Harvard: Education Is The Key

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A person might get $10 and then I get $10. How you spend that $10 might be completely different than how I spend my $10. And I can never teach you that. And necessarily because it's not even about investment thing more. So it's just the quality of your relationship with money and my relationship with money.

And we're back with another episode of fuck you Money with Ty and yo. Yep, I'm yo. So, man. Ty. Ty. We had a conversation at the beginning of this season, or I guess depending on when this comes out. But we had this conversation before. Yeah.

We first started shooting Education.

Yeah, Right. We were in Miami, we shot it outside. We had a conversation that whatever reason didn't record properly, definitely. But it felt like such a significant conversation to have that we wanted to run it back and do it again. We're not in Miami this time. We're in la.

In la.

So where do you want to start? How do you want to start this off?

I mean, it's interesting because when we set out to start recording Fuck you money, we had a schedule. That schedule was. It started in June of 2023. So we didn't know what sequences things were. Obviously you go and you film things like this episode one, this episode two. Right. But before that episode, I had just finished this program at Harvard and I have a master's degree. I have an undergrad. Like, you know, I have different certifications. But that four day experience was my best learning experience. It was no probably. And there was no test. You didn't get graded. Right. We went over like high level case studies from companies that are literally successful companies. And some of the. Some of the case studies was from students that had took the course in the previous time frame. Right. Like math with LeBron James case study and things of that nature. And it had Mr. Beast case study and the president of Mr. Beast was in the course. Right. So what it did was it kind of primed me for fuck you Money episode season two. When I was on, we was getting ready to shoot it. So I was like Man. I want to talk about the education experience at Harvard. And it's kind of bittersweet because when you think about education, you can get education anywhere, right? And I want to make sure I'm very, very clear that that experience at Harvard wasn't just because it was Harvard. It was because if I would have had the same group of people in an auditorium with a talented professor at Howard, it would have still been the highest level of experience, educational experience, or the best educational experience. The reason why it was one of the best educational experiences because we was in the class with current CFOs, COOs, founders, talent champions, all talking about business, right? And you can interact with them and you can take some of those things and you can apply them to your day as soon as you finish class. That is what made it very, very, very, very high level of educational experience. Not just because it was at Harvard. Right Now, Harvard do have some fire merch, so I had to copy some merch, right? And the experience was. It was very. It was very professional, right?

Can you tell me how you even found out about the course?

So in Miami, 2022, probably like March or March or May. I think it was February. February 2022, I got invited to a web conference down in Miami at liv. First time I ever been to LIV was at a Wealth Conference. Could never remember where that Wealth Conference was at until I actually went to Live this past New Year's Eve. Right.

Oh, that reminded you.

I remember coming to this motherfucker. It was literally the wealth conference in 2022. So Professor Anita, who is the creator and a professor of this program called Beam Business, Entertainment, Media and Sports. So she was speaking at the Wealth Conference. And so I heard a few people talking about the program. A few of my homies had either got accepted to the program before COVID or they had went through the program. So I was like, this is interesting. So let me connect with her. I connect with her. We stay in touch at the end of 2020, 2022, I'm on like a sole search anyway. So I'm like, man, I'm gonna see if I can get some more different level of education. So I remember, and I was asking her, I said, hey, I wanna apply for the course. How does it work? She sent me the link. I did research. So she said, you should apply. So I applied in December 2022. I wanna say probably March, April 2023. I got an email that said, I'm sorry to inform you that basically didn't make the cut, but we'll Keep you on the wait list, right? So I'm like, damn, that's fucked up. I really wanted to do this course. I don't plan my time frame for it. So I hit Anita back. I said, hey, I didn't get in. I said, but maybe next year. And she was like, don't worry. I could have sworn you was on the waiting list. I said, oh, I am on the waiting list, actually. She said, oh, yes. She said, don't worry about it. You just never know. I said, okay, cool. So I went about my life. I never filled up the space that I had blocked out for these courses. So that space is still available. So I literally was getting ready to go to St. Tropez for Memorial Day weekend. I get an email like, hey, would you be interested in the course? We have a spot open up. The course cost about 10,000 for the program. So I was like, yeah, I want. Yeah, I'm with it. So I was able to get into the course. So, like, now I'm excited. I'm like, oh, man, this is dope. Not because is Harvard. It's because all I've heard about this program is that it is so instrumental on the people that you meet there, right? And how it can help with your network and, like, your perspective on business. So I said, okay, cool. So, boom, get back from France. And I take one day. I take one day to kind of like give a breather. And I get to Boston a day before we're supposed to report, right? And so that's when they, like, where it started at, you know what I mean? And from there, it was just a roller coaster of learning experiences through the different case studies. They'll give you the case studies before you get to class. So it's like nine. And then they'll get like an itinerary that knows what you're gonna cover over which day. Right.

How many people would you say was in the class?

Oh, it was 78 people, 78 globally. I didn't know it was gonna be that global. There was nothing that surprised me. It was about 40 people. I can't remember if it was 38 US and 40 global or 40 US and 38 global. But it was people from Africa, different parts of Africa, different parts of Europe, you know, different parts of South America, throughout the U.S. so it was a very, very well versed group of people. Right. It was a good amount of women. Usually that's not the case in these type of experiences. So it was a good amount of women, and it was definitely a good amount of Talent, Black men, Black women. But yeah, it was funny because one of my classmates just saw her when we was out in France. In Spain. Not in Spain, but in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, right? It was like we was in Harvard just, like a year ago doing this program. And we kept in touch. She works at the Atlantic, Candace. So we was able to connect dots. Started talking about ways that we could work more together, things of that nature. But, yeah, it was cool. It was like one of those things where I was like, people need to. I'm always doing shit. And be like, man, people need to experience this shit. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, it was cool.

Susie, who we did an episode with, did a podcast where she talked about the importance of the alumni that you come up with and being able to network with them. Because it gives you, like, not just a broader network, but people who kind of experience something that you experienced and you met them in that space. So did you feel that, like, these people you're crossing paths with, people you would not have met otherwise in this course?

Oh, definitely would not have met none of the people in that course. You gotta realize. So you. In the course, everybody has a name in their company, right? I'm looking around. A huge company we talking about, from Apple to Crunchyroll to Sony to A and E Network to CBS to even, like, Mr. Beast to, I mean, Red Bull, like some big global companies, right? And I'm looking. I'm like, my CSA culture holdings, you know what I'm saying? This is a company I founded with my friends, right? And then the person right next to me was a cricket player. He's been the number one cricket player for five years in a row. And they grade. They do the rankings weekly. So he's been number one. Wow. 52 times per year. He's a superstar. Literally. I was sympathizing. A cricket superstar, right? And so you're not. You know, it's just like, you're not gonna. And the person next to me was the head of communication for cbs, right? Black Brother, you know what I'm saying? I just spoke to him the other day. Cause he's supposed to be coming to la. We're gonna connect dots, whatever the case may be. So you would have came. I would have came across those same batch of people from all those different walks of life. You know what I'm saying? It's just wonderful.

Now, you didn't have, like, a background in business education prior to going to Harvard, like, taking a course on business. What was significant about this for you as far as applying what you learned to your business.

Seeing how like minded people think in real time, right? Because the course, the program was really about strategic thinking and strategy. It was like, okay, this is the case study. LeBron James. There's three deals on the table. It's one for NBA 2K, it's one for Xbox, it's one for NBA Live. Which deal did he take right now? The history. I already told you what deal he took. But if you don't know the inner workings of that kind of like case study, you're sitting down, you're looking at it, right? You're like, man, this is crazy. I wonder what deal is. You're hearing people in real time give what they think that the strategy was, right? Or they had like Jay Z's case study about the book decoded, right? And how the firm, the marketing firm, I can't remember the name of the marketing firm, how they went about marketing decoded, right? And how they was. It was a book publishing company and how they was able to win that deal over with Jay Z. So you look at it like, dang. Okay, so I remember when I was seeing all of the pages from Decoded being marketed across New York City through like social media at the time, right? But like, I didn't know that this company had nothing to do with it. And like, what the bet and it made it so that that company kind of like exploded from there. Dragonfly. That's the name of the company. Wow.

Okay.

It's not a, it's not a publishing company. It's an added agency.

Okay. They just did the marketing for the book.

I did the marketing for the book.

Gotcha.

But it was a small company and that was one of their wins. That kind of made them a bigger company, right? So now when you're looking at this, I'm not taking this course at fucking 21 years old in college. I'm taking this course after I've met hoes. I'm taking this course as I already did business with Drag On 5, you know what I'm saying? I'm taking this course as like, you know, having these conversations with Mav about what strategy looks like, you know what I'm saying? I'm taking this course as these case studies about Beyonce. Like, you know, we're working with Dream. We're working with, you know, Diana Gordon when she was writing for Beyonce. So it's a surreal experience because the case studies about Disney and they tent hole, you know, properties like the Avengers and all those different type of things, right? You know, we sold a record to Disney, you know, we've synced records. So it's surreal because I'm in a C suite level of my life when it comes to business, right? Where the way I'm operating at this particular point in my life, it is based around certain high, high net worth individuals. Not because I'm a high net worth individuals, it's because we built something unique. When you build something that's unique, you attract people that have way more success than you because they know how difficult it is to build something unique, right? So being in that class at that time frame and you're sitting down, you're like, man, this is crazy. They talking about screaming wars. And at that time, when we was taking, at that time the course, the strike was happening, right?

Yep.

And so we're talking about this and I'm affected by the strike because one of my clients was affected by the strike at that time. So I'm thinking about ways to help him out, help her out, you know, all these different aspects of it, right? So the course itself was really, really impactful. But my previous experience in business before I got there was just as impactful. And me knowing that out of all of these 78 people, there's probably less than 2% they got. They, this is their company, you know what I'm saying? I paid for my joint, ain't the company paid for it on both to send you there, you know what I'm saying?

Gotcha.

And so that was probably the, you know, like enlightening and exciting part for me is knowing that the work that I've done qualified me enough to be able to pass the book test or the I test or the resume test, to be able to sit amongst all of these other great individuals. I'm talking about champions, you know, high level C suite executives, founders of like, you know, multi billion dollar companies, right? Who they're running the finance for. They're running like, you know, tech companies, gaming companies, right? Broadway licensing companies, some of the biggest Broadway plays. These, these companies are dealing with licensing. So it was a very humbling experience. And you learn in your strategies and you learn from like how far advanced you are versus how behind you are, right? And for me, I was probably one of two people out of 78 that use AI every day when they did the test, because we had a whole day where somebody from AI came in, we talked about AI and what that means for the innovation of business and all those different things.

And they had asked who is using AI in the Class.

Yep. It asks who know about AI. Who's currently using AI this amount of times, how many people using AI? This amount of times, how many people using AI every day.

And you were one or two that use it every day?

I think I was the only one that used it every day. It was to the point where it was like, how I like my note taken. Like, my notes are being taken right now while I'm in class with y'. All. My notes are being taken for every call that I'm missing. So everybody was like, how, like showing people how to set it up, the program. Yeah. I even had a call probably like six months later with one of the guys from the class with his. One of his teammates, trying to figure out Firefly, like, yo, it ain't doing the way you saying yours, going right into your Monday board. How are you doing that? So we had like a tutorial type thing. You know what I'm saying?

That's fine.

So that was like, even then, where you're like, if you have any lack of confidence in what you're doing, which I don't, you will gain it. You will gain it knowing the work that you do. Right. Because I know I'm always thinking about, what's the next. What's the next thing to not only make my life more efficient and effective, but like, what will keep me ahead of the curve from a discovery perspective or venture perspective. You know what I mean?

And you felt that was like minded across the board with the people that was in the room?

Yeah, I think it was very close. Yeah, I think it was very close. I think everybody was there. We had Francis, the UFC fighter, who had just transitioned from UFC and went to the New Fighting League, Right. Then, next thing you know, I was gonna go to the fight, the actual fight in Saudi Arabia, but it failed during the same time that we had to do some work for Brent for the festival in Atlanta or something like that. But I know the manager and me and the manager are always trying to connect. And that's the thing. People are so busy. Cause they really operating in different ways. Right. And we all have this WhatsApp group chat. So when the news broke that that Mr. Beast is doing a $100 million deal worth with Amazon, like a deal that's worth about $100 million. You see the group chat light up. Oh, Mark, congratulations. Oh, that's crazy. Tell us more about the deal. He's like, I can't. You know what I'm saying? He's like, I wish I could, but I can't.

Right, but to be able to have that space.

So you catch and they do like alumni stuff where you like be like alumni from the actual program so you can meet people that took the program in 2022, 2017, whatever the case may be. So I think that the overall programs, it should be more programs like that if it's not already across the board in multiple different sectors of schools. Right. And I don't really know as much about it, but I think we probably can dive in on a later talk on like the black woman that was that resigned recently from Harvard with a very short stint in the position. But overall, the learned experiences by itself and the people you meet, you can keep those relationships with. It's a real thing.

I got you. Do you look back at your education like in high school and college and you think about your time at Harvard. What do you wish you had when you were in school that you got at Harvard?

I don't really wish I had nothing different than what happened. What I do wish is that other kids that is at the age that I was at, would know about things like that, you know what I'm saying? So my concept of life is very, very simple. I'm very happy where I'm at today. So I don't. Nothing needs to change. But what I will always say is that for the 18 year old kid that was at my age in high school, I would tell them, yo, make sure that you understand that when you go to college, know what you want to get out of it. Because the people that you're gonna meet there is gonna be the people that might found the next like the next big company that's gonna transition the world. College is so much more about the people you meet there than the grades that you get. Doesn't mean to go in and don't do your grades, don't do your work because that's a representation of like your body of work as a student. But I would tell the 18 year old kid who, who hasn't had the experiences that I've had yet at 39 to understand that college is a breeding ground for networking in a way that you would probably never get again. That's what you're paying your money for. You know what I mean? So that's what I would say to somebody that's 18 years old today working towards whoever they're trying to be.

I think that's excellent advice. Also. I think framing college or framing education in a way that people can understand simply like this is where you'll be getting the best networking possibilities that you might ever have in your life.

At 18.

At 18. I don't know if it's spelled out like that. When I think about being in senior high school and we had colleges come to the school like an electronic. But I don't think no one really explained to us what we should be asking them and what we could be getting out of it. It just seemed like the next natural progression for you is college. But there's not a. Like, this is why you should be going. These are the points of views that you can get from these schools. There's the type of network you can get from that school. I don't know. Especially in public school where I went to. I don't think that was spelled out for us in a way that we would understand it. Right.

Right. If I was the dean of any college institution that has any appeal to students, my campaign would be the best education and the best networking you'll ever get. That would be my overall college marketing campaign. You're going to get the best education and this is going to be the best networking experience you ever had. Literally, I'm telling it to high school students. I'm telling that the parents, and I'm making them change how they view college. Right. So if you come to my school for two years and you meet a group of people and y' all drop out and go start another company. I'm trying to get y' all back to give y' all a honorary degree. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to. I'm gonna work around. I need a strategy. I need a dropout strategy. Why you dropped out. And if you dropped out to be more successful than you would have been if you'd have got that degree, I'm gonna make sure you get your degree. If you wanna work towards it, if that's what you wanna do. I'm gonna make. If I had a college and I'm running it, that's gonna be my marketing. Best networking experience you're ever gonna get. And you're gonna get educated.

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Fuck you. Money is kind of like an institution.

Of itself, 1,000%, you know. Yeah. We Got the Fuck youk Money Institution coming soon.

Yeah.

Programming just gotta build an audience.

Do you feel like professor though? Like Professor Ty when you talking?

Nah, I don't really feel like Professor Ty. It's interesting, man. Cause the education thing, I always have this back and forth with. And not a bad back and forth. Like people want to learn. When people around individuals and they like feel like you do something that's dope or something different, they want to try to learn it. Right. And what I'm always communicating to people is like, I don't know how to teach them my instincts.

Yeah.

Right. Now, if you ask me a question, I have the information, I'm gonna answer it. Right. But if you are expecting for me to just know what? Know how to teach you something that I'm guessing in the moment.

Yeah.

And it just so happened might be right. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. I don't know how to help you on that. Right. I. I can't teach you my thinking. I can teach you my results, but my real time thinking, I can't really teach you that. You know what I'm saying?

And.

Cause it's a scripture.

I think you have a thought process though. I can show you the thought process, but I can't necessarily tell you how to think like that.

Right, Right. So I can walk you through. Oh, so why would you go to sleep at 10pm I can walk you through why I would do that. But when I get up at 5, what I'm thinking and how that I don't know how to teach you that.

Exactly.

I don't know how to teach you how to prioritize the way I prioritize. Right. A person might get $10 and then I get $10. How you spend that $10 might be completely different than how I spend my $10. And I can never teach you that necessarily because it's not even about an investment thing. More so it's just the quality of your relationship with money and my relationship with money. Right now. I could teach you why I have that type of relationship with money. But are you gonna adopt that if your situation don't look like mine? So there's some things that I have a hard time trying to teach anybody. But what I learned through the studying of business and even through the Harvard program, which kind of solidified it, is that everybody perspective is unique. You shouldn't be trying to learn how another person think. You should be trying to learn the information that they was able to achieve so that you can get it quicker. So if they was able to get the information by the time they was 45 and you meet them and you 21, you should be trying to acquire as much of that information from them at 21. So now you're equipped with 21 year old information that you got from a 45 year old.

Right.

So that's the thing that was really, really, really spectacular from that perspective. It's like everybody here got their own way of thinking. Oh man, this is crazy. Nobody's trying to learn how somebody else think. Cause now these are successful individuals and they're like figuring it out, but they're figuring out on their own cadence. And I think that's what a lot of younger entrepreneurs or a lot of younger audience members or even people that's gonna be consuming Fuck youk Money. I think that when we talk about fuck your money, don't try to live the life I'm living. Get the information that is coming out and design it around the life that you want to live. Because your thought process and your thought, your thinking is unique. Because God made you unique. Your DNA is different. That's why your thinking is different right now. You can never have the same DNA as somebody else, but you can think like somebody else if you allow yourself to. But you can wake up, get rid of social media, get rid of, you know, anything that's clouding your judgment. Any drug, any bad food habits. Get some well rested sleep and just start thinking. Guaranteed you won't just be following what a trend is. Like these ideas that God sent out to everybody. You're gonna capture one of those ideas where you're gonna feel like a brand new person. You know what I'm saying?

I was a man sent me this sermon that I was playing last night. And the preacher was talking about how we love the idea of miracles. But you don't want to put yourself in the tight spot in which a miracle happens.

Right.

You know?

Right.

Yeah. Because he was like, miracles don't happen when things are just like easy. Like when your back's against the wall is when something like that's when it happens. That's. Sometimes I think that people give up before their back really hits that wall. And you have that inspiration moment or that thing that you really need to come. It's. It'll come when you're, when you're at that place for it to come.

Yeah. You only get a miracle when you need one.

Yeah. If you don't need one, it's not coming. But I hear that when I think about you. Just because sometimes I think some of the things I've heard you talk about, the things that you experienced, I'm like, well, why did that happen? Like that, right? But you know, you also hear how disciplined you are and like how focused you are and how like these little things that you can hear it, but you might not understand it until you are in a place where you have to be disciplined or where you have to be focused. And at least knowing that, like, maybe this is what Ty experienced or maybe this is what someone else has experienced that lets you know, like, okay, I'm going in the right place. I'm starting to feel the right things. I think that's why it's important to listen to people tell their stories.

Yeah.

Because how are you supposed to know.

1000 I'm going to tell everybody. Because if you're lucky enough to encounter this type of human, if you're searching and you find this human that can tell you something before it happens, because they have that much experience, they usually go like this, man, listen, I'll tell you exactly how this is going to go. You're going to walk your ass in there, you're going to say this, they going to say that, and when they say what they're going to say, you're going to be like, how the fuck they even know that? And then this is how you respond to it. If you can meet one of those type of people on your journey, man, your life is gonna get excelled in a different way. Because they're always. Cause you're gonna get those phone calls like, man, you was right, man. They said exactly what you said. Because it ain't really that much different.

Shit.

Under the. Under the thing. I remember talking with LaRussell and I was like, yeah, man, you gonna go in there, you gonna take that label meeting, you gonna come outta there, you gonna get that deal, and you're gonna feel disrespected. You gonna be like, how in the fuck we had this great meeting and y' all send me this deal and this shit feels this disrespectful bullshit. He called me, he said, man, listen, you was right, man. Fucking deal with disrespectful, man. I can't even believe I wasted my time, you know, I was like, bro, when you have a person that can give you that play by play experience because they went through it, it's really, really, really important. And I've been blessed enough not just to meet those type of people on my journey but to know the value of it, right? That's the most of the blessing is to know the value of it, right? When I was got introduced to the World Economic Forum, I was able to speak with this guy named Mark Boutros. I think that's how you say his last name. And I said, y' all need every. I need to know everything. I need to know about Davos. This man broke this shit down to me so crazy. All the way down to don't go out there doing no bullshit cause you'll get locked up in the military prison, right? He was so blunt and direct and really over prepared me and everything. He said that's how it was. It was. It probably wasn't as many people as he said it was gonna be, right? Which probably just be based upon what time I went for. But you saw what he told you, 1,000%. Absolutely, absolutely. And I was just like, wow, this motherfucker. But I just know at this age, when them type of people started talking, they were like, no, listen, this is what you need to know. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to walk you through this whole thing. I'm like, yes, walk me through this shit. I don't give a fuck how much money I got. I don't give a fuck how many people calling my phone. When I run across those type of humans, I'm quiet as a motherfucker. Just listen.

I feel when someone does that for you, you don't have to have the experience of not knowing, right? I think sometimes when something's new, you're having to take it in and then you have to kind of process it. When someone can tell you what you're going to experience and how they processed it already, then you have something to kind of as a marker of understanding. So now you can walk out of.

That room, oh my God.

Like you're not even thinking about what happened. You're thinking about how you knew it was gonna happen, how it was gonna play out. Now you can make an educated decision about what you wanna do next.

Yeah.

Can'T really beat that.

No, you can't beat that at all, man. One thing about the more education you get, I feel like the more you prime your mental capacity to be more open to information, right? That's why they'd be like, oh, people are ignorant, right? A lot of the time education really just makes your soil more fertile for learning. It makes you really respect the information in the way, right? Especially if you had to pay for school, right? Especially if you had to pay for it out of your own pocket. You didn't get no loan, even though you got to pay for loans back, but it just don't feel the same. It might feel the same after you get out of school. You're like, damn, these loans hidden because you don't got to pay it while you're in school. But if you got to pay for school while you are attending in real time, that feels a little different than having a loan that you got to pay back once you graduate. Right. And having that experience does create an environment for you mentally to grow and understand that the things that I'm learning are valuable and they can really change my life because everybody be looking at money to change their lives or looking at another individual to change their lives. But the truth of the matter is your faith, how educated you are in the things that you want to do and how confident you are. Right. Sometimes the education stuff don't even really be the driving factor because you can be not as educated in everything, but that you diving into. But you can just be so driven and so stubborn and ignorant to what you should be doing that you're going about it the wrong way and you're seeing results that nobody else was seeing.

You know, I mean, I feel like because I didn't go to journalism school, I have no idea what journalists learn in college. No idea. I just like, I read so much and decided what the do's and don'ts was of writing. And then I started writing because I believed I could do it. And in doing so, I didn't know what the results will be. But like, I end up talking to you, you know, and I think that even with our story, the story that our first interview, I think a different journalist would have saw that story differently.

Right, right, right.

Because they would have just been like, well, he gave me all this information, but I don't know if it's all relevant to this greater story we're trying to tell me being like, I just ain't never had nobody talk to me like that. I just saw value in the excessive amount of sharing you gave me on the phone to a stranger, like you didn't know me. And I was just like, this is a nice guy to share this much about his journey and to give up so much information. I was just like, well, my instincts tell me we should publish this entire thing. And I never had that feeling with a story before. Everything else had been like very trim, very. Or mixed in with another story. It was so much more work for those kind of interviews. But yours was Very clear to me that if I transcribe this and I publish it, somebody's gonna read it.

One of the things that I'm always gonna be grateful for you in is because from an educational perspective, I was just trying to get PR for the album, right? So I'm like, all right. I know y' all gotta get pr. I'm too cheap to pay for it, or I can't afford it. Cause it's expensive. So there's gonna be things that people are gonna wanna talk to Brent about. So I'm gonna make some PR for myself, but I'm just gonna talk about the album. I'm gonna talk about the process. So to make people be like, well, who's this Brent Fiass guy? Who's this person? Right? So I never thought about it from a standpoint of, like, ah, more so than, like, the movement we was in. Sunderson. We talking about Sunderson. Even when we did, like, the Vice News joint, right? Me being educated on that PR is important. Telling the story is important. I just was too cheap to pay for it. I just thought it was a ripoff. I'm like, yo, this shit. These niggas charging all this money. They can't guarantee shit. I ain't got time for this, right? So I'm gonna just create these moments myself through these different. Like, we're doing something unique. Yeah. We're using Spotify for ads, right? To be able to track. Like, people say that. That's the first time they heard anybody say it, when they heard me say it, right? And it's documented. That was 20, 17, 18. But, like, me at the time, I just thought that that was fucking normal. Y' all didn't have to get educated to be like, okay, Atlanta, New York, Dallas, Houston. We should go to all these markets right here. These are our top five markets. I didn't feel like I had to be educated. I just feel like it was, like, common sense, right? And what I realized is that if you are fortunate, you can get educated in a way that your common sense is heightened. But then there's a way that you can get overly educated where you just ain't got no common sense. You just dumb. You dumb because you're confused. Yeah, it's common sense. Don't feel it's common anymore. Now you feel like a dumb ass or you look like a dumb ass. You. Like, they say you're book smart, but you don't got no common sense, right? But I think if you are learning in a certain way, it heightens your Ability to really have common sense the way it need to be.

I really feel that to your point earlier about. For you, it was common to look at those markets where you had streaming numbers and say, let's do shows. There's digital marketing of that size with that type of information is more recent today. Like, there was no Spotify in 2008. There was no Spotify in 1998. So you can be looking at that information and be like, oh, okay, this.

Is common to you.

But somebody from an older industry can be like, man, we don't need those numbers. This is the old way of doing it. We gonna keep doing it this way.

You.

You're not afraid of looking at the new thing and using that.

I will say this, if I'm not mistaken. I know. I think it was in beta. I think Spotify for artists at that time in 2018 was in beta, right? But they had limited access to people that can actually see it, right? But then the stuff. So this was so crazy. So I'm looking at Spotify for music, Spotify for artists, the first half of the tour. Then I get a call for Apple. Cause they had me beta testing their Apple for artists. Then I go into Apple for artists and I look, they got Brent stuff up and now their system tells you how many people are listening to it and you can put in the city. So I'm looking at it and I'm looking on the map and I see like this dark red area in the middle of the map. I'm like, yo, where's that at? They was like, oh, that's in Kansas City. I literally called the booking agent, said, yo, add Kansas City as a date to the tour. This for the second leg of the tour in 2018. And that shit sold out. It wasn't on my Spotify. It wasn't on my Spotify, right? I seen it on Apple. I was like, oh yeah, we finna go to Kansas City.

And it sold out.

And it sold out. It didn't sold out immediately. It was one of them walkouts that's sold out on the walkout, on the walk up. But it just doubled down on it. Because now I'm like, okay, I see what Spotify just give me the top 50. But Apple, I can search the city directly and it'll tell me how many listeners are in the city. And I can say, I'm like, why that map. This map is lit up in the room.

It's getting more and more accurate.

This is 2018, right? So for me, me seeing it, I'm Just thinking like they just telling me where my money at. In essence, I just gotta go get in the plane or get on the bus, get in the train, whatever the fuck it is, and go get it, man.

Any final thoughts about your experience at Harvard or about, I guess like just continue to educate yourself even after seeing success.

Yeah. Naomi Campbell had took courses at Harvard. I think that it just need to be highlighted more. That talent needs to go to these type of programs. It don't have to be at Harvard. It can be at Howard or it can be that. I think Lil Wayne was at whatever institution Lil Wayne was at. I think Megan Stallion graduated.

She did.

I just think that you just have to go and get excellent educated and really have an understanding of what the business is. So whatever the biggest business schools are, if I'm a talent, I'm trying to, you know, learn more about that, go get those type of experiences because that is what's going to be that long term value that gives you up on your competition. Not because you're trying to compete so that they don't win. You just want to always be close to the finish line. You want to be close as possible to the fucking finish line so that you can provide for your family in a way without having to take from somebody else. All because you just got more educated.

Want to thank you all for watching another episode of Fuck youk Money.

Yep.

If you enjoyed this talk, please like subscribe. Send it to someone that needs to hear some wisdom.

Yeah, man, we trying to make some ad money, man.

Some ad money, baby.

You know what I'm saying? I'm tired of chasing these artists around, man. They need to give me gray hair, man. I got gray hair out here, here, man. You know what I'm saying? So support, support the, the, the, the educational. Well, you know what I'm saying? Giving all this information. We're working on volume two.

Yes, sir.

Culture Playbook, Volume two. So good.