Grow Your Reach by Giving: iLLvibe on How to Promote Music and Art for the Millenial Generation

Welcome to Make More Marbles. My name is Brad Hart and we're here to interview the game changers, the future makers, the co collaborators and creators who are here to collaborate with one another towards a better future for all of us. Enjoy the show. We've got a great guest coming up for you right now. Welcome to Make More Marbles. My name is Brad Hart and today I am thrilled to have Anthony on the show. What's going on, Anthony?

I'm good, brother. How are you?

I'm doing well. So you are in a whole other realm of creativity than I am. Even though I'm a musician, I have been for 20 years. I love what you got going on. I love that we've been able to collaborate together on some stuff. Just making stuff happen. You got some stuff going on. So I'm just really excited to dive into all that for the people at home. Can you give people just a little sense of who you are, what you've been through, where you're at today?

Yeah. So I'm a rapper and musician based in Toronto, Canada, up here in the north. And I'm also a web entrepreneur and a creative person and I do my best to make a living off of creativity full time. And. And so that's how I've kind of crossed paths with you and a lot of other of the people who kind of know me from social media is kind of acting in that type of role as a creative professional, whether it's, you know, video and animation and some of that stuff. And of course, the whole time I'm pushing my music and this mission that I've. That I've been on, so.

And it hasn't always been an easy journey, has it? I mean, there's been some ups and downs along the way, for sure.

The music business is difficult, period. So anytime you're trying to get into something that's got this level of saturation, this level of interest, every kid grows up thinking, I want to play guitar or sing or whatever their thing is. So when you really try to do it professionally, you find out that there's about a billion other people who want to do the same thing. And so that automatically kind of changes things a little.

Yeah, it's like I can be paid to make music and everybody will love me and throw money and sex at me. It's going to be great.

Let's all sounds wonderful.

Yeah.

There's definitely a road before you get to anything even resembling that. Right.

So what do you think drives you? What do you think keeps you going to really like make it in this industry.

I kind of go on a tiered system. So for me, the bottom tier is just reclaiming my time. That's what, that's what I enjoy doing art, but I think everybody enjoys doing variations of art. But I'm really committed to, you know, can I do art for a living so I don't have to go work for somebody else and then come back and do art with my spare time? How can I do that as the primary thing? And so my art is music and lately more video and animation as a sort of secondary passion. And so my main driver is how can I spend as much of my life doing the things that bring me joy as possible. And art brings me more joy than anything. So that's the. At a DNA level, that's where it starts for me, I think.

And I love that, Anthony, because, you know, at the end of the day, what you're doing lights you up. People feel that it vibrates off you and they're attracted to you. And guess what? Everybody, whether they realize it or not, has resources, connections, opportunities, people and systems in their life that could help you move your mission forward. So just by living in your best and highest good, whether that be music or art or creation of any type, you're automatically attracting the things you want and desire in your life and you're allowing people to co create with you in that process.

I love that. That's a great way to put it, man.

Somebody should write that down. That was really good. I win the modesty award like every year, by the way. I don't know why I even like show up anymore. They're just gonna mail me the interview. I guess I'll thank the Academy. I didn't write a speech. Sorry, guys.

Right over here on the wall, you've got like employee of the week for every week since the dawn of time.

We like to have fun. All right, so you're in the music industry. What is your ultimate goal or aim in creation of rap and getting that out to the world. Like, is there a message you want to share or move that you want to create?

Yeah, I mean, my mission statement is to be a world class human. And so what that means to me is to operate at a high level on a business side. So actually creating a real legitimate business around my music so that I can sustain and keep making music as long as my heart desires. And then to eventually help other younger artists make music on a professional level, but simultaneously, how can I pair that with not just improving my life and bringing me joy but helping other people's lives in a legitimate way and in a tangible way. And so it starts with just music about positive things. It starts about making music about reclaiming your time. It starts about making music about, you know, what's your legacy and that type of thing. But more recently, and that's what hopefully we can talk about today is I've been wondering, you know, can I hold myself to a higher level of change? So not just changing, you know, young artists and young music fans perspective, but maybe raising money for something that I think could possibly affect the world in a good way and actually raise awareness and learn about things and talk about things bigger than just how to be, you know, a nice guy. Which is sort of always what my music's been a little bit about. And that's what we're doing with my Elevate Everyone initiative is trying to turn good music into actual tangible change in a way that will benefit somebody's life. So. Right.

Because a lot of the people that listen to music, myself included, have this disconnect. It's like, oh, there's the music industry and then there's every other industry or there's music that I listen to and then there's the way I live my life. But they're influencing each other at a high level. So can we talk a little bit about how you plan to integrate that with Elevate Everyone and what you see that ultimately becoming in your heart of hearts or your vision for the future?

That's a great question. So immediately what I'm trying to do is I've tied it to my release. So as I've been saying, I'm trying to put my money where my mouth is. So instead of just saying, hey, we can elevate everyone with our music, I've tied my current release, the album that just came out two days ago, and my big, big album, the one that I've kind of been building towards, that's going to come out this coming spring to this Elevate Everyone initiative. Basically saying that if you pre order the album, 100% of the money goes to charity water. And the idea being that not 10% of it or 20% or even 50%, I'm footing the bill for the album and then all of the money goes to charity Water, which is a charity where they're trying to help with the world water crisis and they in turn pass on 100% of the proceeds in a long term. I'm really trying to act as a lightning rod to maybe begin this line of thinking that if you're an up and coming artist and you're trying to generate value and you're trying to generate excitement and you're trying to generate interest, one way to do that is to use generosity. Is the idea is that I'm trying to get your attention. I don't also need your money, you know, so if you're going to give me your attention, if you're going to give me your time, you're going to put me on your little phone playlist that you only put your favorite albums on, well, I'm not also going to ask you for money. So in this particular case, I'd like you to spend that money on something that means a lot to me. Because on a philosophical level, I think water really is the first thing that we need to deal with before some of these places can get into feminism and other important ideas first. They need to be healthy and safe. And I think water is a good starting spot.

Oh, I love that. And it talks a lot about, you know, the make more morals mission is Fuse, food, energy, water, shelter and all ways for all people. You know, at the basic levels, I think we should be able to cover that in the. In the near future. I think we have the capacity and the ability. But don't we also, you know, if we have the ability, don't we have the responsibility to be able to do that as well? And I love that you're drilled into doing that. And Charity War is a great organization, by the way, and there's so many organizations out there. There's a great book called Evolved Enterprise by a mentor and friend of mine named Yannick Silver. He runs the Maverick 1000. And it talks about how companies that have a lean towards profit, but also towards, like, for benefit, you know, towards charitable causes, tend to do on average, twice as many sales per capita as a result. So, for example, I just bought this pair of sunglasses. I had a pair of Ray Bans for about four years. I was so happy with myself that I never lost them. So I finally got to replace them. They're worn out and I lose them in a day. And then I'm in Mexico, I need a pair of sunglasses. And this company shows up called, you know, Live and Give. And they got these really great solo sunglasses. And what they do is every time that you buy a pair of these sunglasses, they give a cataract surgery to somebody in need in Liberia or another country.

That's cool.

So you buy a pair of shades and you're giving somebody the gift of sight. So I bought two I was like, I can. I can make that happen. That's pretty, right? So, you know, close one door, open another. So, guys, it's a great strategy to marry your purpose with your mission, and you'll actually do more and get more leverage and more life will come back to you as a result. And that's really the key message here. Make more marbles that elevate everyone is the more you can give, the more you can ultimately receive. But if you're worried about what you're going to get, you're asking the wrong question. To start out with, it's be more, do more, give more, and have will take care of itself.

One thing that I really try to pay attention to, where value comes from. And if you're able to trade something for something worth way more. So, for example, the amount of money that I could foreseeably bring in from just selling this album in a traditional retail sense, well, these days, everybody streams on Spotify, so the amount of money you get back from your album is lower and lower and lower. So why not sacrifice a really small piece of my revenue for a whole bunch of change? If we were talking about trading all of the revenue, everything I used to eat, I might be a little bit more skeptical about how that would work. But especially since the industry's already moving in a way that most artists aren't living on those streaming revenues. Well, I'm more than happy to give up three or six months of streaming revenue if it can make even a couple of people's lives better. That's such a small risk for such a huge reward. Do you know what I mean? I think. I think some people might look at it as like, oh, you're giving up a lot. But in reality, I give up so little. And what I get back karmically, even if we can build one, well, what I get back karmically to be like, I wrote some songs, and somewhere there is a family drinking clean water every day. Like, that's way beyond what I would have earned from Spotify streaming revenue in that time, you know what I mean? The karma revenue to me is way. Is way more, you know, and that's.

Why I love working with organizations. I'll just give my friend Mike Sherbakov a shout out. The Greatness Foundation. We just built a house with them in Mexico. It was a really rewarding experience. We're secretly working on a little stuff, a bus drive for one of the organizations down there. I'm trying to work with, like, Mexican importers. My job is crazy. I'M all over the map anyway, so we just worked in the Syrian refugee camps in Athens with another organization called We Journey. So there's so many ways to get involved, guys. And if you just take a small piece of what you're working to earn and you tithe it, and this is a principle as old as time towards an organization or something you care about, you'd like to see a change in the world, people show up that leverage what you have going on to more people than you could ever possibly imagine, and you end up making so much more money. It makes sense intellectually once you've done it and you see it. But people live in fear of scarcity, and that's what shows up. If you live in abundance and give more shows up and then you realize, oh my God, I need to do this with everything I do. So I've actually streamlined my entire business to BE all right, 10% goes into something we care about no matter what. That's right. I literally have an account where every, every dollar comes in the door. I take 10 cents, put it in this account, and that goes to investing in projects and whatnot. And the pie gets bigger as a result, guys. It just does.

So glad to hear that because I'm, I'm early in that confidence because I believe that on a philosophical level and I've not yet taken an opportunity to put my money where my mouth is. So I'm pleased to hear somebody who says, hey, that's been working so well for me. We've really copied that across all of the businesses we're involved in. So, yeah, it's great to hear.

Yeah. And it's not me coming up with this. I mean, the rich people in the world do this, you know, like, and it's just a reminder that whatever level of game you're playing at, we're all challenged, we're all forced to grow. We're all coming up against places and people and timing that just stretches us. It has to because we have a desire. And in order to get that desire right, that's of God.

Right?

Desire, we need to be inspired in spirit. We need to have that going for us. We have the desire, the outcome, we have the inspiration, the purpose or the why. And in order to make that a reality, life has to give us the challenges that allow us to grow into the person we need to be for whom those things show up effortlessly. I know I just threw a lot of woo woo words at you, but it's a real way in which the universe co creates. So for anybody Listening at home, like. Like, I just want to use Anthony's example as a wonderful example and maybe challenge you guys to think of a way which, no matter what you're doing, however you earn an income, whether you're subsisting on nothing or whether you're making millions of dollars a year, how could you give a portion away to make more overall for the benefit of everybody involved?

And definitely something I get a lot of. And I really enjoy the business advice that you give because it's not particular to the music industry, but I really find there's a lot of bleed over. But what I do is I get a lot of questions from young artists, young producers, young songwriters, like, how do I get into this business? Because right out the gate we talked about saturation. It's really hard to break into and make a name for yourself. And I think many of them haven't considered the idea of using generosity as their access point.

I could see a book, honestly, I can envision it now, like the generosity advantage or the, you know, gain through generosity or whatever it is that allows you to stand out in a crowded marketplace where everybody's promoting the Thug life, for lack of a better word, and how they got the bends and the Rollie and the Mansion and this and what's 50 GS? You know, I like those songs. I actually listen to songs on my run. Don't get me wrong, I get into that mode. But in my real life, you know, when I'm not listening to Jay Z, it's like, you know, the real world doesn't operate quite like that. And even he will tell you, like he's had to give more than he's gotten in order to get where he is. You don't take it, you make it. You make more for everybody and in doing so, you make more for yourself.

And I think in hip hop, there are examples of people, unfortunately who get in who aren't necessarily so positive. But I think what happens in Jay Z's case, and in a lot of cases, you need to have that to have longevity. Because once you're in the business and for independent artists who are trying to get into the business, what you don't realize is that the industry part, the business part, is run by these moms and dads and husbands and wives who are very regular people. And so the notion of you being full of bravado and everything's about me is really off putting to those types of people. And the idea of you being generous and wanting to affect the world and being positive and Inspiring. You'll inspire those people. And in fact, you know, Nancy over at Factor, who's a huge company in Canada, and they can help, you know, open doors for you as an artist. You can inspire her, which in turn can really open up a whole boatload of opportunities. And the same thing at MTV and the same thing at. There are these people who you can, your movement can touch them and they can, in fact, open doors you don't even know are close to you. So I'm just in the early phases of that, but hopefully, fingers crossed, we keep getting that type of progress.

And the other thing to consider is that the messaging and the music is targeted at people who are already living in that realm of the world where the world is a competitive, scarce place. Right? The world is a place where it's a dog eat dog world. You know, it's an urban world, It's a, it's a vicious world. You can't trust anybody. And that messaging very specifically gets them to pay attention because that relates to their life. Right? Jay Z, just use another example of his life. Grew up, he was a crack dealer in the streets. Like, he grew up, that was his deal. So that's gonna shape his worldview, obviously. And, you know, having grown up in an environment where there were like skinhead gangs running around, I kind of get it. You know, thankfully, I never had to deal with anything like, you know, now the kids are on heroin. It was just pot and alcohol when I was a kid. But there's some, there's some gnarly stuff. One kid went to jail. He killed three people. He's still in jail, as far as I know. Several people like that. Some people didn't make it, you know, and it was a really rough neighborhood for what I grew up in wasn't the Bronx or Brooklyn.

Right?

But, you know, it was very, very much like that. So consider for a moment that that's a message that reaches a mass audience. Because unfortunately, in the state of the world today with what's happening, many people live in a world that is dog eat dog because they're creating it and they're vibrating it and it's attracting what they don't want. And if we could just make that shift to realizing that. Wait, no, it's actually a better strategy to care for each other and help each other and realize that love is our competitive advantage as a species. The whole world starts to shift.

Rappers, we say something. We say, that's a bar. Because a bar is a great quotable line from a rap song. And the Idea that love is the competitive advantage of our species is a bar. That's, that's a super. That's a great quotable right there. So I count it, get you in.

The mic on the studio rapping, rapping Spitfire on the mic today.

I enjoy that. That was great, man. That's what, here's what I think about as well. Anytime you're in a business that has a, has a low odds of you reaching a very ambitious goal, let's say you're trying to make it as a world famous comedian or an actor, or these things are low percentage games. You know, one out of every thousand people who gets into the game reaches really where they'd like to get. Maybe they reach various levels of success, but the goal that they set out for. So if you know you're getting into something that has a low percentage, living in a positive way and pursuing that goal in a positive way means even if you don't get there, you're gonna make more friends on the way up, you're gonna have more fun on the way up instead of just burning bridges all the way there, finding out it didn't work and you have nothing to show for it. And so I think that's something I've tried to live by that even if I at a certain point, let's say I hit 40 or 50 and my music career plateaus, I've got 12 years of people who were like, wow, what a pleasure he was to work with. You know what I mean? So there's even. It's kind of like building in a great backup plan by just making friends on the way up by being that positive guy all the time. So what that kind of goes back to the world class humans thing, which is it's not only doesn't only feel good to be a good person, but it's good for business. And if your business doesn't work out, you've got more currency out in the world from being the good person. So I really see a lot of the time people are like, wow, that's such great karma that you're like that. But I'm like, but also it has a built in insurance policy because I can be a sometimes I definitely have that tendency, but I'm very careful to kind of compartmentalize and let that come out only when necessary. Because I see there's no value to acting that way in terms of building those relationships and building that reputation in any industry.

Absolutely. And I think the thing to realize and to take away here is that we all have a Persona that we can project onto the world and how we really are and operate behind closed doors can be a lot different. Right. It's the scary thing that hits us in the lizard brain and gets our attention. That's what the news and the media is. And a lot of, you know, rap songs might do that. It's like, it's pointing out the problems that gets people's attention. But in reality, like, Russell Simmons has a meditation app. Yeah, I listen to it.

It's great. Russell's one of my heroes. He's one of the first people who I saw living this lifestyle.

And it's incredible to think about. Like, you have this one side of people, this duality, and you have this other side of how they actually are. So just understand that. And even if these people are acting in a way that you would consider to be uncouth or competitive or cutthroat or whatever it is, you got to also understand that the honeybee effect is in order. Right. What do honeybees know about the world? They just know that they want pollen and they want to make honey. That's all they've thought it through. But in doing so, by going to get pollen to make honey, they. They're pollinating all the trees and flowers which create all the food which we all eat, and they're saving the world by doing it. So even if their intention is just to get the money, you know, cash money, whatever, that's still saving the world in some way.

Right.

You gotta understand, like, there's a bigger, grander, diviner planet at work here that we are not even privy to. We have our own little lanes and our five senses in which we view the world. But we don't know that even the people who seem to be the bad guys are actually doing good in the world, whether they like it or not, whether that's their intention or not, because it's just the way the world is set up. So even if that's the way you need to survive right now, and I'm speaking to people that are really struggling, just understand that there are multiple levels of this game, and maybe just suspend your disbelief for a moment, maybe just put that belief aside for a second that you have to be looking out for everybody. And maybe you do, maybe some people are really out to get you. That might be your reality, but that doesn't have to be the way life has to be.

Yeah. And even if that is the case, because certainly there's been times in my music career where there's negative interactions. I can't avoid. It's just. It's the nature of dealing with people from rough neighborhoods. It's the nature of dealing with people, you know, who are basically informed that being an alpha male 24, 7, is the way to the top. And so you get into batting head situations and politics and negativity, and you can deal with those situations and step up and be, you know, a man or a woman and deal with that situation. And still, as a general philosophy say, well, when left to default, the goal is still to approach with gratitude and positivity because you understand that that is, in addition to feeling good, great for business. So, yeah, certainly, if you have to deal with a competitor who's acting, you know, a little bit shady or maybe they're stealing your ideas or whatever, the thing in your business is, for sure you're gonna have to step up and be, you know, serious about that. But that doesn't mean that when you go into your. An open networking meeting, you're gonna act like, oh, I got. Why am I even here? These are always a waste of time, which is an energy.

One guy that one time is gonna color your perception of everybody forever. That's ridiculous. When in reality, most people are out to help.

Yeah.

And it's just not gonna be a good way to be like you are. You know, you feel it when you're doing something you know you're not supposed to be doing. It's not a value thing. It's a human thing. You just have this sense, this energetic sense of like, oh, this is not the right way to go. And then all this crap comes out of it. Right. And when you do the right thing, even though it feels good in the moment, and then it continues to be this cascade of the right thing, it's like just, you know, integrity, values. You talk about stuff like it's buzzwords, like it's made up. It's not. It's like, you know, trying to put words into the ineffable, the indescribable human experience. This unbelievable world that we live in that we're just trying to make sense of. We all are.

Certain words are buzzwords because they have inherent truth in them. Words like value, words like transparency. They have a real, like, meat and potatoes in the word. And I think that it's good to go back to those words. I like to fall back on the word value a lot because it gets rid of some of the romance of, are you putting out an album? Great. Is there any value there? Value for whom? I think these are the building blocks. Of life or words like that. So I think it's good when you fall back on those crucial, crucial words. I plan a lot of my life philosophies on those types of things. I really feel that transparency is always more valuable than a whipped up story. And if you see businesses that operate with transparency, they really benefit. You see the transparency of bitcoin and how the world responded to that transparency. I think certain concepts like that have inherent value and I try to build that into my life philosophy, build it into my business. It's why when I do things like this, the whole rap Persona goes away. And I just speak from my heart because I think people can feel the transparency and the value of said transparency.

Yeah, and we all wear masks to be different things at different times. And I think the closer you can get to your true self, the better off you'll be ultimately. And you know, we all have stuff, we all have failures, we all have struggles, we all have challenges, you know, and I'm just trying to create a safe space for people to talk about those and what they've learned and how that can benefit others. So let's, let's talk practical and tactical for a minute. We've talked a lot of kind of high level stuff. You know, what are the things that you're accomplishing in the music industry? I know you're doing elevate everything. And I want to give people something to really bite their teeth into. And then what do you think? Looking back, having connected the dots has gotten you where you're at and where do you want to go next?

The stuff that I'm most proud of right now is, you know, I really enjoy traveling. Travel is an aspect that I always knew, you know, wherever I get success was going to include an aspect of traveling and not being stuck at a desk job in one place. And so I've really been blessed and privileged. But also I'm happy that some of my early ideas have come to fruition which have allowed me to do more traveling. You know, I started an online business and closed my, you know, quote unquote, wasn't quite brick and mortar, but my old school brick and mortar business of being a local videographer for being a web based animator, because it opened me up to be able to travel more. So as my music grows and opportunities come for me to go to, I just got back from Iceland, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands. I can bring my business with me. So I literally structured my life in a way that, that allowed me to prioritize something like travel. So I'M about to leave on a four and a half week US tour. We're doing Indiana, all the way down through Louisville and back around and up. And so a big, like I said, a big part of my music career right now is traveling, bringing the message on the road, bringing the music on the road, meeting new people in new music communities I've never performed in before, give them a chance to expose to my energy and hopefully along the way you can pick up some super fans. And that's kind of, that's really what I'm focused on as a musician right now. Now that my album is kind of ready to go, it's just hitting the road and bringing that message, that energy and the music to everybody.

I love that. And this is your first album? Correct.

I put out a lot of different music over the years. This album that's coming up, Anti Gravity, it's the one. Especially in pop music and urban music, there's always that definitive album that's got a little bit extra budget put into it, a little bit of extra vision. And I really feel Anti Gravity is that for me, Me, I love it.

And where can people find it?

So basically, if you're looking to support, the easiest way to do is to go to illvibemusic.com it says elevate everyone. Click here. It's the first thing your eyes are going to land on. And that will bring you into the pledge music store. Pledge Music is a great organization that will facilitate the donations just so that people can feel like they don't have to trust this guy, this rapper they've ever met on the Internet is going to donate all this money. They actually handle and facilitate all of the monies and make sure that that's done. And so there's a pledge music store. It starts at just $10. And that gets you not only my brand new release, the Neo Blues ep, which is out right now, it's a cool bluesy hip hop mashup, but it gets you this definitive album, Anti Gravity, which is coming out on March 22, International Water Day all over the world. We're gonna drop the album and hopefully change a few lives at the same time.

That's beautiful, Anthony. Thank you for that gift. Okay, great. So let's kind of dig in some more. As far as the change, the impact that you want to make and what are some other people out there, musicians or otherwise, that are just killing it and you're like, that person's doing it right and you want to kind of, you know, we call it R and D. Robin Duplicate or model is a better word probably for it.

What they're doing well in this space, I'm going to be honest, I don't follow a ton of musicians that are currently doing this now. I know that it exists. The Pledge Music platform is already very successful and that other people have utilized it. And since having told this story to other people in the business, I've been hearing a lot of, oh, this band did something similar for their debut album. And I've been hearing some of these success stories echoing in the business. But really in terms of people that I follow, I'm the first. The idea came actually from listening to a podcast while playing a festival in Croatia. And I overheard just one of the founders of Pledge music talking and talking about the way various people have found just a little way to contribute that is donating their birthdays or donating, you know, whatever it is, they're gonna put all of the money into this. And I thought, well, that sounds cool. What if we just did a whole album where we give them everything? Because I put out an album every year, I put out something every year, so what if we give them? And as we started developing the big album, I thought, well, let me really put my money where my mouth is and really put the big album on this cause. But it really, that's where the idea stemmed from was it was the passion in the voice of the gentleman who runs the organization. And he was telling case studies of teenage girls who were so Inspired, they raised $100,000 and an 8 year old girl in Seattle raised $50,000. And it's just like, wow, I could do that. Here I am. If you follow me on Facebook for the people who do, I'm quite generous with my time, but it's mostly tied into the rap game. I try to give advice. I say, hey, if you've not thought about branding, here's a quick perspective on it. If you've not thought about how to use Instagram, here's how you do that. And I'm really happy to help those people because I see a young me in them. But at the same time I thought maybe there's people who need me more than just young rappers. Like, sure, I can help them a little, but those people are very privileged anyways. They live often in Canadian great communities and they've got great jobs. There's people in the world who don't have clean water. And so I just thought, well, what if we took all this energy and instead of just writing Facebook statuses about Instagram, it Was about, like, really improving the world in a way that if you sat down and thought, let's get a piece of paper, how could we, like, one piece at a time, how do we improve the world? You know, education, clean water, you know, women's rights, These are the, I think the things that need to happen more than anything. And I think water, especially with an organization like Pledge Sorry, Charity Water around, it felt so real, like I could just reach out tomorrow and do it, you know. And I emailed them and they were very responsive. And then I heard about pledged music and they were very responsive. And I said, hey, these people are right here, like waiting to make this happen. So let's see if we can do it.

We have a supercomputer in our pockets that connects us to everybody in the world. It didn't exist 10 years ago. I mean, the excuses are few and far between. It used to be it was hard to get in touch with people. Now it's just not. And if you're willing to ask and ask a lot and ask intelligently and ask in a value adding way and be specific and considerate to the people that you're adding value to, not just how can I help you, but what if I helped you this way or what if I helped you this way? It can really open doors and change your life. So I just want to point out and be grateful and give you a shout out just for being who you are in the world. I appreciate that. And that segues really well into, I think, the next part of the show, which I never tell anybody about. I always surprise my guests with this. Eventually the secret will get out. But this is the Make More Marvels podcast, right? We're all about collaborating towards a better future and making more for everybody. And the way we do that is by connecting people with the resources, the opportunities, the people and the systems that they need to move their mission forward faster. And, you know, you've been so generous with your time and sharing with my audience and we want to give back to you. So what is a way that we can connect you to the things you need to move this mission forward?

I think I've really been looking at the mix in the infrastructure of my business, of my music, and more immediately this charity initiative and this elevate everyone initiative. And one of the things that we do really well on our end is we produce great content. And I think we've got the mission really well thought out. And the gifts, I think are really great for anybody who's interested in getting involved. So Then the missing piece becomes how do we expose the idea to as many people as possible? And so that's a thing that I've been spending a lot of my time on. That's why I'm chatting with you today and I really appreciate your time. Is looking for any platform where I can, even in short or in long form, give this idea that, hey, artists on the way up, legitimate artists who could be just putting their music on itunes and Spotify, et cetera. Delay that by a couple of months and we can scale this idea and really change the world and in its immediacy. Yes, I would love any opportunity to let people know about me and my release. But I don't want it to just be about my album release because I think my supporters will take it to the place it needs to go with the help of my publicist and that type of thing. So it's about the idea that if we're instead of just releasing art, being frustrated at it capping at a thousand sales or at 5,000 sales, let's use generosity to grow that number to 10,000 or 50,000. And so for me, that starts with my album, but I think long term it's about sharing that idea with all types of creatives.

I love that, Anthony. And where can people reach out to you if they have an opportunity so they can get in front of you?

Absolutely. And by the way, if you're like, hey, this sounds amazing to me, but I don't know if I've got a platform for him. Pledging the $10 goes a long way. I think every time someone clicks and they see that, it's 10 people, 100 people that have gotten involved, they're eager to get involved. So illvibemusic.com and you'll see the elevate everyone to click here. So if that's just you, if all you can do is contribute $10, I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. If you think that you can expose the idea to your following or if you've got a podcast or radio show and you'd love to talk about it or have me on, reach out to me on any social media, I'm super easy to find. I'm very engaged. It's Ill Vibe, Ill Vibe on Facebook, illvibe on Instagram, illvibe Music on Twitter, if that's your platform of choice. And I'm definitely eagerly looking for those opportunities to grow the reach of this message. So I'll be there and listening and looking for those reach outs.

So here's one thing. I want to do, which I've never done before and I think I've just called to do it, is how can we craft a story that ties in a few things that people want to hear. Right. So like the facts and figures. That's a piece that we kind of started to harp on, but maybe we could talk more about that and then additionally, like, what's the story that connects people who are looking for stories to tell? Right. Because that's what all news organizations, media outlets, podcasts, they really want a really great story that people can relate to, but also is uplifting and they want to highlight. So how can we craft that really quickly? Because we're two smart guys to tell stories. Well, to create that and then put it out into the world, I think.

And especially do you do listen to a little bit of hip hop? It sounds like you do right here and there. Okay. So there's a guy I'm really inspired right by right now, and I wouldn't have thought the media find him very interesting, but using him as a case study in this last two years, last year in particular, the media has been very interested. His name's Chance the rapper. Do you know Chance?

Yeah, I've heard of him. Yeah, he's really popular.

He's very popular and he's very positive. And essentially the new story has been, look at this guy who's actively trying to improve the world with his music. His music is so physically about improving the world and being positive. You're not used to seeing him commercially successful, an artist like that. And. But the music is so infectious. And really that's what this is. It's infectious, feel good music that it's not sleepy, boring, positive hip hop. It's the same stuff that you love to listen to on the radio. It just has a little bit more of a less self deprecating loathing vibe that hip hop can sometimes have. And so I think the story is about the positivity of hip hop. And look at this rapper who believes that we can change the world with hip hop. Change the world in a real way, in communities that need it desperately. And the fact, and I think that's where the new story is for me is that it's not just go buy my album, end of story, it's go support my album and then sell your thing the same way.

Yeah.

Because if we, if we could create even a small movement of 50 people who try this in the whole world, there'll be a little blip on the global karma scale where it's like where did all this money come from? Because 80% of my donors so far have never donated this way. You can see that on their profile as they donate. This is the first time they've ever signed up. And so we're creating new world class humans with every person who gets involved.

We're creating better systems that serve more people right now. That's beautiful. Awesome. Well, Anthony, I'm grateful to have you on the show. Thank you so much for everybody listening at home. Thank you so much for allowing me to have wonderful guests and kind of think outside of the box on who I bring on. And you know, this would not be normally something that I would put on but I asked the question I always ask is are you a marble maker or marble taker? You are definitely a marble maker, my friend. I appreciate you for doing so and thank you for making the world a better place. Anthony, it's been a great pleasure to have you on the show. Hopefully I have you back sometime and any parting words to the audience, that's it.

I appreciate all of you. If you got this far in the podcast, in the broadcast, thank you very much. I appreciate your energy and if you're able to get involved, I appreciate you even more. So thank you.

Alright guys. Anthony Ilvibe Craparada, thank you so much for being on the show and we'll talk to you soon. Stop recording. Thanks so much for listening to the Make More Marbles podcast. For more tips, hacks and strategies to create an amazing abundant life in your health, wealth and relationships, whatever that means to you, head on over to makemoremarbles.com check out our cool explainer video about what we're about and join our community of entrepreneurial game changers. We want to help you level up your life in every possible way. And don't forget to subscribe to us on itunes, Stitch or or Google Play wherever you're listening to your podcast and please do leave a review. Thank you so much and we'll see you on the next podcast.