Jake Paul - On Building His Empire, His Reputation, and What the Future Holds

star facing controversy. Now hopefully they'll see like, oh, that kid isn't as bad as we thought he was. With eighteen million subscribers on YouTube, Jake Paul is one of the internet biggest influencers. What's going on? What's going on you? How is your day so far? Terrible? I feel like you might have done four million things before you've been showing up here today. No, today has been good. Yeah,

I was just I came from another interview. But yeah, we've just been like traveling around, been on the phone, calling people, calling people, making some calls people. That's so old school of you, like versus texting. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm different than most millennials. Did you just say you were firing some people? Is that a fact or are you just trying to be funny and what? Oh? Man? Yeah, I hate firing people. I'm bad at it, Like I just want to be a nice to everyone and it's

like really awkward. But I'm becoming better at it as I get older. Better at firing people are better at better flying people. Yeah. I think confrontation in general is very awkward, especially when you want to be the fun guy and the nice guy and that's how everybody knows you, and it's probably hard for you to like switch hats. Right. I'm like really close to a lot of the people that I work with and so of like kind of like break down that barrier and be like, hey, you're fired.

I'm sorry guy. I'm a very like loving person and it sucks to have to do that. But the reason I'm getting better at it is because you can't waste time. You have to be slow to higher, quick to fire. And can I quote you on that? Yeah, I don't think I didn't come up with that, but I'm gonna say I'm gonna say that you did. And it was it was built here on this show here. Time is money, and speaking of time and money, what was the article, Allison? It was Business Insider said that you made eight five

hundred dollars per minute of a YouTube video. Did you know this fact? If you were here for an hour interview, I would basically be costing you fik. So thanks for that problem. Thanks you. I'll send it invoice now we're here because we love you guys. That's an insane stat. Hundred dollars per minute of your YouTube videos. Somebody did the math. Yeah, I don't know how true that is. I'm trying to do the math according to how much

your videos have made. That's what Business Insider has reported us. Someone go ahead and trust them. Yeah, they probably know that. That's intense. So going back to working with friends, you work with a lot of friends, right, and family and best friends from home that you brought from Ohio. Right.

So when you're having those kinds of conversations, have there been moments because you said time is money where you didn't have the conversation and later on it came to bite you in the a Yeah, ye, Like this year has been a lot about communication for me and just like cut into the chase and like not way and avoiding conversations is what I like used to do, and so for this year, I've been like trying to just like dive in head first, openly talk about everything, be

more transparent with people, because yeah, even even with some of my friends and stuff, it's like we've put off conversations because we both felt awkward and like we didn't want to talk about certain things or involved business because it's it's really difficult to be friends with someone and be in business with somebody, and a lot of the

times it doesn't work out. You have to have like a very very very strong relationship and both parties have to be very understanding that there is business involved in this friendship, and you kind of have to create like barriers for yourself, and it's a difficult thing to deal with. I would imagine that that would be really hard to

kind of figure out who is really there. I'm sure you have people approaching you all the time, and it's it's really easy from a high level perspective to be like, you're just here for cloud or for me to tag you. Those are probably obvious. But people that you have history with, right, isn't that harder to distinguish? Okay, you're here because of

this or you're writing for me. Yeah. I deal with that probably more than anybody else in the influencer space because I keep my circle big unfortunately, because I have so many deals, so many businesses, so many people in my life, so many things that I want to accomplish, and there's a lot of people playing a lot of different roles, even in my in my house, there's twenty four people that live in my house. Um, anxiety. Does that not give you anxiety? The it's a double edged sword.

I have a tattooed on my back. It's a sword and it's you live and die by the sword. That's what it says on it. And it's so true because it's like those twenty four people like it gives me anxiety. And the downside is dealing with all of the madness, all of the drama, people getting in fights with each other,

people stabbing you in the back. I've had history with people who have called my best friends, who I've thought like I completely trusted, and then seven days later it's a completely different story, and you like don't know who

they are. I think the number one way to tell who should be in your life or who you can actually trust is people who have been around for the long So I think time is a good measure of trust, and I think other than that, it goes to family and then just being in situations with people where they could have said something, they could have screwed you over and then they don't. Um that's really the only types of people that you can like fully trust over time.

But having twenty four people in my house is also exciting because there's there's a huge like, there's a huge creative energy, there's a huge business energy, there's always something going on, and it motivates me to work eighteen nineteen twenty hours a day when when necessary, and there's never a dull moment, and we have a lot of fun.

At the same time, there's been days where I've been annoyed with the people in the house and and wanting to like just have like my my own space, And I think it's as I've gotten older for sure, those like feelings are only for like a certain amount of time, and I kind of like get over it because at the end of the day, me personally, I've always been the type to have like company around. I'm never the person who's just like wants to go and do something alone.

I get like freaked out if I'm alone, like it's weird, Like I just like don't like it sometimes. So do you think you're an extrovert for sure? Yeah? Yeah, I think with entertainers though, it's interesting because a lot of entertainers I talked to are actually introverts, and I think that you are actually like you are this ball of energy. Yeah, you know, I don't think it's a show, right, No,

for sure. I've always been the class clown, Like I was always getting in trouble with my teachers, always drawing attention to myself, and I've always just been that person. To me, it's like fun and I like to create that energy because I think life's fucking boring. I think life so boring, like if you think about it, like the only thing that matters is a conversation and human interaction when you boil it down at the end of the day, and like how other people make you feel.

And to me, it's like I was like sitting in class, or I would be like sitting in like an assembly or at football practice and everyone just going through the motions of life, just like we're here, we're sitting here. This is what we have to do. And I was always the person like no, like let's make this fun, Let's make jokes, let's talk about ship. Let's like prank people. That's spice this up a little bit. It's kind of like just doing what you want because you don't care

what other people think. And yeah, like I've kind of always been like the problem child. Why do you think I think for that reason, like because I literally get bored, Like we were in the we we were I just an interview and like we're in the green room and we're just in this room. There's like a TV. I was like started to like I'm just like yo, like what's going on here? Like like we need to do something? Like I get board super easily. I think that's where

it stems from. And I have a lot of energy and a d h D like we were talking about for and and I like adrenaline and stuff. So I think like a lot of the ship I do like involved as adrenaline and like just being outside of the box. And yeah, I always I kind of start to find myself in trouble. But I'm ex controversial now, no more trouble. Yes,

your branding is very clean as of now. Great. So on that point, you are one of the most talked about people digitally and even mainstream media, one of the most talked about people, And I think there's a lot of power in that. But I also think that there's got to be downsides to it too, because when something goes wrong, then on top of everybody celebrating you one minute, they're celebrating you, the next minute, everyone's shooting on you.

So there's pros and cons, right, and you've had days when you've woken up and there's news outlets reporting on you, people who don't know anything about you assuming things. Yeah, I think the biggest most annoying thing that I deal with is misconception and people misunderstanding like who I am, because at the end of the day, like I have a reputation, and there's a reputation, and there's like who you actually are, And for the past to three years,

I've had like kind of a notorious reputation. Who I am as a person is like very different from how the world perceives me. Like partially a lot of it's my own fault. I don't like some of the old ship that I did. I don't like my old self. I don't like some of the videos that I would do, but there's a reason I did it, and in the moment, it was what I was doing and it got me to where I am today. But I definitely had to

grow and learn from that. But I think the biggest thing is when your reputation doesn't match who you are as a person, and that is really hard to deal with and an annoying because you're just like, yo, like I'm not that, Like I'm not this person. I'm not like I'm not an asshole. I'm not like doing all these like dumb things like it may look like this, but like what's my side of the story. And a lot of the times, because I am Jake Paul and I have a target on my back, people don't want

to hear that side of the story. And people just will like just add to like the Jake Paul like oh he's doing that, Oh he's doing that, Like it's so easy to just like it's too easy. Yeah, And they put your name in their titles and then they're

they're getting views off of talking about you. And that's what I hate is like those haters will watch like other people making up about my reputation but they don't ever care to like go in and figure out for themselves, which I understand and I'm not like but her, but it's like that is the most annoying thing to deal

with in the entertainment industry. Oh absolutely. I mean, I don't know if you saw Justin Bieber, he posted something I can't believe about to quote just because obviously he made a lot of the stakes when he was younger, and the whole world turned on Justin Bieber. Literally everyone hated him. Yeah, the whole world's watching the whole world's watching you, which obviously has its benefits, but the downfall is when you do something wrong, every single person jumps

on the bandwagon. Yeah, it's like cancel culture, the cancel culture. So basically, Justin Bieber he mentioned that the whole world turns on you, and people don't realize that it's really hard on someone. One minute, you're really loved and everybody is obsessed with you, and then the next minute you're the world's villain. How do you deal with that when

people just turn on you like that, that's dark. I can't imagine having that high feeling like, oh my god, my video just surpassed two hundred million views and then the next minute everyone has turned on you and people you thought were there for you have turned on you,

which probably cuts the worst. It's a difficult feeling and my brother has dealt with it even more so than I have with with everything that happened like in Japan, like the lowest highs, and it sucks, but it's part of you know what we were talking about, And the cancel culture is like so powerful because misery loves company and I think a lot of people are very jealous in this day and age and they want to see like people at the top fail because it's exciting and

it gives them something to talk about and they get to express their negative emotions online specifically like Twitter, where everyone is like such a toxic, negative environment and misery loves company and it's like everyone's so sad and broken and they take it out on everyone else. The only thing you can really do is just stay strong and like, I know who you are as a person at the end of the day, and look yourself in the mirror and be like, I'm a good person, I know what

I'm doing. There's a reason I'm here, And regardless of what the Internet thinks now it's like, Okay, I'm just going to continue to do me. Hopefully they'll see like, oh that kid isn't as bad as we thought he was, or all that kid was just young and he made stupid mistakes like justin Bieber, like me jumping on a news van like you know, me need pool on fire, Like it's all that dumb ship. That's like letting people on fun said people. I was like, damn interview over, Um,

you have to grow as a person. And I think the world has seen even me and my brother do that in front of their eyes. Hopefully. I think there's definitely still a target on our back. But well that's never going to change, right as long as you're relevant and people are talking about you, you have to know that that's what you signed up for, right, Yeah, And it's like that sucks. Yeah, I honestly I think that's really evolved of you to think that way and to

say that. But putting myself in your shoes, I mean, somebody makes fun of you, you feel horrible. Like one person. You have to have such thick skin and such a good head on your shoulders to keep it moving. Because I remember when a lot of controversies were happening, you kept it moving and you just kept doing your thing. That has to be hard, and I feel like you

probably have a really strong community around you. I think my support system is awesome, my parents, my brother even I was there for him when he needed me, and he's been there for for me when I needed him. And the way we look at it is just different. And we almost joke about people hating on us because we just know it's not fucking true and we know

who we are. It's like we deal with things with comedy a lot of the times, and I'm not going anywhere, So it's like these people can hate on me all they want, but like, I'm smarter than that to like let that drag me down. I know what I'm doing in this industry and that this industry is literally a game, and when you figure out like how to play it and be smart about it, you pretty much secure a spot in the industry. And me and my brother have already done that. And it's like we've gone through the

most amount of hate already that we possibly can. Like, I don't see how it could go any worse or be any stronger than what it's already been like we were at one point in January early January two, that was eighteen, my brother and I were the most hated people probably on the internet, and we rose about that. Here we are, I feel better than ever. I feel more knowledgeable than ever, saying with my brother, and we

are making bigger moves than we've ever done before. And it doesn't necessarily just involve like making logs or like YouTube stuff. It's just like business relationships, people boxing, like all of these different things. So when stuff like that happens and everybody turns on you guys and you do rise, you triumph, is there a game plan or do you just let time pass and you know that they're gonna hate somebody else in a couple of months. It's not

even them hating somebody else. It's like us growing, Like we still learn from those mistakes, you know. It's like we're not just like arrogant of our mistakes. We definitely have to learn from them and be like, oh, ship, we did make mistakes and grow from that, but then continuing just be ourselves and continuing to work hard and have that thick skin to persevere and and just go back to our roots, which is creating and that's what we started doing and that's what got us to where

we are. So I think if the only way people could take us down is if the hate became so strong that it got to us so much that we stopped creating. If there was a fly on the wall in the room. When you guys are talking, what is the majority of the conversation based around. Are you guys talking about business stuff? It's a number of things with business. Yet we're very strategic with some of the business stuff we're working on right now. The conversations get get really interesting.

But the way you guys have so much, it's kind of hard to like not say stuff without like revealing it. But I look at it like this, think about it like this, Like Hollywood is all of the coolest people from every high school in the world. Was like it, we're moving and they all came to l A. And l A is literally a high school. The only difference now is your popularity is actual fame and influence, and

your popularity equals money. And so if you wanted a girl in high school, like it's it's no different in l A. How you like would make money in high school, like selling candy bars to different people and cool or or like whatever whatever your hustle was in high school to make money. It's like you just bring that to Los Angeles and it's the same thing. Relationships. Is your

friend throwing the party? Like where are you at? I think like high school and l A are like very very similar, and there's drama and there's cloud and like all that. All that same ship applies when we when we have conversations about like how to make big moves within the industry, the conversations get pretty I don't know what the word is, but I get what you're saying. I feel like that both of you together could be unstoppable, right. But I mean, if we're talking high school, if you're

both running for prom king, who would win? Jake? Would it be you or your brother? Just because I need to be a little high school right now, I think I would win like you would win. I'm gonna be honest with you. Yeah, I think he would win a different award. What a word would he win most likely to succeed, most likely to succeed or like class clown or most athletic? Like that? Do you guys have a similar goals big picture goals and game goals. Yeah, they're

very similar. I think we both just want to be the best at what we're doing. So if we're doing whether that's doing business or entertainment, which is the two things that we do, we just want to be the best and work with the best, and at the end of the day, are both of our goals like boiled down to that. And we're so young and we feel

like we are just starting. We feel like we haven't even scratched the service of like what we're able to accomplish, and we learned a lot I think in the past like four to five years since you were talking about like off camera, like since I first moved here and when we met, like I'm so much a different person from that person to who I am now, and so I can only imagine where like the next four years ago. We just feel like we have so much more to offer than like what we are coined as, which is

like YouTubers. Do you not like the term YouTubers? I don't know how to say. I don't want to say it's a bad thing to be called. But you are an actor as well, you are getting into music, You do a lot of stuff. We have pages and pages on things I want to talk about with you, and we will not have enough time because you have so

much going on. So yeah, I hate the term YouTuber and like, I'm a professional boxer now I'm literally a licensed professional boxer and we need to talk about so I don't I can't categorize myself into one thing because I was trying to figure out there's so many different angles with you, right, and I was like, Okay, what

are we going to focus on? His business angle? Because he's made people millions of dollars, he's made people famous from literally being nobody's He has boxed real boxers, He makes music videos and spends more on budget for production, probably than Nicki Minaj. So let's discuss all these things. I feel like you go hard and not only do you go hard in all these areas, but you dominate all these areas. Why do you think you've been given this superpower? You're not. Oh, I want to become a

boxer and then take a class of box union. You fucking train and like you get the best trainers and you actually do televised events boxing, And when did you decide to do this two years ago? And now you're

an actual a box there. Yeah, I think it goes back to a couple of things, one being the goal of becoming the best at whatever I do, or at least giving my one effort into becoming the best at that, which goes back to like my roots being in Ohio and like my work ethic, which like my parents installed in me. Like I had a landscaping company when I was like fifteen sixty, and I wanted it to be like the best landscaping company. I want to have the most clients, and I just always like worked hard, and

I think hard work in this industry beats everything. And then beyond that, it's like the team that I surround myself with. We have an amazing team smart people above as, smart advisors, UM, great relationships. So if I'm new into something or um not as good at something like you know, boxing, for example, it's how do we put ourselves around the best people to be able to make us the best in that category and teach us the most amount of ship. Why boxing? I know you wrestled, So what what made

you decide to become a boxer. I'm an entertainer, you know. That's why I hate being classified as like a YouTuber. I'm like, I'm an entertainer at the end of the day, acting music, whatever it is. Boxing is one of the most entertaining things in the world. And I grew up loving to watch fights, UFC, all of that, Like it was huge in my my household. We would get every single fight and watch and I've always loved it and

always been a fan of it. And if you think about it, right, like let's say someone's on the side of the road playing the guitar and you're you're walking down the street and you might walk by, you might stop. Who knows if someone's fighting on the side of the road. Everyone's watching, everyone's filming it. At the end of the day, it's such an engaging thing that everyone wants to be a part of, regardless of your age, regardless of your gender. You want to see who's going to win the fight,

or at least here afterwards who won the fight. So it's again getting people to talk and it's sparking conversation in a major way. When I first met Drake, when I first met when let me tell you about when I met Drake Um. When I first met him, he was like the first thing he said to me was he talked about the fight because the yeah, he watched it, and that's kind of cool to hear. Yeah, No, for sure. I was like, oh, Ship, did you peel a little? Yeah? I pissed myself and I heard like two hours after

fight somebody was like, oh, Justin Bieber was watching. Justin Bieber was watching. I was with him, like we were watching the fight together. And it's like, if it's able to draw that much attention, it's like we're doing We're doing something right. Not only is it fun for us to do, but again, it's entertainment and it makes a big check and a lot of people want to see you know, me or my brother like loose because we kind of have that like villain style, like people would

love if we lost. And so I think that's why a lot of people tune in. That's why a lot of people watch Floyd Mayweather. Like Floyd Mayweather has fans, but I think a lot of people just tune in out of steam Loose. It sounds like the common thread all the things you said about boxing making money, people watching you know, the celebrities are watching you do it attention. Was that a strategic move to pick boxing like you weren't picking sewing or something like other random Right, you're athletics,

so you'd be good at it. You knew you'd be good at it. Was it a strategic move on your part, because it sounds like it kind of was where it stemmed from. As we saw these two like YouTubers fight and they didn't market it. Well, it wasn't like a big thing. No one really knew about it. But then the day it happened, a lot of people talked about it within the community, and so my brother and I kind of saw that and we were like, that was terribly executed, and we can do that on a much

bigger level. And so that's that's what we did. We just like took that and and ran with it, and it worked. And now you're you're casually a professional boxer. So what does that mean for your career because obviously you have all these other things going on. Do they take a backseat? Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard. Time management currently is really hard. We're training two times a day.

Are you training for something specific? Right now? There's a fight November nine that my brother is doing versus k s I. It's a rematch from like the last event that we did. And I'm currently in discussions like figure out if I'm fighting on that on that undercard. If not, I'm going to do a fight after that or something. I'm trying to figure it out. Do you know who you would be fighting? There's a couple of people like Soldier Boy. I saw that. Yeah, why would he sign

up for that? I just feel like that's not it's not smart. It's not smart, but it is because you'd make a lot of money. He would, Yeah, yeah, I guess so. Thinking about Soldier Boy, he would do that for also the attention, for sure, I think we get a lot of attention. I actually think it'd be smart for him to do it, especially because, like I know, I would beat him, but like afterwards, I'm not gonna be a dick about it. You should make a song

or something. Yeah, you guys should collapse. Is there somebody you like if you could make one phone call, you're gonna fight this person? They would I up and do it with you? Who would it be? Will Smith? A big Willie style? But I would feel wouldn't you feel bad hitting him? I would feel bad, Like we grew up with him, you know, he's the fresh prince. I think it's because he likes the channel. He's like a

dad hitting a dad. Yeah, but also like he would be great and it would be and he loves the challenge, and I know he's athletic, and he would make some dope Instagram video because he's like his Instagram game is pretty solid. I don't know if you're yeah, or I think if Austin McBroom and I thought he's from the Ace family, Okay, know who that is. I was like, he's like at he's really big online. Okay, we're friends, like we're homies, were really good friend. I think you'd

do it. I've been trying to convince him for a while. People in the user community would go crazy over that. Wouldn't you feel bad? I mean, I don't know. I'm just so emotional. I'm like, would you feel bad at hitting him? It's like your friend. Yeah, it'd be a weird thing to get over and they like to think about. Okay, so boxing, you're taking that seriously. I think it's super cool that you are doing that. What's been the hardest thing about boxing the people don't know it's not a

joke at all. It is are on a meal plan. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking about, like whole nine yards, whole nine yards. Like the sport is so serious, and when you fully dive into it, you see how passionate people are about it, how big of a community it is. People take it so seriously, and it is incredibly hard. A lot of people are like, oh, boxing like cool.

When you actually get in the ring, No, I don't sparring people, and you're like getting punched in the face, and you go to gyms and people are beating the ship out of each other and there's blood flying, and you really have to like realize how hard of a sport it is. I did wrestling, and I thought that was the hardest sport. It's super competitive, and that's been the biggest wake up is like wow, like this is one of the hardest things in life that you could do.

And also being a novice in it and having to learn and get punched in the face a lot of times and put in the hours and hours of hard work to get to a level where like you can actually hang when you go to a boxing gym, you can actually beat people up. Now you're you're dealing out the punches versus just getting beat up all the time.

And being able to step in the ring with pro fighters now and be able to spar with them, and that transition is is super hard and it's a lot of hours of just like hard work and sweat and blood and tears. So you're creating content around this. But if you could not roll camera on any of this, would it be something you would still do? I love it. I love the competition. I'm super competitive, grew up playing sports,

super athletic, and I think it's so fun. And the crazy thing about boxing is like, similar to like music or acting, boxing has no ceiling. You can take it as far and as long and as hard as you want to go, like and become Floyd Mayweather and become a billionaire. I think that is incredible. The industry of like YouTube has a ceiling, has a ceiling for sure. You can only get to a certain point. YouTube starts to limit your views. YouTube starts to limit like how

many people your video is getting pushed out to. When you get to a certain point after two years, like YouTube wants to just like put on the next creator. They're kind of in control of everything when and there's a ceiling. My brother and I have reached that ceiling. And we're at the ceiling and it's like, come on, let us up through. And you think you're at the

ceiling right now. You're still getting a lot of views for sure, but as getting the most out of view as possible, but as far as like excelling, you're already at the top, You're saying, so where where else could you go? It's a it's a dead end. What am I gonna do? Vlog every single day and just keep on making videos and keep on getting views, and like, yes, my fan base will grow, but like when does that end? When does it end for you? I think it already has.

I think like I've definitely like pulled myself away from YouTube in the past six months, you know, and I still I love making videos. I'll always make videos, but I think there's a difference between being a YouTuber and like I post on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Sundays, and I post every other day, Like that's being a YouTuber versus you kind of just make videos when you want. The videos I'm currently making there just a lot higher production and I want them to be as best as

they possibly can be. I think a lot of YouTubers like cut corners and their videos now and they just like kind of post whenever. I'm just over that cycle and that doesn't excite me anymore. I want to make like really high quality content. YouTube is great, and I'll always do it, but it's like, what is like, what are the big YouTubers right now? They're just just gonna keep on making videos unless there's some smart ones, you

know who branch out and our building businesses. But that's like two people that I know of, and the rest of it is just like you, they're just gonna die on YouTube. They're just they're just gonna keep on going and going and going and making videos until people just

don't care anymore. And to me, it's like I'm not only bored with the platform and like making the videos, but I'm bored with making videos like consistently, like when I like need to upload around a certain time and a certain uncertain days and push push push and force content out on board of that, I think it's like I don't want to like be that person that dies on the platform, and I think a lot of YouTubers do and they don't even realize it, and then they

try to like come back and hate on the new people. So what kind of content are you creating right now? I know you're doing a lot of music. Yeah, So music is like huge for me. I love I love music, I love making music. I love the music industry just in general. And it was kind of something like it was. It's kind of weird for me because I grew up listening to like rap all the time, and listening to the Little Wayne and Drake and like watching the Little

Wayne documentary without my mom's permission. He didn't want me to see it because like he was a bad influence and did drugs and all this stuff. So I've always like loved music, but for whatever reason, I never thought that I could do it. And then got sucked in Divine and Disney and YouTube and billion businesses and so on and so forth, and I did music like YouTube music like every day bro and like comedy songs and

just like joking around. But then when I sat down one day and I was like I went in the studio and I was like actually trying to make a

good like song. It turned out good, and I realized that, wait, I can do this and like take it seriously and I'm good at it, and I'm good at writing that was like a huge eye opener for me, and I think I had to grow as an individual and kind of grow off of just being a YouTuber to fully believe in myself to the point where like, now I know I'm a good musician and great artists, and I have a dope team of people that I can work with in the music space to be able to launch

into the music space and actually be taken seriously, you mean for real launched into the music space. You know. The music industry is like the hardest industry to break into more than anything. I think, have you released any of the really good songs that you're excited about? Not yet? When are when are people going to hear that? I'm saying November eight is when I'm gonna drop something. You're gonna drop something? No, are we talking an entire album

a music video November. So, But I'm still like, I'm still figuring it out, Like that's what I'm saying, I'm green in the music industry. I'm just sorry now I'm still learning about it. I'm learning, like I'm figuring out that strategy to come into it. And I'm being patient as well, because I don't think it's something to rush, and there's a lot of people I put music out, put music out. Oh this song is dope, this song

is dope. But I really want to have a button up strategy and the right like the perfect team in place so that when it goes, it goes. And I think I have the capability to do that. I know I have the well you have the eyeballs, that's for sure, and you definitely have the people that are gonna look at what you're doing. That's what it comes down to at the end of the day. You asked earlier, like what's the strategy or whatever? What it all was onto is like the music being good. They really have to

be like wait who is this? If they were just listening for the first like, wait, who is this? I think I'm sure you've heard some renditions of what you've worked on. If somebody did not know that it was you, would they know it's you? They wouldn't know based on

like the tone the sound exactly. Yeah, So what I have, like some of my friends do because they're almost some of the friends that like help me with the music or the producers or whatever that like after I make a song, they will go and play it they'll play it for their friends and just like have it on in the studio and they're other like friends or pop

friends or whatever. They'll be like jamming to it and then they'll be like, yo, that was Jake Paul and everyone will be like what, Like, no, that's not that's not Like, no, it's not. I don't believe you, bro, I don't believe you. And they'll be like, yeah, that is, and they'll play it again and they're big, Wow, that's good. So it's a good sign. We're gonna have to play that's long or whatever it is. So November eight is

when you're hoping, hoping it will come out. Are you collaborating with anybody that might help the credibility of the song? You know? It's all about Yeah. I feel like in the music industry, when people collab with somebody, it really helps them. Right Obviously, you don't need to because you probably have more followers than a lot of really big artists are their collabs. So I've been working with a lot of great producers, one of which is boy Wanda.

We're great friends and that's like how the relationship started, and he's been kind of like helping me out give me advice, sending me like beats and stuff like that, which is which is really dope because he's done countless amount of hits from Drake's God's Plan to like started from the bottom. He's been with Drake is a whole career. Drake is like my biggest inspiration in the music space. So that's really awesome to be able to work with him.

And I'm so lucky and fortunate to work with him and have a song with a couple of different artists, one of which is n Eli Choppa. He's blowing up in the rap industry right now. Again, same thing. We were friends, like everything started friends, We made a song together, we shot the music video, So I think that might be the song that I dropped November eighth. But might you have a couple, Yeah, I have a couple of songs. I'm just trying to figure out like which one to

drop in like which order. And also, like the thing about it for me is I'm very competitive and I'm very judgmental of myself, and so I'll make a song and I'm like, I love that song. I love that song so much, and then two weeks later, I'm like, I can do better than that song. Is that the constant problem with you though you can always do better, right, so you probably have that issue in every area of your life. Yeah, so you just have to drop the

song right now, right now. Um, that's really awesome that you're doing that. Do you anticipate you're not going to sign with label, You're gonna be independent? That's probably the plan, right trying to figure out I think there's a lot of ways to do it. There's so many ways to do it now, there's so many different types of deals you can make, from distribution to production deals to like a full three sixty deal. I think I'm going to figure out like what and if it even makes sense

to do that. Everyone's like, oh, no, label suck, like be independent, like you know whatever, But I mean, there's definitely benefits the labels. But I've interviewed every artist under the sun, and so many people say that they wish that they went independent. Because do they? Because I feel like I've seen so many artists go from nothing, like personally where I help them go from nothing to something, and then they're like, oh, I don't need Team ten,

I don't need my label. But that's it's like after after the yeah you do. By the way, Yeah, so would you sign with the label. Let's like cash money shows up and they're like, hey, your money don't make money. You want to mean I talk big money? They if they're talking big money, then yeah, like why not? And also it's like I'm going to utilize my brand as Jake Paul to make money in like business and other areas.

I don't think like music is the end all b l right, So it's like music is definitely something that I'm going to do and put a lot of my eggs into a lot of artists put all of their eggs into music in there in the studio all the time. They don't care about business, they don't care about any of that. Ship. That's not the type of person that I am. So I want to use my brand in that I grow through music to do other things. So it's like, if if a deal makes sense, then a

deal makes sense. I don't even want to ask you what your b all end all is because I don't think that there is a be all end all for you. I think from what I'm hearing, you've built an empire and you're just going to continue to do that. Is that kind of the game plan for you, just like anything that you can do to just continue to build the Jake Paul Empire in whatever is happening in the time in your life, and you're like, oh, I'm passionate about this, I'm gonna go do this. Would you say

that's true? Yeah, yeah, for sure. You don't have like an endgame like four years ago. If you asked me where I was going to be four years or not, I would I wouldn't be like, yo, I've got tattoos all over my body and I'm I'm a professional fighter. I would have never said that, you know. So it's

like I can't really predict where the future is. But why I do this, why I am on this planet and why I wake up every single day to do this entertainment industry, and why I have such thick skin, and why I don't give a funk that Nikita Dragons talking shipped to me on Instagram or whatever it is, like, is because I'm doing this to die a legend, like

an actual legend. Like I want people to be like that guy was a legend, to have movies made of me like Bohemian Rhapsody, or you know, have people talking to me like like Michael Jackson or Babe Ruth. I want to go down like a fucking legend. And I'm already in a position to be able to do that, and that's what motivates me every day. And if you shoot for the moon and even if you miss the land amongst stars, so it's like it's beautiful, it's like,

you know, but you're you're you're right. And I think the strategy you're taking is just you're doing the best that you can in every arena. You're not half asking anything, which I think does set you apart from the rest, because I was going to ask you, like, why are you different? Why are you so relevant? There's a million YouTubers that have tried to cross over into mainstream. I can name ten people that are going to be on this show, but you're in a different category than all

of them. So why are you different than all of them? Why are you going to die legend at a very old age? By the way, put that out there. What sets you apart, Jake? Why? Why? Why are you so special? Special? Why are you so special? Jake? I think it's yeah, I think it's work ethic. I think it's being a little bit crazy. And like, I think you have to actually like believe in yourself so much. And I think also like you can't be a legend if you aren't

a legend. So there's raw talent. Yeah, I always wonder when someone like you is like picking the lane, and obviously you've decided you don't have to pick a lane. You're going to drive on like the whole freaking freeway and switch lanes whenever you want and do whatever you want.

Is it hard to say, like I'm going to focus on this one thing right now, or I'm going to focus on this because you're obviously talented in so many different arenas, But if you don't put your focus into all all into one thing, you can kind of drop the ball, right, So how do you That's that's that is a super difficult thing for sure to deal with. And that's why I think it's like you have to figure out what you can give your into because if you're not giving into it, like you said, there's other

people who are and that's going to show. I think there's certain things where I have to be there and I have to be the one giving, but there's also certain things that you can delegate, and I think that's where you have to create a dope team. I think business will always be the same, Like, yeah, there's certain ways to innovate, but it's like building brands, making them famous, generate revenue, sell them off like that, like businesses, fucking

business like hasn't changed much. Boxing social media content, branding yourself like all that stuff has changed. I think that's where I have to focus on. And what I've done is build teams around me as much as possible to have them do this ship that I don't absolutely need to do, so you're not spreading yourself tooth. And basically, who's a part of your day to day team? Like do you have twenty people? Five people? How many people is it? I would say like eight to ten people

day basis. Yeah, probably more probably like probably gets up to like fifteen if you include like agents and like lawyers, and yeah, it's a lot a lot of editors. Like when do you sleep? I sleep. I sleep for sure, like seven to eight hours a day. I hate when people are like I don't even sleep. There's some days or nights or weeks where you do have to like sleep for like four hours a night, but I think sleep is super important and I think it helps me function.

Like if I notice that I get like eight hours of sleep and go about the day, I get more done in that sixteen hours efficiently because I'm energized, versus if I'm like, I only slept for four hours last night, Like I'm so tough, I'm such a hard worker. All this ship you're doing to that day is just like half s energy. So like, this interview is gonna be better.

I'm gonna be more. You went at seven pm because you knew you were like, but it's like, yeah, but there are days where you do have to hustle it out, and when we're traveling it's worse. But I think I believe in sleep. I think a lot of celebrities like, oh I don't sleep like I were, so I called yes. Also, that's not that cool. You have so much. I mean, you have so much going on. But from a business perspective,

you were so young when you started Team ten. You were what twenty You might have been even younger than you were eighteen. Okay, so you so you're eight team when you started Team ten, when did you decide that that was the move? And how how did you even have the business? Like brain to know that that was the move to do. Yeah. So I guess the way it started was I wanted to create a T shirt company and I went to all of like my friends who were viners at the time, and I was like, Yo,

we should create a T shirt company. We all take a percentage of it, will all promote it. It's going to blow up like crazy. I went to everyone, and they're greedy. They were like, oh, I don't know, or talk to my manager, or I want fifty percent. No one was down to like have a collaborative effort, and that's how it is in general on social media. Everyone was just like I only care about myself. I only care about myself. And I hated it because I believe

there was power and like collaborative effort. Similar to like when Jay Z and Jay Brown created Title, they created music streaming platform, they get all of the biggest artists that they're friends with to exclusively drop the music on Title, like two weeks before it comes out anywhere else, and they did that collaboratively, and then they sell Title for two million dollars to Sprint, and all of those people that were friends they were friends with, they all got

a percentage and made a lot more money off of that than probably any of their other music ship. So that was like kind of like my vision for it, but they weren't down. And I've always kind of looked at myself as like the jay Z of this space. I was like, screw, I'm just gonna make my own team and grow them. And I didn't really know how big it was going to turn into, but people fell

in love with it. I launched like some of the biggest people that are still around till this day A and I didn't really know at eighteen, like what I was getting myself into with the business side of things at all. Like it was kind of a shot in the dark, and I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot. I think that's how people in this

generation should learn is by experience. Everyone wants to go to school to learn how to direct versus you should just start directing ship and like make mistakes and be on set. For me, that was like the learning curve was making mistakes and learning about business and just doing it and kind of figuring it out as as I went. So Team ten was formed. You guys get a house. You're creating all this content together. You literally created social

media stars overnight. How was that for you, knowing that you almost had a magic wand that you could wave and make somebody a celebrity overnight. It's weird because I did at first. I didn't look at it like that. At first. I was like, I just want to create a dope team and have it be as big as possible. But I didn't really look at it like I can make you famous, Like, well, you did. You made a lot of people fame. I think that's part of the

problem though. I think that was part of the problem with Team ten because at the time I was like eighteen nineteen, I wasn't the best judge of character. I wasn't the best at like getting to know people and like who they were and what they wanted to do, and I kind of put a lot of power into

the wrong hands. I think when Shane Dawson did his like documentary on me, that was like a really good piece of mind for me, because there was a lot of people who left Team tend that talk ship and a lot of people online thought that their ship talking and the accusations that they made were true, and for whatever reason, I just never responded back to them. Because they didn't want to get dragged down by that. But

those accusations and and things were still out there. And I think when Shane Dawson did his documentary and like cleared up the fact that like all of them were lying, that was a great piece of mind for me. Team ten you have a whole new crew of people, right, positive energy. Seems like you guys are in a good place. What's different with Team Tend today than Team tenn is it even it's still called Team ten? Yeah, still called Team ten. I think now there's less of like a

focus on it now. It's like it is what it is, and the people in it now are dope, and their trustworthy and they're good people. I think that's more important than anything. It's like family and it's like a good support system. And I think a lot of what we're doing now is and what like again Shane probably would have seen, is like I'm we're transitioning into a whole

different spectrum of entertainment, like less YouTube ship. How do we take like what we have and turn it into something even bigger because we've conquered that like the Team ten era of like Team Tend being on YouTube is like cool, we already did that. Let's see what we can do now. Do we do movies? Do we are we acting? Are we building businesses? Are we doing this whole music so, this whole music scene. And I think that's like the difference, and it's a lot more aged up.

I'm currently aging up in front of people's eyes and then like maybe some people realize is it? Maybe some people don't, But I think to my fans, like a lot of them sometimes now get mad at the decisions that I make. I mean, your overall image has definitely shifted from the person you are. But isn't that natural? Yeah, it's natural, but I don't think like a lot of it. It's like who I am and just me growing as a person. But there are like strategic moves being made

to like age up. It's it's a really hard thing to do. It's working hard, like going from the Disney audience and like have my fan base be like so young and like just falling into that and then completely stepping out of that in real life than having to parlay that message and brand yourself differently and do it successfully is like a super hard thing to do. But

I lost my train of thought. No, I think no. I think that's that's a really good point because they're used to seeing you a certain way, like silly and like pulling pranks and doing all these things. But you're like actually growing up and you're getting tattoos, and you're like doing music videos and you're probably cussing more like whatever it is. Have you seen in a decline in any of your channels or following because of that, not necessarily a decline. I think my like core fan base

will always be there for me. I love them, they love me. We have a great connection. I just think that connection is changing into other things. And the hard part about it is like for the past six months eight months, there's been like less YouTube and like more me focusing on things like music, and I think they feel a little bit disconnected because of that when I started.

I think that when I start to put out music and they can connect to that and then connect to other things that I'm working on, I think there they will see like, oh, this is what he's been up to this whole entire time, you know what I mean. Yeah, So you have a lot of fans that look up to you and probably want to do exactly what you're doing. What advice would you give them in hindsight? Because you've been through it, right, You've made mistakes, you've learned things.

What advice do you give somebody just starting out wanting to do the Jake Paul thing? At first? They should ask themselves, Am I percent crazy? You have to be crazy? Yeah? If you're not crazy, then is it at least students? Have you been scanned? Because I'm thinking I just think that's where the level is. I knew what I was getting myself into, but I was like crazy enough to be like I don't care, like I didn't do anything

in the world and be the best at it. You know, if you don't really believe that, then you shouldn't do it, which kind of sounds mean because everyone's like, oh, if you have a dream and you fully set your mind to it, then you can do it, which is true, by the way, Like if you believe in something, you have a dream, and you fully set your mind to accomplishing that dream, I believe you can get at least close to it, you know what I mean? But do you what do you think about YouTube? Now? Would you

advise people to become YouTubers? I feel like YouTube has changed so much. There hasn't been a YouTuber to become popular in the past two years besides Mr Beasts, he's the only YouTuber that he's the only YouTuber that's come up in the past two years. That's it. Like it's hard,

it's really hard. You have to be so unique, you have to fill such a niche, you have to find a way to grow, like even Mr Beasts, Like again, he's the only person that's come up in the past two years really like truly, and what his niche was was he had he was literally spending two hundred, four hundred thousand dollars to make these videos, Like who does that? How many other niches out there can be filled that are already filled? And it's kind of discouraging, but like

it's also real. Yeah, I mean I could talk to you for hours, but is there anything that you in closing? Because I don't want to keep you here all day because I'm costing you like five right now, Where do you see yourself a year from now? Because we're not going to do five years because then we would name

like five thousand things. So just let's let's go out a year a year from now fighting k S I you're still boxing r Yeah, for sure, making a lot of music and making moves in the muse industry on tour, starting to perform at festivals and people being like, damn, this music is good, and just continuing to launch brands

and great products and sell them. So if you could win a world title or you could get a Grammy for music, I want to dive deep into like which one you would pick and why I think a Grammy from music? I think that's would you quit it all for music? Like? Would you would you quit everything for music and not do anything else? That's the goal, I think, Yeah, and just be an artist. Yeah, that's the goal for sure. I think there's like these are stepping stones to doing that.

I would never guess that about you. I wouldn't. I wouldn't quit like business. No business is in your blood. I think you'll always be a mogul, right, And I think I read somewhere that you wanted to be the first YouTuber to make a billion dollars? How close are we ten dollars ten dollars having tomorrow? No, not that close. I mean I meet people who are like, I'm a millionaire. Then you meet people who are like I'm a multimillionaire, and then you meet people who are like, I'm a

billion clubs totally different. I'm a billion it's completely different. You meet a one hundred millionaire and it's like so different from meeting a billionaire night and day difference. Would you ever get into the world of startup? Like, I know you have a startup, but a totally different like technology startup. Yeah, because you could have a B club exit real quick. Yeah, I feel like you have a brain for tech. Yeah. I'm invested into a couple of funds.

I've made like ten investments myself. Some of them are doing dope. That's where the money is. That's what I'm saying. It's like, it's like, how do I use my brand currently to leverage to leverage and billion dollar exit. Let me tell you. You're going to create an app and you're going to get every single person to use the app, and then Amazon is going to come in and buy it, and then you're gonna have a billion dollars. So go to work. Put the funk out of here. I gotta

gon app. Jake, it was so fun having you on today. I feel like literally we didn't even crack the surface and I think you have a lot of like really big things coming your way. But when you dropped that music, please let us know. We'll play it on I Heeart. Thank thanks so much for stopping by. Um, come back when you have more music. Let's do that. Let's do that, okay by guess bye. Behind the Influence is a production of I Heart Radio and t DC Media