How Music, Culture, and Investing Work Together with Mick Batyske, DJ, Investor, Advisor, and Speaker at MICK

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I know where I want this party to go. I know where I want the set to go. I know where I want this playlist to go, right? So for me, it's never about the next song. It's about like a couple things down. And so that's for me, the same thing I try to do when we're working with startups.

To thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, brands must move in an ever increasing pace. I'm Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Suzy. Join me and key industry leaders as we dive deep into the shifting consumer trends within their industry, why it matters now, and how you can keep up. Welcome to the Speed of Culture Up. Today we're going to be speaking with a longtime personal friend, DJ speaker, investor and advisor, Mick Batisky. Mick, great to see you, brother. How are you today, man?

I'm great, man. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely.

It's been way too long.

I know.

We've been trying to get this together. You've obviously had a busy summer, which we're going to talk about, but super excited to finally get you on the Speed of Culture podcast. We're going to start by getting to know a little bit more about you. You've had really, you know, a storied ascent to where you are today. Lots of different experiences that make up who is Mick. I would love to hear a little bit about that story.

Well, you know, for me, Matt, interesting. It took me a long time in life to really realize what my purpose was like occupationally. And it for me, it was just like DJing was something I've done since college in order to like a fulfill creative expression, but also to pay my bills. And I looked at DJing as like the main thing of what I did. And then what happened was in the middle of my 30s, I'm 44 now, I realized DJing was just kind of like the output of what my true skill, which was, which was just literally just like being me. Which is like very cliche, I guess, to say these days of just like the. Your personal brand and the brand of you and all of that. But for me, it's like literally been the truth. And by that I mean like my whole career. As you know, I've managed my own career, I've marketed in my own career, I've done my own pr, I've done my own literally everything good and bad. And so what I've come to realize was my actual job and my actual skill set, my entire life has actually just been around putting the best version of myself out there. DJing was just the first touch point that people had of me as that. And it took me, I wish I would have realized that a little bit sooner in life, to be honest with you. It kind of took the birth of my son for me to really do a deep dive and figure that out. But once I did that, the whole world started opening up to me in many different avenues because I realized that the same skill set and the same thought process and the same relationships and, you know, creativity that I used to create my DJ career, I can use it in a million other ways and a million other avenues.

So you, you talked about your son being born, and obviously you realize that from a career perspective, being a dj, and you've told me this in the past, requires you to jump on planes and be out late nights, et cetera. And now you have a family and you obviously had to rethink things. Where did you get your inspiration from to understand how to leverage your DJ career, so to speak, into other areas. And what are some of those other areas?

Eventually in life you get to a point where you realize what you're not, right? And that's so much more important than what you are. And when you hone in on what you're not, you're able to actually see that what you are is a lot stronger. And for me, you know, let's use DJing, for example. But you could really apply this to any creative medium or maybe any, any medium in general. For me, I started questioning a lot of things about my Career, why they weren't happening. Like, why am I not doing festivals? Or why when I go on Twitter and say, I'm spinning tonight, why don't a thousand people show up when I have all these followers and all the like? And why are these things that happen for other people not happening for me? And I started to really, you know, I went through a little frustration with it, even a little depression about it. And what I realized was, like, that's actually not what my path was ever supposed to be. The reason I got my career in the first place was simply because I have a career that people, they find me through more human relationships, they find me more through brand relationships. They find me more from coming to me and just connecting with me just on. On a really holistic level, Whether they love the music or they love the conversation we had at a dinner party, or we met in the elevator and they liked my shoes, or we had some rent. All my opportunities have never come from being a known DJ or being, quote, unquote, wanting to be famous or anything like that. Everything has come from me simply because of, like, how I live my life, who I live my life around, who I live my life with. And so when I realized that, I was like, let me lean into the opportunities that can come from that, which are, like, being the best dj, quote, unquote, for people who like what I like and people who are into the other things that I'm into, and people who want to just live their life with the same sort of, like, morals and standards and values of which how I do. And so once I. Once I kind of zoomed out, and I actually zoomed out wouldn't even be the right word more to be, like, zoom out and then zoom back in somewhere else, right? Like, I zoomed out on what I thought I was supposed to be doing because I'm a dj, and I zoomed in on just, like, what I'm supposed to be doing as me, right? And so I started getting all sorts of opportunities with investment opportunities and just, like, expanding my circle and people. It just changed my entire life, man, because I was able to, like, be around people who appreciated all the things I brought to the table and didn't degrade me for the couple things I did not bring to the table.

So it's really interesting when you say that, Mick, because I think a lot of young people, they look at influencers and they look at these big follower numbers or fan numbers, and they obviously, the first thing they do is compare it to themselves. And what I think it's doing is sending a lot of young people down the wrong path. And really it's sending them down the path of quantity over quality. People try to collect friends as almost like some sort of point value or point system and they think that if they have enough of them, they're gonna be able to advance to the next level. But as you and I both know, that's not really how life works. And instead it's really about the quality of your relationships, who those people are, what's the context of your relationship and how you can help each other. And it sounds like you kind of went through that journey yourself where you're in a world, you know, of DJs where there are a lot of quote unquote famous people and they may have a lot of, you know, have a big high level popularity, but maybe they don't have those high quality touch points that will allow them to do some of the things that you're doing. So I think it's really an interesting lesson to sort of extract from your journey that took you some time, but maybe for other people, maybe they can that are listening to this, they can learn that it's really not about trying to go for being famous, it's about really those long lasting relationships. And it seems that those are definitely serving you. I mean, I've spoken to many people in the tech industry who know you well, where you will you have their company party or something like that and all of a sudden an opportunity will arise. And is that sort of how you're finding a lot of these opportunities surface?

Yeah, for me, I just kind of like tried to create a spiderweb, if you will, where everything kind of connects and I want to be able to be the guy that could kind of like be. It's funny, in school I never got a lot of A's, I got a lot of B pluses, but I was able to just like kind of like phone it in and be present in a bunch of different places and get a B or B plus versus like really, really like lean in and zoom in and get an A. And it's kind of like the same thing I've done in my career. Meaning that like, okay, I don't need to be the best cj. I don't need to be the best at anything. But I could be pretty good at a bunch of things and find ways to make them all work for me. So when you zoom out and get the report card, the great, the GPA is very, very good. Just come from a bunch of different sources. And that's exactly kind of like what I try to do. And I, you know, I'll give you a great example. Like, I spoke on a panel at a. At a finance conference a couple weeks ago in California, and then they ended up needing somebody to DJ an event for them, so I ended up DJing that. But then I was able to invite to that party the two founders of a company that I'm advising. They were able to meet great people at that. So, like, it's just like. It's just. It's a matter of, like, taking one thing that's not connected to this thing, putting it with this thing that's not connected, and putting everybody in a room together. And then the best part is, of course, I'm playing music. So at the end of the day, all of these people that I've met from all walks of my life, who've never met, they're all drinking and laughing, having a great time together, and I'm creating this environment for them to do that, but I'm enhancing my life and their lives in multiple different ways. And that's kind of like the weirdness of what I get to do. And I love it.

Absolutely. And I think one thing that, you know, you do such a good job at, you talk about you love playing music for people. And a big part of that and a big part of understanding who to connect is you essentially being a curator. The other day, you tweeted out or put on Instagram a fall mix on Spotify. And I don't trust my own music curation skills, but I certainly trust yours. And I immediately played it. And it's been on heavy rotation in the Britain household for the last week or so. And, you know, your ability to do something like that is something that really can't be taught. And the question I have for you is, how did you learn how to curate sounds, to actually meet a mood or meet an environment? And what work goes into that on a daily basis to make sure that you stay fresh?

That's a great question. So there's two ways I would answer it. One, as far as how I learned it, actually is I learned that skill almost in the opposite way of staying fresh. Meaning that when I was a kid and I was growing up loving music and listening to music, my curation is rooted in nostalgia, which doesn't mean necessarily that the music is old, but it just means how I consumed music as a kid was so different than how my kids and my kids, my one kid, I don't believe there's another Kid a couple years maybe. And your kids would consume music, right? And that, like, it was. I was so sick. I. The way I fell in love. Let's go back and further. The way I fell in love with music. And I played a lot of instruments as a kid as well. The way I fell in love with music, it taught me to, like, singularly, like, hear and see music in my head in a way, if that makes sense. So when I would a Pearl jam song in 92, or a Snoop song in 94, or a Tupac song in 96, or a Neptune song in 2001, for example, like, I remember, like, it shows itself visually in my brain. It's not like those people that can literally have that. There are people that literally see music as colors. I don't mind. Doesn't go that far. There's a. There's a scientific term for that. But I'm probably, like, right before you get to that, on that spectrum of just, like, how I see music and how it makes me feel, I just kind of have, like, this weird mapping system of my. In my brain. And then. So, you know, when I started DJing, this is all way before I was, like, DJing, I was able to just, like, lean on that and put things together from a vibe perspective that I think makes sense. And then when I coupled that with the fact that I grew up playing instruments, I was able to kind of put that together in a really, like, logical and musical way. And I think Also when I DJ, a lot of times DJs get restricted by the boxes we put ourselves in as far as genres. And also, even BPMs, you just think, like, oh, I have to play 22 songs in a row that are 128 BPMs. Or I have to play. If I'm playing a 98 BPM record, I can't go faster. I can't go slower. I gotta stay. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Like, I don't play off of bpm. I play off of vibe. And does the song make sense with the song before it? I have enough DJ tricks in my toolkit to get. To get you to stay on the dance floor. From any tempo change. I need to go. I can go from a slow jam to a house song, to a rock song, to a funk song. None of those tempos make sense, but I can make that work for me. It's just, like, I see the bridges between those songs. And so that, for me, is kind of like my secret sauce on that.

And you spend a lot of time in Record stores and, like, listening to, you know, very abstract types of music and things that we have normal people hadn't heard of. Like, how are you discovering some of these new tracks?

My favorite ways to discover it are honestly the same ways as everybody else now. It's like Spotify playlist, you know, things like that I also love, like, you know, Shazam. You know, I love being in a coffee shop and hearing something, like, really cool that I've never heard before. And now they got like the little secret function on your phone, so you can Shazam without standing there holding up the blue screen, which is great. You can add it to your little control center or whatever. So I'm in there going nuts, like, but it's not so much what happens for me, it's like more like the happenstance of, like, it's not necessarily that particular song that I hear in there that is the one that influences me, but that sets me on the journey of finding the other other stuff. Like, there's actually a song on that fall playlist you referenced that I actually did hear in. In my local coffee shop. And I was like, what is this? And like, you know, she wouldn't tell me, so I Shazammed it. But then I discovered so many other random things from that. And then that sets the mood that actually inspired me to do that playlist, that hearing that person song, believe it or not. I came home and I was like, this song feels like fall. And I was like, I'm going to make an entire playlist off of that. And the weather was changing and everything. But the other thing I do is I just stay in touch with a lot of different DJs and a lot of really creative people. People, some people older than me, some people younger than me. And what I like to play in my sets is I try to very rarely, if I'm playing something new or popular, I try to find an alternative version of it to play, whether it's a really cool remix or a cool mashup, even though we don't use that term anymore, but, like the general populace, like, still does and, you know, or a really cool edit or version or to really, really make it more unique and make it really, really interesting. Right? And by doing that, it gives my sets a unique DNA. Because nowadays, you know, also as a dj, this is not really. This is a side of what you're saying, but I think it's really relevant. Our competition as DJs and as curators aren't other DJs anymore. It's every person in the world, because every person in the world could make a really dope playlist and play it at their party and just choose not to hire me. And I. So I have to. I have to think that through now. So, like, if you want to hear the same 40 songs that you want to hear, I'm going to come to your party and play those same 40 songs. How can I make myself stand out when I play, you know, those same songs for you? So what versions of them can I play? What things can I do live while I'm DJing? Or can I change the beat? Or can I change the words? Or can I flip this live? Or can. Like, I've even had clients tell me they want to hear stuff, and I'll go through and we'll remix some stuff before the event. I mean, this obviously depends on the budget, too. Like, I'm not. Not gonna go to it, but, like, if it's somebody or a client, that's really important to me. Like, I want to give you exactly what you want, but told through my lens and told through my musical goggles. And so, yeah, so I think it's important to have differentiation, because what's. Anybody could just play playlist, and honestly, dude, 95 of the people are at the party are going to be just as satisfied with that at this point. Like, people are just like, oh, I'm hearing my favorite songs. I'm having a good time. So, like, what can I do to elevate that? That's what I take very seriously in my job. Absolutely.

I mean, and I think music is so important. You kind of mentioned this in terms of setting a vibe, setting an overall mood. It really even has a greater importance in terms of its impact on broader trends in society. We had Marcus Collins, who's the chief strategy officer of Whedon, and Kennedy, who's done all the Nike work, et cetera, just talking about culture, how culture is built. And he used to work for Beyonce and her digital team in the early ages of her career. When you look at the brands that you're working with, because you've worked with everybody from Airbnb to Cadillac to MasterCard, GQ, even done some work with NBA 2K, one of my favorite video games. Are you speaking with these brands in terms of where you think their brand and their brand ethos sort of mixes with music, how are your collaborations with brands structured?

It's all across the board. And for somebody also to say, like, I think Marcus is one of the most. Like, I'm a huge fan of that guy. I think he's incredible, so I just want to put that on the record. I think, like, the way he connects, like, culture with everything is just.

He's got a book coming out you have to check out in May. We'll send you a copy of it on his behalf.

Yeah, yeah. Very few people see it as well as he sees it, but anyways, yeah, you know, I think for me, it's just like, you know, first of all, I try to work with brands that get it first and foremost. That's like the first level of it, because, like, you can't really sometimes teach an old dog new tricks in a lot of ways. And so sometimes there are people that it's just like, it's not worth trying, you know. Secondly, depending on what the opportunity is, sometimes I don't try at all. Sometimes I just have to kind of just like, eat it, man. And just be like, you know what? I'm just going to do the best I can with the constraints you give me. But to your point where the real magic happens is the. The third option of that, which is where we can say, hey, what is it that you're trying to accomplish? Is it. Whether it's for a game or whether it's for a party, whether it's for, you know, sending playlists out to your consumers and to your audience? Like, what is it that you think you sound like? And this is what I think you should sound like. And maybe we can meet in the middle. And it's never 100% what I. What I want. And it. But my best example of it is if we could get somewhere in the middle where I can improve it. I just want to. I don't need you to do what I'm doing. I just need to. I just want to improve it. What. What you're doing. And that's good enough for me because that's going to give your audience a better situation. And I've seen that happen through music. I've seen that happen through influencer partnerships. I've seen that happen through all sorts of things. Like, I've done brand partnerships with. I did a brand partnership with a huge auto automobile company. This is maybe seven, six, seven years ago. And they. The first time I did some content for them, I was. They gave me this. You know, they give you the brand Bible, Matt. They give you, like, the whole list of all this shit. But, you know, all these things, and I'm just like, man, this sucks. Like, this is, like, brutal. Like, this doesn't feel like me at all.

It's putting you in a box, right? It doesn't allow you to be an artist or exercise your creative juices.

It was, yeah, it was, it was bad. And I mean, we did it the best we could and it turned out okay. But I was, and I was grateful. I mean, I got paid. Like, I got the car. It was great. It was fine. But like, I wasn't, like, it wasn't. Just didn't feel like me. You know, we all make sacrifices and stuff. And so the second time around, I started pushing it a little bit more. And by the third time around, I just was like, do you. Once we reached a real level of comfort, I said, do you trust me? And they said, yeah. And I was like, let me do this my way. And they were like, okay. And I did it completely my way and they loved it. It just took some trust and it took some, you know, some honesty and transparency on both sides. But we reached a point. And so now I try to use that as like, I think my goal should be with, with every partnership and that, like, I have to like social media influencing. I don't like the word influencer at all. I think it's pretty corny. But like, I understand that that's the word that people use for it. But you know, for me it's just like you have to be able to tell people the real version of your life. People know people are in on the joke. Like, people know you're getting paid to sit around in some sweatpants on your stoop next to a pumpkin. And I only know I'm saying that because I'm making that post next week. But like, the thing is like, what can I do to make it a little bit different whether I involve my kid in it or whether I make a little joke or whether I just like, like if nobody, everybody knows why you're posting it, you write ad in the post. Everybody. Like, this is like a really real thing, right? So let people know that they're in on the joke and let's, instead of making them in on the joke, let's bring them into the world. And that's what I try to do.

Finding the right audience shouldn't feel like doom scrolling with Experian. It doesn't. Experian syndicated audiences help you reach holiday shoppers, car buyers and more across over 200 top platforms with over 2,400 pre built audiences. There's no more doom scrolling. It's audience targeting. You can trust made simple. Learn more@experian.com Adweek that's E-P-E-R-I-A-N.com Adweek.

And you mentioned your son Miles, who's I think, six years old now, and I remember seven now. And you've done really an amazing job in terms of authenticity, talking about your journey as a parent and your relationship with your son. Talk to us about, you know, that relationship and why you felt it was important to kind of integrate him into your overall image and some of the work that you do.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I could talk about him for days, as most fathers could about their kids and moms as well. Like, I mean, for starters, like, he's just the North Star to everything I do, right? Like, it's not a secret that I figured out what my life and my career should be when my son was born. It's not a secret that all these other opportunities started happening both in my brain and in my network and in my world when I started, like, living for something bigger and better than me. And I don't take any of that for granted. But what I started to realize was rather than, you know, like, make my son, like, what's the expression? Like, fit in or fit out. There's, like a. There's like, a fancy expression people use. But rather than, like, square peg in a round hole. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, rather than try to create, like, an alternate life where, like, I have my home life and then I have my work life and then I have my kid life and all that, I was just like, I don't want to live a compartmentalized life. Like, I'm not like, my dad or your dad, where we had these, like, different stories and these different. Like, these different industries and whole different worldview. Like, we live in a world where we can. We can kind of have all of that at one time. Not everybody of our generation can, but we're fortunate that we can, so why not? And just involve my son? I bring my son to events, bro. Like, he was. He was at a. You know, he was at an event with me, like, last week, just chilling on the stage, and sometimes he gets up and he's getting to see that my dad would take me to. Like, when he put in carpet and tile. That's what my dad did. And I remember seeing that, and I realized, like, my son didn't really understand. The second part of this is my son didn't understand hard work. Right? He didn't know. He's learning it now. He didn't. Because I don't have a job that's like manual labor. Like, my dad did, where you would see my dad put in tiles, brick by brick or sheet by sheet or whatever, and build a wall and build a bathroom. Or because I didn't, like, I'm not like a doctor, where, like, I'm like, I could save this business life. You could meet him. He really didn't grasp what it is that I did. He just knew it was fun. And so I was like, let me show you. Really goes into, like, these two hours of fun. So all of these calls, all these podcasts, you could sit with your little Nintendo Switch on this chair that you can't see on the camera and sit there with me all day and watch everything I have to do. You could come with me to these lunches. You could come with me, you know, when I'm on a call, when I'm walking you to school, like, you could see all of these things. And then I said, then when I go and I say I do all of that just to get to the part where you can go see me have fun for two hours. And then he was just like, oh. And so once he started appreciating that, he just started wanting to be around a lot more. So brands started just noticing us, like, together at things and on social and all that. And so then we started getting opportunities to collab together, which was really a beautiful thing.

How cool is that? And you guys wrote a book, right? D is for dj.

Yeah, yeah, it's right there on the wall for if we abuse the name of this video.

So tell us about that.

Sure. You know, I just really think that our world now is so different. And I just think, like, you know, any kid with the Beatles were to, like, our grandparents and our parents, like, Tribe Called Quest was to us, and Drake is going to be for everybody else. And so I didn't think hip hop should be, like, compartmentalized as far as, like, an educational tool. And, you know, it's not really anymore, but, like, everybody's wrote these books about, like, rappers and all these other things and sneakers and out and basketball players for, like, kids books. But nobody did it from a DJ culture perspective. And I just thought, like, you know, every kid's going to say they want to be a rapper, but none of them are going to be a rapper. But any kid that wants to be a DJ could literally be a DJ and still go on to do a million other things in their life. And so I was like, let's give them some of, like, the fundamentals of the culture and the history of it in a way where they could literally be two or three years old learning the Alphabet, but learning about how many books do we need where it's like Emma's for Michael Jordan or L is for Llama. Like we have seen these books a million times and they're great. But I was like, what would be the evolution of that told through like I only know one way to live and the way I live is what's provided my life for my son. So if that this culture and this gift was able to give me this life for my son, I was like, I wanted to share that with somebody else, you know, for, for their family. And so yeah, so it's cool.

Incredible. So we're going to shift gears a little bit to just the music industry in general and what you're seeing out there. You're at every big event I've been to, whether it's been CES south by Southwest and I know you've done a bunch of gigs for me there or Cannes, the Super bowl, the NBA. You're there and you're spinning the biggest parties for the biggest brands and celebrities. So there's very few people in the world that have a front row seat to the evolution of culture and music the way you do. So what are you seeing evolve in the music space whether it's with social media or rising types of formats or even artists that you think are going to be big heading into 2023?

A bunch of things. I mean for starters though, it's like, it's almost like a played out topic at this point. I think you know, the music and NFT situation is just beginning to, it's just in its like baby moment right now. I don't think we even know what it's going to be. I think it's, I think it's in its Napster moment where we're still trying to like we don't even know what the 10 year Spotify, it's on everybody's day to day life plan is. It's still confusing to some people. It's still new, it's still there's barriers and people don't understand it and some people are in, some people aren't and, but it's going to be ultimately where everything that's out. So like that's kind of like the mindset I've taken and that you know what's. If we're in the Napster moment of it now, what's going to be the itunes moment of it and then more importantly than that, what's going to be the Spotify Title like what's going to be the everyday, every use case moment for it? Because when we get to that point it's going to be fascinating. But like, you know, that's definitely, I think the main thing. I get worried when people think it's not going to happen because it's definitely going to happen. But it's just a matter of you.

Well, you know how it is, Mick. I mean like, you know, we were both around, you know, during the dot com crash and there was people who wrote off the Internet and then you know, there's people who wrote off crypto, there's people who are writing off NFTs. And what happens is when things are new, they get super popular, everybody jumps in, it becomes inflated, the bubble bursts and then the real work begins and the real people who really know what they're doing, who aren't in it for a quick buck, that want to put down the right routes and technology and take the able amount of time that it really does take to build something with staying power, then that work begins and it could be five, 10, 15 years later. And then you have these transformational things and it's those people who have been there all along that are the ones that are going to really make the wealth from it. And that's just generally what happens with, I've seen this happen over and over and over again is that everybody thinks that these things happen overnight and, and they don't. Trends happen overnight. But sustainable business, you know, movements take, can take decade or decades to really impart on the mass public.

Yeah, yeah. And so I mean that's definitely, I think the phase that we're in right now with that. And like, you know, you said it, you said it best. I think we should say the transformational like it's going to, that's where ultimately it's going to go. It's just going to be. And I don't think it's going to be a 10 to 15 year thing like some of the past technologies because I think as we move forward after everything that that window gets smaller and smaller. And if it took streaming and MP3s a good, you know, 15 years to get from Napster to like Spotify on everybody's phone, this is going to take five, if that, you know, then whatever the next thing is is going to take two or three. So yeah, there's that. That's the one thing I noticed. The other thing I noticed is that how about TikTok?

What are you seeing TikTok doing for the music industry and how does that impact it?

I mean, I think, I think, I think it's fascinating because for, for one of two reasons. One, I think it's just fascinating from a musical discovery point of view that people are discovering music from TikToks and reels and people are creating literally short form musical content not for radio or streaming or clubs or parties or listening to in the car. They're literally just taking bite sized things just, just for people to use. And I know that it's been fascinating watching the rise of the TikTok producer or the Reels producer. People who get big just remixing samples in just little 60 second bite size increments that just have a good little energy and vibe. And it's so fascinating too from a rights perspective because they're definitely not clearing any of that stuff. So I don't know how that all works, but it's really interesting and that will ultimately that's going to all come back around on everybody. But I think that's really, really fascinating in that regard. And I think the other thing I think is really interesting is obviously we've seen it would happen with so many artists from the past that have gotten these random lightning striking moments 20, 30 years later because of Tick Tock where somebody is just like, oh, this random song from 1984 or 1992 becomes huge again. And then what? And then all of a sudden their Spotify streams spike and their Apple streams Spike and their YouTube streams Spike and then who knows, maybe their tours spike. And it's fascinating how whatever the newest of the new culture can go back and impact the old school culture. Stuff that continues to build and bubble and inspire and then it could kind of keep going around in circles and circles and maybe that inspires the next musician that could, that same thing could happen. It's just, it's really cool. I like that for all we call it like, just like new. We're not looking backwards and all that. There's still so many people from the past that are reaping the benefits of this technology and perhaps getting career extensions from it. And I think that's really cool. And I don't, you know, I love, I love that aspect. So I just think for me it's just like, I think it's fascinating. It's a device where you could learn and by device I mean like a mechanical advice, I mean like a mental or emotional device where you can learn both new things and old things at the exact same time. And it synergizes perfectly.

That was great. We're going to move on to our final topic and just talk about you being an investor. You know, a lot of people dabble in seed investments. I know that you've made quite a few. You know, you talked a little bit earlier about how some of these investments come together through some of your personal relationships. What is it about, you know, being a seed investor that you're gravitate towards and what is sort of your role with some of these companies that you do invest in in terms of how you have value?

I'm sure. Thank you for asking that. I love talking about that. You know, for me, I enjoy finding, like, great people who are doing really unique things and identifying their promise very early. I look at investing very similar to, like, how I would look at curating a mixtape or how a label A and R person would look at putting together their label roster or helping piece together an album. I think, like, you never know what the finished product is going to be, but you know how it's going to start, right? And so it means that the person and the team around that have to be good enough to get that. I'm going to, I mean, say album on purpose right here. To get that album from an idea in a studio to a finished product that everybody can enjoy. That's perfect, right? Or as perfect as what we think perfect can be. Because there's no perfect. And that, to me is what I think is so important that people. People neglect when they're doing angel investing or seed investing or even venture capital for in a lot of ways, it's like, can that person. You're investing in the person, not the idea. And there's been a few times where I. I went against my gut and went past the person and looked at the idea, and that did not go very well. But then there's been multiple times where I looked at the person and I was just like, oh, man, I would. I'm like, I'm in love with the person. Like, they are fantastic. They're just an amazing human being. I want to have drinks with this person. I want this person to be friends with my family. I want, like, you know, I want to introduce this person to other. When you meet somebody who's that great and you believe in them, you just like, that's how you know, right? And I've been fortunate to meet some really amazing people that, that I was able to get behind. That's one way I look at it. The other thing is, like, from an investing point and also we do. My wife and I do a lot of this together. Now, which is great because she's an amazing founder and she's an amazing operator as well. I have to shout out her company, Tiny Organics, the best baby food company ever. But, yeah. So, like, the one thing, you know, that's really cool is even if I don't have. Even if I don't invest in you right now, I could still potentially offer value by, you know, being on a board or advising or things of that nature. And what I try to do, for me, it's just like, I'm really good at brand, I'm really good at relationships, and I'm really good at kind of like seeing a couple slots down the field, if you will. Like, as a DJ, my brain, the thing that people don't realize about DJs, right, is you think we're. When we're queuing up that next song, that we're getting ready to play that next song in our minds. And I'm speaking from, like, just me and the DJs that I rock with, like, the guys who are really masters of their craft. I'm not saying I'm a master of my craft, but I have longevity. I'll say that, like, we're two or three songs past that, you know, when we're giving you song number two, after you're listening to song number one, I'm already three or four songs down. I know where I want to go. I once went and took a racing class, like, at. At some speedway, like, way upstate. And they were just like, you're going like 200 miles an hour was insane. I thought I was gonna die. And you're in the car by yourself, right? And the thing they tell you, and it's changed my life hearing this, they're like, if you are only looking right in front of your car, you're going to wreck, you're going to die. You need to be looking, like a hundred yards down that track because that's where. And trust that everything else is going to, like, flow right in front of you. If you're looking that far ahead and when. And they told me that, and I had to do that when we were driving. It's not going to end well for me. But, man, I can tell you, first of all, getting back into my regular car, driving home from that was a transformational experience because I've never driven the same again in my life. Because obviously you have to pay. I mean, you obviously got to look and see if, like, a dog goes in front of your car or something like that. But it's just like when you start to, like, zoom out like that on things, it changes everything. And so I started realizing that's what I've done as a DJ my entire time. Like, I know where I want this party to go, I know where I want this set to go. I know I want this playlist to go right? So for me, it's never about the next song. It's about, like, a couple things down. And so that's, for me, the same thing I try to do when we're working with startups, right? It's just like, okay, I know what your idea looks like now, and I know what your brand should look like now, but have you thought about this as this way? Have you thought about it this way? Have you applied this cultural component to it? Have you thought about talking to this person and bringing in this? Because, like, you're so focused on the now as you should be as a founder and as a creator and as a CTO and all of these things. You have to be focused on the now, right? Because you got. But, like, I can zoom out because I don't need to be focused on the now. And I could potentially offer value in those other ways because that's how my. That's how my brain works. And so, yeah, so that's what we do. And we're working with some really, really, really awesome companies right now and, you know, many more to come. And, yeah, the goal, the end goal is for my wife and I to eventually have our own fund. I think that's something that we're going to really start figuring out how we could do as a husband and wife team, maybe in the next couple years, but in the meantime, we're just like, we just do it on our micro level. And it's, it's, it's rewarding and it's fascinating and it's one of my favorite parts of my career right now, to be honest.

It's amazing. It's amazing how it's evolved to that level. So amazing. We're going to wrap things up here. You, obviously, Mick, are always on a plane, always heading somewhere, moving so fast. What in your life is worth slowing down for? I know you're. You're going to talk about your son, you're going to talk about your newly married. Congratulations on that. How do you unwind with the craziness that is your life?

I like to go for, like, long runs. It's like, that's very relaxing to me. I finally bought an Apple watch so I could, like, listen to music, but, like, not have my Phone. As a dad, I can never be the guy to go with, like, no communication parent. I just, you know, I don't care if I die off the side of the road and they'll be fine. But, like, I worry about if something else happened, like, can I be reached? You know, like. Like, if. If I got hit by a bus, it'd be, like, great. But, like, if something happened to somebody else and I wasn't reachable, I would never be able to forgive myself. So, like. But I found, like, you know, that, you know, when you see those, like, annoying people at the. At the stoplight and they're running in place because they don't want to stop running, I would be that person. But I'd be scrolling Instagram or I'd run to, like, some coffee shop really far away to, like, get a great espresso and run home. And I'm, like, still looking at my phone and I'm thinking about all the envy and all the jealousy and all the things that we all see, no matter who you are, when you look at Instagram and social media. And that stays in my head. And so I started thinking, like, if I'm going to give myself some time, you know, and I'm never going to remove music from my equation because that would just be very much against my. My DNA. I was just like, let me do this. And that was a real game changer for me. You know, the other thing I like to do is I just kind of, you know, we started doing that. You'd love this, too. Maybe one day we'll do this and invite people over. We do. We started to do game night on Sundays where we drink. We just drink some wine. We play a board game. I play. We're only playing records, vinyl records. We're only doing analog. It's very analog. You know, like, I'm trying not to even put my phone on the table while we do it, but we open up a great bottle of wine or Miles will drink some juice, and we're literally playing, like, Monopoly and Life and Sorry and Battleship, and we're playing only records. And then, you know, I just got to get up every 15 minutes and flip it over, and it's really. It's a great Sunday night detox from the weekend and get you really prepared for, like, Monday. It's really. And it's. And it's also. It's beautiful. So, yeah, that's. That's what we do.

I love that.

Alyssa.

Mick, you've been, you know, a great inspiration. A sense of learning, a great friend over the years and looking forward to doing more with you in the future. And I just want to thank you for joining. So on behalf of the Suzy and Attaweed team, thanks again to Mick for joining us. Be sure to subscribe, rate and review the Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform. On behalf of everyone, thanks again and we'll see you guys real soon. Take care everyone. The Speed of Culture is brought to you by Susie Suzy as part of the Adweek Podcast Network and a Guest Creator Network. You can listen subscribe to all Adweek's podcasts by visiting Adweek.com podcasts to find out more about Suzy, head to Suzy.com and make sure to search for the Speed of Culture in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts or anywhere else podcasts are found, click follow so you don't miss out on any future episodes. On behalf of the team here at Suzy, thanks for listening.

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