EYL #251 How to Master Events: Revenue Model, Maximizing Relationships, & Name Power with EYL & David Shands

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All right, guys, welcome back, ey l.

This is a very unique situation and we'll explain later, but we are here with the podcast King.

David S Crown.

He put his crown on your.

Social Proof empire, got the new studio in Atlanta. Thank you for having us up there. You got your real estate place that you've been working on. You got the big event that you that you got coming up. You got an online community. You've taught a variety of different people how to actually get going in the podcast space, how to monetize the space.

So let me just wait before before he's still the first person that's ever done this, right, nobody's ever done We're gonna explain this, but I'm not saying this. I'm talking about what he's done already with us.

So you're the first person that we interviewed and then you interviewed us right after. That's never happened, like ever, that's never happened. So there's never been an episode.

It's happened before. Uh Envy did it multiple times? No, No, the same day, the same day. Oh yeah, because yeah, I came to the kitchen table interviewed. Yeah, and I think we like switch seats or something. Yeah, we just move We did musical chairs if.

The interviews job. But I have to say this upfront, man, you all are one.

Was the motivation, Like I think I started podcasting before you guys, But I met Willis the Cheesecake Factory and I was having a conversation with Troy and it's like, man, I like his stuff. Man, it's just because you know, you don't do it every week, it's not consistent. And I really took that to heart. I heard bro that next Monday on the morning meet up. I'm like, yo, y'all, I'm about to be consistent with this thing. I love

But then also, let's talk about that moment for a moment, because I saw you did reference that online, but what you didn't reference was that he did give you education after that.

Yeah, so that was that was that was that was.

Yeah, it was you know, it's just inconsistent.

It was when I saw the clip, I'm like, damn, all right, cool. But what it was was like I had to use you as a reference before us, right. So I think we were interviewing Alex at the time, and I was trying to find information is about information about him, and it was your interview.

I'm like, Yo, this guy's great, and.

So I when I shaw you, I'm like, y, you know, like you're really great at this, but the only thing is that you don't do it enough, Like it's kind of like you dropping it. And it was like it wasn't even a challenge. Was like, yo, this is just like positive critique. And then we had a longer conversation because we went back to another time we went back to Jeremy Anderson's house and I was like, well, let me tell you in that moment.

In that moment, it slad.

It felt like I don't even remember anything you said after like keep it off line. I'm like, I'm in a space with some people that do the same thing and they're recognizing my inconsistency. And I took it personally. I needed it, of course, not did you say anything bad. I was like, Okay, I gotta be consistent. Then later on this is more flowers. We're gonna do a bouquete.

There we go.

I really started educating me on the podcasting space and joined the Early Network and like just just one being able to have proximity.

I never ever want to take that for granted.

Like you guys are like literally paving away and have given me so much game, so much information, And.

I can honestly say I wouldn't know half.

The stuff that I know right now, even to teach other people if it wasn't for you all half of it, you all directly saying this is what you need to do.

The other half is watching and modeling.

So it's been an incredible, incredible journey even knowing y'all so appreciate that. Yeah, for sure, appreciate that for sure and been great to see your growth as well. Yeah, you know, in consistency.

I think another person that wasn't the most consistent it was nineteen Keys. He had a show people forget, like High Level Conversations took over the world and you know, gets ten million views every episode he puts out, but people will forget that he had. He had a show before High Level Conversation, and that was one of the main issues, was the level of consistency.

So here's the crazy part.

The same conversation I had with you, I had with him really same thing, and he was like, all right, let's just do this then, let's just do this then, and like obviously what the successes had now was just incredible, but it was it was like you just see that, like the talent is there, the message is there, the pack everything was there. It was like, this is that one piece? How are we going to do it? And and and everybody can see what it turned out to be.

No millionaires can come from the UYL tree.

That's an interesting quote. I thought about that quote. Yeah, because most people, how do we quantify it? Like some people can look at the artists that they've signed and how you know their careers have going. But how do we reach how do you know the everyday person that got information and now's become a millionaire.

For sure, I think y'all hit it from three sides to one is the common listener, right, multiple sides. One is the common listener, the information that you guys put out right, they can take that information and you can't quantify how many people made millions from that, right. The second part is the people that have been on the show being able to share with the audience that became millionaires from their notoriety, from like you guys giving them

Like even on like.

Let's say like bad Boy, you can say okay, well, once all became successful, married j all these people, but the impact is different from what y'all doing, So figure it's proper to spend a few minutes to appreciate y'a don't get the credit, man, nobody And I was saying, it a complex, that complex list.

It's so faulty because you can't. I know.

Your argument is like, well, it's for hip hop, but who's more hip hop? Like who's interviewed more celebrities from the hip hop culture and figured out how they became a celebrity. Then y'all they go on radio runs on their album that's coming out, their movie that's coming out, But nobody's understanding and backing on how they became that right, So y'all not be on the list. It is disrespectful. Nobody on that list has made a person a dime.

Just y'all.

We're talking about it. I can't argue with you. I can't argue with you, man.

You got to point that.

I appreciate that man for sure, for sure, But you know, people normal normalize greatness, and I think nineteen Keys has spoken about that before. Was like sometimes when you see things, it's it's hard to have an appreciation for it because it just becomes normal, right Like when you accomplish amazing things on a consistent That's that's the problem with consistency is that it desensitizes us, right Like if a player just drops forty points and you never heard of him

Even just three shows, right, because a lot of them just having network, they don't have any show.

I'm just saying that there are podcast networks, but I don't know any podcast network that has that kind of roster. Yeah, So, but you know, it is what it is. You know, it's just you just keep keep the ball rolling and keep going.

But the greatest isn't even normalized yet because you guys are doing amazing things and it's just not enough people talking about it, you know what I mean. When Lebron goes out and drops forty, it becomes normal. But you're like, yo, we know that this person is great, but y'all dropping forty every week.

Nobody said anything like that.

I mean, it's based on what we're doing, right, Like they're not expecting this.

This is This is built around business, it's.

Built around entrepreneurship, is built around finance and investing. It's not built around athletics, it's not built around specifically music. And so it's tough because it's not common nature in our community, right, these conversations don't happen. So it's still like almost like a foreign language. That's to penetrate in

Here again, to hear again, to hear again, what's happening right now? Right?

And so we're just trying to penetrate the masses with the message and again, eventually it'll be commonplace, and that's the goal.

I want to know when did you know you were making an impact though? I mean, you know you're doing it online, but at some point you said, well, we want to put all these people in one room. When did you know, Okay, it's time to just come out of the living room and really listen, let's bring people together.

I think it was our first networking event in LA, like after like episode fourteen, we was at LA, decided to do a last minute networking event and really last minute, like decided to do it on Friday.

And it was on a Monday.

Really yeah, And it was in Carson, California, which is like out the way, hold on, hold on, what made you think this is going to be successful? Well, Honestly, that inspiration came from Matt. Matt was doing a network He did a networking event in Atlanta. Randomly I saw on Instagram. I'm like, well, that's dope. Are you doing a networking event?

We should do one. We're in LA.

So it's like, just put it together and put it on Instagram. A restaurant owner reached out to us and let us use the spot. It was all like within forty eight hours of putting it together, put a flyer up on Instagram, create an event, right, and people came. So it was like, you know, probably like one hundred and fifty people that came, and people came from like San Diego.

I e.

Like they was coming from like two different two hours away. And it was on a Monday at like five o'clock, like terrible traffic in LA. And that was like, you know, impactful because the love was just there, like you know, I mean you had all different type of people from different walks of life. That was the first event that we did where people actually met us in person and was like you know, champion us and like I rock with you.

Yeah. I had did Matt event before that.

Matt had a real estate event and this is where we met a lot of different people, like so being in miss business and stuff like that. But that was like the first time since the show had started. That was like around episode six, and there was people rocking with it from then. So when I did that, people was coming up to me like, y'all rock with your show. I love your show. Da da da, And that was like episode six. So a few weeks later we did our own event and that was the first time where

Yeah, it's interesting because it was like, let's maximize the time. We were initially going out to la because we had just confirmed Al Harrington and this was a big deal.

It was like, yo, we got Al Harrington. You know, we grew up watching him play.

Sure he had a relationship with him or man him earlier in his basketball career, and so it was like, oh, this is gonna be great. We can talk about cannabis. And the other thing was like, all right, well, if we're gonna be out there, let's maximize the time. Let's do that. Let's put it a networking event together. To see if people show up. And I remember being at the networking event and at the time I'm still teaching. I'm like, yo, I got to catch this plane.

I can't.

I can't even I can't stay the whole time, right Like, I'm still like, yo, this is this is great with meeting people, but I can't stay. So I actually think I left like an hour early to get back on the plane to come to New York.

I was like, this is crazy. So that was a moment, but I think after that it was like, yeah, we got something.

But then when we did it in New York. We did one in Brooklyn at BK nine and when we pulled up, it was packed, like the restaurant was packed. We were walking up. I had I had ad with me and Zay Mike's niece had. We were doing another we're doing our summer program. Said yo, come with me to this event. And we're walking up and they looking at me like this is Troy. It was just going with him to Brooklyn and we're walking up and people were like, yo, I just took the bus from Philly to come see you.

Yo.

I live in Rhode Island. I came down here just to see y'all and they looking at me like what I'm like, Yo, this is crazy. This is turning into something. And then when we what we saw inside of that that that restaurant that night was pockets of information. And so you know, we had somebody talking about stocks and people were surrounding around in because they wanted to hit the information. Derek Falcon, who had just did episode eleven, was talking about you know, his episode, and we were

This is going to be crazy.

Like even in the intro for every episode, the clips from that event are part of it.

You know what I mean? It was It was a major thing for us. What made what made Are Your Leaders so special? Though? You know what I mean.

I'm like episode six, yes on my episode eleven, episode fourteen, and people are coming out and there are a lot of people that maybe they're talented, but it's taking them sixty. My joint ain't started rocking to like fifty what.

I think we had, so we had a head start. We was doing social media.

I was doing social media for two years before we had on Your Leisure, so we didn't we didn't just start with zero. There was anticipation for early Leisia before. That's the whole reason why we started on Your Legion, because the anticipation had been building so much. Everybody was dming like where's your show? Where do I watch it? So it was like, all right, the demand was already there.

Early, Like early we did a.

Clip about like George Foreman and the George Forman Grill and Hu Kogan that went viral. Soldier Boy, that was like on episode one, so from the beginning, But like I said, there was clips going virable for that. But once we started, you know, it seemed like everything that we would put out would just go viral on social media. So it's one of those things people see on Explore plays like what's this So they were just tapping in.

Yeah, I think I had anything to do with timing everything.

Time is everything.

Of course, a lot of it has to do with time. And I always credit you know Dames twenty fifteen Breakfast Club interview and how that impacted me and how it felt when he was talking about being an entrepreneur and talking about legacy and talking about that generational but sustainable wealth.

It was like, man, here I am, and it's not like this seventy three.

It's not the first back and forth conversation that the world had around entrepreneurship versus job.

And made our culture us. It is the most impactful. I don't know if it was the first, but it was the most impactful.

H It hit home.

It hit home like I'm a teacher and I'm watching this and I'm watching him like he was an entrepreneur.

Mike was an entrepreneur, and I'm the teacher. I'm just like, yo, damn.

Like I remember my pops working for forty years, but I knew that didn't guarantee me an interview at the place he worked. I'm like, yo, damn, Like this school was not even named after me. What am I given to the next generation? It's like this is tough, right.

Literacy through it.

So it was like all those things happened at the same time. It was like perfect melting pop for this to happen.

And I think you guys even started crossing over, like really the first people to find celebrities artists and start finding out the business behind the stuff that they were doing. And I think some people might look at it like, oh man, I missed the boat. Everyone's been interviewed already,

I think it's even before it's a celebrity, it's your next door neighbor. Your next door neighbor could be the millionaire, and you'd have no idea if they never got to tell their story.

We interviewed Derrick Ferguson, who's a close friend. He was a.

COO of Bad Boy CFO of Bad Boy for twenty years. I went to church with this guy for ten years. When we did his interview, he's like, this is the first time somebody's asked me, actually asked me what I did for a living.

He's been in this space for twenty years.

Right, He's seen from bad Boy to like he's seen all these things revolt, he's been there.

Nobody's ever asked him. And it was like, wait, nobody's ever asked me.

You got so much information because the chance of somebody being you are highly likely. The chance of somebody being puff is gonna be tough. Right, And so it was like the real estate attorney or the real estate agent, the tax professional. Right, all these people are entrepreneurs and creating businesses that you act actually need, that you should know about because there's a great chance that you could actually do that and apply it into you everyday life.

Right?

We always talk about this network across, right, because if you network across long enough, like that person might introduce you to the next person you're looking for. Right, So you start at this level and then you build up and build up, and then when you get the celebrity, it's like, all right, well, let's pull back the layers because, like you said, most people go on interviews because they have someone to promote, but most times nobody asks them

But how are you doing it?

Because that's the important part, Like we see people doing it, they never told us how, and maybe because they didn't know or they just didn't feel confident enough to talk about it, But.

That's what this was like.

It felt like, all right, let's humanize this as much as we can. Let's see how much information they will in the ship. Because number one, it can help the lessons that they learned, or number two, it can inspire somebody to do something different.

For sure, I think you guys are creating the right timing.

It's like when y'all do something and then everybody starts doing it and they said, well it was the right topic.

No I created this that shoddy line. Yoh they started reinvestment.

I know, yeah, the first investments. Four thousand people. It has to be kind of nerve wracking because this is one of the few things that you can't hide, the success or failure.

Right, So if I drop a book, nobody knows howbody i'se sold, you know what I mean.

Like if I drop a podcast, really nobody knows how many downloads I got, right, But a live event is the one thing you cannot hide if there's no one there. I mean, you gotta put people to the front so the camera looks good. But four thousand people, which is absolutely incredible. Years ago, where did this thought come from? And that was a lot so.

All right, so definitely gotta give a big shot to him for a hundred and went to his event in Miami and that was the first time that we saw something like that, like the level of production and especially for our culture, but probably just in general because I know, for me personally, I didn't go to any like business conferences like that. So we were inspired by that, Like, yo, we got to do something like but how many people

We don't want to do like the same thing that we did.

Before the pandemic, which before the pandemic, the formula was a two day event and it would be the first day, like a Saturday, it would be a live podcast, and then on Sunday it was an education seminar, right, and that's what we did. We did it in DC, we did it in Atlanta, and then we would bother to do it in Philly, and then we had COVID came and shut it down. So it was like, all right, we got to do something. We gotta look to scale. So understand words is very important. So festival, the idea

It's just characteristics.

I could look at it and see, I'm not one hundred percent sure, but it doesn't say outside. I think that's just kind of been associated because a lot of festivals are outside. So I think that that's just been associated with it, right, So, but it didn't have to be called it didn't have to be outside to be a festival. So just thinking about it, it was like, all right, well, it's difficult to do what we do outside for a variety of different reasons if you take the elements of it,

We were already familiar with that.

And then it's like, all right, well, entertainment is always a big part of it, so now if we can add an entertainment factor to it. So that's where the musicians come in. So now it's like, now we have a headline, a performer, or we have you know, for a VIP night, we have a performer for that, right, So now you add the music part of it, which every festival pretty much has some level of music entertainment part of it.

So and then it was like what do we call it?

And then you know, going back and forth with names for a long time, and then invest Fest feel like that you really can't come up with a better name than that, right Like invest Fest. It's short, simple, conveys the message, very easy to put on a shirt and for people to remember it rhymes invest Fest and that's and that's that's how it was done. That's that's that's how that's that's kind of how it how it came to trauition.

And it was never a thing of being feared, right like, we never operate in fear. We operate and like all right, let's see what we can do next. And so like even the title of the name, it was about it not being about us, right, So that alleviates any type of fear because it really wasn't about us. You think about we could have named it during the leisure Fest,

Right.

Even from a standpoint it was like, all right, well, if it's not about us, we know what we're gonna do. We do this every day we can. You know, we're gonna find somebody to interview. But it was like, we have a network, that's how at them, right, So if Dave Sham's on network, lets them have a panel.

If MG's on it, you know what I'm saying.

So it was like highlighting everything that was going on outside of just the people that they see and associate with the brand. It was like, nah, this is a brand, this is its own ip, and this is about the people. So the marketplace becomes that, the food trucks become that, the community that comes inside of it becomes that because it's more than just a festival where people are gonna

For sure that you could you could.

Find somebody here, your next person there investing in your business. Whereas we didn't see that. We were inspired by other people, but it was like, all right, this would be we can improve on what this is because it's missing that, you know what I mean.

But that's the most I think the most important thing is the name? Is it in my opinion because like I said, just that.

It breaks the mole of what There's a lot of conferences.

There's a lot of symposiums, conferences, different things of that nature. You know, to my knowledge, no white has ever named something that is business related a festival, So doing that already send shockwaves through the system, you think.

So I was actually on a panel and I was I was. I was making the point like that the show or the product makes the name, Like people want to think of a perfect name, but its like none of us would have thought, yeah, we're gonna have all these products in one place and we're gonna call it Walmart.

Well, I think I think they go ahead to hand.

So the name is extremely important because that's the first thing people see, that's what gets them in the door. But it's like if you walk in the house with no furniture, nothing, you're not You're gonna walk right out right.

So it got it. Now once the house is fully.

Decorated and it's crazy art deco and art and all that, now you're interested in staying.

Yeah, it's it's like when you hear rolling Loud before you knew what it was, you knew, you knew what the name, right, Like Coachella, we didn't know exactly what's happening, but you knew the name.

Even like with Jay what he did with Made in America, it was like, what's he doing with that? What is this going to be true? Right?

So like one, I didn't know what earned your Leisure meant for like a year, and I thought I already know.

I already knew you guys from bad Law, you know what I mean? Like I don't know. I mean, is it is it you come up with a name where people get.

It or is I think?

I think for the investments, like I said, And this is why, like I was really adam, Like in festival, I thought was very important because the word festival, now you got to live up to create a festival. You just can't name it the festival. What happened in your backyard? Like you know what I'm saying. So it's like, now that that forces you to think outside the box and to be original and to add different elements to it as opposed to just having a seminar.

And it's not going to feel the same.

Right if you named the conference, you probably been to a bunch of those, right when you hit festival, it's like, what they're doing something different.

Automatically, they're doing something different. I need to change the name myself. Not doing conferences and summits. We're gonna chase the whole name, like I got a trademark too. Thanks. Let me ask you this. Four thousand people first time? Right? Yes?

Did you know you were going to have four thousand people before you did it? Or it just so happened y'all have four thousand? Like what was the number?

When he's not When you do these type of events, especially like where we do it at, like you have to have seating for a certain amount of people, so it's like seating chart. So it's like, all right, you know you're seating for thirty one hundred and four thousand whatever that is, and then you can as you get closer. You're trying to see maybe we need to take some seats away because we're not gonna hit this number.

But you can add, but it's kind of difficult to change that.

So you you kind of go into it with a set target, right of like what you want to hit and try to accomplish that goal.

So that was a target around.

I don't know the exact number that we targeted, but it was it wasn't just a random thing, like because it's like you might if it's if you set the room for a thousand people and then you tell them we got four thousand, that it can't happen, like it has to be set for the expectations that you're giving them, Like you got to give the venue expectations like this is how many people we gotta have, because then they

Of gag, but you got and remember, like if we getting the number from to even look for a venue that holds this amount of So it's the analytics, right, It's the reason why when we look at it it's like, we could do it in New York, that's our biggest audience, but right it's during COVID, so the time, we couldn't do anything any of it.

So it's like, well, what's the next biggest audience that we have? All Atlanta?

Okay, bast So now we look at that and then there's certain like restrictions that we couldn't do because it was it was COVID at the time.

But it was like, all right, well we saw what an event looked like.

When we went to Miami with him for one hundred shot out to him again like all right, well they can do that, and we hit I feel like our audience has grown to a point I think we could maybe.

Let's try to double that.

So you got a baseline based on your analytics plus your reach plus what you know can be done. It's like you've seen in the past, like all right, this feels like a number that I think is obtainable for us to do.

But also it's the eye test, but it's also testing the waters. So even when we were doing free networking events like that kind of gives us an idea. So like the London is a perfect example. Invest Fest Europe. So we did invest Fest Europe in London last year at Royal Albohol.

So Royal Albohol.

Is one of the most prestigious venues in the world and it holds forty five hundred people. So you don't just guess like you don't want to just nothe I'm being honest, because people might be listening. They might be like it's like, oh, I'm booking Madison Square Garden and then it's like you know what I'm saying, like you don't want to just book Crypto Arena and then it's like one hundred people. So this is a science to it, but it's not a set science. So it's a feeling

On the street.

So that that gave us a feeling that there was a high demand in London and with enough time and enough marketing, we felt confident that we could fill up royal level.

It's never guaranteed. You don't know, three hundred people.

Yeah, it was crazy, but that's I mean even that to that point, it was like, yeah, Atlanta, our first event was in Atlanta. How many tickets did we sell? All right, let's look at the ant links for that we did a networking event. How many people showed up? You mean, like we started to see these things and it was like, this makes sense, we can we can get this done here.

So the last event that we did, we was the Atlanta event that we did at your spot.

We did like five hundred people, right, And that was then we.

Took like eighteen months because of COVID took off, and then we came back and we saw like him fine and had almost two thousand people in his event. So I was like, all right, well, if we did five hundred almost two years ago, he has two thousand. You know, we kind of know Atlanta's a very good.

Market for us.

So you start playing around the numbers in your head, like you know, it's still like I said, it's still not a set science because you don't know anything as possible. For sure, people might not come, you know, what I'm saying, it's always a risk when you're an event.

Did we ever have a feeling like did you ever anybody ever feel especially like you lost it?

Yea, they did not don't come.

But again, this is like, this is twenty twenty one, right, So like even I got COVID, Like even leading up to it, I was sick, like it was a chance that I might not even made it to the first remember that. So it was like I didn't think that people wouldn't come. I just didn't know if people felt safe enough to come. There was little of that, you know what I mean, because it was like we still didn't know, Like there was still hot end the season where it was like I'm not sure do I want

All right, So first of then four thousand people, amazing success.

What'd you do wrong? The first one?

I'm not just not necessarily sure we did anything wrong. It was just a short amount of time. It was like six weeks from started to finish as far as so you know it's six weeks.

Yeah, so I'm map this out right, So him five hundred.

This event was in April of that year, so like you're doing the inspiration from there, right, You're like, oh, wait, okay, we could do this. And I remember we had a conversation. He was like, Yo, we're gonna do this, and I think it probably was like May. He's like, I'm like, let's do it. It was a group chat. I got an idea that was like in in the May joint.

We didn't really formulize the plan to get and it was it was like, guys, first.

We get we're going to do this or not, and it was like, let's do this all we need to do so.

But I mean, given the circumstances, I think we did pretty good. So I don't necessarily look at it like what we did wrong. It's just what what can you add? Even this year, like every year, it's like look to see, Okay, what could we add, what was missing? What could have made it an even better experience? So that's kind of what I think. It's a better way to kind of frame it of like what's a better experience, a better you know, user vibe as opposed to just kind of keeping the same thing going.

There the yea, every detail right, Like you're looking at everything from again analytics?

Right? Was was our ticket pricing? And correct? Was our VP venue? Correct? Can we make it better? How? How can we make it bigger?

How do we make the experience for you know, the person was coming as great as possible? How we make it as impactful as possible?

Hold that thought when you're thinking about okay, one is okay the workshops, But like when you start curating a feeling that you want people to have, do y'all consider that, Like is that something that you're mapping on a white board?

I want people to like feel this when they leave.

Well, for me personally, it's not necessarily that it's creating an experience, because you really can't control how somebody feels, But it's like you can control the experience that they get. And nine times out of ten, if you create an experience that's unique that's the point of just creating a unique experience. Then it's going to be a memorable moment.

Playing a moment from the first of that a moment like that, you would you know somebody was in the They're like, whoa, I won't forget this.

It's a variety of different things that happened. But my brother Kenny Burns his head. That was a dope panel. Actually that was the I think that was a keynote panel.

For that year when we had him.

Jim Jones nineteen Keys Style was a very eclectic group that was put together. But after that, Jim Jones did something that was really dope where he walked the vendom market He actually had a boof in the vendor market place. He had a crypto ATM machine and he walked the vendor marketplace. And that was the first celebrity that actually did that. Steve Harvey did it the next year and they went crazy. But that was that was a dope moment because.

Asking for that or they just tried to do it for which ones are you asking them?

Like, hey, no, Jim, Jim wanted to. Well, Jim had an incentive to do it because he had a vendor. He was a vendor, right, so it's like it was in his best interest to try to create buzz around his booth.

So Sah was just kind of he wanted to do it. Yeah, that was just like he wanted to do it.

I know, I know that's your man's Now, let's not ask hs. I don't want to call him Steve and just be super and fun.

But yeah, he he he heard about it, he saw the impact that it had, and he was like, I want to do it.

Let's let's just go.

How it turned out was was was that was a scene like you want to talk about moments that that was a moment I think for the first one. That's crazy. He didn't I thought he was mentioned that, but it was. I watched him go out there and interview by himself.

For the first time. I was time. Yeah, thanks as leader. I was too sick to get up there, right.

I was backstage popping pills and I'm watching I'm trying to build up enough energy to go up there, and we're sitting there and he's like you coming. I'm like I can't. I physically couldn't get up there.

How'd you feel? Was it?

Yeah? That was cool?

It was cool. But the impact of that interview right, it was him.

It was Ryan Leslie Harper and like most people know Ryan Leslie from music, but now he's talking about how he invested in Apple and it's like it's a whole different feeling. I'm sitting back there like part of me is like can I get up to get it? And it was like, nah, let's just let him go.

Let's let him go.

This is great to watch, like it was that moment. It was you know what I'm saying, So like these type of things you remember, I'm just saying that was just crazy, Like this is us. I'm watching us on days like this is us, this is our thing.

So this is not natural. Year one, four thousand, Year two, fourteen thousand.

Yeah, yeah, something happened.

Steve Harvey definitely. We can't can't remember the guy we referenced before.

Can't take full credit for this because it's all about partnerships.

And when we met.

Steve Harvey, he said he wanted to do business with us, so proposed like, well, this is an opportunity that you know, maybe you can become a partner with us, and he became a partner. So he did a few very pivotal things. A. He came right so he's one of the biggest stars in the world, so putting his name on the bill was extremely helpful.

He also got us Tyler Perry epic. Now we don't come outside. That changes the word, right, that changes That changes things.

And we went on his show and I never forget, like us, the impact of that. And I don't never really listen to his morning show, so I didn't really know. I didn't know how impactful his reach was. But it's the number one syndicated morning show in America and it's over I think they have like between six to ten million weekly listeners. So he put us on this show.

No serious, it was that level of impact because you got to remember, there's the audience that he's talking to, right, Like we might not be listening, but my mom's listening to that Every day. Sure, and he has a certain region of the country that if he does something, they're supporting it. And so the fact that he was not only our partner, but he was speaking at the event, it just added to it. Plus it just from an other standpoint, it was like who else does he have

Conversation with Dan Kathy. You know what I'm saying.

So like all these people, like his network is a lot larger than ours, but now that he's our partner, we have access to his network.

Okay, back up a little bit. Yeah, I don't know if it was.

Okay, we have four thousand people at one and now Steve is like, hey, I want to be your partner, Like how did that come about?

But when we met him, So we met him, we did an interview with him, which dad came a classic conversation.

Get that.

So we were real close with the talent agent at Black Effect. The cold spans shot out to her and she's Jamaican. So we just had this thing, like I call it once a week. We just talked just regular things every now and then she was like, Yo, I have this person that's interested there on the press room.

They want to do it.

And she called me one day in the summer and she was like, Hey, I got this golf tournament I want you to go to, but I can't tell anybody at Black Effect yet.

I'm like, who is it? She was like, Seve Harvey.

I want you to go there and I want you to do an interview with him, but you can't let anybody know yet.

I'm like whatever, cold, like whatever. She's like, no, serious, I'm serious about this. We're getting closer to it.

It's in Abu Dhabi, right, And I'm like, y'all all right, whatever, I didn't We didn't go to that golf tournament.

She calls me later, She's like, listen, why not. Well it didn't.

It didn't pan out. The schedules didn't pan out because he wanted. His schedule was kind of crazy, like he spends like two months out the year out there, and we just it didn't work. But she was like, look, next year, you'll definitely don't, but I'm gonna put you in contact with his somebody from his team.

The name is Tabtie Stevens. I'm all right, cool.

Suppose to Tabdi and he was like, listen, we love y'all. It's the first time I speaking to him. He's like, we love y'all.

We love y'all.

I'm from Atlanta. Everybody in Atlanta rocks with y'all. We know what y'all doing at station is definitely doing the interview.

My bad.

I was supposed to set it up for y'all to come to Abu Dhabi and just didn't worry. Y'all coming next here for sure, but before that, we gotta do this interview. I'm like, all, I bet this is like November. He's like, I'm like, yes, Shad, they said were gonna interview see Harvard.

He's like, yeah, earners, what's going on?

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When it happens, I'm like, I don't believe it's not even when it happens, it happens.

I always I always like the curb, my enthusiastic.

So I'm like, this is no vemba. I'm like whatever, top of the year I revisited. They're like, yo, you know, first quarter, we're getting this done. January. It's his birthday. Month.

He travels a whole month of January. We can't do it. Hit me at the top of February. I'm like, I bet him at the top of February. Yo, we're good. He's like, yeah, February seventeenth, for I remember the date. I'm like, that works, let's do it. He's like, all right, I'll send you all the information you need to know. Y'all need cameras and anything. I'm like, now we're good. He's like, seventeenth. Make sure y'all come game seventeen.

He snapped on that interview too, and y'all asked all the right questions.

Y'all dropped forty It was no stop stop, like the setups and like the.

I mean, you know, what do you you interest you people? So you know it takes to to dance. You gotta have a dancing partner and a lot of time.

People.

They you know, you could be the greatest interviewer in the world, but if the person that you're interviewing isn't into it, it's not gonna translate. Well, so it's like, I think we did a great job of asking questions. But he did a triman. He was fully engaged. He

It was take these flowers takes.

Me, I'm gonna tell you, is not.

Like without putting it takes to to dance, not like you gonna have you have a dancing partner.

So we did all part, but he did his part as well.

When we left that interview, and I'm sure you probably experience it sometimes you leave an interview and you're like.

We got one. We looked at each other right after the interview and we were like, our lives are never gonna be the same.

Really, Yeah, as soon as we walked out dragging the equipment, we're like, Yo, our lives is never gonna be the same.

Where are you basing that off of the information?

Or we had a conversation prior, so before the interview, we spoke for about maybe an hour and a half, and then we did the interview, which is almost like two hours, and then after the interview, we spoke for another two hours, and based on the conversations we have in the room, it was like this is the one, but our lives is never going to be the same.

Because he's like, Yo, we're getting this done.

I'm now going to be your partner in this invest festival and invest festival. Let's see how we can scale this thing. We need to have as many people there as possible. I want to have the most impact as possible.

So we knew that our lives wanted to be the same.

But then when we saw when the episode came out and him telling us like after you know, you know, a couple of weeks a few months after, he was like, this was the most impactful interview that I've ever had in my career in.

Thirty five years. So here's the interesting part, because what you said is right, Like.

When he goes to do an interview, and he had his own talk show, but when he goes to do other people's interviews, it's the same thing. They want to know what he's promoting, how his family's doing, and he.

Can't tell a joke really quick.

You never get to hear anything else about the business. Right, he's building a business empire in front of our faces.

Nobody's asking the questions.

We see him on our television every night in syndicasional family. Nobody's asking the questions. So we were able to do that. Yeah, definitely. He was willing to dance with us and he enjoyed having us there, which made it a lot easier.

But it was like both sides like we knew it was going to change our.

Lives, and for him it was like, thank you for this opportunity, but I mean, we were gracious to have it.

Give me your give me your perspective from our lives will never be the same.

No, So he didn't commit to invest fest At that time, he just said that he wanted to work with us.

We proposed to invest Fest. I did it to beat a little bit after that.

But you know, just when you when you go to his house, it's not a regular house, so it's it's in a state like they actually they take your I D like you gotta sign an NBA. Really like there's security on the grounds, like you know, it's like you're going somewhere, and that's a that's the first his home.

Yeah, yeah, yeh take out.

That was the first time that I ever went to a house like that. I never I personally, I never went to a house where I had to sign an NDA and there was a guard at the gate with the dog and all of that, and walkie talkies and all that and tennis courts and all of that type of up. So he really, you know, that was an experience within itself just to actually go there.

And like you said, the conversation that we had was.

Almost five hours when you add up before the interview in the after and you know, obviously you know, he's a kingmaker, like he has a lot of influence. So when he took a liking to us, and he was saying like he wanted to do stuff with us, like he wants to do this, he wants to do that.

So I was like, all right, this is.

Going to put us in a in a different stratosphere.

And that's what he did.

You know, you look at it and from investment standpoint, but even told my this year has invest Fest with Robert Smith, like that comes to him. He's the first person that introduced us to Robert Smith in person. So that was you know, he's he made the introduction for Tyler Perry, like you know, it took us. We was in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for his golf tournament, you know, Formula one race in Abu Dhabi, different things of that nature. So he's been a he's been a good dude. But

How did you pick invest Fast as the thing we partner on. I mean, it's a bunch of y'all could have created.

So it was coming up and just felt like that would be a perfect situation.

You know. Okay, I'm sorry.

So you planned, you had a year two invest fast planned already, were you promoting and marketing already.

We're putting it together.

You're putting it together. So when y'all putting it together, you weren't thinking fourteen thousand.

Not additionally, I think it might have been ten thousand.

You know.

One of the things like and to Be was saying is because you know that Stage had award show that he used to do at State Farm.

That's him. If I can call him Estage want to see him too. That's why y'all got mister Harvey. Presserably mister Harvey.

He was like, we were telling them like what we were to think, and he was like, man, y'all should do twenty thousand.

I should just stay far him. I'm like, yeah, we gotta growth to that, Like.

We got to figure out how we're going to do It's like, now, y'all definitely could do it. We already have connections, we have all the relationships. We used to do our own a war show for entrepreneurs and it was like a comedy thing. They were telling us the bootprint on how they were doing it. They're like, Yo, yeah, y'all could get this done. Y'all definitely can get this done. It was like, all right, well, let's figure out how we can get it done. So it wasn't like a number.

But it was like kind of idea, like all right, well they got a firm belief and they got relationships, how do we make this work. I think something lends to that too, somebody.

Who just has a a bigger view, Like they're just bigger thinkers, right, Like, I mean I watched you all and like, you guys give me the belief that could do something that I wouldn't even thought of, right, Like, so I always asked, like, yo, what's your downloads?

And I think one time he was like two million. I was like, oh my gosh, two million on a mom I could do it, you know what I mean.

And then like as you as you start connecting with people who have a bigger vision, You're like, oh, no doubt, I can do that. So now I'm starting to understand this whole twenty twenty three, twenty thousand number.

It just makes sense at this point, see see it?

But then like even for that, Like we've had those conversations was like how many downloads?

What it analytics?

But then I'm gonna show you how you get to that. That's the biggest difference because I can just tell you we're doing ten million. Wow, how's he doing that? And I like, Yo, here's how you do it? How many episodes you have? You got a back catalog?

You know what I mean?

Like we just have these conversations like, oh, when I look at it like that, that seems very attainable. So like when they start breaking down like how you can get it done and who you can get and who's what corporate relationships you can have that could be involved, and like yo, my publicist works with that person and.

We can get hit. It's like, oh yeah, get makes that number.

And I think, okay, we got mister Harvey on. A lot of it almost slipped, almost set we all miss harvey On. But even still to get that many people, there's still some work to be done. So I want to know, like all the work that goes into providing this experience.

For people, Well, it's a lot of work.

And the key I think in any type of especially when you work with somebody like that you don't want to abuse it because it's like people is busy. So for us, it's like it's like riding the bike, right if you have a kid like you, you push, you push somebody on the bike and it's up to you the pedal. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So he gave us a push, but it's up to us to pedal for sure. We can't, you know, expect him to

Burke making the flyers for us North thirteenth and.

Create making the videos for us.

Well, what is it? What it looks like for you?

You know, you're gearing up for for something massive.

It's like a fight, like you got to you know what I'm like, you know, get in fight mode like a fighter. You know, he trained for six weeks before you go into day in camp, so it's like all right, you know, lockdown. So for us, like you know, press, doing press, that's that's a big part of it, you know, flying all over doing different interviews, like having this conversation, like that's part of it doing zoom calls. The good thing is that we have a lot of great relationships,

Hold that point real quick. What did y'all spend last year? I've been dying to ask you what did it cost you to.

Put on It probably costs like a million. Probably these guys.

Are putting a million dollars down to make sure you have a great, great experience.

One point three but counting extra three.

Hundred thousand, one point three million to provide an experience this and and I think it's important that people come to see what excellence looks like.

Okay, so fine, event planner.

But let me give you some game on that too, because I don't want to discourage people. It did cost discourage It did cost over a million dollars. But that's why it's important to get your payment processing platform. That's important whoever you pick, because it was like, you know, the payment processing platform that.

We used at that time, if you're not using them.

Now, but they paid us daily, so as we get paid, then now we can pay for stuff as well, so you got working capital. So it's like if you don't have a million dollars in a bank, or if you don't have a loan, then you know, to be able to receive funds on a daily basis is beneficial because as you as the money comes in, now you can write checks and the money's going out at the same time.

So first it's like.

Let's something really quickly that's important. You know, the best way to build a relationship.

That interview the.

Right because now you've given them a platform, their audience has seen it, and it's exposed them to a new audience. And so a lot of times if you look at the people that's on the list, they've had some fut of contact with the network, either it's on our show, they came on market mondays or branch and gyms, or they on high level. At some point they had a relationship with the network where they would be an interview.

Yeah, so you put together the blueprint of what you want. We want a real estate panel. We want a stock panel, we want a keynote speaker, we want to panel on you know, content creation, and then you just fill it in like who.

Do I know? And teaching on podcasting for sure, that's a fact, you guys.

This year had Dave with the three audience.

So yeah, so you just just feeling filling the pieces. It's like, Okay, this this person will be for real estate, this person would be good for content creation. And like I said, fortunately for us, we know a lot of people, so it's just personal phone calls, text messages and most people, like people don't really say no to us for the most part. They might have a scheduling conflict, they might not be able to make it, but for the most part,

We was able.

Fortunately, we was able to get some big names early and like that in early music is the hard part. We can talk about that. Get interested, that's the hardest part. Musicians is the hardest part because they they they come with the most baggage. It's real, it's real, it's real. That's a fact. The most baggage nine times out of ten. You you can't go through them directly like a lot of people.

We could just go through DIREC like I need you here, all right. THEMN you gotta talk to their manager and then their manager's manager and then.

They it's like their riders and they don't know their schedule. They might be on tour, they might not be on like just give me an answer. They put you in limbo for weeks at a time right now. So the music, that's that's forches man. I mean some musicians like shout out to Ross, He's that's easy.

You know what I'm saying. That good dude.

So it's not it's not every musician that is bad like that, but a lot of them, a lot of them.

Many unless so like Ross makes it easier because we've sat down on him before, we interviewed him at him find his event. We did it on as a liabilities so there's a related he knows who we are, right, same thing with Tip.

We called Tip. It's going to be an easier call because nah, wait, just wait on it.

Because when I saw Jiz's name, I was like, yeah, I was thinking of all my favorite songs and I don't ever think I've seen him in concert, so this is really giving me a chance to like see people. That was my first time actually investments watching Rick Roll perform and he's right in front of me, said and was going.

To say, it's the first time you get to see me perfore. But that was the Hello performance.

That was crazy.

I mean like kiss Kiss. He did a great performance for us at MSG Relationships.

So it is beneficial to book artists that are familiar with us, and that makes it easier, like we did Jim and at the Apollo.

That's easy.

But yeah, you know these artists, man, they got a lot, They got a lot, man.

But you know what's so crazy? You know, it's so crazy.

So we booked several different billionaires, right and from Dan Cathy to Don pee Wos to Tyler Perry to Robert Smith to Diddy as well.

Like novagrats.

You know what's so crazy, especially from the well did He hasn't sent the rider yet either, but we've never received a rider.

From a billionaire mm hmmm.

Yeah.

One Tyler Perry's rider was it was he won haircut and a simple as animal minimal. We never received any demands or crazy request from billionaires, you.

Know, Dan Cathy, I'm talking about owner A. He's walking around but by himself. What what what a name tag on the czy. But the crazy thing about it is this is I don't know where this rider thing came from. Maybe that's a that's a music. But I'm just saying it's like some things we just don't question. Because I just thought about that today.

I'm like, we booked a bunch of people in business, entrepreneurs.

Athletes, whatever.

Why does why do musicusicians only have riders?

I think the origin comes from it's from music, but it's what they would like to feel comfortable.

When they get to a venue, which is I get it.

But some of the things is like yo, twenty Bollus Champion, I'm not sure that's gonna make you feel comfortable if you're gonna be there for fifteen minutes, you know what I'm saying. So like some of the things, it's just like but.

The problem is that they get caddled to and so a lot of a lot of them don't. They don't they're not handling their own business. So it's like, because like let's really just let's have a two minute conversation about this because I just thought about this today. Why why is a rider needed if nobody else has a rider?

Right? What do you ever think about that nobody else has a rider?

Right? Like if Don Peeble doesn't have a ride. You come to a venue, you're going to be in the green room. You can expect that there's gonna be food there for you. There's gonna be water, there's gonna be juice, there's gonna beverage. If you have a special request that you might have, you might want, you know, a allowed mail, then we can accommodate that.

Right.

But I'm just curious to know why musicians are the only people that have riders. And the riders are alcohol at a tremendous amount of alcohol that.

You can't consume. So it's like if you have ten bottles of champagne.

And it's ridiculous, Like who normalize this?

And I realized that it's from the nightclub. Most of them these comes from nightclubs, right where they just go to nightclub. And it's like, but it's we got to really start to think about this. Why are we providing If we're paying you for a service, then you should just be paid for a service. You shouldn't be paid for a service and have fifteen botles of tequila at five o'clock.

In the afternoon.

If you want to buy tequila, then you buy tequila.

Let's check, I'm giving your organic flavored, and then you want your money in cash.

There's a variety of different things that make this a lot more difficul dealing with musicians, which I understand why, Like concert promoters they got a hard job because now you got to deal with one hundred Like you say, Rolling Loud, they got to deal with one hundred.

Artistsol one hundred riders.

Imagine that.

And if you got a hundred of them, now you got to worry about the punctuality of it. But that's another thing, right, because the thing is like, now, yeah, I booked you and you're supposed to be but now I need you to be here on tom.

They never come on Tom.

And if you're not on.

Time, there's this audience of twelve thousand people got away for you to be there for twenty thousands, you know what I'm saying.

So it's like it's just it's it's I'm concerned because it's like this has become normalized and it's just past.

It's normal. It's normal for a rappers.

You gotta tell a rapper to come two hours early because you know he's gonna come at least an hour and a half late.

But nobody ever questions that. Nobody else does that.

I like the fact that you guys are like even right now, educating on it and really challenging the system, because I think as you're talking about it, I'm.

Like, yo, this is real.

And maybe you had to put extra time on your thing.

Remember we kept running your time, but you had to put me time. You thought you was stripping out, And I'm like, yo, Dave, we just I was like, y'ah, I know. I saw that clock. It said five minutes, did the jump in fifteen and then it got down to seven and we put it back to twelve.

And you're like, that was we just want some time shot.

Shout out the fab good dude. He's actually a great dude. But it is what it is. He's three hours late on five o'clock on a Sunday, so we're wait, we're stalling. Literally, when he got there, we put the microphone, gave him the money, they.

Counted it, he cash.

He walked on stage and performed like cash Kid Cash, so we cash.

We literally like were going back and forth.

With like where you're at, where you're at, da da dada, Like they're like five minutes away, half an hour later, five minutes away, half an hour of five minutes away.

Was on stage.

They spent thirty minutes they said, we were on the grounds. I said, they said, building B. We're trying to find it twenty five minutes.

I'm like, you know, it's like put more time on. Put fifteen minutes on, put another fifteen minutes on. We had to keep adding time we.

Gave you after that, man, I got hey, listen, all right before any artist, Okay, I'll hand it.

Working for that, we would have been I don't know what we would have done that The d would have been playing because there was no other program. That was the last thing of the day, So we would have just had just fit thirty minutes of just nothing, a hour of nothing.

We swack serving for thirty fat You guys are really like, this is this is death?

Why you got to give artists? Fat Joe?

Fat Joe really really impressed me when we interviewed him in Miami. He impressed me for a few different reasons. So we had him and we had master P right after. I think he was at the Master People. So we did Fat Joe before we did master P. The interview, let's say, was at like two o'clock, right, so we we spaced it where it was like master P. We'll do master P at six because we know if the interviews at two, he's not gonna come till three, because

That's another thing. These dudes be coming with thirty people, twenty five people, crazy and you got good. It's crazy.

Everybody's smoking and it's it's not even the place to smoke necessarily, Like you know what I'm saying.

There's a time and place for everything.

Yeah, it was crazy, Like the Joe store is crazy because they're calling. I'm calling on the phone like you always. Yeah, I'm looking for an antourage. They said, Noah, he's in that car right there, he's about to get out. I look, it's just him. I'm like, we have to and that's impressive.

Just him, and he had like three hundred thousand words for jewelry on Well.

I was gonna leave that part out, but he said, yeah, I mean that's the Howy movie. It was just like it was just him.

He can't do the interview. He showed love and that was it. And again relationship. So if we ever had to call on Joe, it's like, all right, well he knows who we are.

I've never seen that before whatever, I've never He's the only person I've ever seen a rapper that came really came by himself.

Kiss came on time to shout to kiss. Kiss came by himself. He came on time, but he didn't come by himself. He came by himself. That was impressive.

I like that we're having this conversation because it's educational too, and our culture needs like shaping, right these conversations.

It's correction, That's what I'm saying.

It's not it's not meant to to bash anybody, but if we if we don't correct these these things, then we start to normalize dysfunction. And it's like I feel like we have a voice, we have a platform, and we have credibility and straight like we are hip hop. So it's like this is this is a family conversation. So it's like we have to correct these things because it leads to be it leads to getting taken advantage of, it leads to not knowing doing bad business.

Because how you do one thing, it's how you do everything.

So if you don't, if you're not on top of it, if you lay, if you always hie, if you got a million people around you, these are formulas for disaster. So it's like this is a bigger conversation, but the artists need to understand it.

And it's not this artist like Larussell like this.

There's a new generation of artists that are changing that that mold, but it needs to be done more on a wider scale. So it's like this is a this is a formula that record labels have put in place for artists. And they give you a manager, and they give you a styllus and they and they give you a rider. You don't even know you you don't know

This is what you get.

You come to the club late, they tell them like you come to the club late, fashionably late. You know, come at two o'clock. That's coming two o'clock. These are things. This is not honest, real So this is how they're being educated. So, like I said, how you do everything, how you do one thing, how you do everything. So if you if you're told don't come to the club until one thirty, then you're thinking, I'm supposed to be late. So it's a business event. I'm supposed to be late.

You know what I'm saying.

So am So it's like, this is a person that's up eight billion dollars and he's up with a three piece suit on early, you know what I'm saying. So it's like, these are the kind of things never asked for a shot out tequila?

He drinking coffee.

Now that's it, that's the request.

That's the rider.

Give me some quobe.

That happens, like you see like a lot of these artists who have longevity, Like we just saw Lula he's on tour with Jena, Right, there's like this thing going around like, yo, don't show up late to the show.

They're going on on time.

It's like, yeah, they are if you show up at seven forty five. He's on the stage at seven forty five and one second. Yeah, because he understands the value of his time. But he understands the value of everybody else.

It's time too. You paid for a service. I'm here to entertain.

I don't want to have you sitting here for two hours waiting for me to come out and jet. It's gonna be all plot work too. So they understand it, but they lounge. They have longevity in the space, right, and so like if he's set in that trend and nobody's following it and nobody's bringing awareness to it, does it ever change?

You know what I mean?

This is important and all the people that are like coming, they're gonna come enjoy the show, but have no idea that you guys, from this conversation, you're teaching from the stage, but you're also teaching behind the scenes like you're teaching, Like you're teaching the artists how to operate, and nobody would ever think that before this moment. You know what I mean that, I'm sure there's certain conversations that you have to have, like Yo, I'm gonna need you on time.

Or you just junk. You tell them two hours early.

You do different than you do, different tactics to kind of, you know, ensure you don't get rude, because ultimately, it's not in your best interest for somebody to be late. So you got to have certain incentives and certain different things that nature. So you kind of learned that early, Like when you look on artists, right, this is how I got.

Talked on this. They handle this person twenty twenty three.

It's happening Diddy. It was the first name on the flyer.

Sean Colem shout out to Diddy, Love Love Love.

I got so excited because I know what y'all do in terms of like curating a conversation, and I really honestly believe this interview will.

Be like no other interview. I don't even think any of the other people.

For one, he don't do a lot of interviews, but the people that interviewed him. I think we are more focused on pleasing him in the interview to promote. But what I'm excited about is to see all the questions that you guys are gonna ask that we have been wanting to know for years, for decades.

It's a lot of questions that need to be asked about. You know, his rise to become a billionaire, that's impressive. His ability to reinvent himself from music to spirits, fashion to whatever, his ability to stay relevant for thirty years.

His you know, there's been questions as far as.

We're artists that said that they were taking advantage of different things that nature right, These are legitimate questions to be and I'm sure he has his own point of view.

We just haven't heard it.

We've heard Mace, we heard a variety of other artists that have been disgruntled, but we haven't heard it from his side.

We haven't heard like, No, this is.

The education that they missed, This is what they you know, like, this is.

His side of the story. It's important because you know, no.

Matter how you feel about him, he's an important person in our cold Yeah, for sure, and he's played it tremendous part and I got to give credited to to Dion. Though Dion, it's always the people that you don't know who's the most important people. So it's like TABD. We talked about him with Steve Harvey. Dion is like his right hand man. And Dion has been somebody that's been watching Alesia for years and has been advocating us to him for years.

He's been advocating it for years.

So and there's other people inside of the revolt and you know his enterprise as well, but Dion was that he has been in his ear for years.

Understand that too.

But not.

His name is Dion Graham, and I'm not sure his exact title, but he's like.

High level executive at home enterprises.

He's like did He's like, you know, go to person to a variety of different things. So he was telling him, he told he's a first person to probably tell Diddy about us, and he has been telling him about us for a very long period of time. So by the time we actually you know, it was already a warm vibe. Obviously you know the relationship will revolt, but then from beon too. So that's important because I wanted to acknowledge him because a lot of times, those type of people

So he's a good dude.

He's the guy that we just spoke about, right, man, I talked about the CFO bad boy. I've been doing this between Nobody's ever asked me like this is these are the people you need to know because he.

Has such an important role.

He has so much information, but who's giving him the outlet speak on the information? So it's important, like even now, just giving him this moment, because he is important to anything, for us being at revolt, for us getting the Diddy conversation, all of that happens because he.

Plays a role that Tabio play the role.

But I want to go back to the other part about Puff is that he wants to do it mm hmm, right, Like on the message, I'm sure I had to talk about it, but on the voice note, he left. He was like, thim is now, Like the time is now, so all these things that people have been saying, this.

Is the time.

I want to show why it's important, you know. I want to give them the blueprint on how this happened.

Right.

I want to speak about wealth. I want to speak about how we bridge this gap from knowledge and education to wealth. Right, like, now is the time to do it. And to know that he felt like we would be the trusted place. I mean that just adds to it, right, And we have a track record, like it wasn't like, hey, this is your first one. Nah, you guys have done some really good work. I've been watching it. I've seen it on my network. I can see what it's doing.

This is the place because y'all definitely made a good point. He don't be at the revolt of that, you know what I mean. But he's coming.

I mean we have a say he has a I mean that was one of the things we're like, yo, we gotta get him on an episode. This passes over, Like we got to have him on the episode. We've been saying this since the first episode. It was like not a time and the time and the time and like all right, Well, the time's gonna come. We're just gonna leave one episode on the deal if we don't get it. So it was like him saying, like the

He didn't really get the announcement though, what exactly? What?

Why? Why?

That's what I was wanting even when y'all said it, Yeah, I mean, I act like I knew it.

But the billionaire, I would think he you know, it's he's an interesting person. I don't think that he's gotten the same level of reverence that jay Z has gotten.

I agree, because.

Yeah, I was like, you didn't you know normally jay Z got the YO billionaire calculated.

What was Jay's first line? I came into the game, what more money than Puff?

Well, Puff's been doing this for that long that his first goal. When he was like this is like early two thousands, like I want more money than Puff. Then I realized puff paper and enough, and then it was like, all right, well we'll get back in this thing together. And it was like yeah, that's right, but he's been doing it. Why it in different in different spaces?

Why do you think that?

Why do you think he hasn't been Obviously he's celebrated, But why do you think that the reverence has not been the same?

I think it has.

It hasn't been the same because people have mixed feelings about Diddy. It's almost like everyone loves jay Z. Right, Kanye is the one that's gonna tell you he's a billionaire, right, did He's not necessarily the person's gonna say I'm that right. So I think it just it's just I don't know. It's uh, I don't know.

I don't know. Why do you think I don't know?

It's I think I think I think it comes down to that there's a lot of question marks, the disgruntled, the disgruntled former artist.

Yeah.

I think that that's a part of his legacy, and I think that that's something that has permeated and has been synonymous, whether it's right, wrong, fare whatever. I think Baby from Cash Money has a similar type of situation because if you look at Baby, I don't think that he gets enough respect. I don't think he gets enough reference either. We put him number one on our list, and we had a lot of pushback from that. But

You know what I'm saying.

It takes a side, and without even knowing all the information, they take a side. And Jay has done something because Jay has had disgruntled artists as well. He had a lot of the whole state property, all of them at one point have except for Freeway. I never heard Freeway saything bad about him, but all the state property at one point was just going to including Beanie Siegel.

Who was his guy.

Uh.

Kanye West has taken multiple shots at Jay throughout the throughout the course of the years a mill. I don't want to go down a rabbit hole, but this has been But Jay has been able to stay clean. Yeah, for sure, Jay, I don't know how he does it, but he has. He has a very unique ability to stay clean even when you're throwing mud on him.

Yeah.

Maybe because he doesn't speak a lot. It's a nostalgic that you feel for him because he's he's kind of like a ghost. But no matter what, because people have said negative things about Jay from the colony Kaepernick, there have been negative propaganda has been put on j but it hasn't.

Worked the way it's worked for other.

People, Like you know what I'm saying, Like Jays has remained clean for almost twenty five years, even with the r Kelly thing, Like he's never really been an a situation where it was like, let's cancel jay Z.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying.

For sure, what I mean, there's a part of it that's true, but I think there's a part of it that again, we kind of normalize greatness. And so when when puff has done things, we've watched them over the long term. Right, We've watched obviously the music, but we've watched Sean John and the clothing, and we watched the Spirits and they've been great for so long. Right, he just got Sean John back, But even at that deals

Like, oh, we already expected him to be there, whereas.

With like Jay's he's doing these investments and it feels sexy because he's doing them.

It's like yo, LV and Mage, Oh man, that's crazy. He just sold it. Oh he did to the Cardi deal.

This is right, Like that happened in front of us, like real time, when there's social media and there's more emphasis on it. Whereas when Puff did the DeLeon deal, it was like, well, we didn't really know it, but it sounds good, right, you know what I mean. But the expectation for them was like we've seen him since he was twenty one years old, these multi million of then in nineteen ninety five, ninety six.

The fact that he's.

Getting to this point, you know, it's like I felt like the expectation of it was like part of the reason was like the reverence isn't as much. It's like for ten years ago, did people know who Robert Smith was? No, he's been doing it right. He's been doing these things right. People still don't even know who Dave Stewart is. I don't know who Dave story is right, he's the second wealthies black men in the country. But we don't even know. It's not sexy, right, and the expectations are not there.

Right.

Yes, the entertainment is great, but there's business that's going on. They didn't make it from music. Music was the thing that Cali posted them to open up other opportunities. But it came from spirits, right, It came from fashion, it came from investing. Those are the things that are making them reach these lists where we talk about the system, we talk about the Walmart family like you brought up. I told you the difference, right, this generational and sustainable.

Well what happens in the next generation doesn't want to do in the spirits? What does that look like? Do they?

So?

This is it? Like the time is now?

It is now because now he's fifty four years old. What's your legacy look like?

Man? Yo, I I know we gotta wrap up.

Like I asked so many questions, I'll just ask you like I want to know what y'all talked about at Diddy's house, because that was that was.

The meanest thing y'all could have did for Instagram.

Like it was just these sneaks and peaks and I'm like, yo over there, and I was watching, like, Yo, this is something's happening.

I don't know what's happening, but something's happening.

But yes, man, if that's best twenty twenty three, this is going to be an epic, epic event. And anytime you can put twenty thousand people in the room, and for me, we got great uh great uh speakers, great artists. But the value I think is in the other twenty thousand network.

Be prepared, Come prepared.

You need to start working on your networking skills right now because this is going to be a gold mine.

You never know.

And yo, it's it's millionaires, multi millionaires. I'm talking about just there there, I'm sitting, I'm sitting. Last year, it was a dude that like owns a nine figure company behind me just learned what his notebook.

I said, what's happening here though, thousands, thousands, thousands.

Where else can that happen?

Fact?

Yeah, So really, if you if you watch any podcast episode, it's probably a good chance and that person's going to be at the building.

So if you watch any ey episode, just come prepared. Like with you.

I don't know if you got to pitch, if you got to a business card, you just just come.

Be likable, Okay.

And some people for the networking, you just want to gather information.

That's cool too.

But I think you all have done an amazing job of curating a staple in our culture. I'm talking about black You go to a black enterprise event ten years ago, that's the staple. Now it's seven hundred people, no shout, no, no shade. But this is different. This is different. So shouts out to you gentlemen. Man, thank you for allowing me to come on and just really really get the information on what's happening behind this cultural phenomenon.

Man, thank you brother facilitating this conversation absolutely, and you know, thank you for all work that you've done and always saying yes whenever we ask you for something. And you know, much continued success on your journey, your event, your network, and keep keep inspiring and keep teaching people because it's supporting the education part. I think it's extremely important, especially when it comes to our space. As far as in the media, I don't think that there's enough education. It's

Everybody on my network is kind of like your grandchildren. Yeah that's important. Yeah, no, the squad, So.

Yeah, thank you again, But that a lot of people like will get lost in that, right, Like, yeah, you are on Introduce network and you had an idea to say, like, I have something that I want to expand on and build on my.

Own, y'all support it. And it was like, yeah, yo, if you want to do that, go ahead.

And it wasn't like, yo, we're never doing anything with him again he left a network.

It was like, all right, let's help him still build because he's so great at what he does. If he can be part of something, let's make sure that he is.

And so like we always talk about collaboration over competition, but it's like, nah, if there's a situation working help, Like you said, when we ask you to do anything, it's always like how can I help?

And how can I still be a service?

And so like people can see that it doesn't have to be a dispute, it doesn't have to be any friction or any awkwardness. It's like, nah, if we can help, we go in too. So thank you for facilitating this.

Coming back home guys got a spot.

Yes, appreciate and yeah, get your tickets in vestfest dot com. Like you said, twenty thousand people this year, we got four Diddy, Robert Smith. But even outside that, junior Bridgeman, he's he's almost a millionaire, he's six hundred million up, you know, Rich Rich Paul, and then of course you know you MG the mortgage guy, Ian Dunlap, nineteen Keys, you know, a variety of different people.

From Jada Chiefs are Reflection.

You know, I wanted to have a very eclectic group of people, so you got Ari and you got Mike Novograts. You know, it's like and they're both important, and they're both important, so it's like, you know, let's let's let's really incorporate the entire culture, you know, musical performances.

Geez Jau wanted.

To have more women new this year as well, so we got some more. We got a podcast age. I don't think I mentioned that, So we got a podcast day first time ever. So we get got my boy Jonathan from Vanessa's Only Club.

We gotta be some moan that we got.

We got, we got, we got a millionaire Mitai mindset, the god thro So that's that's a new experience that we're gonna have this year as the podcast stage.

And that is exciting. So check us out.

Man. Did we say we're not done?

Oh yeah, some more, some more, and we're not We always add know.

We're not done. This is the first way, first wave. I have some keep some things in the ton.

Keep some bullets in the clip.

Hey guys, putting your vacation hours now, Okay, don't play with it. Don't let this be the thing that you're John saying. Putting your vacation hours now.

Yeah, love man, thank you brother, appreciate it absolutely, yes, sirs.

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