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Impact Theory. Impact Theory. Hey everybody. Welcome to Impact Theory.
Today's guest is a Grammy award-winning artist known as much for his business savvy as for his musical talent. Through his music, he's traveled the globe, sold millions of albums, and won countless awards. He's raised the covers of some of the most popular magazines on the planet and been featured by virtually every major music outlet that exists. But that's about as far from where he started as you can imagine.
He grew up in the inner city of Houston, Texas, but after his next-door neighbor was shot to death during a home invasion, he realized that somehow he had to get out and get out he did. Through insanely hard work, developed talent, and a deep understanding of marketing. He took himself from selling his mixtapes on the streets, to becoming a multi-platinum best-selling artist, signed to one of the largest labels in the world. His smash-hit, writing dirty, not only made him an international celebrity, it broke ringtone records and raked in a Grammy, a BET award, an MTV award, and more.
But even all of that success did not slow him down. And since then, he's found tremendous success as a serial entrepreneur and tech investor. He's launched multiple companies, including a tour bus company, a high-end custom auto body shop, and an app company, as well as investing in several mega-success enterprises, such as Lyft, Maker Studios, and several others. Cementing himself as a legitimate angel investor with a jaw-dropping string of wins.
So please, help me in welcoming the CEO of Camillatary Entertainment, the mixtape Messiah himself. Camillionaire. Oh, man, what's up, man. You have a vicle.
Yeah, it's funny. The key is to bring people on who've done amazing stuff, and you have done incredibly surprising things. You're definitely not somebody who has followed a typical path really at any point in your life. And what do you attribute that to?
How did you not succumb to just what everybody was telling you to do? Man, that's a good question. I think it was really just watching and observing. I feel like I was a very perceptive person, and I used to see people in my early years have success, and people fail.
Some people took around where they started selling drugs, and then I see the result of that. And I was one of the people that was trying to avoid those pitfalls. Like even earlier when I started doing music, I saw so many people that got bad deals or talking about the music industry that they wouldn't make money. So me watching that so much, I was trying to reverse engineer what I saw, and I was sit back, and I was kind of quiet.
I feel like I'm an introvert and I was like, I act like an introvert, but I was super quiet, and I used to just watch, and I feel like observing helped me a lot. Yeah, I actually get that a lot. So I'm equally, maybe ambiverted is the right way for me to say it, but I consider myself a pretty deep introvert who definitely likes to listen before I speak. And I would say that's been a big part of my success as well, is sort of drink it in and then pick a path and go that way.
How do you deal with when people are telling you, you said something once in an interview that really hit me, and you said, I'm now in a space where the people that I grew up with look at me like being smart is bad, and I've had to learn to play dumb. So how do you simultaneously navigate it so you're not oblivious to how people are feeling, but not lose who you are? Yeah, it's super tough. You've got to balance it because early I used to be the guy that would always be in everybody's ear telling them everything I thought they should do, but I realized that you've got to have the medicine inside of Kennedy.
Because people will often like, you know, repel from that. They don't want to be around that. It's like oil and water. It feels like you're looking at them and judging them and you think you're better than them, all these different things.
Even though it was rooted in one of the C-people actually succeed, it actually came off wrong to people, but it was just in my nature. I guess it's from my parents, they used to do it. I feel like I was helping people, but then over time I started to learn the better approach, the way to lead people to the water, but not forcing them to drink it. I feel like that was way more effective.
But when you start to grow and you start to see things, sometimes you lose people. I have friends that never left the North Side of Houston. They've never seen the other side of the city. And somebody could laugh at that to me that's like, man, you don't have ambition to want to see that side.
Some of them are like, nah, I'm stuck in my ways. They feel like they're doing it for real reasons. They're keeping it real and it's staying so loyal to this thing that raises them. But it's like, you can still be loyal to your side of town by knowing what the other side is about.
Matter of fact, you might know how to help your side even better by understanding what's happening on the other side. But saying this to somebody sometimes can come off wrong. You have to find out how to communicate. So I've always had that struggle with how to communicate things that I think are valuable to people.
And over time, I feel like wrapping kind of taught me that. You're seeing a lot of things and you're going to music to explain it to audience of people and you have so many different types of people that you're talking to. You know, you got some people that come from the background that you come from. You got some people that have no idea what you're talking about and everything's foreign to them.
But how do you articulate these things to people and get everybody to care about it? I think people can focus on your passion. They can tell when you're authentic. All these things you start to hone in on and get really, really good at.
And then people will start to listen. You know, I used to go to the church on the North Side and there was a guy one time that was a pastor and he used to have braids and he used to come in and he used to talk to us just like he was one of us. And everybody used to listen to him. And other guys would come and they'd have the button-ups and nobody listened to him.
And I saw that over and over. And I was just like, he's a pastor just like he's a pastor but everybody listens to him because he felt like he was just one of us. He's playing basketball with us. He used to do all these things.
And I always had these things rustling in my head because you almost feel like you're not going to belong a lot of times in all these different places. You know, as African American kid in the city, you know, you're in certain areas and people are looking at you like you don't belong. You go to church and you're looking at you like what are you doing here? But you show up with hoodie.
I remember one time they were having an open gym and I wanted to help all these kids in the city come and have a place to play basketball. So I spent a lot of time putting up the basketball goals, doing a lot of stuff. And then I went home and watched up and I came back and went back and went back and they went and let me in. And like excuse me sir, this is only for the members of the church.
I'm like, I just spent the whole day putting up the... I was so mad I was like arguing with this guy that wouldn't stop me. Then that guy with the braids came in and I was like no, no, no. And it's just that little understanding of welcoming.
I kind of saw sometimes when I was seeing an example of that, I would try to be that and try to be like, you know what, I'm going to be more of like not trying to judge people and trying to help them be the best that they can be. And it started transitioning to music and then it transitioned to entrepreneurship. And then it just became something that now it's just like my day with life. Do that story about people living their entire life in one half of the city, let alone actually even getting outside of the city.
That kind of freaks me out. It is akin to the very thing that drives me to do impact theory, which is I really believe that person just has a false belief, a limiting belief. You know, something like you said, he so prizes loyalty to the city or to the neighborhood or whatever that he thinks it's a betrayal to go outside. But if you could just like flip that switch, he could have an entirely different life.
Like you said, even just going over there to explore to find ways to make his own side of town better would be I think a pretty objectively better life for him and for the people around him. If you had to say, like what are the beliefs or just worldview that you have that's allowed you to be so successful? I think the number one thing that keeps people from being successful is their lack of their fear. You know, thinking stupid of fear of what?
It's a whole bunch of different forms. You know, sometimes it's about the people around you and how they'll perceive you, you know, because you know maybe go up in a household where you know things weren't accepted or you know maybe your parents didn't accomplish things and then they put that kind of insecurity on you. You know, I used to have a little bit of that. You know, I used to write my raps in super sloppy writing on purpose because my dad used to come and he used to like look and he's like, what is this?
He's a baller going away. You know, so I started like writing sloppy on purpose to make it look like it was schoolwork. You know, these are the things that I feel like sometimes it prevents people from being who they want to be because all it takes is somebody wanting to take a step, you know, and there are certain things that a lot of people in this world are sitting there thinking in their minds and they're just not going to do. Like I used to always try to pull a lot of people and be like, you can do this, you can do this, but the people that hear that motivation over and over again, sometimes they take that step.
I think that's the most important thing that I've gotten in a family of just doing things. There's so many things I've not too scared about but we're still here. We made it past all these things. I just I guess during my life I saw so many things that seemed scary and was able to make them through.
It's just like now the things that seem so scary to people is just not as scary to me. You know, when I think about venture capitalist and tech and entrepreneurship and all these people from MIT and Stanford, you know, I was a little intimidated before I got into it, but I was like, if you see where I came from, what I've been through, I've seen some things that I wouldn't wish on any kid to see. So I'm like, it just doesn't seem as scary to me. So what you know you start over you do it again But most people that fear of failure is the thing that I think prevents them from like really really being successful And then also it's like a lot of other things that are just difficult to do You know when you tell people the answer to success.
It's a lot of hard stuff. You got to work hard, right? Nobody wants to hear that everybody wants a shortcut, you know some people understand that they like they appreciate the progress You know if you tell people right now, hey if you want to lose this many pounds, this is what you got to do There's no short solution But every time there's still people out there selling whatever herbal I treatment or whatever to try to get you to quick short route Because people believe that you know what I'm gonna do it the easy way and if there is no easy way So when I tell people that is very blunt is very straight to it You have to want to do it But the best way I try to explain it is like you know I think somebody was telling me the story when time I thought it was really great They're like you know when you're chiseling in a rock, you know You can chisel for a long time and you chisel a hundred times 200 times 300 times and it won't break and then you get the Five thousand times it finally breaks, but all the work that you did is what made a break It's not like you just the last one just broke it You know, I mean it takes that but sometimes people don't want to start that journey, you know They don't want to get on the mission of like, you know becoming the best that they can be But I think people like me come from places where we're motivated by things that like we're not trying to go back to sometimes It's a very dark place. It's all kind of things that you're just trying to put in the back of your head compartmentalize and just move on But that thing will kind of push people like me to kind of be successful I think that's why I see so many friends and people that I know that or that made it out entrepreneurial I think about all the successful people, you know LeBron James like you go back to the stories You'll see you know single parent and you know So many things that you wish on other people but we're propelling them to try to succeed And I feel like everybody needs a little bit of that push, you know Kind of like you know kid falls and bumps is me and there's one parent that will kind of cut over kid and the other ones like You know what just you know let them live life a little bit You know, I think everybody needs a little bit that needs to bump in the little bit and understand it's not that bad, you know Yeah, I've heard you say that sometimes it's good to have your back against the wall Yeah, I have a theory about the inner cities So I've worked in the inner cities a lot and one thing I've noticed is that the inner city breaks almost everyone that it touches But there are a few people that manage to be so transformed by it whether it's out of I never want to go back Whether it's it just hardened them and they had to be smart to survive whatever it is There's there's a certain set of lessons that some people learn that then propel them so hard so far so fast Out of the inner cities that they go on to accomplish just truly extraordinary things needless to say put your name among those people So walk us through like what were some of the key moments that you experienced as a kid and how did you end up interpreting it in a way That pushed you forward even if it was just I have to get the hell away from this Yeah, I feel like there are a lot of moments where it's just like lightbullet But I feel like one thing that I had that a lot of people don't have is even though I had a lot of experience seeing the stuff that happens in our communities I also had access to the other side, you know, I got to see what was possible, you know My father and my mother and my mother divorced and when they divorced my father was living in a separate place and my mother and My mother was the one that was living in a you know, my dad was living in a I guess middle-class kind of we're still poor But he was still living in the middle-class community and I would go back and forth You know and you know I had a friend up the street who had everything He had you know, almost like the Legos with the big house and the train going through the Christmas tree and like all this I'm nice to look like man I remember one time I went and I was eating at their house and I sat down and then you know after eating I was Getting up and then as much like wait, what are you going?
But it's time for dessert and I was just like what dessert like I never ate dessert my parents ever, you know So I was just like what you dessert like cookies and brownies came out just looking like man, this is crazy I want this, you know, so going back and then now seeing your mother eating, you know, cereal for dinner You're like nah, we not doing this, you know, but then other moments happen where you know the moment you referenced earlier where a neighbor got killed I was actually once promoting passing flyers out of the club or something and you know, we see a pay like $100 or something I was coming home and you know, we used to live in this efficiency condominium on the third floor and I see the door open somebody sticks his head out He's got a hoodie on and he closes the door and I already know what that means So I like talking my chain to go my watch from my watch in I walked through the door real quick and there's three guys We're hoodie on and then I like see them I'm like I know my head like what's up and none of them say what's up back to me So that's when I knew I was like, all right, you know, and I ran all the way up the stairs real quick and ran into the Into the apartment, but I'm like the king of running silently with like I'm the king of that Like so I did it really fast. I got in there close the door. I'm looking at the people I see I'm sitting in my heart breathe being really hard and I'm like, all right, and I just wait wait And I don't hear anything so then I'm just like, all right I just go, you know, go to sleep and then like in the morning boom boom boom boom boom Police officers not gonna go or they open up open up halfway sleeping in like, you know, did you hear the gunshots? And I was just like what gunshots I look next door and you know, they got like tape all over and on the walls and blood and And you know, you look at like what like was that supposed to be me?
You know, what happened? And at that moment my relationship with police kind of just was different too because I'm thinking like I saw something and they didn't Care really what I saw they really just want the emotions and asking me just because they're supposed to ask they didn't really care You know, and now after they leave we're still there whoever came and did this is like still knows And I was just like, you know, what this is, you know, and my mother She's like the one he's like the next person in the world like one time I gave my mother money and she like went and gave it out to like kids And she's like that. She doesn't need it. She doesn't want it She like tries to take her money and go to Africa and build wells all kinds of like that So she looks at humanity in a positive way and always sees the bright side of it, you know So I was just like, nah, we gotta get out of here, you know, and I just it was just something that just let you know The thing I find so interesting about people that change their circumstance Well, you know, whatever form that comes in is inevitably there's a period of head down where no one believes you're gonna be able to make it But that person they keep putting in the work What did that look like?
Like what does it actually take to become I mean dude for a while you were like the most famous rapper on the planet So what does it take to go from absolute obscurity to you know, superstar to is it you have to get good at the actual flow? So that's gonna be part of it the writing side of it promoting I mean talking to me about pressing the records like what what actually is that path? What is the sort of nutshell version of getting good at something? Well, let's talk about the worst investment most guys make on repeat cheap clothes you buy them They look fine, but six months later.
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That's where true med comes in true med helps qualified customers use pre-tax HSA dollars on health products that can qualify as medical expenses under IRS guidelines You complete a health survey true med handles the documentation and the purchase and you can save an average of 30% on products like eight sleep Peloton AG1 and others that studies show can treat or reverse many common chronic conditions stop paying full price for products your HSA was Build for go to true med calm slash impact and check out what things you want that may qualify It takes just a couple of minutes true med is for qualified customers only HSA FSA tax savings vary I feel like we spend way more time in our own minds than we do talking to other people like you really spend a lot of time Trying to figure it out. There's all these thoughts that come to you whether it's like you know things around you people talking to you people close to you Things you see TV whatever you're bringing in all these different things trying to figure out your path in life You know so I think it starts with having some like real understanding of what your strengths are You know like how you are at that? I feel like it's about being honest You know a lot of people just aren't honest with themselves You're telling yourself the thing but you like there's so many people that say oh, I'm a bit entrepreneur I'm gonna do this and if you really dive down into deep they don't really believe it You know and that's okay. You can unlock that but you have to figure out how to unlock it There's a conscience that's sitting right here telling you this thing and you try to brush it off You have to be very honest with yourself And then if you're not doesn't mean you can't succeed it means that now you're very honest and knowing you're not as good And you can work on getting it but if you think you're already good at it, you don't work on it So I spent a lot of time just reflecting on like man, what am I just think like I'm on TV.
Yeah, you know I was unrealistic about it, you know, you start to see people that are way bigger way faster You're not telling yourself the truth. You're just like no I'm going to be like when did you tell yourself the truth about that? I think I never told myself the truth until something else started just knocking on my door You know it was like I was just I used to be at a school and people would be on the table and it was just not wrapping And I was just watching I was too scared to like jump in but I knew when I watched them I was just like man I could do a 10-time that I just got you know and these are freestyle So it'd be like not even writing stuff down just off the head making some rhyme I knew I was getting back at home in my own head I used to do that all the time take me back You're seeing this stuff but a lot of people saw it not a lot of people did something with it So how did you learn it well enough to act upon it? Well, we say learn it.
What do you mean? I'm like so I'm imagining the kid watching the show right now. He sees your name on the YouTube link He clicks it he probably wants to have a similar kind of success what vain I don't know maybe it wants to be the greatest teacher of all time Maybe wants to be an investor maybe wants to be a rapper Yeah, and so what I want to see how much you can sort of recapture from that period is how you win about absorbing this information And then trying it so learning about distribution is not easy dude like I had to learn about distribution from a food perspective It's just not easy. It's complicated It's full of people that like can say yes and no and you have to figure out how to work with them and like how to You know make friends here and know who to say no to and who to say yes to and who's the right distributor And when you're driving to Cleveland who are you taking the the mixtape to who do you sell it to?
And if you sell it to this guy can you also sell it to that guy? How do you set the price like there's so much to figure out? How'd you begin shipping away at that problem? I think you go back to the beginning and you start with doing what you're passionate about right because there are a lot of people They're going through life right now trying to figure it out like now I don't know what I want to be I don't know like I was at that moment and then so you're just like I'm gonna take fucking action You know figure out what I like to press your own discs.
Yep. So how'd you figure that one out? Okay, first I figured out that I really like remember I played basketball to without every day religiously And then when rap started becoming a thing that I actually really liked then I was just like oh this is my passion I'm actually better at actually so I went down that path right and then now because my curiosity and my passion for it I'm gonna be engulfed in everything. It's not work.
It's like second nature, you know, so I don't know everything reading you asking questions No, I'm diving into it. I'm doing it. I'm everything that you know the books teach you I think a lot of times it has you sitting back reading so much that you're not actually doing and to me doing is the best teacher You know, so basically I don't know everything about selling mixed tapes at the time But I see other people selling mixed tapes in the right next to me I can talk to them all the time so I'm asking questions my curiosity But this thing I'm passionate about kind of you know got real world experience with people that you know I've done it so I'm watching them do it and then I go right behind them and do the thing that they just did and it actually works Right, so they just pressed up some CDs and they drove took them and drove them all the way Cleveland, Ohio Most people don't want to do that remember you're going there not even knowing if you're gonna sell a lot of them, right? You get there and you sell them for what $7 a piece, right?
If you get there only sell, you know 100 CDs you make $700, but you got to get the gas You got to pay for all these things your friends won't you they want money to it's not that much So we were knowing that in advance and saw the person go and they came back and they made 700 so I'm thinking like man I want to drive I'm gonna do it, but I don't want to make 700 How can I not make 700 so we came up with a plan and it was like all right when we get there We're gonna get a hotel wait We can't get a hotel because that's gonna take from our 700 now we get the hotel We're gonna take the phone books about a day to phone books and you open it had like a the store section And you open it out and every store in the city's there and we just call them and be like hey We're in town. We've got this mixed tape and they'd be like well Who are you you're not really that you know no and we get all our friends to call the store and ask for our next day So then now they're like oh yeah, yeah I want that mixed tape even call it asking for that so then we go to the store and we sell 100 CDs and now that's 700 more dollars that's $1400 now, you know, so it's like doing stuff like that we're growth hacking things You know we were finding a way to get you know people to appreciate what we have but when you can show it Which we architected it sometimes, you know then it started becoming because we had good music something that they started distributing people And then people started hearing it and it's just started growing and growing and growing and we did all kind of things But all this came from me watching people like there are other people that did it like people always asked me what am I look up to I can soon from everybody like true chameleon like taking from everybody No, I can't point to one specific person It was just like all right that part is good this part's bad And then I would try and then I would fail a lot of times But trial and error is gonna be your best teacher like I can't think of any book I can't think of anything that taught me it and now when people ask me It's like I could tell you a lot but whatever and if you guys just do it You got to do it when you get in and you see that didn't work and you got to quickly move to what what works Start a company's work like this as well. Oh, they're in the business of like trying things They'll throw 10 darts at a table I mean you know a dartboard and you know to a mistake and the rest of them fail But when they find it to their stick then they start leaning on those You know and I think life is like that You know I feel like the one thing about rap that it taught me is it taught me You know having your finger on the post was next you know There's this thing where when I was early everybody's talk about rapper little kid comes up to you like wow He's a rapper and they're excited about it Then you kind of grow a little bit and you get to a face where it's like he's a rapper You know and then you go to a phase where it's like he's a rapper you know I mean and it's like man when I started getting to the third phase It was like people don't look at a rapper good and I started to not like that You know when I was young and I hadn't accomplished up I hadn't grown I hadn't you know made it and traveled then people always used to look at me Like I was a superhero and then you get to a place where it's kind of like I don't know maybe then you get to a place where it's like Oh, he's a rapper. That's all he does He's just a basketball player He shut up and dribble and you want to tell people that you're greater than that you can do more So now when I'm explaining that to people that are still back in that first phase a lot of times They don't get it because they haven't seen that that whole trajectory.
You know right I struggled with that a lot now You know kind of balancing when you say trying to balance it would mean are you still trying to keep a foot in each world? Now it seems like you're pretty hard in the investor phase. Yeah, but I care though that's why I care about what every time over here in this world I'm thinking about that little kid over there. I'm down You know, I'm not doing this to like forget this whole thing and to go over here like that's not what's about Like it's hard for me to remove myself from that.
You know, there's a other day I was a with venture capitalists or walking down the street Santa Monica kid comes running up the street He's got like undershirt like a hangs white undershirt and tattoos drags and I'm looking at him like oh my goodness It's about to ask me like his demo. He's like he's breathing. He's like yo man Hey, man congrats for buying Disney. I'm like what so I invested in making excuses I acquired by Disney's about it But it's just like so I was like wow the VC turn to me and he's just like laughing He's like man you see that any other time man like this kid would have came up to you and had your demo now The fact they think about tech like you know, you got to respond to Billy's like that's awesome He's right there in a moment.
I was just like man I started thinking about that so I want I really want people to think about your arc I want them to think about how hard it would be for the average person to go from so in one area You're a celebrity For wrapping but that that would work against you as you try to step into being VC. It's not like people gonna stand up and clap You're like yeah, the rappers here. They're gonna look you like you doing a tech conference Yeah, so you have to overcome more than the average person But you do that and one of the the most interesting parts of your journey for me is when what you were just talking about you Begin to realize okay I see things that they don't and I can advise them and coming in as an advisor First to get your feet in the door and there's that exchange of information You're starting to meet new people and you say the information relationships are the two magic things one thing I'm always trying to tell young people I mean fuck I try to tell people of any age this the key is Most people try to get whatever job they can get that gives them the most money Whereas what they should be thinking about is what job gives me the most experience and the most relationships because money only spends once But knowledge monetizes forever, correct So the fact that people are always trying to get like that short-term dollar at the expense of the the long-term leverage that you Get from knowing something and knowing someone is crazy to me. I'm living proof of that right now Everything we're talking about is how it was I was designed to be that way think about it Um people see my name commig I'm going to this deep meaning of running people and I don't care so I'd be like I mean rich and sad I would always say something like that But what it really means is I used to be chameleon that was my name right and I used to draw comic books Like I said, I used to draw these comic books and I used to look at all these superheroes and I was like Batman Superman and everybody had a big logo and you know they were coming to save the You know damsel in distress and there was nothing that represented me So I drew like black superhero and the lizard logo that I have was the logo for the superhero and his name was chameleon But then me and Paul was being a group and he was really good at relationships I used to see that guy.
He used to have a gold teeth and he's a smile all the time everybody said love Paul and come to see I was like man, I'm not built like that I don't have that I was just like anti-social so but one thing I had was I had the information You know so me and him together forced because he had relationships out of information and that part You know this time we started growing apart and then I used to be nervous about him like the minute He's gone like I lose relationships, you know So I started working to try to make myself better with relationships But I understood the value of like having information relationships success came from that, you know So I freestyle I mean we're at a store one time and somebody said hey Paul What's up? And he always turned around to fans like high five of them and act like you know him even though he didn't know him And I'd be like man this dude's good at relations They don't even know you they used to be awkward to me people use it my feelings like I came and they would just say that would turn and I would be somebody I don't know and I'm looking at them and they're walking up to the friends and I'm just like man What is this you're not even trying to build a relationship? You're just faking and I used to hate that so on a freestyle I was like my real name is Hakeem, but don't call me that you're here I'm changing my name from chameleon to the chameleon there and that's when I changed my name to chameleon there Right so nobody really knew why but it was chameleon was my name. I just added a IRE That's about information and relationships People see the money part right it was never about that I knew that I'm gonna be successful as long as I get that and when I tell people like get the heck out of you think I'm like that I remember I used to draw comic books and every time you draw super here they had to have a meaning they had a reason for being I used to think about that and just be like man what is this about and I created this superhero and I put that logo on the bus Everywhere I was going that lizard logo on my album cover everywhere I was like I'm creating a superhero and that was the whole thought But it's just like all this special power is knowing how to blend in and get in anywhere And knowing how to consume all the information in the room and use it knowing how to build a relationship and get into another room That's what I've been doing this whole time and that's the whole meaning of it So I feel like this story you're talking about about how we have to give that to younger people absolutely absolutely when I say it It just sounds crazy information relationships all my how many relationships when I'm sitting courtside at the games everybody there They have way more information away more relationships.
That's why they're there Of course a lot of people have had all kind of advantages and stuff like that But that's the thing that separates us if you can find a way to get all of that Then you can be just as equal even greater and I'm trying to give that to people but sometimes it's a long path You know RBC training ground has discovered potential in over 20,000 Canadian athletes and county your story could be next if you've got the drive They'll help you find your path to the limits. Let's see what you've got sign up for free at rbc training ground.ca Now on that one certainly leading by example is pretty extraordinary I know you've started several companies. What's your plan there? What kind of enterprise do you want to create to show people just how possible it is?
It goes back to that thing is just doing you know, but I don't know if I'm going to be successful, you know, but I'll always Believe that the risk is worth it. You know, there's some people that go through the motions and you know They you know go and figure out what career they're gonna you know have they go to college They go get the job if they want career and they go through those motions nine or five I just I feel like you know We only have so much breath on this earth and so much time and I'm trying to use as much of it as possible and the most efficient way It's possible and I feel like entrepreneurship is the way to do that, you know get straight to the failure quickly Talk to me about that efficiency. How do you get efficient? How do you?
What are what's the criteria by which you will engage with something? I started analyzing it I started being like like there are a lot of people that are textures and they text all the time I don't text like that and people complain all the time like man can't you text me text like you text you back like two hours later or a day or whatever And it's because I treat email like people treat text and the reason why is because when people email me they get straight to it They got to tell me everything about you know, right? But when it's text it's like yo, what's up bro? What's up?
Back and forth and you're just doing that it's like you know, it's like so immediate You can pull you away from something doing right and know it's like so I started like analyzing and stuff like you know what What's gonna make me be more efficient because what I'm after is so important to me It's not about you It's not about making feel bad. It's just about what I feel is best for me and I started changing my life I started eating better as just to try to make myself better You know when I wake up in the morning I'm trying to be as efficient as possible and I'm trying to if I can accomplish in a week with somebody in the company I feel good. So how do you do that with your right? Right?
Right? Stuff down I make a list of things I want to do and I check it off and I feel bad at the end of the day if I don't have stuff done You know and I feel like I surround myself with people that are all focused on that and because now I've got that kind of circle We're all trying to get it's like Stuff doesn't really make it in I don't say I'm not saying I don't do the extra quickly stuff I do do that stuff But some of that little small things like picking up my phone and like scrolling Twitter like in the morning I just I don't I avoid stuff like that. I still do it But I find right time like after the day and I think that's super impressive And you have a really really smart and interesting way of looking at the world And there's one thing that you talk about that I think really sums up a key insight that you have that I think has driven you through the different phases of your career tell people why you like the letter C Man man, man So yeah, I had to do this presentation where I was like just talking about how C is you know It's just a powerful letter because you know the C itself, right? It's starts right here and it curves and then it stops before it makes a complete circle and Complete and circle both start with C, right?
But it's a reminder that there's always a little bit more to go, right? So I just looked at it and again It's go back to my comment but days why I should just draw letters and try to figure out what was what I just look at the C and C just curve and it's not like man It's not special but that little bit space right there, right? I deliberately was like I'm gonna name myself something with C Right and then I start thinking about all the things that I like you know from confidence to you know culture to you know Creativity to all the words that start with C, you know I was just like man this word C is like a powerful word and I'm gonna you know make everything I do a lot of things attached to this word So combos is one of the name of my social video after I launched and I feel like you know the C it reminds me of like what's what we got to do? You know I love that where can people find out more about you find you online about combos or any of your other products I'll do download combos is a social video app for connecting people through face-to-face conversations It's available for iOS and Android and you know, this is my adventure into being an entrepreneur and tech You know, we got a lot of great influencers But a community of people that are positive and focused on communicating which is another way to start to see right I mean in a productive way, you know, like think about social media and how toxic it is and how much abuse and trolling and we're trying to like Not eradicate it because that's not gonna be impossible But just reduce it and reduce the power of people that use social media for negativity, you know I'm not saying everybody has to agree But we're at a time where now people disagree more than ever about all kind of things, right?
And I feel like there's got to be some kind of way to have a discourse with people in the way that's productive, you know So we're trying to create a platform that encourages that type of stuff It's not like you know, I open my Twitter feed and some kids like if you go be Brian lover and everybody's retweeting that person And giving that person power, this is a little bit opposite You know, you got to put your face on it You got to show yourself and anonymity kind of goes away So that kind of stops people from doing some of the things that they do on social, you know And it's like so far I'm loving this journey and you know talking to developers and figuring out their needs and you know This is really just about communicating and understanding and you know Because I feel like if you want to have success at scale You're never gonna do it by yourself on the path or whatever you want to do There's people it can be employees and be cameramanic And be whoever you got to find a way to communicate with people and incentivize them to one do something that they're passionate about And hopefully it aligns with you and then to stay on the journey with you and a lot of these things that I did in music industry When I was doing with fans is the same thing as the people with the tech Now I'm talking to product managers, designers and I have to tell them like Hey, this is what I'm trying to do if that aligns with you Let's talk and if not then you probably should go this way and I'll go this way You know and we have to find people that have a common interest and then focus on building something great You know, maybe we'll win Maybe we won't you know, but I'm crazy enough to think that I can and regardless I believe something like this needs to exist We're going into a world where I don't believe that anonymity and you know All these private places of like being somebody that's toxic and a bot that's you know Taking conversations where I think there's some people that are gonna figure out how to solve all this stuff, you know And I feel like you know, I'd rather be on that journey And if you know, I can be in the founder seat trying to drive something like that That's wonderful because if I'm able to be successful than a lot of people of diverse backgrounds And I'm a success in their lives and then it impacts the community of lineage of people that never had capital before never had ownership before Right, it means I'm different But then also on the investing side bringing people in and giving that same opportunity I feel like at the end of the day is about creating seeds that grow into a tree, you know And if I can start planning a bunch of those seeds now right now It's 50 investments, but I'm gonna plant so many seeds that eventually go into the tree those trees will feel a lot of people and that's Impact at scale and that's why I like you're you know, everything we're doing here because I know that's what the focus of you know Everything you do is about and you know, I'm normally generally straight away from interviews because it's like, you know Same questions about you know, I don't know stuff that they believe people want to know But it's like gossip stuff and I'm just like, no, I'm here on this moment to where like if I'm not here I got to think about everything I'm saying where I want people to take this information with them, you know And I'm like, yeah, that's all I spend my time on, you know And to really because I think you just basically answered it But to ask it in one very pointed way, what's the impact that you want to have in the world? I tell people that you know, for a while I was like think about what my why is like why am I doing everything? Why am I doing all this? But I say this like I focus on me, me, right?
And what that means is like first figuring out what I care about and what I think my value to the world is I think everybody should be on the journey to figure out and then doing that to the best of your abilities But to me, me, me, me, me stands for motivation and education Those are the two things that I do, everything that I do right now is about that. This interview is all that Everything I say yes to motivation and education is outside of that I don't do it and I'm trying to drop as much of that as possible on this planet because when you're gone That's all people have left, right? And they use those things that ride dirty that cannot be it I think there's more I think there's a lot that I can just give out everything that you've learned experience Things you've been through and you drop that off for people, you know for your family for their family's family for You know other people that might have been inspired by you and then people later who don't even know your existing But somehow stumbled upon it at some point and if she also had that you know where he passed and there's a lot of people They didn't appreciate him while he's here and then they realized the impact of what he was doing while he was here You know and I feel like I see moments like that and it kind of let's you know like yeah You know I'm on the right path like I see a lot of people that are after this you know and you don't understand why you know There's a lot of you know Wolf and she's clothing sometimes where the person is like you can't really be out here trying to motivate you You're not really trying to help people a lot of people out there But I always say I challenge you to find a wolf go back and look at all the things I did and see where the wolf was Like he came out yet, you know so my whole I want to be a member for is really just that You know that's all I'm trying to do here You know it's not about money or trying to be a billionaire I want something this article and they changed the title like a millionaire wants to be a billionaire and try to be catchy And I was just like man I was so sad I didn't want to share the article They're like what like there's a lot of great gems in there I was like man, but the headline is like I want to be a billionaire like I don't want to put that energy in the air It's not about money I want to make it very clear the money will come if you focus on passion You focus on information and relationship and I'm gonna stand on the top of the mountain and sing that all day And hopefully it has a real impact on people's lives and I'm gonna feel good about that I'm not gonna feel good If I go to the grave as being the only person with the information and money and I just I was money I'm gonna feel good if I'm able to impact a lot of people and that don't have access to this information and a good life a quality life And they have one that's awesome. That makes me feel real good.
I love that It's wicked man Well guys you've seen him He's been around for a very long time He's somebody that actually knows how to transition to move from one thing to another follow the passion learn get educated relationships and information Can't say any better than that and speaking of relationships and information If you haven't already be sure to subscribe and until next time my friends be legendary take care Everybody thank you so much for listening and if this content is delivering value to you Please go to iTunes go to stitcher rate and review us that helps us build this community And that is what we're all about right now building this community as big as we can to help as many people as we can deliver as much value as possible And you guys rating and reviewing really helps with that all right guys. Thank you again so much and until next time my friends you legendary take care Let's talk about a pattern that is guaranteed to be killing your progress You know what you need to do you need consistent nutrition we all do you need vitamins probiotics greens We all know that we should be doing more of it when your morning gets chaotic You skip it when you travel you skip it when your routine breaks everything tends to break and that inconsistency compounds against you every single day AG1 is designed to solve the execution problem one scoop eight ounces of water and you're done You're getting 75 plus ingredients vitamins and minerals pre and probiotics nutrient dense superfoods everything that used to require six seven different supplements And perfect planning now happens in one drink that takes about 30 seconds to make right now AG1 is giving you 87 dollars worth of free gifts with your first subscription you get a welcome kit travel packs vitamin d3 plus k2 and flavor samples Click the link in the show notes or visit drink AG1.com slash impact to claim this offer