Josh Snow + DJ Irie on Image, Branding & Building Wealth | E17
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- But you guys are the first ones hearing this story. - Oh, man. - I'm listening. - So image is everything, right? This was when the 500SL, that candy red 500SL convertible was the hottest thing out. I get a call from the new owners of the Versace mansion. And they say, "Hey, we've been hearing a lot of good things about you. We'd like to meet with you about a Halloween party," which is basically their opening party, 'cause now it's gonna be a private club.

At that time, I had a Honda Accord. And I'm like, wait a minute, how am I going to pull up to the Versace mansion in this Honda Accord? And Uber doesn't exist. There's no Uber, right? I was like, damn, what am I going to do?

I said, "Let me call my boy." I said, "Bro, here's the deal. I gotta go down here. I need to really pull up." He gets to dad's car. We drive to the beach. He goes to get lunch and lets me drive up to, right? Nothing about getting in the car. They gotta see it, right? So he comes out and he's looking down. I'm like, "I'm right here." Right? And he's like,

I'm like, "Hey, what's up, man?" He's like, "Oh yeah, park right here. Keep it right up front." He's like, "It's amazing!" - My park's going up. - So, time to get to the business. That meant it's myself, the owner, and the guy that got me who's working for the owner. It's three of us in the room. So the owner's like, "Well, hey, we'd love to have you. What's your rate?"

The guy that went out and got me stopped me and goes, you know, Peter, I don't know if we can afford him. Given by what he's driving, this guy makes some real money. And he was like, wait a minute, what do you drive? He was like a candy red 500 SL. He's like, I'm trying to order one. I'm trying to order. I can't get it. He's like, you already have it? And I was like, I already have it. I'll show it to you downstairs. Well, look, man, hopefully we can afford you. He's like, our budget's 50K.

If that doesn't work, you know, we'll go back. I go inside. I'm like, I'm literally exploding inside. Right. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, listen, ma'am, you know, I came all the way down here. I really like you guys. I understand you're working with a limited budget. Limited budget. That's good. I almost said unlimited, right? But I said, I said, you know what?

you guys plan on doing other events, right? He goes, yeah, we do a lot of stuff. I said, listen, let's shake hands because we do a lot of stuff together and we'll make it work.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Money Mondays podcast where we talk about three topics. How to make money, invest money, and how to give someone away to charity. Today's guest will be one of my easiest interviews ever because I love this guy. I watched him build a company that does over $100 million in sales, helping people get shiny teeth. He does snow teeth whitening, and he makes other products that he does with celebrities, where we're going to ask him all about. But please give a warm round of applause to Mr. Josh Snow. Dan, thank you, brother. The crowd goes wild. I love it.

All right, man. Thanks for having me. So we do these podcasts in 40 minutes exactly because most workouts around 45 minutes and most commutes around 45 minutes. So we make these 40 minutes. We get straight to the point. So what I want you to do is give a quick two minute bio so we can get straight to the money.

Awesome. Two Minute Bios. So I started at 13 years old. I learned how to build websites. I didn't grow up with a ton of money, so the motivation really was to make some money, buy my first car. And so I started making websites, didn't know that I could charge people to make those websites. So I started charging people just word of mouth and grew my name. And then once I started building websites for other people, I wanted to build them for myself.

And then I said, well, what am I going to sell on those websites? So I had to become a product developer. So about 10 years ago, I started developing my own products, my own brands from the ground up, like Snow, going on its seventh year now. But prior to that, I was building websites and doing marketing services, managing tens of millions of dollars of other people's money through advertising to figure out what works. And then eventually had the

had the confidence in myself to once I graduate college to start launching my own businesses and that was about 10 years ago. Wow. Okay.

Snow teeth whiting, I have seen all over social media. I've seen ads pop up. I've seen celebrities and influencers and joint ventures and consumer products. And I mean, it's everywhere. There's a lot of major competitors in the space. Absolutely. I mean, household names owned by Procter and Gamble and like the biggest companies in the world. Yes. You're up against pretty much one of the toughest niches in the planet. How do you fight against 800 pound gorillas?

Well, you're not wrong. I think I needed snow. I made my first million dollars when I was 17 years old. So for me, when I started snow, I was already out of college. I had sold a couple of companies. I was trying to figure out

what am I gonna do next? And I had a lot of imposter syndrome, a lot of wonder boy syndrome, whatever I do next has to be huge and all of this. And so when I was going through oral surgery myself, I struggled with jaw pain my whole life. And so I just was, I had done so much research as a consumer

And I looked at it and said, well, there's 8 billion people with teeth, massive industry. And I started to see over the last 10 years, the premiumization of a lot of categories like food being keto and gluten free and low sugar. Like expensive, right? Matcha lattes, avocado toast, right? So you've got $20 avocado toast that's vegan, gluten free, cruelty free, all this stuff, right? Ashwagandha.

You know, all the checks, right? Turmeric. So I was like, well, we all use toothpaste. Everybody, man, woman, child uses toothpaste. Probably it's the biggest CPG category, but it's also, as you alluded to, one of the most competitive, if not the most competitive.

But in my entrepreneurial career, I was very jaded when I started Snow because I was thinking of the pursuit of happiness. So once I make enough money, I'm going to be happy. And so once I got there, I graduated college. First in my family, graduated college. I was like, okay, I've got this college degree. I've been building my businesses. I'm making millions of dollars.

Why am I not as happy as I thought I would be? And so I realized that the pursuit of happiness for me, and I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, the pursuit is happiness. And being addicted to the joy of achievement was really my drug. And so I needed something that I could really like,

I run multiple businesses today. I'm mainly an investor, I would say, outside of snow. But I needed something that I could run for 50 years realistically. Like, is it going to be around 50 years from now? Are people going to be using toothpaste? Yeah, I hope so. 50 years from now.

So I said, okay, I need something that's very competitive, that almost all the odds are stacked against me in order for me to stay focused enough. And I remember back to playing video games when I was a kid. And the first time I'd go through Mario,

I would run through and just beat all the levels, beat the bosses. And then I'd go back and collect the coins and then beat the bosses again in different ways. And some people want to collect the coins along the way and kind of go through that one time. So everyone has their own kind of mode. I found that I like to sometimes increase the difficulty, play the game again. And so I think for me, Snow was...

I wanted to build something from scratch. All our products are made by us, custom, everything, the packaging, the formulation, the taste, the marketing, everything from the ground up. I really needed that in my career and Snow really has already given me so much more. I've taken zero dollars off the plate since the beginning, poured millions of dollars of my own money to bootstrap it to a hundred million bucks

but Snow was started for a different reason than a lot of my other businesses. And I think that in a circular way answers your question, but I think directly for me, you have to choose and you choose a market. Every market's got competitors. And I think in this one, we actually found a lot of opportunity. You know, with skincare, you can name probably 50 brands, haircare, 50 brands, supplements, 50 brands that are doing over $100 million a year that, you know, that people like.

Oral care, not so much. There's a few. - Like five, right? - Yeah, there's like five. And then there's the big, big, big, big guys that have been there for 100 years. And so I'm like, well, man, woman, child, eight billion people, as long as I'm alive, I want to be innovating in this space. And we now have millions of followers and millions of people who use our products. And so now the business, very quickly since I started it, became more about the consumer audience and the community than me.

So I think that kind of fed it. And then this David versus Goliath story, I think is another kind of thing that gets me up in the morning. So let's say I'm a consumer and I'm walking with my wife or friends and we're walking down the aisle and there's the household names that we've known our whole lives. And then there's the little engine that could, right? There's snow, but snow is much more expensive. It looks better. It's higher product. I mean, you can tell just by looking at the packaging, how much more premium it is.

From a consumer perspective, how did you choose the price point you were going for? And why do you think people are attracted to it? Well, so when we started, it was just a one product business, right? A lot of businesses start that way. Hero product. And that was an all in one system. So technically it was multiple products, but it was a system. And I came out with a price point of $149. So I put together this unique system, $149. It's less than going to the dentist to get the treatment. But the idea was to bring that in the comfort of home.

Initially, everyone I gave the idea to for the initial system, they said, "No one's gonna pay 150 bucks to an unknown website, on social media, for oral care. It just doesn't seem possible." And again, I was like, "Maybe they're right, but maybe there's a chance that there are more consumers like me that would pay a couple more bucks for something that has, like this is our vitamin toothpaste infused with CoQ10, vitamin B6, vitamin B12. We use an alternative fluoride that's equally effective called hydroxyapatite for adults."

So, you know, for a couple bucks more, which now our line that you see most of the products here are actually either cheaper than the larger brands per ounce or competitive now. So most of our lines are under $10 like the toothpaste. So now you're talking about a dollar or two for what we believe is sometimes substantially a better product experience. Wow, interesting.

And it's something that, like I said, people spend extra five bucks on their avocado toast, extra five bucks on their lattes and extra two bucks on certain things. Even if you're penny pinching, this is something that you're sublingually ingesting every day. It's something that everybody sees. So that was, I think, a big part. And then the other piece, the other part of that answer was, if you look at Harry's, Harry's had a...

margin disruption model. So they're like, hey man, you're paying 25 bucks for a refill. That's crazy. You should be paying a few bucks or whatever it is for a refill. So they had that margin. But the truth is, I don't think anyone in 100 years said, honey, toothpaste is getting, we're cutting back. Toothpaste is getting expensive. We're going to have to brush once a week or once a day. That's never been the elasticity in that market. You can find $1 toothpaste. You can find it maybe for free.

So then you kind of have to choose in that big of a market, what are we going to stand for? And I think that it's really the premiumization, not in terms of just the price point, but really infusing. Over 90% of our products are made in the USA now. How do we infuse vitamins into the toothpaste so that you're ingesting that? How do we create unique products like our veneer paste with Dr. Brian Harris products?

company that we acquired about a year and a half ago and Dr. Harris came on board and said, you know, people with veneers, what do they have to polish their veneers and do that? So we now spun off from that original and become so accessible from a price point perspective that

Some of our top products, right, like our systems are over $100, but everything else is, I would say, between 10 and 50 bucks. So we fall within that line now, but I think in the beginning, we needed something to stand out. We needed to put something together that was competitive enough to go into a dentist. And I think in many ways in the beginning, the price point did stand out a bit. It's like, wow, that's a whole system. That's 150 bucks. Let me see what's included inside of there. So I think the price did give us a competitive advantage early on in social media.

And then I think that also gave us the margin to spend more. If you're only charging five bucks for our two, three bucks for your toothpaste, you can't afford to put certain things in there. CoQ10, B6, B12, you just can't do it. So we think that that eventually over time, oral care will be a hundred billion dollar business by 2030. We believe that there's a percentage in there that's growing of consumers that will spend a buck or two more for something that is along their preferences. Right.

So my social media agency, Elevator Studio, we used to work with some of your competitors. They would spend $100,000 to $500,000 a month with us. Yes. And they would pay Kylie Jenner, Blac Chyna, Scott Disick, et cetera. And they would afford to pay $40,000 for a post, $100,000 for a post, $150,000 for one post and still convert and then reorder over and over and over. It was working. So I know the market's there and they weren't, no offense to them, they just weren't as nice as what Snow is. Yeah.

So when you're making decisions about celebrities or influencers to do partnerships with, I've seen you do things with some household names. Walk us through how you decide who you work with as an endorsement deal, who you work with as actual partnerships with.

That's a great question. I would say endorsement wise, we're looking for I mean, everybody has teeth. So it's like, do we want to go into e-sports a little bit more and be the toothbrush for e-sports? And so we had a lot of these different avatars that we're looking at. Thanks to social media and and and we're you know, we ship our products over 100 countries so we can tap into all those archetypes.

So I think when we're looking for endorsements, we're looking for someone that has niche specialty. So they have five million DIY home improvement followers. So it's like super niche. Is there affinity? You know, is it positive, negative? Do people you know, we work with some we work with people on both sides, all across the range.

And so you work with people that are perhaps controversial. Benefit is sometimes you get the spotlight when it's really hot on that endorsement. The people that we decide to partner with more on a long-term basis, those are people that get what we're doing a little bit more. I think there are

they under they in their mind they're like i want my kids to brush with you know elevated and oral care with birthday cake toothpaste with really good ingredients so i think there's a deeper layer that they first kind of signal to me or someone on the team that say hey we can do the endorsement but like we really like this stuff and like my kids are using it or my wife is obsessed with it she already uses snow so there's usually like some signals that we'll pick up on

And then usually the agents or whoever's managing that deal on their side will kind of back up a little bit and say, okay, let me back up a little bit. Let them play a little bit. Let's maybe meet, let's have a lunch. Maybe they come to the office. And we kind of date in that aspect initially. I think what we're looking for is, for the ones that we partner with long-term,

We love a wide reach. So we love something that we could perhaps run a marketing campaign for a very long time on and it's going to work for the next five years. Someone that's got low risk in terms of being like a huge scandal, which you never know, you know, you're surprised every day, but you say, okay, this person historically has been pretty clean.

Affinity is pretty clean. You're not going to wake up to a crazy press about them. Like someone like a Taylor Swift is an ideal partner, right? She's not a partner today, but someone that has that fandom, the most global reach, huge affinity. There's a lot in there. She makes people smile. That's another thing we look for is like comedians. So do they make

people smile. So we work with comedians, vloggers. We work with a lot of beauty, style, confidence. We work with marriage and weddings. So those are all kind of the endorsement side of things. The partnership side of things are very rare. I would say maybe once a year we're really examining one partner that's like,

They get it. They want to build out a line for maybe nursing moms to use a line of oral care products or for babies. So there's something else that we usually pick up on. And then we ask, is this person, you know, for a five year period, do we think they're going to grow in popularity, decrease in popularity? What projects?

So we try to analyze that and then the last piece, which you're an expert at, is the deal. You know, and kind of just those final pieces. But we've done, you know, tens of millions in those deals. And are there any of these that are actual partnerships already in the past? We've done like we had a big partnership with Amanda Cerny, for example. I think some of these products might have been in that line. But then we kind of moved toward Leo, Dr. Brian Harris. He has close to half a million followers.

He's not 5 million followers or 50 million followers, but he's a dentist and he's a cosmetic dentist. So that's why you'll see his signature on the back here. So we've kind of found areas where some mainstays make sense for like our doctors, some things that make sense for like promotional lines and edits, which kind of like the fashion sites do. So I think we're going to definitely have a, TikTok is a big focus for us now. And one of the areas that we're focused on this year is increasing our macro influencer numbers.

campaigns on TikTok now, just like we do with Instagram and Facebook. We want to come back and do that again with TikTok, with the learnings that we have today. Yeah. All right. So we talked a bit about the making money side and some of the consumer products and price points and things like that. Let's talk about the investing side. Sure. When you think about investing,

Do you just look about the money side or do you look to the founders? Do you want to invest in consumer products and things that you can help? Like walk us through when someone's presenting to Josh Snow, you probably get dozens of offers, if not hundreds of offers, people wanting you to invest. How do you make decisions about what type of things you invest into? So, I mean, it's personalized. I think right now, the most transparent answer is cash on cash returns are prioritized in my portfolio right now.

So if I can hold, so for example, real estate development, sometimes five years, right? I'm an investor in Axia Partners. - Me too. - There's RVs here as well. So like, you know, that's a diversified real estate fund, but that's like a five year, three year you're developing. I think my priority is, is it, so if it's on the investing side, I have about 25 investments that are essentially venture type of investments, angel investments. And those are typically groundbreaking infrastructure type of

advancements. So they have, for example, one of my investments is RichPanel. They do customer support software and they're infusing AI for self-serve ticketing. We've used them in snow for years. They've saved countless hundreds of thousands of dollars on our support side. So that's where I go, well, I believe in e-commerce as a whole. I believe that e-commerce will only grow in the next 20 years.

But instead of betting on every single diaper brand, shoe brand, hair care brand, every single one, I'm not set up to do that today. I think in the future, I'll be able to do even more of that. I've got about 25 today and I've done those one by one myself without a team. And so it's been a lot of work and a lot of money that's kind of millions that are now like seated and the other deployed. So now for my portfolio, I want...

whatever's left and what's coming in. I like to do, for example, any lending, lending businesses are great, right? So Merchant Cash Advanced Investing, we do affordable housing, portfolio investing, affordabelliving.com. So that's kind of the way I thought about it is within 18 months, can I have access to the capital? Can I make 10 plus percent, 15 plus percent now that rates are going up, but from on lending, am I making 16, 17%?

So I think calling back my capital. So I look at now on the investment side for founders, what is the groundbreaking? Is it a me too product? Is it just a, you know, what is the disruptions execution? Is it a product disruption? And if it's not groundbreaking and or I can infuse it into my dialogue on a daily. So something like rich panel, I talked to 6,000 e-commerce founders.

I can naturally recommend something like Rich Panel because I use it, it's in my ecosystem. So the things like that that I understand are a little bit easier, but I'm also recently invested, heavily invested in weed testing. So we have the largest weed testing company here in Arizona, acquired the largest one in Nevada. Incredible owners, they're Mormon, will never smoke anything, they're the cleanest. They build the furniture themselves and I said, you know what?

I think this is the cleanest way for me to invest in this space. And so I think that's another area is who's selling the shovel, who's selling the shovel to people selling the shovel.

And I think that's one of those areas I saw a post this morning on Tama Bravo and how the Brazilian billionaire realized that instead of in their late 90s, they were trying to invest in the next widgets. And they said, well, what if we invested in the layers, the infrastructures instead? And so I think that's where my thesis is today versus where it was maybe a couple of years ago. I was doing a lot more lead generation projects.

equity investing, consumer products, a lot of consumer products. What I found is that just like with snow going into our seventh year, it's very difficult to break out of that

of that sphere inside of CPG because a lot of the big guys have already figured out a lot of these things. They're utilizing Amazon, they're utilizing these advantages. So now it's like, who are you? You gotta be someone either really out of the ordinary for this space, you've got a distribution advantage in Africa or something. So those are the unique ones that usually I can see my money coming back to me on. And then if I recommend that to any of my friends who are accredited investors,

I want to make sure that we're going to get our money back as well. So that's where I'm at today. But I think with an influx of cash over the next few years, I'll become a lot more open on the family office side to do even more venture style stuff. But I think CPG, e-commerce, unless it's that 10% that stands out, it's generally tough to break out of there. And I'm watching for those signals all the time. And there are brands left and right that are breaking out of that ecosphere. And I'm like, dang it, I should have invested.

But you can't invest in them all. No, absolutely not. So outside of investing capital, I also want to talk about investing into yourself. Sure. So a few years ago, you and Lo Silva, you created an e-commerce and digital marketing mastermind. Correct. It's in the $25,000 price range, right? Yeah, $35,000, $40,000. Okay. So $35,000 to $40,000. Why do you think it's important for people to join masterminds, especially the niche masterminds? I love that you have a niche mastermind that focuses on e-commerce and digital ad spend, et cetera. Yes. Walk us through why you created that mastermind.

mastermind and why people should be considering joining masterminds that are in the niche that they're in, whether it's real estate, e-commerce, et cetera. Multiple. I think you should stack them. I mean, it's the quickest way to buy time because you buy network. So, you know, how long, how many years have you known this person that you've built this relationship capital? And then by me joining a mastermind, I get to learn from all the other people's mistakes and their experiences, tap their network with literally a text. I mean, it's,

it's groundbreaking to me the amount of value. And if I had more time, truly, I would continue stacking because I'm in multiple areas. I'm in real estate investing. I'm in this. I'm in this. I'm CPG. So for me, I think the curation of that and we want it to be a small part of that in curating the

what we call like the entrepreneur investor, the digital entrepreneur, the SaaS, e-commerce, someone that is trying to build a brand equity and maybe perhaps sell that brand. At some point we acquired a brokerage last year so that we could teach from that brokerage inside of the mastermind as well. So I would say it's a huge learning shortcut, probably the best learning shortcut.

You have to be smart enough to utilize it too. So you got to come in and say, not in a transactional way, like I'm going to come in and I'm going to meet these three people, but more of I'm going to absorb a few golden nuggets. I'm going to meet a few people that know a few people. It might not be them that have the answer. It might be them who know someone who knows someone. Then it's up to me. And I think that when I'm, everyone I'm saying in terms of entrepreneurship, when you're down building in your cave,

Eric, I'm building snow or I'm building, you know, a null on my haircare line, whatever it is, you know, your head down, you pick your head up. It's important to plug in to the curation. It's one of the reasons why I love going to Costco or I love certain newsletters or websites because they curate for me in the the world of choice and optionality. I can't go to I can't go to coffee every morning with someone new every day. How can I curate that? So to your point, the niche version, like we wanted to create something where it's like, hey,

You built a business, you built it online, maybe it's not just e-commerce, but you built it online and you've made some money now and you want to connect to other people that have done that. And then you also want to figure out what's next. And you're like, maybe I want to sell this thing. And then we have a lot of like agency owners, creators that have gone in as well. But they all share the same commonality of like that digital modern entrepreneur. So I think it's important because it buys time, buys access to connections.

It's great for you, I think, also on a personal level. You gotta make friends. It's hard to make friends as an adult. So it's one of the fast tracks to be like, what's the fastest way to make friends? Well, do you like this? Me too. No way, shared interest together for the whole weekend. It's a niche shared interest mastermind. It's the best money you can spend because you go right to the jugular. And I've made some of my best friends in circulating and being a part of those communities.

And I'm still a part of it. Like I can't ever forget that because once you see the value of unlocking that in one meeting, you can connect those dots. It's almost like I'm an addict. Like I want more of it. I want more access to those. But the nice thing is nowadays they're niche-ified. So you can go and plug in your CPA that runs your own business. There's definitely a couple events for you to plug into. Right.

So we talked about making money. We talked about investing money. We talked about investing into yourself and your connections relationship. Let's talk about giving some money away. Yes. Why do you think it's important for brands or individuals to have a charity component to their life? One, it humbles you. You'll never have enough to give enough. There will always be more to give. There will always be more to serve. So keeps your ego in check. I think that's for me. I think, you know, that's huge. It takes five seconds for me to realize, whoa, that's,

you know, I got a long way to go. Yeah. You know, so that I think that's like transparently one of the strongest reasons too. I don't believe in the traditional notion of let me wait until I have enough. Then I can give it all when I die or, you know,

time is actually the thing I have that's the most valuable, the thing you have the most valuable. And so if I'm able to spend a couple hours at a career day, even though someone else could have done it, for me, I know that one or two hours plus banding together my resources, like you're an expert at doing, hey, we're doing this toy drive, hey, we're doing this. So I think, honestly, I feel responsible. I think there's, to be honest with you, I think I can talk about all the benefits. It makes you feel good. It keeps you humble.

At the end of the day, man, I feel responsible. And when, you know, growing up and we didn't have a lot of money, you know, my parents still gave their last, you know, 20 bucks, et cetera, you know, and I get frustrated sometimes because like I thought I was going to get extra toilet. I thought I was going to get something. But I think there's there's something that never left me about that principle. And I think,

sometimes when I'm having a bad day and I want to give the thing that I want to receive the most. And so I think that I feel responsible for being on this earth to leave it better than the way I came in. And I feel very fortunate to be able to build the companies and be able to build teams and to create jobs and to be able to do so in a facet that I'm able to. And I feel like that's another repayment as well as kind of

paving the way and continue to blaze a trail while I'm alive. Like perfect world, I give away all my money like before I die. It would be perfect to be a part of that impact and change versus waiting to do it. So and then I think at the end of it all, it does add an extra layer of purpose. It's no longer about how can I sell this company for max money? It's never going to be enough to solve all those things. How can you do enough along the way so that no matter what happens, you know that you're making impact.

Last question. When it comes to retail stores and dealing with retailers, whether they're department stores, chain stores, etc., give us the reasoning, the headaches, the good part, the bad part of dealing with retail stores versus online sales. So, you know, my take on it is I always thought direct-to-consumer sales

Was a and is a launch channel. It's a launch method, you know, you have social media You can get straight to the customer but like a lot of those brands that you worked with before that aren't around today that weren't able to catch turn that one product and turn it into a portfolio platform for personal care or occur whatever it is I think that's important, right? So we spent over a hundred million dollars in online advertising just for snow and so I think that

I think that it's important to realize that direct-to-consumer is just one of those channels. So our retail partners are very important to us. Walmart's distribution, CVS, Walgreens, Neiman Marcus, Saks.

That distribution and that hundred years of history where consumers, it even shows the stats are out in a recessive environment. In a recession, people go back to what they know the most. They go back to Amazon.com, what they trust, Target.com. And so the truth is that D2C, you're supposed to use that as a launch channel, get the feedback from the customers, make sure you got product market fit and all of that. But

But then you gotta go to where the customers are. And today, personal care, 16% of personal care purchases happen online. In 2030, 40% will. That's different than like an iPhone cable. If your iPhone cable shorts, you immediately hop online to do it. I think, you know, we're in Best Buy, for example. We built that category with them. It was fun and exciting. So I think that it's another responsibility, actually, of the brand to be in distribution that accommodates your target customer.

That's not just your website. There's no way that your website's gonna be the best thing all the time. If someone's already on Amazon and they can add it with Prime and get a little discount on it and use their Prime credits or whatever, you're not gonna beat that. So I think once you figure out the D2C, then it becomes a retail. And I would say it's up and down in terms of hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. We're about to get in, then we gotta wait for a new line shift. You put the products out, see how they do, then you gotta get the next line shift.

versus D to C is like swap out this package, swap out this package. - Swap out, let's go. - So it's a whole different world. I will say don't let retail run your business. You have to know your business well enough to understand how it's gonna make the best sense for those retailers. And then the second thing, the last thing I would say that I've learned is what's one thing to sell into a retailer, it's another thing to sell through a retailer. - Exactly. - And what you wanna do is you wanna make sure that, and that's something we focus on is,

Who cares if they only have three products of our line? If those are the things that are selling through, that's what's making money for everybody. The customers are saying that's what they want to buy there. They might not want to buy the veneer paste at CVS. They might want to buy that at Neiman Marcus. And so I think that that's really the answer to retail is, and it's lucrative over time. It's a snowball that rolls. And if you do it right, it becomes a very lucrative brand builder. Your customer acquisition costs drops online. You start to see this effect because people go, oh, it is a real company, you know?

Ladies and gentlemen, make sure you follow Josh Snow across social media, especially on Instagram. He has great content. He travels around the planet. It's really fun to watch all of his escapades, all of his investments, portfolio companies, his own partnerships with celebrities, etc. Check out Josh across social media. He obviously has his e-commerce and digital mastermind. If you want to slide into the DMs and talk about his masterminds, because I think you have like 150, 200 members in those. Yeah, it's capped at 200. We have about 150 now. Yep. So we have our one request at the end of each episode.

It's very important because we all grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. And as you know, I think it's very rude to not talk about money. So that's why we created the Money Mondays. We also have the MoneyMondays.com where we do our weekly calls, our weekly Zoom calls. You can interact and do Q&A live with me. But you've got to have these discussions with people, your friends, your family, your followers. You've got to talk about money, apartments, leases, why you're paying so much on your cell phone or your car, your rent. Should I lease or buy? You've got to have these discussions because if you don't talk about salary or you don't ask these questions,

You might not get paid what you're supposed to get paid. You might overpay on the things that you shouldn't overpay for. You might borrow money or loan money to friends and then you have these awkward things because you just don't know what to do. Have the discussions with your friends, families, and followers. Post Money Mondays across social media. Have discussions and we will see you next Monday. Talk to you soon. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a very special edition of the Money Mondays. I have my co-host here, the real Tarzan. Rawr!

Actually, I should probably do like lion sounds or snake sounds whenever I talk about Tarzan. We have the actual mayor of Miami here. Some people think that Francis Suarez, the mayor, he's not the mayor. I'm talking about the actual mayor of Miami. Way before Mr. Suarez.

Actually, I'm proud of Suarez. I think he's done a great job making the city level up. He has done a fantastic job. I mean, bringing people over from New York and California to move during the pandemic. Yeah. Very smart. Big. Venture capital.

Big hedge funds out here. I think it was a chance from Miami. However, we have the real mayor in town. All right. So can we call it the Miami money Mondays? Can we call it that? The Miami money? Can we hear, you know, triple M's baby. All right. So the way that money works, we talk about three topics. How do people make money? How do they invest money and how do they help give it away to charity? Well, yeah.

But first, we'd like to get your background, get your bio. So give us the two-minute version of I.R.E., and then we're going to get straight to the money. All right, cool. Wow, two-minute version. That's going to be great. Listen, I'm just a kid that was in love with music, right? And sometimes people find their career path. Other times their career path falls on their head. Mine fell on my head. Like I said, I was collecting records. There's always a girl.

There was this girl that I had a huge crush on, right? I had records all over my room. She ended up coming to my house one day, seeing the records all over my room, went crazy, was like, "Oh my gosh, look at all these records.

You're a DJ. I love DJs. I'd never DJ today in my life. I just collected records, right? And I was like, of course I'm a DJ. And proceeded to tell about all the greatest parties that I never did, right? I was like, that time I did Eddie Murphy's bar mitzvah. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. You heard of New Year's Eve? You're welcome. I invented it, you know what I mean? You're welcome. Marty girl, you're welcome.

But for real, and I ran with it. She ended up telling her dad that, you know, she met this amazing DJ and her dad called me to do their New Year's Eve party. Wow. Speaking of New Year's, right? And luckily, you know, I'm blessed with some talent and that is being able to just like, you know, read a room and have a deep vocabulary of music. And I ended up

doing a decent job somehow, right? It wasn't really DJing. It was playing good tunes. Two different things, right? And that opened the door because her dad ended up being the GM of Planet Hollywood. Oh, okay. Right, this is when Planet Hollywood was the biggest thing ever, right? And he called me to do that thing I did at their house at Planet Hollywood. And things kind of went from there. So, you know, I sit here, you know, with you guys today. I am the...

your first official team DJ, right? So I started with the Miami Heat in the '99, 2000 season, three rings later, I should have bought them for you guys, man. - '99 season. - Yeah, '99, 2000, right? - Awesome. - It's funny because when I got there, actually when I asked for the meeting, I asked them, "Well, how do they do it in LA? "How does their, what does their DJ do?"

They don't have one. Well, how do they do it in the NFL? How do they do it in baseball? They do their research. There was no archetype. Wow. Right? No one had done it before. And so I was like, all right, I have to like, I got to make this work or I'm going to ruin it for a lot of people. Right? And thank God we did put on, you know. Yeah.

Yeah, then after that, just like I got into radio and next thing you know, I'm touring like all over the country and then I'm taking the show international, touring with Jamie Foxx, of course, you know, that's my brother right there. And it's been an amazing ride. And then, you know, really focusing back on Miami, I wanted to kind of build a property where, you know,

I can take all the tools, you know, in my in my in my toolbox and say, hey, let me help, you know, the youngsters in Miami. So I created Ivy Weekend, you know, and the Ivy Foundation, so on and so forth, you know. And here we are, Miami Money Mondays, baby. Yeah, yeah. So we're going to get to Ivy Weekend, Ivy Foundation at the end of the podcast. That's when we talk about the charity. Yeah, sure. Let's talk about the making money part. Yep.

How can DJs, when they first get started, do they got to work for free at first just to get some street cred? What do they do to start making money? And then how much do they start charging? How do they choose? 500 bucks? 1,000 bucks? What do they charge? Yep. I'm going to tell you two things, right? Well, number one is you do whatever you have to do, right? Number two, that saying, fake it till you make it, is so real, okay? And so first thing, doing whatever you have to do.

I wanted to DJ on Miami Beach. I was doing stuff in Coconut Grove, I was doing stuff on the outskirts, but the Miami Beach is the mecca of nightlife. I really wanted to. - We're parked here right now. - Exactly, right? My first opportunity to DJ on Miami Beach, this promoter said, "Hey, you know what? "I'm gonna give you a shot. "I'm doing a new club. "I have a little side room, "and I have a lot of people that wanna hear hip hop, "so I'll let you play in that room."

I go, great. He goes, but I have a $500 budget. I go, that's $500 more than I was making before, right? Now here's the catch. I say, yes, I'm all in. I go over there. It's literally a room, four walls, no equipment, no lights, no nothing. I had to bring everything. Oh, no. So here I am thinking I'm going to make $500. Oh, my God. Okay. A couple grand.

I'm thinking of making $500, right? Now I have to go get the equipment. The equipment alone, and by the way, my friend hooked me up for $900. Okay? I needed help to bring it there. I needed to get lights. At the end of the day, I'm in for $1,500.

So now I'm performing from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Seven hours? There's no opener back then. What is an opener? What is that? A can opener? What is an opener? A closer? What is a closer? It's you go and you do the job. Wow. Right? And I was doing it with glee. Right. Because this was my opportunity. Right. And I did it for about a month and a half. A month and a half in, there were so many people

trying to get into that room, the momentum shifted from the main room, they were playing kind of like retro and freestyle and all that kind of stuff, to wanting to be in that hip hop room. The promoter said to me, I'm going to do you a favor. I'll let you play in the main room for a little bit. I was like, are you now? Well, okay. Sure. What's your offer? He's like, no, no, no, I'm just going to switch you to the main room. By the way, you don't have to bring the equipment anymore. I was like,

You're doing me the biggest favor ever. I'm happy to if you pay me $2,500. There we go. Oh, I love that story. I thought he was going to say, okay, I'll do it for the same price. I said, you're going to pay me $2,500? He said, are you crazy? I paid you $500. I said, listen, I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. That week he didn't call me. And guess what? All those people that come to the club say, hey, where's he at? The week after that,

I had my 2500. And that went on for months and months. So I invested in myself, I believed in myself, what they would have to do. - And stood my ground. - Stood my ground. The other quick story is, on the next part, think until you make it as a real thing. Because image is everything, right?

I got a call. At that point in time, the most I'd ever made in one night, most ever, was maybe five grand, like on New Year's Eve or something, which was huge. I mean, it's good money anytime, anywhere, right? But I made five grand. This is way back in the day, right?

I get a call. This is when the Versace mansion first was sold, right? And I'm going to let the cat out the bag because there are some people still around that can see this big, this mofo, right? But you guys are the first ones hearing this story. So I had...

One of my best friends, his dad owned a construction company. And this was when the 500SL, that candy red 500SL convertible was the hottest thing out. People were waiting to get that. Not everybody could even get it. My friend's dad had one and he would drive it to school every now and then. I mean, baller status. And that was my guy. I get a call from the new owners of the Versace mansion.

And they say, "Hey, we've been hearing a lot of good things about you. We'd like to meet with you about a Halloween party." Which is basically their opening party, because now it's going to be a private club. I said, "Oh man, let's do it." And I said, "Damn." At that time, I had a Honda Accord. With rims, but it's still a Honda Accord. With the sound system, but it's still a Honda Accord. Right? I had this Honda Accord. And I'm like, "Wait a minute. How am I going to pull up

to the Versace mansion in this Honda Accord. - And Uber doesn't exist. - There's no Uber, right? I was like, "Damn, what am I gonna do?" I said, "Let me call my boy." I said, "Bro, here's the deal. "I gotta go down here. "I need to really pull up." - No way. - Right? So you know what he does? He gets his dad's car, we drive to the beach, he goes to get lunch and lets me drive up to, right? - No. - So I drive up, right?

But guess what? They had to see the car. It's not about getting in the car. They got to see it, right? So you know if Valley is right there, so I call up and say, hey, where do I park? Valley is right there. I'm like, ugh. I...

I don't see it. Can you come on? I'm on the way. I'm coming. I'm in a red car. I'm coming, right? This is a guy that works right under the new owner, right? So he comes out and he's looking. I'm like, I'm right here, right? And he's like, I'm like, hey, what's up, man? He's like, oh, yeah, park right here. Like, keep it right up front, right? So he's like, did you just get this? I was like, just got it.

He was like, it's amazing, right? So I hop out. I hop out. Go in. We're having the meeting, right? Great meeting. Time to get to the business. That meant it's myself, the owner, and the guy that got me who's working for the owner, right? It's three of us in the room, right? So I was like, well, hey, we'd love to have you. What's your rate?

The guy that went out and got me stopped me and goes, you know, Peter, I don't know if we can afford him. Given by what he's driving, this guy makes some real money. And he was like, wait a minute. What do you drive? He was like a candy red 500 SL. He's like, I'm trying to order one. I'm trying to order. I can't get it.

He's like, you already have it? And I was like, I already have it. I'll show it to you downstairs. He's like, man, wow, Kim, you already got it. And I was like, you got to know people, you know? So anyway, he's like, well, look, man, hopefully we can afford you. He's like, our budget's 50K. If that doesn't work, you know, we'll go back. I go, inside, I'm like, oh, God! Right?

I'm literally exploding inside, right? And I'm like, it took everything for me to be like, maybe a car payment or two. You know? Right? And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, listen, man, you know, I came all the way down here. I really like you guys. I understand you're working with a limited budget. Limited budget. I almost said unlimited, right? But I said, you know what? You guys plan on doing other events, right? He goes, yeah, we do a lot of stuff. I said, listen, let's shake hands because we do a lot of stuff together and we'll make it work.

He grabs me, give me the biggest hug. He goes, let's go out and look at the car. I go out, show him the car. I don't know how to open the hood. I don't know how to open nothing, right? I'm like, gotta go. But yo, from 5,000 to 50,000, why? Because I looked the part. I looked the part, right? And that was a big eye-opener. That was a big, big, big eye-opener because think about it as, you know,

A lot of times value is perception. Yeah. Right. You got to deliver. You got to deliver, but to even get through the door sometimes or, or have that conversation on a high level, you have to make sure that perception is right because that's something you can control. You can't control everything, but you can definitely control how you're perceived, you know?

So yeah, hopefully you get some lessons from that. Always pull up in a five-minute SL to your first meeting. So the Night Live game is very competitive. Yeah.

the sports game, the nightlife game, the entertainment game, the music game. These are some of the most competitive, if not the most competitive industries in the space. How do you navigate dealing with the different characters along the way to decide what I'm going to charge, who I want to work with, if I'm going to get booked in Miami or should I do LA or should I do Vegas? There's so many options, especially as you get to your status. How do you decide which venues, which cities, et cetera? Is it relationships or what is it? It is relationships, but you know what? More than anything, it's credibility, right?

It is credibility in that, number one, you have to realize you're not ever going to please everyone. You can't be all things to everyone. You have to understand your lane. You have to understand where you fit in and stay true to that. And part of that credibility is sometimes saying no. Part of the credibility is if you say yes,

It's yes. It's yes. You better get there somehow. And you better get there, right? And it's not about, it's yes contingent on if something better comes in. It's yes contingent on, you know. No. You have to have that credibility, right? So, and it is, it is, it's a jungle out there, man. For sure. Right? It's a lot of politics. It's a lot of politics, but...

If you first truly define and understand your brand, right, and curate your brand, you don't do things that don't line up with your brand. You just don't because it's just not about the money. It's not about, if you're truly, truly your brand and trying to build a brand, you have to stay within that lane. Don't let anything let you deviate from that. That's extremely, extremely important, right? If it's something that is on brand,

You've got to think big because the money might not all be there, right? There might be other shortcomings, but in the long run, the people you'll meet there, right? The exposure you'll get, right? There are so many other intangibles that can propel you in the long run. You have to be smart enough to have that vision to know, okay, well, it's not always about money, right? Um,

And you have to curate the relationships. You can't expect to get super far in this game and just be transactional. You cannot be transactional. Because at the end of the day, the clients that you're going to work with are going to want to work with two things. They want to work with talent, great talent, that's going to come and get the job done. But guess what? There's a lot of great talent out there. There's a lot of great talent. So what's the next thing?

They got to like you, they got to like you, right? They got to be, you know what, that's the one I want to be around. That's the one I haven't seen in a while, I want to see him again. Because the job is going to get done, right? There's a lot of people that can do the job, but you don't want to be around everybody, right? Who is someone that you actually like to spend time with, that you can carry a great conversation with, right? So when you check both of those boxes, you're truly setting yourself up for success.

The nightclub game is also very competitive. You know, nightclubs come and go. There's very few brands that have lasted the test of time. Obviously, we're parked next to Live Nightclub. Yep. Pretty much the longest running nightclub that exists, right? Yep. Outside of like Tao. Yeah, of course. Not many other places that have been around for decades. Of course. What is it, do you think, that makes for a Tao group, a Hakkasan group,

obviously grutman running the miami world like what is it that makes a nightclub stay consistent for so many years because most nightclubs fade away after one to three years absolutely absolutely i mean listen i i can definitely speak for the history of nightlife in miami um

This business is not for everybody. Okay? It is a very cutthroat, ruthless game. Yeah, I said it. Okay? You got to play two games. The first game you got to play

is delivering an amazing experience, an amazing product. Right? Like, people have choices, right? If people have choices, people gotta say, "Wow, this is where it's at. This is where I need to be." Right? While at the same time, you're playing defense.

Because a lot of people come in and see, wow, look at these numbers. We want a piece of that. Sure. Right. So how do you protect what you've built? Yeah. Right. So you're playing defense. Right. Trying to marginalize competition. Right. While also delivering the best product you can deliver. Anyone that has that kind of staying power has mastered both. Right.

Right? Yeah. By any means necessary sometimes. Yeah. Because a lot of players have come in this town. I've seen a lot of people try to come in Miami. A lot of players have come in this town, you know, and want, I mean, sometimes you gotta do the, you know, the Heisman. You gotta, you know what I'm saying? And it's just a fact. Yeah. It's just a fact, you know?

So, yeah, the key is delivering a great product and playing damn good defense. Because when you think about certain cities like in Boston, you know that big night, they run it, right? Randy Greenstein and that crew, they run it. They run it. They own 17 venues. Yeah. And I can't name any other one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they crush it. And they deliver a great product night in and night out. You go to Vegas and Jason Strauss and that squad. Literally. Noah Teppenberg. These guys own. Literally own it.

All of them. Absolutely. Right. Outside of access and a couple of clubs. There's a handful they don't. Right. And then they went global. Yeah. And now they're in, I can't even count how many cities and countries. They're just incredible operators. Incredible operators. True businessmen, but really incredible operators. And you have to be, because the margins are so competitive. You know, you have to be a really competitive, a really, really amazing operator. And the high end clientele, you know, since we're talking on the Money Mondays. Yep.

People are going to be spending a lot of money. Yeah. You're spending... So you've got to deliver. You're spending $5,000 for a table, $10,000 for a table, $20,000 for a table, $30,000 for a table, $50,000 for a table. The experience has to be on parity, right? You've got to feel like... Because remember, this is night in and night out. Not like... A one-off. Not a one-off. There are folks, every Memorial weekend, they're there. Right. Every fight, they're there. Every other holiday or sometimes...

It's every month. They just have to be there. $20,000 for a table. Exactly. So they're delivering something where that allure is so high that they're willing to say, hey, you know what?

I got my money's worth, right? And I'm going to be back. So I'm going to do it again. That's why the business is sustainable. - Because they could take their 20,000 to any other nightclub and drink the exact same Grey Goose. - Exactly. - It's exactly the same. - Exactly. Hear great music, but it is, it's a holistic experience. It's everything, you know, from you walk through the door to your exit, it's that entire experience. They deliver.

Tarzan, what makes you decide where you want to go? Because you travel all over the world, right? So when you're not in the forest or in the jungle or wrestling with snakes or tigers or alligators, you do go out sometimes, right? When you feel like letting loose, letting your hair down, how do you decide? I'm going to go to see Lil Wayne perform at this club over here. I'm going to go see Rick Ross perform over here. I'm going to see Diddy over here or DJ Khaled over here.

the entertainers there are a lot of choices but what is it I think is the driving force that make a club hot to you or venue hot to you well I mean you know we're traveling believe it or not I don't go out at all when I travel um because I've been spoiled in Miami you know yeah that's true yeah it's like

There's no live nightclub over here. There's nothing like partying in Miami, anywhere else around the world. One, when you party outside in international, it's actually dangerous. It's actually dangerous. Because they see you with money. Right, absolutely. I think the last time I went out was maybe three years ago in Brazil. I went out and I was like, man, during the carnival, I'm going to go have... I'm a black cow. I'm going to get drunk with the boys.

And when we go hard, we go hard. - Yes sir. - When we go hard here, we go hard here. - Yep, yep, yep. - But we're in Miami, this is our backyard. - Yep, yep. - But I mean, the vibe's gotta be right, man. And being in Miami, partying here, I go to Live, I go to Eleven, I love Eleven. - That was amazing. - I'll go to certain house parties on Star Island for Halloween or New Year's, it's like, ain't nothing like a Diddy party. - True. - There's nothing like it. So these vibes, the vibes gotta match. And I go to a party,

And if I've been right, I'm leaving like in five minutes. I'm out. - That's right. - Music ain't right, I'm out. - You know what I'm saying? - You've been out before you even valet the car. - Right. - The car's still there. - I walk in, I'm like, ah, this ain't it. The ratio ain't right. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I'm good, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, that's how it is, man. - It's a delicate act when you really get it right. It's amazing. But I mean, people walk into a party, the first thing they're thinking is, you know, obviously they get the drinks and have fun.

but it's this whole orchestrated machine. You know what I mean? That before this not even happened, all the meetings, you know what I mean? Understanding, hey, what girls are gonna be there, right? Setting the vibe for the big spenders. I mean, it's everything. How many people can need to, as filler and all that.

All these things, you know, and you have that perfect balance that you when you walk in, you're like, yeah, this is it. You know, it truly is an amazing skill. You know, people that really get it right. They're the ones that are the major players are, you know. So a lot of entrepreneurs out there or entrepreneurs out there that think they want to be an entrepreneur, they want to open up restaurants and nightclubs. Yeah.

Some of them want it for ego, some of them want it for cool factor, some of them want it because they couldn't get into a nightclub or restaurant, now this is like their way to come out.

But for the most part, most restaurants and nightclubs, the founders raise capital to open those clubs. It's very few times. I really rarely ever hear that someone self-funds a nightclub or restaurant. Very, very, very few. Even the really wealthy people. It's really rare. A lot of times, those are the ones that fail, to be honest with you. But go ahead. Because they're like an ego project or a passion project. Exactly. So let's walk through.

I've invested into nightclubs and restaurants before. Most of the time I turn it down only because they're a heavy cash business and there's a lot of people making a lot of money before it gets to the company, to the actual company bank account. There's just a lot of cash involved. But overall, restaurants and nightclubs can do extremely well. So I'm not saying you can't invest in them, but I pass on a lot of them simply because I know the trickle-down effect of a lot of the cash. So there's something called a FIFO, first in, first out. So a FIFO structure for a restaurant or nightclub is, let's say...

Irie is going to open a new nightclub and he's going to raise $5 million for a nightclub. Not in Miami. You'd need a lot more than that. Let's just say he's ready $5 million for a nightclub and I want to put in $200,000. Tarzan wants to put in $200,000 in a FIFO structure. First in first out means we both put in 200,000 each. We give to Irie. He's going to open this nightclub. He's going to raise the other 4.6 million from other people. What happens is he can choose a percentage anywhere from 50% to 80% is the normal number.

And as that nightclub's making money, so let's say that nightclub starts doing a million a month. Irie's crushing it. He knows everybody. There's Jamie Foxx. There's Diddy Little Wayne. Irie's crushing it. He's doing a million dollars a month. And it's netting $300,000 a month. From that $300,000 a month, he will now offer to pay 80% of that, which is $240,000. And that $240,000 will get split pro rata amongst all of us that put up the $5 million. Right.

until we get back our $5 million. So I get my $200K, Tarzan gets back his $200K. Once that $5 million is paid back through the first infrastructure, we then split to a normal percentage of what we actually invested.

So our $200,000, let's say, is worth two points. Five points would be great. Thank you. That's a great deal. So let's say it's worth two points. Now, as he's still doing a million dollars a month, now our percentage is the two points, but we're free rolling. We're risk-free. Here's why that happens in a lot of restaurant nightclub deals, because they are high risk. And even though Irie's had success for two decades and he knows this guy, that guy, and he's going to make the best club,

nightclubs are a high risk. And so to reduce our risk as investors, let's say it failed after a year and a half. At least we got back one hundred and twelve thousand of our two hundred K. Yeah. Right. A lot of investments that don't do that. If it fails after a year and a half, we get back zero. We get back nothing. It's on a first in first out structure. Keep that in mind. If you guys are ever thinking about either raising for a restaurant nightclub, you will reduce the risk for your shareholders and it's more fair to them. Absolutely.

Or you're going to want to invest into a restaurant nightclub, which is very appealing because you want to feel like an owner of a nightclub. A lot of times there's like 62 owners of a nightclub. Yeah. We'll talk about that next. This is a way to reduce your risk that you may be doing it as a vanity investment or to meet people in a city. You might move to a new city, throw in 25K, 50K, 100K, 200K into a restaurant, and it allows you to meet a lot of people, which is interesting. It will reduce your risk if you guys think about what's called a FIFO. First in, first out. Yep.

I mean, would you ever open your own property? No, absolutely not. But what I would do and what I do actually do is scope out really amazing operators. Yep. Right? Yep. And secure a small piece. There you go. Right? Yep. And I'd rather do that with...

four or five operators, right? Different cities, mix it up. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then I can leverage, you know, my other, my tools, you know? So whether it be celebrity relationships, right? Whether it be, you know, influencers, you know, to come in and, you know, frequent. Make the place hot. Exactly. You know, that's,

That's my approach. So what I was talking about is angel investing into a business or trading value for equity. So you have a couple options. So if you have talent or experience in a industry, so let's say someone's opening up pet shops. Well, Tarzan, I get 200 million views a month. I'm Tarzan. Not only will I invest $100,000 into your business, but I want an extra $100,000 for free because I'm

I'm the real Tarzan. Exactly. Right? I'm going to make you famous. I have intrinsic value. So if Irie can make them famouser and introduce them to Jamie Foxx and Diddy to come perform at a discount, he's basically a free deal for them because if he's going to invest $100K into their nightclub, get them Diddy and Jamie Foxx at a discount, his $100K is...

Right. I've already paid for yourself. Right. It's already done for a venue that's going to be there for three years, four years, five years, 10 years. Absolutely. Blah, blah, blah. So keep that in mind, guys. If you are an expert in a category, you own gyms and someone who wants to do a gym, you can probably get a discount as your investment or trade your expertise for equity. If you're in the real estate game, someone wants to open a mortgage broker office, you can trade for equity. So what I was talking about and charge in the example of a pet store or a pet brand, for example, if you were really good at something and this is important, this is really good.

If you can get really good at something, people will trade you equity and money in exchange for your skills and brain. Absolutely. Absolutely. So study. Get really good at things. Okay. So we talked a bit about making money. Now let's talk about investing money. So on the investing side, whether you're investing into a nightclub, restaurant, brands, et cetera, how do you decide what you also put your – I'm going to say for both of you guys – put your brand attached to? Because if you invest into a new cookie, a new beverage, a new energy drink, a new vodka, tequila, et cetera –

It's not just your 50k, 100k, 200k check. It's you. - Exactly. - How do you decide what you put your face behind? - I mean, listen, brand alignment is something that is super important to me. And for me, more important than anything is to be authentic, right? So my first question to myself, is this a product that I would use? This is a product that I would go out and buy, right? This is a product that I would be seen out and about with regardless. It has to be yes.

If I can't answer that question honestly with a yes, then there's no way, there's no way it can work because you're not gonna fully embrace it. So that's my first litmus test. And then from there, it goes back to that authenticity. Is this something that organically fits into my lifestyle?

We all have our own attributes. When I first started to gain an audience and was looking for brand partners, the ones that came totally opposite before, I was a big Heineken drinker. So I'd be in the booth with a bottle of Heineken, and I was like, wait a minute.

we should be doing something here. Right? I always wore hats. Not wearing one right now because I got a fresh cut. You know what I'm saying? But you know what I'm saying? If I didn't, you know, I'd have my hat on. Right? And I had a partnership with New Era. So, because that's on brand. Right. It's authentic. Right? You know, T-shirts. Yeah. But like, you know what it is? But that's what I'd be doing anyway. Right. Right? That's what I'd be doing anyway. You know? So,

Those are my litmus tests. And if your product passes all those things, then it's for me. And I can get fully behind it. So Ciroc Vodka, De Leon Tequila, what do you like? Absolutely. I mean, I'm definitely a Ciroc and De Leon guy. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to my boy Diddy. Hey, what up, bub? But, you know, it's just...

It's quality too. You want to get behind quality products with quality people with a quality message. I respect people's grind and hustles and I see what, for instance, Turok and Deleon, what they did to get everything from the ground up. And I support it. And it tastes good. That definitely helps. Turok peach is delightful. Oh my. Watermelon Turok with some watermelon lemonade or simply lemonade? Yes, sir. Oh my. That's like the best one-two punch ever.

ever in alcohol history. I think you could call it the one-two punch. Very dangerous. That's a Mike Tyson punch right there for sure. As my taste started to elevate, and I graduated from beer, I was presented with an opportunity to partner on a spirit. It's called Provocativa. It's a cava, which is like a champagne. But

I love it, right? Like I drink it on ice with some fruit, you know, and that's my thing. So that partnership came really natural. Like that's what I do. I'm not a big drinker at home, but like, you know, on a Sunday, chilling or whatever, guess what? I'm doing my provacativo, a little ice, a little fruit in there, and I'm chilling, you know? It's a little weekend vibe. But that's what I was doing before that opportunity came up, you know? So it's organic.

It's natural. And I feel like I'm being true to myself. So it's easy. It's easy to support something like that. Last segment is about charity. You have Irie Weekend, the Irie Foundation. I've been to it. I love watching what you do with it. Thank you, brother. How do you attract so much talent to come out there year after year? Because they're coming out because of you. Yeah. And why did you start it? What's it for? What does it all mean? Yeah. Okay. Well, the first part, here's the thing.

The biggest lesson, probably the biggest lesson today, don't ever be afraid to ask. Do not be afraid to ask. A closed mouth doesn't get fed. And guess what? If you don't ask, the answer is already no. It's already no. You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised if you ask, depending on how you ask, what you're asking for. But

It's natural for people to want to help, right? Especially people that have the capacity, right? It's a way for them to feel good. It releases like positive endorphins. Like, wow, I've helped somebody, right? I can help someone just by showing up, right? I can help somebody just by being present. It's not a very heavy lift if you really think about it, right? So my approach to this was, well,

I've done a lot for a lot of people. I've had a lot of people call me and say, hey, man, I'm raising money for this or hey, I'm supporting this cause. And my attitude towards it is if it's physically possible, if it's possible, then it's yes. If I can, I can. It's life. But if I can...

then I will, right? And if you put that goodwill out there, it actually does come back because when I did decide to do Ivy weekend, right? And that's part of the motivation was I'm seeing how much good a lot of other people are doing. And there's some things that I was concerned about, right? You know, I was, I was doing stuff with special Olympics, you know, make a wish, big brothers, big sisters, all of them doing really amazing stuff.

But I had an experience where I went to Edison High School here in Miami at the time. It was, you know, that was a tough school. There was a lot of issues going on there. And they called me asking if I wanted to be a teacher for a day. And at first I was like, I don't know. Right. But I was like, you know what? If I can reach one kid, you know, going over there, then I'm all in. So I went down there and it was a really interesting day. But my biggest takeaway was this.

Edison High School is literally less than 12 minutes from where we are right now. Right. It's just over the bridge. And this one young man, before I left the class, stopped me and asked me where I lived. I said, I live right over the bridge on Miami Beach. And he asked me,

do I ever go to the beach? Like, has my feet been in the sand? And I was like, well, I travel a lot. I don't really get to go that much. But yeah, of course. I'm like, bro, wait, wait, wait. You've been to the beach, right? He's like, nah, man. This kid was a senior. He had never been to, he lives in Miami. Right. You're surrounded by it. Less than 12 minutes. Yeah. And he's never, he's never, he hasn't been off of his block. Right.

And I was like, damn. So it clicked me. I said, wait a minute. How can we, how can I go in there and tell this young man, work hard in school, right? And get a scholarship. You can go wherever you want to go and be anything you want to be. Think about it for a second. How can we, how can I in good faith tell him to do that when he's going to go to FSU? He goes to FSU, whatever, right? And he gets in, he gets in the dorm and

And all the other kids are talking about all the amazing things they did over the summer. All the amazing trips that they took and they went skiing and they went to the lake and went to all these things. And all he could talk about is what happened on his block. That inferiority complex really kicks in. You don't feel like you belong. You don't feel, you feel out of place.

And we want everyone to feel in place. We want everyone to have at least the basic experiences of going to the beach, right? Seeing a game, right? Just the things that really help shape you as a young individual with some perspective of the world that's out there, right? And that was really the premise of the IRE Foundation project.

are these experiences kind of leveling the playing field, right? And then from there, we've gone on to do scholarships. We've given kids cars, right? You know, all of these things to just really get them and their families, you know, in a good place and in a position to succeed, you know? So that was really the angle that I wanted to take.

And every weekend was the vehicle, was the fundraising vehicle, you know, to be able to execute, you know, those programs. - Wow, that's fantastic. - Amazing. - Yeah. So, you know, when I started calling the,

Dwayne Wade's the Shacks the you know Alonzo mornings the Jamie Foxx's you know it was yes yes yes I'll be there 100% no problem I got you and it was it was overwhelming to be honest with you but then you stop and you figure out wow you know what I've had their back they're happy to have my back and that's that's I believe that's how it's supposed to be you know ladies and gentlemen you've just listened to the official mayor of Atlanta

here on the Miami Monday special edition. Come on, man. We're parked out here in the parking lot right next door to the fountain. Parking lot pimpin', baby. So make sure you follow The Real Tarzan. Make sure you follow at I-R-I-R-I-E. Now, we do have one favorite request. A lot of us grew up thinking that it's rude to talk about money. The whole point of the Money Mondays podcast, the Miami Monday podcast,

is we want to spread the word that it is rude to not talk about money. We do want to talk about leases, apartments, rent, how much money to make, how to invest, how to do things, how to raise capital and everything in between. Because if you don't have that information, we're going to keep being in this society where people don't know what to do. They go into financial debt, they get into credit card debt and have crises simply because of the discussion

didn't happen. So go out there, spread the word about money. If you like an episode, obviously the episode here with Irie, spread it with your friends, share it during the nightclub restaurant game. They should definitely listen to that segment about how to raise capital and how to deal with a first in first out structure. We're here with Tarzan, Irie. We'll see you guys soon. Peace.