Top 4 Best Practices For Success In Business

ABC's David Muir, the most trusted anchor in America, the most watched anchor in America. Thank you for making World News Tonight.

With David Muir the number one newscast in America.

Most trusted, most watched. David Muir on abc.

Tax act is here. Anytime you want to easily file your taxes, Taxact is here for the early birds who like to knock them out as soon as the season opens and for the procrastinators who like to wait until the very last minute. Tax act is also here for the middlers who file right in the middle of tax season. No one ever talks about the middlers, but taxact sees you and taxact respects you. Taxact. Let's get them over with.

People think that you have to look like you got money to build a business in the music business. It's the only business in the world where people think you gotta look like you're making money to actually make money.

Yeah. Yes. Welcome back to another episode of you Money with Tan. Yo, that's a man, Ty. And we are a podcast about wellness in business.

Yep.

And what are we talking about today?

Ty, man, we are talking about the top four things that you should be thinking about if you're going to be successful in the music business. Pre success and after success.

Okay, Ty, what is number four?

Number four is invest into infrastructure.

Now please break down why that's so.

Important when you see success as a independent company or as a business, as a business owner. One of the things why big companies are successful because they invest into project management tools. They invest into, you know, program software, storage, staffing. All of these things is infrastructure. Right.

Which your business will stand upon.

Which your business will stand upon outside of whoever you're in partnership with.

Okay, but why in the music do you feel like that does not happen often, especially with new people getting in the business?

Well, because independence has been, has taken over and people historically have been used to sitting on a major labels infrastructure. So now when you go out and you're seeing success as a, as an indie, if you invest into infrastructure, you'll feel less the need to go and do business with a major label. Not because they're bad at anything, just because you won't feel a lack because you've been investing into your infrastructure. And it ain't overnight as well. They gotta be something that you're consciously thinking about and planning for before you make $1.

Now before we move on to number three, give me a ballpark of how long it took you to build infrastructure for your business.

It was in phases, right. The 2016. I figured out a tool called STEM that created an opportunity so that I could pay everybody directly. That alone saved me 5% on business management fees. And it's probably saved me a whole bunch of other money that I didn't even really think about at the time. Definitely saved me getting sued because people like, yo, this song blew up and we ain't been paid. So it created a thing where everybody was on a equal playing field. And what infrastructure really does is that it creates normality. And normality basically means that everybody know when they get paid, everybody know they splits are. Everything is transparent. You can log into a portal to be able to see what is happening with the different things. So, yeah.

And that consistency helps you build your business a way that made you feel not just that you were in good company with stem, but you can continue to build more infrastructure for your artist and for yourself.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Because it starts with stem, but then after that you kind of understood, well.

It didn't start with stem. STEM was just the solution. I was thinking about it before, so that's why it's important that why I would say before your success and even after your success. I was thinking about infrastructure before STEM just came along. I was like, ooh, that's what.

That's it. That's it.

But if you don't know what ooh is or what that it is, because you haven't been thinking about it and you're just constantly doing it, Doing the thing that we're gonna talk about, which is number three.

What's number three?

Not managing your overhead properly. This is your personal overhead. If you get a big publishing deal and you take your commission off of, you know, a million dollars as a manager, and you say, yo, I'm gonna take my $200,000, I'm gonna give me a bus down. I'm gonna go get me a BMW truck.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna get me a high rise that is 4,000 dol. And then you're gonna be up and broke in nine months.

Not nine months.

Yeah, money go fast. Because if you're making them type of spending habits, as soon as you get the money, one, you're not investing into infrastructure.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

Right.

And. And two, you're not thinking about managing your overhead. Right. And so. Cause you done blown that. Cause you already in your brain, you balling out, you like, you know, it's a birdman, you know, bling bling. You know what I'm saying?

Why do you feel like that's? Such a common thing you see in music. Is it because the. The check is so big that people just naturally feel like, let me go spend, I didn't work for this. Or is it just the. The lifestyle?

It's the lifestyle. It's. People think that you have to look like you got money to build a business in the music business. It's the only business in the world where people think you gotta look like you're making money to actually make money.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I read that money begets money that people are more likely to invest in someone that looks like they have it than someone who doesn't.

Looking like you have money doesn't mean that you're gonna be going to debt.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? You can talk like you making money being educated to a certain degree, people can assume that you must have had money to get educated.

Absolutely.

You know what I'm saying? You can't tell if a person know how to code. I automatically assume like, yo, this. How did they learn how to code? It must come from a affluent neighborhood. Or like they had these different programs.

They've been educated somewhere.

So I don't. So that's why.

But you don't feel that way about money. Money doesn't tell you about education.

No, no. Because you can take money and pay $200,000 for a, you know, ridiculous watch, or you can take $100,000 and go pay for tuition for four years for undergrad degree. Right. This all depends on where you hold your values.

Okay. Who taught you about overhead for yourself? Who instilled that in you?

I think I learned about overhead through research and watching other people crash and burn. You know what I'm saying? So, like, it's like that number three things you need to know before you get into the music business. And even after your success in the music business, it's so important.

Before we get to number three, Ty, what does it mean to be successful in the music business?

Well, I mean, success in the music business is definitely like this. Like, the concept of like, beauty is in the beholder, Right. So, like, you gotta almost kind of envision what your ideology of success looks like in general, right? Yeah.

A holistic view of success.

Yeah. And before we even get into, like this holistic view of success, we got two more topics that's gonna really take you to the next level when you do have this. Cause we're gonna speak it into existence.

Yes.

If you come into the show, you tuning in, you're gonna be successful in music but these same, like, points and tips apply even when you're trying to just build a real estate business or whatever the type of business it is. But we'll come to two points more towards the end of the show, so you gotta stay tuned in as we walk through all these different points. So when we start talking about what does success look like to me, it's. It's like almost asking me, do I like Hyundai or do I like a Maybach? Right?

Yeah.

So if you ask me that question, I'm like, you know, I like a Maybach, but I'm probably gonna put my money in something that's more similar to a Hyundai or a Honda. Because what success look like to me is controlling my time. So if I can make money in the music business and I can be able to control my time, I'm successful because if I can control my time, I can control my boundaries, I can control what I intake mentally, all those different things. But I do think none of this.

Has to do what car you're driving.

No, man, I gave. I got the most worst advice that I didn't take. Back in 2013, a woman who was very, very, very successful in the music space. When I told her that I was gonna move to la, she was like, if you move to la, you need to get you a nice watch and you need to get a nice car, like a Lexus, nothing too crazy. And I just thought it was the stupidest shit I ever heard. And obviously I didn't take that advice.

You did not.

Yeah. Not till later. You know what I'm saying? Not till later.

But you know, someone. Someone once told me the most outcasted person in Los Angeles is a black man without a haircut. Truly, if you black, you ain't got a haircut in la. They will treat you like you're dirty.

Oh, shit.

And this is someone that told me that they tried multiple times to move to la, build their business. That was the thing he took away. He was like, bro, get a haircut.

Right?

Which is not buying, Alexis. But sometimes people do. Your presentation does get some type of, like, who you are.

So this is what's so funny about this shit, right? People always pick on me about this. People that know me, I be dusty on purpose, okay? Like, I stayed dusty on purpose for so long because I don't be wanting nobody to know nothing, know my family, nothing. I'm dusty. I don't know what. At some point, I can't hide it, but, like, for the longest. Yeah.

And you want to know, like, committed.

And you want to know what will happen? But I will get people that will communicate to me as if our business was on the same scale. Right? And I had to come to the realization that they're gonna keep talking to me like we equals, not equal as persons because all of us are equal as people. But from a business perspective, with Venmo.

Stash, a taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back. Nice. Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash on your favorite brands. When you pay with your Venmo debit card. From takeout to ride shares, entertainment and.

More, pick a bundle with your go.

Tos and start earning cash back at those brands. Earn more cash when you do more with stash. Venmo stash terms and exclusions apply. Max 100 cash back per month. See terms at Venmo Me Stash terms.

You look like we look like we about doing the same thing. And so I had to come to that realization, like, man, you just gotta deal with it, brother, because this is your doing. You're the one that makes it so normal that you just been with no haircut, face all dusty.

I mean, you didn't have a haircut at your birthday. That's what I knew. But it's your birthday. I thought, you know, I thought the.

Braids was gonna be done.

I was like, oh, that's. That's just tie. But I will say, before we move on in the music space, it does feel like dressing up, being in that car, having that chain, having these accessories make you feel like, all right, I am successful enough to be talking to someone that might have more money than me.

So let me say this because I don't want to. I don't want to. We know enough information to say this. Yes. If you pull up in a expensive car at a function and you work within the entertainment and music space, you're going to get attention. People are going to want to know who this person is. People are going to be like, oh, he's dressed nicely, or she's dressed nicely. Those are shiny objects that's going to draw in attention, Right? What both parties should be aware of on both sides. The person that is attracting the attention, you got to be like, can I keep this shit up? Will I be able to sustain this car Note? Would I be able to sustain this, you know, this luxury thing that I've put out? Right? Because that's what you're going to attract. You're going to attract people that are Curious on doing business with you because they feel like y' all are equal. People that are curious, that want to do business with you because they feel like you can lift them up. You're going to attract women that probably are only looking at what you have and not looking within. Right. And then you're going to. You're going to. This is something that's going to fuck you up. You're going to create an island for yourself. And that. What I mean by that is people that think that you already rich.

Yeah.

They don't want to help you.

No, no.

Nobody want to have no rich.

They kind of want your help to help them get where they think you are.

Oh, so. So when you fucked up a year later because you don't balled out, they still think you're rich?

Yeah.

Even though you was never rich. You just made some key purchases that made it come out. So I just wanted to make sure. I say that there is a pro and a cons of each approach.

Yeah.

The approach to being dusty businessman, but having the certain level of success. But everybody keeps addressing you like, y' all the same. And you know, people that you might want to connect with will look at you and be like, huh, you know, we're not, you know, shoot peasant. Right. But then on the other side of it, when you show up with the watch, with the, with the entourage or with the car, you got the high rise and whatever, whatever city, there's a certain thing that come with that where you don't know what's real or fake.

No, you don't.

The Dusty approach. Oh.

You know, but you gotta have a lot of confidence in yourself 1000% to kind of maintain that.

Yeah, man, I've been running Mix Comfy and Dusty.

And Dusty is crazy.

Dc, dc, Dusty and confident.

Before you move on, I wanted to ask you, did you hear about the biggest Ponzi scheme in Hollywood?

The biggest Ponzi scheme in Hollywood is. Are you talking about ftx?

No.

Because boy, when they. I was just looking at that shit other day. That's crazy.

I can't think of brother's name, but it was a D class actor who was trying to bring into Hollywood and he started to tell people that he was licensing out Spanish films to streaming services. And he was like, hey, if you give me money to license this film, I will be able to get you back your money plus a 49% profit.

Oh, no. That's when you run. Yeah, yeah, that's when you run.

So he started with his college friends and because he Was able to get their money back. They went and told their family, and they went and told their family. And all he was doing was taking the money from old investors, new investors, and paying old investors hand over fist, head over fist. Ty. He went and got the luxury car. He went and got the luxury home. He was. He lived so large that people just thought he had all this money and they were getting their money back. He was able to do this for six years, but then he wasn't able to get new investors to pay the old investors. So now people looking for their money. Ty, man, gave him $1.5 million.

So now 49% return on that.

Could not find someone to scam. So once the old investors realized they weren't getting their money, they called the FBI. The FBI came in. He got 20 years.

How much money did he scam them out of?

They said overall, it was somewhere in the upwards of $600 million.

How much?

$600 million.

My Larry. Yeah, he was able to for six years. That's like $100 million a year.

Yeah.

Who did he know?

Yo, but that's what I'm saying. He went to like an Ivy school, like a bunch of college people that want to get into like the tech world, want to get into Hollywood. And because people were getting their money back initially, it just brought more people in. Which is why I'm hearing what you're saying is like so interesting. Because, yeah, money makes people feel like.

Bro, I can give you money. Me and Brent was talking the other day and it was a conversation about trying to stay out of the way, Literally trying to get people to stop calling us, right? Because the truth of the matter is, it's like.

Try to stop the way.

It's crazy. So when we was coming up, and this happens to anybody that's trying to be successful in any business, right? When you're coming up in music specifically, right, you want a feature with a. Your favorite artist, they're gonna tell you no. You're gonna be like, fuck off, right? Either. Cause they don't know you or you ain't got no money.

But they want it though. They want this feature so bad.

Like, yeah, but you as a person, you're like, man, if I can just get this feature, it's gonna change. But what we used to do is when we used to say get told no, we'll be like, shit, man. You know, let's just keep grinding. When we got to the point where people wanted features from us and we would say no, people would take it personal and we would be so confused. We'd be like, bro, we got told no by so many people and we just took it as, you know what? Let's just keep working, bro. Like, you know what I'm saying? It ain't, it ain't really. No. We can't be in our feelings about it. This. They are.

Yeah.

Whatever the case may be. So what ends up happening when you're like, like those type of people though? Those people that like are scamming? Bro, scammers do not look for the dusty and confident. Okay? They just don't. You're not. You don't look. The scammers don't look for the, the DCs, man. You don't look for the DCs, baby.

But that's how. And the folks get scammed because they feel like they look the part. Like looking in the mirror and then you see someone that reflects them. And you know, I brought it up because, yeah, it's probably better to be dusty and comfortable and legal then spend six years scamming, announcing the next 20 years in prison.

Yo, man, when I tell you that's crazy. The scamming shit just so crazy because I was looking at the FTX shit the other day and the guy that ran it, that the head of the Ponzi scheme, his girlfriend was like the head of finance, bro, she looks 13 years old.

Oh, really?

I was like, who gave her money? No way. Tom Brady and all these people gave these folks millions of doll. She looked like she was a 13 year old children of the Corn character.

Bro, you said you would have never.

Oh my God. I would have never gave her money. I would've been like, oh, this is a scam. No way this 13 year old know how to do counting. No way, no way, no way. You know, it don't matter what she would've said to me. My paranoia would have kicked in. It just would have been. And then I would've got scammed by the nigga to do a Spanish film.

So you would've been.

You know what I'm saying? But overall, you know, I just wanted to articulate that it's both sides has its pros and his cons. Yeah, but one thing about the dusty and the low key side is that you don't get distracted. You can have time to really build your business quietly learn, educate yourself, educate your team, learn all the trades. You know what I'm saying? So that's why now can't convince me about no music. I don't hear that, man. I done did All I don't wore all the hats, I don't did all the work. You can't finesse me on this.

How many years size you say it took you to learn it?

I'm still learning, but like the base level of it, it was about five years in. Five years in when I felt like I had a grip on like some of the fundamental things, you know what I'm saying? Gotta realize like 2000, me and Brent started 2000. We met 2014. By 2016, we got our first check.

Okay.

By the April 2018, I was using ADP for payroll. Like this. That you was just. I shouldn't have been using ADP for payroll. Yeah, it cost too much money. I had insurance like I had all type of. At 2018.

Okay.

So like Sonic Global had ADP. It just was so expensive. I didn't know no better though. I just know that, man, payroll. I need to run payroll, pay these taxes, man. I don't want to be dealing with this, this. But that's a part of like having infrastructure, being able to account for payroll taxes. If you're running payroll so you can track everything so you can write this shit off, you gotta be able to write it off, man. That's another part of knowing the infrastructure. Because what ends up happening is people are trying to avoid infrastructure. Paying taxes is a part of infrastructure.

Yeah.

Now, how much you pay in taxes is just based on your strategy, but paying taxes is a part of it. Because when you pay taxes, you create another layer of like your personal approval of how much you make. Your company's in compliance. Being in compliance is infrastructure. Once again, being in compliance is considered infrastructure. You know what I'm saying? The inside that for four or five years. Ain't never paid taxes before, bro. Uncle Sam gonna find you. And when they find you, you better hope that you did something. That was a real loophole.

Now do you feel like because there's always in music, people not paying taxes?

Yeah.

But that's just based off them not really building infrastructure, huh?

Basically, yeah. Because infrastructure is going to force you to think about that shit. It's going to. Because if I'm paying taxes, payroll taxes, because I'm running payroll with QuickBooks or with ADP or with Gusto or whatever the fuck it is. I'm going to have to address my personal taxes because my staff is gonna get W2s at the end of the year and my contract is gonna get 1099s. I'm gonna have to address the shit business wise. So I have to Address it personally too.

Now, how many Staff wise, in 2018, how many people did you have on staff?

2018, how many people had on staff? Man, shit me, Brent B Pack like a tool. It probably like the artists. Yeah, they weren't like real staff members. Yeah, we might, when we did without on tour, that's how we would pay people on tour payroll. But yeah, we didn't have like a real. That was more so for us.

Well, that was good for you to have like a small number of guys to kind of learn the system. Is that part of like also scaling your business?

Yeah, with the opposite.

Now you. Do you want to give them the third tip?

Third tip? We already gave him the third tip.

Oh, the second tip.

My bad. Yeah, the second tip. Don't want to give him the second tip. Fuck it. We'll get to the second tip. Second tip is do not sell your IP too early. What that means is IP is your intellectual property. And we're specifically talking about your music rights and your publishing rights. Never sell that. That is the number three, number two most important thing to know as you venture into business of music, rather you are starting out or you starting to see success.

Now, why in music do you feel people sell their rights so soon?

Because they have been taught through past experiences that that's the right of passage. You go to a record label, you get a record deal, they own your shit. That's what ends up happening.

And it's crazy, put it that way. It was a rite of passage, right? Like that was seen as the thing you were supposed to do.

Yeah, fuck that. It's a new day, new American dream on your shit. You know what I'm saying? Own your shit. Get a job, pay for your. Pay your way through college, you know what I'm saying? Get a job, own your. Put your releases out, work your job, drive uber instacart. No scamming, babysit. Do all this shit, man. But do. Do not sell your rights too early. When you sell your rights, it should be because you know you about to retire and this shit finna give you the real check.

The real check.

The real check.

Now you know, Now I guess the thing is people feel like even a small check will feel like a real check when you ain't got nothing.

This is very true. So you're not going. The number one thing that you need to know, and we're not even going to get into it at this point, but when I break that part down, then you're going to really understand what it means to be very Thoughtful in how you position yourself and your intellectual property. So we started talking about business. It's like, I'm going to build this house, and when I build this house, I'm going to go sell it to somebody for less than what I paid for or less what I built for it, right? But the reason that I. The reason that I sold it.

For.

Less than what I built it for or the rest of the value is because I never got a true appraiser on it.

Okay?

You don't. You can't sell stuff that you can't get a true appraisal on. If you sell some shit that you haven't got a true appraisal on, you're going to be like, kicking yourself in the ass, right? Have you heard about the company, the. The chip company? I think it's called Nevada.

Nevada.

It's blowing up in the tech space. It's like one of the biggest companies on the stock market. I think it's. I think it's pronounced. Pronounced Nevada on Nvidia. Yeah, but Nvidia. It was a woman that sold it, oh, like some years ago. And it was like a chart that showed where she sold it at. And, like, she sold it here. And when she sold, that picture went like this, right? Like. And I don't know how much of. She was like a big shareholder in it, but it was like a woman that sold it or some shit like that, if I'm not mistaken.

Do you feel like she sold it too soon? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, some stuff that you just gotta sit with, you know what I'm saying? Some stuff you gotta be like, you know what this shit feel like it's gonna hit. It's so unique. I just gotta stay with it.

When do you feel like you. You really understood that, though? Like, man, I'm not selling. Like, I'm not selling.

I used to say no. And then he understand why I was saying no. You know what I'm saying? I'd be like, hell, no. That's stupid. And then my no was just based on this logical thought process had nothing to do with the ownership of Masters, because I would have sold my ownership of Masters if would have been like, man, it. We should do 50, 50 partnership. Yeah, but I'm gonna need a Master's though. I'd have like, well, the 50. 50. I'm probably gonna let these go. But it's just the thought process. Somebody telling you that they're gonna pay you 16%. It just always threw me off.

Just that number 16.

They said I always threw Me off, bro.

Even now, I don't want to get into your personal finances, but I'm pretty sure you needed that deal.

Hell yeah. You always need a deal when you just starting this. Because it ain't no money that just is given to you. You always need to have some level of like a loan. Either it's your own money or your friend's money or your mama money, or you're like, whatever, the record label money, the publisher money, somebody got to give you some money. In our situation, it was Post. We sold our publishing catalog too early. We served six years in prison and up in publishing prison. Yeah, we still had a great partner. I'm just saying the standpoint of like, yeah, they owned our. And when it was time to renegotiate after we got out of the deal, now we're hotter. And they were like, we wanna redo the deal. I said, $5 million admin deal. And the owner was like, whoa, is that a real number? I'm like, Yep, real number. $5 million admin deal.

How'd you come up with that number, man?

I just thought about the large number I could thought about right then. I was like, Let me get 20% of $5 million. I was at that bitch like, I was at McDonald Drive through. Let me get 20% of that $5 million.

Let me get a five piece, please.

Yeah. And the owner of Post, which is Scott, he was like, is that a real number? I was like, yep. He was like, okay, let me come back with it. Let me come back and see what I can do. And he came back and he said, how about this? How about you extend the contract for three more years under the current terms and I'll give you $3 million and then in 20 years, all of your publishing catalog revert back to you. And you and Brentwood were on that 100%. I said, okay, let's do that. I ain't tripping off that. Because now it positioned him that when he's. At the time we did the deal, Brent was like 26. By the time he's in his mid-40s, his catalog, he owns 100% of it. So now only thing he's doing now is just when that deal is up, which is this year, right?

This will be the third year this.

Year the deal will be up and he'll have a brand new deal that he can go and do 10, $15 million publishing deal with a new catalog. And now he knows that he's going to own his old catalog at some point because that's his retirement plan, right? He can go and do these next five to seven years, build that catalog up. He can actually sell that new catalog and keep his old catalog because he can't do nothing with it necessarily. He can sell some parts of it if you want to, like monetize his skill set like that.

Eczema is unpredictable, but you can flare less with ebglis, a once monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema. After an initial four month or longer dosing phase. About four in 10 people taking Ecliss achieve itch. Relief and glare are almost clear skin at 16 weeks and most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.

Hempglis Lebricizumab LBKZ, a 250mg injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have New Orleans or or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Ebglis before starting Eglis. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.

Ask your doctor about eglis and visit eglis.lilly.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.

Team USA races ahead. Imagine if we were bobsledders. We'd so win. Probably the fastest letters here Fast is good, kids, but Xfinity Mobile has the speeds to make the you unstoppable with fast, reliable Wi Fi and 5G to.

Connect you to your dreams.

Every champion needs the best equipment. Upgrade your phone every year with Premium Unlimited from Xfinity Mobile. Learn more@xfinity mobile.com Xfinity Imagine that proud partner of Team USA Xfinity. Internet required restrictions apply, but the option.

Is given because of the way you one negotiated. You just set the biggest number you can think of versus and they had to come back with something that was gonna be worth your while.

Had to because you could have walked. Oh I you know I'm all right if you ain't gonna give me the money I'LL it and it still was stupid. It doesn't matter if you'd have said I'll give you $2 million or I'll give you a million dollars if you extended, I would have been stupid by not accepting it to get that man's publishing back, which is a part of our overall company. So it makes our company more valuable down the road. So they could have offered less money. I probably would still took the deal. Just because they had the only thing that nobody else can offer us.

Right. Do you think 20 years was a long time?

20 years is not a long time when you're 26 and you don't want to be broke. When you and your fathers.

You do not.

You do not want to have it and lose it. No, you do not.

So that's like guaranteeing that at least in your late 40s, early 50s, you.

Own your music, your music will come back, you'll have that revenue driving income. You know, you'll be able to identify and build things. Because Bren is a true songwriter. True songwriters publishing matter because they're not getting songs from other people. They're writing these stories about their lives. They're writing stories about other people's lives. All of these different components. So it's like, it's almost like a relic. Like his catalog specifically is like this relic. It's like it's very rare how it happened, the ownership around all of these different things, just really rare for him. So his catalog as a songwriter is gonna keep growing and be just as value as a Diane Warren or as a dream or even a Amy Winehouse. Like his shit is gonna keep growing and be successful. I mean valuable.

And I remember you told me that that early catalog also has like no samples.

Nah, that's another thing.

So there was no one to have splits with.

No we the sample, baby. So by the time he in his 40s, he gonna be getting sampled. Well, he's already getting sampled, but it's just gonna keep increasing, you know what I'm saying? So it's a bought in aspect of it. You wanna get into the. You wanna get into the last number one thing that is important. If you wan successful long term before you get into music and long term after you start seeing success, the number one thing to make sure that you do not do is do not not invest into educating yourself through enterprise and through business, through taking online courses, through business mentorship, through business executive coaching. One of the number one things I see that people do wrong when they start having success in music is that they don't take the money that they're making and start investing into educating themselves about the business that they want to build. Lack of education is how we get taken advantage of. Lack of education is how we get scammed. Lacking of education is how you go to bankruptcy. Lack of education is the core denominator in the black community. When we do not see the success we should be seeing.

Do you believe seeing some success makes you believe that? This is, I know the system, I know the work. This makes money. Why change what works?

Why change? You don't change what works if it has long term value, right? If you're putting out music with a record label and they own everything, you should be trying to make that change because you're not getting educated. You might even get educated before you did the deal. But in the process of that deal, every time you get a royalty check, every time you get a show check, you say, I'm gonna buy this book or I'm gonna pay for this program or I'm gonna hire this executive coach or I'm going to go and audit these classes. Whatever those different things are, it creates this dynamic where you're like, wait a minute, why would I sign up again for them to own my masters longer? Or I just had a really big splash. Let me try to negotiate my masters back now that I got them going. Because I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm building a bigger empire and now I'm having a success moment right now, you know what I'm saying? Like an artist. Like last year when that kid Tommy Richmond blew up last summer, right? But he was already in a license deal. But let's just say he wasn't. That motherfucker can start negotiating like, hey man, I'm gonna need, I ain't, I'm gonna stop. I ain't finna be putting on my music out. Y' all gonna have to renegotiate my terms, put me in a license deal. You're not gonna own this music. Now I see what's going on. But he didn't have to do that part cause he was already in the license deal. But like, those are the type of success that people feel when they're already in deals. Then next thing they know, that thing kind of blow up for em.

But again, it's because it's so hard not to get in a deal early. Well, that's what you're looking for, I guess. So many artists want to be educated. But I also feel like so many people Are just hungry. Like, they're so hungry that the only thing they can think about is, I think somebody rapped a line and said, you can't eat this book, right? And I think their perspective was, you got to do what you can to eat. And I just feel like that is such a trap, right? It's such a trap. You got to do what you can to eat, but then what have you eaten? And they own everything. They even own food.

Y' all can eat some poison, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes better to fast when you don't got the ideas. You know what I'm saying? Like, sometimes eating is a distraction. When you start talking about your reason on signing the deal. Because you need to eat. This ain't no buffet, you know what I'm saying? Like, the reason why you signed a deal is to advance your family. And you can fast. And that fasting approach, both physically and mentally, will. Will help you with a different level of breakthrough with your faith. But, like, you have to be willing to take on the responsibility of turning over all of the stones before you make a decision that this is the only option I have. Because there's always multiple options. They may not. Look, sis. They may not be as attractive financially or whatever the case may be, but there's always multiple options.

Might I be an attractive to the way you thought it was going to play out, like, the way you might imagine your life being. You might imagine what your music will end up taking you. The situation might present itself. And it's not the dream.

No.

Did you have that?

The way the situation presented me? Not the dream?

Yeah.

I mean, I've been presenting a bunch of situations, man. And I'm not gonna say that I was arrogant. When I was telling everybody no. I just felt like I was gonna fuck up. I was like, man, I can't fuck this up, man. No. Just saying no out of fear drove me to getting more educated. Cause I was just terrified that I was gonna fuck this kid shit up. Cause it had happened in a way in the past that I was like, man, I'm never gonna be a part of this again. This type of shit. Like, I'm asking all the questions. I'm gonna make sure the artist absolutely know that if you sign this shit, you know that you can end your ownership and control over your career. I was very, very, very direct about that type of shit. So to me, I was more terrified than it was. You know what I'm saying? Yes.

People say yes out of fear. Fear that they won't have that opportunity present itself again. Maybe they won't even see, you know, saying, if you got a hundred dollars in your pocket and somebody offer you a hundred thousand dollars, you might think, I might not see that. I don't know, this song might not be hot tomorrow.

It's a lot of people when you.

Only got a hundred dollars, you know what I'm saying? And I just feel like music just feels like that's the industry versus, like, obviously, when you look at the NBA, the NFL, or any national sports, everyone's not gonna make it. No, everyone's not gonna make it. Some people not gonna make it out of aau. Some people not gonna make it out of college. Some people not gonna make it out of semi pro. But when you do make it to the league, it feels like, you know, the check you get is based off how well you played during your duration through all these things. So music is not like that. Everyone thinks. Everyone thinks they can make it. Everyone thinks they can make it to the league or make it to a label or. You know what I'm saying? And obviously it's because everyone has, like, a story to tell, right? And I think rap and R and B and soul and country gives everyone a chance to tell their story. But the business does not always give you a chance to, like, live your dream.

Yeah, man. When it's all said and done, when you're trying to be successful in something, you got to go and seek out the best practices, right? So today we're talking about the top four. In my opinion, when exploring the music business, these are best practices. And that doesn't mean that there's one way to utilize these different things, but you might off balance, some of. You might offset some of them where you might say, you know what? I'm gonna manage my overhead here.

Right?

And then I'm going to educate myself here in this year. So the first year, I'm gonna manage my overhead and educate myself. But then year three, I'm gonna start figuring out how do I go into investing to infrastructure, right? It's always still on my. On my. On my roadmap, but I'm taking different approaches on when I execute it. Boom. I'm gonna ask. I'm. I'm educating myself, and then I'm make sure that I am managing my overhead.

Not selling my rights. Right, Right.

And so I might not even invest into the infrastructure because I might try to spend money that can protect me from things that will usually push me out to sell my rights, you know what I'm saying?

And So I do appreciate you saying that. Of these four things, you're gonna have to learn how you're gonna manage them.

Yeah.

Based on where you are in your story and your success.

Yeah.

Versus. I think sometimes people hear tips and believe they got to do everything at once and don't work like that.

Don't work like that at all. So for me, being educated is my number one thing, because I truly believe that if you're educated, it can take you from a lot of mistakes that you can make subscribing to a mentor on. On Instagram without them even knowing that you. That they're mentoring you can keep you out of different role potholes. You know what I'm saying? Subscribing for a mentor in real life can walk you through. You know what? I should never. I shouldn't have even thought about that. That's stupid. Based on a mentor telling me they had a situation like that where they sold their rights too early or they was buying all these cars and they wasn't investing into infrastructure when they had it, and now they're not living that same lifestyle anymore. Anymore. You know what I'm saying? These things for me are at the top of the totem pole. But you might speak to somebody else. They might be like, my number one thing is that infrastructure. Invest to infrastructure. Because if you have infrastructure, you have all these different things.

Right?

So these best practices, man, is why people come here. Why people trying to get this information and this knowledge, you know what I'm saying? That's going to be what everybody's going to get from the Culture Playbook, Volume two. Make sure you go get it. You know what I mean? And it's like, that is where we find ourselves at, you know, building business and building music businesses are the same, like, muscle, same energy. The only difference is people think that you gotta. If I was a mechanic and I was always oily and into different things, nobody would be like, oh, don't go talk to that mechanic.

Actually bring him over here.

Yeah, he know what he gonna do. And nobody's thinking about the mechanic as like, I'm gonna go get that mechanic. He got the saucy loafers on with the. No, you're looking at somebody that's gonna do the work. So when you see somebody dusty as fuck in the music business, they might be doing the work.

I had a mechanic that was always picking up girls. My car was never running. It just was never, always. It was never fixed. But the guy that fixed me, now, he got three teeth.

But I'm telling you, you can't fix that car. You a handyman. Save that money.

But please share this with someone that might need it. Like subscribe.

Share.

We appreciate y' all your money.

Yeah.