Episode 23 - Do It For The Culture
Episode 23 of Nicky and Moose the Podcast is finally here and your hosts have a lot to talk about! From what’s going on with Jay-Z and Tidal, to the NBA All-Star Weekend, and even a couple of movie sequels.
Check out today’s episode with your favorite notes app or a pen and paper as Nicky and Moose pull lessons from the major highlights of last week.
Determine what lessons would be instrumental in building and developing your brand or business.
What you will discover:
- Really understand your core values and the importance of moving on facts when doing business.
- Stop being the last to move in certain areas.
- Having themes in your brand that stretch worldwide.
- How to view other people’s opinions.
- When to pay attention to other’s opinions.
- Should you stop when there are bad reviews about you?
To learn more about NFT click here
Nicky Saunders:
What's poppin'? What's poppin'? What's 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 we have so much to talk about today! We got Tidal. We got All-Star Weekend. We got LeBron. We got Eddie Murphy and Coming 2 America.
Mostafa Ghonim:
It's been an eventful week.
Nicky Saunders:
Let's just start with the air horns. Like this is a lot. Moose, how we feeling about it?
Mostafa Ghonim:
Excellent. It's been an eventful week, man. I mean, this is great for business/branding world for the entire culture. I think it's gonna be a good week to go through.
Nicky Saunders:
Let's just get into his intro and start talking.
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, but more importantly, the stories behind the people and brands that you know and love the most.
Nicky Saunders:
So you already know what time it is. It is review of the week! And this one is done by G4M3R-4-R34L.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Okay.
Nicky Saunders:
Shout out to you for having a great username.
This one says "A New Favorite:
30 seconds in, I knew this was going to be one of my favorites. The energy Nicky brings is so magnetic, you got to love her. Moose is the laid back personality that shoots straight from the hip. I love the dynamic of this podcast as well as all the practical steps to strive and stay on course." Ya mean?!
Mostafa Ghonim:
Let's go!
Nicky Saunders:
I'm getting better at this.
Mostafa Ghonim:
With a straight read out too! Let's go!
Nicky Saunders:
I'm reading out loud every single day. Not really. But you know, you could say that. But shout out to everybody who leaves a review. We read them. We see them. We appreciate you. Thank you and shout out to y'all. So, Moose, we have we have a lot. We have a lot to talk about. First, special...do I have drum rolls? I don't even know if I have drum rolls. Do I have a drum rolls? Let's see. Hold on. What's this one? Nope, that wasn't it.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Hilarious!
Nicky Saunders:
No, I got it. I got it. I got it. Ayyyeee!!! We have a big announcement! We are on a brand new Podcast Network. Moose, what podcast network are we on?
Mostafa Ghonim:
Tell 'em the podcast network real quick. And after I tell 'em I want you to tell 'em why I'm telling 'em and why you're not telling 'em. That part is important. Ladies and gentlemen we are officially a part of the Resonance Podcast Network. Let's go!
Nicky Saunders:
Major! Major! And let me just break down who's on this and then we'll get to the joke. Right? Let m,e we got Eric Thomas, CJ, Karl and Jemal all on the S2S Podcast. We got Inky Johnson's new podcast. We got Quincy Harris and Fuzzy with FAQ podcast and there's more to come. This is all on the new Podcast Network. What is it called again Moose?
Mostafa Ghonim:
The Resonance Podcast Network.
Nicky Saunders:
This is major.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Tell 'em why. Yeah tell 'em.
Nicky Saunders:
Okay, so the reason, the reason why I got Moose telling you guys what the name of the podcast network is, is because I can't say it right. I can never say it right. I say it wrong each time. I say "resident" or...like I just say it wrong all the time. So I'm working on it. I'm practicing it every day just like how we do review the week. So hopefully by the second month of being on this podcast network, we...well not we...me. I'll get it right.
Mostafa Ghonim:
We'll take it. We'll take it.
Nicky Saunders:
Oh, I messed up my own air horn. I messed up my own air horns. There we go. But um, okay, so it's going to seem like we are just a Jay Z podcast after a while I feel like this.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Seriously. Seriously.
Nicky Saunders:
Um, shout out to everybody who listened to the last episode and how we broke down how he sold half of Ace of Spades, but now, he did another thing he sold a lot of the majority of the stake of Tidal to Square, which is very interesting to me. So what we have up on the screen, shout out to everybody on YouTube who's watching all my audio listeners, I'm gonna read it to ya'll so you don't feel like you are disconnected. So we got a tweet up from Jack, who is the... what is it? CEO of Square?
Mostafa Ghonim:
The CEO of Twitter.
Nicky Saunders:
Yeah, and Twitter. So remember that in our conversation for later. He says, "I'm grateful for Jay's vision, wisdom and leadership. I knew TIDAL was something special as soon as I experienced it, and I'm inspired to work with him. He'll now help lead our entire company, including Seller and the Cash App," and the Cash App. I've never heard of the Cash App. But that's cool for her "as soon as this deal closes." And you see the picture of Jack and Jay Z kind of talking, looks like they have some kind of wine going on nice fireplace, and a whole white board, which is a whole vibe. And I don't know if so for my audio listeners, they're very strategic, because in this whiteboard, you see artists, and then the rest is blurred out. I liked how they did that. That was very intentional. I see you people I see. But Moose, how are we feeling about this?
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, this is a...first off, shout out to Jay man. I mean, you talk about cashing in on back to back weeks. You know? I'm assuming 300 is his favorite number. Because, you know, my man cashed in 300 million on on back to back weeks with both of his deals. So that's incredible.
Nicky Saunders:
Wait, wait, wait. $300 mil?
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was the number.
Nicky Saunders:
One week. Two weeks. So we're at $600 mil in...
Mostafa Ghonim:
Half a billion in two weeks. Unbelievable.
Nicky Saunders:
Yo, that's not that's not light. That's not light.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a big deal. It's a big deal. And I think it shows that, you know, it's really interesting, because from a business standpoint, there's a lot of people who question title success, just as a as a business operation, and its overall function. But I look at what Jack is doing here. And you look at, you know, mutualism, you can look at it the mutualism, however you want to say, but it's like, Man, you're getting one of the best, probably the greatest marketers of all time. And I think Jay Z, you can, you know, one of he's really proven himself as such, you could put them up there with a lot of the greats. Now you're getting him to help you run and co operate some of these other, you know, establishments, or businesses that you have, as part of the deal. So it's a very interesting collab slash merge, you know, I don't even know what to call it. But Jay still gets to pocket a good amount of cash as a part of it. And you know, it's really genius how that whole thing came around.
Nicky Saunders:
I think. So here's where I play a little bit of devil's advocate just a little bit, right. So I'm kind of confused with this partnership, or whatever this is, just because Tidal, in the beginning, got a lot of like, a lot of grief for being an artist first platform. And that's why it never really kind of battled with Apple and Spotify like it should, because it's not putting the people first, it's putting the artists first, which I mean, they need their praise and their revenue, all that great stuff. So of course, there has to be a model for that right? Now, with this new partnership, right? This one is like the, from what I was reading, was that it was going to bring extra ways for artists to have different revenue streams between merch and memberships and all that great stuff. They were thinking about it as far as how we can provide extra tools for the artists. I worry about that. The reason why I worry about that is because is this going to make title bigger for the audience? Is it going to be more appealing to bring more subscriptions and battle with the Apple Music and battle with Spotify and things like that, you know? Right now clearly, you could say that it's better than SoundCloud. But can you say that it's better than Apple? You know? It, it's, it's a bit concerning now, from a standpoint that, you know, Jack is pretty much founded Twitter, right? So what can happen the back end is amazing. It could be it could be very amazing. But until they take away that language of the artist first, I'm still going to think that Apple's going to be above that. Now, the the crazy thing I was having a conversation with an individual that I will remain nameless, because I didn't see if I can bring this up on the podcast. So shout out to this anonymous individual. But he said, How? How do you...how do I say this? How do you claim black owned so much, but continue to give up majority of the stake to non black people? Right. And I'm like, I can see why you say that. However, from a standpoint of this is going...one Tidal wasn't necessarily in the big running anyways, so maybe a shift could help first and foremost. Two, he may he may be playing the long game, because now he has a seat, at Cash App and Seller. I don't know what Seller is, but clearly has a seat on that. Right? So I'll give you Tidal, which was kind of in the middle anyways, to get something bigger, to get my hands on a payment thing. Now, we're in that game. Now I have a voice in that game. Right. So I can see why anonymous said that. But then I'm thinking from a standpoint of this is a bigger picture. This is everybody expects music from me. But nobody expects payment processing from me. Right? Now I can get really into it. To bring something back to the table for us. I can see that happening. What is your thoughts?
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, it'd be, I wouldn't be surprised completely if if you see Jay make a run into the banking industry, quite frankly, I'm just gonna make that projection now. It's like you just never know. Because if you're already in, like you said that payment processing or that payment exchange type of community network, you're not too close from a banking network. And if we're talking about minority owners are black owners and and staying in that realm. One of the one of the areas that we know is way behind is the financial services industry. It's dominated by, by by, you know, whatever called White Americans, whatever you want to say. But I think that would be interesting. You know, I know that. And quite frankly...But, but also, I think Jay has never been that person who doesn't do business with somebody because of their color or their race. Like, and remember, this is not the first time it's happened. This also happened with the collab with the NFL. When everyone turned on him because of the whole Kaepernick situation. So it's like, I don't think he's ever allowed race to be a factor for not doing business. So could this be an argument...go for it.
Nicky Saunders:
I said, but I think it all comes in full circle, right? Because he was standing with Kaep then made the deal. And then finally, like, Kaep was super accepted again, and was trying out and everything. And who's to say that that wasn't a Jay Z move? You know, we like I said, we're not going to really know all the stuff that he's done until probably his passing. Right. Yeah, that's true. But I didn't mean to interrupt you. I was just like, I think it's it's still with the motive of minority owned kind of vibes.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, yeah, I'd like to think that honestly, from the position that he's sitting at, it's really not going to be such a great deal breaker for him, right? It's not going to impact his life drastically, where he's still, you know, for him to say, I'm gonna forget about my people or not look at the interest. But I would argue it's, it's, he's really great at staying out of his emotions. Yeah. It's like, you know, what we say facts over feelings kind of thing. He's done a phenomenal job of navigating the business world and saying, okay, yep, there is some... There is some history here. And we probably shouldn't. But from a facts standpoint, if the numbers line up, I'm going to cut the deal. So I would argue like, Is it that? Wouldn't not make a deal be more considered pride and allowing feelings to dominate at the table instead of leading with facts?
Nicky Saunders:
Yeah, I agree with that. And from like, we're going to have to play nice. We're gonna have to play nice. And it's not a bad thing. Like if you can, if you could erase color, from your deals, I think you can make, like a huge impact. Right? I think a lot of people may, like concentrate on that a little bit too much. But is it about that? Or is it about how many lives can be touched? Now there are certain businesses that are just like, minority owned that's it. We rock with each other. That's it. And kudos to them. I'm cool with that. But I think with a Jay Z, it has to be bigger. And so you have to play nice.
Mostafa Ghonim:
At the Jay Z level you think like, for some people, you get too big to only stay to one demographic anyway. Like, at some point, you're gonna hit the ceiling of Okay, I'm only rockin with people who are like me. But at some point, if if you're a brand of businesses to grow bigger, you have to be intersectional. Or like, you have to be involved in different communities or different races and not say, Oh, I'm not gonna cross over because of that. And you know, at the end of the day, we're all humans, man. And I know that may be like, for some people that really ticks them off and rubs them the wrong way. But I don't know it. I've always believed that if we continue to go after retaliation, then we don't move forward. It's just like, you stay in the same hamster wheel.
Nicky Saunders:
Agreed. Shout out but shout out. Yeah, we can't be a Jay Z podcast. Yeah, cuz I could still go. But shout out to Jay. He made $600 million. Just cuz. Crazy!
Mostafa Ghonim:
Smart man.
Nicky Saunders:
But, um, I don't know if you're a big NBA person. But this is not going to be the super topic. So it's, um, depending on when you hear this. When we're recording this, it's all star weekend, right in Atlanta. Which, on another note, I saw a whole club and it was packed, and no one was wearing a mask and then y'all wonder why I don't want to go to Atlanta.
Mostafa Ghonim:
I should better say I pray for their their health and their protection. Yeah, that's gonna be and I think they're one of the states...
Nicky Saunders:
They all have the vaccination. I just I just don't get it. Like I really. I really see all the clubs packed. And all of them like typical packed like, all together, like on each other, almost hugging each other. Listening to music and I'm like, Oh, this is like pre COVID. Oh, this y'all have a regular life in Atlanta. And then I think I told you the Texas is like, we're 100% open. We're, we're good. We're no mask, no, nothing, but that's not the point. So that's another conversation. I'm still not going outside. All right. I'm not going outside. I don't care. I'm not. I'm staying here. So it's all star weekend, a whole bunch of people are together. But there's something that caught my attention that I've been talking about like behind the scenes real quick. And for those who are on YouTube, you will see this little nice little article, my audio people I will read it to you. So Bleacher Report joins Blockchain frenzy with NFT sales. Nicky, what does that mean? I got you hold on. So, so what Bleacher Report is doing is they're selling these digital basketball art pieces, right? And it's called NFT's. And for those who don't know, what NFT's are, it's non fungible tokens. I'll get into that. Don't worry about it. But they're doing these basketballs of like Quavo, Little Baby, 2 Chains and everything. And it's selling for crypto. It's selling for .4 ethereum, which is really around $600, depending on when they buy it, right. The reason why I'm wanting to bring this up is because it's looking like brands are moving more into the crypto space than before. Right? The fact that on a major weekend, through the biggest weekend of the NBA, we're talking about NFT's and crypto and digital art, we clearly are seeing a bit of a shift. So, um, I think I showed Moose, but they're starting to do like digital trading cards with NBA top shot, right, where you get to pay for moments of somebody dunking or doing a steal, and you get to own that, right. It's really, whether it's digital art, whether it's a digital product, wearables from like gaming and stuff like that anything digital, you could put a token on it, and people are owning, right? I'm finding this very fascinating from three standpoints of an investor, of a content creator, and an influencer. Those are the three mindsets I'm looking at it. But I'm seeing that brands are starting to think about this, I'm seeing that music is starting to make a wave with it. There was this artists that made about $3.6 million off of his music by selling digital products, Digital Songs, as well as the physical vinyl. And if this is going over your head, don't worry, Moose is gonna slow this down for you. Right. But I'm saying this because clearly, we've heard about crypto and Bitcoin and all that great stuff for a little bit, but not necessarily on a mainstream vibe. Like not necessarily brands taking it on and figuring things out and making it part of their products and their services. But with such a big weekend. And, you know, not necessarily staying on what's happening in the blockchain community, but that people who are going to all star weekend could possibly pay for digital art, which they'll get the physical basketball, but they're paying for digital art, and they're paying with crypto, or they're getting it for the value of what this crypto coin is, is something we have to pay attention to is something as far as us as being brands and businesses have to look at and like how can we incorporate it in our standpoint, like what are we doing with it, but Moose, slow it down for them because I know I went...
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, no, no, no, no, this is this is a big conversation, right. And again, I'm gonna really credit the branders and the marketers out there for choosing to make this a big part of the weekend. With such a with the NBA being just so gigantic right now, there's really no other way to say it. They've done a phenomenal job marketing, navigating the pandemic, speaking to the Black Lives Matter movement, like they've done so many great things from a marketing and branding standpoint, that has brought more positive energy and more eyes and attention to their game, that for Bleacher Report, number one to start paying attention to the NFT space, the crypto space, the shift here that's happening y'all is that this whole concept of cryptocurrency and just a virtual world is becoming so normal. You've heard that this is a term that's been used a lot. We got to start normalizing x, y, z. Well, right now I think the virtual world is starting to become normal to the majority consumer that brands like a Bleacher Report that's becoming an early adapter into this space. They're saying, Okay, let's merge it and and they're known for being, of course relatively involved into the entire All Star weekend, just that entire event, they're involved in that heavily. So they're now starting to implement some of those layers to it to create those moments and be one of the face...the first people to move. Now, here's the thing, and everyone needs to make note of this, the early adopters are often the first one to get the fire or like face the most heat if things don't go well. But they're often the people who rise above and are typically ways ahead of the competition, because they've moved first. And so I love that you bring this up, Nicky, and you've done a phenomenal job, really diving into it, studying it, and really bringing it to light for everyone to look at. Because we have to stop you talk about culture, you talk about black owned all of those things. We as a society also have to stop being the last to move on some of these things. Because as I started looking deeper into the industry, NFT's have been around, even 2019.
Nicky Saunders:
Yes, it's like 3 years.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, that industry generated almost $200 million in 2019. So it starts to show you like, Hey, I don't you know, I don't know why we're just starting to find out about it now. But this is something that's been in the works. And I'm sure it's only been even further enhanced, or it picked up more steam, because of the pandemic COVID and quarantine, and many things from the virtual standpoint becoming more accepted. So, you know, with the rise of Bitcoin, just over the last couple of months that has shot through the roof as well and kind of took it's couple run . So you start to see those t o merge together. And it mak s sens
Nicky Saunders:
Yeah, and I think, like, we have to see that everything is turning digital, like, no, but everything is turning digital, not only from content, and all that great stuff, but like our money is digital, like, our products and services are going to start being digital. And we have to figure out by when we see certain things like that, like let me let me pull it up again. For those people on YouTube, like, what you see on the screen is just two basketballs, right with different images, one, this has 2 Chains, and ones it has like black angels and everything like that. And people are buying this digital art, right? The crazy thing about this, what is very interesting about NFT's is that the original person, think about it from and I'm not going to get too geeked out. But think about it from a standpoint of if you are regular artists, like you paint, like boom, you paint, draw whatever it is, once you sell that, that's it, right. So, I'm looking into it, and I'm realizing those people who do the digital art those people who do digital products, and they sell it as an NFT, if the if the person who buys it puts it out on the marketplace, right? Because there's this whole NFT community right now, that like sells and trades, all this things, if they sell it, if the person sells it, the original person will forever get royalties, like between I think 10% to 30%, depending on what you put in the back end, right. And that's huge. And brings a whole different definition of digital ownership. Right, there are people who are literally trying to find like, video frames now to to post up these different digital art forms. And these videos and all that great stuff like to have different moments of LeBron dunking on people all throughout the house through a video from people are starting to do this right is starting to be more common than before. And it brings a whole sense of ownership for to say Yo I have this moment, I have this art no one else. They'll be rare. It's not like how we see digital now as far as like, you can buy it on the site whenever it's like only 200 or 500 of these were made and those who have it, it's yours. Right? Very interesting. It's very interesting.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, the sense of exclusivity and and then also the part that I think is super important to mention here too, is that when you talk about the original artists gaining royalties forever and and and for those listening, y'all Believe me, I'm just entering this space very new to as well. So I'm not. For me, it's like, wow...
Nicky Saunders:
We're not NFT's are crypto experts. We're just speaking what we literally are learning about.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Exactly, but But the thing that stood out to me Nicks is that traditionally, artists never got royalties. So you, an artist may sell their painting, to, you know, let's say, a museum or whoever it is, and then years down the line. And there are many stories. And that's why when we highlight a Swizz Beatz on, you know, and did an episode on him, we talked about how he is also creating a network that looks out for the artist, even Verzuz that's a form of that as well. But in the traditional realm, once your art is sold from one person to another, and you look up and you see one of your paintings going for millions, the original artists rarely ever got money back. Let me better rephrase it, never got money back. So the fact that this is one of the things, one of the benefits to it. So you talk about it from a creative or an influencer standpoint, it's definitely a major shift into you know, how you can now respect the artist appreciate the artist for their work and what they've created. So yeah, that's definitely one
Nicky Saunders:
Yeah, and go check out that Swizz Beatz of those benefits that I think is extremely cool, too. episode that we did, because he was talking about, you know, changing the art world and where, from a physical standpoint, that the artists will get royalties. But now it's making a wave digitally. And this is kind of interesting. But the fact that it's happening in the NBA, with the digital trading cards and Bleacher Report and everything like that, like I bought a digital training, trading card pack two days ago, or something like that, like this is starting to be a normal thing. And it's very interesting. And everybody s talking about it. So if y u don't know what we're talki g about, just look up NFT's an things like that. We'll proba ly have like one resource to it in our show notes. So go check t at out. But yeah, I'm very inve ted in it. I'm looking into i . I made it very known on my so ial media. And now we're makin it known here that we're prob bly going to be really into
Mostafa Ghonim:
No, no. his world. So yeah, check that ut. But since we're talking a out NBA and everything like that we have to talk about LeBron we have to talk about Space Jam 2. Huge, huge these image . Once again, shout out to y YouTube viewers, audio peop e were explaining it, I promi e you, but right what in t e middle, we have t e Entertainment Weekly cover wi h LeBron with the Looney Tune , people Bugs, Lola, which I do 't know if you heard like Lola is getting a lot of slack right ow because they unsexy Lola. Ha e you heard that?
Nicky Saunders:
Yeah. So in the original Space Jam, Lola was looking like a hot bunny. And now they totally took away some some assets. And yeah, they took away
Mostafa Ghonim:
They pulled the funding back.
Nicky Saunders:
So people are like what's going on? But that's ...we're not about we're not talking about Lola, we're talking about LeBron taking on this huge sequel. Huge, by the way. But it looks amazing based off the the the pictures. My question to you. My question to you is, which will almost transition to what we're talking about. But are we expecting this to be better than the first one? Or are we just excited that it's coming back to life and it's giving a fresher look? I would love to hear your your standpoint on this.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Man. There, there are really two sides to this, right? Of course, Space Jam. That movie in itself with just MJ's persona and his whole thing. Obviously, it's a big deal. So from one part of it, of course, we're excited to see a part two to it. We're excited to see what happens and I'm sure it's going to be great. The side that I'm not looking forward to is the the whole concept of...now, let me say this, I would be really interested to know if MJ makes an appearance somewhere in there like there's a passing of the throne maybe.
Nicky Saunders:
Has to. Has to. If he doesn't, It's a problem. He has to.
Mostafa Ghonim:
I got to know what happened. Like I'm already thinking about that. Now what I already know is gonna happen from a social media world Twitter world, all of that is gonna spark up a conversation even bigger debate around, which is better LeBron or MJ. You know, like, for me, I kind of wish that LeBron would have just had his own version or his own kind of, you know, thing and not necessarily have to do a part two of this. But yeah, I mean, you know, with somebody sequels, you just never know, but I'm really interested to see, because I'm a LeBron fan Nicks. I gotta be honest, I'm a big LeBron fan. So I got a I got a, I'm hoping that it, you know, I feel like my man is gonna really put up, he's, he's gonna put on a good show.
Nicky Saunders:
So this is what I'll say. I want to know if LeBron can act. Okay. That's going to be important. You know?
Mostafa Ghonim:
Mav Carter said he was alright though. That's what I heard. I heard it on one of the interviews with Mav.
Nicky Saunders:
That's his friend. That's his friend.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Business partner. Okay.
Nicky Saunders:
That's his friend. Friend, still a friend.
Mostafa Ghonim:
But hey, remember what we talked about? A good friend wouldn't put you in a place to look bad. So it's like because he's such a good friend...
Nicky Saunders:
Hold on, hold on. Let me bring you back.
Mostafa Ghonim:
That's a really good friend.
Nicky Saunders:
Let me bring you closer to me. That looks like a lot of money. I think if you couldn't act, I would hype you up.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Get you an acting coach. I'm getting you an acting coach for Space Jam 2.
Nicky Saunders:
If you couldn't act, I would definitely hype you up. Because just from the looks of those pictures, in looks totally insane. I'm excited about it. But I'm really hoping that he can act. But from a, from an expectation standpoint, I don't necessarily expect it to be better than the first one. Even though it looks almost pretty much looks better than the first one. I don't really expect it. But I will say that it will be the Space Jam of our generation. You know, um, it's, it should give the same feeling as the first one. Right. So how we felt about the first one, you know, the Gen Z and everything like that could feel about this one. So I do think that's good. And from, you know, from the standpoint of the Space Jam as a brand, I think that's the point. Like, I think we had to make sure we had another "The G.O.A.T" status to take over this role, and not necessarily just make Jordan do it again, let's get the G.O.A.T. of this generation to do this kind of movie. Right? And give that same feeling to, to what we have right now. I think that's what it would do. And if that is the case, I think the Space Jam brand is very strategic instead of just doing the Oh, well it's the sequel, like, let's rush that out. Or, let's say this is going to be better than the first one, all that great stuff. But do we...have sequels ever been better than the first one?
Mostafa Ghonim:
Oh, man, you know, honestly, I think with the exception of maybe Bad Boys 2.
Nicky Saunders:
Okay.
Mostafa Ghonim:
And, you know, I think I would put Bad Boys 2 as one of the...Bad Boys 3 now, they shouldn't even call that a Bad Boys movie. I don't know what happened there.
Nicky Saunders:
I didn't even watch it.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, that that was a fall off. What are the other sequels come to mind? Fast and Furious. There's about 234 of them, you know?
Nicky Saunders:
Yeah, I was like which one?
Mostafa Ghonim:
They got a history of sequels.
Nicky Saunders:
That needs to that needs to go away. That needs to go away. Um, yeah that needs to go away. I just I don't understand why Fast and Furious is still going on. I think rest in peace to Paul Walker, I think when that Fast and Furious happened, and they did that little scene of drifting away...
Mostafa Ghonim:
Perfect time to close it. Yeah I think it's done. I think it's done. Then there's the
Nicky Saunders:
That was done. I was not expecting to see another Fast and Furious. And now they're coming out with eight more. I'm good. I'm not going to watch it. I'm over it. It's not this generations of Fast and Furious. You're still giving the same kind of vibe. Just let it go. Just just let it go. other world of it too with Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I mean, I think those were, you know not too badly done. I never watched a single one. Never watched a single one. Couldn't do it.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Worth the watch.
Nicky Saunders:
But talking about sequels, of course, of course, we have to talk about Coming 2 America and 33 years later, what does this mean for the brand, Eddie Murphy, all that great stuff. So the funny thing is, I honestly, first off, I'm not very active on my personal Facebook page. I don't like doing it. I'm just too much on my business vibe. Personal, I don't really care. However, I really wanted to get in touch with the people as far as what did they think about coming to America? Since it was such like a long waited one? Like, of course, you're gonna think about what is it better than the first one? Was it worth the wait all that great stuff? And I'm just like, after...so for me, I'm gonna say this after 30 something years. Why? Why? Once again, if it's like, what I feel about Space Jam that is going to be this generations, you know, Space Jam, or this generations Coming to America, then cool. But if we're comparing the the two movies real quick, Coming to America was...It did something for the culture. Like that is something it's, it's almost has its own cult following. Right? It plays every month, every holiday, it's there, you can find it. Um, it's just a movie that is almost required to watch, especially if you're minority, especially if you're from New York, but especially if you're from if you're a minority.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Queens!
Nicky Saunders:
Yes, that's for Moose. That's for Moose. Ima be honest. Ima be honest, I may be the only minority that didn't really like Coming to America, the first one. I can admit that. I can admit that. Say what you want in the comments. I'm cool with that. I've heard it all my life, I get it. Now, I'm not talking from a standpoint of just like I didn't like it, I understand what it did for the culture. Right. So from a culture standpoint, I understand how important this movie is how anticipated it is. And I was very interested with people like Teyana Taylor and Rick Ross and bringing up all the old characters like how it would really be and so I asked my Facebook people, right, and we actually got like, mixed reviews. Like "it was okay, but not worth the wait." "I loved it." "Loved it." Someone said "trash wack." "Loved it so much. I want to throw them z word party." I can't even say it. "No sequel is the original, not expecting the original every time. It's more than 30 years later, different times and technology." Which a lot of people agreed with that. "I just want to see the old characters. I could have cared less about the storyline." "I loved it." "Loved it." "Liked it." So it's just different reviews. Right. So and look at like I said, I'm not very active, but this this, everybody has something to say about it. Right? Everybody has them say. The thing is, yes, bringing back that old feel for a certain crowd. Right. Great. Um, now I feel like they pulled a Verzuz. What I mean by that is like, I don't expect to come close to the first one. But I do want to bring awareness to the brand, and so you could watch the first one, understand where this is coming from and why there's so much hype, then see the second one, and just enjoy it because people did say like, they kind of enjoyed it. Right? I watched the beginning, not gonna sit here and say that I watched the whole thing because I didn't. I watched the beginning, the production is amazing what they did with that what I like is they knew they had to up that. And then they took advantage of where we at as far as technology, like somebody said, it looks amazing. The production is amazing. The people that they brought in was amazing makeup, all that great stuff. Great, right? My thing is, if it's not going to give me the same feeling or beat it. Why are you spending that much money? And making us wait that long for a movie? This may not be the most popular answer. I'm just saying. That's how I feel.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah. Okay. I see where you come from, where you come from? I see it a little bit differently. I see it a little bit differently. And here's why. You and you see this really a lot more popular with with authors, and I'm sure with probably directors just writers in general, right? The people behind the scenes that don't normally get the credit. There is such a big fear and level of anxiety that many of them have to go through to get ready to do a part two, because they know it's never going to meet the expectation of the audience, especially when their first movie or their first part was so successful. So number one, the fact that they were all able to come together. And many of the the starring cast also reappeared. So I thought that was awesome. But the fact that they were all able to come together, like you said, some 30 years later, and still step up to the challenge of like, you know what, pretty much everyone knows. No sequel is better than the original. But the fact that again, that they were able to have the courage to step up to the challenge and say, shoot, let's just do it. I give them credit just off of that, because there are many people who don't overcome the fear. And, like I said, the anxiety of putting the pen together to the paper to say, Alright, let's do the part two. So I thought that was awesome. Now, at the same time, I couldn't help but get Black Panther type vibes from it. I literally watched it last night. And I just felt Yeah, like it was like, and maybe because Black Panther was so good. Honestly, Black Panther is probably one of my favorite movies of all time, just because of the storyline, the meaning, Chadwick...like just everything. I thought it was so significant.
Nicky Saunders:
You said of all time?
Mostafa Ghonim:
I really think so. It's it's a it's a phenomenal movie. I think so.
Nicky Saunders:
Oh ok.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, I'm making bold predictions.
Nicky Saunders:
That's bold! I don't even have a sound for...that's bold.
Mostafa Ghonim:
It's one of the greats, I think it takes its own category. Like when you look at when you look at Black Panther, I don't know that there are other movies in that particular category that you can compare it to, especially for the minority community. Like I don't, I can't think of any. So for that, it's like, all right, in that category it takes it's own thing.
Nicky Saunders:
Not Baby Boy?
Mostafa Ghonim:
No. I was gonna say maybe Will Smith's Independence Day. What?! That caught me off guard. God Lee, welcome to Nicky and Moose Podcast on the Resonance Network y'all.
Nicky Saunders:
On the podcast network.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Sheesh! So yeah, so I did get some some like Black Panther vibes from it. But I can see why. Right. And I don't mean to spoil the movie for anyone who haven't watched it yet. Make sure you go check it out. If you don't want me to give you some cliff notes about it. But you can see the modern day like the main idea that they're trying to portray, it's like Yo, life has changed since we've originally created this first movie. And we have to now start incorporating some of those changes for today's viewers, right? The fact that we're going to showcase females in a position of power, the fact that we're not going to be hypocrites between you know, father and son and although we may have made some mistakes, we kind of get on our children when they make similar mistakes, or the blended family concept. So there's like a few different things from a modern day standpoint, it's like okay, it's cool to bring that into the to the art and kind of showcase a new storyline. Is it better than the first one? I can't. I think the first one was just too much of a Queen's classic. I absolutely loved it. But I still give them credit for at least stepping up to the plate, you know, and, and taking a crack at it.
Nicky Saunders:
So what I will say is that I am, like, as far as coming to America as totality, right? I love how, like it's such a cultural movie for, like, just for the culture, period. Right? Um, and when I was looking into it, I found a clip of Eddie Murphy, kind of just really speaking on that, like, Why? Why is it 30 something years later, we're still watching the first one? And not just like here, like, worldwide? Like, why is that really? And what can we really learn by that? So I found the clip, real quick, that pretty much talks about it.
Eddie Murphy:
...our local stories...Really movies with black people around the world, people don't see our movies, you know? The reason they go see Coming to America, around the world is because universal themes. So the themes that are in this picture, you know, the love and family, and tradition and doing the right thing, those, those and female empowerment, those are all, you know, universal themes.
Nicky Saunders:
So, um, that made me think, from a standpoint of, maybe this is why some, maybe not even just from the movies, but like a product and staff and service vibe, they don't necessarily hit global exposure or bigger exposure. Because they're looking from a smaller point, they're looking from a very local standpoint, instead of necessarily what can hit. What could be the themes that everybody can connect with that is interested in this. Now, I'm not saying here, because I completely believe in niching down and everything, right? But I feel that there's still certain points that you could reach that no matter if you live in the US, England, Uganda shout out to our Uganda fans! We got Uganda people listening and watching and all that great stuff! Shout out to you guys! But, um, whether you're in all those different countries, they can still connect with that particular thing because I'm like, I'm really fascinated that this is one of the movies that is talked about forever, like I like a few movies, right, but they don't have that lasting power. Like one of my favorites is Scarface. Now, though, that does last. Right? That does last, it doesn't have the impact as Coming to America. I don't I don't see that. Why? Because it's kind of violent. You can't really connect with it if you're not a drug lord. Things like that. Like if...
Mostafa Ghonim:
Reminds me of The Godfather too.
Nicky Saunders:
Right Right, right. If you're not really an immigrant if you're not, you know, I'm in the minority. Like, the great thing about Coming to America is just is not so focused on just a kind of a black movie. It's just of culture. It's just of things like like he said, like women empowerment, love, family, things like that, that's no matter what your skin color is, that's what it is. So I'm looking at it like, Yo, how can we really look at our brand and see if we can have certain themes that can reach the world?
Mostafa Ghonim:
That's good Nicks.
Nicky Saunders:
Like we're going to have specific problems and everything. But do we have certain themes that no matter what race, color, sexuality, like they see that they can connect with this particular brand or business? Like that's...and it's crazy that like I get that from a movie, like but it has standing power. Like you can't deny it has a cult following we we preach about having your own tribe. Well, he was saying that there's people still to this day on Halloween that dresses up like Coming to America people. The quotes are are crazy. People still quote it. I'm like, yo, how do you have that for your own brand? Because that's something we have to learn from. But I would like, get...Wow, we're really, we're really into this episode. Okay, go ahead.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah. No, it makes sense though I mean, the concept of having some time something multifaceted, like it's multi layered, and it can it can connect with people on so many different levels. You're absolutely right. That's one of the reasons why things go global. You know, it again, it takes us back to the beginning of this episode, when we said, Jay Z success really is one of the reasons why is because he doesn't put, you know, red tape in the ground saying, Nope, I'm not going to cross into another race, another part of the world. At some point, you want to be accepting of multi cultures so that you can allow people to connect with it. But also, you're absolutely right, because of we get inspiration from film. We get inspiration from art and creativity. So there is a big part of that, that sparks that inspiration for us that even if it's not, for us right now, the the concept of one Coming to America 1 first came out, literally people around the world, were starting to become obsessed with this concept of America. Right? Like I can tell you as an immigrant myself, thinking of my uncle, who migrated here first. And then we followed in the mid 90s. Coming to America was like, it's like, you pretty much just got a ticket to heaven. And it's like, yo, hey, I'm out of here. Right? So it had that same level of of impact. So yeah, I can see a lot of those connections for it. But again, I think, overall, the part the fact that they did it is major, and also shout out to Eddie Murphy man, like we can't, we can't just sweep that under the rug. Like I was looking at some of his accomplishments. And we talked about...
Nicky Saunders:
He's like 59!
Mostafa Ghonim:
Man, he looks great for his age. But above that, like you think of the body of work, and we're big on giving them flowers, and, you know, recognizing people while they're still here. I think he did a phenomenal job and also his career. Major, I think he he's in over 50 movies. Crazy, crazy numbers! Crazy numbers for Eddie.
Nicky Saunders:
That's crazy. But there's this one, one clip that I wanted to definitely go over because it's like, the pressure of is this going to be as good or better? Like, what is? What does that mean? Even when I think it was about a year ago talking about going into stand up, and I think he had a special, right? But he did the SNL situation and everything. Like he was doing a comeback. And people were like, yo, do you still have it? And people were asking like, Yo, what is? What is the pressure? Like do you feel pressure? What what is the situation? So I got a few clips about it.
Eddie Murphy:
I tend to think constructively when I'm thinking about something creative. I'm doing something creative. I think about I want to think I'm thinking about how making it as funny as possible. I want to shut it down when I do it. I don't be thinking like, oh, what's gonna happen? What are you gonna say? Are they going to put me on their YouTube? Are they gonna...? I don't feel any pressure at all. You know, pressure and stuff like that, you feel stuff like that when you're just starting out in the business. I been making movies for 40 years. And yeah, it's just another day at work.
Nicky Saunders:
Moose, start this off real quick.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, I love it. I love it. I mean, I think I've read I read something online recently, it said that the more that you can stop caring about people's opinion, the more freedom that you really have. That's like a dangerous person to look after, because you're starting to rip away from that. So I love what he's saying here. And and, you know, in many ways, he's like, yo, yes, there is pressure. But that's really for people who are just starting off. Yeah, in his level in the game, you know, for how much he's done it and how long he's done it for, at this point. It's just a matter of showing up to work. And I love that he simplifies that a little bit, right? Because I think many of us can begin to complicate our next move, or what is it that we're actually doing where he's just like, it's just showing up to work. It's just another day, and whatever it happens thereafter, you know, whatever they say on YouTube, or whatever they do here. It's like it is it is what it is, is water under the bridge. So yeah Nicks, I'm, I'm really a big fan of that concept, because that's why I give credit to people who do sequels, you know, because it's like, you know, you're going into a battle that you're going to lose. It's like, not many people win that battle. So I think it's great that he at least takes a stab at it.
Nicky Saunders:
Yeah. And, and, like you said, I love how he was like, that's the feeling the pressure of feeling like you have to live up to something that's in the beginning of your career. Right? And, and I look at it, because, you know, as we help people, whether it's personally with their brands and businesses, things like that, you hear it, you hear it a lot. Like, Yo, what are people going to say? I drop this, then what if it doesn't go? Like, it's really in the beginning stages where you worry about that. After a while doing it for so much, there's this kind of confidence that you have in like Moose says like that freedom, that you really are not doing it, for what people would have to say, you've already established such a great fan base, following, tribe, that you're doing it for them, and doing it for your pure creativity, and everything else doesn't necessarily matter. Like, that's why he probably did as many movies as you did to get that rep to get that kind of freedom, you know? To get that kind of feeling of, you know, I, I could do what I want, I could take 10 years off and come back, I can take 30 years to make this particular movie, it took four years to do the script write? You know, I'm I have that freedom to spend that much time, I have that much freedom to make sure I could do it in this way, that way, this way. So I look at that. And I'm like, are we pass the phase of caring what people say? Are we...but then when you think about it from a movie standpoint, they're so big on critics, what are the critics say? Right? And when we think even people from a comedian standpoint of Kevin Hart, you know, Kevin's like, I don't care what people say, I'm going to continue to make the movies, right. So Moose, what I'll say is like, What do you feel is that phase like, how many phases are there? When do you know that you have that confidence or that tribe to be like, I'm not doing it for everybody, I'm doing it to for myself, or I'm doing it for these particular people?
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, and you know, Nicks, I think there, it's always a, it's a constant battle, that's always happening, right? I think even in the beginning of your career. The critics never know about you, if you don't give them something to look at, or something to write about. So you have to trust your magic constantly and say alright, let me put it out, and be okay with facing the music. Now, at some point, you build a reputation where you're like, man, I actually have more to lose than I do to gain. And I think, in some ways, this is why even when Floyd steps into the ring, now he's calling an exhibition. Yeah. Because even if he loses, he doesn't want to ruin his 50-0 record, and I see what he's doing. It's like, yo, it makes sense, you get an opportunity to still make your money, but you can protect your reputation, because you have a lot more to lose than the average fighter. So I don't think it's something that ever goes away. But for those who are in the personal branding space, in the entrepreneurship space, in in any space where you're betting on yourself to really develop or let's say, just grow in your particular lane, you have to cut out the noise. It's absolutely mandatory, right? And then will it come up from time to time at some point you're going to get there, I'm sure you're not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But the fact that you can still stay you and and move forward as such, I think you come out like, you come out the winner at that point, because it's not so much to convince the critics to like you. I think it's to inspire, like you said, the people of a minority background, the immigrants or those who have dreams and ambitions of coming to America and live in a lot of those multifaceted connecting like those are the things that I think are more important than just to say, Oh, the critic, or I don't know what they call Rotten Tomato people, whatever, you know, gave me Yeah, I don't I don't think it's about that. I think it's always there. But at some point, you know, you got to still tap into your core and say no, it's more important for me to trust the magic. Because if I don't give them something to write about, you know, it doesn't work either.
Nicky Saunders:
I think. So, I'm looking at it from a standpoint of, I really want to break down when did they feel that way because, literally, we've gone through quite a few celebrities that have that same like, man, I don't care what people say, right, I don't really care. Um, even though I low key thing Kevin Hart does, because he reacts to everything, but then that could be a whole marketing scheme. And so I debate on that, right. But like, I think, like you said, with, you have so much body of work, like what can you say? What can you tell me? Like, what can you do that that is going to mess up what I've already done? Like, there's so much that I have that you haven't. And I'm on the standpoint of, if you aren't in my lane, or haven't done half of the stuff that I've done, like, why are you wasting your breath? What would Why? What does that even do for you that like you don't even try to do what I do. You don't even like you're giving me opinions and critiques. And that's cool. I appreciate your opinion. I appreciate your thought process because God blessed you with a mind and a mouth. But at the same time, I don't care. I don't I don't understand. But that's for me, is because I've done a lot and still going to do more. Did I always feel that way? I don't know. I don't necessarily remember the times where it didn't. So I can't intelligently say that. But I do understand when people do feel that way. Because there's not much that they can hold and say I've done this compared to maybe my my critics compared to what this person does, regardless if they're in my lane or not. They still have more expertise in what they do. Right. But I'm I'm very curious, to everybody standpoint of when is that it's okay to not care? Or are you always going to care but just care a little bit less? I'm good with the less. You can care.
Mostafa Ghonim:
I think if you care to a point that it makes you stop, it's like, okay, I don't know that that it needed to go that far. I care for anything that can help me make improvements or adjustments like you know, because I'm sure somebody out there is like, well, what's the difference when you tell me listen to your audience or survey your audience versus not caring what they're or caring about them? It's like, No, those are two different things. You don't want to pay attention too much to the naysayers that it pulls you away from your main piece or it makes you or allows you to lose sight of that magical equation that you bring to the table. But you do want to survey them especially if you're in a service, you're service need or a service based industry, let's just say you want to you want to meet their needs, so of course, you're going to ask them what do they need? What do they need more help with? What are some other ways you can add value? So you're serving them for that particular reason. Not for the whole overall aura of saying Alright, now I'm just going to cut it and quit. But I..
Nicky Saunders:
Go ahead. Go ahead.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, sorry. I want to add this because I love when you say that and even to the producers who have made mistakes in the past or have had some bad things out there, tell him that example of like, what what you've always done or what advice you give to people when that exists like because for some people it's like oh, well I guess I should just stop because my name is already you know, like I got I got bad articles that are out there on the internet about me. And you've given advice on the flip side of it like don't stop. Don't le that sit at the top of Googl . You know, I'm saying? Like I l ve when you always add that pi ce because it's a game changer or many peop
Nicky Saunders:
So okay cuz I was like, where are you going with this? What are we talking about? But this is the thing, we have like 15 minutes of fame, right? So whatever you did bad, right, could only last for a certain amount of time. The more work that you do that overwrites that bad part, we don't care no more. It's not important anymore. We're looking at the the, I like to say you're literally flooding the digital streets with just great content with great products with great services, whatever you do, right? You're putting out more of the good than the bad, right? You're going to make mistakes. In your journey. In your journey of creating a brand in your journey of creating your own business, you're gonna make mistakes, it's what happens is, how long do you stay in that mistake? Does that really stop you? Does that really hinder your movement to getting people to forget what you did? There may be a post, if we're talking from my lane, there may be a post that you only got 10 likes off of, right. But if you're putting out content over and over and over again, that 10 turns into 20, then it turns into 30, 40, 50 and no one really remembers about the 10. No one remembers when you had a trash camera. No one remembers when you had that shirt that had the bad quality, and maybe the bad shipping and stuff like that, because you've turned around the things that was a mistake, or the things that didn't hit that well, because you have a crazy amount of body of work that is undeniable. But you can't get to that standpoint, if you stop and you just bask in that, that mistake bask in that whole "it didn't work" vibe, because there's going to be a lot of things that don't necessarily work or work at the time, because you could possibly bring that back once there's momentum. And it all the sudden works, or maybe, you know, something really failed. And that's nothing that anybody remembers, because you've created this brand that is in everybody's face now that has impacted more than anybody. So you have to defeat the, the negative and the critiques and the bad moves and everything with positive impact in some way, shape, or form. And the only way you could do that is continue to make different bodies of work that people just see. But I don't know if that was what you wanted me to talk about.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, no, that's exactly what I wanted you to say. Because I'm just saying like, had the critics made you stop, then what sits at the top is what they had to say and you couldn't say your own story. So like your advice to people like Yo, keep creating a body of work that becomes undeniable. That's the best way to shut out or mute the critics if they you know, haven't always agreed with what you've done. So yeah, I like that.
Nicky Saunders:
We're realizing what time it is. We're already over an hour Moose.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yep an hour 15. I see that.
Nicky Saunders:
This is another episode where we could have went another hour or two and it's crazy. We're in a great feeling. We're in a great roll.
Mostafa Ghonim:
We back.
Nicky Saunders:
Um, to be honest, I didn't know what Eddie Murphy was. So we didn't do the flight assessment cuz I didn't know what he was. Alright. And we didn't give too much context of it. We were just really hype that Coming to America came back. It's finally here. Like, I found out that they finished production before COVID. Like in December of 2019 they were done. So which is cool, because I was like oh my God, I thought this was supposed to come out but it takes that long to make that crazy amount of...that was crazy. But um, that wow, we talked about a lot we talked about a lot, but, um, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, do all that great stuff. Also, go check out S2S Podcast (The Secret to Success Podcast). Go check out Inky's Serendipity. I can say that. I can't spell it, but I can say that. Serendipity with Inky Johnson. The FAQ Podcast everything that's on the podcast network. Moose, what's the podcast network called?
Mostafa Ghonim:
The Resonance. The Resonance Podcast Network. Let's go!
Nicky Saunders:
Hey, I was just saying, um, but that's all we got for you. Moose, final words.
Mostafa Ghonim:
Yeah, I'm gonna click it back on. NFT tip y'all. Just know that, yep, the first one through the door is going to get the most fire. But it's those people that are usually leaving their competition in the dust. Right? So yep it's a little uncomfortable, start adapting with the change and start seeing opportunities for either your brand or your business, to be early adopters and not always being the last one to the party.
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