The Truth About LA’s “Homeless Industrial Complex” | Nima Nasseri

Summary

The Fame Game with Heidi & Spencer
Episode: The Truth About LA’s “Homeless Industrial Complex” | Nima Nasseri
Release Date: April 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this eye-opening and passionate episode, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag sit down with renowned music executive and industry innovator, Nima Nasseri, to explore the complexities behind Los Angeles’s homelessness crisis—what Nasseri and others have dubbed the “Homeless Industrial Complex.” The conversation moves from the evolution of music promotion and social media strategies to a detailed, personal account of Nima’s experiences advocating for unhoused individuals. Together, they break down the systemic failures, bureaucratic hurdles, and wasted tax dollars, all while advocating for a future built on transparency, accountability, and authentic connection.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Nima Nasseri’s Entertainment Background

• Early Career: Began running a label in New York, later moving to manage artists in Los Angeles, working at Roc Nation and Universal Music Group.

• TikTok Pioneering: Developed influencer campaigns and viral strategies for Universal Music Group globally during TikTok’s explosive rise (2020–2021).

• On Hit-Boy: Nima’s long-time management of producer Hit-Boy, key figure in multiple Grammy-winning projects.

  “We were the ones that basically developed those techniques and the frameworks for Universal Music Group, like globally.” – Nima Nasseri [02:39]

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2. TikTok & Modern Music Promotion

• Algorithm Evolution: TikTok’s algorithm has shifted from a monolithic, single-wave explosion to fragmented, micro-community-based virality.

• Content Strategies:

  • Multiple accounts, fan pages, and backup pages are effective for artists.
  • Authentic, raw, vertical-phone-shot content outperforms polished, high-budget productions.
  • Comment sections and meme-able catchphrases now fuel TikTok’s discovery engine.

  “You have to have that one to one. You can't feel like somebody hired somebody to feed this to me. It has to come from the heart, has to resonate. You know, that's the beauty of the algo.” – Nima Nasseri [14:46]

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3. Authenticity as Social Currency

• Changing Paradigm: Authenticity now trumps production value in virality, with audiences connecting more deeply to real emotion and stories rather than staged content.

• Political Parallels: Politicians who outsource messaging are seen as inauthentic and fail to resonate in the social media era.

  “If you're trying to sell a product, you gotta be authentic, right? If you wanna run for mayor, you gotta be authentic. That's the difference, right? Like politicians are not authentic. That's why it doesn't work anymore because we're in an authentic world.” – Nima Nasseri [07:45]

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4. Personal Encounter with Homelessness: The Story of Norris Williams

• Meeting Norris: Nima describes meeting a 70-year-old man, Norris, living on LA trains with his German shepherd after losing his home as a property manager.

• System Failures:

  • Norris had no addiction, criminal record, or family—he simply fell through the cracks.
  • Despite a decade on the Section 8 housing waitlist, Norris received no support from overfunded nonprofits.
  • Immediate support fell to private acts—Nima personally funded hotels and later started a public GoFundMe.
  • Bureaucratic and systemic barriers persisted even when Nima raised $30k for rent—landlords across LA refused Norris, until a single property accepted him.

  “Keeping him on the street costs us as taxpayers, like $60,000 a year… It actually costs more money to keep them on the street than it was to save them. So the math, once again, was not adding up.” – Nima Nasseri [27:40]

• Media’s Role and Public Response: Documented Norris’s story on social media, drawing donations and attention, while highlighting the lack of institutional accountability.

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5. The “Homeless Industrial Complex” Exposed

• Layers of Bureaucracy: Dissects how funding moves from taxpayers to LA’s government, then to LASA (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority), which disperses it to a labyrinth of nonprofits (e.g., OPCC, Hope of the Valley).

• Lack of Accountability:

  • $24 billion spent across five years with ambiguous impact.
  • Measurement is on money allocated (“inputs”) rather than results (“outputs”).
  • Massive nonprofit payrolls but meager direct results:

    “OPCC has $100 million a year payroll… and they can't put this guy in a home for whatever reason.” – Nima Nasseri [26:00]

• Personal Legal Barriers: Even with funds and advocacy, individuals cannot sue nonprofits for failures; the system is impervious to challenge from within.

  “If you were a venture capitalist and you invested $24 billion into a firm… and after five years, the guy came back to you and goes, ‘we lost money?’ You’d be like, what the… People die. That's at that level, people die full stop.” – Nima Nasseri [36:35]

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6. Bottlenecks, Scams, and Mismanagement

• Nonprofit Incentives and Corruption: Many organizations operate like businesses, with high CEO salaries and little oversight.
• Inter-county Contrasts: Nima’s experience shows Orange County moved a homeless woman (Margaret) into housing in three months, while LA’s system required a decade.

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7. The Deadly Mix: Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health

• Conflated Crises: Nima and Spencer argue LA’s crisis is now a “drug issue masquerading as homelessness,” with solutions for one not always addressing the other.
• Call for Segmentation: Advocates for “compassionate mandatory treatment” and distinct funding for primary causes: addiction, mental illness, at-risk families, etc.

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8. GoFundMe & Grassroots Activism as Lifelines

• GoFundMe’s Role: Praises GoFundMe for providing immediate, transparent relief when government systems fail—differs markedly from tax-funded institutional approaches.
• Shelter Dog Advocacy:
  • Nima leverages TikTok to rescue shelter dogs, highlighting flaws in the animal care system and drawing parallels to homelessness advocacy.

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9. Solutions: Transparency, Accountability, and Data-Driven Policy

• Spencer on Reform:

  • Proposes clear, real-time dashboards for all aspects of social spending.
  • Advocates output-focused systems that end failed programs rather than perpetuate them.
  • Draws analogy to “Moneyball”—maximizing data and efficiency over tradition or opacity.

  “Everything needs full and not—Not accountability where it's in some weird debt. Like easily readable dashboards, and when things fail, you stop them. Like we need result-based systems.” – Spencer Pratt [46:03]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Content’s always been king, but now it’s like, especially, you know... the algorithm doesn’t know you’re an artist or a chef or... a homeless person. It doesn’t know. It just sees zeros and ones.” – Nima Nasseri [06:31]
• “Gofundme is basically the way it’s... our solution to the system not helping. That’s it.” – Nima Nasseri [29:29]
• “It’s just like, we’re just here now. Right before you know, it’s gonna be 2027... Time goes. And there’s no—it’s just like—we’re just here now, right before you know it, it’s gonna be 2027, you know, it’s like things are moving like this… So you got to be like, you know, we got to fix the slowness of this.” – Nima Nasseri [45:09]
• “You gotta play like Moneyball... You don’t need to be the Yankees to spend all this money to win. You need to understand data and how to read it and how to make things better. That’s just the world we’re in.” – Nima Nasseri [46:21]
• “If you’re not succeeding as, like, an NGO, like, then you’re done... Check doesn’t keep, like, ‘oh yeah, good try.’” – Spencer Pratt [46:35]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [02:39] Nima’s music & digital marketing background
• [04:20] – [09:17] The evolution of TikTok and modern music virality
• [13:26] – [15:17] Spencer recounts social media empowerment and Nima transitions to homelessness discussion
• [15:17] – [32:00] Norris’s Story: breakdown of institutional failures, GoFundMe as a life raft, and challenges of LA’s housing system
• [32:13] Emergency funds and failures following disasters (fires, military families, etc.)
• [38:15] Budget mismanagement: inputs vs outputs and the problem with current reporting/accountability
• [39:50] The role of drugs, mental health, and segmented solutions
• [44:28] Parallels to fire response and the need for tax transparency
• [46:02] Proposing new solutions: result-based, transparent systems
• [47:44] Nima’s shelter dog rescue activism, plans for future episodes

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Conclusion & Next Steps

The episode closes on a call for system-wide change—more transparency, a focus on measurable results, and a culture shift toward authentic, grassroots solutions. Nima’s powerful individual actions, amplified by social media, stand in stark contrast to the waste and mismanagement endemic in LA’s formal bureaucracy. The hosts tease deeper dives into music industry changes and dog rescue activism in future episodes.

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To learn more or support Nima’s initiatives:

• Follow @savethe_dogs on TikTok
• Find Norris’s story on TikTok and GoFundMe
• Watch for future deep dives on homelessness, the music industry, and animal welfare with Heidi & Spencer

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Transcript

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

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[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Please tell me you didn't get plastic surgery to pull out the outfit.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

Oh no, that's all God's house.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Welcome back to the Fame game. No, we did not rebuild our house and we do not now have Jacuzzi. But the good news is, thanks to SBA and our disaster loan, we got an Airstream that's going on our lot. But I didn't factor in that. An Airstream is very light and I was advised that it needed to be pretty much cemented into a foundation so it didn't blow off the side of the hill. So the cement is getting poured and then it's getting craned into our lot in the next couple days. So that's exciting. But we are here today with one of our most famous connected guests, which it's the first episode in a long time that brings the word fame back into the podcast because he is part of some of the most famous successful entertainers in the business. But he happens to also be the person that, before I was ever running for mayor, reached out to me because he wanted to do a project to expose what is going on with the homeless industrial complex. So that's how we met. And then full circle it ends up. He's actually very connected in the. The music business. So, Nima, when did your music business thing start?

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Because, man, like 20 years ago. Yeah, I was doing. Running a label in New York and then throwing parties and started just trucking when I was younger and then end up coming here and started managing artists out here. And I've been doing like, I went from edm, guys, I went to Roc Nation, was managing artists at Rock, and then left Rock. I went to Universal Music Group. I developed all the tick tock strategies for Universal from the center back in like 2020, 2021, like when it was like, you know, and sped up and slowed down, music was going crazy. You know, we were the ones that basically developed those techniques and the frameworks for Universal Music Group, like globally. And I've been managing Hit Boy for eight, nine years, like, while doing that, you know, and he's obviously, you know, one of the goat producers, you know, you know, produce Sicko Mode for Travis Scott and Paris for Jay Z and Kanye and six albums with Nas and, you know, Texas. Hold on. Like, he's just been across like so many great cultural moments, you know, so I've been really blessed to be working with somebody great like that, you know,

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

small connection to Hit Boy. When Heidi first started recording back in 2006 or whenever. Yeah, the producer we were working with, his assistant was dating and he, Hit Boy, with respect, had not be, you

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

know, nobody but like 2012, 2013.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

No, it was like 2007.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Oh, wow. Crazy.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You know, so he hadn't had a record come out, but she would always be like, yeah, you should hear my boyfriend's tracks. And it's just we missed that moment where we could have got free. But I'll never forget the name because it was such a ghost. I was like, like, dang, Hit Boy, that's such a great producer name.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, right. You better live up to that. Which he did.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

He did. And then so with the Tik Tok, how has it changed since? It's been like, obviously it's been repurchased.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

It's. Well, Tik Tok is constantly changing, right? The algorithms are constantly in flux, you know, so it just keeps getting more and more nuanced. Like back in 2020, 2021, everything was very singular. Like, you could. You could see one thing on TikTok and it would explode. And it was on everybody's. You could open up your phone, it was everywhere, you know, so Heidi, her shit went crazy, you know, it's like when you basically, when you had a world like that, you had creators like Charli d' Amelio and everybody was like, you know, one account would drive growth. And now TikTok is really fragmented. It's all about micro accounts and nanos and different types of pockets of culture and algorithms and sub pockets. Like, my TikTok for you page might be completely different than yours versus his versus hers. Like, that's just the nature of it, you know, and that's how it is. And something might go crazy and I might never even see it, you know, so in 20, 20, 21, like, we had control where it was like, okay, you could drive growth. You could see like a weekend track and see it explode. And then it starts climbing the Billboard charts and everybody's using it, Everybody's opening up their phone. It's like Akon belly Dancer, this Lady Gaga, Addams Family meme. Like, everybody would see it, you know, now it's so fragmented and it's really difficult to control. And that's just the nature of what it became, you know, like, it's. Tick Tock Shop is developed. Tick Tock Live is out. You know, the algorithm changed after Universal Music pulled the music off of Tick Tock. Then everything got restructured so things just aren't the same as they were. But that was the golden era of Tick Tock. It was amazing. Like, we were just exploding records left and right. Like, we would take records that were 10 years old and bring them back and, you know, just doing tactical strategy approaches that nobody was really thinking about, you know, like back then. Now everybody does Tick Tock. You know, it's the driver of everything. It's the biggest discovery engine, you know, that's ever existed, really.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

So what I'm seeing the most right now on artists is the way they are driving it, is having different accounts that. That I feel like it's bread that they're. I don't know if they're running or if they're influencers. But, like, say an artist drops a new record.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, there's.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

My whole feed will be different clips of. So they're doing clipping like streamers on Twitch and Kick did, but they've now applied it to.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, the music volume. It's not. It's not a vertical push. It's horizontal now. It's like all over the place. It's like. And an artist could make a backup page and drop one clip on there. And if that shit's fire, it's gonna go. It doesn't need to. You don't need to have a million followers. You could have zero. If the content's good, it goes crazy. That's the difference. You know, it's like, it's not contingent on. I got 10 million followers, I could reach 10 million people. It's. You could have zero and your could go crazy. It's all about the content. Content's always been king, but now it's like, especially, you know, like so and if you, and think about it, if you do, if you're an artist, it's really driven by your account. You have to really drive the growth. But you might have a backup page, you might have a fan page, you might have this. It's all about how many different places can that content be seated. And if something goes, it just creates like a catalyst. Because the algorithm, it's all. Algorithm doesn't know you're an artist or a chef or this or that or a homeless person. It doesn't know. It just sees zeros and ones. That's. It just, it's these data. And if something goes up, it's like, okay, keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. So that could go come from anywhere.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And then another new thing. I just watched a clip, I think her name is Kristen at Billboard. She did interview with those guys whose company is just Comment section.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah. What do you mean?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

The, like where they fill up a comment.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Oh, they do. Oh, great. Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

So they're even driving the conversation.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

For sure. Yeah. Because it's. That's a big thing. Tick Tock is really driven on the comments. Because if you. Now, if you notice when you look at the comments, you'll see a catchphrase that goes up at the top. It's almost trying to become a search engine. So it's like if it sees a conversation, it sees a consistent convo, then it starts to catch and then it pushes it more into the algo. So it's all about those phrases, you know, like. So it's like I said, it's more nuanced now. Back in 2020, it wasn't like that, right? It was just like, oh, this is fire goes everywhere, you know? Now it's like all these different levers that got to get pulled, you know? And if you're an artist, you have to be aware of all that, right? Like if you're, if you're an artist or a brand or anything creator. Because we're all creators, right? Like, there's no such. There's like I said, the computer doesn't know the difference between anybody. It just Sees content. So you just have to understand that it's all about these little mechanisms and just being basically like everywhere at all time and like consistency, quality, output, that's it, just go. And authenticity, that's it. It doesn't matter. Like if you're trying to sell a product, you gotta be authentic, right? If you wanna run for mayor, you gotta be authentic. That's the difference, right? Like, like politicians are not authentic. That's why it doesn't work anymore because we're in an authentic world. Like even for artists, like you don't see these big budget music videos anymore. People like to see run and gun shot handheld. It's a feeling, right? It's a connectivity between a human and another human. Whether that's a human and an artist, or a human and a mayor, or a human in a brand. It's like a connectivity. That's what makes things go now. And TikTok really restructured that, right, because TikTok was the first platform that was like shoot on your phone vertical and that's how you connect with people. It wasn't about shoot this on the DSLR and then edit it down and then deliver it. That's, you know, that changed the whole paradigm. So.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And even if you it almost d algorithm to you when you used better quality.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Which is interesting. If you watch professional clips, they do less than the raw style thing. You know who I just watched Slater, who had an incredible release that did so well and she said even when she signed with Columbia she got some budget and she even chose to not have high end looking, you know, great. But she still wanted that gorilla look because she feels like the audience saying doesn't want that, you know, big budget look anymore.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Well, if you, if you look, if you open your for you page, you don't see movie trailers, you don't see that in your footage at all. So why would you shoot on that if people don't see it like that? And it also like, you got to think about the, the way it's designed, right? It's designed so that if you shoot on your iPhone and you go viral, psychologically you're going to keep doing that. And you could do that quickly and efficiently. If you shoot on a camera and you go viral, you're gonna think, oh, I need to shoot on the camera every time. And that's not output. So the engine itself is not, it's, it's against the nature of the beast. Right. The beast wants to eat as much as possible. So anything that slows that down is not good. It's not conducive for growth, you know, so you gotta show on the iPhone because if you fire something off at 8am and it goes crazy, you're gonna go again at 10:12, 1. And it's all about content. That's, that's what drives it, you know.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

So as a music manager creator, how much are you paying attention to these changing FYP and these algorithms?

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Are you just, that's it, you know, you got to be, you got to understand how things are moving and shifting and the climate of it. Because I also have my own digital agency, so also because when I left Universal, I started my own agency. So my agency compound, basically I just took the structures and the frameworks and everything we developed internally and we just do it external now. So, so we just do it basically as independent contractors instead of being inside of the center. We still, we still work, you know, 20% of the global viral charts and it's. But the, the, the work flow is different. You know, it's like you have to be, it's so, it's like I said, it's so fragmented. You got to be aware of the captions and the comments and the micro accounts and the engagement and going live and it's just the repost and it's just like a whole, it's a holistic approach now, you know, so but if you want to be effective, you got to understand all those things, you know. And so I just, you know, I'm blessed because my, a lot of my company is based out of Manila, so I have a, I'm connected with Tick Tock China through Manila, you know, just, it's an international agency. So I'm not, I'm not really like, you know, I just, I can get more information and I just know how things are moving from that perspective. You know, I'm not as dialed in on Instagram. You know, Instagram is also always in flux, you know, so I couldn't tell you like that's not what my expertise is, right? Like YouTube shorts, Instagram, Facebook, like these things are all powerful beasts. Like everything is an algorithm, right? They're all like, they all have their own energy, right? It's like you got to know like how each of them eat, sleep, move, like to be able to take advantage of them. So just got to know, right? If you're a manager, you got to fudge know like, you got to know like if you're anything, right? You got to know, you got to understand, you got to know like what works for you as A creator, right? Like you, like you're so good with. You know how to work your content, right? You know this is going to hit, you know. I know. You know, like, you know when you're, when you're doing it, when you upload it in the first five minutes, you're like, oh, you know, sometimes you might be like, oh, this snuck up out of nowhere, but you get a good feeling. You know how your content resonates because you're making it, you know.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

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[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Speaking of that feeling. So when the New York. Excuse me. When the LA Times journalist was stalking and harassing my family the last four or five days and my Mexican restaurant and calling and I made my video and I was waiting for him to post his. I'm like, he's not posting his yet. So I thought maybe his editor was like, hey genius, his house burned down. That's why there's no house there. You don't have the Internet. And finally I said, okay, Monday morning. But I've been waiting. I did this video when he started really harassing days ago and I just been sitting on it, ready to click it. Just like ignitions of my eyes. Okay, it's going. But I have been just when you have so much feeling in your videos and emotion.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

To me it's the so empowering to like here.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Here's how I feel.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

It's authenticity. That's what I said. It's like it comes from you. That's why nobody can mess with and it's like. And you have that power and you know what works, what doesn't work because you've, you've done that. Right. It comes from you. You're not hiring some other company to do for you. You're not Karen Bass. Hiring some company doesn't know nothing about nothing. So disconnected. No offense to her or anybody else, but it's just. I'm just saying, like, that's a difference. We're just throwing that in there. A little banger in there, you know.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Attack.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah. Full offense.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Sorry, Full offense.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

But that's. That's the nature of the beast, right? That's. That's the world we live in in 2026, 27, 2028. You have to connect with something directly, and it has to be authentic, and that's what matters. Right? That's just all it is. Like, you have to be. You have to have that one to one. You can't feel like somebody hired somebody to feed this to me. It has to come from the heart, has to resonate. You know, that's the beauty of the algo.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

We could talk algorithms forever. Let's rewind to. I know, Grammy night.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And how you went down a new path in your life, that's. That also brought you into this room.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah. So. Because, you know, obviously I'm deep in the tick tock world and I have an understanding of the algorithms and whatnot. You know, I think it's giving me a competitive advantage to help others, which is, like, great. You know, I'm very blessed and I'm very grateful that I could use the skills and tactics I have to do things that are important to me. And. And it just. It's sad that there's so many others that need help. That's the issue. Right. It's like every day you encounter somebody new. You're like, what is going on here? Whether it's a dog shelter dog or a homeless person, it's like every day it's somebody who's not getting the help they need or something. Somebody in need who's not getting it, and they're. And it's just really disheartening, you know? But, yeah, basically, you know, Hitboy got nominated for Producer of the Year at The Grammys in 2023 is November when they did the Grammy announcements. And the day he got nominated for Producer of the Year, I was. I met Norris. A guy named Norris Williams. He's seven. He was 70 years old. He was homeless, and he was living on the trains with his dog. And I met him on the street, and he'd been living on the train for 10 years already. And I was just like. I just literally met him on the street. I was getting food for my dog outside. Just food for Dogs on Fairfax. And I saw him and I was like, man, this is like a beaut. He had a really beautiful German shepherd. I was like, that's a beautiful dog. He's like, thank you. I just got her from the shelter because I need somebody to love and somebody to love me back. And I was like. I was like, man, I was really touched by. I was like, what is this? What's going on? I was like, where do you live? Like, what's your story? And he started telling me a story. And I was like, you've been living on the train for 10 years. I was like, why don't you have a home? You're 70 years old. He's like, I've been waiting for Section 8. It's like, I've just been waiting. And I'm like, yo, that don't make no sense to me. Like, it just doesn't make sense, right? Like, the math doesn't add up. Like, to be 70, have no Internet skills, no job ability, like, no family, no friends, no alcohol. Oh, my gosh, look at this. Beautiful. No, no, no. No drugs, no alcohol, no criminal record, no nothing. You know, to not have a solution is crazy because you're basically sitting on a train every day because you have nowhere else to go. Because he couldn't go to shelters because he's like, oh, there's too much crime and drugs. And, you know, everybody in there is like, you know, he's like, he got anxiety. You know, he went in when he was 60. He basically was a property manager. He was running, running a building and living in it. The building got sold or something happened. He ended up on the street, you know, instantly. He didn't know what to do. And at 60 in 2011, like, you know, or 2012, like, you got no Internet skills. Like, what are you supposed to do? You know, you couldn't just go join the workforce immediately. So he just said, I'm just gonna sit on the train. And he sat there every day. He's like, I'm gonna wait until I get my section eight. And he's just been waiting. Like, every day. He goes to the housing agency that's supposed to be helping him, the non profit, you know, oh, is my house ready? No, off my house ready? No, it's just like, okay, let me go back on the train. And while he's on the train, he's volunteering at the Santa Monica Sheriff's office. He's cleaning showers. He's volunteering at Salvation army in Santa Monica. He's feeding other homeless people he's like, contributing to society in any way that he can. He's getting Social Security, so he's getting 900amonth. How are you going to get a house in LA with 900amonth? How can you get paid for first month's rent? How can you apply for apartment? How can you find any housing? How can you do that? How is it even physically possible? So you need that section, a voucher, and to not be able to get it when you need it is insane. That's the. That's like a critical issue, right? Like, because we're paying money as taxpayers so that people like him get it, you know, and that's just me not knowing nothing about nothing, right? I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. So I put him in a hotel for like a weekend. I was like, let him. Let me just let him be at the hotel. And then I basically, long story short, I end up putting him in hotels over and over and over again, you know, just over. And I would just. I would take him with his dog and I'd move him from this hotel five days. Oh, he's got to go. He's got to go. Five days. I move from this hotel, I'd be on hotel tonight for another five days. I'd go, drive, pick him up. So I'd be in the middle of meetings, I'd be doing whatever, whether it was a Grammy thing or this or that, and I'd be like, oh, let me go grab Norris and Nadia, his dog. Take him to another hotel, like, because he was in pain. He had cellulitis, basically. He sleeps sitting up on the train every day, so his ankles are swollen and bloody. So he's walking on big swollen ankles, you know, and he's in pain, physical pain. He's 70 years old, you know. So basically I just wanted to give him a place where he could sleep horizontally because that's the only way to heal it. You have to sleep in a bed, you know, so he was in. In the. In the bed, sleeping. In the meantime, I made a Gofundme for him because I didn't know what else to do, you know, and really, like, Gofundme is the. Is the makeshift solution for how our system is. You know, if you look at the fires, look how many people. The fires had to make gofundmes because they didn't know where else to go, right? The system wasn't there to help them. The system that we pay money for wasn't there to support them when they needed it. That's a really big issue, you know, so made a GoFundMe for him, started raising money for him, started going to see him on the trains at night, and I'm putting hotels with my own money. I got to a point where I was like, this is not sustainable. So he had to go back on the trains. Once he went back on the trains, then I made a GoFundMe because I was like, I don't know where else to go, you know, so while. But while he's on the train, we're starting to film him. We're shooting a little mini documentary on him, trying to tell the story, you know, trying to capture what's going on out there. I make his Tick Tock page. I make his, you know, I start posting content about him, you know, trying to raise awareness for him. And basically, I just went and hit up everybody in the music industry. I hit up, you know, the heads of YouTube, the heads of Universal Music Group. Like, everybody. Yeah, I'm the president of umpg, you know, just. I'm hitting up all the artists, like. Like, you know, the weekends manager and this and that. And everybody's donating, right, to help this guy. And so he raised, like, 30,000. And I went to go, and I'm going on the train to meet him and everything. And he doesn't have the Internet on his phone. He doesn't know what anything is, right? He's like, 70. And I'm like, man, you know, there's 20,000 to go from me. There's 26,000. And he was like, man, he was like. And I was like, let's go get you into home. And he's like, I don't even want a home. I was like, what do you want? He's like, I want to hire a lawyer to sue that agency because they're doing this to so many homeless people where they're just, like, screwing them. And I was like, what are you talking about? I was like, what? I was like, what do you mean? And he's like, yeah, call this guy Kevin from Salvation army in Santa Monica. So I called the guy from Salvage Army. He's like, oh, yeah. He's like, this is a systematic issue, right? It's like it's happening to a lot of other people. So I got in, you know, all these other senior citizens that have been waiting 10 years for section 8 voucher. 15 years, 12 years. This guy's got kidney failure. This guy's living in a park. Like, it's just like, there's people that need it who don't get the help, you know, because the system is so broken, you know, it doesn't get to them. So that's like a big critical issue. But basically, I discovered all that. It's happening in real time, you know. Long story short, I. I ended up putting him into a home, which was also an issue, because nobody would accept him. I had a $30,000 check to put him in a home for 12 months, and no landlord in LA would take him in. I had to go, you know, I went to at least 20, 21, 22 different places. You know, there was like, nobody that would actually take him in. Like, you know, even with me as a cosigner, because he was going to live there. Even if I put myself as a cosigner, they're like, no, no, we can't let him in here. He's got no history, he's got no credit, he's got no nothing. I'm just like, what are you supposed to do? You even got the money, you still can't get housing. How crazy is that? Even when you got the money, you still can't get housing in la. When you got the money, you got a check in hand, where are you gonna go? You know? So eventually I found one place in Van Nuys that was like, you know what? He's got no criminal record. We'll take him. This sour, sour property is amazing. This. This place, this comp. This property manager in Van Nuys. I was like, oh, thank God. You know, So I got him into a home. You know, he's living there, he's healing. His cellulitis is getting better, his depression's healing, his anxiety is healing. While this happens. Like, I see a press conference from Gavin Newsom and he's like, oh, we, we. $24 billion. We spent homelessness. And it all went unaccounted for. And I was like, what in the hell? This is like the Twilight Zone, right? It's like literally like $30,000. Saved a guy. It just saved a guy, got him off the street. Which, by the way, like, I learned after that, keeping him on the street costs us as taxpayers, like $60,000 a year, like 70,000 just in the cleanup operations and things like that, like the way it's attributed, you know, so it actually costs more money to keep them on the street than it was to save them. So the math, once again, was not adding up, right? So, basically, yeah, 20. 24 billion. 24 billion in five years. That's like 5.6 billion a year. I've done the math. 5.6 billion years. $640,000 an hour. That's $640,000 an hour we're spending to fix homelessness in California. Yeah, OPCC in Santa Monica. Yeah, OPCC in Santa Monica. Basically. Like those are the ones that he kept going back to. And I don't know what was going on hist with everything in there, but like opcc. Yeah, go these people that are like, it's, you have these, there's an OPCC and then there's like hundreds of them. It's not just opcc, there's hundreds of them. Like you have to think of these agencies and I didn't realize this, right? Like these agencies are like the government is giving money, right? Funding, right. We pay taxes. We're the investors, right. I'm, we're all investors. We're all angel investors, right? Like we're investors. Like they're taking our tax money and we're investing. Right? Then Lassa, which is the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the system, whatever that organization is that the mayor's a part of, LA county is a part of. It's like they're the ones that determine where this funding goes, how is this money spent, where is it going to? And then they're giving the money to the OPCs. So the nonprofits are the operators, Lassa is the fund dispersers. And then the government is the investor. So we're investing with the government, the government's investing, giving the money to Lasso, being like, here you go, figure it out. And then last is like, okay, cool. Like here's our systems that don't work. We're just going to keep doing this over and over and over again and then before you know it, you're spending a billion dollars a year and nothing's changing, nothing's happening and nothing. There's no accountability, there's no system. So that's the system, that's how it works. So OPCC is one of those agencies, right? One of these nonprofits. And all these non profits have different things. Winegard and this and that, they all have like different things. Some of them are property developers that act like they're a non profit. They're just trying to get the money in the building and develop the property. Some of them are doing like placements, you know, housing placements, like mental health stuff. Like there's all kinds of, all kinds of angles, right? There's all kinds of scams and all kinds of this. Of course, like at the, the core altruism of is it they're trying to help, but then it's just such, you know, The OPCC has 100 million dollar a year payroll, $100 million a year to cover their payroll. Straight up. And I'm looking at Norris, I'm like $100 million a year in payroll and they can't put this guy in a home for whatever reason. For whatever reason. And also by the way, he had cellulitis. And if anybody from OPC is listening to this, he had cellulitis in his legs and he asked for a bed and they didn't give it to him. He said, they didn't even call me back. They didn't even call me back. And you know what? I was with them when, while he was trying to call opcc when we had, trying to get his answer, I was trying to get. So another issue is you can't just. If you're homeless, homeless people are a silent community, right? They can't speak on behalf of themselves. When you're homeless and you've been waiting 10 years for Section 8 and you're dealing with one entity to help you get that resolved, you can't just be like, forget this, I'm going to go somewhere else. Because you like lose your place in line. Like you don't even know what's going on. Like there's no way you're, once you're stuck in that system, you're stuck, you know, so he was stuck there. You know, eventually I got him out of there and I had to move them to Hope of the Valley, which is a much better place. I think they're very good. You know, just because OPCC is not, not good doesn't mean that Hope isn't good, right? So I moved them over to Hope and Hope basically. You know, they also are, you know, they're also limited by the system, right? Even though they want to do good work, like they're still, you know, they don't have enough money, there's not enough funding, there's not enough staff, there's not enough ways to help people. You know, there's bottlenecks, there's this, there's that. It's just a big mess, right? Everybody's dealing with the same mess in different ways. So it's just not solution based at all, you know, so it's like you got to figure out a way to like take that money that comes from the federal government that goes to Lassa and then is dispersed to the non profits in a way that there's like an accountability chain where it's like, you know what? Like this is how things. Like there's people that need a bed right now. How do we help those people? How do we help the people? How do we help the mother who got evicted with the three kids and doesn't know where to go? How do we help them get stabilized? Like, what's the money funnel that does that? How do you help the mental health people? Like the, how do you help them like that and it's okay. How do you fix, how do you put money into mental health? How do you do that? How do you put money into rent subsidizing? Oh, you don't. You're. You're living in your home, but you just lost your job for whatever reason and you're about to get evicted. Here's a fund that helps you offset that cost. So you could stay there until you get back on your feet, whatever it is, right? Like, how do you help the drug addiction? That's another thing, right? That's a whole nother beast, right? It's like these things are all. And they're not easy to, to conquer, but you have to look at it from a different perspective because right now, the way the system is, it's been like this and it's like, where's the accountability? Where is it? It's like, who do you even go to? I can't go to anybody. I can't even hire a lawyer to. He wanted to hire a lawyer to sue the OPCC and he couldn't even do it. There's no law, there's no law that will represent a homeless person to sue a non profit. I couldn't find it. I went to Beth Zedek. I went to not. I went to all these, like every type of lawyer. I went to every. I went to the highest entertainment lawyers. I was calling. I called weekends manager. I was like, I know you got all the highest powered entertainment lawyers. I just need somebody that could help me do this. And he was like, man, he's like, I don't even know who to refer you to. Nobody knew. Like, there's nowhere you can go. Like, there's no, there's literally no system that could do that. I mean, I'd love to know, you know, like, it's just, it's kind of crazy, you know, so it's like that system is so protected the way it is. It's just a system that's really, really. And there's a lot of profit happening from it just by nature, you know, but they just know that the product that they're supposed to help has no voice, right? Just like the shelter dog. Same thing with the shelter dogs. The shelter dogs are voiceless, right? So it's like the money's going in and it's like, where's the money going? Towards staffing and this and that. But then there's no, like, accountability to the systems that are in place, right? It's the same thing. Like, you know, it's. You have a voiceless community that can't speak back. So the money just keeps coming in and then it just. It's a cycle. It never stops, you know? So when you meet somebody. When I met somebody like Norris, I'm like, man, he's been there now for two years. I raised $115,000 in GoFundMe. He has 100. He has enough rent for four years. And. And the reason why I want to get on your podcast because I was like, man, what's gonna happen after four years? He's gonna be 77 years old. What's he gonna do? He's been waiting 14 years for Section 8 already. He's got no solution. He's got his dog. He's not. He can't. You know, that was another issue because of the dog. You can't just go into shelters once you have a dog. It's like, you have to make a decision there, you know, so he like, what do you do at 77? He's supposed to go get a job. What's he supposed to do? You know, he has enough in the Gofundme to last him four years and three months. Right now,115,000. He's paying 1500amonth. And I just pay his rent right from the Gofundme. Like, he has a Social Security. He has all his services. He's getting the homeless because he's. Because he's a senior. He's able to get the medical people that come to visit him. He got the phone lines. He has everything that he needs to get a service, but you can't get it without an address. So once he has an address, he's like, oh, let me take care of myself. Let me. Let me heal. Let me get better. He started his dog training business, like, used to be a dog trainer. That's why. That's why, that's why I love this guy because he's a dog guy. You know, I'm a dog guy. So he started his dog training business. He's been training shelter dogs, like, getting them placed into homes. Like, I've been building that with him. Like, he's. He's got his Tick Tock page. He's going viral on Tick Tock, gets paid as an influencer. He's the first homeless guy to become an influencer. You know, it's like, got 30,000 followers on tick tock, 20,000 on IG, 10,000 YouTube subscribers. Like, he's got, like. People are attached to his story. You know, it's like their authenticity, the same thing we were talking about earlier. It's like, whether you're homeless or an artist or mayor, it doesn't matter, as long as you're authentic. People connect with it, you know? So he turned 73, like, in December. I took him to lunch for his birthday, and, like, fans were showing up with paintings for him. Like, oh, my God, Norris, we're so inspired by you. Like, other dog lovers, you know, because he's a dog guy, but basically, like, yeah, like, you know, we went through that whole process, and, you know, there's no solution. There's no help. You know, the only help was GoFundMe, by the way. GoFundMe. Tim Cadogan, the CEO, GoFundMe. Amazing guy. An amazing team of GoFundMe. GoFundMe is basically the way it's. It's our solution to the system. Not helping. That's it. You know, it's like, we have to go and get money from each other to help others, right? It's like that's. It's a. It's a. It's a vertical that exists to create that. You know, it's like, there's no. When I didn't have GoFundMe, I was like, getting money from my friends or putting my own money in or venmoing or this or that, just to get them into hotels. Once I had GoFundMe, it was like, okay, here's the system. Here's updates, here's accountability. Here's everything you're seeing. You know, there's something I could share. So it just gave you a system to work when there was nothing else helping. And the fires, man, same thing. Like, I went to the CEO, actually. They reached out and they're like, oh, man. Would you like to meet the CEO and the teams that GoFundMe and I went there. I took Norris up there. We met everybody up there. We met another person who he got affected by the fires, too. He lost his home in a fire. And he literally was. And you know what's crazy? He. This guy was in the army. He was in the military, active. Lost his home in A fire and didn't know what to do. There was no support because the support that would come for him would take months. And he had like 10. He had 10 pets. He had three dogs, six cats. And he was there with his wife and he's just bawling and crying. His wife's crying. I was just like, oh my God. Like, this is insane. Like this guy is in the military and he's not getting the help he needs. How are we supposed to get help? You know, it's like really crazy.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

What's so insane is when the fires happen. The mayor bass the emergency fund, she'd already depleted it so there's no money. That's the issue with the LA budget. We should have an emergency fund. So for somebody who's a veteran or active duty military, these type of things is what emergency fund is supposed to be. But we've obviously have somebody running the budget. Can't do that.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Well, she. Well, you know, the problem with her is I'm a manager, right? I manage artists and I look at other managers that are good at managing and I'm like, oh, that's a great manager. And then there'll be another manager who's just not good at it. There's no one like you and there never will be.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

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[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

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[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

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[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

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[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

I'll be like, okay, it's cool. Like you're not a good manager. You're good at doing pr, maybe you're good at, you know, doing content. You're good in this, but you're not a good manager. You don't have the skill set for managing. Managing is like operations. Right. And maybe she's just not good at it. Like, you know, it's like, it's like, hey, maybe you're just not a good manager, which is. Okay. That's just not your nature. It's not who you are. Right. You need somebody who can operate. Like, come in there and be like, okay, what's going on here? How do I look at this from a solution based way? And I know it's like difficult because it's not an easy thing to change the system, but you got to have a, a skill set to do it right. Like, you gotta at least have a ability to do it right. Like, it's like, you know, it's like understanding how to create a system that works or look at a system that's flawed and make it better.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, that's like right now the LA Times just said they did a whole piece about how her Inside Safe is a failure.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And today she's posting the IG photos about the alleged success of Inside Safe.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

So it's time to look like this is clearly a failure.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

We are going to pivot and try. You need to realize when things are not working and change.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, it's all, it's all. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, if you're not a good manager, then you create optics to cover it up. Same thing with the dogs, right? The dogs. She can go on a podcast and be like, oh, the dogs of skid Row are great. And it's like, yo, are we blind? Like, no. Like, you could say it, it's coming out of your mouth, but it's like we're all seeing it. Like, it's like, no, this isn't true. It's not valid, you know, but you can't. Those days are over, right? Like, you can't fluff anymore because the authenticity factor, Tick tock. Changed it, right? Like, it doesn't work. You can't just like polish something and make it look like it is what it's not. You know? Like people need to connect with the truth. The authenticity. That's what resonates, you know, that's how, that's, that's just the way human nature is now. You know, it's, it's here now, right? It's like AI and authenticity, right? It's like they're both just there everywhere. Like when you open up your, your phone at any moment, that's all your, that's all that's being fed to you, right? It's like that's all you're seeing. That's all the connects, you know, Nothing else. There's nothing that's fabricated or. Well, I mean, AI is like, you know, it's AI just came out of nowhere, right? In the past, whatever, like three months, you know, but when you talk about actual creators making stuff, like it has to be real, right? It has to come from you, you know, so. And I think like a lot of the, a lot of the AI stuff is like, you know, the dope AI stuff now is like, that's cutting through is like done really well, you know, it's like it's not. AI's not just making it, there's a human behind it, you know, there's some sort of human creativity that's using the tools in a way that makes it connect, right? Like whenever you see something that pops in your feed, somebody actually curated that and created it, you know, so it's like, don't. I don't want to get into AI conversation. It'll be like a big mess. But no, she's not a great manager. That's all it is. Like the, the fundamental thing is like. And that's okay, right? Hey, you're just not good at be doing that. Just don't do it. It's all good. Like, we don't need to suffer. I don't need to suffer. Like all my. I get 47% in taxes taken out of me. I, I don't want to pay 47% in taxes to run into a 70 year old man on the street who's not getting help for 10 years, that's crazy. That's insane. And then for me to go help him and then be like, wait, what, what the hell is going on over here? Like, this don't make no sense. You know, it's like, this is crazy. Like everything's getting worse and worse and worse, you know, and then I have Gavin Newsom, oh, $24 billion unaccounted for. Like insanity. If you were a venture capitalist and you invested $24 billion into a firm, into a company, right? As an angel investor, you're like, I'm put $24 billion into this company in five years. And after five years, the guy came back to you and goes, we lost money. You'd be like, what the. People die. That's at that level, people die full stop.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Accidents.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, yeah, accidents happen.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

They slip in showers.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yes. When you mess with $24 billion. You die when you mess with. When you get in the billions of loss, die. So not only did you lose money, but you also weren't effective. So two things. You lost money, you don't know where it went. That's two issues, right? So it's like. So it's really disrespectful to go and raise 30k.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Let's also say in. In their defense, they know exactly where it is. You fail with $24 billion. So let's say even if you do you. Because they'll lie. They'll say it's all on this website. Because he. No, he says you can go to this website and see where it all is. Blah, blah, blah. So even with that website, if there's more homeless all over the streets, then when you start with $24 billion, if you were able to take one homeless person off the street. Yeah, for 100,000.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, even. Well, the problem, what you just said, they're measuring input, not output. This is what we inputted. Go to the website, see the input. What's the output? What?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

The deliverables.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

What's the deliverables? Yeah, what was the. What's the output? Like, how are we measuring the output? There's no measurement for the outputs. It's like, okay, we're putting 100 million into this. We're putting a billion into this. We're putting like, what's the measurable outputs of like, what this is? You know, it's like, what is it?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Mayor Karen Bass will tell you that she removed 1500 people with inside safe off the street, but they actually don't track those. 1500?

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah. How many of those came back in that? Yeah, that's output. So you're measuring input, not output. Output is like, what's the measurables? Like, what's the data? Right? Like of the 1500, like, how long were they on the street? How long were they inside before they went back out?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I watched on my IG story this week, two separate people die.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Crazy.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

As in people attack me in a video of somebody and then later that same person is then ODs and dies.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Crazy.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

One, one. In one day, I had multiple people in front of the Erewhon and in Venice in front of Aberkini. This old man in front of like the bus stop. People were tagging me, like, how sad this old man is here laying out by the end of the day that guy. So if I'm watching two people just on my own, people tagging me, that's it.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

What's the. What Kind of sample is that. Yeah, yeah. What's going. It's just. It's complete chaos. You know, it's like. But that's like. And that's drugs. Yeah, it's like, yeah, drug.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

But, yeah, drugs is a huge part of what's happening right now. We need to fix the drug addiction.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

With mandatory treatment. You can't just let give people pipes and clean needles and say, oh, you have the right to die on our sidewalks. No, we have the right to have compassion and make sure you don't die.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah. You have to separate. You have to. The homelessness and the drug thing is one right now. It has to be separated. It's like, these are separate things. Like, it's. It's. It's a drug. It's a. It's a. It's a drug issue masquerading as homelessness. That's the issue. It's, like, convoluted, you know, so it's like you have to separate church and state.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I Like when you said there's the different boxes.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And you.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, that's the key to look at. Yeah. And, you know, the box, the drug addiction box, might require more resources than the mental health one. Who knows? Like, but you have to actually be like, okay, like, how is this. How are these funds, like, being dispersed? A billion dollars a year. Right. You probably know better. Like, but I think it's like a billion is the la. Is the. Is the budget that they put towards this. You know, it's like, so of that billion, like, how does that billion get broken down? Like, and then what's the. What's the priors? And like, I said, like, somebody, like, there's somebody that could be on the verge of homelessness, and if you could help them before they even get there, then there should be a budget just for that. Right. And, like, I don't know what's up with Section eight. Like, that's a whole mess. You know, like, the list is closed right now or something, which is crazy. So it's like, what are the. What are the ways that. How do you create what GoFundMe is? How do you create a subsidy? Like, how do you create something that can help those who need it done? You. You need it. You can get the help.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, they. It's similar. You'd want to do it like, how they did fire aid, where, oh, yeah, 100 million gets stolen.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, that goes to. But, you know, that's how crazy the game is.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

That was crazy, right? Yeah, that scam is crazy. Because, you know, the nonprofit scam is like, you know, it's all, you know, look at aspca, look at Humane Society, you know, like, I mean, ASPCA is doing great things, but if you go to ASPCA's website, they have an insurance company, they have this, they have that, like, where does the money really go to? They're running a great business. The, the CEO of ASPCA, he's making like 3, 4 million a year probably. You know, it's like, it's like these are. They're running like a business, you know, it's like they're a non profit, but it's a business. At the end of the day, you know, it's like, so, you know, that's just the inherent nature of what it is. And it's like you're still doing good, right? You're still contributing, like you're still helping, whatever, you know, in theory, like, but it's just, man, if you're getting forgetting subsidies and grants and donations and this and that, like, it's crazy, you know, like 85 of the OPC, that agency, 85 of their budget comes from taxpaying dollars. Like, it's a free ride, you know, it's like, where's the accountability within the system? Like, if 85 comes from, like, you didn't. That money's just being given to you. And it's like, you know, most of us, I think it's going to staffing, but like, you know, like, what's this guy's waited 10, 10 years? You know, how come there was no solution there? You know, what could it. What could have done? And actually, before I met Norris, I helped another homeless person in Orange County, a lady. And I didn't post about it. Nothing was my. That's why when I met him, I was like, I kind of went through this already. And like, she was another senior. She was living in a storage space with her dog, buddy. Her name is Margaret. And I met her on Thanksgiving night exactly a year earlier. It's so crazy. Like a year earlier. Exactly. And I was like, yo. I was like, where do you live? She's like, in a storage space. And I was like, oh my God, it was like November, it was freezing, right? I was like, let me put her in a hotel. I put her in a hotel in Orange county for like three months she was in the hotel. And I was like, man, this is so stressful. Like, when's she gonna get the section 8? I didn't know what was going on, you know, but she Got the key. She's like, oh, I got it. She called me. She's like, I got it. She's like, the reason I got it is because, you know, you helped me get a hotel and I was able to clean myself up and I can go and knock on the door every day and blah, blah. And I was like, oh, well, great. And she's been there for three years now. I'm the co signer on the apartment for her, where she's at. And I said, yo, if she ever can't make rent, just call me. She's been there for three years. She's fine. She's functioning. She's perfectly fine. So I was like, oh, there's. That happened, right? So when I met him, I was like, 10 years don't make sense. Because I just saw it happen in three months, like in a different county. So I come. Orange county can do it in three months, but in LA, it's 10 years. That's like mismanagement, right? It's like different management styles, you know, like, everything's different. Like, I manage like this, you manage like that, like, so the management here don't make no sense, you know, it's like it shouldn't be like that. You know, there shouldn't be any home, any. Nobody should wait 10 years for some for. For help ever, especially that age, you know? And like I said, he's got enough rent for the next four years, and after that, he's. What's gonna happen? I don't know. You know, like, the way the system is now, like, I'm gonna have to go turn it up again. Go make more content, like, do GoFundMe again. It's like, yo, it's like at some point, it's like, man, you can't take all my money to taxes and then also make me do the work to help a guy too through gofundme, either one or the other, right? Like, if I'm gonna pay the tax, at least help people that need it, because we're all paying that money, you know, it's like, if we're all paying that money, at least make sure it gets to the people that need it. That's critical mistake, you know, that is my biggest issue.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Once my house burned down, I was like, oh, I've been paying all this taxes and we don't have enough firefighters engines and to keep the houses from burning down.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And then you start going down this dark. It's not even a rabbit hole, a hell hole. And you see that all of our tax Money is just being wasted. There's so much corruption.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

And so that's, that's really disheartening, man. But it's good that you're taking action because it's like, you know, respect. Because it's like, man, it's like to be able to see the issue and then be like, no, enough is enough, you know, and it's like, I think we're at a place where people are ready for that. Like, there, there's a. There's like people, everybody's seeing it and feeling it, right? And it's like, enough is enough. Like, it's like, man, this is okay. If this system worked for the past 50 years, the world was different, you know, it's like it wasn't like it is now, right? It's like now it's like, yo, you got to be real. You got to keep it real, you know, and if you're not real, get, get out of the way. That's it. You know, things are moving too fast. Look at time. There's no such thing as time anymore. It's like the fires and now it's like, well, fast and slow time goes. And there's no. It's just like we're just here now right before, you know, it's gonna be 20, 27, you know, it's like things are moving like this. Like, so you got to be like, you know, we got to fix the, the slowness of this, of the doesn't. Like we're moving too fast to deal with that. You know, it's like you paying tax dollars and not getting the help you need for the fire. Why is that like that? Because of how long, maybe 20, 30, 40 years of a system that's been like that by design, you know, and now it's like that system doesn't work for the world we live in anymore.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You know, my whole campaign is accountability and transparency. And it works for all these systems, whether it's the fire department, the police department.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

The homeless industrial complex that we've funded. Everything needs full and not. Not accountability where it's in some weird debt. Like easily readable dashboards and when things fail, you stop them. Like we need result based systems.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Not just keep throwing money at it,

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

but you gotta play like Moneyball. Like, you know the Oakland A's, how they made their own little data system and they started competing with the big boys. Like, you don't need to be the Yankees to spend all this money to win. You need to understand data and how to read it and how to make things better. That's just the world we're in.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah. And if you're not succeeding as, like an ngo, like, then you're done.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Check doesn't keep, like, oh, yeah, good try.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, this doesn't work.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Just keep sending them. But.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, thank you so much. Next time, we'll do a whole episode on artists.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah. I'm down.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Is the future of music because Heidi right now is paying all of her.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, let's go. Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

His music still gonna be popping?

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

No, you know, she's. Any music is the most. Like, it's just. You can. Tomorrow she could pop off. Anything can happen. Yeah. Again. Yeah. It's just perfect right now. Yeah. I'm just saying, like. Like, she can make something new and it could just go. It's like there's no. There's no. Nothing can stop you. It's literally right there in power your hand. So music is great because at any minute, people can discover your and it can make your old stuff come up. There's no once again, there's no timeline. There's nothing. There's no linear anything. It's just like anything can go at any time forever. So all you gotta do is just build catalog. Just keep going, you know, catalog.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Thank you to Heidi. This episode is brought to you.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Thank you. Go stream Heidi. Go pop it off. Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And, yeah, thank you so much for having just such a good heart, man. It's inspiring that you. I know, you know, put so much

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

in that I didn't even get into the shelter dogs. I saved 36 dogs last year just from TikTok.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Rewind, rewind.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

That's a whole other episode.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

So what do you do with the shelter dogs?

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

No, because, you know, Norris was a. He was a dog person. I started making him go crazy on Tick Tock. So I was like, man, eventually I want to get him into, like an outdoor space and I could bring the shelter dogs to live with him. Because this whole rent thing is insane, right? So if I could find, like, land somewhere, like idle wild or somewhere, I could just put them there and then I could just start to get dogs out the shelter that need to get out because the shelter system's so messed up. So I made another page on Tick Tock, just that I would just. It's called save the dogs. I would just post dogs that need to get out because everybody get euthanized or whatever, you know, And I just started, like, going crazy. Like just dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog. Like, save, save, save. Say, get out, get out. Get out. Yeah, just fly, fly, fly. And you know, it's been like, you know, there's been like 30 something dogs already. It's been amazing. Yeah, it's like I just said, there's actually a nice dog that the family got taken by ice and it got stuck in Gardenia. And we just got that dog saved as well. Like, and literally, like I posted him, he started going viral on Tick Tock. All these rescuers trying to get him. And another, he was with another dog that got abandoned by a backyard breeder. So we got both of them popping off and now the dog and I made a GoFundMe. Raised like $7,000 for them. This all happened like now it's happening right now. Actually stopping right now. Go to save the dogs right now. That dog, the pity, her name is Hope. She needs a foster.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

So hopefully this will air next Thursday. She'll probably save the next dog.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, yeah. Say the next time, the next day. Yeah, Save the dogs is the Tick Tock for the dog saving. And. And if you go there, like, I have videos highlighting the shelter system because once I went to the shelter, I was like, there's rats over here. Like, what the hell is going on? It's a nightmare, you know, like that needs to be fixed. We need to do another episode on just on that. Yeah, like, we gotta come back and do. Let's do Heidi, Artists and dogs. Like, we'll go crazy. Bring the dog.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Three parts coming up.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

Yeah, the sequel.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

All right, thank you so much. See you next time for the dogs. And then next time for Heidi.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

We'll have Heidi.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

Quick break.

[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

One useful thing to share. I thought TikTok was just dances.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

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[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

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[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

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[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

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[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

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[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

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[Music Manager / Industry Expert]

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[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

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