Jay-Z's Business Secrets with Zack O'Malley Greenburg

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. And today we'll be breaking down Jay-Z's business secrets. To drop these value bombs, I brought Zach O'Malley Greenberg into EO Fire Studios. Zach is the author of five books, including the Jay-Z biography, Empire State of Mind, and A-List Angels, How a Band of Actors, Artists, and Athletes Hacked Silicon Valley. And today we'll be talking about some killer Jay-Z quotes you are not going to want to miss. history, you're ours. A loss ain't a loss.

0:35It's a lesson. We don't lease, we buy the whole car and oh so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Zach and our sponsors. Have you ever said to yourself, one day I will write a book? If yes, then I have an opportunity for you. Author 100 is a 100-day program where I will personally guide you one-on-one to create, write, publish, and market your book. I will provide daily guidance and mentorship every step of the way, head over to author100.com to sign up for a free call with me to chat about the details. Author100.com. Zach, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:20Hey everyone, great to be back. As far as my thing that I would say that other people might disagree with, I'd say you learn more from losing than from winning. And I've heard variations, you know, on that, on that quote before, but, um, you know, both in my career and in the careers that I've studied, uh, in my books and as a writer at Forbes over the years, um, one of the things I've found out is, you know, some of the best business decisions are forged in the fires of failure. And it's not until, you know, you, you kind of make it through that, um, that, that you can really flourish and become, you know, whatever it is that you were destined to be or, you know, are going to work to be.

2:00Well, Fire Nation, that's not the last piece of amazing advice you're going to get today, because we're talking about Jay-Z's business secrets. And I personally love this quote from Jay-Z,$1 million worth of game for$9.99. The Jay-Z blueprint. Zach, tell us more. Yeah. So that's a quote off his most recent album, which, you know, wasn't really that recent. At this point, it's the longest he's gone since putting out an album. I think it was like five plus years ago. But anyway, you could argue what any musician is trying to sell, whether it's an album or a stream or for an entrepreneur or an author selling a book, something like that.

2:46What is the value proposition of what you're listening to, what you're hearing, what you're consuming? and um you know jay-z i think is pretty unique in music in that he dispenses personal finance advice you know in with his lyrics and business advice and so forth um but you know other artists are maybe dispensing personal advice or perspective whatever it is whatever product it is that you're consuming you're you're wanting to get something out of it you're wanting to get more than you paid for it and um you know that that's that's kind of something that jay-z has always uh put forward You're going to be smarter after having listened to my music.

3:24And I think that's applicable in just about any kind of business setting, anybody releasing any kind of product. And I think authors can relate to that as well. I mean, I know I wrote a book four years ago called The Common Path to Uncommon Success. And for essentially$9.99, anybody can access a decade worth of my work, a decade of interviewing 4 ,500 entrepreneurs distilling their genius into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment. And I can just give it for$10. I mean, it took me blood, sweat, tears, thousands of hours to acquire this information, this knowledge, and of course, then put it into a book form.

4:04And you do the same thing, Zach, with your books as well as do other authors. And it's just incredible the access that we have to that because of the ability to scale the law of larger numbers. And there's another Jay-Z quote that I think is super powerful. I will not lose ever. This is all about the business of victory. Tell us more. Yeah. So the first book that I wrote was called Empire State of Mind. It came out in the early 2010s and the most recent edition came out a couple of years ago. And that title, Empire State of Mind, of course, is his probably the most famous song, but it really is truly his state of mind.

4:44He has always been about building an empire. And, you know, even though the thing that I said, you learn more from losing than from winning, um, Jay-Z, you know, for him, uh, the winning, although he's done plenty of losing and we can get into that later, but the winning is what, at least for the first, you know, I don't know, 20 years of his career was what he really publicized, right? You didn't really hear him talking about the losses. And so this idea of the business of victory, everything he did, it was, you know, for the first decade of his career, it was like an album every year, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

5:23And it was almost a decade, close enough. But, you know, it was him talking about his successes. It was him talking about his philosophy, you know, toward achieving those successes. And, you know, you didn't really hear much about everything else. And it kind of built on itself, right? It was, you know, he kept saying, I will not lose ever, and he kind of manifested it. I mean, again, he did lose here and there, but it was this idea that he was sort of unstoppable in the long run. Um, and sure enough, if you chart his progress from when he started out in 1996, year over year, it's just, you know, maybe not every album went up from the last album, but it was all building towards this transition from music into, you know, like the mainstream business world.

6:10Um, it was going from being a millionaire to sent a millionaire to a billionaire, uh, put me anywhere on God's green earth. I'll triple my worth. You know, I mean, I remember I started reporting on Jay-Z for Forbes, uh, probably around 2007. And, you know, he has said that line a couple of years earlier and he was worth a few hundred million dollars and everybody was like, how are you going to triple your worth and become a billionaire? That's crazy. No rapper has ever done that. Well, he did it. And now he's worth like two or three billion. So he did it again. Um, and I think it's that idea of, uh, of manifesting success that, you know, um, I will not lose ever.

6:49You have to think that you're going to win in order to win, even if you don't win all the time. Now, what I think is interesting is that a lot of people listen to Jay-Z songs and his lyrics over and over again, and they say the words and they hear the words, but they don't really think about the words. Like this next quote, I think went way over a lot of people's heads initially, which is, you over, baby. And this is about punching above your weight. So talk to us about this? So this is a song that came out. Yeah, I think it was about a decade ago. And he was just getting into the business of becoming a sports agent.

7:28And at the time, baseball fans may recall, Robinson Cano was the Yankees second baseman, and he had just become a free agent. And And he had ditched Scott Boris, this like number one baseball agent in the world, to go and sign with Jay-Z to be represented by Jay-Z and his Roc Nation sports outfit, which was working at the time with CAA. Anyway, so when that happened, Jay-Z said this line, Scott Boris, you over baby Robinson can know you coming with me. and it's actually the oldest chick in the book when it comes to hip-hop. Jay-Z, despite being the king of hip-hop, was at the time a newbie in the sports world, particularly as an agent.

8:17He's throwing this shot at the number one sports agent in baseball. So the thing to do is if you're the king is you ignore somebody lower than you who's trying to get publicity simply by engaging. Um, Scott Boris, despite being a brilliant guy, took the bait. He said something about like, you know, you wouldn't want Steven Spielberg doing your brain surgery or something, but he responded and immediately it put Jay-Z on the same level as Scott Boris. Um, and in fact, Jay-Z and his team were able to go out and get Robinson Cano, this kind of amazing contract, um, that I think was the third biggest in, in baseball, uh, history at the time.

9:00Um, so, you know, but it immediately established him as, as a, as a peer. of Scott Boris because, because Scott Boris is willing to respond to him. So, yeah, I think the lesson there is, uh, punch, punching above your weight. If you can engage, um, with, with leaders in a certain area, you know, even if, even if it's sort of like not the most positive interaction, um, if it establishes you as being on that same footing as them, uh, you know, that's, that's a win for you. Um, even if, even if, you know, it's, it's not a, like the most friendly interaction. you over baby i don't think fire nation those lyrics will ever have the same meaning to you again they definitely won't for me either we have three more amazing quotes coming up as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors one of the most impactful things i've done on my entrepreneurial journey is publish a book it's a way to package up my knowledge and experience and share it with a worldwide audience in a meaningful way it also serves as an evergreen marketing tool to help grow my business for years to come.

10:01I believe that everyone has a book inside of them. So if you're ready to publish a book with maximum impact, then I've got exciting news. I'm launching a brand new mentorship program called Author 100, where you have the opportunity to work with me one-on-one for 100 days. Author 100 will include weekly one-on-one calls and daily guidance from me to help you every step of the way from drafting to writing to publishing and even marketing your book. Over the past 12 years, I've self-published five books, including one of the top five publishing campaigns of all time on Kickstarter, the Freedom Journal.

10:35I've also traditionally published with HarperCollins, so I know a lot about the book publishing world and where most authors go wrong. I created Author 100 to share my experience and the lessons I've learned along the way, and I can't wait to share it with you. If you're interested in learning more, head over to author100.com and sign up for a free call with me. That's author100.com. Zach, we're back. And there's another Jay-Z quote, which is, we don't lease, we buy the whole car. And this is about owning your destiny. Talk to us about that. Yeah. So that's author's first album, Reasonable Doubt, 1996.

11:15And it's just kind of a throwaway line. It's like matter of fact, this is just how we operate, you know, like, what are you doing leasing a car? And, you know, I think that's always been Jay-Z's philosophy. You have to own what is he doing from the very beginning. He owned his record label. He had his own clothing line, you know, and a lot of these things were actually a product of necessity. You know, back in those days hip hop was not looked upon the same way for a lot of different reasons. But, you know, there just weren't sort of the mainstream endorsement opportunities available. And, you know, that caused a savvy guy like Jay-Z to say, well, hey, I'm not going to go rap about somebody else's product and not get paid for it.

11:58I'm just going to create my own and rap about that. But, you know, obviously not everybody has a platform like that, you know, where they're they're rapping or singing about something about their businesses. But yeah, I think the point is, you know, when you can invest in yourself, you know, own, own your car, own your own your house, you know, build equity that way, rather than throwing money away renting, or leasing. And, you know, as time goes on, you know, it applies to entrepreneurs, certainly hold on to your equity in your startup, you know, that sort of thing. And Jay-Z was all about that from the very, very beginning.

12:39A loss ain't a loss. It's a lesson. A loss ain't a loss. It's a lesson. This is all about growing from setbacks. Zach, tell us more. Yeah. And I kind of alluded to this at the very beginning, you know, saying you learn more from losing than by winning. And it's a bit of a contradiction, right? Because Jay-Z also says, I will not lose ever. We talked about that. We talked about, you know, sort of the importance of manifesting victory and that sort of thing. But as Jay-Z's career went on, you know, post getting married to Beyonce, becoming a father, sort of becoming more reflective, putting out fewer albums, you know, Jay-Z has become this like philosopher king, and he's been willing to admit things like a loss ain't a loss.

13:30It's a lesson growing from setbacks. So when you kind of combine that with some of his other philosophies, what you get is this kind of beautiful mix. And so, yeah, I think one example of it is in, let's say, it was probably around 2005, 2006 when this whole thing started. But if you remember back in the day, around that time, everybody was rapping about Cristal Champagne and, you know, how dozens and dozens of songs it was popping up. It was this very expensive Champagne. I think at the time it was like$300 a bottle. I'd be shocked if you could get it that cheap now. And certainly in clubs, you know, you're paying like, you know, definitely into the thousands for it.

14:17And, you know, it's just like great French Champagne, whatever. But the head of the company that made it made some remark to The Economist around that time saying that, you know, he was asked about what he thought about all these rappers rapping about his champagne. And he said something like, we can't control who consumes our product. And, you know, it was definitely not like the most open embrace of hip hop that you might have expected or could have imagined. and um you know jay-z in particular uh took it to mean you know basically you are not wanted he viewed it as a racist comment you know which i can understand and um and he said uh basically you know i'm i'm gonna boycott cristal right i'm not drinking that it's not going to be served in my club anymore i'm not drinking i'm not putting in my videos i'm not giving you free publicity and what he did instead uh was that he went out and bought into a french champagne house into a brand that had been dormant for some time and you know within a year or two had had started featuring it in his videos nobody really knew what was going on there wasn't an announcement and actually in my book empire state of mind i went to france and and did some digging and actually went to the Champagne house and saw where the bottles are made.

15:37And it turned out that, you know, this, what became Armand de Brignac, Ace of Spades, it's got this, you know, this big fancy logo on this gold bottle. If you, if you go through the basement of the wine cellar where the stuff is made, you see, they're just these anonymous gold bottles and you could slap any, any sticker on them that you wanted. And, and really what it was, it was this dormant brand that had been discontinued that was selling for, I don't remember what it was, 40 or 50 bucks a bottle in France. And, you know, Jay-Z had bought into it, revived it, and just basically put a different logo on it.

16:14And they made some changes, of course, or whatever, but suddenly it was a$300 bottle, just like Christophe. And, you know, so a loss and a loss, it's a lesson, a loss, a setback, whatever you want to call it, when you've been excluded, when somebody is demeaning you, right, Like in the way that, uh, that Jay-Z was talking, you know, how he felt when, when the head of the company that makes Cristal said what he said, um, you know, the, it's, it's a lesson, it's a lesson. Go, go build your own thing. Right. Like, um, if you, if you can't, you know, nobody's opening the door for you to go like knock down the wall or build your own door.

16:51Uh, and that's exactly what he did. And, you know, Armand de Brignac became this incredible brand worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And I think, I forget the latest valuation, but a couple of years ago, LVMH, the largest luxury conglomerate in the world, bought half of it for several hundred million dollars. So Jay-Z is now in business with the biggest luxury house in the world. And his champagne is on firm footing for the rest of time, basically. So that all came out of a loss, a setback. And I think that's one of the greatest lessons that you can learn. I love that story. And I love that lesson.

17:40And I want to end with building a legacy. And the quote, history, you are ours. Take it away. Yeah, that's from a song that Jay-Z did called History, which is not really very well known. It was on a compilation album, not one of his solo albums. And it's like, well, what are you going to do with all the success? right you you all the money you can't take it with you uh and you're sort of the sum of the memories that other people have of you on the planet earth and so um jay-z over the past uh several years especially has been really focused on this and you know not just in sort of like charity work and that kind of thing which is which is great but in but also in in terms of breaking down barriers that maybe only he can break down, or at least that he's the most equipped to break down.

18:40And, you know, a lot has been made of his partnership with the NFL. You know, some people feel like he's kind of a sellout. Some people say that he's not doing enough, you know, to create change in sort of the way that had been promised. and some people feel that he didn't do enough to get Colin Kaepernick back into the game. All that being said, when you kind of put it all together, from the very beginning of his career, talking about ownership, we don't leave the suite by the whole car in 1996, through Robinson Cano becoming a sports agent, to his work with the NFL, things are kind of coming together piece by piece to the point where if you look at the grand arc of his career, it's all building toward the possibility of him buying an NFL team.

19:31Not just being some celebrity, vanity, whatever, token equity holder, but actually being a majority or plurality owner of an NFL team. And part of his deal with the NFL and helping them produce the halftime show and all that is to have a seat at the table and to familiarize the owners with him to the point when a team comes up and a situation fits that he can go in and buy a team or lead a group going in to buy a team and become the first black owner in NFL history. That would be a huge thing. That would be a huge thing for his legacy. That'd be a huge thing for, you know, all the kids watching him growing up and, you know, not necessarily seeing him as, oh, I want to grow up and be a rapper, but I want to grow up and be an entrepreneur.

20:31I want to grow up and be a football player, but a football team owner, you know, to have that kind of representation to see, you know, somebody who came from where Jay-Z came from to do that. And so I think in terms of building a legacy, that's one of the things that he's probably looking at. And I would think within the next five years or so, we'll see him really make a push to do that. And he's worth, I think, at this point, almost$3 billion. So he's getting pretty close and he's getting pretty liquid with all these big sales. I think he's getting pretty close to be able to do it. Zach, you're the author of five books, including Empire State of Mind, A-List Angels.

21:14Where can Fire Nation find out more about you? What is your call to action for our listeners today? Yeah, you can find my books at your favorite retailer, or you can go to my website, Z-O-G-R-E-E-N-B-U-R-G.com. And yeah, enjoy. Happy reading. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with Z-O-G and J-L-D today, so keep up the heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Zach in the search bar, Z-A-C-K, and the show notes page will pop right up. And Zach, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation.

21:52For that, we salute your brother and we'll catch you on the flip side. All right, thanks for having me. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Zach for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, successful entrepreneurs accomplished big goals. That's why I created The Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. We're talking step-by-step. Visit thefreedomjournal.com and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Have you ever said to yourself, one day I will write a book? If yes, then I have an opportunity for you. Author 100 is a 100-day program where I will personally guide you one-on-one to create, write, publish, and market your book.

22:30I will provide daily guidance and mentorship every step of the way. head over to author100.com to sign up for a free call with me to chat about the details. author100.com