March 29, 2022

Episode 78 - The Marathon Still Continues

 Join your hosts as they fire off back to back lessons as they cover the late, great Nipsey Hussle!

Nipsey's life continues to give us the most amazing blueprint as to how to think and operate our brands and businesses.

Check out this episode with a friend, colleague, or family member, and be sure to have a way to catch all the gems they’re dropping to help you to navigate in the business and branding world! 

What You Will Learn:

  • The importance of knowing your industry model to eliminate guessing games.
  • Attach innovation to a business model that works. 
  • Demand allows for innovation.
  • The importance of building a strong following of loyal fans.
  • How creative can you get with monetizing your connection?
  • You have to know your numbers.
  • The importance of partnering as a business instead of as an individual.
  • You can’t pass down the talent, but you can pass down the process.
  • Treat your business like the vision, not what it looks like right now.
  • The benefit of systems in helping your creative genius.
  • The thing that’s keeping you from the next level.

 

 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Nicky Saunders  
what’s poppin whats poppin whats poppin. Welcome to Nicky and moose. I'm Nicky, That's moose What's up moose?

Mostafa Ghonim  
What up y'all?

Nicky Saunders  
and welcome to episode 78. And this is a very special episode. By the time this comes out, this is going to be the death anniversary of the late great Nipsey Hussle, who we cover here on a regular, but we wanted to dedicate pretty much a whole episode of some of the new branding and business lessons that we've got from Nipsey Hussle. I think as we grow, we look at things a little bit in a different perspective. And Nip has constantly just laid out multiple lessons that you if you don't hear the interviews about five times, you may not have caught it. So this is what this episode is about. Moose. How are we feeling about this?

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, I'm excited for this one man. I don't know maybe it's an annual tradition that we're about to create tribute episodes for Nip. But I'm looking forward to this one, like you said, always new perspective or new lessons to extract every time you listen. So yeah, let's jump into this one. I'm looking forward to it.

Nicky Saunders  
Let's get into this intro

Jaymie Jordan  
Two kids from Queens. Cut from a different cloth. Now joining forces helping you to elevate your personal brand. Yeah, I'm talking about Nicky and moose, bringing you a never before seen perspective into the mindset, the mentality, the behaviors, the driving force. More importantly, the stories behind the people and brands that you know and love the most.

Nicky Saunders  
First and foremost, shout out to all our audio listeners, all our viewers, whether you're watching this on YouTube, Facebook, wherever you're watching this, we appreciate y'all we love y'all. And this couldn't be possible without y'all. Before we get into this, moose How are you feeling?

Mostafa Ghonim  
I'm feeling pretty good. I'm feeling pretty good. I changed my setup slightly because for those who don't know, I'm usually sitting on a barstool that's about you know, four feet in the air. You know, just as the recordings go on, I'm like, Man, this is really uncomfortable. So whenever we do a live episodes, of course you and I always sitting on a couch. Yeah. I was like, Man, that's a sweet little hookup not for nothing. I'm able to sit on the couch and be a lot more comfortable. So yeah, I'm gonna give this a try, man. Hopefully this can work out and maybe I'm getting old. I don't know back support all this craziness. But uh, ah, crazy. Crazy.

Nicky Saunders  
Crazy. Some supplements for your joints and everything later on to post. Yeah, if you have a brand that you know, had, you know, can provide most of some Joint Relief and pain back pain relief, you know, just, you know, Send it mooses way. Your getting old, he's getting old. Me for me. I'm Gucci. Um, I was excited about to get into this episode, because this opened my mind and you hear why I'm about to say this, like, Moose needs to sign me somewhere. Like, where am I signed to? Like,

Mostafa Ghonim  
hey, we taken I mean, we we we we will listen to some offers. Yeah, I mean, listen, y'all send an email. What's it? What's the show? Email? I mean, Nicky and deeper than the brand. I'm sure you’ll get some email over there.

Nicky Saunders  
we got to get an official email 

Mostafa Ghonim  
official official aka moose email. I think we created one. But it was like, yeah, maybe a while back. But yeah, yeah. I said, Hey, man, I'm listening. I'm willing to listen to you know, say if you got a pitch if you want to see my pitch a deal real quick. And you're like, hey, I think I got this idea for Nicky. I want to do this. I'm all ears. I'm all ears. Well, we're, we're listening to some offers right now.

Nicky Saunders  
Just saying, let's get into the episode, so they know what in the world we're talking about. I'm just saying. So of course, if y'all didn't know if you can't, for those viewers, y'all can't see the hat and Yeah, can't see the you know, the hoodie. You know, so are we talking about Nipsey Hussle. Today, in just celebration of his life. And let's, let's look at this. For our audio listeners. We have have an amazing picture of everything that Nipsey has ever done really like Let's just start off with how many people who he he hired? I mean, 41,369 people? Not not just 100 that I just hired 10 of my homeboys. Yeah, that is a lot hired, assisted or impacted 41,000 people. I think that is crazy, first and foremost, but I'm just looking at this whole picture of seen everything that he was involved with. I mean, you got everything from entertainment, to food, to lifestyle, to tech, to real estate, to philanthropy. is just, I didn't I didn't know. He was so involved with so many things until I saw this picture. I don't I don't know about you moves. But that that is a lot of things going on.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, no, for real. I mean, I'm, I'm familiar with him being an early investor into crypto when and looking to get into a few different places. But I think you spoke to it, the first number that sticks out, you talk about legacy, because I think that's one of those buzz terms that a lot of us in this generation, of course, want to talk about work toward, and leave something behind for future generations to come. You talk about legacy. I mean, that number right there has to really scream loud 41,000 You know, over 41,000 people hired and helped. I mean, dad is incredible, you talk about especially given the fact that this is someone who wanted to stay home, like, regardless of his success, he always came back to LA and help people specifically in that Crenshaw area, that's phenomenal. It's like you're coming back to the community and wanting to build there specifically. So for me that number sticks out huge that's, that's incredible.

Nicky Saunders  
Yep. And, and total projected value of investments for the community tech lifestyle ventures, is $210 million 413. And, you know, 500, but like $210 million, that less sane. But, of course, what a part of this episode is going to talk about is definitely the proud to pay campaign. And in this picture, it says, introduce a proud to pay model earning over an estimate of 1.5 million as an independent artists figure, this figure doesn't include merchandise and touring, which is crazy, right? And we we've covered before the $100 mixtape and for those who don't know what that was, clearly as it says he sold a mixtape for $100 10,000 Like, like 1000 copies of that right? Um, had people like Jay Z, buy into it, support it, people thought he was crazy, but I want to talk about the business model of it because we think when we have a crazy idea like that, like oh my god, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, what happens, right? And what Nipsey said, when somebody asked like Did Did you ever worry if this wasn't going to work or not? I was like, Oh, my man is genius. But don't believe me? You hear it? Okay? You hear it?

Nipsey Hussle  
Rocking leading up to that like damn like shit. Like, what if nobody comes to spend hours on it? I didn't even I wouldn't worry because it came out on iTunes the next morning and it came out as a mixtape the next day. So that whole business model already built you know, tore off the music. You know, I mean, get yo iTunes money or Spotify money so if nobody bought $100 CD every other stream of income off the album was still locked in already. So it wasn't really we couldn't lose nothing. It was if two people came was gonna be 200 up

Mostafa Ghonim  
hmm I love that talk about being like educated about your industry or your space that you already know. What is the standard basic model or basic expectation that you are going to get out of what you're doing right like this like there is no guessing game as it relates to this. However, karma as you will say But there is opportunity for us to innovate and try something new, or give something exclusive to the true, more dedicated individuals or people who really appreciate the music and the art that we have put out. And so let's try to give them a more closer experience or a more exclusive experience. So leading up to that time, he's he was someone who was always community based, right. So he's, he's been big on community, he's been serving and kind of giving out a lot of his music, and built a pretty good community. So I love the fact that one he understands the model, or he understands what is there. And while this got more attention, it didn't seem like it was the primary move, right? Like it stood out, because it's like what you sold the mixtape for $100. So of course, that brought more attention. But that was, there's no telling that that might have been just a kind of like, oh, let's just try this in addition to it, because we have nothing to lose being that we got display this thing in place. So I think the lesson we can all take away from this here is, yes, innovate. Yes, try new things. But make sure that there is a fundamental layer that's always in place that you can fall back to no matter what happens so that you're not risking your entire investment. 

Nicky Saunders  
Yeah I think, full, this is a this is eye opening, because it's like, sometimes we don't have to recreate the wheel. Right? It's like, I just got to add on to the business model. I don't have to just come up with a whole new business model. This is stuff if you heard, like, the music was going to come out already. The tour was going to happen, the merchandise was going to happen anyways, what can else can I add on that may be in an experimental mode, and but I won't lose anything, because I already have the things that already work in place. But I may do this one thing, a few days, early, a day, early, whatever. And if it wins, then we could double up. We could do it again over and over again. If it doesn't, that's okay. Because how we make money already is there. That's a proven system. We're good. So I look at it like what are some of the proven systems that, you know, is in our industry that we could just tack on an idea, you know, do this and then it works right? To then maybe later on? With proven facts, like, steer away if we don't necessarily like that model, the proven model already, like we could not even care about that and just have it in that one thing. Of course, y'all know I'm gonna bring up Kanye, okay. Yes, I am. Um, that's what Kanye did with the stem player. Right? Yeah, like, I proven and to be honest, that's exactly what he did. Like, he came out with Donda. He, he came out with the stem player, people bought the stem player, as well as still stream Donda. Right, but then he was like, I don't need the streaming platforms. I'm going to just release it on the stem player and still make millions. Right. Um, and, you know, it's all about how do I make back the 30% that Apple takes, like, how do I make back some of the fees? And don't only think, like just music, there's going to be fees, whether we use like Shopify, there's going to be a fees if we use let's say stripe or something like that, right? There's, there's going to be fees that we're always going to think of when we use like, middleman stuff or use big items. And he said, How can I have complete ownership and complete profits? If I put up the money and I, you know, create it all. If somebody buys it, I'm up. Yeah, I'm up. And so I didn't even know I thought the the mixtape was like came super early, and then down the line, the music came out, whatever. But this was just a win win situation that I'm now looking at some of the things We do. And I'm like, what? How can it be a win win? Like, how can we still be innovative, but not taking L in anything that we do? Exactly. I don't have to, I don't have to try to be this ultimate innovator. And woo, woo woo. And then and be proud that, you know, 100 of my ideas failed, but this one worked. And that's

Mostafa Ghonim  
exhausting. Yeah, no, yes. No, for real. For real. It's like, and the key ingredient here, too, is demand. Like, as long as you have demand from an audience or a key target, for what is it that you have to offer? You really have opportunities to try new things? But yeah, like we said, I think and we're both kind of mirroring the same thing here is the proud to pay campaign made it seem as though that was the idea. Yeah, not that there were these other concepts around it, or, or there were other things in place. And that was a bonus concept that works so well. So it got most of the attention. But yeah, that's definitely a good way to look at it. As as much as possible, we should look to never take an L known into some of these deals.

Nicky Saunders  
Talk about it. Yeah. I was watching another interview. And there was supposed to be a proud to pay situation with victory lap, like there was supposed to be a book. Um, I don't know if it was the first rap radar, or the second rap radar interview, which we, you're gonna see a lot of rap radar footage in this episode, just letting you guys know, because it was a really good interview. But he was saying that there was going to be a book and you would see some of the lyrics and like, where we scratched off and where he went a different direction, and things like that. And it's crazy, because I had text out to my text community. Awesome. We sometimes focus on trying to get 100,000 followers and a million followers, right, where we just need to concentrate on grabbing 1000 loyal fans, because we can come up with an idea for $100 Real quick launch it and make 100k in a heartbeat by concentrating on getting 1000 loyal fans instead of 100k. Because loyal fans would be interested in that lyrics. And seeing your scribbled in every day. I was like, Where is this book? Below? Where is I would pay for that particular thing. And hopefully that does come out still. But that's the power of building loyal fans. That's the power of building those those super fans, right? I found out. Um, and shout out to when I went to Social Media Marketing World, there was a individual that DM me that was like, Yo, I'm Native American, and actually saying tribe is offensive. To us. Yes. Hmm. Like, she was like, I know, it's a I know, it's a popular term in marketing and things like that. Because you want to build your tribe, but that's actually a very racial slur to to the Native American. I didn't know this. So I said, Thank you for because, you know, I never know for sure. Yeah. So I will definitely be more conscious. And if any listener that is of Native American descent and stuff like that, if this is true, because that was only one person. This is true. Please DM me and let me know like, yeah, Nikki, that is good. Give us the confirmation. Right, but because I don't have the confirmation, I still be a little bit cautious of it. But I say all that. Because, um, that's what Nick was really good. Like he was big on growing a strong following, like a strong fan base. In order to do these proud to pay, like, of course, there's going to be people who are going to bootleg it, there's going to be people who are going to listen for free. But for those people who truly rock with it, after listening to it, it's like oh, how can I support my man? How can I do this? How can I do that? And he understood he at least had 1000 people, even though he was Global global well, back then it was more nationwide, right? Um, but he knew he at least had 1000 people to do that. And then when he saw the success of that, right, it was, okay, let's do pop up shops now at the tour. So now that it worked once, okay, let me do this in each city that I'm at. And God knows how if he said 1.5 mil, and then think about he also sold I believe, 60 copies of mailbox money that were 1000 each.

Mostafa Ghonim  
What? Brilliant,

Nicky Saunders  
crazy, crazy. But a continuation of that is how he thinks about monetizing, like his connections, right? So if you're, if you know, you have a strong connection with your fan base, what are all the different ways of monetizing that he touched on it is really dope clip,

Nipsey Hussle  
let's talk about it. I don't even think selling a CD for $100 is what the valuable thing is, I think that the valuable thing is to be creative with how you monetize the connection that the music created. Yeah, because we get we got trained by traditional how to monetize the connection. But you know, there's other people participating in that transaction, that didn't have nothing to do with how the connection was made. Mm hmm.

Nicky Saunders  
Sounds confused a little bit from that last part, right? Because the, the question was, for those who don't know, it was like, Yo, can anybody you know, do the $100 mixtape, and he was like, Yo, I don't think I'm special. Alright, but it's all about, you know, how creative you can get. Now that last part where you said, the whole, there's certain people that are, like, not even connected to the connection, he's talking about, like Apple, he's talking about, like, some of the, you know, the people, the middleman people that, you know, may have to pump it up and get a percentage and things like that. He's like, Yo, what are the creative ways I can monetize this particular thing? And I'm, like, that's so, so simple, but so impactful at the same time, because now it gets us to open our minds to know that, as long as there's people who rock with us, we could try this, and that and, and this over here, in order to put a price tag on it, and they will buy it. Right? Like, who was to say, if I saw something really dope? Um, that was that was looking up, like NFT memberships. Right? Um, so it gets rid of, you know, some of these transaction fees like Stripe and things like that, where everything's going through the blockchain. And it's, you can see, like, you have a timestamp with the, the NFT. And when that timestamp is done, you have to renew your membership, and everything that we know of exclusive content, you know, VIP status, that is now all through just the blockchain. Right? And I'm like, that's a different way of showing the after show, that's a different way of, you know, giving people exclusive access to us. And those are the different ways he's kind of referring to like, how creative can you get with monetizing the connections? Because once you have that, that attention from somebody, once you have that trust from somebody, it's almost like, you can steer them in any different direction. As long as you don't break that trust. As long as you deliver with what you you're going to say you're going to do. They're there. So, try new things. Try, um, you know, to give them access that no one else has tried a certain price that no one else has, you know, get inspired, he got inspired by a restaurant, get inspired by something that's outside of your industry. And try it in, in in your industry, see how it works out. But get creative instead of doing the typical. Okay? Once I'm in this year, I have to do put out these products and services, then I have to do this. And then I have to do that and didn't have to do that. And just to piggyback off the first lesson we did, once you get creative, attach it to a model that already works. Just to test it out, we got to test out, you know, we got to test certain things out in the market, it's not throw up in the air and pray to God and be like, he said, it's going to work even though that does work a lot of times, but definitely don't want to go pow pow later. But there are facts. I'm I'm saying that we also have to go with facts that that come with our industry. And the only way we do that is testing it. But that creative vibe. When you get that connection is super golden. Like I don't know why I really liked that bar, but it like opened my mind with those two lessons together. I was like, What am I? What am I doing? What am I? What am I doing?

Mostafa Ghonim  
For sure you know what, you know, what's interesting is that, in business in most business, one of the most profitable yet underutilized areas of business. And I almost want to say traditionally by people of our culture, right minorities, black and brown folks, just because I know there's of course an element of exposure. And then there is an element of most of our skill sets and creativity being on consumer, the consumer facing side of the business, that we don't focus on a segment of it that deals in distribution, manufacturing, right. So when he's talking about there's someone who is profiting or getting, you know, a percentage of the connection, although they're not involved in the connection, like you mentioned, there, he's talking about the apples and the other DSPs that are going to profit just by simply sharing your music, they did nothing. Right. All they did was they served as a bridge to help you gain access to a listening base or to the world. Well, that same concept exists in a lot of other parts of the business, you got to think about, well, your domain and your website host. That's someone who's profiting off of a connection that had nothing to do with the connection. The stripes, the you know, a lot of these, like paywalls are the people that connect money, the pay pals, and same thing, they they created a solution to serve as a middle, almost like a middleman for the business. They did nothing. Yeah, they did nothing to help you in creating your business. I mean, of course, they're helping you collect payments. So yeah, there's a, there's a contribution there. But But it's so fundamental, so practical. And it serves a wide range of business, you go on another side, you start thinking about the manufacturing, right, like the people who design the clothing or not design the clothing, excuse me, but they make the clothing, they print the clothing, they do all this other stuff. They ship it, there's so many other areas and channels in business, that profit from your creativity, from your desire to bring something to the marketplace, that I think that same line has to open up our minds to say, man, what, what other middleman or gateway Am I using so much of that I can just buy out or create that, that that almost arm or channel for myself and for others? Yeah. And I do think that that is a big part of where we're headed. I know it's something that you and I have talked about, about okay, how can how can we stretch our move back to be a layer, but how can we stretch what we're doing to be a layer back a layer deeper and not just more broader or more front facing but how can we go deeper into the you know, into the roots into the technology into something that spreads across that gateway or across that bridge so that more people can benefit from it because they're using it or are using it but we don't own it. And so we're losing a third of our profits just off of that.

Nicky Saunders  
Ownership people we’re gonna get there we’re gonna get there, little by little. But, but also another one to piggyback off of the these two lessons Right To piggyback you got to know your numbers at the same time you got to know basic math and the reason why these mixtapes is proud to pay campaigns worked out so well is because nip understood his numbers and moose found a really dope clip about that from the rap radar interview. We love you v dot and Eliot. We just love you just to let you know that. 

Nipsey Hussle  
He saw my sweat. I read some article about Jewelle Santana he was getting 15,000 to show that was my goal. I'm gonna get 15,000 I'm gonna go indie and sell 50,000 units if I get $8 a CD, young be in the ballpark of a half a million off my off my umm, Nipseys math is real. I'm like, Yeah, we could just a cool mathematics, you know, and I have no paranoia that came with that hustle. You didn't hear helicopters at night, I think that was about to kick you're door in. 

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, one of the more. This is, of course, one of my favorite parts of business because I naturally love numbers. But you really can't be in business today, if that's not something that you're tracking, first and foremost. And then also aware of, so I used to make the mistake of telling people all you got to know your numbers. But you can't know your numbers if you're not tracking your numbers. Right. So there's an element of okay, it's got to be important enough for me to start looking into it and saying, okay, beyond just the money, because that's like money, revenue, or even net sales, gross sales, however you want to look at it. That's just one layer of the business. And also, it's it's a metric, or an outcome that you can only count after met, most of your transactions or your activity have already occurred. The best way to really get involved in numbers is to start figuring out what are the things that I do on the back end? What are the things that I do as I near a transaction that impact the final result? As I start figuring out, oh, typically, when I speak to this many people, it seems like it's on its every third person I speak to that I generate a sale. It's every fifth person that lands on our site, on average of one in every five people that will purchase a hat, or that will purchase a program, right? Getting involved in those types of metrics will let you know, okay, so I can't just put a goal of saying I want to make $100,000 or $10,000 a month, I have to start figuring out what are the metrics are the numbers that are stimulating my business, so that I can start putting more effort and energy in those, whether it be through marketing, advertising, just even in the way you run your business and have certain processes in place that will help stimulate more direct success? So of course, I picked this clip because I'm like, Oh, wow, he knows exactly how much he's gonna profit per album. It's like $8 times this times that it's going to help me get to this number. So I could work with that man. And it's stress free. So it just shows like, again, these these people that we look up to these people that we appreciate and admire, they they're not just getting lucky. And they're not just talented, like talented is is definitely a part of the equation. They are most definitely talented. Right. Like one of the people on the documentary I was watching today. He was like, he's a wordsmith. He He's phenomenal words. That's how he came up with TMC. And, and it was DMC, and he figured out instead of DMC, his girls call it, the marathon continues, or the marathon clothes, there was like a play on, you know, the same three letters, and built to other layers of the brand in there. I was like, That's awesome. So yeah, they are talented. But they study, they're mindful of that the talent is one thing. And the business is another thing. So those numbers again, and I just was like, yeah, now we got to include that in there. Because it's not it's not a favorite thing. Like most people are like, Ah, you can miss me with the math. But we all need to know the math that's important.

Nicky Saunders  
I lean on moose for math and numbers. So now I'm going to piggyback off of what just know piggyback off piggyback off to piggyback yep, that's what if, if I didn't know the title of this already, I would call it piggyback. But anyways, um, let's talk about, um, some current news of, of Nipsey Hussle. Right, which is Nipsey Hussle. His family is creating the money marathon clothing store number two in LA to honor his legacy which I believe is huge, because the fact that this man is gone, and he is still coming out with clothes every single week, and they are finally opening up another store if for those who don't know, the original store was where he was killed and has not reopened ever since they kind of made that into, like, just some Memorial situation. And I don't think anybody would want to like work there, I think it's too traumatic. But they're going to open up a new store in LA. And it was one of nips dreams to kind of franchise it, you know, cross to us. Going back on the whole proud to pay, if he would have 10 stores and dropped the $100 mixtape, we're looking at like a million dollars, you feel me like that. So he had all intentions of, I need to get this more out there. Because there's not everybody who's going to go to LA, there's not everybody's going to go to some of the tour dates and things like that. So he was trying to make it just more of a franchise now. Where did the idea of the marathon clothing and getting into fashion come from, we got a clip of that too.

Nipsey Hussle  
Obviously, having a passion for music since day one, the dream and the vision was to, you know, start a label and start a music movement, a music brand. And then just thinking like, as a chess player, you know, assuming that we will have success in music, the next thing became what we do next and just looking at the blueprint that people like Jay and puff laid you know, are for our opinion, it's a fashion

Nicky Saunders  
so that this goes normally based off what we've we spoken about in the past? I'm just following the blueprint, right? Nip had the foundation of music, but what else can I do? That, you know, I can make a business off based off just who I am. So, of course, once he got a you know, his his music on and running, then he created a record label all in all money in right then okay, wearing the clothes, Marathon clothing, right? For those who who partake, he smokes marathon cultivation, right? Um, as far as, you know, the Puma deals and even the record label, everything was under all money in and the marathon, right? Which makes me think like, sometimes we we are too close to our name. Right? He said something that totally opened my mind and hence why I started the beginning of this episode, like, where am I going to be signed to Right? Or maybe that was the the other intro that I messed up if you heard that cool. I don't I can't remember anymore. But

Mostafa Ghonim  
yeah, no, it was this one. Okay,

Nicky Saunders  
so, um, so he was talking about the Puma deal that he has marathon, clothing and Puma, they're still coming out with amazing jumpsuits and sneakers and things like that, which he was working on before he died. And he said something to the effect where it's a marathon and Puma is is not going to be a Nipsey jumpsuit. It's not going to be a Nipsey sneaker is going to the marathon. And Puma you know, Atlantic is not signing Nipsey Atlantic is signing all money in and I'm part of, I'm like, I'm an artist of all money. And so it makes me think of like, anything that we're part of, like anything that we're doing, can we create a business around it and have whatever deals that are going to come about? Part of the The business not of us. So a An example is like, and we've talked about it, if there's going to be deals with Nicky and moose, right is going to be under the business and not under Nicky and moose. Right. And that is due to, because it's the business is going to last longer than the individual. Right? When Nipsey passed the marathon, what still continues No pun intended. But the marathon still continued. They're still dropping till this day. New clothing, like Puma came out with the recent jumpsuit, not too long ago. The marathon clothing itself is dropping, they dropped a tactical launch last week or something like that this brand hustled is a new is a new joint from a couple like months ago, you know, um, all money in is still coming out Jay Stone had came out with his album, a Pac Man came out with his his album. So things are still moving. Without him now. Could it have slowed up? I believe, and this is my belief. And I'm I'm not in LA to say this for sure. But I believe that the all money in records may have taken a hurt when he passed, but it's still still going on now. Right? Would it it could have gotten more momentum. Because I believe once nips, since victory lap did so amazing. It was only right that who's up next, you know, and kind of promoted in that kind of way. I believe it could have gotten way more momentum if he was alive. Right. But I think the clothing actually got more more momentum when he passed. Yeah. Because people wanted the, whatever they could a piece of Nipsey somehow someway. Like, of course, the music went up, the streams went up, you know, there was a pop up shop that I was a part of that that sold out, that was great, you know, but the clothing was sold out for months, once he passed. And then still now, what it was three, four years later, people are still buying it up, they had to buy a whole new warehouse. Right? You know, and, and it's like, and I say all that because I'm like, we have to leverage and create businesses based off what we're doing, and not think that our name is going to have so much power for the whole time. Because, let's say, um, let's just say Nipsey’s influence went down somehow, someway. Just timing, you know, everybody in music has a certain timeframe, besides Jay Z. But you know, there is some dips.

Some, if he didn't put it under a business that that he's under, right. Um, then it could that could have taken a dip Nipsey clothing could have taken a dip Nipseys music label could have taken a dip, you know, the Puma deal could have taken a dip. So I'm like, Okay, what am I signed? Am I co signed a deeper than the brand and might like, like, I'm looking at this, like, what, what is Nikki Moon's going to be under what is some other likes that I have, that we just create a business under? Instead of, and this is going to be clearly a conversation with me and moose later down the road, probably tomorrow or something like that, like really making a list of all the things that we are involved in. Right. And whether it's our own personal LLC or nothing, whatever. Yeah. And what can be the business out of it, that we could attach those joints to like it's Yeah, I was just so I was just so like, amazed by like, the strategic movement of I'm involved. You're going to know my press like this deal was made because of me. But it is to set up for legacy is not set up for just me it's set up so like my team can win. But though and he even spoke about um When he was supposed to sign with Ross, write him in MMG. We're in like this close to doing something. But he said, it didn't happen because my original team wouldn't have gotten credit for Nipsey Hussle success, right the way that Ross had to, he provided an amazing deal. But I wanted the original team to be the reason for my success. And so it's just, it becomes bigger than you. When you create the businesses and you leverage the things that you like, that you love that you're a part of, and you make them into actual businesses. It just becomes bigger than you. It's really truly that, you know, that generational wealth, I went really on the street. I apologize. 

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah no, that's really good, though. That's really good. I mean, I like I like how you kind of layered it down into the business being under a business because I didn't think of that. I didn't think of it that same way. But a great point on the last word came to my mind was, for those of you who remember from the Virgil episode, may he rest in peace as well. He talked about why, you know, he called his brand, unfortunately, yeah, very sad. But he talked about why he named his brand off white and didn't use his name. And he talked about how our names are our most precious things. So whenever we tie our names to the brand, that kind of loses, not loses, but we are almost handicapping ourselves for or handcuffing ourselves for whatever may happen down the line. So I favor this, that that model as well, where name, the company, or the brand, around an idea or a concept that you're trying to accomplish. Right. So the marathon continues. It's like, it's a slogan that can be carried on and passed down. One of the things that we have to remember, especially when it comes to this conversation, you can't pass down a talent. There's how this fall, you're not gonna be passed. And like, you didn't just say what you just said, yeah, there's a lot that, that that's DNA, that's God, that's a lot. You can't say, oh, I'm gonna pass down this musical gift to my child, maybe, I would hope you can maybe, you know, like, I certainly do hope that they have the desire, you can't pass down the talent. But you can pass down a product, you can pass down a process, something that you trademark, or that is unique to you, or that is specific to what you've established that can carry on. So I love that clip. And I love the way you speak about it as well, because the thing that I feel, has gotten the most attention since his passing is the clothing line. Right, and it's one of those moves. Notice the difference now, and this is probably something that we need to all learn from as well. He didn't call it Oh, it's my merch. No, it was a fashion brand. It was a clothing line. Right? Like it's big, it became its own thing. And I think a lot of us, especially in the personal branding, or even like the entrepreneurship space, we think of merch as a side hustle. As a mini like little Okay, yeah, let me just kind of get a few pieces off and make a couple of dollars. If that doesn't matter, at least I just have something to wear instead of wearing, I don't know, a Nike shirt, like, but when. And that's cool, that can get you through for season. But when you enter into it with that mentality of this is going to be a clothing line. You hire designers, you think about your manufacturers, you think about your material, you think about it differently. And I think that's why X amount of years later, they're still putting out new products. So I will say I think that's that's a great takeaway for us to all kind of keep in our minds as well. Let's not just call it merch anymore. If we're going to enter in that space. Are we ready to start our own clothing line, in addition to what we have in place.

Nicky Saunders  
Now, that's facts. And another thing is like, because I looked at the picture, again, how he opened up the marathon agency. So he saw that proud to pay work. So let's do that for other artists. And the first client of the marathon agency was nip like, you know, it's like yeah, okay. Um, everything, that's the thing that was saying, like, everything that he was doing, he had it under him as a as a business, and then

Mostafa Ghonim  
that's cool. I was gonna say the genius behind that. And that's probably why he's able to get so many people on there his name that had been employed is for one, that department or that new company gets like the testimonial or the rep for helping nip become successful. Right? At the same time, he owns that part of the company as well. But that company can now go on without him as I do it, it really is a smart and intelligent way to do business, and not feel like you need to be the face or at the forefront of everything for it to survive. It's like no, I can still attach myself to it so that it can have its own energy. But it doesn't need me to run.

Nicky Saunders  
Right? Yep. Make another agency and all that great stuff.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, maybe we need some more stuff. Yeah.

Nicky Saunders  
I told you this was gonna make you think a little bit I was like, I don't know, if he caught why I did that part. I was like, this is fire. Now, I'm on another note of, for my startups, for my inspiring entrepreneurs, or the people who are beginning entrepreneurship, the do it yourself to save money kind of concept. You know, you have to learn all the tricks of the trade in order to give it away and things like that. I'm still very big on that, like, you got to do some of the things on your own just to understand the foundation and the vision, right. But there is a negative side of doing everything on your own in the beginning. Or if you're past the beginning, and you're still doing a lot of things. There's a negative side to it. So this is this what Nip said

Nipsey Hussle  
You got to stop it yourself. You take your mind out of creative mode, and you kind of get in mechanical mode, you listen to yourself. Yes. Yeah. And then you just don't rewind and play back. That type of thought process is different than like fishing for words. And trying to like tap into a cadence, it's a different part of the brain. So it kind of conflict doing both. So I would just like, try to not focus on the record part of like a real setup process where it was like a three button thing, and try to stay tuned in to the delivery of the lyrics.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, yeah, this, this, this reminds me of our flight assessment talk is like, Well, we talked about know your role know your space. But the I think one of the, the way he spent in it here, he's not necessarily just saying, Oh, don't learn something that you're not good at, or, or the typical, oh, make sure you hire people for the things that you're not good at. I think in a way he say, I don't want to try to do two things at the same time. Yes. So it's like, if I'm going to record, I'm going to focus on recording, and then I'll come back and do the production side of it. But I won't try and do both at the same time. Because one is going to interrupt my creative process or one is going to interrupt my workflow. So it's like, if you're Do you don't have the resources that you need to hire people and get all these people in place, as like this might be the way to still be able to do what you need to get out there. But that might be the shift that you need to make and not try to do all of these things at the same time. It's like create a time or put put aside some time for this type of task, which which needs you to be in your analytical state, it needs to be fully locked into the accounting and the math and all that good stuff, the stuff that I like the one that Nicky hates, maybe maybe you got to tap in with that, but then come back at a different time for you to think about the marketing and the branding and the creative side of things so that you're not trying to do those things simultaneously. So that that's the part that I heard and I think that I don't know I don't know if you got the same thing but that's what I heard.

Nicky Saunders  
Yeah, um I heard it in a way like you, you actually take yourself out of your own genius by trying to do everything right. So some similar, but we in this is also for those who have control issues, like no one can do it like I can, right here. Yeah, like, no, no one can do it as I can and things like that. And I know, for me, I recently reached a spot where I'm doing a lot, and I can't get into my idea mode, like one of my superpowers is thinking of different ways, like different ideas in order to make money, or in order to grow a brand, right. And I'm still in a, in a phase of doing a lot of the stuff that is now a little bit more time consuming than before for some reason. And it's not allowing me to think of the next and it's not allowing me to double down on what is already there and figuring out more ways to get the awareness and things like that. So it's not that it's not being done, but it's not being done in the full capacity that it should be. Because I'm doing that. And this. So it could be more of a spontaneous idea, which will still work. Right. But if you would have given me more time, what could have possibly been of that quick idea? You know, like, and what, what he said at the end was very crucial for those people who do have to do it on your own. It's like, what is the workflow that makes it automated, so I can go back into my own thing. So sometimes it's not necessarily about, you know, hiring a person just yet, if you're not there, it's about what are some productivity apps, or systems, or just certain workflows that you could put in place, that the thing that is not your like, of course, we put our minds to anything, we can do it, you know, I'm fully believer in that. But if we know we are more of the creative side, rather than, as he said, the mechanical side, right, or the system side, then we need to find a way to automate that mechanical side so we can be creative, or even vice versa. Maybe you are the mechanical kind of system kind, and you're not the creative way. So how can we systemize that part, if it's even possible, in order for you to do what you do like that, that shows that you should not stay in that place too long of doing everything, or doing certain things, some people are doing their taxes, they have no business doing taxes right now. Some people are reading emails and doing all the admin stuff, and they have no business doing. You know, there's a lot of things that some of us just have no business doing some, some people have no business being in front of the camera right now. You know, and that's perfect does not neither one of us, I'm not speaking about us. But some people have no business doing that. But they feel as if they have to, in order to get to different levels. Right? Some, and sometimes we feel we can't give this up because no one's going to do it the way we do it. But we're not doing it in a full 100% Anyways. So actually, yes, they can. Because their whole situation is to do that. Like, and that is it. And it's going to take some time, because how you have it in your head is going to be a little bit different. Right? So that takes a little bit of patience and delegation. But they are only supposed to do that, while you're supposed to take over the world. So go take over the world and stop with the little minute stuff. Um, or automate that minute stuff. Because it's killing you from getting to the next level. That's, that's how some of the things that's how I received it. Yeah, yeah. No, that's good speaking to me.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, that's good. That's good. Yeah, we all got kind of go to like those different seasons, where even something that worked really, really well for us in a past season just isn't as effective in this season. You know, like you mentioned, it's like, I don't know that your workload has changed, I'm sure it has to some extent. But for whatever reason, like you mentioned, it's taking you more time now. So it's like whatever what was working in the last season may not be as effective in this season, and it requires these little changes and upgrades to help kind of kickstart some, some creativity or just some more productivity. I know for me, a couple of months back, it was it was the upgrade of my technology. I was like, I really think it's slowing me down. And maybe part of it was mental, I don't know. But for those of you who work off of one screen, and then you get a second screen, and then you can start going back and forth, it's like, Yo, I can really do so much more. So yeah, now there's a, there is a lot of gems in that for sure.

Nicky Saunders  
Two screens are so much better. I'm just gonna get three. Go ahead. You're saying if you used to with that one laptop screen or one IMAX screen, because we don't promote PC over here. Um, I don’t know what to tell you but you know, um, but listen, a long live Nipsey Hussle. Um, like, we do this pretty much now every year. And then we'll do a a lesson or two on his birthday because he's a Leo, shout out to my Leo's. Um, please, please, please, please subscribe to the after show. Right. Um, we'll dig more into we'll probably do that. Creative versus competitive. I don't know. We're, I don't know what we'll do and after show, but we're gonna do some more. Yeah, we'll do we'll do some else. Um, and follow us on all social media platforms, Nicky and moose. Everywhere. We're doing great things. And it's because of y'all. So moose. Final words.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, just I'll use one of my favorite quotes from Nipsey man and he says too much of anything is a liability. I think that shows you the perfect balance of life that you could never have. But I kind of messed that up but too much of anything. Is a liability. There you go. That's it. Just leave right there.