DJ Skee - How To NOT Follow The Crowd

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the what Now? Audio Experience. These episodes are my way of giving you that real, raw, authentic look into business and what it actually sounds like. Some of these conversations are recorded in the studio, some are on the red carpet, and some are with my friends over at dinner. So the audio may be a little rough, but what really stands out to me are some of the behind the scenes conversations that take place when the camera is turned off because they provide so much value from people who are living and breathing business every single day. That's what I wanted to do. Bring you something that represents what business actually is, not just what you see on social media. No fake gurus. And by the way, if you need more help with your business, please visit the what Now Academy at www.wharnow.academy. there you'll learn what to do now and what's coming next to build a great business. Be sure to connect with me on social media at Scott Duffy Media across all channels, or visit my website@www.scottduffy.com. let's do this.

On today's episode of the what Now? Audio Experience, my guest is DJ Ski. DJ Ski, the founder of Dash Radio, one of the top EDM artists in the world. And by the way, if you're into sneaks like I am, he owns one of the largest sneaker collections, most valuable sneaker collections in United States. Make sure after this episode to check it out on YouTube. Now, for those of you who don't know, Ski, Ski is a billboard in Forbes 30 under 30. He is a DJ. He's won multiple awards as a DJ of the year. He was the first. Okay, I want you to get this. This is how good he is at finding and discovering talent. He was the first in the music industry to play Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Post Malone and more. He is absolutely incredible. He has multiple sports clients across the NFL, NBA, mlb, including the Minnesota Vikings. And he just. Ski is everywhere now. What I loved about this episode in this conversation that we had was Ski talked about the entertainment business and how you have to shift and how you have to move and how you have to adapt. And I think that as a guy that lives in Southern California, that grew up in Los Angeles, that grew up around the entertainment business, one of the things that I think a lot of people don't realize is there are more independent contractors in Los Angeles than any other big city in the United States. And that's because of the nature of the film business. You go from project to project, concert to concert, TV show to TV show, movie to movie. That's how it works. So you have all kinds of independent contractors, and when markets change and you have to shift and adapt, that can be really difficult. And so Ski talks about that in this interview that we had. And I just, I think his, his counsel is phenomenal, by the way. Counsel, Counsel. We want to talk about that word real quick. So whenever you're out there looking for someone to help show you the way to get where it is that you want to go, there's really two ways that information is going to come to you. Either is opinion or counsel. Remember this. Opinion or counsel. Here's the difference. If you go and ask somebody, for example, how to build a successful company and that person's never done it. But you know what? Maybe they're your family, they're your friends, they're your parents, they're people that love you. Your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your spouse, whatever it is. They may give you, like all the information, they may give you great advice, but here's the thing. They've never done it before. It's their opinion. It's nothing more than a guess versus counsel. Counsel comes from people that have literally walked in the shoes that you want to walk through. They have gone where you want to go. They have gotten through what you need to get through. And so what they're sharing with you is stuff that they know intuitively in their gut that works. And so it's so important when we want to get anywhere and we're talking to anybody that we're paying attention to what it is that we're getting. Opinion versus counsel. Skee's counsel in this interview is phenomenal. I hope you guys enjoy this, this episode as much as I do. Until next time, have an amazing day and enjoy.

I am so fired up to have DJ Ski as our next guest. DJ Ski, amongst many other things, is the founder of Dash Radio. He is a world renowned dj. I'm sure you've all heard of him, loved his music, and you've probably seen he's got one of the biggest sneaker collections in the country. And if you don't believe me, go to YouTube because it is super cool and you can see more of it. So with that, I want to welcome Skee. How you doing, brother?

What's up, Scott? How are you?

I'm good, I'm good.

How you been?

Oh, it's great, man. Busy. A little chaotic and stuff, but everything overall is great. How about yourself?

Well, you know, I'm doing great.

By the way.

Isn't that the answer that every entrepreneur gives to that question.

How are they?

Right. It's the only way to go. Look, you can take opportunities that are in front of you and look at them two ways. They either slow you down and stop you or you plow through them. Right?

Exactly, exactly.

So I'd love to talk a little.

Bit about your journey as an entrepreneur from DJ to radio host to what you're doing today. Can you share where you got started and how you got started? Yeah, sure.

I started, you know, I thought I was going to be an athlete growing up and as a major sports fan, but I was always entrepreneurial. In. In high school, I never worked a true 9 to 5 job. All my friends would work at Target or Best Buy or something. So instead what I did was probably work harder and work more for less money. But I'd tell them, I'd pay them like 20 bucks to tell me when shipments of things, for example, like the PlayStation 2 or Xbox was out when they were coming in. So I'd go buy them and sell them for double the money on ebay and run across town doing that all day and selling shoes and things like that. And it was through that that I got connected with Steve Rifkin, who was the CEO of Loud Sony Records. And I'd started DJing at that time, knew that that was kind of what I was going to do and was just kind of, you know, all focused and all in on that and, you know, built a relationship through him from offering him value and another item, I had a sold out, you know, PlayStation for his son when he needed it for Christmas and just built a relationship with him from there.

That's awesome. And I mean, today, I mean, when we take a look at your work, one of the things I think that stands out the most to me and that I respect the most. Well, number one, you are one of the most influential and people on the forefront of popular culture. You have this unique ability, and I was just watching Mark Cuban talk about it, your unique ability to discover and understand kind of what's coming next and to identify and discover talent. What is the key to doing that?

Yeah, I think first off, it's finding things that you're passionate about. Right. Like, I've been able to discover great musicians because it's something that I really love and believe in. And I started doing that for love before I was doing it for work. Right. And even on the business side of the side, I always loved the hunt of the chase. Whether it was tracking down, like a system that I knew was gonna sell out and be Worth more money. It's always trying to, you know, see what's next and be ahead of the curve with that. So for you, and then it's, you know, as you evolve, it's keeping your ears to the ground, following your own intuition and not. Not getting caught. Well, while being very cognizant and aware of the market. Not getting caught up into just reacting to what everybody else is doing. Because if you do that, you're not going to have any of those opportunities.

Exactly. And would you mind sharing some of the artists that you are? I mean, because it's a long list. First to play or early to play and get behind. Because I think it really helps to illustrate kind of how on the forefront you are.

Yeah, sure. I mean I got known on the radio. I mean on the mixtape side it was like everybody from Kendrick Lamar came up with game and produced a lot of his early things on radio. First with Gaga shouted me out in her south by Southwest keynote a few years ago. Bieber, we were there on dash. We were the first with Post Malone like Bryson Tiller. I mean, yeah, the list goes on and on. We're lucky to have seen the first iterations of a lot of these superstars. And I actually just found some of the footage of. Not only did we have the. Did I produce Kendrick's first mixtape and put him on the radio for the first time. I booked him for his first show and I found some of that footage recently, so.

Oh, that's awesome. So I'm curious. Being a DJ to me looks like I was watching this. A friend of mine sent to me a Swedish House Mafia YouTube video and gigantic audience. Everyone's having a great time. All I could think about was how amazing it would be to be on that stage. Right. Broadcast to all those people. Talk to me about the music or the business of being a DJ today and how do DJs need to pivot or adapt in today's Covid environment?

Totally. I mean the DJ game game is weird. So to give you an example, 2009, I think I was the second highest paid DJ in Vegas behind AM. So and I was gonna say okay. And it wasn't like insane when you see what DJs are getting now. And it was an insane amount. Two years later the electronic scene broke up and all these people started getting multi million dollar deals. Just like insane amounts. Like 10x what I was getting, 100x what I was getting. So that scene blew up and then it kind of fell down. Outside of the top, top tier ones, the guys Like Swedish House Mafia, of course, Calvin Harris, Skrillex, Dibble. All these guys are still getting an insane amount of money. But there was a real bubble that kind of burst. A lot of people hopped on it, had a great run, but then a lot of DJs weren't able to make it up. Now, obviously, DJs been so dependent on touring. A lot of those guys, it's a challenge because those club gigs are wiped out and it looks like they're done for, for the year. I mean, in essence. Right. Like, I don't anticipate many of those things coming out. There's, of course, like, digital equivalence and people are jumping and pivoting to new platforms and you're seeing opportunities in digital environments like games. And I think what everybody says about pandemics like this is that they tend to accelerate trends that were already happening. And I think you're going to see.

That that's really powerful. They tend to accelerate trends that are already happening.

Yeah. And I think what you're seeing with that was music and. Right. And like, live events and live experiences. And before, you know, even me, like, I wasn't really interested in seeing a digital concert. It was boring. And now you're getting people like, and, you know, seeing like, de Nice go on Instagram and get millions of views and get the whole world tuning into his living room DJing. So there's a couple of things. One, on the DJ side, I think while DJs world has had its peaks and valleys, I think it's finally. It's valleyed out now. There's a big peak. So I think there's going to be more opportunities for DJs in this because people want to feel that emotional connection. They want to hear that curation. They want to feel that energy of a crowd experiencing those records together. There's a real science behind that. It's not just the fact that they're playing music. It's experiencing this communally with others in this way. And the way that it's all put together that the DJs provide. But also I think that there's this new opportunity to create experiences. And the way that we look at it with DASH is we have a great space and we, you know, unfortunately, our timing wasn't great in building this incredible new venue that we were building for all these great events, but now we're adjusting it. We always thought of it as a content creation hub and we're making it something that, yeah, a few people will be able to experience in person. Even if we opened up wide, we could fit 500 people in there. But you know, if we go into a Fortnite game where we're putting ourselves in front of 12 million people right then. So I think the opportunity is now creating these like kind of hybrid in real life digital experiences. And that's what we're really focused on right now. We've launched, we've accelerated even our blueprint for launching things like video for Twitch. And now we have one of the fastest growing music channels on Twitch. And we've just doubled down on creating high quality, premium, good live content because it's not just turning a camera on a stage and broadcasting. There's a lot more that goes into it. So we think that that world is now going to be, you know, there's a lot of opportunity there. So we're focused on it.

I have to tell you, DJ Strider, I don't share this one, this one often. So my daughter, since she was little, she just. And she's still little, she's 10 years old, but she has always wanted to be a DJ. That was her thing. And so she goes on YouTube and one of the ways that we've always bonded is we'll go on YouTube and we'll search around and we'll look for DJs and we watch them together. So it was always, I want to be a dj. For her birthday, she wanted the thing to be a dj. She wanted DJ lessons she learned early. But check this out. One day she came in and she said, dad, I don't want to be a DJ anymore. And they said, why? And she said, because there's no girls. She said, I can't be a successful dj. Like all these people I want to be. And that big. Because there are any. So what I did, check this out, Skeet. What I did is I put that out on Facebook and I said, this is what my daughter. I got more than anything I've ever done online. Just a flood of people coming back and women that said, let me teach, I'm a dj. Know you work with your daughter. Isn't that cool?

That's so amazing. Dude, that's great. No. And yeah, and that's the power now. And I think that, you know, the great thing is, and what I tell her and everybody is that you used to be limited by geography, by. Of course there's always been like racials and gender biases and things. But because of the Internet, though, those things don't exist. So. And everybody can go out and do it.

Yeah, it's really cool. Can you share with everybody more about DASH because DASH is seriously, if you don't know DASH yet, you will. DASH is like the coolest next jet. Like this is what's coming in entertainment and so could you share Ski because it's, it's super cool.

Of course we have some thanks for always being around and you're part of the DASH fam Scott. So I'm glad you're, you're enjoying it. I mean with us. My background is terrestrial radio. I started off when I was 16, worked my way up to being in the biggest station in the country I was at, you know, helped launch Iheartra Brands at SiriusXM for 10 years. And just being in the systems, we saw there being an opportunity. As radio shifts from analog to digital with connected cars, smart speakers and we're not trying to compete with the streaming services, we think that those have replaced in essence retail and on demand listening. We're trying to own lean back listening discovery, live curation. What the place that radio's always owned, these live moments, communities and things like even this, you know, Covid that you're doing right now, this is something broadcast, right? So like there's, we saw that being this big opportunity and you know, I was crazy enough to leave the stability and I guess the standard world in that path that I was on to try and pay this new boundary. And luckily, you know, we built, we've got an incredible team and we've been able to really own what we think this next generation of live audio, live digital content. We think it's multi platform, we think it's more than just audio, we're talking about video and events. We think it's just, we're great content creators and we want to fill that same void that radio filled for 100 years. Except either as it goes from analog to digital and be multi platform, multi format and we have right now 80 stations, all commercial free, 450 DJs and hosts on there. We power radio for everybody from Snoop Dogg on down. And yeah, it's been working out for us.

And I think the word that you keep bringing up is multi. In this digital world, we gotta be everywhere. It's not enough to be in one place, you gotta be in 50 places.

Totally, you nailed it. We're not arrogant enough to think that people are just gonna come find us and go out of their way. There's too many things and there's too many distractions. Even if I was like hey, let me go watch this over there. Something else you might get a message and you totally forget about it. So you need to be everywhere. And that's why with Dash, key to our success is distribution. Right? We've done deals with auto manufacturers, we put ourselves on all the smart speakers, we put ourselves on smart TVs, we put ourselves in mobile apps. And not even only our apps, we have as much success in third party apps where we just open up our content, syndicate it to them. At the end of the day, we just want to reach people and that's what our DJs, our hosts, our artists, all of our individuals on the platform, they're coming to us because they want to be heard. So we try to be this touch point that in essence we build the pipes for them to reach the world.

So we're both in la, right? And I was reading the other day that over 55% of the people in LA county are now unemployed or furloughed.

Which is just crazy. And in Hollywood, I remember I was supposed to be at DASH for a meeting on a Friday and Thursday night is when LA shut down.

And so I take a look at the entertainment business. And one thing I love about Hollywood is it's the most creative people on the planet. We're creatives. What are some tips? Do you have two or three tips that you would give to people today that are trying to be creative or shift and adjust to help them to get through this period?

Yeah, I think it's always like, look, there's going to be challenges and expectations until things open up. Certain things like live entertainment, live experiences aren't going to be there. But as we kind of alluded to, when you open up the show, like you can either put your head down and sit there and sulk or, you know, just go ahead and deal with it. And one of the key things is you have to deal with the reality of the world. Like, is it fair? No. Is it right? No. But that's what it is. So what, what can you do? How can you pivot? How can you adjust? And not only how can you create short term things? And everybody's going to be in different positions. Some people are check to check. So they need to find. Then you're going to really need to hyper focus on like, alright, this is what I need to do to pay the bills right now. Some people are going to have the luxury of being like, all right, I'm okay for a little bit of time. And those people, it's like, all right, what is the world going to look like three months from now, six months from now, 12 months from now as we come out of this and how. And then you can take like kind of a longer term view on how you approach the future and where you see things going and where you see that there being those opportunities. And look, in every pandemic, this is where dynasties are born. And that's why we're so double down and hunkered down on these things, because we see the opportunity in front of us. Especially when competitors are flailing because of the massive overhead and cost of operations and dependencies they've had on other things that just aren't going to survive in this time and again, it's accelerating the death of a lot of those other things that would have happened. Like you're seeing a lot of companies go under that had previous issues, right? Like a lot of retail chains and department stores that were like it was probably going to happen to them regardless, maybe a year from now, maybe two years from now, but it might get accelerated due to Covid. So I think for out there you have to A, see what your own personal situation is, but then B, just take that forward looking thing and realize also none of the past stuff matters. What you've done, what all this, like none of those, like that's great, but what's the future?

You know, I have a business coach, a mentor who probably five years ago he sat me down. This is crazy because you're talking about, you know, you're talking about thinking about things in a new way, talking about pivoting and you're talking about how this is a great opportunity to kind of reset and Right. And so what he did is he brought me in, I was working on a project with one other person and he said, sat down, he said, hey, I was just talking to so and so and so and so said, they're going to leave this company, your partner, and they're actually going to start up their own business in the same space and they got to place an office right down the street. And he said the reason is because you're not willing to adjust, you're not willing to adapt to some of the things going on in the market. You're kind of stuck. He said, so anyway, so then he kind of broke character and he said, okay, this isn't happening. The partner was there and he said, what I want you to do now is I want you to go to that whiteboard and just ask yourself, if you were the one going across the street and starting from scratch, how would you build it? What would it look like? I think that's the opportunity we have right now.

Totally. And that's. And I mean, look, you should be doing that regardless. Anyways, I'm a fan of those things. Like, look, you don't need to react and pivot your business every week, right? Like that there's a balance. But always look at what the future is. And again, it's like in the music business you have a great record, but you're only as strong as your last hit record. If that was six months ago, you're back cold again. So you always have to constantly reinvent yourself.

One last question when it comes to reinventing yourself, because I never thought about this as an artist. You know, it's almost like you're reinventing yourself to some extent with every new album.

100%. 100%. You have to, in any aspect.

How do you do that? How do you.

Yeah, you just have to, you know, you have to find new inspirations, you have to have new visions and new creativity. And that's why, you know, artists, their core competency is creativity. And that's why so many of them are so good at that. And like, look, but if you stay the same, like, sounds of all the time evolve. Like if I was the same DJ as I was when I started out doing mixtapes, you know, on radio, running around, doing clubs, like, I wouldn't, wouldn't exist. And for me, I always used like the DJing for me. And music to me was always the most powerful marketing tool. I never, I realized the state that the industry was in before it kind of sprung back in terms of like downloads and pirating. And I was like, you know, my peak as a DJ is like when the music industry was at the bottom. So I never depended on music itself for revenue. I depended on show gigs and branding. But ultimately I knew that that was short term as well. Well, for me it was the relationships in that unfair access that I had, being at the forefront as this dj to meet and connect with others. And those are the people that helped fund, build and accelerate our business. And that's kind of what the payoff was for me. It was always building these long term relationships, relationships.

And you know, kind of one final thought is that relationships are so, it's so important that you are always adding value to your network. I used to think, and I have a lot of friends that have gone through this, they've sold a business or they have left the company, they've been let go and they say, you know what, I'm gonna go take a year off. And they think they're gonna Be able to come right back in, and it's, like, seamless. Maybe like an artist coming back later. And what happens is they find the moment that you stop adding value to your network, you get replaced.

Totally. And that's what it is with anything, right? Like, anybody that you reach out to, like, if somebody's watching this and. And they want to connect with you, Scott, like, what's the benefit for you, right? You have a million people hitting you up. Like, for me, people all day still listen to my music. Listen to my music. It'll just take five minutes. I'm like, I'm so burned out on that, by the way. Like, I don't have 500 hours a day to sit here and listen to music. Because when you multiply five minutes times 500 people, it ends up to be a lot of time. It's just not sustainable. And there's really no. And that's when people are just seeking you. They're just utilizing you for that. Like, you're not offering. One thing that I always say to people is, like, look, if you want to get my attention, like, there's hacks to do it. Like, if you were to approach me with, like, say, for example, this is a random example. This is awesome, right? If you were to give me $200 to listen to your music, I wouldn't be into it. But if you were to hit me up and be like, hey, I got this pair of new Jordan fours for you. I'd appreciate it if you might check out my music. I'd pay attention. Just because I'm like, I'm a sneaker head. And it's kind of the same in the business world. I do the same thing when we're dealing with brands are trying to get to somebody. I'm like, all right, where did they go to school? Oh, they're a fan of the Vikings. Oh, great. I do entertainment. I'll hit them up and be like, hey, you want to go to a game? Like, offering value and building relationships naturally, where everybody wins. So there's a lot of hacks to do it, where it's not just transactional. But, yeah, I think that, you know, the key thing is you always have to provide value and find where that can come. And I think a lot of people just want a quick shortcut, like, hey, help me out. It's like, there's a million kids saying, hey, help me out. I would love to help every single one of them out. It's just not possible and not sustainable.

And it doesn't matter what you're going through today. Don't go dark. Don't go dark. Just continue. You know, Les Brown was on earlier today and Les Brown is like my favorite motivational speaker since I was 20 years old.

He's amazing.

Whenever Les is on stage, people, he's always quoting other people. What happens in this industry is everybody rips everybody off. Les Brown says so and so said so and so said, well, you know what? If you want to stay connected with people and maybe you're down, you don't know what to say, just listen to a video, you know, say, hey, I was watching something. And so and so said, just thought I'd share the thought, the thought. You can get so much content ripping stuff, but giving those people credit, which actually helps to elevate you at the same time, you know, 100%.

That's what it's all about. It's about building those relationships. And even like my first connection with Steve, I got the CEO. He hit me up because I offered value to him. He needed a toy for his son for Christmas. I sold it to him instead of selling it on ebay because of the value that I saw that he could provide. But it took time too. I built that relationship and just stayed in touch. I didn't send him like, you know, hey, come hire me, blah, blah, blah. That never came up. It kind of happened naturally. So allowing those things to play out over time, being patient, realizing that it's not instant, not building relationships long term, like even us, Scott, we've known each other for a long time and we're going to do some great things. But I feel like we haven't even scratched the surface of it. And that's okay. It doesn't need to happen. The moment you meet like, hey, let's go do this and partner up, it'll come.

Amen.

Amen. Hey, Ski, is there any last? Well, first of all, how do we reach you? How can people find you? How can people find Dash?

Sure. Just for me, it's just JC on, on social media mostly on like Instagram, Snap, Twitter a little bit. Djski.com's the site and then-radio.com radio for everything. Tonight we're doing a big special with Gunna, who's gonna have the number one album in the country next week. We're premiering his old album live with him on Twitch in a similar style setup as this. So check us out on 8 o' clock Pacific if you wanna do that. But yeah, Dash, we're everywhere. Download the app again. It's literally like we always say, it's like satellite radio for free, without any trimming, without commercials. So it's literally like the best lean back experience. If you want to hear anything like, go get it and try it out and prove me wrong. We haven't been proven wrong otherwise.

Awesome. DJ Ski, amazing to have you and to see you. Thank you so much for joining, brother.

Thank you so much for including me. Congratulations. It's a great, great, great, great day. And also.

Thank you.

We'll talk soon.

All right, you guys, see ya.

Hey, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the what Now Audio Experience. If you need more help with your business, please be sure to visit the what NOW Academy at www.whatnow. academy. We have an incredible community of entrepreneurs and experts that are absolutely committed to seeing you win there. You'll learn what to do now and what's coming next to build a great business. Also, be sure to connect with me on social media at Scott Duffy Media, across all channels, or visit my website@www.scottduffy.com. again, thank you so much for joining. Have an amazing day.