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The GaryVee Audio Experience
GaryVee x William Wade: From the edge to entrepreneurship [UNCENSORED]
00:45:33
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- [00:00]
A
All right. Vaynernation, a very exciting podcast. I'm sure you're seeing it in the title. Got a great entrepreneur with me talking about a fun project that we did together and then just kind of talking about him and his journey and the game and so what most drives me to want to do this podcast is I think he represents all of us. Like it's just a real story. All of us on the other side of this podcast are fucking living, trying to figure it out, trying to build, trying to grind. And every one of us has our advantages and our vulnerabilities. And I'm excited about this podcast. So my man, how are you?
- [00:35]
B
I'm great, thank you for having me.
- [00:37]
A
Why don't you tell everybody who you are and what you do?
- [00:40]
B
I'm Will from Canvas Canvas mktg, founder of Pocket Mounts. And I'm a collector. I'm a collector. Was always that the nerdy black dude, you know, like Pokemon and. But growing up in the town that I grew up in, like that stuff was frowned upon.
- [01:06]
A
How old are you now, Will?
- [01:06]
B
I'm 37.
- [01:07]
A
You know, it's crazy. I'm 49. Isn't it crazy that like to your point, because I grew up in lower middle class, very urban areas most of my life, it's crazy to watch comic, anime, like, like nerd culture penetrate not only white America, but black America.
- [01:26]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [01:27]
A
Like the thought of like when you're 30, what'd you, 7, 37? Yeah. Like the thought of when you were 12, especially in the kind of neighborhoods you grew up in.
- [01:36]
B
Yeah.
- [01:36]
A
Like for that to be, for you to walk out with a Dragon Z hoodie, you would have got fucking clowned on.
- [01:42]
B
Yeah. And I did.
- [01:43]
A
And now it's the freshest shit in the game.
- [01:45]
B
Yeah, exactly.
- [01:47]
A
Does that blow you away to see like are you happy for the 11 year old, you know, dark skinned kid who like can be nerdy?
- [01:53]
B
Yeah. They got it. They got a chance. They have an absolute freaking chance. And I was, I had a chance too. I just didn't know it. And I remember the first like flip I ever made was with Pokemon cards when I would do things good and I would have to do a lot of things to earn the five or ten bucks. Of course throughout the week for my grandpa take me on Saturday to get a package and I would stash hollows and save them. And there were kids that didn't mess with kids like me. But when I had Blastoise and I had charizards, they had 80 bucks, they had 120 bucks. And my grandpa, you know, he was a coin collector, so he saw me doing this. So now he's like, let's go get a pack. You know what I mean? And like, let's go get a pack. See if we can get one of those Charizards for William Wong. And because, you know, we were, I was, I don't want to say I was feeding my feelings, but you know, I was bringing in income. When we were on food stamps, I tell people all the time like, food stamps should not be on a card. They used to be like actual food stamps. And family members would send us down to the store with a food stamp to get like a piece of candy and get the cash change back. Yeah, yeah, that racket, you know, and so. Yeah.
- [03:13]
A
Why don't you give context to everybody because I know your story, but they don't like. So where did you grow up?
- [03:17]
B
I grew up Radford, Virginia. Beautiful family. You know, the Curry family, that was our family. And Steph and Seth would come up very often. Sonia and Dale would always bring them up to hang out with us and get acclimated. You know, we weren't the rich kids, we were the scrappy ones. And you know, and we squabbled. It wasn't no telling. A lot of people get that misconception of Steph and Seth. You know, the light skin, soft. But no, they'll squabble up. Yeah. And yeah, you know, we, they would come hang out with us a lot and we're, you know, we're just close knit family. It's not like that today. I hate that. But you know, as youngsters we were super duper close cousin's life. Yeah. How many were family? Stefan, Steph, Siddell, me. Then all the other aunts got kids, you know, Mercedes, Lexus, Cameron Brink, Cy Brink. And the, the Bogues would be around a lot like Thai Bogues.
- [04:24]
A
So that would be your grandma and grandma's kids. Kids. That was who you guys were, right?
- [04:29]
B
Oh, yeah, yeah. My. My grandma's. Yeah. My dad, My dad. It was my dad's generation.
- [04:38]
A
Yep.
- [04:38]
B
Sonya and all that good stuff. I think my grandmother and Sonya's mother are sisters.
- [04:47]
A
What is canvas marketing?
- [04:49]
B
No bullshit. It's, you know, it's real deal and it's. I search for high end art, like to stay away from AI artists. You know, when I first got into it, you know, collaborating with people for sales and views. But now that it is where it is, I try and keep it like Lucky Monk, straight up. No AI. I love AI, but for art, you know, not. Not so much with. With what I'm trying to do. I use AI Every day. I use it to build canvas in. In. In pocket mounts, you know, ask a lot of detailed questions, you know, prompts. Very familiar with it.
- [05:31]
A
But for what is pocket for everybody who's listening?
- [05:34]
B
Well, this is the story. I was working with this guy, Jesse Ping, to do a, you know, a regular Smegler deal for. It's like 100k deal. And we got the autos, and we never touched the project again because we got into this. And so the first one I ever made, I put it on Solana because we're like crypto degens in my group. So we put on Solana, and Jesse was like. I was like, jesse, you know, Charlie Lee, like, just forget about this project or the autos or the money. I don't care about the money. Just get me in front of Charlie Lee and let me tell him about this, you know, And I remember I went and I took it to him, and, you know, he just kind of looked at me and just like, tapping his leg. He didn't really say nothing. And he asked me every question in the world to make me think that I had nothing. You know what I mean? Like, asked me very difficult questions. And then he said, well, you know, this is cool, but if it was on bitcoin, it might interest me. And so. Exactly. Then he was like, I know a guy named Danny, and maybe you guys can connect. He introduced me to Danny. Danny yang, founder of OCM. And Danny Yang, he inscribed the first 10,000 ordinals on the block on bitcoin. So what we started doing, he's like, I don't have any monkeys because we all. We sold them all after I told him about the idea. And so he's like, you know what I'm believe with you? I'm gonna double back and start buying.
- [07:19]
A
These monkeys back on chain Monkeys, right?
- [07:21]
B
Yep. The on chain Monkey ordinals, We started buying them back.
- [07:25]
A
Yep.
- [07:26]
B
And we started turning them into physical products made out of Trueview glazing is what it's mounted with.
- [07:33]
A
Okay.
- [07:34]
B
And if you take your phone right now and just wave it around that on chain monkey, you will see that Danny Yang has made a dual inscription. No camera. Just swave the. Yeah, just wave it around there and it'll pop up. You will see that Danny Yang has dual inscribed these ocms.
- [07:53]
A
There we go.
- [07:54]
B
And it. You know, it's just. It would be really hard to fake this with the inscription leading to the blockchain and it shows the family of where that that particular monk has derived. And I think that this is the way that all NFT should be. Everything should be tangible. I like the Rosetta Stone effect that, you know, after thousands of years after that has deteriorated that you can still go back and see what it. What it was. But as I think it should be physical to start with.
- [08:34]
A
Right. So you're a big proponent of the concept of both digital and physical collectibles.
- [08:41]
B
Being tied together and the digital for the simple fact of authentication. Of course, the authentication is done at the inception.
- [08:49]
A
I mean, there's a major. As we're filming this, there's a major devastating issue in sports memorabilia right now, where one of the biggest, if not the biggest, I've just seen the headlines, so I haven't gone deep, but there's a substantial hundreds of millions of dollars fraud memorabilia situation happening in the sports memorabilia world. And of course.
- [09:10]
B
And that's my second gift.
- [09:11]
A
Please. That's very cool.
- [09:14]
B
So check that auto out and tell me if you think that could be faked. No, because that autograph was authenticated at the inception. Is this also at the create absolute. At the creation of that piece of art. And when Steph signed, you know, right after he signed it, right after we made it, we authenticated it. We. So you don't have to send that anywhere else. You can. PSA will grade that. But as far as you knowing, like, is this even real? Do you know? Or is this a fake cert? Like, we don't even put, like, this is our cert.
- [09:48]
A
Yeah, but that's not needed in the world we're going into.
- [09:51]
B
It's not needed.
- [09:51]
A
Let's take a step back so people get to know you a little bit more. When did your fascination with the blockchain or the crypto universe start? Do you remember your day one from.
- [10:00]
B
I was working with. With an artist. We were making great money. And.
- [10:05]
A
And this is. Was canvas at this point in existence.
- [10:09]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [10:10]
A
Okay.
- [10:10]
B
We were on our.
- [10:10]
A
What year was this?
- [10:11]
B
This is very recent.
- [10:12]
A
Yeah.
- [10:13]
B
Pocket mount is only a few months old. And you know the artists. He put out a Steph Curry project without us, which was weird after we had made five. So I reached out to this lawyer, Sean Slattery, and I was like, seeing what to do.
- [10:30]
A
Right.
- [10:30]
B
When I met him.
- [10:32]
A
When you met the artist?
- [10:33]
B
When I met the lawyer.
- [10:34]
A
When you met the lawyer, he was.
- [10:35]
B
Like, well, yeah, we can definitely handle this. But he's like, but I see something about you. And my brother is just like, you and. And he said, my brother's almost like Peter Lick. Which Peter Lick is this guy, that frontal mouth. He's a photographer that has frontal mout, museum glass artwork. He said, you have to meet him. I know once you meet him, you're going to even forget about this guy and you're going to move on to something else. So after I met we call him the master of Mounts, M.J. slatry. After I met him, I was like, yeah, I'm done with that bull crap. I'm not focusing on that anymore. They got me. They got me. That's what pirates do. I'm locking in right here, right now with mj and we're going to create something then that is unfuck widdable. And week after week we. We've, you know, first it started with the archival inks. So, you know, we want to make like a museum masterpiece like Peter Lick. You know, when you go in there, it's beautiful, that gallery. And that's what we wanted you to feel when you have these lined up on the stand and, you know, the way the museum glass, of course, kind of like looks.
- [11:45]
A
Of course, of course. So everybody wanted to start with a little bit of context of Will. We're gonna get back to that in a minute. I'm gonna just jump in. In the cross section, Adam Rips and I got to work with Will and his team at canvas marketing and team up on this drop that we have, which is the Veefriends manga series sticker with some incredible art that is done by their team and some Steph Curry autos. A lot of, you know, our super stickers product, there's a one of one dual Gary Vee and Steph Curry. That's a lot of fun and that product has really been exciting. We sold out and pre sold it out. Obviously, by the time you're listening to this podcast, it's out in the market. You can check out the ebays and the Twitters and the discords. But what really was exciting for me is understanding. I'm sure if you're listening, you can see I get excited about artists and people that are creative and try to bring a little bit of that old world and new world together. And I think what canvas marketing is doing is doing quite a bit of that. So real quick, because I don't think we fully nailed it. Well, Canvas marketing represents artists.
- [12:58]
B
You're asking me? I don't like. You're asking me.
- [13:01]
A
Well, I'm asking you because it's yours.
- [13:03]
B
That's a Great question. Honestly, Canvas marketing is me hustling my ass off.
- [13:09]
A
Yeah.
- [13:09]
B
Am making a away and a living for my family without selling drugs, of course. Using drugs. So, you know, I don't have a. Because that's. That's a life I came from. Of course, where I'm right now, like, I think, like, I was telling my boy Steve today, like, I can't believe all this. And he was like, man, shut the F up. You had it in you. You just never sat down long enough.
- [13:31]
A
Good for you.
- [13:31]
B
You know, like, now I'm locked in.
- [13:33]
A
And what's incredible, this is why, like, senior transition and. And understanding your story, it's so motivating. It's why I wanted you on the podcast. Like, there's so many people. When do you think. When you said, I can't believe this, I'm starting to lock in. When do you think you started to lock in? At what age?
- [13:48]
B
I had to learn by going to jail.
- [13:52]
A
That's a way to learn.
- [13:53]
B
And, you know, if you look at my hands, all these scars. I was an intravenous heroin user. Fentanyl just came around during Corona, and I was on my way out and loved one of mine and died and overdosed. And. Yeah, from there I was fighting for my life.
- [14:12]
A
Then when that person passed, did that scare you?
- [14:16]
B
That shook you? I see it every. I see it.
- [14:19]
A
Yeah.
- [14:20]
B
You know what I mean?
- [14:20]
A
But you also saw it before.
- [14:22]
B
Like, I mean, you not face to face where, like, close enough.
- [14:26]
A
Right.
- [14:27]
B
And I. I see. See the glassy blue eyes. Like, it just haunts.
- [14:31]
A
Changed you.
- [14:31]
B
Yeah, it messed me up. And, you know, I called police immediately. And after that, yeah, I was fighting after that, and I really was just laying down thinking, like, whatever happens, happens. If I do. And when I do get a chance, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to make Sonya proud. Because I was. I felt devastated that I let down, you know, the Curries that had invested so much. And I was out in San Diego because Sonia had spent. Indel. Spent lots of money to send me to Michael's house. Three days there, suicide attempt. Got 5150'd they're like, you're not getting your money back and he can't come back here. And, you know, then I was in, like, state institutions after that, you know, because I kept, like, she paid for me to go to another place, and then I did what addicts do.
- [15:26]
A
Yep.
- [15:26]
B
Maybe two or three times.
- [15:28]
A
Yep.
- [15:29]
B
And then after that, and I remember, like, Cameron Brink and them, she was just A little girl and her mom, Shelly and Greg came, and I should have locked in then, you know, because I was like, man, they came all the way down to see me.
- [15:44]
A
There's no shoulders. Yeah, you were fighting.
- [15:46]
B
I was fighting, bro.
- [15:47]
A
You were fighting.
- [15:48]
B
Yeah. There's no should they came pick me up from my sober living and. Or. No, they Ubered me from my sober living to watch Cam play. And my family was coming back, and then after so many relapses, I lost everybody. Nope. Like, Seth doesn't even answer me or Dale, you know, But Steph does. I. Aisha does, you know, And I went to high school with Aisha, and she was always like. And I was like, that black kid wore rebel flags. You know, like, weirdo, low key. You know what I mean? No real home training until the Currys, like, got me and then kind of like, taught me everything. Like, Dale taught me. Match my belt with my shoes and how to tie a fishing hook and how to handle a 12 gauge and how to dove hunt, you know? Like, man. Yeah. You know, And Sonya taught me education. When they first got me, I was illiterate. A literary illiterate.
- [16:42]
A
How old were you?
- [16:43]
B
It was like, 14 years old. And, you know, at Radford, they just kind of let me go so I could play sports. I was great athletic. Yeah. I was great athlete, you know, And I was a charmer. I go in there and have a F and charm the teacher and then get some extra. Exactly. So I would.
- [17:02]
A
I know that game.
- [17:03]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [17:04]
A
Rep. Show this man my report card. It's gonna connect us. Yeah, you can take it down.
- [17:08]
B
Oh, yeah. I've probably had a couple will look like this.
- [17:10]
A
Oh, bro, you're gonna like this. This is all four years of high school. Check this out. I love bringing this one out.
- [17:17]
B
Oh, yeah, that's ceramics. Oh, yeah.
- [17:24]
A
Tell them what I got in ceramics. A C. Everybody got an A. Every single kid in that class got an A. Do you know how much work it takes to get a C in ceramics? That's how bad, by the way. Look all the way down. Do you see that number all the way at the bottom? Class rank all the way at the bottom of the paper.
- [17:40]
B
1.67 GPA.
- [17:43]
A
Class rank 243 out of 254.
- [17:45]
B
Oh, wow. That was me. Yeah, that was me for sure.
- [17:48]
A
So I get it.
- [17:49]
B
That was me.
- [17:50]
A
Yeah, and the charm helped me get through, too. When people like, how'd you graduate high school? I'm like, charm?
- [17:55]
B
Yeah, charm. That's how I know Seth can Squabble. Because he would always call me because you knew that would hit me.
- [18:04]
A
And then you would be squabbling, you know.
- [18:07]
B
But Steph was always like, sweet, bro.
- [18:10]
A
Yeah.
- [18:10]
B
I remember, like, my senior year, I'd done everything I needed to do to get a freaking scholarship.
- [18:18]
A
Yeah.
- [18:20]
B
Ex. But I had to make like a C in Spanish. And Steph was like, taking Spanish at Davidson. He came home, I was like, I'm gonna give him this take home test. He's gonna take it. I'm to going, going to college. Boom, man. He gets home and I give him the test. And he's like, wait, I'm not gonna do that for you, man. He's like, but I'll tell you what I will do. He's like, I'll sit here and study with you. And I was like, what? I'm like, ready to squat. And I remember, I was like, bro, you don't love me. You know, you don't love me, man. You know, this is what I gotta do. Every summer, coming near the end of school, I would be grounded because I'd be feeling Spanish, you know, like, he could have helped me out or he could have cheated for me. Of course gave me that. But he sat down for hours. He made a different test. Like, he looked at the test, made a test of the test, gave it to me. Failed. Made another test, gave it to me. It was like 11:30. Finally 12. He gave me the last one. He's like, you got it. Go. And that's like, he left. And I sat there with the damn test and I took it. I was panicked. I took it, turned it in, and I pass.
- [19:30]
A
It's awesome.
- [19:32]
B
Like, that's. That's. That's the dude. He is.
- [19:34]
A
Yeah. It's nice. Tell me about onchain monkeys. Where did. How did that first hit your radar?
- [19:40]
B
Oh, wow. Charlie Lee. You know, Charlie Lee's been like an angel. You know, me and the master of mounts, we speak all the time. And we wonder if we don't have Nakamoto in our camp. You know, it's the way we see some of these re inscriptions and some of the stuff we know we're working with real crypto OGs. Yeah, that and, you know, and then in collectors, like Charlie's collections out world. And so when we started doing this is about the same time the Pokemon thing had happened with Charlie's cards. You know, he had purchased some of those from the creator. And after that, we kind of vowed, like, we're going to make sure that our guy doesn't get hit like that. Like let's, let's change this so that people that love this stuff aren't being taken advantage of. Because that's what we're seeing. We're seeing that there's a group of people that aren't like us, that see people like us that genuinely love sports cars and memorabilia and then they want to bring their real world crap into our space and so we just want to make it so that our space is ironclad and if you're coming in, you're not going to be able to just like dupe our people.
- [20:58]
A
Yeah, I understand. What about, where do you sit on the part of digital only art versus physical only art? And then finally what you're passionate about is connecting to. Do you think there's a place for all three? Do you think it inevitably ends up what you're talking about? What's your gut tell you?
- [21:18]
B
Yeah, I think, I think there was a place for all three. But after what happened with the digital NFTs is dead.
- [21:27]
A
Like, do you know that $124 million worth of NFTs sold last week?
- [21:33]
B
I'm not.
- [21:35]
A
To me that's been like the shocking stat I've been telling everyone. Because you're right, the. Your brand is very hurt. But it's really. That shook me too. I looked it up last week and it was two weeks ago actually.
- [21:47]
B
So we're into NFTs were speaking Ethereum, right?
- [21:50]
A
No, actually it was a mix. I looked up all NFTs, tons of Ethereum, some immutable. Because gaming. I mean one of the biggest things that's about to happen with Layer Twos is driving down the cost of minting and all the gas fees with Solana. Layer Twos on Ethereum, Immutable. I think one of the biggest places NFT, remember for everyone's listening, NFTs don't just mean collectibles, right? They're non fungible tokens, they're contracts, they're memberships like we did with Fly Fish. There are a lot of things, it's ownership on the blockchain now that it doesn't cost the kind of money to make one or trade one and they get down to the nanopennies. I think you're gonna see that axe or that gun that you buy on Fortnite. Think about the kids that are listening right now. You grew up on Minecraft or Roblox, then you went to Fortnite, then you went to Madden or 2K in your video game journey when you left Minecraft to Become a Fortnite kid. All those hundreds of dollars you spent buying up shit stayed stuck in a server based, not blockchain based world. You know how cool it's gonna be that the Fortnite, Roblox and Minecrafts of the world in 15 years, parents, you're gonna really like this part. It's kind of like, you know, like the fact that you've played all those digital games but you actually own those items. And then when you go to the next thing you sell your ownership of that sword, that gun, that suit, that hat, these digital ownership thing, I think in video games, in gaming is gonna be a major thing. And then there's the top 1%, just by the way back to physical art. Rashid Johnson's, the Jackson Pollock's, the Andy Warhol's. Like there's artists that are worth something and then there's 99% of art, 99.9% of art. Physical pictures that hang on walls all over the world are not worth a lot of money. I think the 1% of NFTs, CryptoPunks being at the top because they don't have to do anything, it's just history I think will be something. And then I think finally where people are gonna really learn about NFTs is authentication. Just like you're doing, just like the blockchain. Whether it's ordinals or Ethereum or some blockchain that gets invented and wins. I think all of us with deep fake video look, me, Steph, you rips on chain Mike, everybody. But definitely for someone like Steph and me, millions of videos on the Internet in the next 10 years saying shit we never said. Yeah, deep fake AI videos, right?
- [24:27]
B
Yeah.
- [24:28]
A
How are we going to prove that?
- [24:29]
B
Inscription combats.
- [24:30]
A
That's right.
- [24:31]
B
So no shit, that's why this is.
- [24:32]
A
Such a big deal. That's right.
- [24:33]
B
Put type that in ordinals.
- [24:35]
A
I got it.
- [24:36]
B
It's going to pop up and it's going to show you that what people.
- [24:38]
A
Don'T know right now is they're going to interact with the Internet like we all do now and we're going to interact with the blockchain to prove that it's true.
- [24:45]
B
Exactly.
- [24:46]
A
That's right.
- [24:46]
B
Exactly. Yes.
- [24:47]
A
That's the punch.
- [24:48]
B
And I totally agree with. Yep, yep. And I just think a physical aspect should be bought to it because we don't connect necessarily. I don't connect with things that I can't taste, touch, feel.
- [25:01]
A
Let me ask you a question for the most layman person, obviously Steph, you sat down with this trading card. We have a trading card here. If you're not watching or just listening. And Steph signed it. And then you put.
- [25:12]
B
He signed a sheet of paper. He signed the metallic photo paper. And then we take. I take that back to San Diego in the hood.
- [25:20]
A
Yep.
- [25:21]
B
We take right off.
- [25:22]
A
Not the bougie. Not the bougie part of San Diego.
- [25:24]
B
Right off. Rose crayons near Les Girls. And we get down. You know, we get down, but real quick.
- [25:30]
A
For the lamest person, if. If I just signed this and I wasn't me.
- [25:36]
B
It's not underneath the glass. Take that out of there. And that autograph is mounted underneath the glass. The glass.
- [25:42]
A
I see.
- [25:43]
B
So it's archival. The whole piece is made to archive evidence. It's to archive my family's history. The metadata on it is to archive what Steph is doing.
- [25:53]
A
But even again, even if I put it under the glass, let's say I do this and try to replicate this. Can I inscribe this onto the blockchain?
- [25:59]
B
How are you going to mount?
- [26:00]
A
What do you mean, mount?
- [26:02]
B
That's true view glazing. So you got to.
- [26:04]
A
But you got true view glazing. Right.
- [26:06]
B
The master of mounts has access to. Access to this machinery. So, you know, I'm just playing.
- [26:13]
A
I'm just trying to educate.
- [26:14]
B
I don't think it's something that just like a regular Smiggler person could do. Knock off. Yeah.
- [26:21]
A
One of the things I'm thinking a lot about is it never being in the ether. So one of the ways I think about physical and blockchain is you make these. There's an NFT connected to it. But this actually sits in a vault.
- [26:34]
B
Vault.
- [26:36]
A
Like. Right. It just sits in a vault. And if I want it, then I burn the nft and the physical comes to me.
- [26:42]
B
You can. Okay, so the way.
- [26:44]
A
That's just a different. By the way, that's a totally different thing than you're doing. I'm just kind of for the audience.
- [26:47]
B
But you can't do that.
- [26:48]
A
No, that's. Yours is different.
- [26:49]
B
There's a wallet.
- [26:50]
A
Correct.
- [26:50]
B
There's a seed pod inside of there. So if you were to destroy the art.
- [26:55]
A
Yes.
- [26:55]
B
The seed pod contains the seed phrase to access your wallet. Wallet. So they are truly understood.
- [27:03]
A
Understood. Understood. Just trying to give people some different angles out there. What about what's got you most excited artistically? Let's take away the technology. Take that. That we know and we've established, and everybody will check that out. Just in general, as a creative person, what are you seeing out there, what are the trends? What are you getting attracted to? Anything stand out for you?
- [27:26]
B
Manga, manga, art. Yeah, I. I'm loving the. The Japanese culture and I agree the get down Lucky Mong is a dog. If you see how fast we work. A lot of people don't know about our to be Continued series. It's just very fresh.
- [27:41]
A
That's what's here.
- [27:42]
B
And it's.
- [27:42]
A
Tell them how to find it. Let's start with that.
- [27:44]
B
Well, you find it by being a Warriors fan and what in a canvas fan and following us at Canvas mktg And after these warriors games, I'm watching them right there with you guys. And after the game or during the game, I'll come up with a moment that will capture and I'll tell Lucky Monk like you know, turn this into this. Or you know, and then he'll laugh and be like all right, let's do it. And you know, he's on a different time zone. So I'm up doing what I'm doing till like one or two and then by the time I wake up six or seven, he's completed the art and he sent it to me and the master of Mount So as soon as I wake up, I go straight down to San Diego and we get to working. Yeah, we get to work, man. You know, just some nerdy stuff. CNC with the glass and mounting and duck woven cotton backs and running through diamond edge finish and you know the, the pro. The very first one we did didn't look anything like that.
- [28:55]
A
Sure, you're raining up.
- [28:56]
B
The chip was like this big or. Excuse me, we don't like to say chip. It's uninviting. We call it a tag. Near. Near field communication device.
- [29:06]
A
Which is why it pops up on your phone.
- [29:07]
B
Exactly.
- [29:08]
A
Nfc.
- [29:09]
B
It leads to NFC tag. Yeah, I got it. Exactly. I'm a salesman so I get it.
- [29:15]
A
That charm.
- [29:15]
B
Exactly.
- [29:17]
A
Before we get out of here, I want to know the. I like talking about origin stories. Origin of your nerdum. Was it Pokemon or was there something even before Pokemon that got you going?
- [29:27]
B
It was coins. It was my grandpa and his coins.
- [29:29]
A
Flea markets, man.
- [29:31]
B
My grandpa just collected coins. And as a kid I would sit on his lap and he'd pull this box out and like he wouldn't even pull his box out until he's getting ready to go to bed after he ate his sardines and shit. You know what I mean?
- [29:44]
A
It was a late night thing.
- [29:45]
B
Yeah. And he would show me like his Susan B. Anthony silver dollars and wheat Pennies. And then later in my days, as I started dealing with crack and cocaine and stuff, remember, I took some work to my mother, and she taught me the wheat penny trick. You know, she's like, you find one of these pennies made before this date, like, the dope up and, you know, put it. Put it in there. Then all the dope sticks to that penny, you know? So I had an infatuation with collecting wheat pennies because of that, man. Love. No matter what, my mom always love my mom. And she loved me, too. She's addiction, it runs in the family. You know, I'm here to crush that.
- [30:28]
A
I'm proud of you, bro.
- [30:29]
B
And get rid of that.
- [30:29]
A
Stop. Stop the. Stop the lineage, man.
- [30:31]
B
Let's sell this art. That's me and my son. Like, I have so much respect for the west coast card show. And that guy Jay Costco and his son. Costco and FD and his son, like, rolling, whatever. Like, the dads in the hobby.
- [30:49]
A
Yeah.
- [30:49]
B
That are bringing their. Even the boom dude, you know, like, that's going to be me. Y' all get ready to pick on me and my little. Oh son. Because I'm bringing him into this. You know, I don't want him going into that.
- [31:01]
A
Of course.
- [31:02]
B
Like, my grandparents, they try to put me in the hobby and put me in a Boy Scouts, and all you fools out there made me feel like I was a not black or a nerdy fool.
- [31:12]
A
I get it.
- [31:12]
B
And so now I want to sell drugs and be like, of course. Remember?
- [31:17]
A
I remember.
- [31:17]
B
And you know, Jay Z, shout out to him, because listening to him.
- [31:21]
A
Yeah.
- [31:21]
B
Grow in music as I listen to him in the early days when I'm trapping and then listen to him grow and he's buying art. That definitely had an impact. Like, all right, if. If Jake is doing it, then that's cool. You know?
- [31:35]
A
That's right.
- [31:36]
B
Yeah. I'm real. I'm just. I'm mimic.
- [31:38]
A
Let's. Let's go somewhere very deep to wrap up. Given my knowledge of my audience. Let's talk to two different people here.
- [31:47]
B
Yeah.
- [31:47]
A
You can really help. Well, I'm gonna have. I'm gonna give you the floor to help.
- [31:51]
B
Yeah.
- [31:51]
A
First, I want you to talk to the parents that are listening and the grandparents that are listening that have a child that's fighting.
- [31:59]
B
Leave them the hell alone. That was the hardest thing Sonya had to do, but she was, you know, and Steph, too. When they would help me, it would hurt. It wasn't doing anything good with the help. So, you know, I know that was probably the hardest thing for Sonya, to just be like pro Europe, you know, and I was either going to die or I was going to figure it out. But because of the things that they taught me as a youngster, I was able to get out, you know.
- [32:32]
A
You had enough pieces there.
- [32:34]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [32:35]
A
Actually it's a really good call out to break that down for a lot of parents because I get a lot of these DMs and emails and I always think that it's important to talk from a place of living. It I've not had to deal with that level of addiction or even anyone in me, myself, nor anyone in my family. Though the Russian uncles did love to drink the fuck out of alcohol. Russia did pound that alcohol. But you know, I think for some parents, especially if their child goes through it, you know, if those first 10 years of a kid's life, you know, if you feel like you've been able to put the pieces in place, you know, to your point, trusting that that's enough to get them to the other side, that's almost impossible. That's like almost the most impossible. That was so heavy what you just said, like, like this is why I wanted to do this. And thank you. When you just said emphatically leave them alone. That is the complete opposite of what every parent who's listening right now that is battling this would think and me.
- [33:35]
B
What I had to realize was not to trust the doctor. My addiction started in doctor, then I go to get help from the doctor and they gave me Suboxone and Subutex and those things and I never felt normal. And then like when I would relapse and smoke marijuana or have a mushroom trip and it lead me to really reevaluate myself. Those were deemed as bad, but I had to go with the truth that corresponded to my reality and not the truth that correspond to the government or the doctor. And the truth that corresponded to my reality was that the marijuana was keeping.
- [34:13]
A
Me in a good place.
- [34:14]
B
In a good place, you know.
- [34:16]
A
You mean that natural plant, that natural plan?
- [34:19]
B
You know, A lot of my charges criminally were for cultivation of mushrooms because once I knew that the mushrooms were changing me, I started cultivating mycelium and trying to heal myself.
- [34:35]
A
You know, it's funny, you went naturally to my next question was what about the person that's listening that's battling it right now.
- [34:40]
B
Get away from anything the doctor's going to give you that. That's not doctor's advice. But that's my black ass advice. Yeah, from someone That. I mean, I'm down 35 pounds, you know, shout out, peloton, Ali Love and Hannah Frack, let's go. That's amazing. Like, what about.
- [34:59]
A
What about. What about the people around you?
- [35:01]
B
They're dogs. I. My partner.
- [35:03]
A
No, I apologize for the people that are listening.
- [35:05]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [35:05]
A
To your point, you gave your black ass advice on one thing. Yeah, talk to me about your point, your black ass's point of view on the people that are around you during the time that you're in that quote, unquote, bad place. This is something I've analyzed from afar. And I haven't had family members nor myself, but I've had a lot of acquaintances and dear friends go through this. Whoa. I'm always curious about your take for someone auditing their circle when do it by yourself.
- [35:34]
B
Stay away from others. Look at what happened to me when I told you earlier, you know, like that free. That's the worst, man. Just be by yourself and do it, you know?
- [35:46]
A
Yeah.
- [35:47]
B
I mean, that's probably not the best.
- [35:50]
A
Honestly, this is as real as it gets.
- [35:52]
B
Yeah.
- [35:53]
A
It's not about you giving the right advice.
- [35:55]
B
Yeah.
- [35:55]
A
By the way, on the record, I'll take this PSA for myself. All the shit I spew on earth, all of it. And I spew a lot of shit. I talk a lot of game. I do not think it's the right advice. I think it's the right advice for some people in certain situations.
- [36:10]
B
Yeah, like.
- [36:11]
A
Like, let this be very clear. Like. Like some people should only work nine to five. Like, some people should work nine to nine. Some people. Some people need to desperately be patient. A lot of you are confusing patience with complacency and entitlement. Some of you listening to me when I'm like, be patient. You're only 25. You should be patient. You're actually need the complete opposite advice. I don't know you like that. I'm talking macro. Some of you hear me and use me to weaponize against your parents. They're like, Gary Vee says, I'm only 26, I got time. Yeah, but I don't know that you're on the other side of this podcast and you've been laying on the couch from 22 to 26 doing nothing, taking mommy and daddy's money, and you're fucking lazy.
- [36:52]
B
Yeah, you.
- [36:53]
A
I'm not telling patience. You. I'm telling get your fucking ass up and do shit. So again, I just want you to hear this from me. This isn't about you giving the right advice. What is the right advice. This is. You've lived a life that a lot of people on the other side of this podcast right now can benefit from, hearing what you've got to say, and.
- [37:15]
B
I hope they do.
- [37:16]
A
Well, I know that about you, which is why I'm giving you the fucking arena, my guy.
- [37:19]
B
Thank you, man.
- [37:19]
A
Bro, I love this partnership, but I promise you, I'm not doing this podcast. Cause it's partnership. You know, I can. We could promote this differently, and I could get you plenty of shine for canvas marketing and be supportive. I'm doing this podcast because I think you could help people.
- [37:33]
B
Yeah.
- [37:34]
A
You understand.
- [37:34]
B
And that if one fucking person's been.
- [37:37]
A
Listening the whole time because you know, you're different, I'm different, we're all different. If one fucking kid has been listening for this last hour and the whole time you're talking, they're like, yeah, I get it. That's me. That's me. And. And you just help them. Well, that's the punchline of my life. That's what I want to happen.
- [37:55]
B
The crazy thing is, like, the addiction started as a kid. You know, knee surgery, this going in grandma's cabinet. And really, like, if you're a parent.
- [38:04]
A
What was in grandma's cabinet? I want to hear that part.
- [38:06]
B
Vicodin. Yeah.
- [38:09]
A
How old are you? Were you. When you feel like it started early.
- [38:13]
B
14 years old, you know, and now, like, we're all taking pills from one little small town, Radford, Virginia. Of course, then they're going to lock you up and, you know, it's just all bad. And the best thing to do is to just be like Steph. Be like Steph. And be locked in. Do the right thing, even when nobody's watching. And don't tone it.
- [38:36]
A
Tune out the noise.
- [38:37]
B
Tune out the noise. Yeah.
- [38:38]
A
Because that's the fucking thing that fucks everyone up. To your point. Like, you and I. I'm a older than you, but you caught the tail end of it. Now we're in a little bit of a different era. Thank God for Gen Alpha and Gen Z, where you can be a little bit more of an individual. But like, fuck, man, if you did not have a starter jacket and you did not wear ridiculously baggy jeans and you didn't wear fucking Timbo boots in my school, well, then you were a puss.
- [39:00]
B
I wore jncos.
- [39:01]
A
Yeah, fair enough.
- [39:02]
B
You know what I mean? I was a nerdy black kid.
- [39:04]
A
I get it. And by the way, I was in Jersey more city. Even though I was in a rural part in high school where that moved more, probably more like. But it was still. It doesn't matter. If we're talking about Z Cavaricis, if we're talking about jams, if we're talking about later Levi, it doesn't really matter. Everybody listening can replace the brands that you and I just mentioned. Everybody, by the way, if you grew up in Santa Clara, California, that was more Vans Life. You had to be more of a surfer dude. Your hair had to be long. Nobody listening is confused by what I'm saying. We all went through middle school and high school where whatever the fashion was of the general era, we were in that if you were not conforming, you are an outcast. And when you're fucking 10 to 20, you're desperate to belong.
- [39:49]
B
Yeah.
- [39:50]
A
My big thing for everyone who's listening is if you're over 30 right now and you're still playing that keeping up with the Joneses, you need to fucking change up your script.
- [40:00]
B
Yeah.
- [40:01]
A
That's what's killing the world. And for the kids, all those highlight reels you see on social media, those are curated. People aren't talking enough real shit. People are showing you their highlights. People are fucking taking fake photos. People. I watch people. I live in New York City. I travel around a lot. You literally see people take photos with other people's cars as if it's theirs.
- [40:25]
B
Yeah.
- [40:26]
A
Like in the street, perpetrating. There was a crazy startup in Russia that literally created a fake environment that was a private plane, and people were paying to walk in it to take a photo to post on social media.
- [40:40]
B
Oh, wow. Yeah.
- [40:43]
A
So for the kids, like, you know, please get smart. Like nobody. First of all, let me take you to the deepest end of this. While I'm on this rant, there's a bigger thing, which is nobody's happiness and success is taking from yours. People's envy and jealousy has been triggered with all these realities of getting so much exposure. And we had it in the 80s, like lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. My mom watched that show. I saw that show, you know, like Dallas and Dynasty. And then your generation had it. Like, even though we didn't have, quote, unquote, social media, we had fucking MTV Cribs.
- [41:17]
B
Yeah.
- [41:17]
A
And, like, people knew what that was. Like, people. I love how everyone's like, it's social media's fault. We've always looked up to shit.
- [41:23]
B
Yeah.
- [41:23]
A
We've always. But now we've become less confident.
- [41:27]
B
Yeah.
- [41:28]
A
And we need to figure that out.
- [41:30]
B
That you said that. Because when I stopped focusing on other people and was just like, I'm a do what I can do to be the best that I can archive my family's history and Steph's image. That's when I started.
- [41:45]
A
Got happier. That's right.
- [41:46]
B
Happy. Yeah, for sure.
- [41:48]
A
It's real. Like if you're crying about what someone else has that you don't have, you're gonna lose.
- [41:52]
B
Absolutely.
- [41:53]
A
You're gonna lose. My man. Thank you for being on.
- [41:55]
B
No, thank you.
- [41:56]
A
Before you bounce up and chat one more time because I want to make sure people find you if they want. How does the world that's listening not only when we launch this, but over the years and years and years that this will be consumed. How do people find you?
- [42:07]
B
You can read out that inscription number right there. And they can. That immutable art. They can find that. But no Canvas MKTG.com and Canvas MKTG. That's my IG, that's my Twitter. Twitter, Yeah, I think it's Canvas. Underscore mktz for Twitter. And Pocket Mounts. Get familiar with Pocket Mounts and that brand and that, that's one thing, you know.
- [42:34]
A
Please, let's talk about it.
- [42:35]
B
I started out as the founder and CEO of Pocket Mounts. And the hardest decision I ever, I was always like, I'm never selling the company company or giving anything up. And the most humbling thing I ever had to do was realize that I'm only what, four years out from my destruction. And having some leadership and guidance from people like Danny Yang and Charlie Lee might not be the worst thing. So I had to step down to a creator. I didn't have to, but I myself, I'm the creative director. I want to stay out of this scene.
- [43:14]
A
You got to know yourself.
- [43:16]
B
Yeah.
- [43:16]
A
You became more self aware from 33, 37 to your point. People are just doing that that don't have major bumps in the road. You had a real significant thing you went through in your youth. In your 20s and 30s, you're just getting out. And from 33 to 37 along the way, you were able to realize what by the way, will again is helping so many of you. So many of you are the creative, not the business person.
- [43:38]
B
Yeah, exactly. Danny Yang is the CEO.
- [43:42]
A
And by the way, on the flip side, this is for all my business buddies. A lot of you are the business person, not the creator and not the creative you wish. And so you know that self awareness.
- [43:54]
B
That'S a hard pill to swallow.
- [43:55]
A
Yeah. Because listen, humility is the foundation of happiness.
- [43:58]
B
Yeah.
- [43:59]
A
My man.
- [43:59]
B
And I'm more like I said, I'm down 35 pounds. And you know, I was buying stupid. When I did get some money out. Yeah, I'm poor. I came from nothing. Yeah, I want some Montclair. But. But I was like, instead of buying that, I invested in this. This student, Marinhare and Fitness, who's like a mobile guy who come to your house and come to my house three times a week. He works out with me and Liz.
- [44:26]
A
Good for you.
- [44:26]
B
We're both. She's down almost 20. I'm down 35. I start a little before her, but.
- [44:32]
A
You know, you start with health.
- [44:33]
B
Family's getting healthy, man. Holistic. Like.
- [44:37]
A
Well, it's healthy in your.
- [44:38]
B
In your physical and it's healthy your girlfriends matter. You know, my. All my partners before were not to blame or anything, but they were. They weren't this, you know, I have really supportive partner today.
- [44:50]
A
And by the way, to. To give empathy to your prior relationships. You weren't in the best place.
- [44:56]
B
No, for sure.
- [44:57]
A
Like, let's talk real.
- [44:58]
B
Absolutely.
- [44:59]
A
Like, like, you know what I mean? Like, that goes back to accountability. Like, listen, I have no clue. I'm not trying to get in your personal.
- [45:05]
B
But I'm a leader in this world, but intimately, I'm a follower.
- [45:10]
A
Good for you.
- [45:10]
B
You know what I mean? So having Liz, what you're seeing right now is really, like, her impact. Her impact of supporting me and feeding me like, vegetables, making sure that I drink water.
- [45:23]
A
Yeah.
- [45:23]
B
And, you know, it's. It's great to have someone love, man.
- [45:27]
A
It's nice to see you on this uptick, bro.
- [45:29]
B
Yeah, absolutely.
- [45:30]
A
Proud of you.
- [45:31]
B
No, thank you.
- [45:31]
A
Thanks for being on.
- [45:32]
B
Thank you, Gary.