In this interview, Eric Siu talks with Spectacular Smith, former member of the R&B group Pretty Ricky, about his dramatic rise, fall, and resurgence. Smith recounts how the group sold 17 million albums worldwide before family mismanagement left him financially broke despite fame. Forced out of his family home at 28, he turned to social media, creating parody accounts for celebrities and leveraging traffic‑acquisition ad tech to monetize followers, quickly scaling to six‑figure monthly earnings. Recognizing the value of celebrity audiences, he partnered with stars like Akon and Snoop Dogg, then expanded to an agency, AdWizar, serving both entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 brands such as Zappos and Clark. Smith also details his Clubhouse strategy, organizing elite text groups (Clubhouse Kings, Power Circle) and building clubs with tens of thousands of members, positioning Clubhouse as a growth channel. He closes with his online handles and a phone number for a free masterclass. The conversation highlights themes of resilience, digital monetization tactics, agency building, and community‑driven platform growth.
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I had no money, no clothes, nowhere to go, no nothing. He got angry. He's just like, "Yo, get the f out my house." I was like, "Wow," you know, and and and I just went. I pushed all my chips into the online space on social media follower growth and monetization, and and it worked out for me.
All right, everyone, super excited to bring you my buddy here, Spectacular Smith. Today, I actually met Spec back in the a couple years ago, right? We're at we're at an EO event, and when you first introduced yourself, I didn't know what to make of of your name. I was like. Whoa, is his name really Spectacular or is it Spec? Like, what is it exactly? We'll talk about your name in a second, but, um, quick background intro from me, and I would love to— love for you to fill in the gaps as well. But, uh, founder and CEO at AdWiser, a social media marketing company. He's got a lot more than that going on, so chairman and CEO.
AdWizar.
AdWizar? I thought it was AdWiser. That makes— that makes a lot more sense. But anyway, we'll go with AdWizar. But founder of record label Moolah Music Group. Did I get that one right?
Mm-hmm.
All right, cool. Member of Pretty Ricky. You got to check out his videos because I didn't, I didn't realize until after I met Speck that I had listened to his music growing up. And he's also the owner of 14 companies, also has been honored as one of the top 5 most influential entrepreneurs in tech and music, and has also been honored as the Innovator of the Year by Black Enterprise. So Speck, how's it going? Sorry for butchering your company name.
No, it's all good. Everybody messes it up, man, but it's all good. It's still the same thing no matter what. So yeah, man, happy to be here, man. Cool, good deal.
So why don't you tell us a little bit about kind of your, your pretty ricky days leading up to all the stuff you're doing now? Because there's got to be some type of transition and some transformation going on there.
Yeah, it all started from getting in a group with my brothers. My father wanted me to get in the group. And at the time, I didn't know how to rap. I didn't know how to do anything, but they wanted me in a group because I know how to dance. I used to always be in the dance group. And so he told me, get on the stage, dance with your brothers. They gave me a rap song one time. It was like, hey, get on this song. And I got one song, one verse, like, and all the girls start going crazy when I start rapping my verse. And we came up with a song called Ground on Me, Your Body, uh, on the Hotline. We did worldwide tours. Freaking killing it on the road. Scream Tour 4, Scream Tour 5, and we was on top of the world, man. Sold 17 million albums and singles worldwide. And from that, end up getting into it with the label. My, my, uh, end up getting into it with the label, and, and my father, who was the manager slash label owner, he just made some, some bad decisions with the money. You know, and just left us flat broke. Like we had no money. Like we was just, it was just—
This was after your success?
Yeah, this is after. This is like on my second album. We at the height of our career. We just had a freaking top 5 hit called On the Hotline. And then my dad just, you know, say, hey, listen, we got into it with the label. The lead singer left. And everything just hit the fan. It was, it was, it was pretty, it was pretty bad. And my dad just wanted to keep the group going. So he put— he replaced the singer that we had with another singer. But it just wasn't— it just didn't mesh together. And I had to figure out how to still make money. Imagine being famous and broke. Like, that's a horrible recipe. Like that. Yeah, that was me. So I had to transition from being in the music industry and actually performing on stages to transition into social media. So one day I got a call from a guy named Matty J. He was like, yo, Speck, you can make money off of tweeting. And I was like, all right, cool. If I can make money off of tweeting, then I mean, this is, this is the time. This is it. All right, cool. So I started figuring out a way I can grow a massive following. So I started creating parody accounts. Katt Williams, Will Ferrell, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Kevin Hart, Kevin Hart, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and I started blowing these, these different accounts up. Grumpy Cat, like I started building these, these assets online and started making thousands and thousands of dollars within the second, second and third month. I was freaking crushing it. I was at $10,000 and the next month $20,000 and $40,000 and $60,000. Like it just kept going up every month. And then I just realized that, man, you know what? I'm doing this by myself for my own company, for my own private accounts. Let me go and do this for celebrities because they already have a massive audience and I have the formula to actually monetize, which at the time it was traffic acquisition, selling ads against traffic. So when you go to the website and you send the traffic there, Advertisers bid in real time on banner placements. So we started killing it, man. We started making millions of dollars. I started making millions of dollars off of that and, and decided to bring it to celebrities because they had like 5 million, 10 million, 20 million followers. Guys like Akon, Snoop Dogg, like these guys have massive followings. So I had the skill set, they had the following, and I basically did partnerships with them to actually start growing their social media following and helping them make money off of it. and monetizing it. And then I transitioned from that to, you know what, uh, maybe I should just help more executives because celebrities, they're freaking snooty-dooty sometimes.
Yeah.
And they are ungrateful sometimes, and I just got sick of it. So I decided to create an agency. That's when I created Adwizar, and I decided to, um, not only work with the celebrities but actually work with the everyday entrepreneur who has a great story, who has a great product, but don't know how to get it to the masses, don't know how to grow their social media following, don't know how to market themselves. And I started helping them do that. And we started killing it. Then we started getting Fortune 500 companies, Zappos, Clark shoe brand, like all these different Fortune 500 companies came with 6-figure budgets. Like, hey, do it, do what you're doing. for us like you're doing for these mom-and-pop entrepreneurs? And that's what we started doing.
The first question I have is, literally, you're at the top of the world, super famous, you're getting millions and millions of views. You can say, I don't know, hundreds of millions of views, right? And 17 million sold. What were you feeling at the moment when you were at the top and then all of a sudden next moment you're broke but famous? What's going on through your head?
All my money was always in a kitty with my family. Like, everything was a family-owned business. That's how we seen it. All my brothers are in the group, and my dad handled all the money, so I was used to not having no money, right? Because he used to always manage everything for us. And at the time, I was like 18, 19 years old, so he handled everything. He was the guy who was always on the cutting edge on the things that was going on, so we felt like he was the best person to have the money in his hands. And when I found out we didn't have any money, It was like, wow, like, it was— I was more shocked that he messed the money up more than me not having no money because I was like, like, how do you do— like, how did you mess this up, right? And so I was always, always dibbling and dabbling in social media. Um, around that time that we kind of like took that left turn. So it happened like right at the end of going broke and actually getting the call. I was already kind of in the motion, so already kind of figured out how to make money off of social media. So when I actually had to leave because he kicked me out one day, like one day I was 28, he's like, yo, you got to get out. Kicked me out the house. I had no money, no clothes, nowhere to go, no nothing. He got angry. He's just like, yo, get the fuck out my house. I was like, wow, you know, and, and I just went, I pushed all my chips into the online space on social media follower growth and monetization. And, and it worked out for me.
My sense right now is I would just try to get a couple of my influential buddies in like a WhatsApp group or whatever and say, hey, let's do a Clubhouse right now. And you get all the people that have a ton of followers and it just kind of grows, right? Is that something that you're doing right now or?
Yeah, so we actually have, I have an actual text group of all the biggest marketers in one text group called Clubhouse Kings. And we all are in there. Adrian Morrison, Adrian Morrison, uh, Kevin Davis, uh, Nehemiah Davis. Like, like it's a ton of, of marketers that's in this one chat, like 15 of us and everybody, you know, kills it in marketing and the info marketing, um, space. And then I have the Power Circle chat, um, of all like, you know, thought leaders in, in that chat. And I just post in the chat, hey, This is going down, whoever want in, let's go. And then other than that, you still just have the hallways. When you go in the hallways, you can see who's part of whatever group and also just following them, it'll notify them. So whenever I go live, it notifies them and they're part of my club. So the clubs are the future of Clubhouse. So when you get in the Clubhouse, the first thing you got to do is create your club. So as your club start building, my club right now has over 40,000 people in it. So on top of my 60,000 followers and my 30,000— I mean, my 40,000 in the club, I'm over 6 figures just on Clubhouse in terms of reach. So when you build up the club, the people, the members that's in the club are all the thought leaders I have in the club. So if you go to the Power Circle Club, you'll see Grant Cardone, you'll see Tyrese Gibson, you will see Karen Civil, you'll see you in there, you'll see Adrian Morrison. You would see Tiffany Haddish, like you would see all of these big influencers, Master P, French Montana, like you name them, they're in the Power Circle. And when I launch a Power Circle club, a room for the Power Circle, it'll notify them in their feed that Spectacular just launched a room under the Power Circle with 10 ways you can make a million in 2021.
Spec, this has been great. What is the best way for people to find you online?
Man, if you guys want to find me online, you guys can go to I Am Spectacular on every social media channel but Snapchat, which is I Am Spectac, and Clubhouse is @spectacular. But you can search my name, Spectacular Smith, on all platforms. I'll pop up. And also, if you guys want to reach me, you guys can text me personally, 786-661-1224. Once again, 786-661-1224. And if you do want to sign up for my free masterclass, All you got to do is text the hashtag masterclass to that number and I'll shoot you a link.
Awesome. Speck, thanks so much for doing this.
Much love.
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