EntrepreneurshipCrypto and financeSaaS and tech
Ja Rule’s journey from #1 selling recording artist to tech entrepreneur
Ja Rule talks NFTs, building the Icon app for artists and why persistence and early adoption matter in his move into tech entrepreneurship.
with Ja Rule
Overview
This episode is with Ja Rule – recording artist, writer and entrepreneur. He’s the Head of Artists and Repertoire at Flipkick, and co-founder and investor at ICONN App. In this episode we talk about Ja Rule’s journey from #1 selling recording artist to tech entrepreneur, and how he’s helping to give control back to music artists.
Key takeaways
- NFTs let artists get paid in perpetuity through resale royalties, unlike physical collectibles such as trading cards.
- Streaming has become a genuine new revenue stream for artists over the last decade, even though touring still pays the most.
- Being early to a new platform gives an unfair advantage, the way early Instagram and TikTok users built outsized followings.
- A strong team needs both optimists and people who focus on downside risk, because the risk-focused ones help the business pivot.
- Extending trust to people by default works better than assuming distrust, because a person's true character shows itself over time.
Chapters
About the guest
Transcript
Auto-generated from the episode audio, so expect the odd mis-heard word. Timestamps open the video at that point.
That's what keeps me inspired to do this in this space. The fact that I can create something that's never been done before, kind of like my music. You know, I can create something from here and it becomes this. And people see the same vision that I see when I created this. They understood it in the same way that I understood it when I created it. They knew that they needed this the same way that I knew I needed this. And that to me, that's innovation. That drives me, that inspires me, whether it's through making a new record that people
fucking sing to the top of their lungs or creating a new app that people want to use to help monetize their content. You're listening to the Growth Manifesto podcast, where we host in-depth interviews with business leaders, authors, industry experts, and entrepreneurs with a singular focus around business growth. At the end of each podcast, we want you to walk away inspired, to think bigger, and to have actionable takeaways you can apply to improve your business. Each episode is like a masterclass on a key topic.
So make sure to browse the episodes to find the topics that are most relevant to your biggest business challenges today. This podcast is brought to you by Web Profits, a digital growth consultancy that helps challenge your brands drive growth in a complex and fragmented digital landscape. You can find out more about Web Profits at webprofits.io. Now, let's get into it. Today, we're talking with Ja Rule, recording artist, entrepreneur, and writer. He's the head of artists and repertoire at Flipkik and co-founder and investor at the
Icon app. Today, we'll be talking about Ja Rule's journey from number one selling recording artist to tech entrepreneur and how he's helping to give back control to music artists. Just quickly, before we get started, make sure to go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you get the latest episodes as soon as they're released. Now let's get into it. Welcome, Jar. Hey, thanks for having me, man. For sure. Pleasure, man. Now, before we get into it, I have to ask, how did the battle with Fat Joe go yesterday? Because from what I can see, it was a real success. Yeah, I had a good time, man. It was a good battle.
You know, Versus is a very, very unique platform where artists get to showcase their passion for music in a different way. you know, which was really cool. And I got to do it with a, with a friend and a good brother of mine. So that was, it was, it was definitely a different experience, but I love it. Yeah. I checked it out and it was just fantastic stuff, man. Fantastic content. I loved the production, got a lot of exposure across the socials. So it was cool. Yeah. But let's get straight into the podcast. Yeah.
So you were the number one selling artist for years and years and years. And then you transitioned into tech entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, and so on, right? What was the biggest challenges that you had to overcome in that transition? I think everything comes with a learning curve, right? So I think that was the hardest thing for me, was learning about tech and Bitcoin and still learning about NFT,
still learning about these decentralized markets and economy, you know. So, yeah, it's the learning curve for me that I think is really the most important thing and what takes the most time and what needs to be the thing you focus on the most. And so, yeah, for me, it's the learning curve. How long did it take you, you know, to learn these things, right? Because, you know, like you come from one space and you've got the fame and you've got the success
and you've got all the learnings and you've done the grind, you've done the work and now it's kind of rewarding you and now you're going into another space again and you're almost having to start again almost right and so how long did it take you never quite learn at all right there's always something new to learn you know something new to add to it so it's an ever-evolving thing which i enjoy and i think that's part of creativity you know creativity is an ongoing thing you know i may start a record and create one verse and
decides it needs two more verses or decides it needs now it needs a a female voice on it on the hook or you know i may decide and take this verse off and it needs somebody else's voice and there needs to be a feature you know so this is this is like the same thing how i see you know crypto and and NFTs and all of these great new ways to invest. It's the same way for me. I see it the same way. It's ever evolving.
It's ever growing. And I get to be very creative in the space where I get to add things and, you know, like take something like Icon, for example. You know, Icon started as one thing, as me wanting to be able to solve a problem to book talent, you know, in a very, you know, easy way. And it branched out into a lot of different things. You know, now we have live streaming and you can monetize your content
and all kinds of great stuff like that. So that's what I love about this space. It's ever evolving. It doesn't get stale. it keeps your mind you know in tune and fresh and then you got to keep your knife sharp you know so i enjoy that i'm a guy that likes to keep moving you know so this is a perfect space for me because this is rapidly moving yeah the one thing i found because i've been like in the business space for like 20 years now right and um what i've found the one thing that's so good about business is
you're only limited by how creative you think there are no rules you know there are laws but there are no rules right like and but there's no kind of like one way and oftentimes the way to succeed is a way that kind of hasn't been done before and so like I love your point around how the creative kind of side of things kind of connects with you because that's the part which I love as well it's like cool so how how well can you think about this problem you know so what are all the possible ways which you can approach this same thing you know who could you leverage and how
could you leverage them and it's like it sounds like you know that kind of side of like your music um skills have now been transitioned into the business side of things yeah yeah like i said earlier it kind of goes hand in hand you know um i can relate a lot of things from you know my music even going further back to my hustling days. But I
can equate certain things to that and relate it to what's going on in the business world and so forth and so on because everything just kind of comes full circle. You can kind of take little bits and pieces here and put them here and make you a good little pie here, a good little puzzle together properly. And that's what I do. I try to take my street knowledge and, and walk it and use it in my business world too.
And it creates a different type of savvy miss for me, you know? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And like, oftentimes, like I speak with people that are excellent at one thing and they talk about, you know, they stay in their lane and they have a team around them that can kind of support that yeah and so what does your team look like you know or like what are the people or the kind of roles around you that kind of help you to drive that success well i my one of my rule of thumbs is try to keep people that are way smarter than me around me that way they make me look smart
that's a good rule like my wife see she's brilliant brilliant woman she makes me look smart every day and she just brought me a glass of wine yeah you know i'm just really happy and interested and excited to be a part of everything that's going on with this new nft space and and you know cryptocurrencies and you know blockchain it's all very exciting stuff
okay let's jump into that then right okay let's talk about okay let's talk about nfts right you For the people who don't fully understand NFTs, are you able to quickly explain how you would describe NFTs? NFT stands for non-fungible token, but for me, it's a sense of ownership of something that is digital. And the way they do that is by cryptographically authenticating these digital works of art through the blockchain.
And I know that all sounds like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, But the best way I can describe it is to put it in layman's terms, maybe simplify it a little bit. Think of it as like, it's kind of hard because it's its own thing, you know, to kind of explain. But there are things similar, but not quite like. So maybe you could take trading cards kind of and put that into some type of understanding of what it could be.
but not actually because, you know, the artist or the owner doesn't get paid in perpetuity for the resale. And so that to me is really what makes NFTs such a dominating force right now and so intriguing to everybody and to so many artists because they can be paid in perpetuity for their art. And I think that's important. Okay. So, you know, one application of NFTs is kind of the ability for artists to get paid are the equivalent of like a royalty.
Like a royalty, yes. And from some of the interviews I've seen you do, you talk about kind of the challenge the music artist has trying to get paid these days, right? Like especially with like the Spotify's and the Apple Music's all on subscription, like it's so low. Could you talk about that challenge and kind of how it's changed in the last 10, 20 years? Because I remember 20 years ago, there was no social media. there was kind of hardly ever like like but the internet was just starting so it was a completely different game and so kind of how has the game changed you know for the aspiring artists out
there and the successful artists in the last 20 years the one thing i will say is it's changing for the better okay that's the one thing i was at i think 10 years ago you know um the music industry felt like it was a dying industry because of mp3s and now i think it's come back around and and you know now stream streaming is becoming a big part of you know how artists make their money not not as big as touring but it's also it's also created a new revenue stream
which is which is amazing for the artists and it's also you know with the new technology and Just being able to go on a SoundCloud or Apple, for instance, on your own, it gives the artists their own freedom and their own power back in the sense that they can own their works. And that's important. The money's in ownership. And if you don't own your art, if you don't own your music,
if you don't own your films, if you don't own, then you know you're not making the money you should be making is very the point is this point and and your family won't be able to enjoy the fruits of these uh great works so ownership is key and and that's why blockchain and nfts are really cool and so from the music point of view right so let's have an artist right cool so like i've got the album the songs the singles and like
i've uploaded them or kind of however it works to spotify or to apple music or to soundcloud and like i'm getting some exposure for that right but that's not really going to change the game for you is it really because of it's such a small percentage and the volume is so high right yeah but so then you know so what are the ways that artists can make money then from that like so like you talked about the touring kind of side of things um you know so what are the like touring is the biggest way for for artists to make money that's their biggest revenue stream but if you're a big artist and you're getting millions millions millions of streams because
that's accumulate and that you know sort of way for you to really make money but if you're a big artist and you're doing that you're making good money off the streams you should be making more money off the streams but you you'll be making good money and that just wasn't a revenue stream that was available 10 years ago, you know? And so you still have your old ways of distributing your music, which, you know, can be through MP3. Well, I wouldn't say the old way because the only other way is vinyl these days.
I mean, there's no CDs, no anything. But, you know, when you put your stuff on Apple Music and stuff, it kind of has the feel of when you purchase it like an ownership, like you own it as an item. But that's kind of what NFTs are, you know? It's owning something on a digital ledger that's yours. Okay. So let's say that I'm an artist, right? So what are the kind of things I can put basically onto the blockchain as an NFT that I can start to make some money from or some royalties from?
It can be anything. Music. It can be art. It can be film, clips. People are really expanding what an NFT can be. at Flipkik, what we do, we do physical NFTs and that's just an amazing process that we're able to authenticate physical works for artists and now they can get paid a royalty forever and ever and their families can meet. So it's all new. We're all kind of wrapping our head around what the fuck
is going on. Me too, by the way. Me too, by the way. Because I get blockchain. I get blockchain. I get Bitcoin. Like I got some Bitcoin, some Ethereum and all that jazz. But NFTs is this new thing. It's like where you own the digital rights to something. And that actually means something in terms of ownership. And there's only one. When you go further down the NFT rabbit hole, you'll find, you know, things like community and utility and a different sense of ownership.
You know, almost like a country club membership type of thing. You know, what do you mean by that? Like I'm interested because I haven't heard that before. So if you've ever been a part of any of these PFP projects, like a boarded yacht club or CryptoPunks or RumbleKongs, which I love very much, or, you know, there's so many of them, you know, the Deejans, I am Deejans, I like those guys too. but you become part of these clubs and it's kind of like a country club for investment it's like a
really cool country club for a nice investment group of whoever owns this particular project and it's almost like a it's almost like you know you you become a part of these clubs and the object is for everyone inside the club to get rich and make each other you know successful through being a part of this thing that we're all part of. So, you know, like I said, once you go down the rabbit hole, you'll discover community, you'll discover utility. And, you know, it's a really cool thing when you go down that rabbit hole.
And I'm really trying to unpack this also for all of the music artists out there, but also just for the audience. It's just trying to understand what the hell, you know, like how do NFTs work and why are they so popular right now, right? Because it's such a trending topic right now, like everyone's talking about it. It's like a gold rush right now. And I don't think people actually fully understand it. I think there are a few who do, but I don't think that the majority actually fully understand it, right? So everyone's trying to find their way through. You talked about Flipkik that gives, that basically sells NFTs,
but for kind of the physical side of things, right? How does that actually work? So what do I do? Like I go to Flipkik, I purchase something and what? Like it's kind of backed by something that is stored. somewhere like how it work yeah absolutely so you can buy the the nft which will be backed by the physical item so you can redeem the physical item at any time with with your ownership of the digital and then obviously we burn the digital and then now the ownership is now the physical thing
so it's just it's just a really dope way of letting artists have their physical works on the blockchain as well so have you got stuff on the nft space like let yourself have you i've got a few projects that i've been working on like my club cards it's on open c you can check those out you know with my guy josh and uh and me and my me and my partner black we have uh a metaverse line called stone and Robert,
where you can get metaverse wearables real cool, you know, hip hop culture, the metaverse wearables were the first of all kind. Awesome. Make a lot of cool shit. So, you know, that, you know, we're doing that, doing a lot of stuff like that. And, you know, just enjoying the space, you know, I've actually had a chance to, uh, get some land in the sandbox, you know, so, you know, we're building the iconic garden arena and sandbox little road with all my investment crew, my guys. So it's, it's a lot,
it's a lot of fun stuff going on, a lot of exciting stuff going on in the tech space and that's well. Yeah. And you know, just for the listeners, um, uh, so like, if you don't know, or if you haven't heard about the metaverse, search it on Google, it's, it's a whole world that is in the virtual space and there's companies like, like Louis Vuitton, I think, that have got stuff going on in there, like Mark J. There's so much stuff that's going in the digital space right now. And I think the blockchain is underpinning the currency,
the way people can actually transact within this space. And most people haven't heard of the metaverse. I mean, I only heard about it, what, six months ago? And I was like, what's this metaverse thing? And I just kind of started to get into it. I was like, damn, there's a whole world out there in the computer. Yeah, there's a whole world in the computer. And there's money in there too. There's a lot of money in there. And we'll, you know, we'll be doing some concerts at the Iconic Garden Arena. You know, maybe we'll do a versus there. Yeah. The first versus in that arena. Yeah. Because I heard, I forget who it was, but there was an artist that did a show in the
metaverse and there was like 15 to 20 million people that turned up. Right. Like that stuff's not going to happen in the real world. No. Do you know what I mean? And that's something, that's something interesting. And so I think between, you know, the blockchain and music, metaverse, NFTs, streaming, it kind of can get complex these days for music artists to really know, you know, how to focus their efforts, right?
And so what advice, you know, would you give them in terms of how should they be thinking about this, right? Because I'm sure they're listening and going, that's all sounds cool. should i just go into the metaverse is that the first thing or what should i do should i just i don't have any i don't have any any good advice to tell anybody i'm like i said i'm still poking holes around trying to figure things out myself you know um my my advice that i would give is to you know take a look at it get involved start learning you know what's going on don't
be left out you know don't be late to the party is the advice i would give yeah because i mean to be first i mean it's like um i mean everyone can probably relate to the people that were there first with instagram they've got all the followers because all the algorithms and there were all the hacks in the beginning and they got like an unfair advantage same with tiktok like that's the same thing like everyone that was there first like they got the explosion and now everyone's trying to get onto the bandwagon but that bandwagon's full and it's just way harder to break through right now you know so i think that's a really good piece of advice what about a distribution
these days right like how do you get exposure now obviously like i saw that and i spoke about it before about the fat joe i think that like you did yesterday that's obviously fantastic for exposure i like is it those kind of things that artists should be doing these days to really kind of push exposure you know just for but their music yeah yeah i mean all of those things are great exposure you know versus become this huge humongous platform for artists where you can go and, you know, do these shows.
And it has a real effect on how people see you and your artistry because you have a chance to showcase it in such a big fashion. So, you know, I'm really impressed by what they've been able to do in such a short period of time versus in the reach that they get and the impact that it makes. I'm also looking to do something not the same but similar on my Icon platform. It's called Vibes. And it's a concert series where, you know, big, big artists, iconic artists do their classic albums from front to back and, you know, kind of tell the stories behind the music with a live band and then release it as a live album.
So, you know, these things are just new ways, I think, of, you know, experiencing music and art, you know, and I think these will be the new ways. These will be the main ways of experiencing music and art in the future. And so, yeah, that's a fantastic point. So like you're really talking about platforms, right? So, you know, for artists to leverage existing platforms that kind of already have audiences and try to maximize their audiences essentially, right?
Because it's hard to create the audience from scratch. That stuff's expensive. That stuff can be challenging. That stuff's complex. There's all these types of things, right? you talk about the icon app that sounds like that's a platform as well right so could you just quickly talk about the icon app and kind of you know what's the problem it's trying to solve and how does it work icon app is it's amazing man we you know we're trying to allow content creators to be free and create whatever content they like to create but also be able to monetize
it you know charge for the live streams or pay-per-view events or you know djs can get tips, you know, while they're DJing on the platform in real time. You know, a lot of different things like that, you know, meet and greets. Like if I do a concert and I virtually, you know, have it as a pay-per-view concert, you can also buy the meet and greet package and get, you know, a few minutes with me backstage virtually as well. So, you know, all of those types of things are really cool things that I'm, you know,
that are already built into the platform. But of course, it's expanding. You know, we have the book now button where you can, you know, book me for my time, so to speak, time is money, you know, and each artist can offer their packages of what they, you know, offer their time for. So there's really cool stuff like that. And so you're creating the platform. And so on one side of it, you know. It's already created. It's in the app store right now. Go get it. Icon2Ns.live. not live and um of course that's available on both iphone um and android not not on android yet
we work on android now but yeah iphone ios yeah i mean looks like i'm a bit more biased because i love apple um and i've got all the apple stuff so i've got it already so that's really good as i highly recommend that um that people check it out um but you're but you seem to really be doing a lot for the music industry um you're trying to create places you know for artists to just take control of um their art and to have a way you know everything i create everything i create is for us by us you know it's it's things that i felt i wish i would have had when i was a young artist
to help me you know in my in my way so you know i'm icon is going to expand in a lot of different ways, you know, to music, to original content, you know, all of those great things. So stay tuned. Even, you know, even NFT marketplace I've been working on for Icon to display NFTs, what I call motion pictures. So you'll see it soon. You'll get to check it all out. We're working. We're working.
You've done a lot over the last 20, 30 years, right? and I'm sure like but not enough not enough I mean who's ever done enough I mean maybe Elon Musk is going to Mars maybe he thinks it's enough yet I still don't think he's done enough either right nah same right but so what are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned you know through that journey because that's a journey and a half right you know what are some of the biggest lessons lessons you know one of the biggest things lessons I would say I don't know
always be yourself you know always always present yourself and be who you are. That way you sleep well at night. Hmm. You know? It's hard sometimes though, right? Because everyone thinks that they should be something else. Actually it isn't. You know, actually it isn't. It's really, really simple. You know, be who you are and be accepting of others, but also be thoughtful of the fact that people don't always have to accept you. And that's very key because, you know,
it's hard for people to accept or let somebody into their world, you know, and, and, and, and open up to them in the same way. It's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a relationship that has to grow. And so, you know, that, that's, these are the things that I, that I try to work on as I become a better businessman or a better entrepreneur. Like I said, the learning curve on all of this shit is the, is the biggest thing. It's the, it's the elephant in the room how much do you know about what you do how do you approach that
right because obviously that's huge right like it's like hey look i'm gonna go make an app i've never done an app before you know but how do you actually approach that like all right cool i'm gonna have to go into this now but what's your process well i i have i have like a real loose approach on this i have a vision of what i see and what i want and sometimes they're very big and invest. And, uh, you know, a lot of times my team has to say, we don't either have the money to do that, or that's probably literally fucking impossible to do.
But I like those answers because it lets me know that I'm thinking of things that people haven't thought of. So in my eyes, everything can be done. It just takes time, effort, and, and, you know, some money, of course, but but um that's what keeps me inspired to to do this in this space the fact that i can create something that's never been done before kind of like my music you know i can create something from here and it becomes this and and and people see the same vision that i see when i created this
they they understood it in the same way that i understood it when i created it they knew that they needed this the same way that i knew i needed this and that that to me that's innovation That drives me, that inspires me, whether it's through making a new record that people fucking sing to the top of their lungs or creating a new app that people want to use to help monetize their content. So you're a visionary leader, right? You've got the vision, the direction, and then you leverage your team of people who can kind of execute.
Bring my vision to life. and just kind of that's the path that you go how do you yeah how do you because it's because this is the hard one and this takes years this took me years anyway but how do you um choose who you have around you you know because obviously there has to be a good trust there now right for you to be able to say cool here's my vision if you tell me no i need to listen to you because i trust you so how do you you know so what do you look for in people that that you have around you i you know
you know, you hear all these fucking sayings, you know, trust no one, you know, be careful who you trust and all these type of sayings. But I happen to think differently. I happen to believe that you allow people to be who they are, you know, and they will appear. You know, I don't think you can look at everybody with the lens of non-trust and think that you're going to get trust from that. You know, I think you have to, you know, go into a situation with trust.
And if a person is distrustful, they'll show up eventually, you know, so, so I allow people to be who they are because like I said, they, they will arrive eventually who they really are will arrive, you know? Yeah. That's to say, like I found kind of something similar, right? I've been burnt so many times, um, but I still have a heart that trusts and I still think the best of people and I give them a chance, but I've gotten better at. saying the little things that are the little, you gotta have a little spidey, spidey sense of with it, you know, and try to,
you know, sort through the bad apples, but it's tough. It's tough living like that. It's tough living with the thought of everybody's trying to fucking do me wrong. Everybody's trying to, you know, it's really, I've lived both sides of that. I've lived with that mentality that everyone is after me, everyone, you know, you gotta be careful. You gotta be guarded because everyone wants something from me. I've lived with that. and it's not fun. It's not, it's not, it's, you know, it's draining to me mentally
because I'm always thinking this person, you know, or, you know, I don't want to do that. And so I had to start looking at it on the other side of it and say, you know, listen, allow these people to become who they are. If they're distrustworthy, if they're not trustworthy people, it'll come to light. It'll come to fruition. And I think I have a good enough now at my 45 years of age i think i have a better gauge of people you know and and you know from from the beginning i can gauge people a little bit better i believe and so i believe that the
people that i bring around me are trustworthy people are good people because i've made this you know assumption this analysis by you know dealing with them or whatever and now i feel Like, you know, so I feel like I have a little bit of a good sixth sense and a little bit of a feel of, you know, who are good people, who are bad people. I try to stay away from the bad people and keep good people around me. And that when I say good people and bad people, I obviously don't know what the fuck you do in your spare time.
You know, I'm talking about energy. Yes. You know, people that have half glass full energy versus half glass empty energy, you know, because those are the things you look for, you know, just people with that type of upbeat spirit because, you know, they're always going to, no matter the situation, no matter what's going on, they're going to find a solution. You know, they're not going to, you know, dangle on the problem, but they're going to find a solution or help find a solution. And that's what you want. You want positive people, positive minds, positive thinking. Yeah, that's a fantastic point.
And I love that thinking. You've got to keep a couple of negatives around too. You know what I'm saying? What do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? Not just yes people? You've got to keep a couple of people that see the glass happen. Oh, yeah. Because they help make sure that the glass is always full. Because they help to make sure. How do they help to make sure? That the glass is always full. Ah, because they're always thinking of the downsides? and then you can avoid them. Because they're always thinking of the downside.
So if I'm thinking of the upside and I have a few people thinking of the downside, we can't fail or we shouldn't fail. The glass should run off. It should run over, run a folder. Yeah, exactly right. The company should run a folder over if we come together the correct way. So, you know, you got to keep a couple of those thinkers around too. Yeah, like I've been in environments where everyone's just optimistic And it's like, and no one's thought of the possible risks or the downsides. It's like, oh, damn, we had someone there at some point to go, hey, did you think about that?
It's like, oh, someone didn't think about that. Yeah. And it's not that they're, what you got to understand and appreciate about those type of thinkers is, it's not that they're thinking negative about the problem, but they're thinking through the whole problem. While you're thinking of how great it can be, they're thinking of what happens if. And then now we know how to pivot. And that's important. You know what I mean? That's very important. You've been at this now for a while, right? And I talk to lots of people that are starting out,
like all stages of their business. And even just for myself, I found that, you know, the one thing, like, I wouldn't say I'm the smartest. I wouldn't say I'm the most intelligent. I wouldn't say I'm the quickest, but I'm relentless. I'm persistent. And I will never quit. You know, how important has that been for you? It's very important. I put my whole life on that because if, you know, there's no Ja Rule if I'm not persistent, if I'm not, you know, overly confident in who I am, you get a million doors slammed in your face.
Still, right? It's that million and one door. Million and one. That's the door. Right? And so you got to push through. You got to be persistent. You got to keep, you know, keep moving, keep your legs running like a running back. Keep your legs moving like a running back. You got to do those things. And you have to think that way. And it comes with a real confidence that you have to have in your abilities to overcome. And everybody doesn't have that. Everybody doesn't have that. Everybody thinks they're ready for the fight
until they get into the fight. Is that Mike Tyson's statement, right? It's like everyone is ready for the fight. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Yeah, yeah. You know? and that's that's that's absolutely correct yeah and so like when things are hard how do you get through that right because because that's when most people quit right is when like it's like yeah yeah like i'm persistent just when things are good and then it gets hard and it gets hard for long and then they quit right and so how do you stay with it yeah it's a little mechanism that
i have and everybody needs this mechanism but it's not easy to have it's called i don't give a fuck everybody needs a I don't give a fuck switch that they can turn on and say I don't care what this person thinks I don't care what that person thinks I don't care what anybody thinks about I know what I'm capable of and I'm gonna fucking do it prove it show it whatever the case may be you know this is this is my fucking superpower my superpower is that I believe in me more than
anything in the fucking world i have supreme confidence that is my superpower and and for me it's very important i try to instill that in my kids believe in yourself you can do it put your mind to it i don't like the word i can't i from from the time they were little kids i told them don't say that word it doesn't exist here i can't doesn't exist here you either do or you don't that's it right and i love how you said that like i love the i don't give a fuck switch right because like i think i've got that switch and i think you know like because like you have to have
it to create something that like to create something that is above and beyond the norm that is extraordinary you cannot listen to what people tell you is possible unless those people are people that have achieved something extraordinary but those people won't tell you you can't do something that would have another conversation listen i love this jay-z line he says on his records everybody want to tell you how to do it but they never did it it's the most
it's the most craziest shit everybody has advice on how you should live your life how you should do this or how you should do that well why is it not working for you if it's so simple don't tell me things that you have not experienced or, or that you haven't lived through to tell me that I should live that way or go through. That's huge, right? It's just not, it's just not believable. This is not something I would do. Yeah. That's, that's an awesome point. One more question. What's next for you, right? Cause like, like,
I can see the music's happening. You've got the NFTs, you've got the app. I can see it's all connected in some way. What's the vision for the future for you? Man, you know, I'm about to get into a couple of new projects, especially my music stuff. And I'm going to do something really cool with Music Mondays. And I'm going to start, you know, I feel as though my music is art and it should be released as such. So I'm going to release it as art projects now as NFTs and own my music and give people a chance to have a piece of my legacy
and ownership as well, which is cool. you know and so we're going to do this a little bit different than the regular distribution process and we're going to release my music as entities from here on out and see how that goes where can people you know be part of this you know well you know good well i quite like the music monday i will support it just to support it yeah i'm gonna do it i'm gonna start it on open c okay but then eventually it'll move to icon once once the platform is built out to to hold that that type
of uh situation yeah perfect and this is something i ask every person on the podcast but if there was one thing that you want the listeners or the viewers of this podcast to do a site to visit a place to go something to do what would you like them to do go to icon.live baby two n's icon two ends dot live create you a page follow me jarul on there man and and it's a it's a magnificent platform and we we just started we get growing we're growing right now and it's we got about
5 000 users so early adoption is key get in there now and like you said get the early algorithms and get your followers up early quick and then we're we're gonna blast off really you know it's it's about to blast off heavy we got some really cool shit coming down the pipe so get in now before it before this is too late and you and for the listeners and the viewers out there you can see that that jar is taking some big steps right now from music to nfts to the app so start now like like you heard the thing before about like if you start kind of early on you get
the unfair advantage so start now yeah and check out flip kick man and get some of those original uh live uh physical nfts yeah for sure jar thank you so much for coming on the podcast it's so good to speak about it you're trying you're thinking sure you know the mindset and all the things that you're doing to help the music industry right like because it's it's a complex space these days right it's not just create music let it go right so thank you so much for coming on the podcast
and sharing um your journey today no doubt man awesome talk soon baby thanks man yeah peace Thanks for listening to the Growth Manifesto podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, please give us a five-star rating on iTunes. For more episodes, please visit growthmanifesto.com forward slash podcast. And if you need help driving growth for your company, please get in touch with us at webprofits.io.
