Latest / The Breakfast Club / If You Knew Better: Jason Lee Knows the Truth About Influence and Fame

Transcript

If You Knew Better: Jason Lee Knows the Truth About Influence and Fame · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to If You Knew Better with Ambergrimes, a production
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of The Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Well, there's been a few times I have crossed the line.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I will say one. I will say that I haven't
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: talked about the Internet literally exploding. And it was Cardi
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: b who called and just said, like, now you cross
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: the line.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Today's guest is Jason Lee, immediate personality entrepreneur and founder
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: who has built one of the most talked about platforms
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: in culture, Hollywood Unlocked. Jason opens up about becoming more intentional,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: how he moves, what he says, and what he truly
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: stands on, from creating viral moments without a plan to
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: understanding strategic chaos and building a real business behind it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: This is a reflection on growth in real time. We
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: talk about accountability, discipline, sobriety, and the people who've challenged
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: him to level up, what it really means to invest
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in yourself, your platform, and your vision for the long term.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: And as Jason steps into his new venture with beet,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: he's in a different season, more focused, more grounded, and
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: clear on what actually matters. Now. I'm so happy to
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: have you here.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: I'm happy to be here I.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Was so taken aback when you messaged me and said
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that you would come do the show.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Of course I saw a pop up on social media.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Then I went down the whole trope of what this was,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: and I was like, yo, I love pulling up for
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: people who are who look like me and who are
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: out here doing their thing. And so you know, You've
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: been doing your thing for a while in music, so
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I should trying to take my job.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Let me pull up.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Never, I learned so much from you. I love your interviews,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: So you were somebody who inspires me in the media space.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's just always an honor to feel the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: same way, Like when I sat across from Charlemagne for
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: his book and I'm like, oh, Jason's coming on Sweating Bullets.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Charlemagne is literally the gods literally has been somebody
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: that I've been, you know, following his the way he's
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: designed his his brand and the trajectory of his career.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: So like I've been like really following him, and I
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: followed him into therapy.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: I'm we have the same therapists now, so like, yeah, you.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Obviously have this big platform that we're all aware of.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Hollywood Unlocked, which has been amazing. But I think you
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: do a great job of having this business but also
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: being recently and sharing your personal life, sharing your journey,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: sharing the story. You built all of this independently, which
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: is so inspiring. But you continue to build your business
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and build yourself. You work on yourself. It's a beautiful thing.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: What do you hear when I talk about you growing
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and where you've come from?
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I recently did this interview with Forbes, and I was
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: saying to them that I've learned how to master code
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: switching without switching up because like when people say, oh
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: my god, he's changed, he's changed, No, I'm evolved.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I'm evolving.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: It's life to me is an evolving experience and experiment
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: where you start off as one thing and the world
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: will say you're a summer that one thing, but no,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you get to do it all and be it all.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: So I've just been evolving. But the interesting thing is.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: You're talking like I really feel like I'm evolving backwards
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: because when I got into the industry, I had to
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: give them what they wanted. They didn't want me to
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: come in and be Jason Lee. The probation officer who
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: used to work at probation. They didn't want me to
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: be Jasonly the educator I worked in education. They didn't
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: want me to be jason Ly the union guy. They
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: wanted me to be the tea spilling internet wreckage.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Being that I gave them.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: And once I gave it to them and saw the reaction,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: saw all of what it was doing and the money
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I was getting, I was like, yo, let me just
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: keep doing more of that, because it was that spaghetti thing,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: like let me throw spaghette at the wall and whatever
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: sticks or when it sticks, just keep doing more of that.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: But then it's interesting because as I started evolving, I
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: started feeling like, man, the people aren't gonna want me
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: to show up the way that I really am because
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: they're not going to be able to accept that, and
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: that's not who they fell in love with. So I
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: started to feel like I was enslaved to that person
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I created adjason Ly that people know. And then then
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: you get to a point where you're like, nah, I
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: just I just got to just live in my true,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: authentic self. And there are days that I want to
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: show up and burn the world down, and I do
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: in a different way than I did before. Before there
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: were no boundaries. There were no well, there were boundaries,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: don't attack kids, don't out people. Other than that, everything
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: was pop How did you.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Didn't even take grandma's out?
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Nothing, just care Grandma could get it for sure, Absolutely
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: grandma and some grandma's probably got it.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I hear you. But I know that Jason
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Lee with the nasty read was always a part of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: who you were. You're just saying you were more multifaceted
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: than what you showed. Talk to me then about having
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: to play this character, pick one character and make it
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: larger than you and really like suppress some of the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: things like did you want you wanted people to know
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: these other things about you that you have balance, yes,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: but felt like you couldn't.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean you can't build a fifty is probably
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: more than fifty now fifty million dollar company from scratch
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: and not know how to conduct business right.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: So like, yes, I can give a nasty read.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: For example, recently, I just went viral and I haven't
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: told anybody talked about it, but like you know, I
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: got this season desist letter from a basketball player. Ooh ooh,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: that's the first time I said it. Was a basketball player.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: This person sent me a season.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: This was learned.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Now, I'm like, I know this person that got my
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: phone number, that asked me to spend the night at
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: the house, did not send me a season. Just learnt
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: now O Jason probably would have started. I probably would
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: have went and bought the jersey and the headband and
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: start bouncing some balls and said, oh I bounced these balls.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I got to figure out how I want to say
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: what I got to say. I wouldn't even say no
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: name because I want have had to. Right, That's the
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Jason Lee that learned how to master what the people
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: want to see. But the real message is, we don't
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: need to play this game of let me go ahead
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: and legally try to put a restraint on you because
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I'm afraid of showing up who I am, who am my.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: True authentic self.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: So the Jason Leave from back in the day probably
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: would have been doing all the extra charades and gone
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: viral or whatever.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: And so this time I was sitting on my couch
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: and I just said, come on, come on, we don't
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: want to do that.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: But the Internet knows the Jason that lives within, and
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: it still did its thing like one point three million
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: views in less twenty four hours. It was tagging in.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: So I guess you know, yeah, I know the Internet.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I've mastered how it works. I do create strategic chaos,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: have always created strategic chaoss. I just think back then,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: when doors weren't opening for me, gate keepers keeping things
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: close to their chests and not want me to get in,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: people hating and trying to cancel what's uncancellable. I was
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: just like, yo, okay, fucking I'm just gonna kick all
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: these doors down and I'll take names later and you
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: know whatever.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: So tell me about that one chaotic moment where you
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: maybe said I did too much. I gave the people
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: a little bit too much to what they wanted.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Well, there's been a few times I have crossed the line.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I will say one I will say that I haven't
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: talked about, uh was I was in a podcast and
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I didn't have a lot of people around me that
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: would say, damn, you shouldn't have said that, right, And
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: so I would just say, and I mean say anything
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I wanted. And at the time I felt like I
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: just felt some type of way about Ariana Grande, and
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I said basically what I was, what I said came
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: off as misogyny and it was, and the internet literally exploded.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: And it was Cardi B who called and just said, like,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: now you cross the line.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: You gotta you gotta go back and fix that because
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: you can't that that that wasn't right.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: You're better than that, and and and so although nobody
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: was around me at the time I said it or
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: edited it and it went out, you know, CARTI was
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: able to check me, uh to go back and fix it.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: And so I looked at him like, you know, I
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: got five sisters.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I probably would have felt some way if somebody did
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: that to my sister, So she didn't need it. I
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: didn't need it to liver it that way. And so
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I did go back and apologize. But what I learned was,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: you know, and I made the mistakes many more times
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: because when you're like on live radio or you're at
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: the breakfast club and you just say something, it's like
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: that left my mouth.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: It ain't you can't take it back. You know. Do
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: I regret it? Nah?
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Because I had to go through these experiences to learn
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: the power of my platform, the power of the tongue,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: being responsible and owning it right, and that it's okay
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: to apologize when you cross the line, because people do
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: want to see your human and know you're not just
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: an emotionallest tree that don't care about other people's feelings.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I've made mistakes, but I've learned from them.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: There was a moment on TV that people remember, and
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I think you would say wanted to define you by
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: in what you did, not allow yourself to be defined
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: by this moment. Talk to me about that Love and
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Hip Hop moment.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that was the drink toss, the famous drink toss.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think the thing for me was that,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: you know, there were so many different doors I was
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: trying to get into in the industry.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Nothing would let me in.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: The only thing that open was Love and Hip Hop,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: which wasn't a show that I had thought because they
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: had already had its first season where I was like, oh,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: that is not the environment for me because I don't
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: know how to act like I'm not on TV, like
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: I just am really in it whatever it is. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: so when I saw it, and it was funny because
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Queen Latifa, who had known since I was fifteen, and
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Floyd Mayweather, who had become really close to I went
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: to both of them and said, Love and hip Hop
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: is going to let me do the show?
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: What do you think?
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: And Queen Latifa was like, nah, like you're better than that,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: that's not for you.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Don't do it.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: And then Floyd Mayweather was like, you know three people
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: are going to tell you not to do it. A
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: hater that don't want to see you do it, a
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: person that don't need that door to open for them,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: and somebody that's already got it. And if that door
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: is open for you, take it. And I remember going, Okay,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna take it. So I took it. And when
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I went in, I ran in just truthful and honest
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: and open and said, look, I'm going to give you
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: guys everything you want. I'm going to read people, I'm
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: going to be make their business my business. I'm going
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: to get I won't give you my relationships because that's private.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Never going to ever never be on TV intimate with
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: anybody or open or expose that part of me. And
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: then the other part was I don't want to shoot
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: with this person. The first scene was with that person.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I didn't know that. I didn't I didn't know they
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: produced it. Well, of course I had the reaction. What
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: I learned in the experience was a couple of things.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: One I had to learn that I went into the
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: show not wanting to show my intimate relationships because I
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: didn't want to be uh put in a box of
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: the gay guy, even though they did that anyway, you know,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: because I think TV, especially mainstream TV, does a really
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: horrible job of showing what being black and gay looks like.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: We're not a monolith. We're everything from me to Billy
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Porter Hey Billy. But what I learned in the experience
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: was a couple of things. One that I had to
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: be completely comfortable in whatever experience I find myself in,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: whether it's showing up in a show where combat and
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: conflict is the chaos it creates in order to be successful,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: So I have to show up as my true, authentic self,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: but also be very aware of what I'm doing. And
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: then also I have to be very comfortable and confident
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: with all of who I am, no matter if there's
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: a camera roll or not. And so that experience did
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: a and then third, oh, I also learned that like
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: we're all worthy of redemption, like and how do you
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: navigate through the chaos? So I had to like teach
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: myself how to From the minute that the drink was tossed,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: I knew I had six months until it came out.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: I had six months of preparation for the world seeing
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: me differently than I saw myself because they saw this moment,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and so I just rode the wave. You know, I
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: let people hate me for a couple of years. I
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: mean it was it was the hate. And then when
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: I saw that that was in I said, okay, let
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: me rise up to meet them. So I gave them
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: more chaos and then it became and then I slowly
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: started turning it down and they came down with me
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: because the advice that Queen the Teava told me was
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: get the culture in the headlock and then take them
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: on a journey with you as you evolve. And that's
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: what I've done. So now there are some people that
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: are just in the airport the other day, Oh my god,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: I loved you and loveing hip hop. I'm like, that's
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: eleven years ago.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Can you actually talk about what that experience is to
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: show up somewhere and decide I'm going to be on
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: TV and I'm going to give them what they want?
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: What do they want? What are they looking for? And
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: how do you if you if you could try to
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: maintain some balance understanding what you understand now that people
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: are going to look at you a certain way, but
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: also is this your big opportunity?
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: How do you you know?
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: I was having this conversation with an artists the other
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: day and they were saying, and I was saying, like,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: why don't you? They were asking me, how should they
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: come out as a bisexual artist?
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: How what does that look like?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, there was Frank Ocean, there have been examples.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: It's just what are you comfortable doing?
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: They were saying, well, I don't really know how to
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: navigate that because I don't really see how people will
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: buy into me as a brand. I'm like, well, don't
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: sell yourself as a brand. Just sell your music, sell
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: your art. What does your art look like? What is
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: your art supposed to translate? And I feel like when
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I went into love and hip hop, the first conversation
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: I had with Mona was when the network said we
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: want to own ten percent of Hollywood onlocked. I was like, no,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: because I'm building a billion dollar brand, so I don't
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: want to give you anything, but I need to be
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: able to promote my brand. Every event that I have
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: is going to be about Hollywood Onlocked. Every scene that
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I start is going to start with Hollywood on Lot.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I need to be able to interview people on the
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: show for Hollywood Unlocked Uncensor podcast. So they agree to that,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: but they were like, Okay, well, if you don't give
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: us any percent, we're only going to give you a
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars an episode that you show up in. So
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: the first season I only made three thousand dollars and
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: I shot for six months exclusive. So I say that
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: and say I went in knowing what I wanted accomplish.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: I went in knowing I have an exits, I have
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: a deck that outlines day one and the day I
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: sell it.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: I know all the verticals I want to build.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: I had the Impact Awards I did way back then,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: but it was blogg or Brunch because it was my
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: idea wasn't as big as it was. I wasn't dreaming
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: as big until I got in it and it was like, oh,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: this brunch is cool. But what if I went to
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the Beverly Hilton where where Clive Davis does his party,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: and I make a better party than him? And I
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: did so yeah, I think it's been like one of
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: those things where I went in knowing what I want
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: to do. I don't know that people know what they
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: want to accomplish anymore. I just want to go and
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: be famous. Nothing worse than being somebody super famous and broke,
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: and I never wanted to be that. So ownership from
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: day one was always important to me. Ownership, freedom and
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: being able to do what I want to do on
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: my own terms.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: A long time ago, my first day working for Booth,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: he told me, the first day you get a job,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: you need to be thinking about your last day. What
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: are you going to do when if you get fired,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: if you quit, whatever it is, you need to make
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: sure you've accomplished what you set out there to do,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: or you just leave the company and not even looking
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: for another job and you didn't even your resume didn't
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: even get any better to get you to the next place.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: And so I have gone into a lot of opportunities
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: exactly what you're saying, Okay, cool, I'm working here, this
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: is what I want to do here, and once I
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: do that thing, I'm like, you know, if it's great,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I'll stay. But once I've accomplished what I came to accomplish.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Now I've been here for too long. There's nothing else
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: for me here. It's time for me to evolve and
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: go on to the next thing, which is why I've
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: never been scared to leave a job. And so to
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: hear you say that as the advice of like, Hey,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I know y'all kids want to be on TV. I
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: know you want to be famous and whatever. Why right?
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I don't think that people are asking themselves why is it?
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Because you were sheltered as a kid, didn't have no love,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: weren't popular, and now this thing, this drug of social media,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: is making you feel a certa way because most support
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: you always say fame is a drug, and most people
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: needed to get that hit in order to feel like
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: they were living.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: For me, everybody knows I don't need to be famous.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: I want to influence.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: My why has always been very clear impact, influence and
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: making a shitload of money and just having total freedom
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: and ownership. And so I never went into love and
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: hip hop saying I need this show. I treated that
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: show like I didn't need it. I wanted it, but
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I didn't need it. I could have went and found
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: somebody at the abbey. Hey, I'm gonna give you fifty
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: dollars an episode. You're my boyfriend, like the rest of
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: them did.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: I ain't doing that.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: I don't need a fake love, fake act like we together,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: go give me a girlfriend and a boyfriend. Now I'm
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: in a nomin you know, because the way reality TV
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: works is you know that camera time will drive the
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: insane story you come up with. But now you're enslaved that.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: The thing that I'm enslaved to is just being truly
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: authentic myself. With Hollywood unlocked, I know there's going to
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: be an exit at some point, and this is the
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: important piece. Like, as you've gone through your career journey
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: and I'm going through mine, I'm not Whatever I'm in
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: is not defining who I am. I had to tell
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: somebody yesterday in city Hall. They were telling me basically,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: you're you're just way too beyond the scope of what
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: a council member should be. You're acting like you're this
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: and you're that. And I said, the craziest thing is
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: this chair didn't define Jason Lee. Jason Lee is defining
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: the chair. Just so you know, more people knew about
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: me than they knew about Stockton, so would just be
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: very clear. I'm never going to fit in whatever box
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: you want to put me in. People that go into
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: reality TV and don't have a plan is simply setting
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: themselves up to fail. You're going in, You're going to
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: get famous, then you're going to be broke and then
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: be slave to an image that you won't be able
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: to sustain. So why put yourself through all that? It's
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: not going to work in the long run.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: What is the difference between influence and fame.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Influence is when you can actually move stuff. Fame is
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: when you are you are just disrupting the space and
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: you're a bunch of conversation. I feel like, you know again,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to say names, because there's there's people
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: out there. A lot of people are famous. I went
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: to a red carpet event. I was invited by somebody
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: to go to a premiere. So I got to the premiere.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: I walked in. I didn't want to be there because
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: I don't even go to premieres. I don't want to
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: be nowhere. Really, okay, I'm here because I want to
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: be here. So I get to the premiere and I'm like,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: where's my seat?
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: That?
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: And my seat was in ro Q, I don't even
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: know where ro Q is. And that's not even ego,
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: that's just I don't sit in ro Q. I mean
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: c d e. Okay, f Now we're fucking around and
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: you're gonna find out. But yeah, fuck that, g gotta go.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: H Hell no, Jay, you jackass put me over here? Okay, okay,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: hell let me get the fuck out. Now it's getting worse.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Damn motherfucker. Did you put me over here?
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Nah?
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: No, naha, oh shit no p punk ass punk Okay.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: So it's getting worse as it gets higher. So Q
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: I was like, yo, I'm out, I'm out, and they
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: were like, oh no, no, no, we.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Found you a better seat.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: So okay, because I was literally at the door walk
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: back Jay, Jay, y'all have a good night, and I left.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: So I just I've built influence where my influence matters,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: and I never allow other people to forget that. And
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: that's not an ego, that's just I've earned that. And
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: on my team, they'll tell you, I'll be I'm like
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: what we doing. And part of that, though, is part
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: of the team always pushing people to acknowledge the influence
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: that I've been able to amass. I know that any
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: celebrity I want to reach, I know how to reach them.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: All I got to do is on Instagram.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: They're going to get it.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: So that's influence versus you know, somebody that's going to
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: go run against traffic just for the sake of going
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: viral for one moment and then we forget you the
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: next week.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: I will be putting the Jason Lee alphabet.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: I can go all the way to Z.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I know you can't when you do cause chaos with
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: no plan. Do you believe you can still come back
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: from that? Is there a way to get that redemption
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: like you said, and to continue to evolve? And how
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: do you do that if you went in not focus
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: on a strategy, just the opportunity.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can always pivot, but you really have to
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: be dialed into your why at some point. You can
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: pivot at any moment. Yeah, I didn't go in thinking
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I was going to have this chaotic moment. I knew
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I was going to go in and create chaos with
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: the cast, with my business, but I didn't see that
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: chaotic moment happening. Once it did as part of my
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: overall plan, I'm like, how do I how do I
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: go from this? Crash out moment into crushing it in
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: my business because there's nobody's gonna like me from that.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: And Floyd Mayweather said, just if they say you're all
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: of that, just go be a savage fuck it.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Who cares? Just go fuck it?
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: And I fuck it became a mentality for a long
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: time where it got to a point where I was like, damn,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I I gotta know what I give a fuck about now,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: because I had just said fucking so much that I
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: didn't know. And so so there has been a journey
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: where I went from like complete chaos that was unplanned
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: to strategic chaos to manage a library of chaos to
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: them like controlling the chaos, and now the chaos is different.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I don't have to go and blow up the internet
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: like I used to. Now then I am an elected
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: official as the vice mayor of Stockton. Kids are watching me,
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Educators are watching me, parents are watching me. And I'm
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: trying to balance politics and pop culture in a way
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: where I still stay out authentic to who I am,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: but I also create the type of impact that I
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: want to today.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Now, you said something important a little while ago about
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: not code switching, and how you said you're not letting
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: your seat in the district define.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: You code switching, but not switching up and not switching up.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: That is very important because I feel like now there's
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: no room for anybody to just do one thing or
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: be one thing. Like the economy's bad, but it's very inspirational,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I think for others to see that you can be
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, you can do this, you can do that,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and you can even go and run your whole the
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: whole city, the talent you grew up in. But I
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: think most people would then say, I gotta, you know,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: straighten up and fly right and do this, and then
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: ultimately end up not being themselves.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Now with Donald Trump kidnapping presidents, bombing leaders, killing their
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: whole families, getting four hundred million dollars planes donated from
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: the Saudia's then flying tearing up the White House. He
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: tore we don't let our kids go and tear people's houses.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Motherfucker win in and tore up the East Wing. I
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: have pictures in the East Wing. Can't find him anymore
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: because the East Wing is gone, And he's going to
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: build a ballroom so people can come and dance to
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: the tune of whatever he's selling democracy for so like, yeah,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: when you look at that, why can't I have an
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: opinion about somebody's music, Like why is the standard for
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: black people so higher?
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: Are than other folks?
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: If the president of the United States can call women fat,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: get found guilty of sex assault, say that a group
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: of black kids, the Central Park five, should be murdered
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: when they were not guilty.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: Say the first black president.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Was not even American can be married to an immigrant,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: then turn around and say every other immigrant that don't
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: happen to look like that one has to go back
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: to their country.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Now birth or rights are I mean like.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: This is gas costs me one hundred and thirty dollars
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: the other day because this motherfucker. So I just think, like,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: why is it shocking that I'm the vice mayor he's
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the president. We have to get out of our minds
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: that we can't be anything we want to be. We
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: could be anything we want to be, you know, and
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump, I'll give him the credit, has shown us
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: that we can't be anything we want to be, including
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: pure evil.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: I'm not pure evil. I could be messy, but I
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: ain't evil.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, how are you more responsible with your role? And
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: understanding that I can be whoever I want to be.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I can be all of the Jason Lees in one,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: but I'm not doing those those things. I'm more responsible
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: with the position that I have and the people that
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I'm responsible for.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not at city Hall saying I need this job.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: I don't need it. The people of my city. No,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I don't need to be there doing this.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: I don't.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: I did a video once where I said, because the
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: mayor she's white and I had supported her during the campaign,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: I said, she cares more about our penises and our policies,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: and she played it at city council. I said, can
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: you rewind that and turn it up because I don't
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: know people can hear it. I need them to hear
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: what I said. And then when she played it, I said,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: if you see me say it, I said it. I
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: stand on what I say. I'm not running from that.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: And then I used it as a moment to say,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: as black people, we know how you love our culture,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: we know how you love our men or women, we
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: know how you objectify us sexualizes, but when it comes
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: to standing with us in the fight that we have
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: to go through every day, where you can't be found,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: So I didn't say it that way because I knew
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: that delivery I gave was going to get it played
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: at City all.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: So it was strategic chaos that.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: I baited her until she walked into it, and then
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I walked her right through the flames. And then when
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: it was done, the people took that clip and put
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: that out, so it just only made it even worse. Yeah,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: so I'm very aware, like when I'm in it, like anything,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be enslaved to City Hall like I
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: felt enslaved to the chaos people had fallen in love with,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: because for a while I felt like I had to
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: keep showing up being viral Jason in order to be Jason.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: I'm like, nah, I don't have to be because I'm
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: still making I make the same amount of millions of
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: dollars that I'm going to make without doing that, So
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: why am I doing that. I'm doing that because I
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: feel like that's who I have to be to make
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: people happy.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: And I was like, nah, I don't. I don't have
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: to do that, So I just stopped.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: And It's interesting because the other day I was in
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: the airport and somebody goes, man, you used to read
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: the hell out of people, and I go, damn, this person.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Does this person think I fell off? Does this person
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: think that I'm not that guy? But when I go
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: back and look at the clips of who that guy was,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I'm like, damn, who was that guy?
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: I was a fool?
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: You know, I miss him sometimes? But yeah, I can't
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: stop the energy I'm on right now?
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: What part has therapy played in that?
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: For you?
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Sobriety so I'm almost in three years of being sober.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Sober sobriety was important to me because when I started therapy, Charlomagne,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: you know, we were me and Charlemagne and Tiffany ha As,
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: we all share the same therapist. We were at Tiffany's
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: bar Mitzvah and by Mintzvah, and Charlomagne said to me,
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: he says, why you always look mad?
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: I said, nigga, what you meanwhile? Always look mad?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Now I'm mad because you judged me, right, And he goes,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: you always look mad? You need to go to therapy,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: And I felt like he was judging me. He would
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: always tell me when I go, you need to go
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: to therapy.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: You need to go to therapy.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Well, one day Tiffany picked me up.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Tiffany came and met me at a party and I
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: had my sprinter and so she got in with a
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: guy and she's like, oh, where we're going to go?
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I said, we going to the abbey. So we went
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: to the abbey. We got shift face drunk. This is
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: when her and I both drank and this guy was
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: there and he's this straight guy just sitting there watching
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: us just I mean, it was a zoo. Well, I
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: found out that's the therapist. So he saw me in
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: my crash out and I thought, man, he's gonna judge me.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: So I go to my first session with him and
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I go all right, Elliott, like, what's up?
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: What's wrong with me?
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: And he said, I don't think anything's wrong with you,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: but I just want to know what you want to
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: work on. I'm like, okay, so not judging me. I said, well,
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I kind of want to work on like that. Partying
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: is hard because would spend like fifty grand a month
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: on partying, drinks, whatever, And so he said, okay, well
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: we try to go out without drinking. So I went
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: out without trying to fail. Then he said, okay, we'll
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: try to go out and have one drink, So nobody
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: every if you know you can't have one drink, you
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: have one drink, you go to sleep, you have two drinks,
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: you got the whole bottle.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: So it was like I couldn't find a balance. Then
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: it dawned on me.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: I wasn't in control of it, and then I had
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: a birthday party where I super crashed out and I
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: was like, Okay, that's it and I literally stopped and
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: haven't drink since. So so therapy has just been kind
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: of like that ongoing check in, like how you doing,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: how you what's going on?
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: And we work on whatever I want to work on
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: in that moment.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about this because I
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: stopped drinking when I turned twenty one.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Oh congrats, thanks, Well that's not well, we don't have
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: to age you. But that's a while ago. Over ATTACKT.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, people know if to remind people all the time.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: It's like a new thing for everybody all the time
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: after fifteen years. Like, I'm good, y'all. But it is
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: probably something that has made me the most disciplined. I
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: owe all my discipline to that, and it's made me
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the most honest and most clear. And I get that
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: from you right now because I'm an old season not
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: drinking bit and I go, oh, yeah, that's it. If
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I go somewhere and I'm not having a good time,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: I know I'm not having a good time and I
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: leave makes you very honest. And when you do have
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: a good time and you're not drinking, You're like, man,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: this is a fucking good time. And I love that clarity.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: And you said the word control. I do just want
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: to touch on that. You know, I'm not telling anybody
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: they can't drink or what to do, but I also
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: don't know if people are aware of the power of
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: having control of yourself and your life and your decisions
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: and your night. Everyone does not have that experience. So
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: can you Can you share with that?
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: I went out.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: We had to have a driver for the sprinter because
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: we had to have a sprinter, because there were at
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: least six or seven of us. We had to have
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: at least two security two to three because you had
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: to manage the entire environment. I used to wear tons
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: of jewelry. I was going out looking like a rapper. Okay,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: hundreds of thousand dollars of jewelry, spending thousands and thousands
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: of dollars going out, and then there was processes to
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: when we got home, make sure we have all the
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: credit cards, make sure we didn't lose ID, make sure
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: we take off all the jewelry if I brought somebody
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: home or two. Make sure that all of my property
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: is in the safe and that nobody steals it. All
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: my guns are put away. So like, it became a
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: thing where everybody around me was managing the chaotic experience.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Well I thought about it.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yo, this is not only am I out
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: of control. I'm now forcing my friends to help me
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: stay in control. Once I got sober, I realized you
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: and I just in control.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: You.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: You can control everybody else too. You can control every
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: room you go in. You can control the day you're
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: going to have. You can control the the people that
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: interact with.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: You are going to have you.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: You are in more control of everything, your business, your
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: bottom line. You're saving money. So the discipline for me
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: became a challenge. And once I mastered it, you know,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: people go, oh, when are you gonna go back to drinking.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: I'm I have no desire to go back to drinking.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to say I'm enslaved to being sober
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: because to those people who are drinking, like, do what
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: you want to do.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: But I do run across a.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Lot of like younger people in their twenties because I
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: don't know how you were, But in my twenties I
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: was shit. Thirties forties, I was burning the dome drinking.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Just a few years ago, I was messed. I tell
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: people in your twenties have a good time. I have
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: a great time. But had I known better, or if
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: I would have known sooner, I would have done all
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: this sooner, so I would have had more years. But
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: I don't regret it because I am where I am
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: today because of all of it.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I'm glad that you said that, because
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: you even broad in the control like you literally you
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: can control everything, everything, everything, Yeah, And there's a lot
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: of people around you all the time that are very
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: out of control, and you really see it when you're
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: in control.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Think about when you own Hollywood unlocked and you're having
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: a bad day because you went out and burnt out,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: and now you're telling you're seeing things, and now you're
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: driving the conversation that's driving thousands of people to talk
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: about something like it's also being more responsible with the
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: platform that you know, could change somebody's day or life
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: because we have had to do things and say things
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: because of what's happening in a way that has probably
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: caused some of the reputational harm that I had early on. Right, Like,
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: I love a lot of people, and when I see
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: some stories, they're like, oh, now, I know we can
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: say this in a way that's not going to hit
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: the way that it's going to hit.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: But fuck it, you know, let's put it out.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: Well, now we're way more responsible, way more in tune,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: way more in control, and also were way more thoughtful
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: in how we approach stories and how we approach talent,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: and our relationship management system is better than just fuck it,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: like let it fly and we'll do it later. Where
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: we used to do that, Now it's you know, we
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: will call and check in, Hey, you know so and
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: so this is out here, what's happening. We do try
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: to make sure we're sharing their perspective.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, of course, yeah, because it's just the
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: responsibility thing to do.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: It's disingenuous to have a relationship and then not really
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: care when it benefits you.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: You know, that's that's kind of crazy.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Well, one. I want to say, I'm proud of you.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: It gets easier as you go. I don't think about it.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: It's not even a thought about do I want to
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: have a drink or get drunk. No, but three years
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: is fucking amazing and like, congratulations. I'm very happy for
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: you to have the experience of control, clarity and discipline.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: I'd have been that vice Maryland News. And you know,
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: when you're elected, you it hits different. You know, like
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: I can make shade room and neighborhood talk right now,
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: I can hit complex when you when you're an elected official,
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: you hit that news that you hit that news in
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: a different way where they're like breaking new.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: I don't ever want that. I don't want it.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: You know, when I drive, even when I'm home and
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: i'm driving, I see the police. I'm over the police department,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: over the city, I still am looking at them like,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: don't pull me over.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: My tags are good.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: I don't want no smoke because that idea of having
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: a mugshot as an elected official.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Man, you are very thoughtful, very your future, and I
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: think that that is what's missing sometimes for young twenty
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: year olds that are just having a good time. You're
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: going to grow up. Yes, And I want everybody to
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: have a wonderful time. I had a wonderful time. You
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: need to be thoughtful always that you're going to make
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: it to your thirties. You're going to and some people
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: don't believe that they will. If you're going to make
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: it to your thirties, it's going to make it to
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: your forties. To make it to your fifties. Who do
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: you want to be? What do you want to do?
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Like you said, ask yourself why? Because I hear you
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: now saying I'm this type of vice mayor. But I
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: am that type of vice mayor.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: And I have a friend right now who's you know,
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: he late twenties, not late late, but you know, mid
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: to late twenties, and he's figured out what he wants
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: to do.
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: He's an athlete and he loves the party.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: So when we go out, I'll let everybody come out,
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: I'll get the bottles for people to drink who are drinking,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: and he loves to get wasted. And the next day
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: I'll just be like, like, Okay, I don't want to
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: be an enabler while I'm getting you drunk all the time,
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: But like, why do you feel you need to get
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: drunk all the time, Like I used to be that person.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: So I want you to come out and have a
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: good time, but I also want you to come to
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: brunch or come just hang out at the crib, or
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: just go go over here with us, but we don't.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Why are you doing that all the time? Now, he's
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: very I'm not going to get drunk. S'mna have one dry.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: So I see the influence I'm using back to influence
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: and the responsibility of it.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: I do see the influence I'm having on people. Don't telling. Look,
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: I'm not.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: Telling you have to be sober like me. That ran
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: its course for me. You're still in your process and
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: having a good time in your twenties. I had a
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: great time with my twenties. But just be if I
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: had known better than I would be more responsible. And
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: so I could see it happening in a way where
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not forcing him to do it or judging him
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: for do it. I'm just saying, like, as a friendship,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: like why are you doing all that?
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, I mean I sometimes that's all it takes, is
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: like one friend to ask you a thoughtful question. It's
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: not judgment, it's not you know this is what's going
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: to happen. You have no idea what's gonna what someone's
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: future holds. But I don't know that. There's a lot
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: of people that are surrounding themselves with people that are
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: holding them accountable or willing to ask them. Have you
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: ever thought about this?
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: But it's okay to let your friends know you care
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: about them.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: You know, like just hanging out with me because my
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: credit card is never going to get declined doesn't show
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: me that you actually care about me. Like when you're
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: around me and you say, I think you just hurt
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: that person's feelings, or you know that fan that wanted
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: a photo. You know, my friend was over there. He'll
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: tell me, do you ever see how you like look
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: at people sometimes? And I'm like, shut up, I'm always
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: nice you're talking about and he's like that. But then
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: you know, one time we were in the elevator and
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: you know, I was having a bad day and this
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: person was waiting to tell me that they wanted to
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: cook for me, and I was like, okay, so I
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: got there there, so this person right here said that
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: they want to cook for you, and I said, I don't.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: Today's no, I'm not having a good day. I want
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: to talk to him.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: And I got in the elevator and I was kind
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: of looking down, and the person got in the elevator
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: and it was real quiet, and everybody was just hoping
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: that nobody say anything. And she goes, oh my god,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: I can't wait. I want to cook for you, and
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: the door opened. I said no, and I just walked out.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: And then I felt bad when I did that, because
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: it was like, literally it was so quiet in there
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: that I know that person built up a lot of
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: courage to say I want to cook for you, and
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: it was a nice gesture, I want to cook for you.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: And I was having my moment and being whatever still
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: in my drinking face, and but I wasn't drinking that day,
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: and I just as soon as the door open and
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: they go, I really want to cook for you, and
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: I just turned said no and I just walked out
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: and that was it, and I didn't even look back.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I then went back and apologized and was like, you know,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: sorry about that, and then found out it was my
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: friend's mom. I'm like, oh my god, this is really bad.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: So I had to call him and apologize. Anyway, So
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: I've learned and I have good friends around me who
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: constantly check me because we all are going to have
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: a bad day, and not drinking or not, We're just
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: all going to have a bad day. Especially when you're
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: an entrepreneur, or you're in a relationship, or you're in
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: pursuit of a relationship. You're going to have a bad day.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: It just doesn't give you license to make somebody else
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: have a bad day.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know if this is a new thing, but
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: you're very good at holding yourself accountable or hearing your
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: friends when they're holding you accountable.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Oh I'm not perfect holding myself accountable.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: I have people I will hold myself accountable sometimes, but
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: I have everybody around me holds me accountable in their
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: own way. They know, like I know when I have
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: hit the asshole stage in any conversation. My publicity team,
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: I know when I've hit the asshole wall. I'll give
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: you an example. My last publicity firm that I was with,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: there was this one person that I had on my
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: team that I really really liked.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: I think we took a trip to Stockton.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: This is when I was living in LA and I
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: was going to Stockton for an event or something. We
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: had got a jet flew up there or whatever, and
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: I was a complete asshole. That person quit my team
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: and we go so where'd that person go? I was like, damn,
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: I really liked her, but I had lost that person
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: I have. There are moments where I've lost things because
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: of how I behaved and it will rain me back in.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Or there were people who they know how to ask
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: certain questions, and it reminds me of when I worked
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: with ya Yay had nobody around him but me and
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: maybe one other person that would say, like, you can't
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: talk like that, you can't act like that. That's not cool,
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: you know, And I always tell people. Out of everybody
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: he dealt with, he only disrespected me one time. We
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: only had to have that conversation one time. But I
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: saw that I had to hold him accountable because there
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: was nobody else. Howd anmccountle, I never want to be that,
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: And I'm not shading him. I'm just saying, you get
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: to a level of success, fame, fortune, influence, impact, and
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: it's like I don't want to be away from that
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: because that I need to gravitate towards us so I
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: can get some of it.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: No, I want people around me who said I will
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: leave if you act like this.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: I will not be around you if you're going to
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: behave that way, cheat people like that.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: And I have friends that do that.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: And you've said a couple of times here, which I
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: also respect that you've said, okay, cool, my friends have
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: hold me accountable. Somebody told me, and I apologized. Everybody
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: can't turn their ego down for that. What does that
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: look like for you to balance that ego out and say,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: you know what I need to life?
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: Life will sit your ass down? What you talking about?
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: What I've said, life will life with you.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: I always joke around, and this is the thing I
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: think people that don't know me, when you do get
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: to know me, you're going to see it. When you
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: come to my homes. All I'm playing is gospel music.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: Most of the time we're referencing some Bible scripture. I
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: always say, touch not my annoying, to do my profits
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: no harm. And I always say to my colleagues at
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: the council, because they all be failing, like you just
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: lost this, you lost that. You over here they you know,
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: you know, ran out Osempic. Things ain't working out for you.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: It's because you're trying to do his profit harm. You're
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: intentionally trying to hurt me. You and my friends will
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: tell you it ain't even like voodoo. It's literally manifestation
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: of God. I will literally say something. I'm at a.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: Party in Miami, True story partying.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: I'll look at the clock. It's four o'clock. I'm tired.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: I'm over it. We leave the party, We get in
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: the car, we driving down the street. I'm like, man,
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Rihanna's not this before we were friend friends. She ain't
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: responding to my DM. Why I'm out here looking? She's
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: respond to my DM, I don't have her number. She and' responded.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: She respond I'm like, I want some Doritos at four
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: in the morning, Walgreens. Let's go in here and get
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: some Doritos. I pull in the parking lot. I got
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: a truck full of people, and I tell my friend
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: was over there and another friend.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: Can you go in and get some Dorito's. I'm a
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: wait in the car.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: They go in there like Rihanna's in here, swear to God.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what, There's no way there's nobody else in
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: this Walgreens. But Rihanna and Rocky in their security nobody
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: so I walk in. I'm like, really, this is how
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: I gotta find you today. That's how we became locked in.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: That happens to me all the time. I had a
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: dream the other night, and I'm not going to get
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: into the dream, but it was a really bad nightmare,
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: and I woke up and I tell my friend, like,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: this is the nightmare I had. Later that day, the
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: thing connected to the nightmare happened. So I really feel
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: like when I say touched out my anointed, do my
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: prophets no harm, that's really real. When I say warning
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: comes before destruction, I repeatedly say it over and over.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: I tell people warner comes before destruction. Watch, and then
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: the next thing something critical happens. And that's because I
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: really feel like I'm walking to my purpose. I really
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: feel like I am connected, literally to the source of
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: every blessing I've gotten, every bad thing that's happened, brother
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: get murdered, tragedy. Would I be why I am right
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: now without that experience. Probably not. Because that gave me purpose.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: That showed me like I can survive. That showed me that,
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: like I know what the the worst feeling in the
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: world feels like I know what it feels like there's
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: nothing anybody can do or take for me that's gonna
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: ever make me feel that. So never there's nothing, No,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: there's nobody else on earth that can die right now
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: that would make me feel that, Because since I felt
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: that level of pain and survived it, I like know
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: what it's going to feel like, so I'm prepared for it.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: I know I'm gonna survive it, and I know that
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: for a while it's gonna be weird or hurtful and
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: awkward or whatever. It's not going to ever be the same,
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: but you will be fine. My faith is something that
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: I'm that I that I stay true to my book.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: God must have forgotten about me is a testament of
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: the fact that God has not forgotten about you. He's
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: literally showing you what trial's tribulations and triumph is faith
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: over fear. He's showing you you're gonna go through shit.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: Sorry God, but if you just stay steadfast in your
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: faith and focus, you're gonna be okay. And in throwing
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: the drink and be okay Mama on drugs and foster care,
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna be okay. Brother laying here dead, I'm gonna
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: be okay. Whether I win another election ever in my
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: life or not. I did it already. I'm good when
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: I sell Hollywood un locked. If it's a billion dollars
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: or five hundred million or two million. That was what
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: guy wanted me to get. Now I'm gonna keep going
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: in pursuit of whatever it is that I feel like
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: I'm supposed to be doing. But I ain't gonna be
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: broken famous, that is never. I'm never gonna be broken.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I ain't no way I can't be broke.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Is fame required to be influential or can you start
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: with the goal of being influential.
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: So one of my friends is Robert F. Smith. Do
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: you remember when that guy paid all those students. Okay,
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: that's Robert S. Smith.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: So he's not famous, as if he walked in the
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: room and sat down right here, you'd be like, I
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: know who that is. But he's highly influential. He's at
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: Davos with all the millionaire billionaires of the world, all
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: the world leaders. He is the second wealthiest black man
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: in the country.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: So yeah, you can be influenced.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: Influen you can go to a graduation, give a speech,
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: and pay off everybody's student loans.
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: That's influence.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: You can just see just they had HBCU Fest where
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: he's always uplifting Black voices, black culture. He's invested in
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: earned your Leisure, created a space for them with their conference.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: He's heavily invested in black Him, Richie lou Me. We're
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: all connected in the sense that we're all trying to
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: drive real influence and power for black culture and black
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: people and black voices.
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: Right, But he's not famous.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: I look at him online sometimes like Okay, you know
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: you're making the cute videos and all that, but are
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: you doing that like Drewski? So that way people say
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: he needs to be on Netflix because Drewski started out
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: with the sketches in comedy and now he's dominating culture
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: right now in his lane. And so yeah, I think
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: that you don't have to have fame to get influenced.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: But if you want fame, know what you want it
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: for and the build that in order to have influence,
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: because when Drewski's done, you know, doing what he's doing now,
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: he may want to be behind the camera, but you
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: have to have the influence of moving the industry and
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: people seeing your value. Tyler Perry started out as madea
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: in the plays, and then he became the owner of
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: the largest studio in the business and he's Tyler Perry now.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: So I don't think he wanted to be madea to
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: be famous. I think he wanted to build a successful
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: tour in the Bible Belt and take those people on
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: a journey with him. And Eligary is number one show
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: on Netflix.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Can you talk about the importance of ownership? Obviously is
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: something very important to you, And I'm not sure that
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: that message comes across all the time, even when someone
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: is just making skits or just doing something for fun,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: that there has to be a point then where you
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: care that you own something.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, people say, oh, you
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: need to own something so you could pass it on.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: I ain't having no kids, I ain't even going to
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: get foster kids. I can't pass this on to my dogs,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: So I'm not building something to pass on.
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: Per se.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: I just don't like people telling me what to do,
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: and I don't like people telling me the limits of
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: what I'm able to do, and I like being able
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: to do what I'm moved to do. And in order
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: to do that, you have to be in control of
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: your own thing.
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: Even if you are.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: And I always say to my friends, like some of
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: them who have had successful careers working at institutions, they
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: don't own you're doing all that to build their bottom line.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Even if you make five million a year doing it.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: When they're done with you, that five million's over and
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: you got to go find your next five million. So
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: your lifestyle is going to be predicated on what they
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: want to feed you. So you can do that, and
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: I understand doing it, but why not do it to
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: save up to go and build your own thing? Because
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: when you realize you really don't need nobody, all you
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: got to do is put your head down, find a
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: good team, work your ass off, stay dedicated to it,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: and that foundation. Once you build the floor, and then
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: you start building the walls, and all of a sudden, damn,
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: you were a skyscraper. You didn't even know because you
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: was so far into work that you looked up. And
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: now you're in the penthouse looking down at Wendy or
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: whoever whoever that person is.
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: Y'all can edit this later. I'm just saying power of
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: ownership critical.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: Now. I say that knowing I have employees watching my interviews, right,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: but I also tell them how far do you want
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: to go because I'm going to keep elevating. So now
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: that I'm getting in production, now that I'm getting into acquisitions,
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: do you see yourself as the director of digital or
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: do you see somebody Do you see yourself as the
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: vice president of digital. Do you see yourself as somebody
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: who director of digital or now are we building a
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: joint venture to go out and create documentaries?
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: So what are we doing?
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: I'm open to partnering with my team and helping them
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: get their own and right now I'm looking at equity
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: in this thing that I'm building for some of those
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: that have been with me from the beginning, because I
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: feel like you built this from the ground up with me,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: you deserve to eat too. And that is why I
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: think God's going to keep blessing because I don't need
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: to be the only billionaire. I do want to be
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: a billionaire because being a millionaire is lonely. It's like lies.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: It's just I want to be in the billionaire boys club,
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: you know, and I want everybody to get it. So
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: but ownership, man, is freedom. It really is truly freedom.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: And and I feel like we all got the hot sauce.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: We just gotta turn the noise down. Stop tiktoking all
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: day long, maybe a couple of hours, you're.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: Gonna do it.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Structure your time, compartmentalize your time. But like, what documentaries
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: are you watching? Go back and watch Warren Buffett's document
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: I learned a lot from that, you know, start learning
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: from other people. I watch charlem Magne what he's been
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: able to do, and then I look at other people
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: who are trying to do what Charlemagne did. Is like,
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: you're not authentic because you're trying to do what Charlemagne did.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: What is your thing? So yeah, ownership is important.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: I love that and the people that you name because
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: you're all of the audacity and the confidence that you
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: have is because nobody can tell.
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: You what to not even Charlotte. I've be talking shit
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: him too.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: I love Charlemagne though, but we talk in a way
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: where it and I look up to him, and I
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: love the fact that I've gone from somebody who's looked
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: up to Charlemagne and now I'm his peer and there's
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: mutual respect.
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: I'm not submissive to Charlotemagne. He's not to me.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: We share ideas, we share disagreements, we share resources and
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: it's not competitive. I celebrate him when he wins, he
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: celebrates me when I win. That, truly is what black
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: excellence is. Where you're not looking at somebody and saying, man,
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: I don't want that person to be better than me,
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: And I will say I feel in our culture we
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: do a really good job of going I want everybody
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: to win, but I want them to win more than me,
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: And we do shit to institutionalize obstructing people from making it.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: And that's why I look at a lot of people
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: now and I'm like, damn, like I could help you,
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: but I'm gonna let you starve because I watch how
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: you let me starve. I watch how you intentionally try
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: to stop me. So I'm not going to be the
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: better person to help you. I'm actually gonna watch you start.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: But I'm gonna go help the person over there that
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: literally needs me. And it's not a negative thing. It's
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: just a this is your karma or this is your lesson,
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: and hopefully you learn from it and do better next time. Absolutely,
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: the Bible said when you know better, to do better.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: See in the description.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: So you talked about the power of ownership, but you
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: have an incredible partnership coming up with b E T Yes,
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: talk to me about that. What can we expect from
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: the Jason Lee Show on b ET?
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: So the lesson two lessons I learned. Let's go back
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: to when I first decided I wanted to do what
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: Wendy did. I want a talk show. This is years ago.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: I go to Queen Latif and I'm like, I want
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: to talk show. I don't have even have Hollywood on
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: locked at the time, Queen Latiff's company shot Kim and
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: at the time Shelby Stone Yamley's over there now with
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: Shelby Stone to me, we went and pitched a show
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: that it was I think it was Jason Lee's show
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: and probably may have been Jason Lee show.
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: We pitched it to BT. This was so far ago.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: This was Robbie Reed, LaRita and I forgot who else
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: was in the room. Well, they didn't see it.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: They were like, like, have you ever done a show before?
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: I was like, no, do you have a tape? No? Okay, Well,
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: so like, why are you ready for the show. I'm like,
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: cause I'm Jason Lee. Like what do you mean? I
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: wasn't ready, So they didn't. They said no.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: Then we went over to Revolt pitched it to Andre Harrell.
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: He was like, the same what we do?
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: Like okay.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: So then fast forward years later, I've been over Vote
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: and now I'm at BT. So the lesson. First lesson
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: was don't never give up. Don't never give up in
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: pursuit of whatever it is you're doing, because now I'm
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: on the network that I first started before all of
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: it where I wanted to go so and I'm grateful
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: for that. The second part is what I told BT
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: when they did the deal. I ain't gonna change. So
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: get ready. You're gonna get phone calls, You're gonna get complaints.
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: People are gonna be happy. And there are still conversations
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: where I'm like, yo, I don't know why the legal
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: wants to look at what I'm doing, because do you
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: can see it when it airs like this is?
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: This is what it is.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: But there's such a respect there that they trust me,
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: and BT has said, we don't want you to be nobody.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: But Jason, the deciding factor for me was in the
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: trajectory of supporting black creators. BET is launching a creator
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: studio for black creators, so I'm like, yo, this is.
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: A line with a bigger purpose. You know, it's not
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: about more money, more marketing.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: There's more marketing, but it's about like, who else can
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: come along with me, not behind me, along with me
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: to have a platform to create And that falls in
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: line with what I have been standing for. So that
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: was the deciding factor. And you know, me and leme A,
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: we on the phone time about what else we're gonna
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: create together because he has the impact towards which is
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: coming up and this year's gonna be bigger than ever.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: And so I love the fact that I'm able to
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: partner with him and a black creator and now be
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: at BT with Lewis and Orchid and the new team
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: over there that's taking BT in the direction that we
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: all ask people of color needed to go.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: You said that somebody asked you this question. I'm gonna
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: ask you this last question to close it out today.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: What does Jason Lee give a fuck about?
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: And when I'm right when you said that, I started
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: feeling a little emotion. I will say, the kids in Stockton,
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: Like it's crazy looking at kids who like are literally
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: where I was as a kid. Mom is struggling, father's
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: not there, violence and chaos around them, a lot lack
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: of opportunity or disinvested community.
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: That they live in.
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, damn, Like I know where I am
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: right now. I know where I'm at life. I've met presidents,
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: and I've traveled the world and I've seen things. I've
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: been on private planes and you know, and I've done
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: all the things that I want to do. And I'm
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: like looking at these kids sometimes who have this look
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: in their face like they don't see it that I
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: care about. That that's the thing that makes me go,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm gonna go to CD Hall and deal
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: with these motherfuckers today, Like I don't want to, Like, damn,
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: I don't want to see none of these people. A
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: couple of my colleagues I do, but like, I don't
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: want to. But that to me is it's reminding me.
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: You know, I was at a school the other day
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: talking to these kids and they were out, you know,
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: doing the Day of Action, but they weren't calling it
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: Caesar shaves because of what's happening right now with them
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: saying about the sex Saul and all that. But these
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: kids Latino, mostly Latino, and I said to them, today
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: is a great day because you're learning how to use
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: your voice. I just want you to remember throughout your
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: whole life. Don't never tell let nobody tell you your
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: voice don't matter.
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: And they got it. So like that to me is
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: like that's I give a fuck about that.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: I don't spend my time going to a bunch of events,
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: speaking out a lot of things, taking a lot of
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: pictures with people, But I tell people, if it has
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: something to do with motivating kids, inspiring kids, helping to
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: elevate the life of a child, I would do that because.
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: You know, there weren't a lot of people that do that.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: For me, so really, really fucking cool.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: Might give a fuck about Rihanna too. And to that woman,
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: that piece of ship woman, that piece of ship woman
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: that shot up her house? Who shoots up Rihanna's how.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Anyway that Rihanna should be on all of our lists?
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: What do we give a fuck about? But no, I
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: do just want to make sure I give you your flowers.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: I one, you practice everything that you preach the same
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: way that you just said you can help somebody else.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: You coming onto my platform. You didn't have to do that,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: And I am deeply great.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: Amber is the boss. Let me tell you something, Amberby,
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: she got an airport hook up, y'all. I'm gonna just
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: put her ode to quick. When I saw Amber was
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: in this little luxury department, what is that thing? I
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: don't even know what it's called. Yes, ps ps, none
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: of you know it because we can't afford it. It's
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: the thing. She's in this thing where like she don't
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: even got up. She drives up, hangs out in the suite,
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: eats good food, gets walked to the plane. I like, yo,
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: I need that. I aspire to be that. So no,
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: when I saw you on doing this thing, I'm like, no,
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: she's doing her thing.
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: I gotta pull up.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: By the way, you have great skin, thank you. Yeah
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: you kind of look like sizz a little bit.
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: People tell you that.
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: I know, I'm gonna tell oh, yeah, I can see it.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: Maybe this podcast need to be on TDE. They got
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: both of them, you know. But no, of course I
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: had to pull up and support. I love supporting people
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: who are like the real deal. I've always found you
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: to be the real deal and always, you know, kept
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: it real with me.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: So thank you. I respect this industry. I respect the
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: media industry. I respect what you've done for it. So
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: I just want to do my best and it is
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: so refreshing to be in a pivot state and to
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: have somebody that I respect in the business support because
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: that is not always the experience that you get when
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: you're doing anything, even you've been doing it for years
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: and so it means everything. And I'm proud of your growth.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: I'm going to celebrate every day, month or year that
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: you want to of your sobriety because I'm super proud
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: of that too, and I can't wait to watch you
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: on BT and all of your Jason.
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: Lee, thank you. Can you tell Summer Walker down? Unblock
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: me though, because I mean you got her number? Summer
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: stop playing?
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: You know, I fuck with you. Summer Summer? Can this summer? Summer, Spring,
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: winter fall? Okay? Unblocked the damn Instagram? We cool? I
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: love Summer Walker.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what did my team do the summer? But no,
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: I just appreciate you all your success. She got a man,
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: y'all married a man a minute ago. I don't got nobody,
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: well not nobody permanent, but I still check my dms
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: so they can find me over there.
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: We will.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: You come back here and I'll get your life together
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: with relationships.
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: That's what you need. That's where I live, you know,
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: I don't know today. I want one tomorrow.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: Probably a lot of people believe this house and be
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: ending up getting engaged and stuff.
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: So we got all our ring fingers empty.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Let's do it, silly, Jason. I appreciate you and shout
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: out to your team. Thank you guys so much for
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: making this happen. All right, If you knew better, your
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: goal would be to be influential, not famous.
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: Period.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: Ain't nothing worse than being famous and broke. I'm telling you,
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: I've seen it is horrible Jesus, especially if you can't
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: get your edges done.
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: Wow, what for a lineup? Let the people rest anyway,
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: good night, good night.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: If You Knew Better with Ambergrimes a production of the
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: Black Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Connect with Ambergrimes at Ambergrimes on all platforms,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: and make sure you subscribe for future episodes of If
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: You Knew Better with Ambergrimes