just. People don't understand it and it just went crazy. 150 million copies. So long story short, that's what's going to happen. But I'm going to wear the identity. I'm a speak it. So guess what I have to do? I have to do it. But I'm going to do it because I actually believe it's going to be Easy.
- [125:39]
B
I believe.
- [125:40]
A
I'm not letting my brain take over. I'm letting. I'm. The common thread through all this is I'm making my brain work for my heart and then I'm hacking the system by speaking it, I'm wearing it, I'm confirming. You know how, like, the confirmation bias thing works. It's like, as humans, we want to confirm our belief systems.
- [126:04]
B
That's right.
- [126:05]
A
So we don't feel like we're going insane. So it's like, if I believe it's going to be easy, I'm going to find ways. It's easy. And so I'm just going to find them. And then when it gets hard, I'm gonna. Or I might take a L, two Ls, make a W. It's gonna be a win. Like, this is. I gotta keep the winning streak going. These are all my hacks to being successful. Not just once or ten times, but I've done this on repeat my whole life. Big goal, small goal, different things. I can give you an example because there is something through all of this that I haven't talked about yet.
- [126:39]
B
What's that?
- [126:41]
A
I'm expecting miracles at this point. Point.
- [126:43]
B
You're expecting miracles?
- [126:45]
A
I'm expecting miracles.
- [126:46]
B
What do you mean?
- [126:47]
A
I'm expecting somebody to walk through my front door. I'm expecting there to be a random fight and I get blessed. I'm expecting these things at this point.
- [126:58]
B
Do you call that a miracle?
- [127:01]
A
Absolutely. I mean, it's like, I didn't tell that guy to walk through the front door. And he knows how to make every single thing I'm looking for. Like, no videographer makes music that sounds like Hans Zimmer. Go listen to the commercial. It's Hans Zimmer strings. And he edited it like, that was a miracle. I did not do that. There was no one plus one equals two there. I did not drop a thousand cold emails. I didn't do that. He walked in my front door. So there are miracles. But I'm at this point now where I'm expecting miracles. I'll give you a miracle that happened in New Jersey.
- [127:36]
B
Love that.
- [127:39]
A
This exact week, five years ago, I sold all my houses. I moved into a bus. It's the pandemic, and I'm giving all my money away helping people all throughout the country, doing the Dream Machine Foundation. And I expected that if I go help enough people, there's going to be rich people who call Step up and want to donate with me. Me. And I've personally given away like 400,000 of my own dollars and I'm building this tour. And we had a sponsor for the tour and we're going throughout the country and we're getting to New York and the bank account got down to almost zero. I'm scared. I'm like the foundation bank account and I'm frustrated. And I had a manager at the time and we got in a big fight. Bank accounts getting zero. People are getting antsy. He doesn't know how he's going to make money from this if there's no money left because I've given it all away. I asked him, I need a police escort to get to Corona, New York, where we're going to do an activation. He said, I'm not getting you police escort. I was like, like, man, bro, like, we got in fight. He didn't give me a police escort because I'm driving a big old bus through these small roads and I got stuck and I'm blocking all these like, lanes of traffic and like I'm stuck and I'm trying to back up the bus and the roads are too tight and people are honking at me. And I'm just sitting there in my bus with my head on the steering wheel, like damn near crying because all this is falling apart. I left the music industry. My dreams have come true. I've dedicated my life to helping people. Nobody has stepped up to help us. I'm now in the middle of a four lane intersection. Everybody's honking at me. My manager and I just got in a huge fight and my head's on the steering wheel and I'm like, I wish he gave me a freaking police escort. That night. I lit into him and he quit. And I'm calling my mom, screaming that this whole thing, this whole vision I had is falling apart. And I'm punching the pillow and I'm screaming at the top of my lungs out of frustration. This is this week. Five years ago. I had a cameraman with me and I had an intern with me on the road. We're in an old 2006 Winnebago that broke down every day. It was called the Dream Machine. It was more like the Nightmare machine. This whole thing turned into a freaking nightmare. I'm staying in the same hotel. So we parked the bus over here in New Jersey. I'm staying at a hotel in soho. The Sheraton. Same one I'm staying in right now, this week, five years ago. And I told, I told my cameraman and I told my intern, I said, listen, we're gonna pause the tour we're gonna go find a blessing. He said, where are we going? I said, atlantic City.
- [130:54]
B
That's a bad start.
- [130:56]
A
No. I had never been to Atlantic City. I thought Atlantic City was a nice place. I was like, let's get an Airbnb. We're gonna. We're gonna. No, I didn't know Airbnb and AC.
- [131:10]
B
Is gonna be a crack den, bro.
- [131:11]
A
No. Okay.
- [131:13]
B
It's gonna be old mob bodies in the bottom cement.
- [131:17]
A
I did not know. So. So we. We. We leave the bus at the RV park, we get a rental car, we go to Atlantic City, I get an Airbnb, and the next morning, somebody next door was shot and killed. No, exactly what you just said is exactly what happened. And I was like, okay. What we were going to do is sit down for two weeks and come up with a business plan on how to get money to fund this nonprofit. Like, it's falling apart. Nobody's going to get paid. My manager quit. This shit's falling apart. Bus is broken. All this shit's going wrong. So I said, we got to get out of Atlantic City. So I found an Airbnb in Vint North.
- [131:59]
B
This is where Ventnor comes in.
- [132:01]
A
A nice neighborhood down the street from Atlantic City. And it had a nice little acai bowl place. I was like, this is where we need to be. We're going to be here for two weeks. Check this out. There was a church. There was a labyrinth outside the church. Now to remember how this. How this story started. Started. I said, I'm starting to expect miracles. I'm in the labyrinth. Do you know what labyrinth is?
- [132:31]
B
Nope.
- [132:31]
A
All right, so a labyrinth is like, just like a little maze where people manifest in. There's sometimes at spiritual places, like in Sedona, but this Methodist church had a labyrinth outside.
- [132:42]
B
This wasn't like a Far east kind of thing.
- [132:45]
A
No. This is at a Methodist church, and there's a labyrinth, and it's like a maze. You walk in. You walk in these circles. And this in Ventner, swear to God, I put.
- [132:55]
B
I spent a lot of drunk nights in Ventner. I'd think I'd have found this thing.
- [132:58]
A
I put this on my grandfather, go to the Methodist church. I'm walking around the labyrinth. If I made up this story, this would be very interesting. Imagination.
- [133:08]
B
That's right. Yeah. You're really.
- [133:10]
A
I could write another type of book.
- [133:12]
B
Yeah, you have a future.
- [133:14]
A
So I'm walking around this labyrinth, and we need a blessing to happen. And so I close my eyes and I'm walking, and I saw something I saw $500,000.
- [133:27]
B
I saw it, like, in your mind?
- [133:30]
A
In my mind, I saw it, and it felt good. To where? I'm walking around this labyrinth, and I started dancing as if the $500,000 came and I'm feeling it. And I told. I told my two employees, we're all walking around this. If you were looking at us, you would thought we were crazy. I said, guys, like, we just got $500,000. Like, what would we be doing? And I'm, like, smiling and dancing as if the 500. And if you just saw these three grown men doing this in a labyrinth at a Methodist church, you would have thought we're crazy. But I saw it, so I started writing it in my notebook. We're in the Airbnb, and we started manifesting, and we started making some phone calls, and we raised a few thousand bucks. Okay, not 500,000. We raised a few thousand bucks. And I get an email, and he's from Hasbro, the toy company. And I don't know Hasbro, but they just cold emailed me and said, charlie, we saw a video you made and we want to donate. And I told my boys, I said, this is it. This is the 500,000. I know it is because I saw it. And then Hasbro emailed me. I don't ever get emails from companies wanting to donate. Never has happened before. We get on a call the next morning, a Zoom call. And then we start the call off by not like the small talk. Me and my boys are singing A Million Dreams. Like, one is standing on the staircase. You look like High School Musical in the Airbnb. One is standing on the sofa, one is standing on the counter, and we're singing A Million Dreams. And that's how we start off the Zoom call, because we know that this is the $500,000. So we get on the zoom. They were laughing. They liked it. Good energy. And they said, we want to donate. And I'm like, gearing up, and we're all, like, bracing for our arms are ba. We probably recorded this call, by the way. I probably have this call recorded. And they said, we want to donate $50,000. I had never been so ungrateful for a blessing in my life, because I knew it was going to be 500,000 and yet 50,000 just came in. And I was like. Not like. It's like, I was disappointed because my expectations were so high, because I know what I saw. And so I thanked them and I was appreciative, and I didn't show them that I Was very disappointed, but I was so disappointed because I knew that it was going to be 500. I wasn't. Then the next day, they wanted to get on another Zoom call and they said, we had some conversations inside the company and we found some more budget at 150,000. And then they said it went to the higher ups. The next day they called and the CEO got involved. He said, we're scrapping our entire influencer budget for Christmas. $450,000. And in that three weeks that we. In two weeks we were in Vintnor, we raised $750,000.
- [136:49]
B
Wow.
- [136:51]
A
I put it on my grandfather, and I don't put anything on my grandfather. True story.
- [136:58]
B
You see how you said you were standing around that Airbnb manifesting, though? And then what did you tell me right after that?
- [137:04]
A
I was making some phone calls, count.
- [137:05]
B
On the phone call, started, started raising money, getting things going. That's what people got to hear. It's not.
- [137:10]
A
It's both.
- [137:11]
B
Just as simple as thinking it. It's like I'm thinking it. Let's put that in the universe now. Let's do something about it.
- [137:17]
A
It and then expect the miracle to come. Because you're renewing the lease. You're renewing the lease by every phone call you make, every CD you pass out, every meeting you take with a producer. You're renewing the lease, and you send out the energy. Check this out. If you sent out a signal and you want it to bounce back, let's say we're in a swim pool, you send out a wave, and you want a wave to come back to you. You want to send and you want to receive, right? That's a goal in life. If I send out what I want, I want to receive. You're in a swimming pool, you dip your pinky toe in. It creates the tiniest little ripple because it's just your pinky toe, little ripple goes out. Is that ripple hitting the wall and, like, coming back? If you cannonballed into the pool, is it sending a ripple out and is it coming back? Bigger is easier. Cannonball, not pinky toe. Cannonball.
- [138:22]
B
If you believe, go all the way in. You mentioned this earlier. You were talking about, like, the attitude towards, like, hard classes versus easier classes in school. But in general, like, growing up in school, going through elementary school, middle school, high school, what was your attitude on school? What did you think of it? What did you think of the process?
- [138:42]
A
Elementary was, like, easy. When I got to, like, the big leagues, middle school, I couldn't keep up, like, I was just like. I'd look at everybody else in class. I'm like, y'. All. Y' all understand this. Y' all get this.
- [138:57]
B
Was it because of the way they were teaching it?
- [138:59]
A
No, I think it was just me. It was like. I'm like, I'm in this physics class, and I'm just like, how do y' all get this so easily? And I don't. I just didn't process it. You know, some people, they do a math test and they didn't have to study, and it's just, like, effortless for them. That wasn't me, but I didn't mind because I kind of could piece together this concept. If I show up, I'm going to pass, right? And so the kids who didn't show up to classes, they failed. The kids who did, they passed. So it's like. Like, I don't know what A stat is on it, but, like, if you show up, you're probably going to pass. Might not be an A, you're probably going to pass. And the only people who. More. Most 90% of people who don't pass, they just didn't show up. So I was just like, I just need to show up.
- [139:51]
B
Well, the reason I was. That's interesting, because that's not where I was expecting you to go with that. But you're also. There's another point here that I'd love to see your thoughts on this and how you might reflect on it with your own journey. But the reason I was bringing it up is because I think about this one clip of Carl Sagan all the time. You know, Carl Sagan is so. He was. You know, he was the original, like, science popularizer, Brilliant, brilliant guy, and brought things down to earth, no pun intended, for people. But there's. There's a famous clip of him talking about what happens when you speak to a group of kindergarteners and the questions they ask. They'll ask things like, why is the sky up? Why are the plants green? Why do the animals live in the same places where some humans do? And simple things like this, right? He said. Then when you go to a class of 12th graders, they don't ask any questions. No, they're afraid to. And he goes, the kindergartner questions are actually brilliant. We make them seem in society like it's stupid or simple or like, oh, that's cute. A little kid's asking why the fucking sky's up. But the reality is they're genius questions because they're curious. They're looking at the surroundings in their world and wondering why things are the way they are, which is the basis root of any scientific endeavor that's ever happened on this earth, or creative endeavor for that matter. So what he. What he was saying is that. That something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade in the system, in school society. How it gets to you, to where kids suddenly decide to be embarrassed.
- [141:37]
A
Yeah.
- [141:37]
B
To ask questions because they fear that it is not going to be intelligent. And so obviously something's broken there that has got them to that mindset. And I bring this up because you look at the world in such an inspirational way and I'd see this from before I even knew. Knew you. But then especially when I'd be talking on the phone with you, like our first conversations, and you would just ask question after question. Simple shit. This is not like fucking, you know, what is the square root of 69 million trillion or something? This was literally. You're asking me questions that are one plus one. Okay, now what's one plus three? Okay, now it's one.
- [142:14]
A
How many times have I called you asking a question? A lot.
- [142:17]
B
But it gets somewhere.
- [142:18]
A
Yeah.
- [142:18]
B
And we figure things out because you keep things simple. And then when you combine that with the fact that in your. In the way you express yourself, in the way you think about things, you are a curious dreamer. There is something about you that when you were a kindergartener, those beautiful, like, thoughts and ideas that come into your head where everyone else around you went through the same system. You did and lost that. Or most people did.
- [142:43]
A
Did. Yeah.
- [142:44]
B
You didn't. Why do you think that is?
- [142:50]
A
That's a hell of a question. That's a hell of a question. Why did I not lose it? Why did I not lose. I asked a question the other day. You know how they say you pass with flying colors? What the is a flying color? Is it a rainbow? Like what? Like. I guess I still ask these questions, but what is a flying color? Does anybody know? Can we look up what like a flying. Like, where does that come from? Passed with flying colors. I'm curious. Why have I never lost it? I think. I think my answer is actually going to disappoint everybody. And I'm sorry for not being deep with that very deep question, but I think everything that comes back to how I operate is, like, fun.
- [143:57]
B
Why is that? I think that's. That's a fine answer.
- [143:59]
A
It's just like, it was fun for me asking you what does flying colors mean? It's not fun for me asking you what square root of 72 is but it would actually be a fun conversation if I asked you, like, how did they know what dinosaurs sound like? Because nobody was there. They just making this up. Like, how do we know? But that's like a way more fun conversation. Like somebody was there.
- [144:30]
B
Ken Lavara back answer that one.
- [144:32]
A
But like fast with flying colors. What does this mean?
- [144:36]
B
It comes from a maritime tradition where naval ships return to port with their colors, flags unfurled to signify victory in battle or a successful voyage. So they were calling the flag colors.
- [144:47]
A
So it's not a rainbow. Okay, cool. Now we know.
- [144:49]
B
Now we know.
- [144:50]
A
But to me, these questions are fun.
- [144:52]
B
Yes.
- [144:52]
A
Like, I would rather ask you a question like, like, like if. If like a pyramid was built in, like the stone weighs like 70 tons and like a crane today can only lift a 10 ton. But the stone came from 500 miles away. How did they get it over there? And then, hold on, did aliens. It has to be alien. But it's like, to me, that's just a fun question. Yeah. So for me, I just think everything comes back to play. Fun.
- [145:28]
B
Absolutely.
- [145:29]
A
Ease. Because that's just what I want in my life.
- [145:31]
B
It's. Here's why. It's a great answer. That's what kids do. Somewhere along the way, it goes from having fun to being cool.
- [145:39]
A
It does.
- [145:39]
B
Fitting in, conforming, doing what you're told, like the way you think is like, there's got to be a better way to simplify this. But you mesh the literal and the figurative narrative. That's why I was drawn to you when, when it, when I first found you. Because in a lot of ways, when I hear you talk, I hear very similar ideas from like great artists. Like a Kanye West. Kanye west will say things like, why? Why? When a kid jumps on a table when he's two, he's out of control. Out of control because society's trying to control you. He takes like, like a figurative and turns it into what is the science of the literal? Right there, there. When you hear Terence Howard, who's a brilliant artist, who has some interesting science ideas that probably, probably aren't right. But like, not. Cuz he's not smart. Like when he talks about one plus one, he's like, or one times one. He's like one times one. One, one. It's an action on an action. When does an action not create a bigger action? And it's like, all right, scientifically, technically you're wrong. But like, I get like, that was.
- [146:45]
A
A nice seeing it. You know what I mean?
- [146:48]
B
So when you look at Things you are always looking at, like the root of why we're literally making the sounds we make to describe something and what that means, how that's programming our brains. And you see it beyond what you might see in a dictionary definition, instead what you would see in an interpretation of it when you take it in the context of everything said.
- [147:07]
A
You want to know what's interesting about this? If. If I were to ask you, what's the definition of insanity? What would you say?
- [147:13]
B
Doing the same thing over and over again?
- [147:15]
A
I looked it up. That's not the definition. Somebody made that shit up, and we believe it.
- [147:20]
B
Who did we look that up before? Who did make that up?
- [147:22]
A
It's not a definition.
- [147:24]
B
Someone. Someone said that, though, for the first time. That became like the culture definition.
- [147:28]
A
Yeah. No, it's stuck. Shout out to that person. Yeah, that stuck. Now. That's a good one. I'm inspired by that person. He changed the definition, and we all know it.
- [147:39]
B
We got it. Albert Einstein, of course. Instead, he originate 12 step. The phrase insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was not coined by Albert Einstein. Sorry. But instead appears to have originated in the early 1980s at 12 step meetings and was published in a 1981 Narcotics Anonymous pamphlet and later in Rita Mae Brown's 1983 novel, Sudden Death. So it's something that people started to say and like Alcoholics Anonymous, which would make sense. They're trying to break a pattern. But to your point, it's stuck because you can picture it.
- [148:12]
A
It.
- [148:12]
B
Yeah, it made sense.
- [148:14]
A
That's clever.
- [148:15]
B
You know, it's a. What's insanity? A san. Insanity is a loop.
- [148:19]
A
Right.
- [148:20]
B
So that's like. I like hearing you speak because you look at, like, the layer below. It's like the third eye. You look at the layer below the layer and make sense of it. And so those questions that, like, you would ask when you're, you know, four or five and you're learning words for the first time and reading and your mind's making these little patterns as to why that that word spelled like that and that one spelled like that. Some point you just read the words in front of you because they. They call on you in class when you're 10 or 11 and you're expected to finish this paragraph and not stutter. So the cute girl your left is making fun of you, right? And we stopped thinking about what. What it means or, like, why it was written that way or what could be underneath that. Even if we're wrong, it's like maybe There's. Maybe there's another message there. Maybe there's a little bit of, you know, whatever the hieroglyphs on. On the. On the side of the pyramids within these words.
- [149:11]
A
Right? Man. Bro, you. You. You. You said cute girl in high school.
- [149:17]
B
Mm. I think I was. I think it was 10.
- [149:19]
A
But yeah, bro, there was a girl I had a crush on in high school, and. And she chose, like, an athletic guy over me. We were both talking to her. I think she liked me. But then this other guy started talking to her, and I would always go over to her house and hang out with her. And then she liked this other guy named Robert. Robert was fit, athletic, and I wasn't. And that lit a fire in me. And it started a pattern in my life of how every insecurity I had became such a gift for me to want to be successful. You know how Kanye said, like, everything I'm not made me everything I am?
- [150:18]
B
Yeah.
- [150:20]
A
There was even this time where I was in middle school, and these kids were making fun of me because I didn't know who was in the magazine. Like, they had a XXL or Source magazine. And they would point at. There was a group of girls, and they would point at it and say, charlie, do you know who this is? And I was like, no. They're like, you don't know who that is? And then they would laugh at me, and then they would point at another celebrity. It might have been Janet Jackson. I don't know who Janet Jackson is. Like, I like basketball. I like Allen Iverson, but they were laughing at me. And I kind of, like, made an oath to myself, like, in that moment, I don't like how this feels. I don't feel like I deserve this feeling. And I made an oath. I said, I'm not just going to know who these celebrities are. I'm going to create them, and I'm going to be better at this than they are. And, like, I thought about, like, the girl in high school who chose me over another guy. Like, my motivation for, like, years was, like, I'm gonna be successful because I'm not never gonna have a woman not choose me. Like, my. Like, I guess, like, survival of the fittest would be, like, business. So it's like, I'm gonna be successful. Like, I. I don't like this feeling. And so, like, I've always taken anything bad, and I've really tried to, like, use that as, like, fuel. And I remember when Soulja Boy fired me, Me.
- [151:48]
B
Why did Soulja Boy fire you? You were. You were his videographer 20? Something like that?
- [151:53]
A
1920, yeah. So Soulja Boy chose me to be his cameraman because I had a movement going in Atlanta at the time. I was in. I was in community college, and I was just buying time because I was like, in this middle ground of, like, ma, I'm going to be a very successful businessman, but, like, I don't have money. My mom said, you need to go to school or you're gonna have to pay rent. And I was like, okay, I'll go to school. So my website, spitchogame.com. my website's taken off, but I'm not making money. It was like SoundCloud. Before SoundCloud. It was like, SoundCloud, you know, who lyrical eliminated. So I was lyrical Lemonade. Like, I was a videographer. I had, like, I was curating the culture of the Atlanta dance movement. Crank that Spider Man. Crank that Batman. Crank that Yang. Crank that every. The whole dance movement in Atlanta, I was the cameraman for. And my website was blowing up. Soulja Boy starts taking off on MySpace, and he was in Mississippi, but he was a big fan of the Atlanta movement. So when he got his record deal, he can have whatever he wants. So he told his record label, I want charlie from spitchogame.com to be my cameraman. So the first year of college, I kind of, like, blew it. I was just buying time, stopped showing up to class, lost my scholarship. It's time for me to go back for my second year of college. Mom's gonna kill me if she finds out, like, I didn't show up to class. Long story short, I needed a miracle. I needed a miracle. Santa delivers presence in the dark. Okay, that is a reoccurring theme. I always say in my life is dark. I'm now having to pay for books and school. I lost my scholarship. I don't need to be here. I need my business to take off. I am CEO Charlie, and I am in my mom's basement, and I am broke. I have a business that's taking off, but I'm not making money. And as I'm on campus, signing up for classes, paying for books, my phone rings, and the caller ID said, beverly Hills. I answered the phone, and the deepest voice you've ever heard, it was like the voice of God said, this is Brian Washington from Interscope Records. May I speak with Charlie? I said, I said, this is Charlie speaking. How can I help you, Mr. Washington? He said, we just signed an artist, and he requested for you to be his cameraman, but you would need to go on tour. I said, I would love that. Sign me up, but I need to ask my mom if I can drop out of school. He said, how old are you? I was like, I'm 19. He said, okay, ask your mom. Call me back. You got my number. So I go home to my mom now. My mom sold vacuum cleaner, so she knows the sales pitch when it's coming. So I asked my mom, she take the stick out. She did not take the stick out. No, the be good stick.
- [155:04]
B
I keep picturing. Remember that scene in Old School where he's like, my mom said she'd kill me if I left college.
- [155:08]
A
She showed me the knife.
- [155:09]
B
I keep picturing that when I'm thinking of the stick.
- [155:12]
A
All right, picture that. I'm in my mom's. She's got. She's got the stick. Okay? I literally said to her, mom, I just got a phone call from Interscope Records. That's the record label that has Black Eyed Peas. I'm not naming one rapper. I do not need to scare my mom. Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, you know, like, all these pop stars, that's who called me. And they just signed this new artist. He's a kid, he's 16, and he makes dance music. They want me to go on tour with him.
- [155:53]
B
Dance music.
- [155:54]
A
Dance music. And I could see what's going through my mom's head. Sex, drugs, violence, hip hop. Like, you know, like tour. Have you ever seen the movie Almost Famous? Of course I'm going on Blue Jean baby. Exactly. That's gonna be me. I'm the journalist going on tour with the rap star. And I could see my mom like, oh, my God, my little baby. Cause in her eyes, I'm her little baby. And she got real quiet and she put her arms behind her back and started pacing back and forth like Mr. Miyagi. And I never seen my mom look like an old, wise Chinese man before. And she's staring out of the sliding glass doors, looking into the creek in the backyard. And I know whoever speaks first is going to lose. I learned that from sales. When you make a sales pitch, you shut up. She's looking out the sliding glass doors, and it was this, like, silence. It just lasted. And I'm thinking over here, like, this is my freaking dream is about to come true. I'm going to be successful. She turns around and she looks at me straight in the eye and she says, son, when a door opens, you have to walk through it, shout out to moms who believe in their kids dreams first and foremost. But she also said, you're not going to be in school. You got to pay rent. So I got her blessing. Listen, I'm going on tour with Soulja Boy, and I got to see in a very short period of time what was humanly possible. The very first show we did, we're in a minivan. Soldier Boy hasn't blown up all the way yet. The kids on MySpace know Soulja Boy, but we're in a minivan in Montgomery, Alabama, at the most dangerous club that we're not even supposed to be in because we're under 21. They got AK47s at the front.
- [158:08]
B
Excellent.
- [158:08]
A
No, this is a. Like, I'm like, this is my first day on tour. I'm like, what am I doing? But we're in a minivan. We're not in a black truck. We're in a rental minivan with a unknown artist who's bubbling with 13 year olds. And we're going into. No, Soulja Boy was not big yet with the kids. He was.
- [158:27]
B
I'm careful with your language there. Bubbling with 13 year olds.
- [158:30]
A
That sounds really bad.
- [158:32]
B
That was another pause.
- [158:32]
A
13 years old. 13 year olds left his music and had his ringtone, okay, AK47s. We're in the club. Next thing you know, we're being yanked by security and like the club owners, and we're dragged up these stairs and put in an office. In an office, in an office upstairs of the nightclub. We hear all this commotion and ruckus going on. We don't know what's happening downstairs. We think somebody got shot and killed. They said, do not leave this room. We come downstairs, club's empty, police are outside. They don't tell us what's going on. We're kids. I guess if we were in the building, they could have even gotten in more trouble, lost their liquor license and everything. I don't know what happened that night, but that is. I'm like, what have I gotten myself into? Just three months later, I got to experience what was humanly possible from a human reaching full potential. We go from a minivan and a nightclub and nobody really knowing us to we're performing at the VMAs in Hugh Hefner's suite overlooking Las Vegas, on a pool with Kanye West. Kanye west has. Has the biggest set on the VMAs. He has his album coming out, the one with flashing lights. Champion. This is graduation. This is 2006. Him and 50 Cent had that album dropping on the same day. Kanye west is the biggest artist in the world and who's he bringing out on his VMA set.
- [160:08]
B
Soldier Boy.
- [160:09]
A
I'm like, this is humanly possible. In a couple months, this is what's possible. To where the entire world fell in love with Soulja Boy. I started feeling myself. I started thinking. This was the Charlie show. I have my diamond chains. I'm in the music videos. I got a little cocky, a little arrogant. I started talking to one of the same girls Soulja Boy was talking to. Yeah, like, I'm really fucking up. We get to Atlanta, last day of the tour. October 4th, 2007 album just came out. Last day of the promo tour. Soulja Boy says, let me get that diamond chain back. I want to get it washed. I see him take the diamond chain off me, and he hands it to this guy named Quani Cash. Shout out to Quani Cash, amazing artist and producer from Atlanta. He's actually who taught Soulja Boy how to make beats. But I saw him give it to Quani Cash. And I'm like, this is weird. Weird. The diamond chain was a big deal to me. I'm the cameraman. I'm like, I'm. I'm the man now because of the diamond chain. Next morning, we're supposed to go to the Jimmy Fallon show. I didn't get the itinerary. So I wake up, nobody's answering my calls. Road manager, manager, soldier boy, Arab. Nobody's answering my calls. So I go to the airport because I know we're supposed to fly out. We got Jimmy Fallon to. Today, we're going to LA to promote the album. I know this is happening. Go to the airport. About four hours pass, I realized I think I'm fired in the most cruel way. It sounds very cruel, right? Like, not to even be told. And so after four hours in the airport, I get back on the MARTA bus. I go back to my mom's basement, go to my mom's house. I said, ma, I think I'm fired. And she said, I am so sorry. I said, no, this is the best thing that's happened. She said, excuse me. I said, ma, this is a winning streak. She said, why? I said, listen, I'm the lowest paid person on the team. I have to ask for my money. I don't even get paid on time. I got my food spat on in Las Vegas. I was treated like shit. This is a winning streak because now I get to be the highest paid person on the team. She's like, what do you mean? I'm going to be a manager. She said, you know how to manage artists? I said, I'm the cameraman. I know how to make the artist videos go viral. Of course I'm going to be the best manager. Managers don't know how to make videos and make their artists famous. I have a media outlet. I know how to edit a video. I have an audience. I got to be in every room. So I got to learn everything. This is a winning streak. I would have never quit this job. It was too cool. He did me a favor by firing me. Delusional optimism, taking Ls turning into Ws. I'm going to be a manager. And I found all the reasons why this shitty situation is a blessing. Why? Because it's more fun.
- [163:29]
B
There it is.
- [163:30]
A
I could be in a shitty situation and stay there, but instead I'm gonna be a manager.
- [163:36]
B
Start an adventure.
- [163:37]
A
Now. Did it get good after that? Absolutely not. I'm in a dark place in my life, okay? I'm in a dark place and I find myself in New Orleans passing out, not CDs, passing out flyers for a NBA All Star after party. I was just in Las Vegas with Kanye west in the Hugh Hefner suite and now I'm passing out flyers for a party. It sucks. We rode down to New Orleans in a 16 passenger van, herded like cattle like. I'm like on a fricking, like, school bus to go promote a party. Get it paid 100 bucks. I was so special and now I'm at the bottom. But guess what happens in the dark. Santa Claus always delivers presents in the dark, right? There's got to be a blessing in this. There was an artist that was down there that I used to film for. His name's Young Envy. There was this girl he liked, liked. She was cute. She was in a, she was in a rap group. He was showing me her music video in New Orleans. I said, that's going to be my group. That's going to be my group. My heart lit up. My. I felt it. I, I like. I was like, they're like the female version of, like, outcast, but for like teenagers. They're wearing tutus, colorful clothes. One raps, one sings. I was like, this is it. This is it. This is my group. I said, can you introduce me to her? I'm going to sign them, I'm going to get them a record deal. He introduces me to her. I take a management contract over to the grandma's house, sit down with them, say, I'm going to make y' all stars. If I wasn't in that dark place in New Orleans passing out Flyers. I would have never found them. I found them. I signed them. I got them a record deal. CEO Charlie is back, baby. CEO Charlie is back. We got a record deal with Interscope Records, and they're taking off. Charlie Rocket is out of here. I mean, CEO Charlie is out of here. And then we're in Washington, D.C. and they fire me in an airport. True story.
- [165:53]
B
And the loop starts again.
- [165:55]
A
Back to my mom's basement. Now, what's going through everybody's head right now? Charlie, why do you keep getting fired? Same reason with Soulja Boy. Same exact reason. I asked my mom, who sold vacuum cleaners, I said, mom, there was this one manager that you worked for, and you loved him and you would do anything for him. I want to go meet with him because I'm a manager and my artists hate me. Me. She puts me in contact with the legend Bill Cook. He has a horse farm in North Georgia. I pull up, he's sitting on a bucket in the mud. He said, charlie, come sit on this bucket. I'm wearing some nice shoes. He said, charlie, come sit in the mud. Pulled out a bucket, sat me down. I said, bill, how did you get my mom to love you as a manager? He said, I worked for your mom. I said, what? You were her manager? He said, I worked for your mom. He said, I was of servitude to your mom. Yes, I made more money than her. Yes, I was the boss. It was my job to work for her. If I want everything that I want, I need to make sure she has everything she wants. He said, your problem is you think this is the Charlie Show. And if you dedicate your life to making other people's dreams come true, you will get all of your dreams. You're not asking these people what their dreams are. You're not being of servitude. You're not fulfilling their dreams. And so they will leave you for the person who promises they will. So when I signed Travis Porter, my next group, well, one, I had to move back to my mom's basement, shout out to my mom, moved back to my mom's basement, and I picked myself up and I said, you know what? I'm not going to be cool anymore. I'm going to go put my suit back on like I was in high school. I'm not going to talk to these girls. I'm going to run the play. I'm tired of losing. I need to be successful. Put the suit on. Passed out the CDs for Travis Porter, and they never left me. And I didn't have have Travis Porter 2 change young Dolph bankroll fresh my most successful artist never left me. Why? Because I woke up every day and realized it's my job to make their dreams come true. I need to be of servitude. And that's when I learned the power of servitude. And that's how I spend every day of my life now.
- [168:34]
B
I think something that really separates you from a lot of these people who run around online and just talk about manifestation or saying the right things or being positive. Positive is that you're real. You. You are very open about not only the struggles that you've had in the past and overcome, but the ones you continue to have. And it's so. It's. It's like amazing talking with you today because I'm. I'm see like it comes to life and I can see it. And I can see you're not just this guy I saw behind the camera that looked awesome. Like you're actually this dude, which is always such a gratifying thing. Thing about sitting in this seat and doing it. But it does come back to it for me. What I'm sure you know won't surprise you at all, which is that that very theory that you came up with that I first found you with, the IMU theory, you live that in every way. And it was something that when I saw, was easy for me to say at that time, you know, 23 year old or whatever I was who had no success or whatever. Of course I lived there. I didn't have any choice but to live it. I wasn't anything to look up to. Up to. But it set an amazing precedent for me to realize, like, hey, I have dreams. I want to do special. But what happens to a lot of people when they do special? They switch up. They become something different. They become above people. They're like, oh, look at me. I'm this thing and you're not. And you sat around one day and people have heard me say it a million times before. And you just started with what? A simple question.
- [170:06]
A
A simple question.
- [170:07]
B
Who's the highest grossing superhero of all time? Spider Man.
- [170:13]
A
Yeah.
- [170:13]
B
Why is that? I was actually talking with my friend Vito about this the other day and he added a point in there. He said Stan Lee said he created Spider man where he was completely covered, head to toe, down to down to his fingers and his face so that anyone could be Spider Man. You didn't know what race he was. He even. Right, so. But you talked about like you thought it was going to be Batman or Superman, you know, with all this stuff because they were good looking, chisel chin muscles. That's right.
- [170:41]
A
Iron Man.
- [170:42]
B
Batman was Bruce Wayne. He got all the ladies and everything. Superman was like, oh, Superman.
- [170:47]
A
Yep.
- [170:47]
B
And then you got this scrawny kid without the chisel chin, can't get the girl, lives in a lower class, constantly getting the kicked out of him, gets a weird talent, want wears glasses, you know, but people are like, I with that guy.
- [171:03]
A
Yeah.
- [171:04]
B
And then you get to the whole. You're like, all right, well, let's try this on other things. Like you, this is what I love about you. You go. You immediately go 30, 000ft in the air and you say, no, no, I. I don't want to know. Equals MC squared. That's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to do one plus one and then we'll do one plus two.
- [171:19]
A
And one plus three.
- [171:20]
B
So you're like, all right, religion, that's another big thing. You got superheroes, you got religion.
- [171:23]
A
Religion.
- [171:25]
B
What's the biggest religion of all time? Christianity. Who's the leader of Christianity? Jesus Christ. And this is like, I remember watching that for the first time with you. Talk with Ed Mylett. And like, this is where the chills come in. Because I'm like, oh. And you could. The best part is like, Ed Mylett's like sitting there the whole time and he's just like, yes. He's like this big guy. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah. And he's just like amping you and you're like, hold on, I got more. But you go through Jesus Christ and you're like, carpenter hung around with poor people, had 12 followers. Sometimes he got a big crowd. But like, you know, he wasn't riding around on a white horse with shiny armor telling everyone he was this great savior or whatever. He was just a regular dude who broke bread with you and said, let's go have let's go dinner.
- [172:07]
A
Right? Right?
- [172:08]
B
And then you're like, all right, well, if this is with corporations, everyone says corporations suck. It's so boring. But if this makes sense there, then it's going to make sense everywhere. Most famous company of all time, Apple.
- [172:19]
A
Apple.
- [172:20]
B
Who founded Apple?
- [172:21]
A
Steve Jobs.
- [172:22]
B
That's right. I'm getting chills sitting right here. Steve Jobs, the guy who had the beard, Corporate dude who cut the suit. He had flaws. He was open about them. He was the kind of guy that looked at tech products. And instead of naming it Inspiron 46, 000, he named it iPhone. Lisa.
- [172:41]
A
Lisa Macintosh. Human. Named it after you. You human. Was I?
- [172:47]
B
That's where you did the Kanye thing for the first time, by the way.
- [172:49]
A
Ipod. I'm like, damn it, Lisa.
- [172:53]
B
Like, like, all right, I see it. And then you. You saw. You're like, I'm on to it. But sports, too. And this is the one where people push back sometimes. Let's get it in context.
- [173:02]
A
I would love to go push back on this because I'm sold on. On what I discovered.
- [173:07]
B
So you said, who's the biggest athlete of all time? And you're. I love how you said it. You're like, it's not Ron's fault.
- [173:14]
A
It's not Kobe's fault. It's not right.
- [173:16]
B
Like, they were great. But LeBron is a no fault of his own. Genetic specimen. He was called the King when he was 13. Now I do, by the way, I do think LeBron deserves a ton of credit.
- [173:27]
A
Yes.
- [173:27]
B
For being someone who grew up with no father.
- [173:30]
A
Yes.
- [173:30]
B
No money in the house.
- [173:31]
A
Yes.
- [173:32]
B
Worked his way out of there. He's a billionaire now. Like, there's people like to rip on LeBron for stuff, but there's is way more good with LeBron than bad, in my opinion. And Kobe also. Hard worker. Right.
- [173:42]
A
Something relate to the hardest worker. Right.
- [173:45]
B
And he wasn't the biggest prospect until he got towards the end of high school, but he was the Mamba.
- [173:50]
A
Yep.
- [173:50]
B
He was different. He was his own thing. He's different Michael Jordan now this is why people push back. They're like, he's Jordan. He's the Jordan brand. He's the man behind the condo candelabra. He's kind of like above people. You weren't talking about it for that. You were talking about Michael Jordan. When Michael Jordan was Michael Michael Jordan and becoming Michael Jordan and getting into his prime and everything. This is the scrawny kid who was cut from his high school basketball team.
- [174:14]
A
True story.
- [174:15]
B
He wasn't the number one recruit. He went and won a national title at North Carolina, and they still fucking drafted Sam Bowie in front of him. Took him seven years to get to the Paramount. NBA wins a title, wins three in a row. Then his dad gets shot. He has grief on a public level that everyone can relate to. He throws it all away and embarrasses himself on TV in a lot of ways playing professional baseball. People watched him fail, and he was the underdog again. And then he writes two words, I'm back. Comes back, loses in the four, five, throws on the two, three, goes three, and goes out and it's like. It's this hero story. And then you even have the song.
- [174:52]
A
And you're like, me?
- [174:54]
B
And I'm like, you know what?
- [174:55]
A
And it's like, be like, Mike, dude. But hold on, let's. Let's go to the commercial. Cuz, how did you.
- [175:01]
B
Charlie, how the. Like, when you finished cooking that it couldn't have been that long because you were just moving?
- [175:07]
A
Yeah, it was quick.
- [175:08]
B
Were you like.
- [175:09]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah, it was. It was the. The Michael Jordan thing brought it home for me because it was that commercial that really brought it home. The commercial was him being colorful. The ball hits him in the head. In the commercial, kid passes him the ball. Oh, everybody's like, laughing. And then the song is colorful. If I could be like my. Sometimes I dream. Okay, we're gonna put that in contrast to a Mamba commercial. Michael Jordan sang in that commercial, I'm just like you. I'm just like these kids. And even the song is saying, if I could be like Mike. Like, it's just like, I Mike happy messing up colorful, playing with kids. And then we go to like, King James, which is like, Top of the Mountain King. You talking about Mamba alone in a cave. We're talking about literally Superman and Batman. And then Michael Jordan is Spider Man. Now, even though he's the best of all time, in my opinion, it could be a debate, but being cut from his high school basketball team was the greatest gift that ever happened to his story. He. It allowed every. Every person who wore those shoes. Those shoes aren't shoes. Those shoes are. Is possible.
- [176:42]
B
It's a cape.
- [176:43]
A
It's a. It's a. It's a real cape. And so. So LeBron. I watched his documentary in high school, his high school documentary. It was good. The man never lost a game. I lose every day. I think he might have lost one game, but the comparison of I got cut versus I lost one game. It's not LeBron's fault. LeBron's supposed to go win, right? It's just Michael Jordan has flaws. LeBron hairline, maybe.
- [177:20]
B
Jordan didn't even have a hairline.
- [177:23]
A
Long story short, it's not. It's not LeBron's fault. It's not Kobe's fault. But if you were talking about marketing, Michael Jordan and the marketing team and his story and how they utilized his story, it influenced culture. And I just. Well, there's this one thing that was vivid to me as a child when Michael Jordan caught the ball. This is the last couple seasons he caught the ball. And what Happened in the stands. 12,000 cameras going off every time he caught the ball. We'll probably never witness that again. You just pass them the ball. The whole stadium's taking pictures. Pictures. We all felt something. People would spend their last penny on just making sure they witnessed him play. Because there was something that resonated in our hearts so much with his story, his downfalls, his overcoming. We got to see ourselves. And so for each and every one of us out here, we can use this I am you theory in a daily practice with ourselves. I have flaws. That's my gift, to be the greatest. I am now disarming anything that bad that ever happens to me. I have disarmed it because I just showed gratitude towards the brain tumor. I wouldn't have been a Nike athlete without it. Thank you for the weight struggle. Still to this day, I can give gratitude because I struggle with my weight now. It's embarrassing losing 120 pounds and then gaining 60 back. I'm grateful for it. You know why? There's a reason why we all loved Oprah so much. The woman is, if you took her weight out of the picture and love out of the picture, that would have been the most perfect, like, woman. Imagine Oprah with the bikini body and had the perfect husband. It's just like, oh, everything she does is good. We see so much like, she was sexually abused. She had weight issues. She. She had love issues. And yet she got to be so great. You know what? I have issues, too. You know what? Maybe my issues are what's going to make me great. And that's a little bit of delusional optimism right there.
- [179:41]
B
Sure.
- [179:41]
A
But you know what? We all got issues. And if we give ourselves permission to be like, no, I'm glad. I'm glad. Because that's what Michael Jordan had. He had issues. Oprah had issues. Spider man man had issues. And you know what? I'm celebrating it and you're showing it.
- [180:03]
B
And that's the thing. That's what, like, the theory was amazing. And I saw the by. By the Jesus one. We all saw where you were going. It's like, oh, my God. But the way you closed it, which made Ed lose his mind righteously. So is you're like, so putting this all together now. And this is, you know, you're recording that in, like, January 2019 or something like that. That. So you come up with this theory maybe in 2018. Social media is effectively, like, 11, 12 years old. This is a very young thing. But you're recognizing that, like, we have completely moved Our culture to this thing where we got to show perfection, and we got to show. I have all this. Look at me, look at me, follow me, like my. Like my videos, like my pictures, because I'm not like you. I'm above you. But the paradigm is actually the opposite throughout human history. So we. We have popularized something that goes against our literal evolutionary wiring. And it was just like. Yeah, like, it. Dude, It's. I told you on the phone the first time we talked.
- [181:08]
A
Genius.
- [181:08]
B
I'll tell you now. Genius.
- [181:10]
A
Thank you.
- [181:11]
B
I've never told that to someone personally. Right. Who didn't sit back and go, whoa. Yeah, that's so. Thank you for doing that. That was a really. I saw that in 2019. That was a very important year for me, trying to figure some things out. And I think that also was, like, an important reminder. I didn't know what I was going to be doing next yet. This started March 2020. I wasn't there yet, but I knew something was going to happen in my life. Something was going to change. I was going to force a change. And I think that that served as an incredible baseline. Mine, especially the space. I ended up choosing something in the public forum to always, you know, recognize. Not losing yourself, not becoming this thing.
- [181:57]
A
Right? Absolutely.
- [182:00]
B
Dude, this has been a blast, bro. You're.
- [182:02]
A
I loved every second of this.
- [182:05]
B
I'm glad.
- [182:05]
A
Is there anything else you want to ask me, bro?
- [182:07]
B
I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of things. That's why you have to come back.
- [182:10]
A
At some point, bro. This was, like, my favorite interview I've ever done. Done. I got to feel like I could just be me, bro. Crazy me. Like, I got, like, bro, you brought out a side of me that I'm just like. I just want to, like, spew anything that's in my mind. I feel like you understand it, though. So many times I have to, like, dumb myself down or format myself, but I feel like you actually understand my craziness.
- [182:32]
B
I appreciate that, bro. I hope I do. I think. I think I do. And part of that's being a fan and, like, following your stuff for a long time. But the other part of it is it really gets really real when you sit down in a closed room, you know, everything's off. I turn this on for one second, by the way, because what is this? Look at the middle tweet right there from yesterday.
- [182:51]
A
Middle tweet.
- [182:52]
B
The Sean Ryan tweet. Look at the response.
- [182:54]
A
Name the person who believed in you before you believed in yourself. My mom.
- [182:59]
B
Yeah. There's the universe lining up for real.
- [183:02]
A
Shout out to moms who actually believe in their kids.
- [183:07]
B
Yeah, but it's. It's really cool to put a name with the face and sitting here and. And, you know, get a few hours to really get down to who you are. And I hope you keep doing all the you're doing and the things you dream of doing as well, because you've made it happen over and over again and it shows people it's possible. It's a really cool thing, man.
- [183:24]
A
Appreciate it, bro. All right. Appreciate it.
- [183:26]
B
Try the rocket.
- [183:27]
A
Appreciate it, man.
- [183:28]
B
Love you, bro. All right, everybody else, you know what it is. Give it a thought. Get back to me.
- [183:33]
A
Peace.
- [183:34]
B
Thank you guys for watching the episode. If you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button and smash that, like, button on the video. They're both a huge, huge help. And if you would like to follow me on Instagram and X, those links are in my description below.