From Beats to Business ft. Clinton Sparks | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby Ep. 56

26:18What's it feel like to improve on your life? You're selling a feeling. That's what you're doing. And once you can understand the feeling people need to feel or the void that you can fill with the right feeling, you can sell anything to anybody, man. And that's why a lot of scam artists get away with it because they understand how to play on people's feelings. That's why there's a show called American Greed. Because people are like, oh, this investment. What are they feeling? I'm going to have a better life. I'm going to have no more financial worries. Everything, music, clothes, everything you're selling, you're not selling clothes.

26:49You're selling confidence. You're selling how you're going to feel when you walk out. When you're selling music, you're selling a feeling. Everything is a feeling, man. Yeah, especially, I mean, homeownership is an absolute feeling. I mean, we sell the American dream here. Hardly nobody walks into their new house or their first house or buys a house and says, sure did a good deal. Those numbers were right. Nobody does that. They walk in. Can you believe this is our home? Yeah. Can you believe we made this happen? Can you believe that Joe helped us make this happen? You gave them a feeling. Yeah.

27:21The funny thing about our industry is nobody wants the mortgage, but everybody wants the house. Right. Nobody wants a mortgage. because what is a mortgage? The same thing. It's like, have you ever seen somebody going, I really need that student debt right now. We sell debt. I mean, no one's ever said, I really wish they'd create a league where people slap the shit out of each other. But you just go there for the feeling of camaraderie and culture and excitement and fanfare. Now, you're in several industries. You're in the music industry. You're an entrepreneur. You're in the gaming industry as well.

27:54Yep. By the way, in the gaming industry, What games are you producing? I don't produce games. So I'm glad you asked this question because there's a stigma and a confusion around the gaming industry, which is the fastest growing form of entertainment in the world. Gaming industry. I mean, my kids are on Fortnite. And that's typically what every parent would say. I know, man. My kids are doing this. It's like it's bigger than just your kids doing that. As I said, it's the fastest growing form of entertainment in the world, makes more money than the movie and music industries combined. and is projected to make over$500 billion by 2027.

28:29The problem is most people think they need to game to be in the gaming business. But you don't have to be an actor to be in the movie-making business. You don't have to be an athlete to be in the sports business. You don't have to be a rapper to be in the music business. You don't have to be a gamer to be in this amazing business. Oh, I know. It's amazing. I mean, Mark Zuckerberg's in it, right? He started Meta all around gaming. There's so many celebrities. I mean, the average gamer is 34 years old now. So people still think it's like a 16-year-old thing that they're playing Minecraft or something.

29:01But how many fiancés and husbands get yelled at by the wives of their girls because they've got headsets on playing Call of Duty? Happens all the time, right? And these kids are going to grow. And they're going to continue to play gaming because it's becoming a bigger and bigger business. It's a tangible career. Colleges give scholarships for gaming now. 46 % of them don't even get claimed because they don't even know that it's a thing. The future engineers are gamers. It teaches strategy, leadership, camaraderie. Studies show that it helps with depression. And I'll tell you what, you can become successful 10 times faster being a gamer or being in the gaming industry than you can trying to be an athlete dribbling a basketball for 15 years.

29:38Well, that gives me some hope. So how many hours should I let my kids play Minecraft today? I mean, maximum. Because the thing drives me crazy with Minecraft. Well, I mean, look, if they're passionate about it, you feel that it's helping them more than it's hurting them. Because some people do. Now we're going to get into psychology. Some people use things for escapism. Because let's just say you beat your kids. I know you don't. But I'm just saying let's say you beat your kids. That's escapism. I'm in this world to get away from this world that I'm in. And that's with everything, by the way, even chasing dreams.

30:07Most people that are chasing goals and dreams, they think they're chasing this thing to get a better life. But what they don't recognize is you're not really running after something. You're running away from something else. being broke, being insecure, being miserable, past trauma. So you think by chasing these things that you're now going to have a better life. More money is going to make your life better and whatnot. But you can't fool yourself to believe that once you make your dreams a reality that you've now escaped your nightmares. And this goes back to the earlier part of this conversation.

30:40How do you solve that? Well, you reverse engineer where you are now and you build the person that you want to be. And then that's how you're able to build all the things that you want to build how you want to build them because you have to build it by design, not by circumstances. So how many hours do you let your kids play video games? I knew you were going to bring it back there. Because I got to know. Gaming right now is like for a parent seeing their kids on video games. There is like, I mean, me as a father, like my kids love Minecraft. Well, let me ask you this and then I'll answer the question.

31:14Were you an athlete when you were young? Did you care about sports? Now I care a lot more. How often do you watch them? Not much now, but I play them. Let's say you're someone that likes sports. Yeah, yeah. Because I don't watch sports either. I mean, there's just no time. Somebody that loves sports probably watches dozens of hours of sports a week, right? Yeah. Watching other grown men that work really hard, train, practice, workout, spent decades of their life to get here, just to sit in your chair and have chicken fingers and french fries and watch them play and drink beer. Yeah. Does that make sense?

31:46you're right yeah some of these i mean it it does make sense now because it's become a social norm yeah but at one if you think of the concept when i say it out loud sounds pretty dumb yeah right but then it's been commercialized yeah celebritized publicized you know advertising it's become part of the fabric of our culture you're actually like just wasting your mind you're doing nothing actually when they're doing minecraft playing minecraft it's like engineering Dude, guys, grown men wear other grown men's name on the back of their shirts. Does that make sense? It happens. It's normal, right?

32:21But I'm not saying that to knock it. I'm saying it's become so normal, no one questions it. It's the same with gaming. These kids are training. They're practicing to become better at the game. You'll sit and watch golf, which is boring as shit. You know what I'm saying? But you watch it. So when you watch something like gaming, that's fast. It's strategic. It's entertaining. There's also Discord. There's also live chats. So you're engaging with other people. It's a community. When you're watching the football game, if you're by yourself, you're just sitting there yelling at the screen by yourself.

32:52You're not engaging with other football fans around the world. But you do do that with gaming. So it's a whole new world and community that's growing whether you like it or not. Your kids are exposed to it, and they're going to be a part of it whether you like it or not. So to answer the direct question, how many hours? that's subject to what they care about, what other priorities they have, and how much you want them to be involved depending on the way that they're utilizing it. If you feel they're being productive, if you feel they're becoming better at it, if you feel they're getting friendships and relationships, if you see this is something that could be something for them, then you might want to let them do it more.

33:25If it's someone that's just trying to do it to avoid hanging out with friends because they're insecure or they're an introvert or whatever, then maybe you don't want them to just only do that. Yeah, well, I worry as a parent, just like, how does this impact them at a social level? Does this make them more introverted? Does this make more... No, because you're engaging with people online. It's not siloed by yourself, just you against a game. Yeah, well, sometimes on Minecraft, they're playing by themselves or whatever. They can, but there's also other people within Minecraft. Yeah. And there's a huge community.

33:54Like I said, there's over 3 billion gamers around the world. It's already making hundreds of billions of dollars. It's not slowing down. Yeah. It's only growing. It's scaling like crazy. This is the next generation. Yeah. So this is going to be like your kid might grow up and have a company like you, but it's developing new games or it's managing new gamers. It's going to be just as equivalent as a typical traditional sport right now. No, it is already. Because it's global. When you look at football, it's one sport, one season, one region. This is all sports all year in the globe from India to Asia to South America, North America, Europe, Middle East, India, everyone games.

34:29They don't all watch football. You're right. You're right. They're all playing Minecraft, though. Right. They're all playing Fortnite. Roblox. Billion-dollar game. Yeah, I'm spending$100 a week on Roblox. Right. And look, there's another thing. If you're not going to a game to watch a team, where are you buying a jersey? You're not sitting in your living room. I think I'll buy a Los Angeles Chargers shirt right now on my TV. It doesn't happen. But it can with games. So it's a very, very big business. You're like, oh, I want to wear those sneakers while I'm running around this field. It's a huge business, man.

35:04So what is your role in gaming? So FaZe Clan was the first company I was a part of in gaming. I'm not sure if you know who they are. But they became the biggest eSports organization in the world. We took them to a$2 billion IPO. Started with a bunch of popular kids online that were known for trick shooting, playing Call of Duty. And I went there with my other team, a bunch of other people, when they were just popular kids online. No business model, no revenue drivers. I brought everybody from Offset, Pitbull, Sway Lee, Yo Gotti, DJ Paul, Little Yachty, Troy Carter, all these fascinating names into it.

35:36Then we brought NFL, Champion, Bear Brick, Beats by Dre, that then made that the most cultural juggernaut in gaming. You own FaZe Clan? No, no, no. I was the VP of business development. So the company I owned. Then I founded with my partners, I founded another esports organization called Exet, which we made that the fastest growing, most diverse and inclusive gaming organization. and then I resigned from founding that to my new company, which I'm the CEO of, and yes, I do own, which is going to become the NFL, WWE, UFC of gaming. I'm building the biggest global league. What's it called? Global Gaming League.

36:13Nice. Faze Club, that's Faze Rug owns that, right? He's a member, yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's one of the biggest YouTubers on the planet. So then you understand what caliber of company that I help build. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. That's amazing. Now, you see, that went to a$2 billion IPO. What I'm building now is going to be 10 times bigger than that. Really? Wow. That was a team. What do you think makes more money? No, no, the league. The Florida Panthers or the NFL? Right, of course. Yeah, well, let me see if my kids can play in that league. That's the whole point of building this, is to bring parents in, to make them understand, to create another league that kids can aspire to be a part of, parents can support, because it's so much cheaper, faster, and safer for your kid to become an athlete in the gaming industry than it is in sports.

37:02We know how many more injuries are happening in sports. And the reality of them becoming a professional NFL or NBA player is, I forget the stats, but it's like so hard. Yeah, yeah, it's a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of 1%. There's a kid that we signed in my last organization from Atlanta whose family was behind in Bill's seven months. They were about to get their house repossessed. He asked his mother to rent him a gaming console. She did. He turned around and won$150 ,000 in Fortnite and saved their lives. Those narratives are not being told. When you're from the hood like me, you look at sports and music as a way out.

37:36Gaming is a third vertical that nobody's talking about. Most people from the hood don't even know that this is a thing or how to get the money or where to get the money. We all know gaming's big and we all play it. We know there's a big audience, but nobody understands the business of it. I do because I've built entertainment, cultural, music, gaming brands for the past 20 years. I know how to bring them all together, commercialize it, publicize it, celebritize it, and turn it into something that's authentic and maintains the integrity of traditional sports but also brings the entertainment and celebrity value that nobody else has done or could do the way that I'm going to do it.

38:11You're going to go big. I mean, when is this all going? It's already live, I'm assuming, now. We've already raised millions. We've already got a bunch of celebrities involved. We've got a powerful leadership team, and we'll be announcing exactly what this is and who's involved in the next few months. What games are going to be involved in this? It's the first multi-title gaming. You've got Fortnite. You've got Roblox. You've got all the— Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Street Fighter. Everything. Everything. Man, I still play games with my kids, too. But imagine now there's a league that plays games that you played when you were a kid.

38:44How much more would you be interested to play or watch with your kids now? Oh, yeah. No, I know. You're familiar. I mean, that's right, baby. We're getting familiar today. We're connecting cultures, building international bridges, uplifting underserved communities, and closing age gaps all in one. Closing the age gaps is huge because, you know, one of the biggest things parents struggle with is, like, connecting with their kids now. And there's that stigma with gaming. You know, one of the biggest things I connect with my kids other than sports is, like, hey, let's play Nintendo together. Because I don't play Minecraft.

39:14Right. You know, I don't play Fortnite either. It's not your speed. Yeah, it's not my speed, but he'll play Street Fighter, and he'll play Donkey Kong with me. Right. Of course. So we have a stand-up arcade at my house that has 200 old-school games in it. My kids play Donkey Kong, Pole Position, Golden Tee, Golf, everything. They're 2 and 5. That's awesome. Yeah. So what are some of the biggest hardships you've dealt with, starting from music all the way up until building this gaming business? I would say the biggest hurdle that I've consistently had to jump over throughout my career is convincing people the right thing that they should be doing for them.

39:58That's probably been the only hurdle because I haven't really had any other problems. And how do you continue to foster talent within your organizations, especially with these gnarly narratives that people have in their minds. Well, I mean, look, when you own a big company like yourself, you're always going to step on landmines no matter how much due diligence you do and how great your intuition is. You're going to step on a landmine here and there. But paying attention. Everything goes back to caring, right? So part of caring is paying attention and listening to any and everybody. So that's how I discover talent in places that most people wouldn't discover them because they're not even looking there because they think you've got to graduate from an Ivy League school or make this much money or have sold three companies or sit at the beach and make$10 million in passive income and whatever all this bullshit that you hear on the Internet is.

40:47It's like, man, talent is everywhere, and the smart people look in other places that most people don't look because they're looking at a resume. I'm looking at results. So when I find somebody that's dope, I can tell someone's dope or I know how to make them doper or I know how to pull the dope out of them that they don't even know they have. Man, you've worked with some of the dopest people on the planet ever Lady Gaga, Damon John Who's the greatest talent that you've worked with? Well, that's tough because everyone's talented One of your favorites I would say T-Pain is insanely talented and gifted in multiple levels Not just a good songwriter, not just a good producer Not just a good singer I only know him as a singer He's part of my company He's one of my partners in the Global Gaming League.

41:35Because, again, back to my point, I've seen the brilliance in his brain. Let's be real. The average person, and T-Pain will tell you this, the average person that's in a corporate America that's building businesses would look at T-Pain for T-Pain the artist. Let's pay him for the cultural currency he can bring us for the celebrity value of being T-Pain. But his brain, watching how he's done what he's done over the years, becoming immensely popular in the gaming industry in a way that nobody else has done. He's probably the most popular musician that's crossed over to gaming that's monetized it and made it both operating businesses.

42:16That's monetizable. And he's the greatest at it. There's some other people like Tee Grizzly and whatnot, but Tee Payne is by far the biggest, most successful musician that went into the gaming space and learned how to turn them both into businesses and build a big audience around it. So watching him just evolve and do what he does, I was like, this guy would be perfect to be my partner in this company because he understands entertainment. He understands culture. He understands music. He understands gaming. And everything starts with just understanding. understanding. It's not about money. It's not about your resume or like what companies you are a part of.

42:49I don't care if you weren't a part of any known companies. If I hang out with you and I listen to you talk, I just know that they missed out on magic that I'm not going to miss out on because I see it inside you. So looking at somebody like T-Pain, like that dude's just full of magic. Wow. It wasn't 50 Cent though, huh? What was it, 50 Cent? No, but I did just meet 50 the other day about this too. Is he going to get involved? We'll see. I mean, he's a visionary. I'm going to get him familiar. So he's not in the gaming space at all? Not yet, no. He's got a bunch of kids probably gaming. Dude, there's a lot of people.

43:22For the past eight years, I've been running around getting everybody familiar with gaming that wasn't familiar. Snoop Dogg's been... And I know you're good friends with Snoop Dogg. Snoop. We're working on Snoop to be in the league as well. I have a meeting with him on Monday. It's going, man. It's happening. Man, you're going to have to get me involved now. I don't know what good I'm going to be. If you're an investor, this is one of the smartest investments you could ever make. I mean, I know gaming. It's one of those things like people don't want to accept crypto. People don't want to accept social media.

43:54Still, a lot of people are like, oh, that's good. And I'm on every social media platform. Platforms of people, like adults like you and I are like, you're on Snapchat? What the hell are you doing on Snapchat? That's where the youth are. You're marketing to 50-year-olds. You're not marketing. Well, the thing with crypto, for example, that you brought, it's too foreign and too complex to understand for the average person. To social media, it's typically older people that don't understand it, right? Because they're like, I don't even know how to post on here. How do I find this thing on my phone?

44:22So you're talking about older folks, right? But when you're talking about forecasting trends and staying on trend or understanding what's going on, if you're a business person, you need to know what's going on with the trends. You need to know what's about to happen in all different sectors, fashion, music, sports, all these. The one thing that always prevails, even during economic downturns, has always been one thing, and it's entertainment. Right. So even somebody like you who does, we could sit here for half an hour right now and I could tell you how to grow your business even bigger than what you're doing right now without even knowing half of what you know about your business.

44:55Because everything's the same. It's the same fundamental understanding of how to grow businesses and connect with people in scale. It applies to everything. But most people don't do that. They think, well, I know mortgage. I don't know nothing about gaming. Yeah, you do. You understand people. You understand marketing. You understand business. You understand leads. You understand scalability, sustainability. You understand margins. You understand everything. It's all the same. It's just a different title, real estate gaming. It's all the same. But most people don't take the time to recognize that because they don't care to realize that.

45:27And if they did, they would 10 times their business because they, holy shit, now I know how to talk to those people. Now I know how to sell. Now I know where these people hang out. Now I know what they feel, what they need. But most people don't do that. They wait for people to come to them or for people to specifically say, I need a mortgage. Well, that's what we do. How about the people that don't know they need a mortgage or what the options are on a mortgage or how to get a mortgage or that mortgage is even a thing? That may sound silly, but a lot of people don't even know that mortgage is a thing.

45:53How do I buy a house? Do I have to have all the money? You don't even know. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. So there's such a giant audience for even your business that you're not even touching. Well, I look at it when I try to illustrate this to the organization. It's like everybody needs money. We sell money. We're in the business of selling money. But a lot of people are just like, no, we're selling more. She's like, no, dude, you're selling money. Whether it's debt, they need to pay off their debt, they want to buy a house, they want to buy a commercial building. See how scary that sounds?

46:19That sounds scary to somebody that's not financially literate, that's afraid to be in debt, that doesn't understand it. That sounds scary. I'm going to sell you money. That fucking sounds horrible. Do you know what I'm saying? That's a horrible position to put that in. You're not. You're selling a feeling. and now you just got to plug in what feeling you're selling when you lead with that you're selling hope, happy, freedom newness escapism, you're selling things that people need not money, that's fucking scary would you like me to sell you a fucking mortgage or a school loan you just said it earlier I don't want to have a school debt you're selling intelligence you're selling all of those things now you start thinking like I don't even care if I got to fucking pay it back because I'm going to get this fucking awesome thing that I know that I need.

47:09And that feeling is going to now encourage me to do these awesome things that I can do. Right. So that's the whole point of selling, I guess. Yeah. Well, that's, you know, man, you need to come in and do the conference and speak at EMC Connect and tell these guys like really how to how to sell what they do. Well, I do that from time to time. I heard you do. But I'm more busy doing dope shit than talking about dope shit. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're actually implementing. You're a man of action. Outside of running all these businesses, what are some of the hobbies you have, some of your personal interests?

47:42Well, you know, the funny thing is that I found what interests me the most in life and what makes me happy. And I just made that my career. So I don't need to, like, punch out to go do other things that make me happy. Because the only two things that make me happy is making people happy and being a good father. How do I do that? Spend time with my family all the time. There's no work-life balance. Like, when do I do that? It's all intertwined, right? And then gaming. I mean, you can easily get your kids involved in that. Yeah, we game. We game at home. We play on the arcade. And then the happiness is the company that I'm building, the impact that it will have on so many lives and building something where families can now come together, where different cultures can now understand and respect one another.

48:32No race, religion or region is blocked by gaming. And I've watched it firsthand. So if I'm going to build the biggest thing where everybody can come together and close age gaps, bring different communities together, build international bridges through this, that's not only making people happy, it's making the world happy. And that's my mission, is to make the world better. And it starts with making people better. When you make people happy, it makes the world happy. Think about it. As a boss, if you come in here and you walk over to everybody on their desk and say, for no reason, you know what, man?

49:03Thank you for being a part of this company. Here's a$50 gift certificate. it, please go out with your husband this weekend. Do you know what that does? The trickle effect doesn't stop with making them happy. They now go home and that husband's now nicer to his kids, nicer to his wife, just feels happier. It just brings more happy into the home. And like when people understand the effect and the residual effect that happens from small little things that you can do from just not being a dick or being nicer to people, you fucking make everything better in life. If everybody does a little, no one has to do a lot.

49:36That's a great concept. Actually, one of my mentors actually brings that up all the time. It says, you just got to genuinely care. There's no faking it. And when you see somebody and you do a little act of kindness like that, I mean, it moves mountains for these people who don't have a lot. Going back to the beginning of my conversation, think of a time where you weren't in a good mood and somebody just said something flattering or did something that totally made you happy now there's the answer in life you just got the answer that was the key to life keep doing that to other people it's that easy but people don't care enough to hold on to that and say fuck i just had an epiphany i was in a shitty mood this person did this now i'm not in a shitty mood i just learned the formula how to make people happy now go do it that's how easy life is when did this dawn on you like this realization that this this is your purpose this is being a lonely bullied kid that was sexually abused for years that was we were on welfare and food stamps and you know being the only white kid in black neighborhoods and just getting punked by all the white kids and like other neighborhoods and like you realize these feelings that you feel i don't like them and i don't want to have these feelings and i want to try to figure out how to make other people not feel this way it's that easy man i mean we talked about alcoholism and how like you will go pass down and you know your dad beats you and now you beat your kid because that's all you know now but it's like you don't want to know that you know coming being in a celebrity culture which is basically what you were surrounded with for decades how did you manage to stay away from all the temptations of the world you know drugs and sex and this and the other all All the evil that you were surrounded by, you just like, you didn't do drugs.

51:24You didn't drink. You never drank. Like, how did you do that? Well, I gave you the answer already, if you cared enough to listen. No, no, I definitely heard. The answer was, I built my life by design. I know when that guy gets drunk, he beats his wife. I don't ever want to do that. You can go to DUIs. But you didn't drink at all. Nothing. Why would I? It's stupid. I'm looking at people making mistakes because of drinking. Why would I do that? If a cigarette pack says you're going to get cancer if you smoke these, why would I do that? You're not going to eat rat poison because it says you'll die.

51:58I'm not going to go have sex not wearing a condom randomly, promiscuously, when I know there's a thing called AIDS and herpes. Why would I do that? It makes no sense. The answers to life are right there. Don't be a fucking idiot. Just listen. It's that easy. so it's just building my life by design I knew I didn't want to do this I wanted to be a good dad, I wanted to be a good husband I wanted to be a hard worker I wanted people to welcome me back to what they just hired me to do I wanted people to pay me more I wanted people to be pleasant to deal with me I wanted to be invited places so I built myself to be the guy that doesn't do drugs, that doesn't do this that isn't shady, that would never fucking sell somebody out that is trustworthy that's going to show up when he says he's going to show up means what he says and says what he means it's really easy, man.

52:45By the way, I was just fucking with you on the you weren't listening to me thing. No, no, no. I don't want to think I was serious. Yeah, yeah. I'm Boston, by the way. No, I can tell you're an East Coaster. No, but you know, it's important for people to hear this because people slip very, very easily in a culture that's... Because they didn't build a solid them. Because back to my original point, if you don't know who you are, people think they know who they are. You have to fucking figure out who you are and then you have to build who you want to be because you're probably not when people say oh if he can do it i can do it too that's not true fuck out of here because we came from the same neighborhood just because we were both broke just because we both look the same it doesn't mean anything it doesn't mean anything man just because we're from the same place i did it you can do it too you don't know the work that i put in you don't know the care that i put it not and i'm not i'm just using me i mean but yeah but you outworked everybody no not just me but anybody for instance Like you, if you could do it, so can this guy.

53:42You don't know what sacrifices he made. You don't know where he came from. You don't know where his grind comes from. You don't know if he was beat up or molested or whatever it was. You don't know if he has rich parents. You don't know if he has a connection. You don't know if it was fucking easy for him or it was hard for them. It's not the same for everybody. And you don't need to worry about anybody. Dude, you shouldn't compete with other people, man. You should only compete with yourself. And here's why. When you compete with other people You're only aiming To be their best Which may never be as good as your best But you'll never know Unless you take the time To build the best you by design It's that easy, man Man, is there a book called Best you by design?

54:27My new book is called Built by Design Really? You got a book coming out? Built by Design? Yeah, not by circumstance Dude, that's going to be a good book I wasn't sure if I was going to make that the title That's a great title. All right, all right. A bunch of people said it is. I was still on the fence. What makes you on the fence about that title? Because I don't know. Because, again, marketing, when you walk by, you have to just see it while walking by in an airport. That's for me. And if you look at it, you say, built by design. What does that mean? Construction working? Does that mean da-da-da?

54:56So it doesn't clearly say, this is how it's going to make you a better you. This is how to get the fuck out of your own way and stop letting bullshit from your past stop you from being awesome. It doesn't really say that when you look at the cover. That's my hesitation for that title, although everyone loves the title. Yeah, the title Built by Design or whatever I just said. Not by Circumstance. That's a powerful title. I mean, you're not putting a picture of a building on there where they're going to like. Yeah, I know, but you've got to assume that everybody thinks differently. Yeah. Right? And, you know, most people hang out with like-minded people because they want their ideas endorsed.

55:30Right? Think about with your friends that you hang out with and known for a while. halfway through what you're saying, you're like, you know what I mean? They're like, yeah, totally. Because they know how you think. You guys think the same. I purposely throughout my life have looked for people that didn't think like me. Because I already know how to sell to me. I already know how I feel. If I want to know how to be able to sell to other people or relate to other people or help other people, I need to know how other people think. As weird as I may think it is. As dumb as I may think it is. It's real.

55:57And it exists. And you can even learn from someone that you may think is dumb. You can learn how not to be dumb. You can learn how not to say things like that or get in trouble like them or approach a conversation like them. So a lot of people dismiss someone that they categorize like, that guy's a fucking idiot. I want to talk to that idiot. Because first of all, as we all know, a broken clock is right twice a day. And then second of all, an idiot's going to teach me how idiots think. And guess what? Unfortunately, there's a lot of fucking idiots in the world. I mean, a big percentage of society, sadly.

56:30big percentage of society and they're becoming more idiots because of social media, because of not applying some of the principles I'm saying by letting the world just you know, they're not built by design they're following what that says they're following that social media, they're following this ill advice, they're following these rumors, these conspiracies, these lies about making money, these ways to do this it's like, dude throw it all away, sit in a room by yourself, delete the world Pretend everything that you've learned doesn't exist. Right? And just say, what kind of person do I want to be?

57:05What kind of life do I want to have? Fuck this guy telling me if I invest, if I leverage a bank and I get$10 billion, I can do it. It's not fucking real to 99 % of the people. What is real is building a great you. And everything that's real starts with a great you. Or it's not real. I'm hoping that this podcast and that's your perpetual message to the world anyways but those listening especially those who work for eMortgage Capital are implementing this thing let me ask you a couple questions here well you guys are saying we got to wrap it up and by the way that was a great ending you should have just paused a second sat back and been like that's it guys I got a couple of last questions here just for our shorts What's your favorite quote that you live by?

57:56My favorite quote is probably one of my own quotes. What is it? Which is, and I've said a couple of my own quotes here, but don't fool yourself to believe that once you escape your nightmares. No, no, no. Don't fool yourself to believe that once you make your dreams a reality that you've now escaped your nightmares. I like that. Actually, I got a better one. Ask me again. What's your favorite quote? My favorite quote is one of my own, which is, you should only compete with yourself and not compete with others. Because when you compete with others, you're only aiming to be their best, which may never be as good as your best.

58:39I love that quote, by the way. Thank you. And then what's the best piece of advice you've ever received? Best piece of advice I ever received is, everything will work out in the end. if it didn't work out, then it's not the end. And you're just dropping beats right now. I don't know where I heard that from, by the way. That's a great one, too. And then what do you think the most painful thing is that you've ever been told? The most painful thing I've ever been told? Good question. Never got that one. Most painful thing. Oh, Dad, I'm moving out. My 19-year-old moved out like six months ago. and he was like, I'm going to move out.

59:21And I was like, wait, what? Where'd he go? Just downtown LA. But for two weeks, I mean, you would have thought he died. I was crying every single day. I was distraught every day for two weeks because, look, as much as people will say like, ah, dude, you're overdoing it or he's right down the street. What you don't understand, especially if you don't have kids that moved out is, especially me and my son being best friends, we came up together through so much that there's no more good morning hugs. There's no more going to bed hugs. There's no more like making breakfast for him. Say, hey, man, I made you breakfast.

59:55Or, hey, want to go chill in the jacuzzi? Or want to watch a movie together? Or want to take a ride? Like, that doesn't exist anymore. And, you know, now I'm fortunate enough to just be, you know, a small piece of my son's life when at one point I was my son's life. So, like, it hurts a lot. it feels like somebody died because really an era died that you can never get back. How old are your kids? 10, 9, 4, and 3. You got all that to look forward to. You're welcome. I got a 2 and a 5 year old. I'm going to have to go through this shit again. Maybe it won't be as hard the second and third time. People thought my son died, how sad I was.

1:00:43That sounds like that sucks. Yeah, it does suck. And he's your best friend. You were talking about him, raving about him, you know. Yeah, like, look, I don't even tell him these things. He doesn't know how. He's probably listening right now. No, he doesn't know how messed up I am because I don't want to give him that burden to feel bad. I want him to thrive. I want him to live his life. And I wrote a song when he was like six years old that was about this very moment, about letting him go when you need to fly and stop the show if you need to cry. You know, I have a whole song and now I had to live it when I sang it, it sucked.

1:01:16And you kind of manifested it. Yeah, well, I mean, it's going to happen so many doesn't die. God be with them. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're an awesome father. Raised great kids. And I can only hope and pray that I raise kids like you. See, that's the best compliment I could ever get. A father compliment. I put a lot of work into everything, but that's the thing that brings me the most pride, to look at my kids and when I see people compliment them or when I see them figuring things out or when I just see them doing the right thing by other people. My two-year-old hasn't really got there yet, but my five-year-old's already following in my 20-year-old's footsteps of just being a good person and has a Boston sarcastic sense of humor at five years old already.

1:02:02That's awesome. You got all Boston. You got the humor, the sarcasm, but then you got keeping people honest and doing the right thing all in one trait. Let me ask you this. What do you think the most popular business principle is that you've implemented in your business? Is your book. I'm deeply listening here. Okay. The best business advice. Principle. Principle. Or mindset that you implement in your business right now. Well, I know I'm going to sound like a broken record, but it's not something I do in business that didn't stem from what I do in my life. So all my businesses are just a carbon copy or a reflection of what I built me to be.

1:02:48So it's, I'll tell you, how about this? I'll tell you what I tell my company. There's no room for water cooler talk. There's no room for talking shit about each other. There's no room for creating problems or tension in this company. If there's a problem or you don't like something with somebody, you approach them. If you don't like or you feel awkward doing that, come to me. We'll do it together. If you feel the need to talk shit or start creating clicks within the company, there's no room for you here in this company. So I'll tell you, that's one principle that I have within my company. Why?

1:03:17Because I want happiness, and it's my job to defend happy. So if I'm going to create happy, I must defend it too. Amazing. Amazing. And this is just because my team wanted me to ask you this. What do you think the most monumental relationship is that you've made outside of Jack? Oh, I assume you meant celebrity. Do you mean celebrity? What's the most monumental celebrity relationship or relationship in general? I mean, I've seen you with... Relationship in general would be my son, Jack. I've seen Jack, yeah, but outside of Jack. My partner, Kamau, who I produced all of my big records with, and we share life philosophies together for 20 years.

1:04:03We'll be in the studio, and for like three, four, or five hours of our session, We're just talking about life and working and navigating and working through theories and like, why do people do this? And, you know, why does our wife do this? And then we talk it out. We don't gossip and complain. We try to understand and fix and philosophize. Is that a right word? Philosophize better, better ways of navigating and handling things. So I would say he's my most profound, meaningful relationship outside of my wife. Excellent. And two last questions I'm asking. This is a three-pronged question. What's a personal goal that you have for yourself, a business goal that you have for the business, and a family goal that you have for the family?

1:04:47They're all the same, making them happy and healthy. Awesome. That's it. And then last question, I end with this question with everybody. Okay. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you? Good job, man. Proud of you. I knew from the bottom of my heart that that's going to be the answer. And I know that God's going to also do the same, say the same. Well, you know, I'll tell you, just on that note, I believe because of the first half of my life there's a lot of shit I had to go through. And whoever's listening, whether it's God or whatever energy is the thing that you kind of look to, I believe I don't mean to get too spiritual on this moment, but I believe that because I know who I was, where I came from, what I am, and what I do now, it was almost like, look, man, I'm going to put you through shit.

1:05:44I'm going to give you a shitty life, and I'm going to test you over and over and over again, but I'm going to give you the strength to go through it because when you go through it, you're going to have powers and an understanding to then go out and help all those other people that don't understand it. So I would go through being molested again. I would go through being lonely, bullied, homeless, all of it again, if I knew I could be the man that I am today, because I like the man that I am today, because I'm built by design, not by circumstances. Love it. Love it. You've been an absolute blessing, man.

1:06:17God bless you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming on this show. By the way, anyone watching live right now, follow me at ClintonSparks. If you like what I had to say, I give a lot of game and positive messages every day. Yeah. So before we end, how's everyone? At ClintonSparks on every social platform. And then also follow at Global Gaming League if you want to see me make history. How do we get our kids involved at Global Gaming League? We'll talk. Yeah, I'm serious about that. I need to hone that energy in for my kids. And I've been hard on them for gaming and I feel bad about it now.

1:06:50I think this is going to truly turn parents around. Yeah, and I want to turn that around. And I know that it can be leveraged for good. And I know because I've talked to adults who've played Minecraft. They're like, have you ever tried to play this game? this is a hard game well thank you so much for having me brother thank you thanks everybody for watching we got a brand new one for you in a box you've been on the show and we need to get some signed merch from you too awesome see you guys